I have suggested this in Crossout Official discord before, but I feel like properly elaborating my idea here.
“Enlightenmet” is a tracking homing beacon that currently cost 1e (0.5E), which, upon contact, will latch onto enemy vehicle for 7 seconds (8 if fused for projectile lifespan), display the struck enemy on minimap, and blocks the victim from using cloak. Its passive perks allow the weapon to have 30% reduced cooldown if the beacon attached is shot down.
However, it’s still a dust collector among all these weapons in the game, for a couple reasons:
- It’s easily countered by, ironically, cloaking module itself. You can easily make Enlightnment beacon miss just by cloaking, since it’s fundamentally using the same locking system like regular missiles. And don’t get me started with any conventional method of intercepting missiles, from soft counters such as straight up shooting the incoming beacon (it’s possible with regular sniper ACs, as well as machine guns), to straight up using argus module.
- The beacon itself only lasts 7 seconds. Assuming no one on the team has doppler (and guaranteed no radio. pfft), it’s more or less impossible to have any ally bothered to track down the enemy struck by Enlightenment. By the time someone actually look at the minimap and notices, it’s very likely the beacon already fell off naturally.
- Despite the physical model having a little spiny radar, the weapon itself DOES NOT detect enemy beyond the cabin’s default radar range, which makes it rely on additional radar module, or, require the user to shotgun the beacon. At this point, you’re unironically better off just, use firedog/melee/lances.
The benefit of Enlightenment is so negligible, even making it cost no energy at all, would’ve still make a total waste of PS score.
So, how do we make Enlightenment relevant?
Since Enlightenment is a tracking beacon, it makes sense if it enables players and allies to use weapons that can hit the enemy without physically presenting themselves. So what kind of weapons fit such descriptions?
There are 2 of them: homing missiles, and drones.
Let’s buff Enlightenment tracking beacon accordingly!
- The most basic buff: make enlightenment the smartest missile in the game that can dodge building and obstacles, with the tightest default turning radii.
- The beacon cannot be shaken off by cloaking beforehand, since it’s an advanced tracking beacon that deals no damage in the first place. You have to either shoot it down like regular incoming missiles, use Argus to remove/intercept it, or use Kami active perk to detach it.
- Increase the base duration of the projectile lifespan from 7 sec to 36 seconds (40 sec for fused), so that the missiles and drones actually have the time to travel to the victim. I would argue to even make it permanently stuck on the said enemy, because unless you hit straight on the cabin/frame, it’s only a matter of time before the armor piece with beacon stuck on got shot off.
- The weapon itself now has a built-in locator function of 375m, somewhere between Ruby (300m) and Listener (450m). It makes a lot of sense that a tracking weapon itself has the capability to scan the environment for potential targets.
- Enemy that is struck by Enlightenment beacon is now visible to ally like Hippogriff active, where allies can lock onto the enemy through walls and fire missile at the enemy, and all missiles locked onto the enemy is now behaving like smart missiles with improved turning radii to avoid buildings and obstacles.
- Drones released by allies now prioritize attacking Enlightenment-struck enemy(s), unless the drone user has specified another target (muninn/annihilator lock-on system). And finally,
- Double the attack range of sentry drones and turrets. enemy struck by Enlightenment beacons will now be detected by sentry drones and turrets from double their default range and start attacking accordingly. Damage drop-off by range still applies, if applicable.
And here’s the best part: the more enlightenment beacons are stuck onto the same enemy, the more aggressive your drones will track them down, and the better the maneuverability of your missiles against them. The reaction time of sentry drones and turrets against the said enemy will improve, but their attack range does not get any additional improvements.
“One cannot hide from the Syndicate - a lesson learned quickly in the Valley.”
This is the description of Enlightenment, It will make sense for it to allow either the Syndicate members (players), or their henchmen (drones, missiles) to hunt down the enemy. And hence, I think these buffs are appropriate for Enlightenment, since it improves bad weapons into something that’s actually useful.
In fact, let me do a little trolling: Change Argus from “defense module” to “Drone defense module”.
What happens if Argus is considered as drones, too? (destroying enemy Argus drone(s) also grant related patch progress, after all.) Imagine you can now directly attack your enemy with Argus, once they’re struck with Enlightenment beacon. It will surely make them panic. Of course, it’s still a defense module, so mines and incoming missiles will still be prioritized over enemy struck by Enlightenment, but I think it will be funny af.
