Considering FO often ends up effectively being “Specialist Operative + Flash Pulse” for all the times I’ve actually applied Targeted with one… this would be a cool change.
Comes up every now and then for me. People set up their -6 tinbot repeater defenses and figure they're safe from the attention of missiles. Then a camo marker slips through and just completely circumvents that.
That can always happen, but i think we can all agree that an advancing Camo marker, that needs LoF to a target has a tad more counterplay than "I Pitcher you, I hacker you, I GML you".
It is not a bad idea, "burning" the targeted state if it is used is also an option that has been suggested.
Burning the target state isn't a good idea for several reasons. It pushes the weapon into more unreliable and swingy territory. Sometimes it will obliterate targets like it used to, other times it will sink more orders. This makes the weapon feel less effective, which means some people will play it less, but it doesn't change the interaction causing a negative play experience for opponents who do wind up facing it when it works as normal. The goal isn't to nerf the equipment into a state where people feel like they're being punished if they take it because it's unreliable, it should still feel effective and good to use. You don't want to make more Boygs. The biggest issue surrounding guided weapons is not the guided weapon itself, but its use as an alpha strike piece. This doesn't fix that issue. It can still reach out and knock off an LT or otherwise cripple an army on turn 1 when in the wrong army. The is a huge difference between a Pan-O or Yu Jing army using it to punish an overly aggressive attacker and shove them back vs Nomads or Morats hurling a Pitcher across the table and assblasting on the top of turn 1. There are several things that really should be done to address them: There needs to be more active hacking defenses. It's a negative play experience and feels like shit because many armies can't functionally fight off the hackers bombarding them because the hacking ecosystem in N4 is utterly fucked balance wise between factions. Why do people not get sad about FO's targeting stuff? Because they get to shoot back. The extreme range and how easy it is to project hacking ability needs to get dialed back, at the top end Pitchers can reach too far and are too easy to place. CB apparently recognised this in the N4 transition because they nerfed the top end range of pitchers, but in usual CB fashion the fix seemed to come from their method of throwing darts at a board because their "fix" was to drop the max range of a pitcher from 48" to 40", laughable in actual effectiveness. The value in Alpha Striking as an effective and game winning strategy needs to be toned down. As said earlier there are fixes to that, and the reinforcements mechanic may end up being a solution. Time will tell on that one.
