Noted, but that is simply part of the arguement. The tactical/strategic advantages in PVP for having pilots capable of either blue or yellow is very small. Unlike the theme park holy trinity of Tank/heal/dps, where if one player could do multiple roles they were more valuable, here the difference in turret use between yellow and blue is too small to justify the additional logistics, hardware, and EP complexities; and by that I mean the balance issue of allowing blue/yellow interchangability at a lower oportunity cost does not give turret players an advantage over launcher players.

Arga got it right:

beeing able to fit the other weapon, doesn't mean you can use it. ATM you need the correct Robot too.
and training a factional robot skill higher then mech control takes some time too.

The main disballance is the Firearms skill. They use Turret skills, and there is no ballistic counterpart for it.

a slight disbalance in EP costs is between "Missile guidance [6]" and "Falloff [4]", because the missile skill enables 100% chance to hit against ANYTHING within your launchers range, while falloff has a decreasing damage per shot above the optimum range.

is there anyone who actually has maxed out missile guidance? i see a 2% chance to miss not really a reason to spend another 33 days worth EP

Seperating the turret extensions between the turret types would be the worst thing that could happen, as long as their main difference is only the GFX.

edit:

if your going into the future with your argumentation: Artillery will be ballistic weapons, and they will profit from missile skills ("ballistics") -> so what you complain about? having ballistic laser and ballistic EM weapons will be much easier for those who are specialized in missiles now.

I'm unsure on some of the points here.

- Annihilator:  With 4% miss rate, I've seen 2 flights of 5 missiles where 3 of them "found the heavens" - in a row - damage reduction 60% across 10 missiles for 2 flights. 

Each failure is 100% loss of damage from that weapon.  That can be seen as expensive.

2% for 33 days?  Avoiding that "feeling lucky today?" sense of play may be worth it. 

Yes it averages out to 2% "over time" but a couple bad volleys in a PvP fight...

- Beasty:  Many weapons skills are shared as you point out but how much extra time is involved to actually pilot the proper bots to fit and use those systems?

If I need to focus without distracting options elsewhere, I'm going to focus but if I can climb in different bots and use different tools and effects...  Flexibility of options also usually costs with lower abilities for long-term play if you exercise those options.

A green pilot is quite probably going to focus training on their bot's specific abilities.  The "distraction" potential and time lost vs other areas of enhancement may offset this.  As such - how many actually do cross-train bots and how far up the food chain do they go?

This I do not know.

Just wondering at the reality of the concern over the potential.  I've often seen potential yet it remains just that - never followed through on due to "costs" and the like.

you are NUTS ? comparing training time to max 2 weapon systems against one and there is only a month difference ?

get rid of one weapon type in the turret calculation (either lasers or magnetics) and then compare. OR if you REALY want to complain, add firearms. but you are still getting 3 weapon types vs one.

To wait 217 days and *** and Pillage with a green bot....seriously Green are actually very overpowered...just people don't use them as much to pull there maximum potential out.

Everyone wants to change something that hasn't really even been vetted as of yet.

Just Sayin
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This could be fixed by adding a new stat "Evasion". Evasive Modules give same amount of evasion as they subtracted from surface hit size.

When shot at: Effective Hit Size = Surface Size - Evasion

This would fix the problem.

Its funny how you guys forget half the robots for your arguments about turrets not being easier that missiles for cross training. Let me explain:

I once used a vagabond, i was maxxed in EW extensions.  Since there was NO FACTION WEAPON ROBOT BONUS on EW mechs, i had a whole choice of turrets for my fittings. If i wanted burst damages i took EM, if i needed range but wasnt so much concerned about acc i fitted 3 HCL, and when i needed not much speed but good dps and acc i was using firearms.

  I had a whole choice of weapons to choose, and its the same for at least all the EW mechs, all more like all the bots that dont get a direct dmg bonus.  So what with this?

Arga sorry but your argument about being needed to cross train faction extensions dont work in my case.

Btw saying there is no real difference between blue and yellow???  Did you try full T4 fit on HMs with the two kind of weapons to say that?  Because there are huge differences imo. Did you try each kind of weapons with full T4 range amplifier or full tuners?  I mean saying two weapon types "ressemble" themselves is clearly false.

I always played blue, i just reset to green.  Imo its balanced somewhat differently.  Blue are perfect for pvp, good for certain type of pve.  Green are best for solo pve thats for sure. No acc problems, (shooting continuously), systematic dmg even on smalls, and the ability to have a good shield "in case of", make the gropho a good solo pve platform.  Its easier for me than the mesmer, even if i have less dps.

So for me its balanced, just give a good firearm type for missile users and everything will be fine, because the complaint of easier cross training for turrets is VALID, at least for EW bots..

There is another option. You can use the size of the shield instead of the size of the robot when calculating damage. The size of the robot can only be taken to calculate the absorption.

he's right

the question is more - do you see anyone switching between seth and mesmer on same agent ?

or going out with 2 EM guns, 1 HCL Laser and 1 AC on a kain?

/agree /w Sundial

Many pilots swap form yellow mech to blue mech ALL THE TIME !!! if you haven't see people do this im afraid you haven't been playing much in pvp. Politics aside take a look at the 62nd and Cir guys, ive seen many of them able to flip to one color to another just like that on the same toon.

im very close to cross speccing into missiles to use them on my artemis or baphometh (its a waste to leave those slots open), just one more level in adv. robotics before that.

its not much time to get a decent missile build - cycletime extensions are cheap, guiding to 6 is cheap, seismics is not ultra-necessary, and pelistal to 5 not that much either (starting with 45% damage bonus from adv. robotics!)

and then, im happy when grenades, mortars or whatever new weapons find their way into the game. even if its just the proton-torpedo that was announced, i will be happy to be able to use it