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In Development: Lynx Skyranger

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https://aw.my.games/en/news/general/development-lynx-skyranger

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In Armored Warfare, the Lynx Skyranger will be a Tier 10 Premium Armored Fighting Vehicle.

The basics of this vehicle are pretty straightforward – a solid health pool, adequate armor with NERA elements on the hull and an unmanned turret paired with solid mobility in the form of a 1140hp diesel engine – basically, you have the Hunter with less protection and hitpoints (the Lynx isn’t as big) and without its ATGMs.

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What makes the vehicle truly stand apart are its special features and abilities. There are three of them in total.

Programmable Ammunition – the Lynx’s 30mm autocannon is not quite remarkable. We’ll balance its damage and penetration for its higher rate of fire but that’s about it. But it will feature a new ammunition type that is basically HE that explodes over the target. A similar mechanic is already used in the game, although not on an autocannon. In practical sense, it will be useful for removing rooftop ERA and for damaging lighter vehicles hidden behind obstacles and refusing to move, although using it against moving targets will be quite difficult

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Starstreak Missiles – as you may have read in the historical section of this article, Skyranger’s missile launcher can be adapted to many missile systems. For our in-game version, we decided to use the British Starstreak as it appeared as an option in one of Rheinmetall’s catalogues. The interesting thing about this missile is that it can be fired at ground targets as well as the air ones and, more importantly, each warhead contains three pieces of sub-munitions in the form of metal darts. These are guided and fly extremely fast (1250 m/s) although their low weight (each weighs less than 1 kg) doesn’t allow them to deal that much damage or penetrate a lot of armor. In Armored Warfare, these will work as long-range ultra-fast but low-damage kinetic missiles (gaining penetration and damage with distance while ignoring APS and ERA), giving you the reach to deal with enemy targets at long distances

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High Energy Laser – there are no drones in Armored Warfare (at least not the small ones this laser is intended against) but, fortunately for us, the laser can be repurposed to something else – blinding enemy sensors. The current version of the mechanic works as an active ability similar to the basic Designate Target one where the target needs to be “locked” for a few seconds, after which a debuff is applied. Only instead of increased damage taken, this ability will seriously reduce the target’s spotting range, effectively blinding it in the process. On the downside, much like with TAM’s Laser Lock ability, a laser beam will appear whenever the ability is in use, leading from your vehicle to the target. This laser is visible to both your team and the enemies – in other words, using this ability puts you at risk as the enemy will see where you are even without you getting spotted as usual

Interesting concepts, but the combo of mechanics just don't feel as exciting as they sound on paper.

  • Unless the KEM have very fast reloads, the lower damage than they already do on the Brosat will make them fairly useless even if they end up having high penetration. They would also serve no utility otherwise, as they are effectively just missiles with low damage and possibly low penetration too.
  • The blinding laser sounds novel on paper, until you realize the game already have mechanics for reducing enemy view ranges for years now. Shooting at commander sights and/or killing the commander on the target vehicle will blind them far more effectively than using the ability, not to mention its limited usefulness in PvP.
  • Programmable HE has been absolutely useless ever since they were introduced in the game. Nobody praises them, or complains about being used against them, or even uses them actively. This is a gimmick in the game that exists without much purpose or use.

In short, I see it as yet another dakka vehicle in a tier range already saturated by dakka vehicles. Maybe it will be better than it sounds, but I don't have high hopes.

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Source:

https://aw.my.games/en/news/general/developer-diary-lynx-skyranger-update

 

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It’s been a while since we announced the Lynx Skyranger Tier 10 Premium AFV and we’d like to return to it with an update. The original article features the general description of the vehicle’s weapon systems and capabilities and we’d like to disclose more about their current state and how the vehicle will be played.

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The main idea behind the Skyranger is burst damage as well as anti-scouting. In other words, the 30mm gun will have the ability to deal damage in short (or longer) bursts followed by periods of cooldown. The 30mm Oerlikon gun uses the Gatling gun mechanics with AP ammunition as such:

  • 2-second bursts
  • 80 damage per shot
  • Deals reduced damage even upon non-penetration

The gun can tear up a Centauro 120 in three bursts providing you are aiming at a green area. It’s also quite accurate – it can do so at 300 meters. However, against heavier targets it’s far less effective and don’t even try to engage MBTs frontally using this ammo type – it won’t work.

The second ammunition type – High Explosive Programmable – does pretty much exactly what the initial announcement article mentioned. It explodes above a target dealing damage to the roof using its blast wave (or “splash” in Armored Warfare terms). Firing at a target directly makes it behave pretty much exactly like any normal HE ammunition.

To use its special features, you must aim slightly above the target. Since this requires careful aiming, it’s only possible against static targets unless you have an exceptionally accurate hand.

When used correctly, this firing mode can deal devastating damage to almost any static target in hulldown position. Against MBTs it often destroys the turret-mounted APS and damages its gun, leaving the target open to attacks by other players and unable to retaliate. However, this type of ammo is very situational and only skilled players will be able to use it to its fullest potential.

The third weapon system is the Starstreak missile. Starstreak is not a true ATGM – it’s a dual-purpose warhead that’s possible to use against ground targets in real life. However, such a use is not its primary intended function – it’s still an anti-air missile. It is therefore quite small and deals limited damage.

To make it viable, the Armored Warfare version works like a kinetic missile. It doesn’t deal a whole lot of damage (especially at short ranges) but the further from you the target is, the more damage will the missile deal and the more armor will it penetrate. Compare the values at 50 meters:

  • 400 points of damage per launch
  • 500mm of penetration

To the values at 600 meters:

  • 600 points of damage per launch
  • 1000mm of penetration

The missile also flies very fast (2000 m/s) and ignores enemy APS. As the description suggests, the missile should not be used at close ranges (that’s what your gun is for). You can launch two missiles in rapid succession (2 seconds between launches). Together, they can deal roughly 700-1000 damage, followed by 14 seconds of reload time. Once again, it is a situational weapon that’s best suited against targets far from you where it will deal more damage than your cannon bursts.

And finally there’s the active ability, the High Energy Laser. Simply put, it reduces the enemy viewrange by 70% for 18 seconds, followed by 20 seconds of cooldown. This can be a useful tool against passive scouts that can buy you a few seconds of time. Doesn’t sound like much but it can make all the difference in the world in certain situations.

And that’s pretty much it. The vehicle has NERA-covered hull but its unmanned turret is fairly vulnerable to all kinds of incoming damage – this is not a front-line fighter, it should stay behind stronger vehicles at all times. At the same time it’s quite large and has a corresponding camouflage factor of 20% which really isn’t all that much. On the bright side, it does have the Recon Package, a special set of sensors and a very high baseline spotting range.

If you’ve made it this far into the article, you’ve probably realized that unlike the Namer, this won’t exactly be a new player friendly vehicle. The Lynx Skyranger is a specialized tool that can deal a lot of damage under certain circumstances. Nonetheless, some careful gameplay will be required.

 

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The thing that worries me the most is the 80 dmg 30mm gun. I fear this thing will nuke modules instantly like the GAU can do, when it's not melting the vehicle itself. Also, doesn't the whole sides looks like to be NERA covered like on the Hunter? 

Well, the laser thingy will be useful against the Lts in PvE, if it works there, who knows...

I feel this thing will be really annoying to fight against... 

 

EDIT:

  • Test drove the thingy, it's not accurate at all (0.16°). I think some rounds ended up outside the aiming circle even.
  • The HE seems to ALWAYS do damage in proxy mode, no matter the armor thickness. An HE burst will deal around 150 dmg on the roof of MBTs, if not more.
  • The HE has a 2 meter splash radius, which seems to explain why splashing a turret roof will also damage the tracks.
  • Its HE will nuke NERA.
  • Burst take 2.5s to cool, and you can't even shoot missiles while on cooldown. Probably won't get fixed?
  • The thing has NERA all over the front and sides.
  • If you have to reload the AC, it will take 15s to do so.
  • Its active ability work like designate and last 10s.
  • A single burst is 12 rounds. So 960 dmg average if all pen per burst with AP

 

Edited by Grenier (see edit history)

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