LRMs (MechWarrior Online)

LRMs are is a weapon system divided into 4 sizes per faction (8 variants per faction if including the additional, non-mixable Artemis IV variants) part of the MechWarrior Online game.

History and mechanics
Long Range Missiles have had a long and tortuous history since MWO debuted in 2012.

Originally usable enough, LRMs were nerfed a number of times because players raged on the forums that they were "anti-fun".

LRMs were never competitive play material, since they always dealt spread damage in uncontrollable enemy locations, and there was a number of possible defenses against them, from ECM to Anti-Missile Systems.

However, still many complained that LRM users, or "lurmers" as they were mostly derisively called, would hide in the back lines and wait for an allied target lock to fire. This basically called LRM players "moochers" (to use Ayn Rand terminology) and mobilized organized real-world hatred against them continued through time, arguably utilizing similar sentiments as those in the USA against social security, medicaid and food stamps. Lurmers were also called "noobs" and "bad players" that needed the passive lockon to hit.

The repeated calls had effect and LRMs were nerfed a number of times. LRM lockon time was increased, as well as their spread (already the highest of any weapon), making them more inaccurate. LRMs were also hit pretty hard by Ghost Heat (MechWarrior Online), since chanin-firing them isn't conducent to negating protection from AMS. The reticle range in which a lockon is achieved was also diminished to a minuscule percent, making aiming LRMs a serious hurdle (considering even a moment outside of the reticle will reset the lockon time, and enemies move... and lag). Also hit by similar nerfs were Streak SRMs (MechWarrior Online), another non-competitive, lockon weapon.

However, the biggest offender mechanic that forced "lurming" as the only LRM use was left untouched: The mechanic that AMS destroys missiles by health and not by proportion as in the Tabletop Battletech game. This encourages that if you use LRMs, you need to "Boat" them, that is to say, use a large number of LRM weapons together. If you use just a few LRMs, they will all be shot down by the AMS (which combines in team clumps, since it doesn't care whether the missiles are attacking that 'mech specifically); thus, the more LRMs in total you use, the more LRMs in proportion that can go through the AMS "iron dome".

The last major "Overhaul" of LRMs made them behave differently when direct-fired and when indirect-fired, altering their arc. This was done in the hopes that this would encourage direct-firing them. The hopes were misplaced.

Stats
(In construction)