The most recent update for the PTU version of Alpha 3.23.1a made some questionable changes to the missile and torpedo speeds, but a developer just confirmed that these changes will be reverted in the next build, as it was only a test to source some backend issues with missiles.
The latest build of 3.23.1a drastically decreased the movement speed of missiles and torpedos. The change was so harsh that the speed for a Size-9 Seeker torpedo was reduced from 550 m/s all the way down to 130 m/s. This change widely enraged the community, as the new speed for the torpedo is even slower than the maximum SCM speed of giant ships like Hammerhead, allowing them to easily escape from the missile without even switching to the NAV mode.
This wasn’t the only change applied to the missiles though. CIG also increased both the minimum and maximum lock-in range for missiles to make it more of a long-range weapon. However, the harshly decreased speed made torpedos even more worthless, as it will now take a Size-9 torpedo over 38 seconds to reach its target at the minimum range of 5,000 meters, which is, simply, a lot of time for your target to switch to NAV and flee.
While the speed changes will be reverted in the next build, there was no similar talk about lock-in range, which probably means they are here to stay. However, Savrals, the CIG developer, confirmed that a thorough update will be applied to missiles and torpedos similar to most other ship components when Alpha 4.0 arrives. The purpose is to make all ship components adapt to the changes in the new resource network.
CIG plans to release the final phase of the Overdrive Initiative with the Alpha 3.23.1a update. When this build launches onto the Live servers, the team will move to Alpha 3.23.2, the patch that will deliver Personal Hangars, Cargo Missions, Item Bank, and Freight Elevators. The EPTU build of Alpha 3.23.2 was supposed to be available until Friday, but it has apparently been delayed until next week.
