[Suggestion] I fear for the future of air balance (Striker / MAXes - TR supremacy)

As everyone knows, in this game, who controls the air, controls the battle.

Ever since the Striker has been released, it seems that TR have gained a huge G2A support potential. And what I've noticed so far is that most time when 2 groups of the same size (more or less) meet, the TR one is more likely to take over the air.

With the upcoming MAX abilities, which will allow the TR to go anchored (same effects as for the prowler), I fail to see how it could not get worse, since their burster MAXes will become completely devastating.


Now this thread is also about the striker. The first and only argument in the defense of the striker is that it fails to be effective when the enemy has flares (well that saves him for 5 more seconds only). But regarding the damage it deals to ESFs (80%), the flares are no longer an option for them.

As an ESF pilot, it has become almost impossible for me to fight aircrafts above TR troops (always have to retreat), while it can still be done above VS. Not only because it deals way more damage than regular lock-on RL (which became btw completely useless for TR, who would buy the air specific lock-on RL now ?...), but also because it has so much success, many players bought it. Anywhere you go, there'll be a TR HA with a striker (you're lucky if there's only one), and he'll be waiting for you, cause he knows how deadly it is against ESFs.


Now I believe what can be easily done is nerf its damage against ESFs (lowered down to 45-50% of health with 5 rockets) while maybe buffing it against heavy armor. But what I would like to see is the striked being redesigned. Many players (including a lot of TR) regret that it is a lock-on RL. Imo this kind of weapon gives no satisfaction when killing an ennemy, it just kills the gameplay. Some people mentioned some interesting ideas, such as making it a high ROF multiple rockets dumbfire RL (some kind of anti tank lasher). Or else.

Anyway thanks for reading.

It might equalise the amount compared two the other two factions. Certainly on Miller any NC or VS Zerg has plenty of flakmaxes and skyguards. TR on the other hand hardly roll with any, unless an outfit decides to try. I never see scythes and reavers get blown away by heavy flak compared to mosquitos. But this is just my experience.

I can't believe anyone is whining about the Striker when the 2nd and 4th clip currently do 0 damage. The thing has less DPS right now than the Annihilator, which everyone has access to.

I can assure you, in this case, the grass is not greener on the other side. I have, on many occassions, despaired how one or two enemy ESF can chase me around one of our Airtowers, with MAX´s and AA Turrets, while no one seems to care. As a pilot these days you seem to always find AA no matter where you go. You fly on Indar over the desert, miles away from any base, you find someone running there, be sure it will be a MAX and it will, of course, have BursterArms.
It always seems like AA is very tight when fighting TR, but then again it´s not much different when I play NC. Just too much AA weapons ingame atm to not constantly run into one or the other.

I will say what ive said twice before on theese forums and several times elsewhere.

Keep in mind that the NS grnade launchers are coming too. I dont believe theres any way to balance them with TR Lockdown.

Anyway...

If SOE have any sense, they will restrict the effects of the TR MAX Lockdown ability to TR specific weapons.

If you want to talk about the TR MAX go to the MAX forums. There are plenty of people like myself who will gladly talk to you about their MAXes and other MAX. Instead of sitting here with no expierence, in ignorance acting like you know the MAX class.

Striker? Good G2A?

Did you play Planetside 1? This is a genuine question, because if you did you would know just what a sitting duck you were when in lock down in a TR MAX. This game, with it's much higher TTK game play is going to most likely make the TR empire specific MAX ability useless. Standing still in PS2 = Death, it really is that simple. The issue with render distance is going to be a factor with the dual bursters, but that anchored MAX is going to a really big chunk of easy XP.

The striker is poor, go lolpod somewhere else. you shouldn't be flying at all if these kill you.

It's because you don't really need to pull AA MAX. You already control air dominance with Striker + Mossie.

There's also more reason for NC/VS to pull MAX, as there are so many Mossies in the sky. Meanwhile if a TR pulls AA MAX, they will be bored, as theres nothing to shoot.

I don't lolpod, never did, never will. I hate their gameplay (noskill farm tool) and I love full Afterburner way too much to give it up.

And actually what's sad is that lolpoders are focused on ground, and as soon as they get locked, they kill the guy / flare / fly away, they'll just have to come back, makes no difference for them.

While players who are not here to farm infantry (at least on first purpose) might be fighting an other ESF when they get locked, now what ? They fly away and take the risk to be followed and killed by the enemy ESF(s) ? They try to finish the guy and will probably die to the bloody 80% damage (that is HUGE) of the striker ? What else ? Can't dodge, can't escape unless racer 3 and full AB (which you might need while fighting ESFs), can't go hide behind something unless you're on amerish / south indar. When fighting TR as an ESF, you HAVE to get the flares, this is a gameplay failure.

I got killed by the striker only twice, but got close so many times.

IF striker sucks so hard, why EVERY HA uses it?

Striker is SO OP that every TR HA uses it, if u get rockets on an esf... he is ******. Never used ESFs when they were OP, im using them right now and if there is 1HA with striker u are out of the fight, u better use ur flares and run, u come back and the same **** happens again... doesnt matter the altitude or speed... there is always one locking u before engaging... There is only a small chance at really SMALL fights where u can spot the HA locking u and kill him.

I got so used to Strikers that when i get locked by anihilators i laugh.. what a poooor damage.


With the TR MAX special ability, u better stop using air at all... it is going to be the suck..

90% of people don't have this problem.

I've been doing a lot of flying lately and using the rocket pods. However, infantry is where my heart lies. From an air standpoint, yes, there is a lot of AA in the game. It really doesn't matter to me. I can keep a Scythe or Liberator in the air long enough to let the timer run down on my next one, and there will be a LONG line of kills in my old aircraft's wake. Air still dominates; period. AA has been nothing but a deterrent for me while I'm in the air. Rapid strike, get out, repair, repeat. After a while (20+ minutes) I'll get nailed by some lucky AA shot as I'm boosting out of the area to repair. I die, then respawn where I can get another aircraft.

From the infantry's point of view, air power is a real threat. They come in, devastate your entire squad and fly off to do it again. (I've done it a lot when flying.) We'll pull AA MAXes and Annihilators, make the air go away (MAYBE after killing one or two planes) and continue with our operation.

As far as I'm concerned, air to ground and ground to air is balanced, even if it favors air power. IT SHOULD. Unchecked air power should ruin the day of any ground forces underneath of it. But, G2A should be able to make a solid defense against incoming air. Otherwise, what's the point of G2A?

The striker is not very good.

You can fly away and the missiles stop following.
You can fly down and the missiles will just fly into the ground

It takes a long time to lock on and fire all your rockets and you will normally have lots of snipers shooting at you because the stream of rockets gives you away and you are an EASY target for them to pick off

I already pictured it. I know this ability is going to be more of a disadvantage against infantry (HA will enjoy RL dumbfire and LA will have fun dropping C4 on a guy who can't move). Hard to tell about AV, depends on how close you are to the enemy tanks. But as AA, this is gonna be crazy. Usually AA MAXes don't really move around, because they are most time hidden or protected from infantry / tanks. This way they will be able to deal incredible damage in a few seconds. The ones with extended mags will have a really good time, really.

Now what I see is that the TR MAX ability and the Striker seem to be this effective :
-vs infantry : bad / none
-vs armor : medium
-vs air (especially ESFs) : great

Imo it shouldn't be balanced to be more effective against one type of enemy than the others, especially when this field is the one that gives you victory above all (air control). Anyway I strongly think the striker needs to be redesigned.

Versus Libs, maybe not (at least not that bad, it's lock on hey). Versus ESFs, deadly.

Why would I take a bug in account? It's going to be fixed anyway, right? So, doesn't change a thing to what I've said.

1- Unless you have Racer 3 and full AB, no they won't. (well maybe with the reaver since its AB speed is so high)
2- Once they've acquired your trajectory, unless you find some kind of a hill, no they won't.

Here is something else to consider. In PS1, while in lockdown mode in a TR MAX, the torso traverse was limited, about the same as the default engineer's MANA turret in PS2. It's going to be real hard to track airborne targets with that limitation.

Seeing as you have a character on woodman I'm surprised by this comment. There is always an air threat and a reason to pull AA Maxes for the TR. I would say it used to be due to VS mainly but the NC are using air alot more these days as well in my opinion.

You need to actually use this gun. Because yes they will. You can watch them stop tracking the second you fly out of range.

They also fly in a path to intercept you. So if you fly down the intercept point is below the ground and they will fly right into the ground.

I don't know how much of a buff the ability will be but TBH I did wonder about the impact it will have on TR AA as a whole.

I mean, you can fire faster and reload faster (or at least that's what I understood). It doesn't sound that useful when you need mobility (when fighting infantry for example) but it sounds like a straight buff to TR AA MAXes compared to the other factions. Then again the other MAX abilities will be more useful against infantry.

Although to be fair from what I understood the NC max basically puts a hand in front of him to take less damage so you trade frontal protection for less damage and the VS is the other way around, you put out and take more damage. NC ability doesn't sound that useful TBH and VS one is basically high risk high reward for AI and no risk and high reward against aircraft.

In the end it depends on how they're implemented but this has the potential of just buffing VS and TR AA capabilities while giving something pointless to NC. Obviously that's wrong.