Pay2Anni-lock

no, i am not trolling. i am upset because my weapon has been made absolutely useless no matter what kind of target.
i cannot lock on anything anymore before
a) i get killed before i get the chance to fire even myself (and i do not stand still while aiming)
b) the enemy vehicle/aircraft moves behind cover or out of range
ergo this weapon is useless and my certs spend for nothing. that's what upsets me. don't know if you would understand that.

as a result aircraft have become overpowered again. before the annihilator increase this game was an eldorado for pilots. this changed when people got fed up with being killed over and over again because of this. that's why the annihilator became so popular and that's why people spent certs/money on it. and not just because people wanted cheap kills.
now again aircraft fly over bases wreaking havoc among the infantry and making easy kills. and i am not talking about taking out some stragglers. liberators staying out of range and shooting into the base, apart from needing a lot of hits. this is why i claim that aircraft are way overpowered.

someone argued that he's not able to fly over areas with a lot of activity. if you don't want to get killed play sims. lots of activity always means getting easily killed no matter what. and if you don't want to get killed as a pilot, maybe it's time team up too or use your smarts. i have seen intelligent attacks of three or four fighter aircraft on the crown during the so called prime time and non was shot down in spite of annihilators. they did not have to take on stragglers. and they did definitely not fly slowly towards the base steadily shooting and as soon there's a warning signal speed up and fly behind cover or out of range and attack again from another side. that's cheap. and boring.

pilots like flying? then maybe there should be a new profession. lets call it "pilot". pilots get a license to fly and no one else. they get a pistol, maybe up to 2 clays, a medkit, maybe the MP and a parachute of course. press 4 after ejecting or it won't open. but not an engineer anymore piloting an aircraft and landing conveniently and repairing his craft. so pilots would be forced find support or a near landing dock where you could get repairs. this would take time and pilots would maybe start to think about about why they got almost killed. it even would give them the deep satisfaction of still being alive.

another suggestions was switch to AA MAX. thanks for that great suggestion. as if i would tell any pilot to switch to infantry because they complain about getting too many lock ons. pilots don't have to switch. but you suggest that now i have to. i am forced to play what i don't like, have to spend certs on what i don't want to spend it on and have to adapt to a new weapon class which does not interest me. apart from that as a MAX i am not able to use any vehicles. and now again i have to spend 700sc/1000certs for 1 AA gun. and if i am dead i have to hope for another player switch to MAX because my MAX is on cool down too. nice treat for SOE to selling now AA guns instead of annihilators. that's why i feel mocked. don't know if you would understand that too.

i have no problem with dying in this game. i am mostly medic and used to dying while i try to resurrect players. and my ratio is... well, forget it. and i switch to engineer if need be, or to heavy, that's not the problem either. and i will switch to MAX if this will be the only way to defend against aircraft. and its not that i complain because i cannot win a 1vs1 against a fighter. but i still claim that aircraft are way overpowered the way things are at the moment.

or as cato would have said: ceterum censeo carthaginem esse delendam

This is where everyone stops reading your posts... just.. no....

SOE would do themselves and the game good, by removing annihilators and refunding everybody's certs/sc. Then re-work annihilators into a guided missile launcher like the new engineer's AT guided missiles. That or add a layer to it like battlefield games, where you have to shoot a tracer dart at a vehicle before you can lock-on spam. I know SOE doesn't want to refund and re-work but there's no end to the complaints about annihilators.

Yes I'm a 95% infantry player, yes I have an annihilator, and I say to get rid of it and refund me. I don't like it, it's too weak when used solo, and it's ultra super cheese when used in a group. This game does not need it, it needs more skilled shots. Guided missiles or lock-ons after a tracer dart both would work much better. Stop trying to reinvent how things should work in a FPS game. Balance have been met and tried in other games before.

Nobody is saying esf's should be able to fly over hotzones with impunity... Dont be a smacktard. 1 or 2 AA maxes and other threats that actually have to aim, lead targets, compensate for drop is one thing, and they make the hotzones very dangerous. The problem is that lockons are guaranteed kills with no skills, and they still dont render for air untill you are too close. And annihilators are useful vs vehicles also. It doesnt matter if they are weaker than regular rockets, because everyone and thier dog uses them. It's rediculous.

Daily reminder that annhilators are still being used by players rendered with invisible god mode, doing invisible damage.

Posted this in another thread, but i think the lockon time is now 6 seconds. That's 6 seconds of standing still while keeping a lockon (try it, its not easy to catch someone sleeping THAT long). If you haven't reacted after 6 seconds, I don't think any amount of lock-on time helps.

If it was intended, this is more or less removing the lock on ability for anti-air against ESF's. Couple this with the predictive method of the way the rockets move, it results in a very unrewarding attempt to even use the weapon if there is any form of terrain elevations.

For ground vehicles, perhaps the spam of lock-on has forced them to be more vulnerable, but at 6+ seconds it feels almost too long as you WILL get properly sniped unless you are in a zerg; In which case you can get away with doing a lot of bad things.

I still am not sure why they cannot put a count on how many lock-ons you have as a vehicle operator? It seems like a very simple way to know if you are being targeted by multiple rockets and need to retreat. Otherwise reduce the range a bit, keep tigher lockon times and you have something that resembles a soft-counter to tanks/planes. Isn't that reasonable?

Ultimately, there is a very simple solution. Make the render distance on everything the same. That way you won't get vehicles being hit by invisible infantry. It will also remove the big advantage of the Annihilator because a 500m range won't matter if vehicles are only rendering within 100 yards.

Also gives a boost to the dumbfires. Since tanks, ESF, Liberators will have to get very close in order to attack anything, the snapshooting from cover will become a lot more viable. A Liberator flying slowly at 100m altitude or lower in order to attack the tanks is a much easier target than one at its usual 700+m. Even though ESFs will have to play much lower and slower, they will still be able to leave the render range before a lock-on timer ticks down. Plus, it will make the rocket pods less of a "must buy" since at that sort of range, the default nosecannon can be used.

It takes less time to rocket pod that same amount of infantry if they're all that close together, and a few ESFs can strafe run far more infantry than that with little to no trouble... don't even get me started on what 4 liberators, with just 8 people, could do to those 100 infantry.

I would say make the lock on distance 300m. Where infantry does render at. It would get rid of the ìnvisible rockets` that people get hit with, although I never noticed that in my sunderer, lightning, reaver or liberator. People will still complain about it. We can have people hit their 'b' button for alternate fire to switch from air to ground. That may work to stop them from focusing on tanks and then aircraft. They have to switch.
I feel that the anni came out pretty much as a result of vehicle spam, to combat it. Now it`s vehicle spam vs. rocket spam. Do we get rid of lock-on weapons and get rid of vehicles as well? Don't see it happening any time soon.

A couple things of note. Have you watched an anni rocket? It tends to try to intercept what it is being shot at rather than chase what it is being shot at. I've seen rockets crash into a hill even before the ESF's have disappeared behind said hill, because it is on an intercept course. I've seen ESF's just change direction and the rocket continues its intercept course while the ESF flies in the opposite direction. I've laughed at these because it's funny to see. It isn't the guaranteed hit people think it is. If a tank is partially behind cover you may not get a lock. It seems (last time I played) that you have to be able to lock onto the center of the vehicle. I could see the top, turret and part of the front armour but not get any lock. I had to go to a terminal, grab the default launcher, fire a rocket to flush the tank out and then proceed that way. It was interesting to say the least.

I would love the SMG for the HA. I'm serious. I do better with my engi and a 30 round clip than as a heavy with 100 rounds. That gun is good for CQC, but anything outside of 5-10 m, I'm better with the engi, with the gauss gun... it just seems more accurate and cone of fire is smaller, less stray bullets. If I remember to use my pistol when playing heavy, I don't do too bad against infantry... I still die easily though. The personal shield is also a big sign saying "I'm over here, come shoot me", whenever I see a red one it just makes it easier to target, and I'm not the only one thinking like that. I am careful when deploying mine, I might pop it quickly for a brief fight, but that is it. It just makes me an easy target.

Numbers. This is a big one. I will watch the people in my squad. We may have one or two heavies...... until we meet a big group of vehicles. Not one or two tanks, but more... or aircraft. Then the heavies come out. Once that threat is dealt with, everyone goes back to their regular character. It is like a last resort sort of thing. You have a platoon of about 20 to 30 people (some people come, some go and sometimes a squad may be 5 people) who encounter a squad or two and maybe a couple vehicles. Everyone tends to keep their characters and a battle ensues. Then you get 10 tanks rolling in and about half the people spawn back as heavies to combat the vehicle spam. The others still have to battle the infantry and keep their other roles (engi supplying ammo, repairs... and medics). Once the encounter is over, whether we win or lose and we regroup, everyone goes back to their regular characters.

I think that most of the people that use the anni's are the infantry people, those that use vehicles occasionally. Those who have been wiped out by liberators and seen how two libs could keep a platoon at bay. The infantry who have been rocketpodded repeatedly to death where the only solution was to go back to the warpgate and go to another location. The same infantry who have had tank zergs just roll over them without much of a way to fight back (trying to place a mine while tanks are there and just bombarding the area is very difficult). Many may have tried to use the AA rocket launcher against the libs and ESF's only to realize how useless they were, until SOE finally corrected the issue (remember when an ESF just had to list to the side to make the rocket miss? No maneuvers were even required to avoid getting hit). The infantry had been beaten down. Hard. Then SOE nerfed some of the vehicle weapons and comes out with the annihilator. This is the weapon that infantry can finally use to battle all those vehicles which had been devastating them for so long. And use it they did. That is why there are so many of them out there. So many people hated that whenever some vehicles showed up, the battle was over. The vehicles would dominate and farm infantry. The battle would be decided by whoever had vehicles (ESF's, libs and tanks). So many times we would get the order to regroup at the warpgate, just because there were 7 tanks or 3 ESF's with rocket pods or 2 Liberators which came after us. If we were at a satellite base, the engagements only lasted a few minutes... then we were trapped in the spawn room. A platoon, being devastated by a squad or less.

It now seems to be a battle between infantry and vehicle people on these forums.
So after my description of why there are so many annihilators, I still think my suggestions of having to switch fire modes would work and reduce the lock on to 300m. Or make all weapons ineffective if they are 300m away to stop libs from random bombing and tanks from just shelling an area (it happens). These are my suggestions, you don't have to accept them. Of course a response of 'won't work' would be a lot better than "go F yourself" (which some people love saying as a response).

Render distance is why annhi spam is such an issue.

I like to try to defend bases, especially amp stations. The pop stays at a level where I can really put the hurt on the attackers with a tank, and with a couple other tankers and a squad of infantry I've had great defensive stands in amp stations - until everyone starts going invisible.

What's so frustrating is you don't just get overwhelmed, you simply have no way to fight it out. Your tank suddenly starts taking invisible ghost damage (and you know where those little bastards are too, but shoot them and nothing happens because THEY HAVE INVISIBLE GOD MODE. They even snipe out defensive base towers while in invisible god mode...

Players need to have their invisible god mode removed while using annihilators!

WHY IS INVISIBLE GOD MODE WITH AUTOHIT WEAPONS THE MAIN COMBAT ISSUE I FACE WHEN DEFENDING BASES!!!!! It's just not acceptable from a gameplay perspective. Not at all. Invisible god mode enemies with autohit weapons are ususally my main tactical/strategic considerations and while this continues there is no way in hell dropping another dime into this game.

No way are they guaranteed kills. The are just a 50% hit rate and they hardly ever get you a kill. You will just be farming the 26 exp per hit and watching half of your shots hit the target just to be killed by it a second later. Infantry have options to do more damage with rockets but sacrifice the vesatility,..or you can go for half damage and more versatility. Personally I only use the anni for air targets and the Deci for the ground. Its alot harder to lock onto a ground target with so many things to break the lock passing between you and the target. Not to mention, who knows when an enemy infantry will pop up in front of you.

I dont know what they did to the anni's but it is alot harder to lock on now too. Moving ground targets are the worst now unless they are truly out in the open.