I'll Finally Admit it: AA is out of control.

It's time to see some toning of AA. It's too strong, too accessible, and it can't be countered. AA is where was in beta at this point, all in the name of poor base design and the once overpowered lib.

I hate how AA can sit behind enemy lines where it's safe and just pepper aircraft at range all day. I can make 15 passes in a MAX to chip aways its health, but it doesn't matter unless I kill every engineer and medic along with him. What's the point?

MAXes in particular do too much damage and have too much range. By the time you realize you're being shot by a decent MAX user in an ESF, you will escape at 1/2 half. If there are more than 1 AA sources, it's just compounding.

AA also outscales aircraft. Bring 4 libs to fight 4 equally skilled AA MAXes and the MAXes will win. On the subject of libs, they completely lack countermeasures against flak and lockon AA. They are massive targets that are near impossible to miss even at distance. Their weapons have been gutted, and they can't even think about taking part in anything other than small fights.

The state of air in this game is a mess, and the last thing MAXes need is a buff in any shape/form/fashion which will be happening next patch. That applies for infantry-based MAX units as well.

inb4 bads that have no idea how to fly claim air is OP and use stupid buzzwords like "lolpods"

"AA is too powerful"

- Rocketpod pilot
Go away.

The best way for them to do it is, if you can't see them, they can't see you. Which is the problem right now in aircraft. I've been peppered by AA that I can't see, have HA's with lock on rockets I can't see, ground fire I can't see. I personally don't have a problem with the AA and lock on, but I would like to be able to see what is shooting me.

The massive range is a major issue, especially for the larger aircrafts, they get sniped by invisible enemies far behind enemy lines or even better, other bases your not actually fighting in.

ESFs are the only aircraft really viable and thats a part of the issue right now.

You shouldn't be able to just overpower AA with your aircraft, and it sounds like that's what you're trying to do and fail at (why exactly are you wasting your time on a single MAX again? He traded his ability to fight literally anything else to make short work of you and yet you're throwing yourself, the one thing he can and will wreck, at him repeatedly). It wouldn't be very good AA if aircraft could flatten them with sheer force regardless. The idea is that your ground buddies are supposed to thin the turrets and maxes out with shells (and you do have ground buddies right? Not just flying deep into enemy territory alone and getting gibbed then complaining about it right?) and subsequently you focus on crowds of infantry, tucked away armour and stuff like that.

They should increase flight ceiling by 500 meters.

But planes being able to ignore AA and rolflestomp everything was ****** in November-Jan and it would be ****** if reintroduced one way or another.

the only problem is duel burster maxes doing too much damage for all there advantages they have. skyguards are still a rare thing.

Says a terrible pilot. You wouldn't understand.

That wouldn't really accomplish anything. The fight doesn't matter at 1500m. But I guess it would be helpful for transportation.

Tss rocket poders are out of control. Get skills and play on the ground.

Except to those who just want to dogfight

It would give air a space in which they would be next to impossible to hit with flak.

you want to bomb/strafe someone though, contending with flak is the price of doing business.

I hold my own quite well on the ground thanks.

is this trolling or something?

if it is you're trying too hard.

if it's not...well, i guess you get the generic bad pilot response.

stop flying in a straight line, got play world of warplanes, blah blah etc.

This is your issue right here.

Pro pilots just keep knocking the newbs right out of the air, and rarely engaged each other before AA got buffed. Lock on missiles are a joke, because what pilot doesn't pack flares then proceeds to run circles around the newb while nailing them with inhuman accuracy.

If I could mount kobalts in place of the rocket pods, and they all fired at once, possibly in tandem with my main gun, and speed upgrades/physics upgrades that allow boom and zoom maneuvers actually amounted to something, THEN I might try dog fighting again. Until then, hover spec rocket spam is the way to go. It's the ONLY way to go. It's the only thing that works for newbs and experienced pilots alike, even if the latter group gets much more mileage out of it.

The cert trees seem to indicate SOE wanted pilots to take their pick of boom and zoom, turn and burn, or VTOL/chopper, but in the end, only the chopper setup is worth a damn. The other two are just slightly more nimble/faster versions of said chopper.

Additionally, there's very little reason to even FLY so high that flak is irrelevant. Liberators could stand to use traditional high explosive bombs to compensate for the whole "can't see/render $#!% to shoot" issue. We might see fighter escorts and counter sorties if a lib becomes a problem. Bases situated in the sky might be a good method as well (galaxy drop ship center as a floating carrier, imagine that possibility.)

Basically, until SOE can make aircraft FUN outside of ground pounding with dog fighting territory no longer solely for the experts with hours under their belt, AA needs to remain the force of reckoning it is. Pilots are still decimating ground forces on the onset by the way. No one pulls AA until aircraft are a problem, because AA is useless at engaging anything else.

You're right. I am a terrible pilot.

Yet I can't remember the last time AA killed me. I have had no problems avoiding being killed by it.

That's why I have pushed for the nerf of burster max's and buffing of the sky guard. In the current form the burster has so few cons it is quite literally leeps and bounds better then the sky guard. If we switch the effectiveness of the two pilots will be able to see what is engaging them and have a fair chance to kill it without fear of it being rezed.

And for Libs they have been abused so much over the past few months. They should get a large buff to resistance to ground based fire. But at the same time Buff the A2A ESF which in turn will counter any Lib or A2G ESF in the area. Here are some older post with more detailed info on my ideas on how to fairly balance the air and AA situation.
http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/a-re-balance-of-the-current-state-of-aa.116316/

http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/adjust-the-versatility-of-esf.116325/

It has to do with render distance. Air has really messed up render distance right now and I don't know if it's for performance reasons or balance reasons. AA can see you about twice the distance away or more before you can see it or any other targets viable for shooting at. You can fly your lib above the lockon height, but you can't see anything to shoot at from there. I'd like to AT LEAST be able to see other ESFs from a reasonable distance, but that render distance seems screwed as well, just about only Galaxies seem to render from a great distance away.

A2G is really weak obviously, but strict A2A is actually not that bad right now. You can act the part of an interceptor without too much hassle, and it's the role I'm beginning to like myself more because of it. Only problem is you engage a fight with an ESF or Lib and then all of a sudden out of nowhere flak and lockons show up and you have to disengage even though you weren't bothering anyone on the ground. So there's even ways to **** that bed too if you aren't careful.

Aww poor baby can't hover above an area and rocket pod it over and over! You actually HAVE to get other ESF's with you to do damage! So basically you're saying "Nerf AA because I can't kill an AA max and his infantry support solo". Go away

...
Oh.. you were serious?