Stryker and Vulcan TR air Dominance = Dead Air Game

Pilot here, I've flown behind buildings / terrain and counted to 5-10 ish and then you get the thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk of the strikers hitting. They are flying through terrain.

not everyone knows how the new vulcan can own ESF and libs. and i hear a lot of people are turned off by the fact it costs 1k certs

If you think the Vulcan is bad then you have never been shot by the main gun of a Vanguard.

Sure they don't bypass terrain? Because that's how it looks on my screen. Missiles doing weird maneuvers to dodge obstacles and such. Never seen a missile actually going through solid objects. You've got a limited fov in a plane, so how do you know how the missiles travel unless you're charging right towards the Striker guy in 3rd person?

There is a direction marker for where the missles are hitting from. Usually when I get hit my bugged strikers there is no longer a model representation of them, they just deliver damage without the sound of a missle flying or a model. Also a few times Ive gone under large rocks on the south of indar and the hit marker is on the front of my aircraft which is right up against rocks. The only way to get there would be to fly around and in from behind or to stop clipping and fly straight on through.

Either way, if the infantry are going to start getting smart missles that can clip through terrain, then where are my smart bombs that clip through buildings? ( Sarcasm there SOE, please do not do that ..)

If you are flying, the first thing you should be doing is looking for enemy armor on your descent. If you see it and you still stand still, you get what's coming to you. I get it plenty because I'm a hard-headed scrub. Take your lumps and try again.

If you're in a liberator and you get mangled by a vulcan, you should have never flown that low. What were you thinking?

We can have the striker conversation all day (what, we've already been having it for several months now???) but here it is:

They gave everyone unique faction specific launchers. Ours happened to be the only lock-on. Hence the extra lock-ons when battling TR. Undoubtedly, the skies were much more clear for our faction to fly sans flares because we were getting the least amount of tracking missiles being fired at us. But that's on you, isn't it? No one told you that you had to buy a ESL and leave it equipped forever. You used to have to buy 2 separate launchers for air or ground or a nerfed one that did both. You still have those options on the table, and it's no wonder that the wiser players explore those options when the situation dictates. Personally, I'd much rather have the camera-guided rocket that can totally ignore LOS issues and switch to annihilators when it's necessary. But I don't, so I cope.

To NC and VS's benefit, they now have air superiority bonuses and if you've read SNAFU's post, you'd know that our entire faction is feeling a little different these days about simply putting on nano-regen with fire suppression on our ESFs.

EDIT: And no, strikers and the rest of the lock-on launchers don't clip through terrain anymore. They do, however, perform insane correction maneuvers if you're firing them when you're breaking LOS.

Blows my mind that TR can continue to hide behind the 'It only works within 50m' argument when they've had such a huge buff to range. It's like when VS were still complaining about their MAX post-buff pre-ZOE.

I'll grant that using it on an ESF is a challenge outside of 150m, but it's still effective. A few Prowlers with Vulcans can easily deny air within 200m just via focused fire.

The real problem with it is that it has such high damage per bullet that the whole leading mechanic vs client-side hit recog means that all deaths to Vulcans in an ESF just feel cheap. It's not a problem. I maybe die to one once in a whole day of flying, but it still feels silly, and immensely imbalanced compared to the chances of killing an ESF with the Saron or Enforcer.



On a more connected note to the Striker + Vulcan complaint, I would like to point out that there's a huge issue with the knee-jerk reactions. Vulcans are only effective in close range, so everyone states it's simple, don't hug the ground fighting TR. Well, great, so I'll maintain elevation so they can't instakill me at 50m altitude. Now what happens? I'm 10 times easier to lock onto with the Striker. The response to getting shot with Strikers so much? Hug the ground more and use cover... -_-

I'm not sure any other element in game has two such complimentary counters (especially bearing in mind that neither the Vulcan nor the Striker is a dedicated AA weapon).

No, you just hear that from me, Walls.

As for the Striker thing, it happens with all lockons. I've been locked on the north side of Quartz Ridge (just), flown full AB to Hvar, landed on the south side and THEN got the hit. I thought me and a friend had it worked out that it was a lag compensation issue (like the Pheonix going straight up before hitting you) but I may be wrong.

*starts slow clap* Bravo sir....just...Bravo. Could not have said it better.

couldn't agree more.

for now there has totally no counter to striker lock-ons other than flare, you cant go between mountains, you cant do smart manuevers to dodge the missile, nor can you mess with the missile prediction system anymore, just flares, and that only works for 50% of the time.

what makes it worse is that 1 volley of striker takes out 75% of an esf health, what that means is 1 volley of striker + small arms fire (10~20 bullets) or to make it sound better for the TR, 5 vulcan bullets, easily achievable from 200m, and your flying career is done for the next 20 minutes.

that's basically how unfair it is to fly in TR air space.

Yes, hug the ground and use cover. Though hugging the ground =/= hovering like a complete moron. Or flying at MBT speed. A Vulcan ain't going to kill you if you're just passing an area at reasonable speeds. Not even two of em. Quit those fairy tales people. Vulcan is a non issue for any sane pilot.

This has got to be one of the worst crying posts I have read in a while. Within your own post you cry repeatedly that you can't lone wolf in an ESF and that unless you're flying with a group then it is too difficult.

Newsflash: Good pilots have known this for a while!

The problem is not the other factions' weapons, it's you. If you can't fly well then don't fly, spare the rest of us your tears.

All factions have lock ons I don't understand why only TR should be nerfed?
Is it because you can't farm them easy?

I was reading a tank/c4 post the other day so let me give you some advice I picked up from the forums.

If you die in a plane to vulcan you are garbage and have no situational awarness, instagibbing vehicles is fine because its your fault.

No, the rockets can turn 90 degrees instantly allowing them get behind the terrain you hid behind (This applies to all lock-ons but is far more noticeable with the striker), it only appears to go through because of the game's netcode.

Yeah, what kind of idiot lib pilot tries to drop altitude to break striker locks and lockdown burster line of sight

Must start learning to play, nothing wrong with lock ons, lol

Decimator kills 13 vehicles per hour. .
Phoenix kills 12.7 vehicles per hour.
Striker and Lancer kill 11.



Not calling for nerfs, but on basis of those numbers per hour

Lancer is 12th with 11.
Stiker is 10th over all with 7.
Phoenix 2nd dirt naps 15.
Decimator 1st gets 18 kills per hour.


Striker has to compete with terrain/flares/smoke/other vehicles within the cross hair/allies/stealth and has to land the rockets to do the damage and EVEN then FS can save the day of any previously undamaged ESF long enough for it to go get repairs.

You get killed by a Vulcan when you are flying like a moron.

I fly as both NC and VS and have yet to die to a Striker. I've been shot down as far as TR weaponry goes, by a Grounder. Other than that the dangers of other air outweighs still anything coming from the ground if you don't fly like an idiot IMHO.

IMO also, we should do away with forums and make everyone have to play the dadgum game without being able to clutch onto the heels of the programmers every time they get an owie.

I can't comment on strikers since I play TR and don't really bother to use them, however you do realise that the vulcan is only deadly effective if your flying low, slow and in a straight line. So what should we do if we don't like being killed by the big nasty chaingun? That's right actually fly our airplanes. Seriously every person I've taken out with the vulcan in an AA situation has been flying like they were worrying about the comfort of their passengers ... on board a single man fighter.