Lock-on missiles have negative influence on gaming experience

They have been complained about since forever, and infantry don't need AA weapons that can be used for anything but close in point defence.

Better protection are from maxes and sky guards and those should be the only real lethal counters to air other than air. Only time lock ons should ever kill really is if the aircraft it's dumb enough to stick around to get hit 4-5 times.

250 metres should be the absolute limit on range for g2a lock ons and require the user to maintain said lock.

250m is well within spitting distance for any aircraft.

MAXes and Skyguards both cost resources (more than an ESF in fact), resources an underpopped/warpgated faction cannot rely on having aviable.

So no more means to hold off a vehicle zerg if you're warpgated / spawn camped. Reminds me of Nov. '12 somehow...

...Which means lock-ons need a range nerf to 300 meters and infantry rendering for vehicles needs to be improved.

It does not mean that the weapons need removal.

*waits for the " infantry are so small when they render at 300m I can't hit them they need a range nerf " *

naw, id just let libs zepher them then. their intended role and all.

I honestly don't know what to do any more. That's all that this boils down to, isn't it?

I don't know a single person who relies on a MANPADS to kill enemy ESFs... or any aircraft for that matter. It's just wholly inferior to flak in a 1v1.

I DO know a lot of people (myself included) who, If we don't know what to do with ourselves, whip out a Lock-on during a major fight, stand on top of a tower, and take pot-shots at passing vehicles and planes. But never expect to kill anything when I do that.


I can totally understand how a full platoon of coordinated heavies with lock-ons could be frustrating to face, but why are you expecting to win against 50 hard counters? It's like they expect to loiter over an active combat zone and expect to be untouched...

But you are maybe more balanced and sensible .. Something that seems to be lacking in this thread ..

I'm all for air and vehicles being stronger and maybe even buffed, but those buffs should come at a price of removal or nerf of some of the more easy mode options .. Such as auto repair, huge radar range, being able to park behind a tree and just repair etc etc

Thanks, I try to keep my bias out of it as much as I can and look at what is good for the game, I have a history of alpha testing that has gotten me to this point, also unfortunately the last part of the red goes for both sides, and its when a ground player goes off the deepend I get very annoyed and make angry posts =x.

I don't agree with the last part fully, mainly your examples of stuff that would be nerfed for air to become more powerful as some of them are things I make great use of while killing air for you (since you are connery NC and all). Air does not really have any Ez mode stuff left other than A2AM as RPs have been nerfed quite hard, but I have loved the idea of HE and AP rocketpods.

People have always cared, but pilots have long accepted that we are the smallest and most nerfed aspect of the game. Hell it is just another challenge to our already annoying game play we deal with every time we log on. Infantry being able to reach out and touch vehicles of any kind and be safe from any kind of return fire has been broken since day one. I am all for them having their little fire and forget toys but atleast make them be within render distance so I may defend myself.

Infantry shouldn't be hard countering vehicles, they are free.

Yeah, but because there are so many Lock-Ons, pilots have to take Flares to fly longer than 30 secs.
Then every other option in the cert tree containing Flares can't used (Radar, Ejection, Fire Suppression).
Yay, fun.

*Personally, if I wasn't getting locked every 5 secs and didn't have to run Flares just to get from A to B, then I'd totally cert into Radar and be the resident AWACS!
Fire Suppression would be extremely useful too, to keep dogfights going that little bit longer.
One can dream I suppose...

So the cheapest aircraft in the game should be a terrifying god above the frightened masses?

Take a pin and carefully deflate that ego before it explodes.

The way aircraft are right now, they ain't even ******* close to a god. May as well be firing rocket pillows at your enemies...

How can you complain about lock ons, unless you are a ******* terrible pilot there is no reason as to why you cant escape or at least take the hit and fly off to recover.

In no way am i a brilliant pilot but i'm smart enough to realise if i keep getting targeted by lock ons to just move to another area.. The only people who complain are obviously cannon fodder.

I like all this AA vs ESF raging threads. Been there back in beta, saw the problem, posted it here. Nothing changed.

The real issue is that rocketpods are too effective A2G weapon. And because they are so effective, AA is made very strong, effectively turning ESF's into glass cannons, all the wile screwing over Liberators that are supposed to be A2G kings, but are just sad peasants that die because AA looked at them. 2 ESF with rocketpods has WAY more A2G power than undermanned 2 man Lib. And they are faster. And they can engage multiple targets at once. And they don't require teamwork.

If ESF A2G capability was reduced (severly, for example by allowing ESF to only carry ONE salvo) then the AA could be toned down, reducing the stupid low TTK everything has on everything. As a side effect Libereator are again useful in bigger battles for things other then making a straferun at the very render distance then running back for repairs/exploding.

[EDIT]
data supporting my thesis:

two of players from current leaderbords (can't be arsed to check others). half their kills is rocketpods. (bear in mind killboards change as time progresses so what i am seing now is not what you'll see
https://players.planetside2.com/#!/5428010618035589553/killboard
https://players.planetside2.com/#!/5428019223852978081/killboard

lol, 170k kills with mossy:
https://players.planetside2.com/#!/5428010618035589553/vehicles

yeah, ESF so useless.

Yes because moving to a different area is totally valid when you are a team based player and work with your outfit. There is somthing wrong when the main 'counter' is "just go away"

your evidence is not that good to be honest, you quoted 2 players who have more time in the air than a majority of the players in this game have played. They could probably do the same thing with any weapon they choose...

A2G rockets have been the single most nerfed thing in this game, they are far from OP at this point.

The only reason that they do better than libs is not because the lib's weapons are bad, but because the crazy amount of AA and the paper thin armor they have mixed with the lack of speed making them very easy to hit with their huge hit box.

although at this point, if it takes removing rocket pods to make the infantry scrubs happy, then I will take it.

TLR. Lock ons are not going anywhere.

That's your outfits fault then if they are just letting you get shot down. I would say 1/20 of lock ons actually hit me and its not hard to find out where people are firing from. Im not a good pilot and i don't complain, so you're clearly doing something very wrong..

So its my outfit's fault for not killing every HA and spawn camping them? yes your not a good pilot but that is why you don't complain, I can do nothing wrong and still come under constant fire from G2A unless I stay out of the battle... 500m range is just way to much, 45% damage is way to much and fire and forget is way to much for how the current lock on weapons work.

Please come back with a real argument as you have none, just ad hominins of attacking the poster.