[Discussion] Balancing Vets and Newbies ESF Pilots, in a different approach.

Good day Auraxians,

• As many of you have already known, the balance for vets and newbie esf pilots has always been a thorn in Higby chair.

Everyone tried to do everything to make newbies more competitive and thus more survivable in the air.
They came up with A2A tomcat
they came up with coyote
they nerfed/buffed fuel pod
all of which increase the potential of newbie pilots destroying aces.
which none of them makes the situation better.

• So, here i am, proposing this solution that'll possibly solve the problem.

By increasing the top speed / roll yaw of ESFs.

• Currently the factor that cause the gap between aces and newbies is the time frame in which pilots can stay in the air.

Newbies dies within minutes or even seconds when meet with other pilots, causing them to have 0 chance to practice in the air.
Aces survives the odds of 2 to 1 or even 3 to 1 and soar through the skies for HOURS and become even better.
In short, the bad become worse, the good becomes better.

• However, with the increase of top speed / roll yaw of ESFs, newbie pilots can escape with higher chance of survival, making ace pilots harder to keep target on them because ESF movement changes more rapidly.

Some might argue that it'll be harder for newbies to kill aces. True, but the problem right now is newbies are dying too fast, why are you even thinking of killing when you cant even live long enough to kill ?

• Not only that, due to how the game works currently, there are problem in which infantries aren't render fast enough if ESF goes too fast. I wouldn't consider this a downside because this will make esf to focus more on vehicles / libs / gals which begin render alot further, thus effectively reducing the amount of lol-podding to infantries, also make esf pilots side tracking less, and perform their intended role, vehicular deterrence.
• This also solve the problem of ESF being a non-factor in big fights due to how fragile they are to ALL sorts of damage source. Being able to swoop in and out quicker means shorter time frame exposing to enemy fire, despite causing little damage to the fights, but at least now they're able to help rather than helplessly looking at 48+ vs 48+, 3 hexes away unable to do anything.
• That is why i firmly believe increasing Top speed + roll yaw of esf is a good solution to all of SOE's concern to elite / newbie pilots, esf non-factor to large fights, low flight time of newbie esf pilot and low population of esf pilots in a server.

Tell me what you think.

• TL;DR : Increasing Top speed + roll yaw of ESF will close the gap between ace and newbies, eliminating non-factor of esf in big fights, increase survivability of newbies along with their flight time, and lower the entry level to air.
• TL;DR inner thoughts: Give me 300 kph cruise speed esf kthxbai.

Waterson VS Pilot - NeverWas, Signing out.

There's a new plan to help newbie pilots, look at the road map: automatic population-driven continent lock. This way, it ensures bad pilots don't get to learn on empty continents against pilots as bad as them, learning all those bad habits and stuff. They'll be able to enjoy the BR100 filled skies above 24-48 battles straight away!

and crash by elites the very instance they spawn their esf from the terminal ?

There's one small flaw in your plan to give newbies better speed an maneuverability to escape aces... Aces will have the exact same increase. And the skill to use it better.

though not much, but there'll be impact to their accuracy now that you have to aim at a target who's flying faster , turn faster , able to move around obstacles faster.

there's a limit to how fast a player can react to these movements, my solutions were making ESF fly so fast the aces will have to work harder to get the newbies.

Proposition;
Reduced timer and cost for ESFs based on kills.

0-100 Kills - 100% Reduction. Unlimited Time in the Air. Die all day.
101-200 Kills - 75% Reduction. Functionally Unlimited Time in the Air. Die most of the day.
201-300 Kills - 50% Reduction. Potentially Unlimited Time in the Air. Die frequently today.
301-400 Kills - 25% Reduction. Have you still not figured out flying yet?
401-Infinity Kills - 0% Reduction. Really?

The lag seems to give free kills to new pilots. Especially since the last person to peck at you gets the credit when you freeze up and smash into a tree.

Just need the new resource/vehicle system imo, or reduce CD in the interim.

New pilots get in, fail, punished with a 15 minute wait while papa nanite shakes his head and shooes him off so he can get his ESF sorted again. "Go do something else" basically.
So in 15 minutes he can try again, get blown up instantly, and start wondering why he even bothers in the first place. Why not just do the other things he does while waiting for the ESF to come back, they're certainly more fun.

5 minute CD or so won't adversely affect anyone. Aces are already have their CD reduced to nearly nothing (f not nothing) and this will give newbs a far less punishing experience. AA is in a good place for ESF's too, so filling the skies with newbies isn't something I would fear much either.

The best way to encourage new players to fly ESF is to make new ESF easier to spawn.
Make vehicle time spawn inversely proportional to number of certs put into it. More powerful versions of same vehicle should be more expensive to spawn.

There's only 1 real way to become competitive in a high skill game - and that is to practice. Removing skilled gameplay is wrong approach. All these lock-on missile gimmicks do more harm than good

I don't think so. I die a lot for lock-ons, ground and air, but I die more for ganks. I fly for objectives, 99% of the other players don't. They fly for PVP, for feel special or something, I don't know, and there is where new air players are harmed: they are hunted, every air unity is by these players who only seek for the 1v1 macro-movement fight, which they try call "dogfight".

The game give incentives for this kind of behavior, for the grind. The new air player can't take his/her air unity and say "ok, let's help my faction" because: nobody on the air is doing this, they are hunting, and a new air player can't hunt; there's no objective groups of air unities where he/she can blend and do something usefull, because everyone is hunting the PVP in the air or farming the ground.

Not rare when I see an air enemy unity hurting my army and try do something to die for 2+ enemies, alone, and when I look for allies, they aren't even close to the objective base, or they are too concerned farming ground, to die in sequence for the same ganks squad who put me down. Or when Im looking for a battle where I can help to die, on my territory, for a gank squad, who aren't even close tomtheir territory (like the day when I died for 3 Reavers on the extreme border of TR x VS).

So the problem isn't the "time", is the lack of objective, the lack of support, and for this reason I wish see more and more tech weapons instead the stupid nosegun "dogfight", which is nothing more that a macro movement repetition.

I like this idea, however I would say the afterburner pods should just be standard on all ESFs.

Let's start with allowing new pilots to rebind the mouse to the up/down/left/right turning thing instead of up/down/roll either side thing.

Free taxi...

I think the benefits to aspiring pilots outweighs the potential abuses. Plus, even people using it as a free taxi would eventually accidentally get kills in it.

idk, aircraft is always will be sweet tool for masters, the only thing you can do - buff g2a weapons, so noobs will learn to avoid infantry farm, and will try to dogfight.

People would intentionally not get kills lol, unlimited engie mine rush in an ESF + ejector seat.

That sounds like free certs for me, given I don't leave my Sundies undefended and have my repair tool maxed to disarm mines.

the difference between an ESF with a chasis and without is fairly huge. I think one of the best things you could do for newbs is to have something in every suit, defence, utility, and performance slot by default.

Why not just do a major buff to ext. afterburner? Newbies without lolpods could disengage ESFs not oriented to A2A.

So what's the point of having a tricked out rig that you put hundreds of hours into just to have a newb rig perform the same or better.

You guys just don't get it. STOP catering to the new player base and start rewarding your vets. If you don't know the tactics of Sony here they are.

Step 1) Introduce op weapon. Everyone buys it.

Step 2) Nerf said weapon into the ground.

Step 3) Introduce new op weapon, everyone buys it.

This is how f2p games make money.

What's killing this game is vets leaving, nothing else.