Can a developer post if there is any changes coming to the air game? At the moment I don't find it very fun. As NC I understand that I'm already the underdog as we get camped by mosquitos at our main spawn all the time (never seen reavers camp the same way when I play TR). That should give you an idea about balance. Get rekt by the same "elite" guy over and over while he has amazing handling and pin point accuracy. Wondering here if we are both using same controllers. Is the developer vision to leave air game as is? I find right now its only open for the 5% out there. How about revamping the way keyboard and mouse controls work so its easier to fly? without having to change mouse dpi or getting a controller for better flying? Be nice to get a reply cause I don't really feel like spending certs into it if it will take me a year to be able to play it properly.
Believe me, Scythes and Reavers camp the same. The biggest mistake many soldiers do is to wait to roll Skyguards until the moment they are pounded by lolpods. I ALWAYS have my Skyguard ready and I love to nake A2G farmers cry. What needs to be changed is Liberator and Valkyrie.
they're currently changing air, though as NC you'll hate it even more. Air-hammer is getting a hefty nerf and TR and VS are getting Vortek equivalents. after that reaver will just be a flying brick.
As DeadlyOmen said. Work with at least one other person, and always remember, those guys who shoot you down in an instant or pros. They have thousands of hours. As you're learning to fly, you will get shot down a lot. Both by amateurs and the pros. Just breath, and try again, learning from your mistakes. Practice the Reverse Maneuver in VR as well. I am only mediocre at the RM, and it is the main reason I die to the pros, as they can out RM me. Once you get that down, you will be in the decent pilot game. Where only the Pros will regularly destroy you. You will be able to do the same to less skilled pilots, too. The airgame takes a lot of patience and practice to get into, but once you are in, it can be the most fun you'll have in the game. Between the unique handling of aircraft in this game, to the hate tells you receive from people you shot down or killed on the ground. It is incredibly satisfying. Another point is that the community of regular pilots is fairly small on each server. I can list pretty much every regular and pro pilot on Briggs, because I see them so often, I shoot them down, or in the case of Senpi and Kaotic, they shoot me down. Like seriously. Senpi regularly goes up against Mozzie gank squads and wins. One day, you too, will be able to do that. Also... camping happens to every faction. You just notice it more when it happens to you. ;P Unless you're on Briggs. Where most of the population is in each faction's zerg.
What this guy is getting at is "the air-game isn't fun for the average player". Bringing a friend instantly requires communication and teamwork, otherwise "bringing a friend" just results in "one extra burning wreckage". The air-game needs improvement so that the average player can enjoy it. Now I'm waiting for all those crybabies that instantly scream "but now I can't dominate the average player anymore!", except that you would still be able too. It would just be a bit harder because there would be more people in the air.
"Air Game" is kind of a nebulous term, does that put vehicles and infantry as "ground game"? Are we combining Gal, Lib, Valk, ESF, regardless of their individual roles at the time? Ever gone out w/gf on the guns of your true battle gal...lol. I have a friend that is super skilled at esf kamikaze, but bails at last second, quite often to his incredible laughter and survival. If your talking about just being an ESF skygod, I don't think being god really is a casual thing. There are times and situations, that some tactics just don't work well, regardless, you've both seen and experienced this in game. Imho, the real reason some folks became so good, especially in esf's and libs, is that it IS really fun. But it is usually an abrupt wake-up call when you pull first few aircraft, especially esf. "Air" is kinda universally hated, except perhaps by other air, and those that really like to hunt air. Most newer players don't go out and get a big kill streak with their very first anything in this game, ofc. War is ..... You CAN be casual, AND get into the air game...but should have casual expectations. If you want to go out and duel the aces on your server in esf's, that's different because they aren't casual, not really. There are inumerable youtube vids about all aspects of this game, it's amazing really. But air combat isn't all about the reverse maneuver, key/mouse bindings, or appropriateness of your weapons and abilities for that engagement, or tactics, or position, or support, targets,etc... often it's quite a few of them together, while suspended and moving in the air...well, not just the casual explode. There are actually those in game that can't be bothered with sensitivity settings, or perhaps just have seriously ****** mouse, or will never re-map key or mouse buttons...and if you have not re-mapped your exit vehicle key, even after falling to your death from esf doing so...lol. I can't tell you how many libs and esf's, that I have gotten the kill when pilots and gunners casually eject from them. These are all the keys/mouse buttons that I have remapped...analog throtttle, exit vehicle, spot enemy, pitch up, pitch down, change camera, cockpit free look, roll left, roll right, squad chat...also removed mapping on left Alt "free mouse cursor". Is that casual? Probly not, but if you haven't casually done any of these things yet, you casually could if wanted. Flying an esf in ps2 is actually most fun vehicle, for me, of any vehicle any game, ever. They are simply fun to fly, not matter if NC, TR, or VS. From what I have experienced, and seen, if you really like flying, you'll continue and get better...but isn't everyone's cup of tea ofc. A decent mouse, customized consistent settings and bindings....I honestly don't think that's beyond "casual" in today's gaming world, and I'm an old fart.
If you want feedback from a Dev, you have to post on PS2 Reddit. The Devs read and post there. Devs do not post except warnings and 1-way announcements. https://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/ Wrel (a Dev) posted the following proposed upcoming changes to Air: https://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/4ket2p/air_15b_currently_on_pts/ These changes will likely make the Air2Air game even harder for new and lower skill Air Players: * nerfing the A2A Missiles vs. ESFs hurts because pre-nerf the lower skilled ESF players could gang up with A2AM and take out a solo Ace ESF pilot. (they spread out and when the Ace engages 1 of them, the rest use their distance and the easier aim of the A2AM to get guranteed damage, instead of shooting and missing with the Nosegun) * buffing Composite Armor vs. ESF Noseguns because the main method to kill ESFs is being pushed to be Nosegun. Your Nosegun time-to-kill will be: 1) weapon ttk if 100% accurate [including any reloads needed: better Max Cert that Mag or you're hosed] 2) multiplied by 100/<your % accuracy> (new or low skill ESF pilot... you're accuracy is gonna be low vs. an Ace, and an Ace's accuracy is going to be high vs. new and low skill ESFs) 3) multiplied by 100/90 for (Max Certed) Composite Armor damage mitigation So, if 1 Mag kills at 100% Accuracy then... For Ace (accuracy of say 70%) = 1.43 Mags. Then mitigated by composite armor = 1.59 Mags. So their ttk is slowed by 1.59 Mag time-to-empty and 1 reload. For Your (accuracy of say 30%) = 3.33 Mags. Then mitigated by composite armor = 3.7 Mags. So Your ttk is slowed by Mag time-to-empty 3.7 Mags and 3 reloads. New Players are really hosed because they won't have Max Mag. Their Mag is 14% smaller, so they will need 1.17 Mags to kill. For New Player (accuracy of say 30%) = 3.9Mags. Then mitigated by composite armor = 4.34 Mags. So New Player ttk is slowed by Mag time-to-empty 4.34 Mags and 4 reloads. And that's just Aim... Aim only matters when you can get the crosshair onto the target. So you still have to factor in time for ESF movement control skill to get the target into the crosshair. Then the ability to keep it on target before the target breaks your crosshair and causes you to have to reposition to get target back into crosshair.... "trigger time". I think you can attest that Aces have a much faster acquirement of trigger time, can stay on target longer with trigger time, and can re-acquire trigger time faster. ... now factor in Fire Suppression HP recovery, and the ttk time difference between low and high skill players grows exponentially still more. This is one of PS2's main power creep problems: stacking TTK Slowers that combine to make ttk (1) absurdly slow (and exponentially slower for slower ttk weapons), and (2) performance based more on Aim, Dodge, and use and execution prowess of "K-Style GunZ" tricks... and less on strategy and careful play. The current game literally has player performance that is less based on strategy and careful gameplay than it did at launch... and by a very large amount. I find this a big step in the wrong direction. NOTE: someone check my maths please.
"Air game" should entail everything that has to do with aircraft: From the A2A combat to the way they engage helpless infantry or tanks to the way they interact with G2A weapons. After all, if we had a 100% pure A2G aircraft that couldn't equip A2A we can't just assume it's only contribution to the air game is being shot down do we? And It's entire purpose is to, from the air, shoot things on the ground. It's air game, interacting with ground game. It is fun... For a select few people who put in the time, training and put up with the losses (if they don't get trained by a fellow player somewhere safe). But it can be both fun for these few people and for all the average players who want to enjoy it without being forced to train for hours on end just to be capable of enjoying the air game. This is where you go horribly wrong. You can be casual and enjoy the infantry game. You can be casual and enjoy the tank game. You can get into the ground game (it's kinda straightforwards), and even against the very best top-notch super-players you don't necessarily have to be stomped into the ground every time. The likelyhood of you losing against someone who is top of the game is incredibly high ofcourse, but it does not mean they are practically guaranteed to curbstomp you every time until you've put in hours and hours of playtime into it. Why should the air-game be different? It's as if the entire air-game was made for an entirely different (and narrow) audience in an entirely different game, but accidentally ended up in PS2 with over-the-top weapons and mechanics. No, some of it is about looking around. The other 90% is hover-fighting and RM, the rest is tertiary to all that (yes I'm passing over secondary because RM and hover fighting form the primary and secondary part of the air-game). And "appropriateness of your weapons"? Aircraft are the best multi-role weapons in the game that sacrifice the least when they switch weapons from an AI to AA or AV or keep their afterburners. Sure they sacrifice something, and sure you are at a disadvantage in A2A when you take less afterburn fuel with you (because again, it's about the RM and hover-fighting. Why else would afterburn even be considered as the primary A2A loadout) but compared to, say, a Skyguard, you sacrifice far more power. Or look at an AP canon and an HE/AI canon. The AI canons will sacrifice far more power (especially considering the weapon-specific damage reductions adding several % of difference between the AP and HE canon), and the ground-game AI canon's can't even damage other vehicles... But the air-mounted AI canon's can! Look at the Canister vs the Air-hammer! Look at the Rocketpods, which are the pinnacle of no-skill AOE spam compared to HE canon's! The differences are massive! And it's not as if the AI-oriented rocketpod is bad against vehicles, on the contrary! It's pretty good! You should never, ever, have to remap or change mouse sensitivity settings just to compete. This is exactly why the air-game is a world apart from the ground-game and the worse for it. Casual players will never be able to enjoy it this way. The air-game could easily work for casuals and give pro's a wider and more intricate learning curve (higher skill ceiling lower skill floor! The best of two worlds!) without requiring re-mapping of keys, I've proposed solutions several times already. Yes, because the casual, who does not yet know what is required to compete in the air-game, will casually have to do research on what buttons he needs to remap and where, casually make a choice on the different remaps available based on casual research on what the hell he's supposed to do to compete in the air just to casually understand what the remaps are supposed to do for him. Remapping of keys should be done to achieve the highest skill levels, and absolutely not just to be capable of starting with the air-game. You provide all the evidence of how terribly warped and badly designed the air-game actually is. If you actually have to remap half a dozen keys just to compete you know the entire design is flawed. Flying is fun, that's why just about every casual tries it dozens of times until they master it and don't crash within the first 2 minutes out of the warpgate. They quit when they find out how the A2A game can't be won and they don't know it's because they need to remap keys before they can learn in hour-long training sessions to just compete. You are asking casual players to learn top-player skills just to start up in the air-game. What's more these players encounter the G2A weapons and find out that the only real option is to either kill them first or flee. They can't use their magnificent maneuverability to dodge or to their advantage, they can either just rush them or afterburn out of there. That leaves neither their G2A engagements to be fun nor their A2A engagements. Then they leave. Solution: Revamp the air-game to make it casual friendly. This can be done through lowering the skill-floor and getting more people in the air. The skill ceiling can stay where it is no problem, but the power of a veteran vs a casual should be brought to the levels of a veteran in a vehicle/as infantry vs a casual: Sure they are most likely to win but the fight isn't over just when they meet. Even if the casual player can only really try to dodge and flee, at least the casual will be capable of doing something and potentially get away with his life, which is a much better outcome than "well I just met a skyknight, I'm dead no matter what I do". Additionally the A2G game needs a revamp. It's absolutely possible for the G2A game to function similar to how AV works: It's constantly there and constantly a threat to vehicles, but that's just part of the game and people deal with it anyway. "It isn't everyone's cup of tea ofc". Well you really want to point out every single flaw of the air-game don't you? The Vehicle game might be "not everyone's cup of tea" because they dislike it and they can do something else instead. But the problem with the air-game is that many people do like to fly in games, they just can't in PS2 because of the warped way you have to get into the air-game... Hours and hours of training and remapping half a dozen keys just to get started. That's bad, real bad design.
I need to add one thing: The change of coyote's might actually be the reason why this nosegun difference is a good thing for new players. Just think of it. A new player would be using Coyote's (assuming it's telegraphed loudly enough that these are the go-to option for A2A fights) to engage other ESF, and their nosegun to add some DPS while reloading. This already helps them learn to aim their nosegun better and how to engage, which is at least one part of the air-game they'll learn through casual play. Since the skyknights would be relying on noseguns they could equip composite armor and slow it down. If the casual somehow manages to dodge enough, his coyote's could even the fight somewhat. The higher the resistance against noseguns, the higher the chances are that the casual will be able to compete. Even if coyote's become the go-to A2A weapon and skyknights will start using that the casual has a larger chance since now the main source of damage is something he can easier use against the skyknight as well, not to mention the main features of hover fight and RM are reduced because the Skyknight would have coyote's instead of afterburner.
We'll have to see how the new Coyote shapes up. Stealth disruption removed is huge. But it's slower reload (4 seconds minimum) and has lower velocity (150 to 120; but reaches it faster). Striker is 220 (and is much easier for Low Skill Players to put Striker Crosshairs on ESFs than putting an ESF Crosshair on another ESF) and LPPA is 300... and both of them struggle vs. ESFs. They say they want Coyote to be a close in weapon... but how good are New and Low Skill Players at dictating range to Aces? Is Coyote the only hope then for New and Low Skill Players then for A2A vs. ESF Aces? A2AM was nerfed largely on the lobbying of Aces who didn't like a hard counter (via Gank Squads with A2AM) on them. Do you really think Wrell and the Ace Lobby are going to replace one hard counter with a solid different hard counter? The biggest problem is not the Vehicles, Weapons, or Certs. Those can all be tuned. The biggest problem is that the PS2 Devs are (mutual exclusively) reinforcing designs (or at least trying to) for and toward a game that favors a very small number of top players. As long as that remains, all these other problems will continue to manifest. And Wrel talks of using A2AM for Libs and Gals? Can you conceptualize that happening? Figure either it will be too good and Libs will freak out, or it will just be sitting ducks for Daltons. Nobody every claimed getting fired on by A2AM is fun, can't imagine it will make Lib players happy if it really is effective vs. them. And vs. Gals? C'mon. If it can't stop a Gal Drop, then you don't need more than a Nosegun anyway (unless it's an rare full crew Gal ESF farmer). And if it can stop a Gal Drop, then Hardcore Organized players are gonna FREAK OUT (they're still miffed that Population Caps makes them getting on the same Continent a royal pain... which I agree with them on there needing to be a better solution for Large Coop Groups). Coyote Projectile acceleration from 10 to 35 Projectile max velocity from 150 to 120 Reload speed cert line now increases reload speed by 0.5 seconds at max rank, down from 1 second at max rank Reload speed from 4sec. to 4.5sec. No longer affected by stealth (Previous PTS iteration gave Coyotes too much range, and felt far too much like a primary weapon with max rank reload speed. The reload speed adjustments keep the weapon feeling like a secondary, and the handling should feel better all around.)
I would like to see actual flight mechanics changed. ESFs gain maneuverability the more throttle they have (if any of you have played Elite Dangerous, like that), so if you try to hover duel the other ESF can just throttle up and fly circles around you). Then bring down the TTK of ESF vs ESF slightly so the tactic of luring other aircraft into AA nests is actually a thing (more combined arms).
Welp. We already have a vehicle that has a low skill floor and a high skill ceiling. It's called the Valkryie. Throw some direct attack weapons on there and we're good.
Mosquito landed next to my ANT for some reason. Maybe he/she didn't know ANT's can have a weapon. Lots of reasons for getting blown up.
Wow No, that's called skill-based gameplay. Casuals have plenty of tools (overpop, MAXs, tanks) to succeed in ground combat, we don't need air combat to be dominated by scrubs as well.
You have no idea what "balance", "well designed gameplay" and "killer players" are do you? Besides that, your "skill based" gameplay actually means "high-skill players should be immune to anyone of lower skill", which is bad for the game. You need to create a game for a certain audience. It's OK to have a part of the game dedicated to high-skill players, but that does not mean that these players should get an entire section of the game dedicated to them, and have that section work in such a way that these high-skill players can curbstomp anyone of lower skill in every single other section of the game, while making sure it's counters are completely worthless because they aren't fun for anyone to use or be used against you. And really your "wow" of surprise/making me look dumb is a terrible argument. Translation: "well we have one vehicle with a low skill floor and high skill ceiling, so why would we change all the other stuff even though it's terribly unbalanced this way"? And you really think that a Valkyrie that requires a ton of teamwork between 6 guys just to compete with single-player to 3-player vehicles is a good solution? Especially since that "low skill ceiling" is basically just as useless as the low skill-ceiling of ESF and Liberators: You'll do good against ground but you'll burn anyway when you meet any high-skill ESF?
Not from what I've seen. When one faction has overpop, it's usually reflected with a overpop in the sky as well. Players get frustrated when one faction has 10+ ESFs, 3-4 Liberators, and a few Gals all fighting to gank the hapless faction at a single base. Anyone foolish enough to pull a Skyguard or a Burster MAX will be instantly burned down.
Whoa thar chief. I'm just saying that the controls for the Valkyrie are much more intuitive, and the air-frame is both forgiving for new flyers, and quite versatile/powerful for skilled players. Its also a bit more durable, particularly in the area of colllisions and ground fire than an ESF (Once you learn the belly has secret armor panels installed). There are things you can make the Valk do that ESFs simply can't do very well, manuever wise. Its also very adept at close-quarters flying. Giving it some direct attack weapons, such as missiles, and boosting the turret weapons, maybe even throwing some mana turrets on the side could give it some powerful abilities to resist air attack while still letting people get experience flying.
