So what exactly is the job of an ESF?

I've now played 250hrs of PS2. I played every faction, I've played with every's faction ESF.
And I cannot find the hole that the ESF is supposed to fill.

The physics are fun, flying is fun. That's not the problem.

The problem is:
What are ESFs good at?
- Ground pounding? Hell no, got the Lib for that. Also couple of other options that are way better at that.
- Infantry killer? Nope, burster maxes and HA lock ons outzone you quite hard, every fly-by is a near suicide in big fights.
- Anti-Air? Not that one either, Liberator is more of a threat to me in my ESF as another enemy ESF. Skyguards (yeh, I know, nerfed, still pretty owwy), Burster Maxes and HAs with Lock-Ons also counter you pretty hard.
To avoid all this AA you have to fly low or very high. Draw distance sucks , even at highest settings so you can't see ****, also most of your weapons have bad fall-off. So flying low it is, but guess what: You're gonna get shot by tanks all day long.

What is an ESF pilot supposed to do? He cannot kill a MBT on his own, because he can't do enough damage, the tank will laugh at you. You can kill Liberators but it's pretty damn hard and you probably need some wingmen to do so. Galaxies are way to tanky, you shoot at them for ages before they blow up. Precision strikes? Again, got the Lib for that.

The only thing left to do is to go at infantry but they mostly hide in buildings or behind rocks (where they also usually hide lots of AA).
I spend a lot of my time in an ESF running away from enemy fire and/or rockets and doing pointless strafe runs that (when I'm lucky) kill one or two infantry guys with (that get revived instantly).

So, again, what is an ESF pilot supposed to do?

ESF are there so skyknights can stick around enemy warpgates and gank new pilots so they'll never learn to fly.
and to give me something to skywhale!

ESF work as Anti Infantry and Anti Air. The fact is you shouldn't expect to take down a Liberator all alone or hover above a big battle without consequences.

Anti-Air is not really a point, since there isn't much in the air besides ESFs, that an ESF can solo then. And Anti-Air for Anti-Air's sake? That's like saying: There's hamsters because hamsters are hamsters and need to kill other hamsters. That's redundant.

Anti-Infantry, I can see that but, like I said, they hide in buildings, Lock-On your *** and laugh at you.

If all the infantry of this base are Lock-On heavy that mean you're farming this base for too long, it's time to change area.

Anti-air ESF are here to kill anti-ground ESF and (supposedly) liberator. In reality, it's not the case due to poor balance of airplane : I've see plenty dedicated ESF being chased by banshee mossies and liberator.

Dunno what you are doing in this game OP, but you are obviously doing something wrong. I have no problems taking down tanks, MBTs, sundies, libs, gals, other
ESF (a2a&a2g)and infantry. 250 hours all in all in this game, you are barely...BARELY.... leaving Koltyr so to speak....
ESFs are good at everything once you get proper loadouts and skill.

A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat against other aircraft. as opposed to bombers and attack aircraft, whose main mission is to attack ground targets. The hallmarks of a fighter are its speed, maneuverability, and small size relative to other combat aircraft.

ESF can be good at everything, but you need to put a lot of certs into them. Uncerted you will die in seconds without killing anything.
Liberators may be even more dangerous, but they also need at least 2 people for this.

I suppose the job of an ESF now is strictly A2A as I've tried pods since,and they're not really worth the trouble if you're dealing with anything more than a single AMS spawn. Taking out other ESFs, chasing lone vehicles etc. Weakening liberators and galaxies.

Last time I played (not long after stikers came out whenever that was) ESFs were A2G Pod-farmers. I am enjoying the new balance more.

...my crowning moment in Planetside 1 was duelling a mozzie at full health with the NS shotgun. Maybe he didn't relise I always carry AP shells . I relived it all again this week when I brought down an ESF with a jackhammer. It was glorious.

2 Purposes:

1. Give me a gaming high much like sports with the feeling of untouchability (even though it's untrue)
2. Make me rage when gank squads reach numbers of 4 or more.

Random question:
What is this A2G air to ground that you speak of?
*sarcasm* lol

Modern day Fighters can handle both A2A and A2G roles. Their versatility basesd on what they put on the hardpoints.

F-16
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Dynamics_F-16_Fighting_Falcon#Armament
"The aircraft can carry various... AAMs, a wide variety of air-to-ground missiles, rockets or bombs; electronic countermeasures (ECM), navigation, targeting or weapons pods; and fuel tanks on 9 hardpoints."
"The F-16 carries a 20 mm (0.787 in) M61A1 Vulcan cannon for close range aerial combat and strafing."

F-22
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-22_Raptor#Armament
"In testing, an F-22 dropped a GBU-32 JDAM from 50,000 feet (15,000 m) while cruising at Mach 1.5, striking a moving target 24 miles (39 km) away."

Harrier II
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_AV-8B_Harrier_II#Overview
"These hardpoints give it the ability to carry a total of 9,200 lb (4,200 kg) of weapons, including air-to-air, air-to-surface, and anti-ship missiles, as well as unguided and guided bombs."

The ESF is a multi role strike craft that can be used for different things depending on it's settup.
The noseguns and wingmounts give you a low sustained DPS option for dealing with differing units and higher damage for the wingmounts as burst damage.

Noseguns:

• The default nosegun gives the middleground for killing enemy ESFs, armor, bombers such as libs but specialize in none. However, it is often refered to as best because it maintains a better accuracy than the rotary or locust guns.

• Locust noseguns are high magazine capacity aircraft guns that allow you to deal maximum damage at any range with the trade off of lower overall DPS than defaults and slightly less accuracy (Which makes me think wtf? I want to be accurate at long range, not less accurate). they are commonly used for large aircraft at range so that you do not risk dying to their AA weaponry.

• AI noseguns are designed for dealing with small amounts of infantry, while not as widespread as the liberator or as powerful, they can still do moderate damage to one or two infantry at a time and heavily punish grouping in one tights spot with pinpoint accuracy.

These noseguns vary with different traits of use but overall achieve the same effect with more power in different areas. PPA offers high sustain and AoE potential. AH offers burst. Banshee..... I'll be honest, I have no clue wtf the devs intended with the balancing with them, they never said or I never found out wtf they want each one to do. I mean I kinda got that banshee did sustain, AH used to 1 shot, PPA was basically mini pods over an area, now I just.... wtf.

• Rotary noseguns are high DPS, close range variants of the default, allowing the pilot to quickly destroy a close range ESF, liberator in a few bursts and valks. Often and most effective on ESFs however due to the opposing ESF not being able to respond to a one clip effectively from a rotary.

Rotaries vary different aspects from different factions. NC has highest burst, Mossy has highest sustained damage I believe and scythe had highest damage per mag I believe.

Wingmounts:

• Rocketpods give sustained armor, infantry and in some cases, aircraft damage. While....the best in all three roles it uh....uh............. just use pods for nearly everything........

• Hornets give great alpha damage to vehicles, allowing you to 5 shot a tank from the back...which since they are in pairs....that never happens....But laser guided!

• Coyotes were nerfed because skyknights hated them being viable, now they have a 4 second (minimum), they passively seek out targets when fired near an enemy aircraft. Don't use them.

• Tomcats are large payload lockons that heavily damage larger aircraft, in some cases they are moderately good against liberators and galaxies, but often not worth it.

• Afterburners come in three flavors, large capacity which give large amounts of fuel, quick recharge which allows you to use them rapidly in small bursts and external fuel tanks, which give both. Each one provides different flight styles with different methods of attack and approach, try experimenting in VR before you buy them.

Each aircraft offers different styles of flight and different specializations in each catagory of flight:
Topspeed
Acceleration
Airbrake
Vertical thrust
Maneuverability
Yaw rate
Pitch rate
I believe that's it. idk.

Sort of... multi-role fighters can do all jobs, but not do any job particularly well.

A multi-role F-35 will not be as good at providing CAS as an A-10 (or some might even say an old prop plane). It also will not (based on airframe and flight characteristics considerations alone) match the prowess of air superiority fighters. There are reports, for example, of F-35s being worse than F-18s and F-16s when it comes to dogfighting.

I don't think anyone really considers a Harrier to be good at A2A roles... It did well in the Falklands/Mariscos, but that was largely due to better missiles and training. Had those Mirage IIIs been properly equipped, I don't think it would have been a fair fight.

F-16 and F-18 can both do A2A and A2G. They can both carry a Tactical Nuke.

Sure, they won't do close air support as well as other Air. They have fast arrival, but they don't have the time on station. They are inferior platforms in both full range of weapon options and the accuracy with some they can carry. And they are inferior in ability to sustain damage.

Well, factor in that in PS2, it's basically Harrier vs. Harrier. So they don't have to worry Air with better A2A.

I don't think you can make that statement. F-15s and F-16s were designed as a air superiority fighters first and foremost, then were later used as exceptionally effective tactical bombers. The F22 is in the same boat. It can't do gun runs like an A-10, but it can sneak in, provide it's own eyes, it's own ECM, it's own air superiority, and drop a precision bomb exactly where it needs to go. Both those fighters do A2A and A2G very well. Different A2G than an A-10, but not necessarily worse. And for all the benefits an A-10 provides over a multi-role fighter, an attack helicopter beats the A-10 at. It can be stationed closer to the action, be in the actin sooner, and loiter longer than the A-10 while taking out the same targets. All for the trade-off of a smaller operational area, which you can say the same of the A-10 compared to an F-22. And please don't use the F-35 as an indicator of what air is capable of, that aircraft was a failure from the start.

Same for G2A: there is not much in the sky you can solo from the ground.

Btw if you are worried about lock on cert flares and stealth.

You have no problem taking down MBTs, Sundies and gals in an ESF? k. If you say so. *smh*

If this thread were about tanking you'd likely have some valuable input, but that statement you just made is pure nonsense.

The only way you're taking out gals and sundies with an ESF is if you cherry pick and killsteal them while they are smoking or burning, especially with the recent absurd nerf to hornets.

P.S.
Just as an interesting side-note, me and my gunner were out in the middle of nowhere after Indar locked, up in the desert north of Howling Pass killing constructs, when a scythe with nerfed hornets found us. All I did was keep rotating to face him when he got behind us and the two of us literally out-repaired his DPS.
After about 20 shots he just got bored and left.

ESF Anti-Armor vs. a halfway competent MBT crew is garbage now, just put your back up against a rock or similar object, leave a tiny space to get in between the rock and the tank, and repair through the damage. If you find a little hill or rock that you can mount to look up at him just shoot him down but that goes without saying ofc.

The amount of aircraft you shoot down in a tank is borderline absurd if the driver and gunner are decent.

Speaking from a grounders perspective, I can tell you what they are not for.

-Hover Duel/Camp All the skyguards and MPAD's go "Ohhh Target" The old saying "Speed is life" still applies.
-Extreme range gunnery Something just tickled me
-Dueling in general While you're farting around with another ESF or that annoying skyguard, other things are happening.
-Solo Pilot vs the world usually ends with crispy pilot. Bring friends.

I fear ESF's when they act like real world air support, fortunately it seems like 99% of pilots do the above

Caution: Pilot Heresy Exception detected at 7:41 AM CST
Thrown: Assertion of non-superiority of A-10 at CAS
Remedy:

The logical flaw that you're running up against is that while the AH-64 is indeed a strong attack helicopter and close air platform, it does have limitations common to all helicopters that you mentioned, however, it does have others. The speed advantage of the A-10, coupled with the different flight model being used, means that while the Apache can use terrain better as cover, the A-10 can escape small arms and AAA fire more rapidly.

The main difference, however is that the payload on the A-10 is greater, and much more tactically flexible. The Apache does not have the ability to deliver viable bombs or other free-fall munitions, most notably, cluster munitions. Thus, while the Apache can always have a rough guarantee of 8 hard armor kills, and an assortment of light vehicles via cannon fire, the A-10 can be used to suppress larger areas, destroy more fortified targets, and an equivalent amount of heavy and light targets as the Apache. The A-10 can also be adapted into Forward Air Control with minimal field modifications.

The A-10 is also more durable than the Apache, with greater redundancies in the event of critical damage, giving it a higher return rate. While the failure recovery mode for the Apache (Auto-rotation) is better than that of the A-10s in the event of engine failure (Aerodynamically driven restarts - windmilling), the ability to run on one engine is a massive advantage in survivability.

Its not a question of me being biased, mind you. The A-10 is simply the best CAS platform ever designed (Helpfully, very few have been designed in the modern era), because it was a somewhat renegade project that built an air-frame around a singular purpose by religiously incorporating battlefield experience. It beats nearly everything that flies on armament, survivability, availability, and economics. Its the best because it was designed to be so, rather than being the most profitable air-frame.



On ESFs:

Welcome to the world of the Valkyrie - where the developers have conveniently failed to write you a defined niche. In your case, they are scrubbing your niche out, but have no fear. Come fly the Valkyrie - where the only limit is really your ability and imagination!

JOIN US! ESCAPE THE BIZZARO BUSHIDO OF ESF ELITISM! EMBRACE THE PLANET MAN'S BEST FRIEND IN THE SKY!