Air Combat is too Difficult

You guys who whine so much about a2a being playable, I'm curious, how much active time have you actually put into it? Not counting in G2A.

well they are the weapontype that get the most ... flak ....

Enough to say it's unplayable for anything under pro level.

Don't you mean a2g?

here is a simple question:
why should i invest more time into something that i know takes too long for me to be good enough before i can consider it fun?

and you can be sure that i invested enough time flying to come to that question ..

I primarily seek out A2A fights, but I'm not sure how to track different loadouts.
Mosquito 231 hours
Reaver 108 hours
Scythe 72 hours

When I come across a newer pilot, he can't even scratch my paint. When I come across someone with thousands of hours, I can barely scratch his. Nowhere in the game is this the case except ESF. That gap needs to be lessened, but the noob weapons Daybreak has released have only made the air game worse. Here's what I've come to think what should happen.

• Noseguns: Less accuracy and a severe damage fall-off past 300m. Aim would obviously still be important, but the difference between a vet and new player wouldn't be as severe. This would also force ESF to close distance on Libs and end long range harassment of ground vehicles.
• Remove ESF mouse acceleration: Vets are used to it. It only hurts newer pilots.
• Greater inertia: ESF would be less twitchy and more traditional maneruvers would be competitive. This would also remove the need for area effect weapons and lock-ons, as ESF would be more predictable and easier to hit.
• 1/2 off nosegun only ESF: More flight time for new pilots. Combined with the other changes there would be more people flying so more noob targets to practice against. More A2A ESF means fewer A2G farming ESF. All those aircraft also mean more targets for ground-based AA.
• Add the option to yaw with the moues.

I tried enough with my first character to consider that I wasn't having fun either trying to learn it or trying to apply what I think I learned. I found no aspect of flying in this game enjoyable. As it is, I only tolerate a minimal flight necessary to facilitate teamwork and that's just taxiing.

Flight combat in this game will never really take off until they overhaul the controls. Mouse cursor aims, the aircraft automatically reorients to follow (this was standard mouse-flight control in even flight centric PC games before PS2 was even announced.) Holding S (or whatever you have for "reverse throttle") will allow the craft to drift backwards. Finally, the craft maintains an elevation when moving below a set speed, regardless of chassis orientation.

There, the biggest c***-blocks to getting into flying removed, and now people can focus on the fun part - shooting other people. At current, the only reason to defend the current control scheme is elitism. "I learned it, so they should too!" No... that's not how good game development looking to be profitable works.

I actually love the way these things fly. I love the unique approach Planetside took with aircraft. But I'd give that up to have more aircraft in the air and everyone be able to take part in it. I've become decent at A2A, and I get where the skyknights are coming from, but bottom line is the style that's been pushed just hasn't caught on, and keeping players out of 1/3 of a combined arms game is a mistake, especially since air is so devastating.

Auto-orient alá War Thunder 3rd person mode is the norm?! I thought direct control over aircraft like in PS2 was the norm. You want to be horizontal, you make yourself horizontal.

This would be nice. Using fuel tanks cuts resource cost in half, making ESF more useful for transport.

speaking of max flak having played around with weapons in vr again
i wonder why it is the only version that unlike the skyguard and ranger does not damage heavy armor (which they do poorly though, no suprise there )

what i took from playing with these weapons i kinda think their roles are more like

basilisk - closerange allrounder
kobalt - primarily AI but also useable against light armor AV and AA
walker - light armor AA and AV with leeway into heavy armor AA and AV aswell as AI but from medium range ( hence the lack in downward pitch )
skyguard/ranger - heavy armor AA and AV weapon (no AI at all)

and you know what? i´m kinda ok with the roles of the last 2 if (flakmechanic changes aside) they adjust flak to do propper damage against all vehicles (and allow max ranger to damage heavy armor aswell) because that aswell would allow the skyguard/ranger to be usefull outside of their AA role