Anyone else sick and tired of Rocket Pods?

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Puukainais, Nov 28, 2012.

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  1. Fuse

    Have you seen Shooter with Mark Wahlberg? What happened when they opened fire on a large group of enemies without relocating between shots? Oh, right, a helicopter flew over and blew them up.

    Stop camping. A good sniper stays on the move. You're not there to assassinate a general.
    • Up x 1
  2. Spookydodger

    I've been on both sides of the debate, as both infantry and aircraft. Heck, I was even an infiltrator on a flash being hunted by a fighter with rocket pods. I only managed to escape because the pilot was slightly unskilled with the pods and didn't track me well enough with the opening salvo. Then I ditched the flash at high speed and ran at a 90 degree angle from it as I cloaked so he followed the doomed vehicle. Then I found a rocket and wedged myself into a corner and hit cloak every time I heard the whine of engines get near. I couldn't do anything to him beyond peck, but my best bet was to play dead.

    On the other hand, I did see a fighter go by earlier with a shred of life and I hit him enough to make him crash, so there is always turnabout.

    Full-disclosure, I haven't tried the anti-infantry rocket pods, but I do use the anti-vehicle rocket pods on both vehicles and infantry.

    Aircraft versus armor:
    • Fighter versus a lightning: 1 full salvo to destroy. Less than a salvo if from the rear, but that usually is difficult to achieve, and I'm a pretty good air to ground pilot.
    • Fighter versus a MBT: One full salvo to critically damage from rear, otherwise 2 to 2.5 salvo from top / sides.
    Aircraft versus Infantry:
    • Fighter anything lighter than a heavy without shields: 2-3 close hits with rockets.
    • Heavy / Heavy with shields: nearly the entire salvo to kill an infantry.
    • Aircraft versus Max: 1.5 to 2 salvo to kill unless I am lucky and get a few good hits, in which case it might be as few as 2 direct rocket hits.
    Everything versus Aircraft:
    • Skyguard / Flak Phalanx versus aircraft: While piloting, If 1 anti-aircraft tank gets me while I am hovering, he will easily chew up half my health by the time I engage afterburners and dive for the deck. If ANYTHING else is also shooting at me, I'm probably dead or nearly so.
    • AA Max (max with 2 AA guns attached): a full clip that is on target will usually do about half to 2/3 damage. Having used the AA max and skyguard, I know that if I hold fire till a fighter is within 200 meters and coming toward me, he is probably going to die.
    • Anti-Air HA versus fighter:: It does about 1/2 damage. Trust me, as soon as I get a lock on me, I'm getting the hell out of there. Often the heavy doesn't even need to fire to make me leave the area. 2 rockets and I'm on fire.
    • Anti-Air HA versus a Liberator: the first missle always seems to do barely any damage. Perhaos 15%. Successive missles seem to do more damage, but perhaps that is a UI issue. I can usually take 2 missles in a liberator before I need to get out of town. If any flak cannon and a missle launcher is hitting me simultaneously, I flee immediately.
    **********************************
    As it is, it seems pretty balanced. In most major engagement situations, if there are 2-3 people in an area doing anti-air duty, with 1-2 fighters backing them up, then a roughly 1000 meter diameter area becomes off-limits to aircraft. Case in point, I was a skyguard lightning with 2 AA maxes nearby. There were perhaps 2 infantry within the region shooting HA AA missles. a couple of AA fighters were patrolling around. Any aircraft that came within the area died or had to flee immediately. If the aircraft came in batches, they stood a chance, but had to come in groups of 5 or more. An effective tactic would have been to send a Galaxy to bait people. Everyone loves firing at those flying hippos, and that would have given their aircraft the opportunity to close the distance and dispatch us. A high-zoom liberator could have determined where the bulk of our AA was in relative safety and they could have coordinated and pounced. As it was, we enabled our aircraft to loiter and be relatively safe, so they could just chew up the enemy inside the base. There was enough armor around the base and infantry with heavy rockets to take out the base turrets in short order (any time a turret would come online, he would be lit up by no fewer than 3 heavy weapons).
    So from both sides of the coin it seems pretty balanced. I think some people have the false notion that under all circumstances they should be able to fight back. Many times I find that is not the case. Spawning at the same base over and over to get destroyed is not a good answer. Calling in backup or spawning elsewhere and bringing backup is more often the best option. A small unit of AA (3-4 people) can effectively lock down a large area and scare aircraft off in droves, but you have to move into the area from outside not spawn in the thick of the mess.
  3. Spookydodger

    Oops, meant found a rock, not a rocket.
  4. SunnyDee


    Awful logic, "Can't beat them, join them." Seriously? "Hey guys, I know you don't like rocketpods, BUT if you get in the air instead of playing what you want and kill them, then there won't be air! Screw AA turrets, SGs, MAX's, get an ESF!" You're an idiot.
  5. Spookydodger

    For the infiltrator who was looking for some good sniping:

    Were you using a suppressor? When you fire your weapon, you show up on the mini-map. That might help.

    Also, perhaps the problem, as I alluded to above, is less of a sniper's helplessness against aircraft and more of your teammates not providing adequate air-support. In the situation above where I was driving a skyguard lightning, my friend was a sniper and was picking off guys on the towers. He didn't have to worry about aircraft at all because if they got close enough to rocket pod him reliably, they were a cloud of debris.

    This game isn't as rocks-paper-scissors as PS1 or BF3, but it is enough so that combined arms is the rule of most every major engagement.

    From a pilot's perspective, I have killed a lot more infiltrators with the liberator than with my rocket pods. Usually with pods I am either hunting for tanks or packs of infantry, or the saboteurs in a base fight if it isn't too hot. Liberators with infrared can spot the lone gunman on top of a rock like you have a gigantic beacon over your head.
  6. Spookydodger

    It seems to me he meant if you don't like rocket podders, get AA rockets on an aircraft and take them out.

    It isn't a wrong assessment, and equally valid as "get in an AA max" or "pilot a skyguard lightning". People who find themselves the victims of a particular attack often switch to a counter for that attack. 2 coordinated fighters with AA missles can clear an area of rocket podders in short order, assuming that the enemy doesn't have air superiority due to their own combined-arms makeup.
  7. Mietz

    Its very hard to establish a safe zone for snipers with AA since if you play AA, you are immediately turned into a glowing target of rage for all of the opposing faction, and you don't really want to draw attention towards the position of your snipers.

    Suppressors might help though.
  8. Necron

    Aircraft just need to be more susceptible to ground fire like REAL planes are. Lots of low flying aircraft were shot down in Vietnam with small arms, and these planes are way more advanced but then, so are the guns. A couple dozen hits from a heavy's primary weapon should mess up a pilot's whole day. Just remove their virtual immunity to ground fire and problem solved.
    • Up x 1
  9. Fluff

    As of yet, I see no change to this over powered situation and most of us, I can't stress this enough, most of us totally agree that rocket pods are over powered, you don't agree with that, you're obviously a user of rocket pods or your friend is and you greatly benefit from it. Otherwise, most of us are in total agreement that air power is over powered right now.

    There was good long post a few posts above stressing that, with enough anti-air cover you will drive air away. You just forgot to mention that there is no incentive for such a thing to happen. I get crap exp for downing an air unit... IF... IF I ever down an air unit. The lock-on is SO DAMN LONG and this causes whom ever I am targeting to just fly away since the damn range is so short. And when I ever do get a lock on... CHAFT... boom wasted a shot. The fact is, if I do get a shot, I'll need another.. AND another to kill something. Imagine that, 3 damn missiles to get 1 air unit down... 3 missiles. But again, this is about rocket pods, not so much about the air situation even though both are closely related.

    And I have stated that some people are so confident with how OP they are, they will actually just stand there while I lock them down and just take the first hit as they know they can simply fly a bit further and repair while they spam rocket pod me and BOOM I'm gone. Notice how interesting it is tho, there is a cert to increase lock on time but they are no certs at all to decrease lock on time.
    • Up x 1
  10. Sturmhardt

    Everyone knows it, still nothing is happening. What is SOE doing?
    • Up x 1
  11. Illtempered

    Stop whining about rocket pods. Just get some people together with Burster MAXs and own them. Our outfit/platoon took Scarred Mesa Airdock on Indar and held off at least a full platoon of air cav no problem. There are countless other examples I could describe. I am rarely dying to rocket pods. If you are constantly then you are doing something wrong.
  12. AuntLou42

    Good news is you can cert for a dual burster MAX that WON'T shoot it down.
  13. TheGroggyOne

    Only when I'm afk an get hit by them.
  14. Phasics

  15. _CLU_

    I have been playing since old beta days. I used to scare planes away with the HA anti-air lock missiles. But then came flares. Now on release for an infantry is absolutely impossible to bring down a plane, and if the pilot is a bad player you may scare him with the missile lock, but not much more. The people that are saying in this thread that PS is a teamwork game tend to forget that the plane shooting their massive damage rockets at infantry maybe a casual random. You try to convince us that we need a full platoon to protect the ground from the air. So... the air is overpowered. And not, I dont enjoy using aircrafts, I prefer the old, simple tank. The ones that enjoy killing dozens of infantry or armor with almost no effort with those rockets will try for sure to defend their playstyle and advantage.

    To put it simple: the way the air is now is absolutely overpowered and that means less fun for players that prefer ground. At least give us something to defend ourselves (the AA weapons right now are a joke, even the skyrocket that costs 1000 certs and you cant do anything unless shooting the sky) or balance those extreme powerful rockets.

    And yes, I have read in game chat several times the word "Airside"
    • Up x 2
  16. orionX65

    I wish i could actually use my rocket pods, there's such enormous amounts of AA in any decent sized fight that there's no way in hell i'm getting close enough to do any serious damage and out alive with ****** afterburners. Yesterday i trialed the HA AA and me with that and 2x dual burster maxes was enough to keep away air at the crown, i even got 5 kills and multiple assists. ESFs are fragile, they're not tanks.

    I also can't remember the last time i was actually killed by rocket pods so i don't understand all this whining about air at all. It seems like i'm playing a different game.
  17. Spookydodger

    I have been on both ends of the fight. I've used rocket pods and I've fought rocket-pod users.

    I simply don't get killed, as an infantry, very much by rocket pods. I bought the HA AA missle, and almost every time I lock onto an aircraft, he runs away. Very rarely have I been dominated, as a MAX or HA AA, by a rocket pod using aircraft. The steps were generally as follows:

    Don't go out in the open when they are facing you. Use buildings, hills, rocks, or trees as cover.
    Don't go alone. Infantry are the most basic unit in the game and therefore the most vulnerable. Just like you wouldn't expect a 1 HA GG to prevail over a MBT, it doesn't make sense to expect a mouse to prevail over a cat in all but the rarest of circumstances.
    Combined fire: 2 HA AA missiles simultaneously will almost destroy a fighter. It will probably be at red life and will likely crash. HA AA missles can still be dumb-fired at tanks if you are concerned about lack of armor counters.
    While attacking or defending any fortified area, ground-to-air positions should be set up to deny an area to enemy aircraft and support AG aircraft.

    I don't know why people expect to blow up fighters with machine guns easily. Put a full clip of an AK into an Apache and you *might* cause problems if you get really lucky because the aircraft has armor plating.

    From http://science.howstuffworks.com/apache-helicopter6.htm

    I've slaughtered groups of infantry far more often with a MBT with HE cannons than I have with Fighters and HE rockets or AV rockets. As a fighter, you have to be worried as soon as you take any damage or get a lock on, as you don't know how many missiles are locked on. As soon as that happens, I run away and try from a different direction. If I stay to fight, I usually die.
  18. RetroRayner

    You can't win the AA argument, too many pilots on the forums like thier immunity, and always throw the argument "get more AA it's a team based game"

    Simple solution then fine keep AA as it is, reduce the damage and mobility of Air, "why reduce mobilty" you say, because in the 4 day down time they drastically reduced the explosion size of AA, so any slight movement away from the Flak cause it to miss, if Air is flying straight and level you can lead a target and hit, the second they move so much as an inch in another direction you miss.

    The fact ESF are killing so much infantry now, where as last day of beta all they could see were vehicles.

    I have been killed a few times as an Infiltrator now by an ESF, when I havn't even engaged a target to give away my position.
    • Up x 2
  19. Spookydodger

    Yesterday, during a major assault on an amp station, we denied the area for 1000 meter diameter with 1 sundy, 2 AA maxes, and 1 skyguard lightning. So much so that most of the planes in the area were bombarding the enemy ground targets. They got an occasional kill, but not many. The only thing we were vulnerable to were high-altitude dalton liberators, and those were scared off by a couple of fighters.

    So it doesn't take a platoon. 200+ people were made relatively safe by 5-7 people perched on a hill. That battle I personally shot down some 15 aircraft during the 1.5 hour battle, with about 40 assists.

    Flares protect against a HA AA rocket I admit, but they can't protect against 2. The lowest duration on flares, if you spend an ungodly amount of certs, if 15 seconds (if I recall), 30 for the basic level flares which cost ONE-HUNDRED certs (not like beta where they were 25, I think). 2 AA missiles, 1 flare, and you are at half health.

    And yes, 1000 certs for the weapons is a lot. That's intentional. They want you to SPEND MONEY. They want you to weigh the 2-3 days (minimum, as far as I know) to get 1000 certs versus 7 dollars in cash and say "I'll forgo that fast-food burger".
  20. AngryFire

    LOL, better prepared = look at map, see where the current hot spot is, spam it with Scythes with Rocket Pods, Libs and Magriders. Battle over. Of course this is mainly on overpopulated factions on certain cont's but its the same everywhere maybe not as bad.
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