Airplanes is a joke now, lol

I really enjoy tanking. I don't think it's OP that tank mines and rocketpods can insta-gib me. They SHOULD be powerful. The gripes I have is that a ESF can tank far too well and mines are damn near invisible. An airframe shouldn't be able to take that much punishment - especially against a highly specialized weapon dedicated to it's destruction (i.e The Skyguard). To finish, mines should render from further away. Hell, I can't find my own mines after I throw them down as INFANTRY. The dang mine markers don't even show up till I am almost standing on them.

Uh. What? It's not outdated. It's just not CURRENTLY needed. We fight countries that can't put up a real force to fight back. They have no means to protect themselves from fighters and drone craft so why bother sending a supersonic bomber to carpet bomb an area? It would take the term "overkill" to a whole new level; look at the destructive power of an A-10... have you seen what a B1 bomber can do? It puts an A-10 to shame. We can do precision strikes with our fighters because they have no means of defending against it. If the US ever fights another country with an actual military and air force - you will see a vast change in tactics.

You're right. It's because ESF's are not FIGHTERS - they are STRIKE fighters. They can be customized to a specific duty or fill both roles. Some people just don't seem to make this connection.

OOh man, I have got to find the screen shot, no less then 10 burster maxes on an airpad, insta gibbing air within 600 meters.

surely this is a mistake?

i mean there is no way that is an intentional change

Going to laugh when tank spam comes back in full force. While an equilibrium is obviously the best scenario, I much preferred the balance of the game post aircraft buff than pre aircraft buff when the skies were completely clear and their were tankzergs as far as you could see (mostly due to this game's terrible render distances, but you know what I mean).

They will still harass infantry just fine with the incoming changes, and their ability to kill vehicles didn't really change at all. ESFs also have dedicated AI cannons that work just fine at killing infantry (except the NC one...).

Having air supremacy and bringing in Libbys will still dominate tanks and ground forces. It may just need a bit more coordination from pilots.

NOTHINGS CHANGED YET YOU STUPID BASTARDS!

Come back next week whne they **** hits.

Furthermore, you worthless swines, is the reduction on composite is to INFANTRY SMALL ARMS not flak, you know so when you put the cockpit of your fighter into an Engineers face he isn't doing half of his already pathetic damage to you.

Air is easy mode, right, fighters are suppose to be mobile hit and run combat platforms, I am on today and I see them bobbing up and down in place maintaining hover to fire rockets THAT IS NOT RIGHT.

Going on to the libby, I have been running one under the insistance of a friend, hell I have been flying HIS tooled up to the nines Libby, I have merrily tanked AA fire down below 50%, scored 5-6 assists while doing so AND escaped to repair, rearm and go do it some more.
If you are having difficulty with air as it is put simply you suck at it or a doing it wrong.

Even the libby goes twice as fast as an MBT and it packs more fire power, the damn thing can hover unlike fighters and is quite happy ramming them out of the sky.

Faction specific fighters are THE single most mobile force in the game, they have weapons to effectively fight EVERYTHING ELSE. Yet you arrogant flyboys feel it is unfair a MAX (which can only travel by Gal/sunderer or has to walk) sporting 2 dedicated AA weapons should be able to kill you.

Evolve or DIE!

If you say so. SOE's history shows they are terrible at balancing competitive games. Can you think of a single beta patch where the ground<>air balance was even remotely fair for both sides?

Wtf!! If they are nerfing composite armor Into oblivion atleast give us our certs back!!!!!!

I'm not sure what you are doing that is actually allowing half a clip to hit you... if you get the first signs of a flak burst you do this evasive manoeuvres: pull a hard 90 degree turn away from the direction of the fire and look for terrain to hide behind. Flying directly at a flak source should get you killed.

Photon pods have 14 ammo per clip but fire two rounds at a time - I had very good success using them for sniping infantry in beta and they are still very effective at killing tanks. Mosquito has more rounds per clip but less damage and has to fire off one rocket at a timeso they tend to be fairly inaccurate (standard TR style weaponry) .

This is a good change. Glad to see they are moving the game in a positive direction. Air has been destroying the game since it rolled live.

Outstanding!

Yeah... they have a bad track record. I think the biggest issue for Libbys is the render limitations, with those fixed they would be a lot better at staying away from danger and still reaching out to touch ground targets.

I think I remember them talking about changing the way render priorities work when looking down scopes. They may be able to make it so infantry and vehicles render from further away when zooming in at the bombers seat. Hopefully they at least fix it for MAXs.

So much Pilot stupidity in this thread. The patch that hit today was the new weaponry for each empire.

Stop your melodrama.

You mean in order to decimate ground forces from the air the flyboys will *gasp* actually have to get into the vehicle designed for this exact purpose, the Liberator? Oh the horror of it all.

Really, ESFs still control the sky. They counter Galaxys, Liberators, and other ESFs. They will still be able to ra*e ground forces that either stray or don't have adequate AA support. The only thing this changes is you won't be able to hover your aircraft right over the enemy, eat AA as you empty your pods for kills, then fly away with 25% HP remaining, repair, and repeat. Quit crying. Learn to Fly.

I don't understand why more people don't use the melee on the AA MAX. A few rounds of flak to the head and one swipe drops a LA really quickly.

It's obviously harder against a HA but as most of them try to kill you with a rifle instead of a rocket launcher I can sometimes kill them as well. Those that I do kill don't seem to understand that they don't need to be so close to kill a MAX.

Except for that whole 12% Flak reduction thing. Get a Clue.

^All this.

Really, the impunity ESF could operate was a bit ridiculous.

Libs still decimate. ESF's counter Libs (particularly with Rocket Pods).

ESF's can still harass ground troops as intended.

Hover Spam is now properly risky.

Composite armor was stealth nerfed in todays patch. (So did AT mines btw)

Yeah. If it's this bad today just imagine what it will be like on Tuesday when the patch hits. Don't know if I'm going to dare take a look at the forums.

Not to mention Small Arms damage is abhorable in the first place so who bloody well cares??

Even without Composite armor I used to just sit and hover and laugh at the medics and LA's hopelessly trying to bring me down or at least chase me away as I mow them all down with my canon.