sooo um air counters air?

Hnnngh ok.

It's a fair deal isn't it?

Air is one of the many counters for air. Although many people who post on the forums can only think in terms of rock paper scissors, this game is a bit more complicated than that.

Counters for air:
Infantry
Armor
Air
Emplaced Defences

For some of these counters, you do actually need to use aiming, which is where a lot of people get hung up.

What most of the people complaining on the forums want instead of the above mentioned system, is the ability to knock down air instantly without the use of skill, teamwork, or any form of combined arms.

Combined Arms warfare, especially in modern times, favors air superiority.

Adapt, Die, or Cry.

I guess so, but the Hacksaw is our Onslaught no?

Exactly.

Don't forget the people that think they should be able to score damaging hits even at the extreme range of the weapon, regardless of target disposition.

Hacksaws tear you apart close range after like 20-30 meters it does alot less damage (provided it hits), your mercies do about 80% of the damage of the hacksaw but at large ranges or close ranges.

For all you butt nuggets arguing over whether or not in reality air superiority is what matters or not, did you forget this is a GAME? There are is almost nothing realistic about it. What this discussion is about is balance and the overall fun factor of the game and how air influences that.

I think the issue is that as a Heavy Assault I either have to pay a decent chunk of change (for a single video game item) or play the game for about 20 hours (and cert nothing else) in order to counter air. My solution is a reduction in the price for anti-air rockets OR make it so paying the $15/month is worth it and I can attain the rocket in a not so ridiculous amount of time.

The one thing the fly jockeys forget is even in modern real warfare planes/bombers are not going to sit and hover and laugh at the AA. They will fly high and fast with stealth, drop and get the hell out of the area.

We pull squadrons of libs not to camp, but to take out the dam armor zergs we constantly see. Imagine how bad they would be without air. However, i do not need to hover to blow away tanks.

The hover/IR ability is what is so dam annoying when playing infantry, and LIB armor when playing AA. 3 max will not deter the LIB but will just feed it more repair exp then it comes back for more. Get 6+ maxes in a small area and you can almost guarantee a no damage flak bug.

This game is not in the future, but in the past

World War 2 weapons are more effective than anything you find in PS2

In your example of China...they would do the same to us...In this war the air superiority would be in missiles. Missile command wouldnt be as fun. Based in reality but not sim is why I like this. I think the changes to the bases and spawns in general will fix a bunch of the issues.

Planetside 2 is effectively WWII era weapons... with helicopters. But that's mostly a result of WWII era fighting being the last era of warfare before everything started becoming laser guided and "skilless" as rocket-podders whom scorn A2A missiles would say (irony.)

I adapted my Prowler with a Vulcan. If one is hovering above it's arc, my moving tends to throw one's aim off, and they're probably flying high as a result so someone will shoot at them (or I can only hope.) If they're within my Vulcan's vertical arc, they. Will. Die. That race is most definitely in favor of the Vulcan. If they're actually some distance out where my Vulcan isn't as likely to hit them nearly as much as I need it to (it's horrifically inaccurate) then once again moving tends to throw off their aim. That's a lot of rockets that are about to miss. And as always, I can take potshots with the main cannon while in route to ideal Vulcan range.

Skyguard is trash, that minigun on top of my Prowler is a god-send, if a very conditional one. If it gets nerfed to air without being buffed towards ground vehicles (the thing it's meant to destroy) or the skyguard being truly buffed against air, I quit. I have no desire to play an FPS where the developers basically tell me air is the only play style worth experiencing because it's the only one with a tangible form of counter-play and longer life expectancy. It's not a mixed arms game at that point. I finally found the gun that does more than simply deter, as even libs are fat juicy targets now. I only regret the NC seem to be lacking a similar piece of equipment. Not sure how the Saron fares, but I bet it's easier to hit aircraft with it at least.

Air is the counter to Air, but most Air won't try to counter Air because they're farming infantry.

Anyways, stop this "combined arms" ********. An example of combined arms would be a mechanized unit calling for air support whenever they face an enemy larger in number, and air support would be on call stacked up ready to respond. When you go off in your Liberator and farm some spawn room, that is not combined arms.

Organized outfits have zero problems with air.
Only a few people in the same area with a slight sense of teamplay have zero problems with air.

Only mindless zergs and those that follow them have a problem with air. They seem to believe the best way to counter air is to whine on the forums instead of pulling anti-air.

Reasons are as follows:
Anti-air is not fun. (I guess dying to rocket pawds and zephers is?)
Anti-air is not effective. (a burster max is not effective? you insane?)
Anti-air does not reward enough xp. (This isnt farmville - also, spawning and dying to rocket spam must be awesome XP since you folks seem to rinse repeat it)

Skyguard is getting a much deserved buff next patch - and there will be XP rewards for damage done instead of kills.
I wonder what will be the "Air is OP" excuze next...

Why don't you people just come out and be honest about it?

Air is OP because you're all too lazy to deal with it.

I shall snip away at the stuff I don't intend to directly reply to.

1. A single dual burster isn't very effective at bringing down a half-aware ESF, let alone a Lib. 2 maxes aren't even good against a Lib, and it's often not just a single aircraft in the sky. Too much manpower to counter one something that can quickly take out a lot of manpower with just as much manpower. If for every aircraft there were a MAX, it'd be a toss up depending on the area we're talking here. Outpost? MAXes are screwed. Base? No so much, and towers/skyguards are realistically a part of the equation too.

2. Rewarding exp is important to earning certs to afford more cool $#!%. By the way, a lot of people that won't cough up $$$ are still packing a single burster arm... which is just plain terrible and compounds the man power dedication ratios. In fact, all MAX weapons seem to work on 50% value for each arm, as opposed to feeling 100% for each arm, but that's another topic. Telling these people to cough up or leave is an awful choice of words... because they just leave. They would have coughed up already otherwise. And then we go from medium prime times to low prime times.

Thanks goodness exp will be rewarded on damage however. Even single-burster arm players might chip in then if it's rewarding enough to do so. They're not going to earn that second arm if what they're doing with one now isn't getting them any closer to it.

Air is the most effective counter to air yes.

You can counter it as infantry or armour, but it takes organisation and skill. Just don't expect to solo everything like most of these QQ'ers are wanting to.

Once resources and cool downs are finalized, there will be an equalization of the amount of air assets people bring up. At the moment it is ridiculously easy for a majority cont lock faction to spawn air consistently, only stopped by the timer.

Once this and metagame is adjusted, people will learn the best methods to handle air and enjoy the lack of air they manage to get out of the sky. But from what I see most on these forums complaining about, they want a single AA MAX to knock a Liberator out of commision in a single clip. FYI it only takes 2.5 clips solo MAX, which IMO is quite balanced when you consider the probability that the Lib will encounter multiple other threats. Without anywhere to go but RTB, no cover, or anything, a large health pool is required.

The other half of the issue is AA MAXs spawning directly into the line of a bombing run expecting to counter it that way. It doesn't work like that. It's like running out in-front of a tank with a rocket launcher, you're screaming please shoot me as a priority.

Essentially, you want the quickest and easiest way to counter Lib - a single ESF. You want to do it the harder way, inf AA MAX or Skyguard combined with AA turrets. But this needs organisation, and fair go, because Liberators primary function is to handle ground targets.

I don't see how 1 ret*rd with a lock on launcher should easily could take out a fully crowded liberator, that are working together as a organized crew.

The real issue is that there's not enough incentive right now for aircraft to focus on shooting down other aircraft, they'd rather attack ground. I've been Vanu, trying to hold a base, while Mossies AND Reavers bombard us, while NC and TR Libs hover overhead, bombing, and all the air more or less ignored each-other.

What you need to know is that liberators counters everything. Yes, that includes other liberators.

lmao oh god all these warhawks and armchair generals being the "realism should take precedence over game balance" guy. I'm dying