So, flyboys... What do you think of all the AA buffs?

I am no pilot, but if the AA Buffs mean I can actually kill a damn stationary Lib with a Phalanx and if it clears the skies a little then I vote hells yea to the AA buffs, its about damn time the AA got better. It was all but useless anyway.

It got real tiring looking out over a valley only to see so damn many planes it blotted out the sun...Near one of the bio labs I counted like 19 aircraft before I lost track. Another Amp station on Amerish, there were so damn many planes you could walk from wing tip to wingtip without even having to jump. Maybe Tanks might stand a chance in battle now? It can maybe exit the base without being bombed by super rockets from a random surprise ESF?

No, you go that backwards. You can still fly around in Ez mode lolpod farming just fine, you just can't go to big fights. The other thing you can do is join a big coordinated group, and wander from base to empty base, but that gets boring. Also if your platoon gets in a big fight at a base, you pretty much have to just hang back until tanks take on the AA, even going up to MAX altitude and swoopping down trying to find enemy fighters in the battle often gets you killed by groups of invisble burster MAXes.

ESFs are still good for ghost capping (the best way to capture territory in the game, and the only metagame the game has at all), and lone wolfing, but they have no place in a big fun battle.

I have an idea, let's all go AA. Then all the rest of the would be and current pilots will rage quit and stop playing or pick up simpler roles like driving a tank or just play as infantry. So, when there is a liberator in the air and taking out your entire tank column that is out of AA range, they'll wonder why no one wants to bother getting into a ESF and take it out. Us flyboys will just shrug and say deal with it, SOE made it too hard to do it. Or when air support is requested and needed, it will never come.
FWIW, as it stands, it is easier to dogfight with a skygaurd than it is with a reaver.

You flyboys never bothered with the libs in the first place, too busy lolpod farming infantry. Don't think anyone would notice a difference

I get more points by repairing my ESF than by killing things.

Unelss you fly your ESF like a tank 2m above the ground, you can be attacked from any direction.

I think ESF should get more effective at longer ranges again. Increase accuracy and speed of the rocket-pods. Add an A2GM (air to ground lock on), give them tanks a better reason to equip smoke-screen.

Logic tells me that if there are lock-on missiles then aircraft should have access to Flares, no? I would not think that in the far future there is no Anti Anti-Air Missile system in place in some form.

lol
Step 1: Buff AA so ESFs cant get near ground targets.
Step 2: Sell tons of AA.
Step 3: Profit.
Step 4: Start selling a long-range A2G missile.
Step 5: Profit again.

the tears from LoLpodders , they taste so sweet...

Pfft i got better stuff to do then babysit a puny rocket. You would be a sitting target and what happens if you die?

That pretty much sums up my experience of being in a Prowler.

It's part of the game. I retreat behind some terrain and get some shots in. Or I retreat out of range and let friendly Infantry make it safer for me. Or I get out of my Prowler and join in the fun that way.

Any of those does it for me. I don't have a problem with neededing to change tactics or even change tools to get the job done.

I think that part of the problem is that some of us want to use the same tool all of the time in the same way. As I've said before, as a player base in general, we need to learn that there will be times when our preferred play style can be put to good use. That time can't be all of the time.

Fliers really need to let friendly ground forces make it safe enough for them to be in lower airspace in a contested area first. I still see a lot of pilots flying around on their own, just looking for frags. That's just asking for trouble.

Everything has a counter. It's what makes the game interesting and fun to take part in. I like the fact that PS2 is slowly becoming more of a war game and less of a giant deathmatch. The time when the ESF was rock, paper, and scissors was a big mistake and I'm glad it's in the past now.

If you die - well, tough luck, say goodbye to your rocket. Yeah, it's better to fire a rocket and forget about it. Good in real world, screams "low attention span" in multiplayer games. I'm surprised we don't have lock-on bullets for infantry these days.

I'm probably an above average pilot, excelling more in air to ground fights instead of dog fighting. I think the patch is fine, like someone already said my play style hasn't really changed at all, you still have to skirt the edge of a big battle unless you know the position of the enemy AA and abuse LOS but I really think that's the way it should be, the three types of players, tanks / air / infantry shouldn't be able to survive in a big fight if there is just one of these groups.

However A2A missiles just take the frakkin biscuit, if a pilot sees you first you are guaranteed a death in under 40~ seconds unless you can do one of the following ;
-hide behind terrain, almost impossible against anyone with common knowledge in an aircraft
-boost to warpgate
-find friendly front line, fly low and cross everything on your body hoping that they shoot the aircraft chasing you
-fight back, again I already said I'm not great at dog fighting, but this again is almost impossible if you aren't able to juke out of the lock on distance and get shots off


Add the tiniest bit of skill to the easiest thing in the game.

Personally, I never thought that HA G2A missiles should be a viable AA weapon, just a deterrent... and it was perfectly viable in that role before the patch.

But it's too early to tell whether it's useful or not - especially as yesterday had a sale on G2A missiles.

You know what.. This is the best post I've read in a while. I too get more points repairing my ESF than I do killed. I also spend more time running away than fighting. Oh this is pathetic.

haven't noticed it getting any harder

Casual... Yes because hardcore players get hardons getting stuck in scopes 70% of your time. No id rather have dumbfire before guided if it means i can do something productive during the time i miss.

I do a bit of everything, which includes flying. I know how annoying air zergs can be, but I don't think they should've nerfed all air and buff all AA just before the january 30 update. Only then will we know if air vs AA is balanced, I've a feeling they overdid it and tanks will rule all.

I think all the buffs to AA weapons are good for now. It can be a problem though when they make resources more valuable in the future as the effectivity of resource spent isn't equal to the effectivity of the vehicle.

If you're getting more points by repairing your ESF than by killing things that means you have to become better at piloting the ESF. I clearly make way more points killing than repairing.

I don't think that ESFs needs to be more effective A2G vehicles since they're already deadly killing machines against infantry/armor with no anti air.

It's not just "hardcore" and "casual", there's more in between. What I actually meant was the "low attention span", I corrected myself in that post. It's not about being stuck in scope. You have diffirent means to do the job, and only if you want to do it for sure - take it in your hands and steer the stupid missile to where you want it to hit. It's always has been like that. Don't want to be stuck in scopes, fine - get yourself flack weapons, turrets, AA MAXes, tanks AA turrets...

As someone who spends most of the time in the air as an ESF pilot, I love every nerf to ESF's, that will reduce the people who's only tactic to defeat an ESF is to spawn an ESF themselfes and then ram you with full speed