I am greatly more enjoying the game as an infantry since the aircraft balancing.

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Ghoest, Feb 9, 2013.

  1. Ghoest

    Its a much more fun game when there isnt 5-10 enemy aircraft hovering at low level desperately trying to farm every every operation outside of a bio-dome.

    Its a much more fun game when 2 roaming aircraft cant shut down every small scale ground operation on the whole map.


    There is less reason to zerg and infantry doesnt feel so helpless.
    Im happy.
    • Up x 22
  2. yogafire

    I agree. Aircraft now are more a support thing like they should be and you see them actually being shot down now instead of rambo bombing everything in existence Its a lot more fun and you can actually damage them and shoot them down in a reasonable amount of time. The game air to ground balance just feels a lot better now.
    • Up x 1
  3. Nature

    By balance you mean removal of the air? Currently this game is no longer combined arms. Just infantryside 2, where air is meant to be farmed by infantry. Current situation is actually further from balance than it was before.
    • Up x 10
  4. Nivi

    Agreed with nature, I want to use my Max but even at hotspots like Crown I barely have the chance to use them because of all the missile spam. Its even worse for tanks, I can see 10-15 people just spamming rockets from tank render distance over and over. I dont think thats fun.
    • Up x 6
  5. yogafire

    I still see air and I still see them blowing crap up like they did before and flying away. Some are bad and get blown up like they should flying into a bunch of armor and AA. Of course pilots will complain I mean no one likes the nerf bat.
    Your never going to fix spam I mean its just the way that works in a big zerg
    • Up x 1
  6. Xind

    I still see plenty of all varieties of vehicles. The best argument you could make is "Groundside 2" and yet I still see plenty of competent ESF players and the infrequent liberator....But the focus of the game, considering there are such things as bases and jump pads and I dunno spawn tubes...doesn't seem to be aircraft.
    • Up x 1
  7. Inzababa


    me too :)
  8. LightningWolfTigrBer

    I'm fine with most of the changes, but have we heard anything yet about the missile lock indicator? It's hard to believe that they'd make it deliberately unreliable. It's not game breaking or anything, but getting hit by a missile 5-6 seconds after the LOCKON indicator disappears seems a little screwy.
    • Up x 1
  9. T0R0

    I can stay alive longer and scare away the rambo spammers easier, but it seems like some people are switching to air and forming larger groups to zerg the places with no good cover then drop a few infantry for the cap.
  10. Sledgecrushr

    Yeah Im digging it.
  11. Ghoest

    I think that is lag more than a design issue. But yes lag bursts are annoying.
  12. Zhorg

    Yup, agreed - one of the better changes they made.
  13. Trystykat

    I'm enjoying it a lot more now that the G2A is more effective. It's still not realistic, but I don't expect that. ESF should have a chance to retreat after taking one up the chuff.

    However, G2A is now a deterrent against 2 or 3 Libs farming infantry. What actually annoyed me the most about that behavior was that it was often done without any thought towards achieving objectives - it was purely about the kills. We often got bombed into a fine blue paste at an amp station by a couple of Libs and no enemy showed up to cap the place.

    TL;DR version: Being able to pop up half a squad of organised G2A, and having the cover around the spawn rooms, has provided infantry with an effective deterrent against rocket spamming fly-boy infantry farmers.
  14. Zorro

    I have noticed that, and the game seems to be more fun for me. I have also noticed that rocket pods do much less damage to infantry.
  15. Prodigal

    That sounds melodramatic to me. I didnt even notice that air had been nerfed, still see tons of Reavers around and they can kill tank and infantry really quick. So complaining about a) air being farmed by infantry and even b) air being removed sounds like you must be playing some other game.

    Oh and btw, the game's proper name is: InfiltratorSide.
  16. Prodigal

    This phrase unleashed a stream of thoughts in my mind. My first thought was: Yeah, fair game; at least the CHANCE to retreat should be given.

    Then I remembered another discussion about the sense of the different aircrafts. Liberator was meant as primary A2G and ESFs were originally meant to be A2A - but since they also have A2G, what does that mean and how is that implementable?

    What I think is that this constellation is generally good. As to the A2G damage of ESFs, I think maybe they should have the damage to pick up low-health tanks/sunderers and single softies. But I dont think they should be able to kill a full health tank in 1 salvo, nor do I think they should be able to survive an attack into a full squad of infantry. As you see, I understand A2G ESFs rather as a support for the Liberators (which, as I said, are meant to be the primary A2G). In PS1 it was about like this. You COULD try to attack a squad of grunts in a Reaver, but it was EXTREMELY dangerous - you needed the element of surprise on your side and had the time to unleash only 1 salvo - and then you needed to **** afap.

    I still dont see actual ESFs in this difficulties. So, to come back to my first point, I think: The chance to retreat from nosediving on a full-health tank/full infantry squad should indeed be preserved, but it should be as low as possible, so that you succeed in it only if youre really really good and do nothing wrong.
  17. Kafein

    I've been playing infantry a lot more, whereas before I was a more balanced player. As a pilot, being locked on by people you cannot possibly retaliate against because you cannot see them and they can be anywhere in the hex is NOT fun. Having to pop flares before the lock is actually aquired, since doing so when the missile has been launched does not work and also not knowing when you actually are locked or not because the lock display is riddled with bugs is NOT fun. Dodging the missile is completely pointless (it will hit you no matter what, I still don't understand why would any game developper want to nerf skill this way) and luring it into a solid object just won't work for random reasons (including the missile simply being invisible) makes flares mandatory. Yet flares are UP as hell, only being usable every half minute at high rank. I would be fine with the lock missiles spam if flares were a decent countermeasure. They are not.

    This is more an issue about lock-on launchers than air and infantry balance. Lock-on launchers should be the weapon of the terrible player, trading efficiency for ease of use. This should be true of G2A missiles and to some extent is, AA MAXes being more effective at outright killing cocky ESF flying too low. But launchers cover an incredibly wider field of applications, making them the overall best choice over turrets and MAXes hands down. Even more blatantly, this should be true of A2A missiles compared to the noseguns. I have yet to find a weapon approaching the definition of a noob weapon in PS2 more closely than A2A missiles.

    Also, lock-on launchers are unentertaining for both ends. Unchallenging and mind-numbing for the user, unavoidable and cheap for the receiver.


    So yeah, I still fly from time to time, but lock-on missiles are so frequent and ubiquitous now, even at 3AM I'm getting locked on top of the smallest bases.
    • Up x 2
  18. Kubor

    The current gameplay is rewarding and enjoyable for a lot more people now. This is the most fun PS2 has been since release.

    The ESF still has its time and place in a battle. Like everything else in the game, that time isn't all of the time now, unlike before when air dominated absolutely everything and air superiority meant "I'm in an ESF therefore I win".

    I hope the devs have the courage to leave things as they are now. Good pilots still get loads of kills and live well beyond their vehicle timers. That's exactly as it should be.
  19. Nature

    Havent seen air have any effect in a reasonably sized fight in a month in Miller. Killing tanks or infantry in random places does not have any effect on the actual battle. When ever air gets closer to bigger fights, there so many lock ons and the few odd burster maxes making sure that air can not do anything reasonable. So yes, air gameplays has died for organised gameplay. It was rather dead before the nerfs but now it has even less of an impact. And IMO, this game should be balanced for organised gameplay and for that, air is completely underpowerd.
    • Up x 2
  20. Prodigal

    What faction are you playing? I've been spammed to death by WASP Reavers a couple of times in the last week only.