Guide by wire rocket, is it time now? (lockons getting big changes)

Nobody hoverpods a tower etc unless the defenders are already pushed back into the spawnroom
and even then if the ESF is at point blank range your better off with a dumbfire launcher and it still requires multiple people shooting at the same ESF before it becomes more then just an irritation to a pilot
launchers have been made redundant against any low flying lolpodder with half a brain unless your stupid enough to be out in the open and above him
the pilot gets warned what weapon is locked on how many and where it is good luck after thet

Yes....and no.

Yes, generally a missile (or any other unmanned object) can hit much higher turn rates than anything with a person inside because, if nothing else, that person is a sack of water and meat that will go squish if subjected to too much acceleration. However, even when you're being piloted by hardened electronics instead of a meatsack, you still have to obey the laws of physics. Course alterations require an expenditure of energy proportional to the change in velocity and the mass of the object being moved.

Super-agile missiles achieve their agility by having as little mass as is considered feasible; this means they cut down on things like sensors, payload, and fuel. A missile that can turn extremely sharply can only do so for a relatively short period of time. If fired at a target maneuvering so as to require enough tangential velocity change, any missile can run out of fuel before it reaches the target, thus becoming little more than a very fancy bullet. All else being equal, a sharper-turning missile reaches that point quicker than a less-nimble missile. This is why modern air forces typically develop at least two major missiles; one for sharp maneuvers, and one for longer range.

This is one of the fundamental simplifications of PS2's missile modeling: their maneuvers have no impact on their range. Even if you assume some sort of magical tracking system that can keep track on a target through a full 360 3-DOF, intense maneuvers should be drastically reducing their time of flight before going ballistic. If a missile cannot land a hit quickly, then their target aircraft ultimately wins, because it can keep maneuvering, as far as the missile is concerned, forever.

Of course, the missiles should also be flying lead pursuit instead of pure pursuit, because pure pursuit is a) mathematically stupid and b) responsible for much of the weirdness regarding both firing and dodging, so getting into fuel modeling is somewhat missing the forest for the trees.

nice explanation.
And now we turn on the fuel of ESFs.
You have an Aircraft with the aerodynamics of a brick. Which can fly forever, has 1600 shots for its maingun, and up to.. dunno 100 rockets, sensors, pilot, stuff - that thing flies forever.
But a rocket has limited fuel? why? it is smaller, no pilot, just sensors, engine and playload (one payload)

While I do hope the Striker would be changed into something resembling the videos in the OP, if the suggested changes go through in full, it would effectively make AA lock-ons useless against ESF that have even a remote idea of what they are doing.

I don't want to relive what happened in December, thank you very much.

Bleh, infantry just became more defenseless against air. Yea, make me have to keep a lock on the air while that sniper picks me off.

Thats the problem I see too. Combined with the burster max nerf it could be very funny after that change. At the moment my outfit takes the look on rocket luncher to have something capable against air.

most ESF pilots have Flares to get rid of the first wave of rockets
good pilots use the 5 seconds immunity get a few kills and then rush of before someone can lock onto them again... I fear that the flare part will be obsolete after the update... just fly around a building and start all over again...

Lock-Ons are at the most cost efficient way to get rid of aircrafts without an organized squad... (why do I need a Squad again to kill one rampaging aircraft?... oh yeah, Balance)

Lol ESFs.. all will use Liberators and galaxies and any lock-ons will eat instant Zepher and Bulldog retaliation even outside of thermal vision ranges. All thanks to the automatic counter-spotting.
The moment I've read the notes I've started spending certs on my liberator and some on galaxy as well and I'm bloody sure that with flak protection and a minor escort from ESFs it'll be a feast for months.

If the designers want air dominance, I'm not going to bang my head on the wall and keep with ground pounding units.

So many tears

What tears? I'm super happy! I'll be swimming in certs!

Looks like it's time to dust off my Skyguard!

Seriously though, I'd kill to be able to import my Mitchell AV-18 from BF2142. Best wire-guided launcher ever.