As I'm not accustomed to flying much, I don't exactly know what a Lib's gunner can see. But here is the situation I came upon : I spawn in one of those 3 storeys building with AA lock-on RPG. I climb to the upper floor (outside floor with a 2 part would-be protective roof) and aim my RPG at a Liberator (hovering pretty high almost vertically above me) through the small area between the two roof parts. The lock is initiating, and before I can even fire once, I die from 2 very quick explosive shots coming from the bomber. So my questions are : how can a AA weapon have even a mere deterrent role if you don't even get a chance at shooting once with it ? (which would still look laughable to the bomber considering its huge armor btw) how can Libs shots be so accurate ? (there's hardly any gravity/arc of fire effect when you are above your target) what about allowing us to aim up to 90° so that we can lock on aircraft that's exactly above us ? (nothing to do with my story but still ...)
The dalton has a 0.25 (degree) cone of fire, which means the round ends up within about 2m of where the gunner was aiming if fired from 500m. Infantry render at around 300m, so the gunner probably had to deal with less than 1m of spread, which is less than a quarter of a second of run distance. Vehicle guns also have thermals, so it is likely that the gunner might have been watching you since you spawned, and was waiting for you to leave your spawn room. I've found the most effective way for lock ons to be used from spawn is the following. Find a lower level entrance, preferably with cover, peak out ONLY if you have an angle to lock the aircraft, pop your shield ONLY if they start firing, stay as close as possible to the shield, and jump back in as soon as you get your shot off.
The main thing that happened is this: A crewed liberator was 100% aware of your position and decided to make you dead. They had nothing else to distract them from the task, and they were expecting you. They were probably also running thermal on at least one gun, so you'd have been glowing like a christmas tree light to the gunner - the moment any part of your body was visible, he'd have been drawing a bead. So in short you, a lone infantryman with 0 resources worth of funky equipment who chose a weapon designed to attack them, went up against 2 or 3 people with a few hundred resources worth of equipment who had chosen weapons designed to attack you - and you did so in a head-to-head fight. This isn't a fight you should win. Ever. That tactic doesn't work against ground tanks either. The AA launcher is remarkably effective when used either as part of a volley, or from a hidden position. But it isn't a magic anti-liberator (or even anti-ESF) silver bullet god-gun.
That's what a well timed Dumbfire is. Takes near 50% of a Libs HP and makes them think the area is a bad place to sit. Also nets you some good XP for just hitting them.
Don't try to belittle others. When did I ever ask to be able to destroy a Lib/ESF/Tank with ONE lock-on rocket ?? Maybe you should read what people write instead of what YOU think. I'd just want to be able to shoot a single rocket at them before dying. I'm fully aware of the non magical nature of those weapons, thx a lot for losing the time to post such useless comments. Now your argument about cert cost is just BS. The last MBT I drove was destroyed by a Lib in less than 10 seconds, same for a fully equiped AA MAX, and each of them certainly cost me more than what a Lib pilot needs to spend to achieve that. Now back to the people who did try to help ... In fact I can't even imagine shooting a dumbfire rocket at a Lib considering the height they're usually hovering at. And hiding seems to lead nowhere. Maybe I'll buy a skyguard just in case ... it might be the only non-ESF piece of equipment that they fear ...
That wasn't an attempt to belittle. I started out with a post explaining all the different ways a liberator could kill you quickly in the position you described - quickly enough that you wouldn't get a shot off - but decided not to include that because I thought that seemed belittling. The description you gave was that two explosive rounds went off in rapid succession that killed you. This means that either one or both of the belly gun and tail gun was loaded for anti infantry work. It's fair to assume that in this case it was probably also running thermal. It's got nothing to do with cert cost. It costs less to cert out the weapons loadout the lib had than to buy the AA launcher with certs. What it does have to do with is resource expenditure combined with size of team combined with preparedness. If you stormed into a room as a HA right into the firing line of two waiting AI MAXes, would you expect to be able to line up a shot with the nemesis and dumbfire it into a MAX before those two MAXes killed you? It's not belittling to say you probably can't do that; I doubt anyone except the most MLG elite of the elite can do that. I sure as heck can't. Which means we're back to the original point of my post: you walked into the teeth of an AI weapon platform that was waiting for you. That was where you went wrong. Even if you had a mythical AA rocket rifle that could kill in one hit you would still have died. It was an error of positioning; you got outplayed. The AA rocket launcher is perfectly capable in the role of a deterrent. Mine gets used for that quite often. But if an anti-infantry lib is directly overhead and shelling my position? I either relocate or wait for support, because trying anything else is suicidal.
