Discussion: G2A launchers range: is it too much?

As infantry running G2A have you every run into ESF flyers who come flying in at speed kill a few friendlies then zip away before you could lock on to them? Or start being hit from strait above as it dive bombs you?

Skilled ESF pilots plan their attack runs to use trees or mountains, buildings to screen them up to attack point and then exit area to a point which breaks line of sight then repeats. They also have the flare as a back up just in case a HA takes the time to try and ambush them from a high point.

The ESF pilots who love to slowly hover over battles farming infantry hate them cause, they stop their easy kill streaks. You don't have to retreat from a battle with AA there are ways to keep in the fight. If your attacking air targets take the fight high out of G2A range.

I looked up the current lock-on ranges for HA launchers as of PU02 (I think it's still current), taken from the PU02 Patch Notes:

Lock-on changes

• All lock-on ranges have been reduced to better match the effective attack ranges of infantry versus vehicles
  • Ground lock-on range reduced from 400 to 300 meters
  • Air lock-on range reduced from 500 to 450 meters.

I had a good laugh at the irony of the above. Pilots complaining that infantry are interfering with their battles? Really?


That said, you have a good point about being shot by enemies that you have no way of detecting. That IMO is bad game design and should be corrected. I think that if you lockon to an aircraft w/ a G2A launcher, one of two things should happen:

1. You should be auto-spotted for said aircraft, so they at least have a rough idea where the lock is coming from, or
2. Your missiles should show up on the minimap like they did in PS1 (are they still planning to implement this? I know there was talk of them introducing this last year).

Either option would be fine w/ me.

As for the range of G2A lockons, I think the current range is a little short and IMO the reduction from PU02 was completely unnecessary given that aircraft have complete initiative and control of the engagement when fighting ground targets and have the choice of multiple potential get-out-of-jail-free cards at their disposal (Flares, Ejection Seat, or possibly AB and fire Suppression depending on the situation), and Libs and Gals can both take several hits and in many cases can simply flee before dying.

I also think that the G2A lockon range range should increase with the size of the aircraft, since logically I would think a larger target would be easier to lockon to. I would increase the lockon ranges to 500/550/600m vs ESFs/Libs/Gals.

G2A feel fine imho. They've been derpified enough already (the lead target "feature") that even as a noob pilot i can rather easily get them to crash into the ground when they're fired. They also encourage teaming up if you want to do more than just repelling, which is a Good Thing in lone-wolf land. Yes, it's frustrating to be denied an area if enough people are looking up, but just the same, it's frustrating to be denied a ground area because some air is looking down, so fair enough.

At the end of the day, it's a team game, and all the people you keep looking up are that less many foes that your allies on the ground have to deal with. If as a lone ESF you keep at least 2 heavies looking up, you're a force multiplier already.

Rockets have problems on both sides of the equation.

From the air side: Ungodly range once the missile is actually fired, no resource cost while impacting resource driven spheres of the game, and you don't even need a Sundy to keep them firing.

From the user's side: The lock-on time is long enough to be a distinct disadvantage if the air is aware of your position, you frequently have to give up shots because you just know that it's going to careen into that one small branch of that tree, most of the time your reward is consolation XP from the damage dealt, a good pilot making runs when his decoy flares are up will send you running for a dumbfire anyway, dying after launching a missile is an agonizing feeling, and the lock-on does lose some significant bite over dumbfires.

IMO, rockets should at the very least need a terminal reload, and lock on AI needs to be smartened up while a max distance traveled is put on the missile. I also think that ammo capacity should be lowered, resource costs given, and the damage increased. Makes the thought behind each rocket more important, but I hate bringing up resource costs when they're already planning a revamp and I would make it much more involved in every aspect of the game if I had the choice.

And a funny note: Just today, I was killed by a friendly Hawk because an ESF was dodging his missile while I was on top of a mountain.

As a HA, unsuprisingly I'd like G2A lock-on range to go back to its pre-nerfed state - certainly I don't feel it should be nerfed still further! In fact I'd quite like an extra 50m range on Libs & Galaxies - they seem pretty huge in my aiming reticule even when they're out of lock-on range.

They already do.

It's fine IMO - although some sort of ability slot on the ESF to give rough direction of the lock on the UI might be nice.