In Praise of A2A Lockons

Lol that knight/samurai argument against cannon tho, I recommend watching "The Last Samurai" to see how guns vs Samurai turn out~

Rockets... Stealthy?

Sorry, but if you see yourself getting locked on by a2a, assume it's coming from behind you, hit your afterburners and make a quick turn around and charge the user head on and get close, if you're good the lock on user won't have a chance to even lock on and hit you.

But that fellow that said that if you use lock ons you won't get much improvement on becoming a better pilot is right. Lock ons are good don't get me wrong, but there's definitely ways to counter them and if you come across somebody that does use them and isn't terribly great with their nose gun it'll feel like you're just taking out another br14 who's just picking up their 3rd scythe and not doing a great job of it.

I've learnt the only time when a2a lock ons are actually effective, is when a squad of guys are all using them because no matter what, you're getting taken out in the space of 2.4 seconds.

That's why I said "hand cannons", instead of, say, muskets. Hand cannons were being used in Europe already back in the early 1300s, but knights didn't really stop being used military forces until the 1500s, when flintlock muskets became common.

The Samurai only lost their place on the battlefield in the 1870s.

In both cases there were hundreds of years where trained professional soldiers wielding swords were accurately concidered to be as good, if not better at fighting, than people with gunpowder weapons.

It can take a long time for new technology to mature enough to get to a place where it supersedes older technology in usefulness and cost effectiveness.

I haven't actually seen the last samurai, but the time period it's set in says that they were very likely fighting against people with access to rifled muskets and percussion cap revolvers. It would even be possible that they were fighting against people with cartridge loaded revolvers and repeating rifles, as they already existed at this point. It's a very different situation.

Yes. Only your target knows you're there. Once you start firing guns, everyone within earshot knows you're there. I cruise at ceiling until I hear enemy ESF gunfire. They can be hundreds of meters away and I know they're there. Also indicates they're currently engaged or even damaged. So I swoop down and mop up. Would you rather telegraph your location to your target (one), or to everyone in the battle (many)? The former approach is very sneaky, especially with Stealth fully certed.

I agree that A2A is not the best for one-on-one, for the reasons you cite. I said basically the same in my original post. That's why I like to limit my engagements to those who are already preoccupied. This gets me lots of kills, keeps NC pilots alive, and clears the skies for friendly libs to ground pound. It is a strategic approach with many benefits. Unfortunately, conditions don't always favor this strategy. That's why I want to improve as a dog fighter, which is the correct approach when, say, it is late at night, there are not many people online, and I am likely to run into a lone wolf roaming in search of action.

I still don't understand the complaints about Coyotes. I think I've been killed by those things a total of 3 times since they were released.. and all three times were as infantry. I personally think they are meh to be honest and I don't like to use them. That is of course a personal preference.

As for AA 'ruining' a good dogfight. A true ACE pilot doesn't engage an enemy on their terms. He makes them fight on his terms instead. A pilot that lures an enemy into flak and missiles and get them killed is the better pilot. Again one has to throw "personal honor" out the window and play the game with a team based mindset.

The role of a ESF is to contribute to air superiority. That means denying the skies to the enemy. You can't do this effectively by hovering around looking for duels. This isn't to say you can't duel. You can play however you wish by the code of conduct, which doesn't exclude dueling. But you don't help your team by doing so. And you definitely can't TK people for it. You will be punished for that (as someone in this thread already found out). If you're looking for duels, great, find them when you can. But don't get worked up because someone stepped in. They're not trying to steal kills, they're trying to win.

You are talking as if lock on is an insta win option with it's come to A2A combat with your argument, there is still peoples using nose guns literally destroyed Lock on user, so no, those knights/samurai comparison is comepletely wrong.

Actually, no, quite the opposite.

To reiterate: Lock ons aren't any better than noseguns. The difference is that noseguns take quite a lot of skill to use, and lock ons are basically point and shoot.

Players who have spent a lot of time honning their nosegun skills are sometimes annoyed when they get taken off guard by another player with a lock on weapon and are killed before they can properly engage them. And this often means that they consider lock on missiles to be a "noob" weapon.

You're misunderstanding my comparison. Early hand cannon users got killed by people with swords all the time, which was the whole basis to my analogy.

Early hand cannon vs. knights and samurai were fairly well balanced, IMHO.

Just like lock ons and nose guns are fairly well balances IMHO.

It's just that some people assume that guns always trump swords, just like people assume that lock on missiles should always trump noseguns, out of principle.

In a competitive pvp game, using weapons that aim themselves has never been a satisfying way to play to me. The game's taking the good part of combat out of your hands and making you an observer.

It's like, "Yaaay, the game just killed that guy for me!"

Just.. really?


I would never tell anyone how to play; people can do what they want.

I can certainly think less of you for it though.

I guess the same applies to mines and Annihilators.

I don't consider it player v player so much as team vs team, though. If I finish off a lib as a heavy with lockons, I don't think, "The game got me a kill." I think, "Phew, just saved our sundy, now we can cap."

Same goes for air. More "Are we winning?" and less "How's my K/D?" I view PS2 as a sort of 1st person RTS.

Problem is, while your giggling like a school girl using them, the people on the other side (regardless of who it is) is frustrated, even if they are perfectly balanced (which more or less they are pretty balanced right now), they're not fun to fight against. A lot like all the rage and people quitting right now due to liberators, they are "pretty" balanced right now, they can be drove away from the fight and killed easy enough, its just the options to do it with aren't fun for most, infantry (peasants) don't want to get in an esf to go kill them because its not fun for them (and they probably will die due to not knowing how to fly, which infuriates them further), nobody likes sitting in a skyguard or aa max and lockons are just boring to use.

Lockons made me an infamous, server wide recognized pro in the space of 2 weeks. True story.

I find this is the argument that all of the people who use the skilless lame weapons that truly frustrate the majority of pilots put forth to defend their ridiculous position.

Yes im laming you, but it's ok because its a team game. I'm laming you in the name of my team. It's not because i can't aim or anything. It's not because i want a way to beat players who are better than me. I'm doing it for my team and for air superiority.

Lock-ons make this game considerably less fun than it would otherwise be.

If you are having problems getting shot down, talk to some people and find a friend to go practice with on PTS.

I would be happy to go to PTS and let you shoot at me and teach you everything i know about flying. I'm sure there are lots of other pilots who would help you too.

It would be nice if we could have some respect for each other. Using lock-ons is disrespectful. We all know it.

Send me a tell in game on any of the toons listed below, and i'd be glad to help you learn how to dogfight.

It's so much more fun to aim a nosegun than it is to lock onto someone. It really is. 2 or 3 hours of dueling on PTS is equal to days of flying on a live server. Your aim will improve dramaitically in a short time.

Coyotes are broken. I expect and hope for a nerf to them soon.

Oh, you're Vanesse, one of the pilots I try to avoid. I will send you a tell next time I see you.

Good post! I just... You don't know it's a dick move or not. Hell... if it's me in the air dog fighting one on one with someone... PLEASE HELP AND ENGAGE THEM! I'd rather the help and a faster kill than someone else going "Oh, they're dueling, I'll leave them be." Which will explain what I say after this which isn't really directed at your comment.

To the OP:

Play for fun, and what feels like fun to play with. I think you're better off varying your tool set, as it's what I do.

Play for your team. Taking out air is important, and should be done as swiftly as possible so you can assist with the ground game. Spending tons of time performing a ballet in the sky is just silly when that time and effort could be spent doing more. Do what you need to if it helps the fight go faster. Be it dancing, or using other weapon systems to enhance it.

I'm not there to duel, I'm there to win a base and support the troops. And like I said before, if I'm seen in a fight with another pilot, I hope my teammate comes to help rather than just watch or leave us alone.

Why play a FPS if you dont want skill to be the deciding factor?

That was what attracted me to this game. Entirely skill based no tab target. Lock-ons are like tab targetting in an FPS. It doesnt fit.

Why don't we just add coyote machine guns so all i have to do is shoot in the general direction of my enemy and win. Or lock-on sniper rifles.

I mean i fly a lot, im not very good at infantry and im tired of getting owned by players with better aim than me.

They're also good at increasing damage output to libs.

Everyone who hates Libs should cert A2Am's (at 500 certs, it's the cheapest weapon for it) and learn to fly ESF

An ace pilot will still rip you apart if you use a2a lockons. If you want to get better, you have to tough it out until you learn, and then you'll start finding flying quite fun. I honestly don't see what's so fun about flying in a straight line hoping for your skillpods to hit something for sure.

Do whatever you like, but people will judge you for it. Doesn't mean you'll care, but people who fly won't like you at all.

Here's what ya do. Get as many people as you can wrangle into the sky ay the same time. If ya cannot win 1vs1 you fight em 2vs1, 3cs1, 12vs1. Use everything at your disposal, AA Groups paired with A2A squads, Tomcats, Coyotes or just good old fashioned Kamikaze runs.

Do that and you will win.

Depends on your definition of winning. The goal of playing a video game isnt necessarily to 'win' at all costs. It is to have fun.

Zerging someone down 12v1 is not fun.

Using lock-ons are not fun.

Why play a video game if you arent trying to have fun?

And why are you so desperate to win that you have no respect or empathy for your fellow gamer.

If you love the game you should hope for balance and fair play.

Even if i lose a good dogfight i have a fun time. I will always send the other pilot a GF win or lose. Has anyone ever sent someone a sincere GF who used lock-ons? I know i never have.

Losing to a better pilot in a nosegun fight makes me want to practice more and get better. Losing to A2A missile scrubs just makes me log out.

Not the type of thing i would want in a game i intended to have longevity.

This game is awesome. And i mean that in the literal sense of the word. The graphics and the way everything works so well. But then you have these glaring problems. Like lock-ons and coyotes, and the only reason they are there is so that someone can make a cheap buck off a cheeze weapon.

How many pilots have quit because of the cheeze?

How many pilots would have quit if there were never any A2A missiles?

+1. Definitely goes for me too.