after watching this video i realized MAX players get screwed in the G2A fight. i rarely use the MAX and have barely upgraded mine, but after seeing this video i thought that maybe the MAX is where we should start with when balancing the liberator issue. sooo.... i came up with a few stupid ideas and i thought i would throw them out to see how well actual MAX players liked them. i have no idea what i am talking about as far as MAX suits are concerned and this is entirely a shot in the dark. so i present to you! Lawn Gnomes horrible MAX AA thread! my first and favorite idea: MAX AA shotgun VERY low rate of fire (one shot then a reload) - this should never be allowed to compete with the NC MAX shotguns for anti infantry work. 10 - 20 pellets per shot standard shotgun spread (or more if needed for balance) small flak radius on each pellet (1 to 3 meters?) - while it will readily hit all aircraft only large aircraft like liberators or galaxies should take significant damage, since the majority of pellets will miss any ESF unless they are at extremely close range. a full direct hit (all pellets land on target) should hit as hard as a lock on launcher hit. idea two: MAX AA missiles a small lock on missile missiles should fly VERY slow and have poor agility - should be very poor for anti ESF work each should be half the strength of a standard lock on missile standard lock on range max ammo capacity should be low (under 10 shots) low dumbfire damage - should be poor at anti infantry or anti vehicle work. and finally: MAX heavy flak cannon VERY low rate of fire (one shot then reload) low shot velocity (200m/s ?) - should be poor for hitting ESF VERY large flak radius (10 to 15 meters) VERY high flak damage - same as lock on missile at center of blast any and all numbers/values mentioned are subject to debate and balance all i really care about is the core ideas.
you are a moron/this is stupid i iz helpingz! Anyhow, the main issue with MAXes versus Skyguards or AA Phalanx Turrets is that MAXes can quickly go in and out of buildings. MAX Bursters used to be significantly better than the Skyguard options until they nerfed them in GU11 (June 20, 2013). Part of the problem was that it was supposedly difficult for aircraft to approach spawn rooms where MAXes would just hop in and out of. Also MAXes (unlike Skyguards) can switch out their weapons, so it wasn't ever a super drawback to pull out double Bursters. Not that they made the Skyguard significantly better (it went from 50 to 70 rounds in the belt, and got a slight muzzle velocity boost). It was overall a pretty bad time for AA. They could just revert Burster values to what they used to be. That might help!
i remember getting those extra 20 rounds and i loved it! when around 30 rounds kill a healthy ESF getting an extra 20 in the clip is a wonderful addition. i love my skyguard it is a beautiful instrument of death. as for these options i wanted something that would only be effective against slow or hovering aircraft, because i think ESF are in a good place right now and they have plenty of weaknesses. this was mostly directed at liberators and galaxies which max flak seems to be horribly pathetic against. also any one of these would be an excellent tool for punishing farmers, while allowing actual skilled pilots to still operate.
I like the MAX heavy flak idea, but I'm not so keen on the rest. It would be ultra-cool if the devs could somehow make that heavy flak gun take both hands to lug around; it'd essentially be a smaller, handheld Flak 18, and that would be very, very cool. Also, while I'm not a fan of the lock-on missiles, I would love for high-speed dumbfire AA rockets to be available to MAXes. I don't know if you played the Desert Combat mod for Battlefield 1942, but essentially I'd want to make the MAX AA rockets behave similarly to that mod's Stinger and Grail missiles; high-speed, flat trajectory rockets that did very good damage to aircraft but zero damage to anything on the ground. /2¢
Dual Tankbuster MAX would solve all your problems. Jokes aside, something better or just different from Dual Bursters might be in order. I am kinda tired of the aircraft having such good guns all to themselves.
Lock-on missiles have a ridicolous damage. You need 3 hits to kill a ESF. Unless you have 3 friends firing together at the same time and provided the ESF pilot won't have a decoy available, you'll never kill a skilled pilot with a lock-on missile without help. Just saying Imo, leave the burst max alone, and give engis a deployable flak turret.
I would rather head into the skillful direction. Make it tough to use weapons that give incredible payoff when you do hit. It would make them harder to use against ESF (unless they are hoverfarming) an easier against Liberators. Example: remove all things like 'Flak' or 'Lock ons' from the weapons you have. Increase their velocity and make it that players really need to aim and hit that target. If they do hit that target they deal an incredible chunk of damage. Since it's AA it won't deal as much against vehicles (ammo meant for penetrating lighter air armor and then breaking apart and so on). The Walker is such a skillful weapon in essence. It can deal a lot of damage, has small ammo that needs to hit directly but also has high-speed bullets to reduce leading (and make it possible for the ammo to catch up on speeding aircraft).
Wait. Don't we already have AT-Weapons on MAXes? Which are high payoff, low probability. Sure, having an AA version of those (maybe a coyote lockon or burster explosion, I'd love the former for the reintroduction of the Starfire) would be neat, but ultimately, they still aren't strong enough to dissuade a high hovering Lib With composite. Which is a damn shame, as Libs have absolutely no incentive to fly low (I'd love that, but it just ain't happening).
MAX AA is great as it is I think. I have a dual flak MAX and I love it. It wrecks ESF's not smart enough to bug out immediately and it's a good deterrence against liberators, gals and (now) valkyries. I don't think a MAX should be able to solo a liberator easily. Multi crew vehicles should be tough and require some coordination to take down. Also that video highlights everything wrong with planetside at the moment. It's a game driven by kill farming and that's just ****** game design imo.
we may already have what you are describing. i have already considered throwing a vortex on my MAX alongside my burster to give it some stopping power. the same thing might work with ravens since they are guided, although i am not sure what the TR MAX users could do to fend off large aircraft. maybe we just need to repurpose some of the AV weapons to show the liberators who's boss.
The video shows a bunch of people too busy being pinned into the spawn room by enemy ground forces to bother with the liberator. I could max-punch a pilot-less liberator to death and make make the same claims this guy did I liked the Starfires from PS1. Point in the direction of the enemy aircraft, the missiles automatically follow the target, no lock-on required. Even so, as long as 2 skyguards cost less than a single burster max, I don't think I'll be pulling a max anytime soon So every single pilot I've shot down with lock-on missiles is a bad pilot? That's nice of you to say
2 skyguards would cost 700 resources, last i looked. with my scythe experience and my recent experience with lock on AA, i can say pretty definitively that any aircraft that, you (or anyone) shot down was either really bad or profoundly unlucky. it takes a special level of skill just to keep AA missiles from slamming into nearby friendlies.
Lightnings cost 200 nanites each. 2 of them is 400 total. 1 max is 450 nanites. I meant G2A lockons, thought that's what we were talking about . Many of my kills have been lucky, but that doesn't mean the pilot is bad
did they just change that yesterday? because when i last played a few days ago the lightnings cost was 350. i was also talking about G2A, i don't have any secondary weapons for my scythe (just AB tanks), on that front i was speaking about it purely from the defensive aspect. in my experience it is incredibly easy to dodge missiles of all flavors in 99% of situations.
I could be mistaken about the cost, maybe there was a cost reduction bonus or something. And usually it is easy to avoid lock-ons, but dying to one doesn't make you a bad player, was all I was saying
