[VIDEO] The pathetic state on Connery air game.

So if Coyoted and Tomcats were removed and there were floating rocks in the sky people would be fine with being outnumbered 5 to 1 ?

Moin

If I fight a decent pilot and I get jumped by another decent pilot I'm usually toast (pun intended).
However, if I fight a decent pilot and get jumped by a bad pilot who is NOT using Tomcats or Coyotes I do have a chance of winning. It's harder, but it's doable. If this bad pilot runs Tomcats all he has to do is sit at 200m and wait for the red light to turn green.

As soon as there's a a critical mass reached, skill becomes meaningless. If you've got a hostile squad of pilots all using "dedicated A2A-weapons" you'll need a squad of pilots all using "dedicated A2A-weapons" themselfes. Individual skill is largely meaningless in this scenario. Individual skill is more meaningful in 1on1s, because the noobtubes don't work as well in a small environment as they do in larger fights. Which is why a lot of bad and lesser experienced pilots tend to use them in packs, to devalue skill.

You can argue back and forth, but Coyotes and Tomcats considerably lower the skill ceiling of the airgame. You can like or hate that, but they undeniably do.

See, I don't see a problem with air. Then again, I am used to sitting for long periods of time in a Skyguard. Realistically, if you have even one skyguard in a group, with a quick learner, you can repulse up to 3-5 aircraft.

Scythe gunk squads? Impossible!

(btw. after taking left pic I redeployed at took pic 2, few minutes apart, two other continents were locked, it's NC warpgate on Miller, a few days ago)

I dont think they need to be removed, just nerf their number multiplier, i keep saying it, you get hit by a tomcat you cant recive any more dmg from A2A lock ons in the next 10 secs, that would at least give you the chance to take one with you or to try to run.

My initial response to this thread, was more pointing out why gank squads is terrible, when it is litterally the game to gank up and fight it out, it's no different on the ground, find dude, shoot dude kill dude, I never stop to think if I shouldn't just because he might be outnumbered.

Not even having used tomcats or coyotes to any extent I do however agree on the point that A2A lock ons is not something I would have added to the game. It might not be a bad idea (I see a lot of people defending them) but it does remove a whole aspect of learning as I don't buy the whole "It's to get people in to the airgame". Doesn't seem to help me much, sure I can kill people with Tomcats, but as soon as I unequip them I'm as ****** as I was before. But that is a whole other discussion I guess.

So the problem isn't actually gank squads, it's the efficiency of gank squads coupled with lock on rockets. I understand the frustration now.

Every time I hear about 'a2a gank squads', it's always scythes. Rarely mosquitoes, and never reavers. Why is that?

lol welcome to the deterrent system.

Moin

I do play more as Infantry than I fly, so I know my part about the ground-gameplay . It's difficult to compare infantry gameplay to ESF gameplay. ESF ganksquads aren't simply "airzergs". They actually are quite different, because those ganksquads are usually organised. Imagine a platoon of infantry players who do nothing else but redeploy into 24vs24 battles and end the fight in a couple of seconds with a MAX crash, then redeploy to the next base to do the same. This has happened to me, and it is frustrating to say the least. Some people claim that it's tactics and I respect that point of view. However, to me it's cheese.

I'm not against dedicated A2A wingmounted weapons. But they should offer utility and not replace the nosegun. Coyotes aren't THAT bad imho, they require at least basic aiming skills and you need to move close. It's pretty much like a shotgun in an infantry scenario. Well, maybe they are like the pre-nerf shotguns at the moment . Could use a bit of tweaking (less RoF, longer reload time, lower cert-costs) but overall I can live with them. Lock-ons are frustrating. When you're busy fighting another ESF and you suddenly get the A-lock warning you just feel helpless. No amount of skill and dodging is gonna help you, the moment you see this warning flashing up you KNOW that you'll die. A good player with a nosegun would end me just as quick if not quicker, but I wouldn't have that feeling of utter helplessness and that player would actually have to work for his kill.

Pretty much . I mean, ESF ganksquads are as old as the game, but they became so numerous and annoying because of the lowered skill ceiling, which makes it easier for average - mediocre pilots to compete with good pilots, especially when there's bigger numbers involved.

When I was in the Jesters on Cobalt I flew once or twice with such a ganksquad and the only way you could have fun with this is when you've got fun destroying the fun of other players. It's just stupid. We'd have 2-3 squads with ESFs - only 3-4 competent pilots by the way, we lost more ESFs to reaver-crashing than to the enemy - and just circle the map, destroying each and every airforce the other factions could muster. G2A was irrelevant because we just swept in, destroyed every aircraft in the vicinity and left. It felt neither fun nor rewarding. There was no fight, just a quick gangbang and goodbye. I really can't understand why a sane person would find this fun, really.

Correction: WAS effective.

The enemy has modified their tactics to counter yours. Apparently, the only counter tactic you can think of is "I quit".

Protip: PS2 is a TEAM game. Players that play as a team will win against players who do not.

They have a right to be anywhere on the map they want to be. If you want your air space seured, it is up to your team to do it.

I'll let you in on a little secret, it's called "The Skyguard". You can clear the air space over several hexes simply by pulling 1/2 the number of skyguards compared to their air swarm. Three skyguards, work together can destroy a liberator in under 4 seconds, destroy an ESF in under 2. I am able to solo 2 ESFs in my skyguard, and can even solo aggressive liberators in some cases.

Maybe without the flying rocks part, but without Coyotes and Tomcats? Hell yeah, I'd have no issue whatsoever being outnumbered 5 to 1. Sounds like a fun fight. As it is now, you have people who can't aim getting free damage on you, which pisses me and a number of people, off.

Because 2 scythes and 3 scythes is a ******* gank squad. Connery isn't dealing with 2-3... it's 15-20, all the time. And the only reason they are in any way successful is lockons.

Make ESF controls customizable to get more friendly pilots (and enemies) in the air. Perhaps more of a general ESF presence will possibly buy a few more seconds to survive. Ya know what I'm talking about...Yaw bindable to Mouse-X axis.

EDIT: Otherwise, game is working as intended.

Buff the countermeasures would be a good idea. For instance the Hyena tailgunner weapons were supposed to be good against air, but they're lackluster. Sure they can kill a derpy ESF who is flying in a straight line with 2 volleys if all missiles hit, but if you get more than 1 on you it still hurts just because of the lack of refire/reload speed.

Maybe it's time to start making the weapons that are supposed to be "anti" a bit more like that. Make it a bit worth to have a tailgunner if the weapons are actually scary against aircraft.

Exactly what we need, more ******* lockons. How about everyone just learns to aim? Jesus Christ, Walker is HITSCAN now. You don't need lockons.

Actually on Emerald Mosquito swarms are the largest and Reaver ganks are the most frequent (QRY and one other outfit do it quite regularly).

Air squads have always existed Scavenger, though some may complain of their existence the majority of the hate is directed towards A2AM and Coyotes dependent air squads. These weapons allow pilots of the lowest skill level to do considerable damage to any enemy they meet, as long as they can look at them and left click. To put it in perspective just imagine a rifle that has an auto aim feature that infantry only had to look in your general direction for a head shot. I'm sure we can all imagine how lively Reddit and these forums would become if Infantry-side had to share our pain with lock ons.

A2AM mechanics are so widely despised mostly because of the hopeless scenario they create in the air, before a good pilot could take on multiple lesser skilled pilots in air combat and have a chance to come out on top. This was due to the skill ceiling that came with mastering the ESF. But with the buffs of the A2AM and addition of Coyotes this skill ceiling has been destroyed by allowing weapons systems that require such minimal levels of competence to remove pilots who have played for hundreds if not thousands of hours. So from my perspective and my experience with many other pilots it isn't the team work or even large numbers of air craft that these "gank squads" operate with, it is the prolific use of A2AM and Coyotes that strip all forms of skill and competitiveness from the air game. Where once skill would carry the day in air combat it is now more reliant on numbers and usage of broken lock on mechanics, which drives players away.

There are 3 in each pic (look more closely to the middle) that render from within the NC warpgate. And they don't even control the surrounding area, just flying deep within the enemy territory far away from the frontline.

I don't really see the problem to be honest.
Gank squads in enemy territory have been part of the game for who knows how long, and not only with air vehicles (AV max squads, AV Harasser squads..). And even if the devs would for some reason decide to remove this kind of teamplay from the game how on earth are they supposed to do that lol?

Got killed by Ganksquad, grab couple of friends and ganked the ganksquad, as simple as that

Burberry and Tacksuits .... in the air

That's why.


In other news.... We were supposed to be getting the next phase of the leadership Mission objective this winter that would have allowed those with the directives or whatever to create a mini-alert in the hex where Air reinforcements were needed which could in theory be used to counter a "gank squad" if enough people on the map responded around the same time. That's probably delayed now that the guy who was working on it left, but there's still likely to be a similar functionality added anyway given that they don't have much else to schedule now days.