Is it possible to make them faster, have less vertical thrust, and still have balance? It's obvious that if they are too fast, people would probably have a hard time reacting to them on time. Also, with current flak velocity, it would be very hard to hit them. These two problems mean that 1. ESF hp should be reduced and 2. flak/lock-on velocities should be increased. Now, the problem with doing the former is that dogfights could end very quickly, while doing the latter would be hell for other aircraft. I do believe that having ESFs that behave more like RL fighters would make the air game more fun, at least for the great majority of players, but then it seems it would be very hard to balance.
I would agree, but am not a pilot. Still I 'd rather have dogfights than hoverfights. Also: if ESF's develop a "stall speed", aiming at ground targets becomes more of a challenge for them as well. One limitation may be the engine; the faster something goes, the faster bullets and missiles need to go.. and at some point, between engine, server and clientside, stuff hits the fan.
this may be so.. but their was an attempt to bring more realistic flight patterns into PS2 some time ago... (attempted removal of reverse maneuver). This was met with 30x+ the amount of flack that the current system has received in the games lifetime. trust me, If you push this one, nothing good will come of it and no change will be made.
Disapproval comes from the people who are already great at flying. These people had the advantage of learning in an environment that caused less frustration. Many people probably want to learn how to fly so they can enjoy more of what PS2 has to offer, but are put off by the steep learning curve and the fact they will be relentlessly murdered by experienced pilots. Edit: That is, only the few who already fly in the game will talk this off because, funnily, they're also very vocal.
so.. to answer that problem you would force at the least half of the current population to conform to a new standard, changing game play and other core functions just to make it a tinny bit easier to enter the sky? Do you know how much would have to change to get a no hover model to work? yes your right, not much would change on the aircraft... but now how and where do I get ammo for this new no hover aircraft? where can i land safely? and to the argument itself... this problem will persist for newer yet unknown generations with aces still ruling the skies as they always have done.... Flying in any game has a similar learning curve. changing how this games curve looks will only fix the problem you and others who share your opinion for a short time. reintroducing it later down the road as someone else fills the shoes you now stand in... the problem is not the game play in any way shape or form, but the persistence of the player. I myself have only begun to enter the flying game, and yes I do get smothered by all the aces... often times to the point I rage quit due to ineffective time spent, recourse loss and warp-gate wolfs... you have told me nothing I don't already know about the game, and I can only see this putting the problem on someone else's shoulders... So how about we try one age old trick that has helped people get into any late game content on any game... group learning and training. EDIT: fixed font size...
The most straight forward path from an overall game play perspective - in my view - is for players to learn how to fly current ESFs. From a marketing perspective, get the SOE ESF version of Higby to create training day programs, teach players how to fly without impacting K/D... Make a thing of it, make it a weekly or monthly program to attract players into an aspect of the game that many find too challenging. That's a little good will which doesn't require code changes or impact balance like requesting a change to physics for all things flying. From my view, Server Smash is a marketing program that focuses on veteran players, a program to focus on the fresh recruits would yield more sales...
I could write up some kind of essey about how different people preffer different flight models, how PS2 is unique while people who preffer a more realistic experience have a ton of alternative games to play, or how much less interesting dogfights would be without the reverese manouver. At the end of the day though, these discussions are all pointless as it's physically impossible for SOE to make ANNy changes to the ESFs speed before they increase render distance/time. Like seriously, have you ever tried to do strafing runs while afterburning? Most of the time your targets pop up AFTER you have already passed them.
Soe actually added that to lower farming. Apparently it "fixed" the problem. I think is was only for Esfs but maybe for the lib too.
Uh, many of us learned back when AA was ridiculously OP and it was difficult to get ANY ground kills, let alone get a streak. Just saying.
making ESF faster has downsides for infantry - lock-ons, and AA will be even more useless then now. maybe make it manual, it will be more difficult but more fun
Aircraft are never going to be good, because most people can't use them, and won't take the time to learn. Knowing this fact compounds their uselessness, there's really just no reason to even bother
