Fix for dissatisfaction with AA

1. Decrease Liberator resistance to flak by 8%
2. Triple air deterrence EXP

More incentive, more damage, more efficacy

You mean make it so no one will pull air and another 200 people leave

Decreasing libs resistance won't change anything for small fights. Libs aren't effective in big fights anyways unless it's a ******** platoon trying to capture a base (generally biolabs landing pads) it's not effective. I am all for aa being more apealing for more players.

Because we need more AA in this game =P

You grossly overestimate the number of pilots still in game.

The air game needs work - both in making it easier to get into, and in making it viable to participate in huge battles. Unfortunately, today's AA presence is the direct result of air being hard to get into and the A2G tools being left too powerful for too long. The only time we see new pilots is when one is too stubborn to give up or the old wave retires out of boredom allowing a new wave a chance to actually get some practice in on each other. Sadly, these waves are like three people big.

Shoot, just allowing an ESF to back up simply pressing [default: S] would make the reverse maneuver or at least faking some horrible mockery of it much easier on new pilots. Won't exactly improve their aim but... I'm sure sky jockeys would shoot even this down though, because they'd rather their precious air game continue to be a minor footnote in Planetside as opposed to an actual selling point. Elitists and apathy will always be the end of any good community driven game, or even portion of a game.

AA itself though I find satisfactory. No, as a lone MAX or HA with a rocket launcher I'm not going to be putting down liberators or even most ESFs. The only way to quickly destroy air cav with flak is with direct hits, and that punishes overly confident ESFs and liberators well enough. I'm fine with this. I want flak to be a deterrent more than a hard counter, just like how tanks are generally the primary means of engaging other tanks. I'm talking of personal experiences with tanks though. DGC has the real numbers.

AA itself is jacked especially with how the G2A launchers are in this game. Flares offer a get out of jail free card, rocket launcher systems launch rockets incorrectly, onboard aircraft instrumentation can apparently pick up rockets before they leave the launcher (as opposed to in flight like every lockon system everywhere). Fix G2A rocket launchers, at least so they actually fire correctly instead of trying to intercept the target upon being launched.

Flak already is a hard detterant. We already have a key for reverse. (AnalogThrottle) İ bind my AnalogThrottle to s. Still reverse is simple anyways you just have to hold down brakes. AnalogThrottle does the same a bit faster. I don't understand what elitist mean can u explain to me??

But-but trying to intercept them was the great plan to balance them.

Very, very few people pull air with any regularity. I think the game's population would benefit if there were no pilots, because far more players stick to infantry/ground vehicles and find aircraft to be extremely frustrating.

Anyways, upping air deterrence exp isn't going to fix "dissatisfaction with AA". No matter how well you reward people for it, AA duty will always be excruciatingly boring and simplistic by its very nature. Nobody wants to spend their time doing that.

So you're saying?:

1) you think Flak (Base AA Turret, MAX Burster, Skyguard) should be more effective at (a) keeping Libs away from areas, and (b) more successful in causing/contributing to Lib deaths.

2) you think more players should be motivated to spawn AA loadouts (or manning AA Base Turrets) and/or do AA. Conversely, motivated players to do less AI and Ground Vehicle spawning/killing.

1. It is to quiet the people saying Skyguard is UP and Libs shouldn't instagib them. Remember, aircraft kills have the same experience points. I'm proposing increasing deterrence experience points so that aircraft will be less likely to attack you and your teammates. And if a Liberator takes more damage, it is more likely to run away.

The main misconception that people have is equating deterrence with kills. Air deterrence ≠ Air kill, and air deterrence is the bigger component to creating a no-fly zone.

2. AA isn't limited to Burster MAXes and AA turrets which "players to do less AI and Ground Vehicle spawning/killing." Actually, far from it. Everyone has access to 2 non-MAX infantry AA weapons: ES lock-on and Annihilator. Right now most people either always carry the default RL or the Decimator without thinking much about it. Decimators are only good for killing vehicles and worst for killing infantry. This should introduce more loadout variety by encouraging HAs to have an AA solution at hand and thinking more about their RL choice. This should not affect infantry gameplay (at least not significantly) and the ground vehicle meta.

If you fire a lock-on at an ESF and you guard 40 people from getting A2G farmed, don't you deserve more credit?

Moreover, a lot of people (including me) don't even own a Skyguard because it doesn't pay itself off. This should change that.

the flak damage increase is unnecessary because it already scales extremely well, comes for free with the exceptions of burster #2 and skyguard, and can be fired out of spawn shields along with G2A lock ons. you get the point of that? there is ZERO counterplay against people in spawnrooms, they don't even have to risk their free infantry, their infinite ammo, nor their sub 1.0 KDR. jesus, if the MAX wants to go outside and tank some damage, his engineer buddy doesn't even need to wait for the cooldown on the repair gun because he can simply exploit the resupply terminal to remove it.

increasing deterrence xp is a good suggestion, i don't disagree with that. people actually deserve a steady tic of passive xp gain just for idling in an AA unit when they could be doing anything else. but with flak in particular, it's already excluding air players from the big fights that the game promises as its main selling point. i think that's the main factor that keeps people from playing air, honestly. they try it, they might even get good enough to win some air to air or rocketpod some guys without dying on the first pass or hitting a tree or a flak trap on the way out. but then they realize it's a dead end unless they want to grind the same 2 playstyles solely because they have a real passion for it. it's not the skill floor or the challenge of fighting the handful of top A2A players. otherwise high skill floor games in general wouldn't be a thing, and they are. and compared to some of the more punishing past and present high-skill floor games, Planetside 2 A2A is light work and comes with a built-in camaraderie that i haven't really seen in any other PVP or MMO game. just show some interest to someone who beats you, be polite and sportsmanlike, and they will most likely take time away from their own playtime to help you.

with regard to A2A i can see having that passion to play even though you have no place in the main game, precisely because of that high challenge level and that camaraderie. with A2G, you basically just have to be a troll or a total ***** to have a passion for that (or you're doing directives and that's not really your fault.) i personally view A2G as a necessary thing that's done to keep stragglers and flankers herded into the 96+ fights or clean up ninja cappers in otherwise unattended lanes. it's not really fun though. the only fun A2G is pushing the limits in high pop areas, taking hardened and well defended vehicle targets to help the ground guys push into a facility or break an attackers hard spawn so friendly ground can push out.

it's actually ironic, when people come here to complain about Libs "ruining small fights." what was actually going on 90% of the time is some guys with a sunderer and MBT were dominating a handful of my friendly noobs in an empty lane, farming the spawn room and acting all tactical. so then the minute someone their own size comes along to chase them off their easy meal, it's time to run to Daddy and cry overpowered.

I play solely infantry and (a little bit) of vehicle roles. I have rarely ever had a problem with air to ground weapons or our selection of AA weapons.

Flak is a hard deterrent when aircraft are close enough for direct hits, where the bulk of the flak damage is done. It's a softer deterrent when just the explosion is doing the damage, but an annoying deterrent. The latter (just the explosion) is still notably dangerous towards ESF, but laughable against liberators. I'm talking one source here, not half a dozen skyguards/MAXes. Whole new ball game then.

The S key applies breaks, it doesn't let the craft move backwards, in the same way the A and D keys don't let the craft move left or right respectively. It can only move forward, up, or down. Actual backing up or strafing involves orienting the crafts top towards the direction the player wishes to go and applying vertical thrust, so still technically moving up. This however blinds the pilot, as they can't maintain a cross hair on their opponent while backing up - which is practically fatal.

And elitism is if your response to the post you quoted was "the way aircraft controls are fine as is. Get good or keep to the ground, peasant." Obviously, terminology could be more or less aggressive, but the point remains - elitism is essentially the assertion of One's superiority or the assertion of another (often the complainee's) skill being inferior, often both. Elitism and apathy go hand in hand, and if my many years of gaming have taught me anything, apathy kills games that require a player base to be any fun. If One doesn't care if the other guy is having any fun, then that other guy won't care in return, and will go somewhere else for their own fun. This will continue until One is at the bottom of the pecking order and no longer having any fun because now, relatively, they're the scrub getting manhandled by the elite.

The air game is rock bottom as far as I'm concerned. ESF's are non-threats fairly quickly. Liberators take a little resistance before the area becomes a no-fly zone. I lay the blame squarely at the feet of the "sky knights" that refuse to make the air game any easier to get into, thus reducing the number of ESF pilots due to the necessary reliance on too-solid G2A tools because the former intended anti-aircraft measure - other aircraft - just can't be a reality between the difficulty curve in flying and ground targets just being more lucrative and easier to pick off (rocket pods lacking any splash from the start would have prevented the shift towards G2A dominance.)

Basically, the aces dug their grave, and now they get to lay in it. And when they do, we'll get another bunch of entitled sky knights, if still fewer than before because, well... PS2 on the PC ain't growing.

If u bind s key to analog throttle it will make u get in to reverse. Unlike other vehicles maneuvering is a really really big part of the air game play and you can't just put it all to a key bind Because maneuvers are dynamic they change depending on the situation .

As for the making air game easier we have lockons but they are not balanced. Main problem is that air requires things that aren't too significant in groundplaY. Situational Awareness...Maneuvering...Leading...This isn't just for planetside in every game it is the same. I personally don't want these aspects simplified but more tutorials would be nice.

Add some fun alternatives, like the walkguard.

I TOTALLY agree with you on Air deterrence ≠ Air kill. I do AA (as an HA with Annihilator) a LOT, and my mindset is about Air deterrence, not kills. Driving enemy Air from the area, and halting their effectiveness in the battle where I am. And I am very happy with my results. And I also get that most others are not really happy to do AA given the current results and rewards.

It would still lead to more players less capable of killing Ground Vehicles and Infantry. This is not to say it won't be worth it, but it is there.

I agree there should be more of a reward for AA than there currently is. I also think new players should have access to a free G2A Lockon Launcher.

I don't own any Tanks. MBT seems king, but I don't want to have to scrounge around for gunners, and a 1/2 Prowler (that still "a thing"?) seems silly when a 2/2 Prowler is better. I don't play MAX either: again, reliance on others. The more this game progresses, the less you can rely on others (unless you're in an Outfit: no thanks).

if it's balanced for the spam created , yes. reduced damage by 20% at least and remove the ability to fire out of spawn shields. leave the high damage and shield fire for the annihilator. it's just too much to ask with the infinite ammo (terminals, sunderers, spawn rooms, ammo packs) and many sources of fast respawns for the infantry. i think people lose sight of the giant advantage of infantry's population and disposable nature, because they experience being disposable and don't like it. but it is no less powerful for that.

also i think it would be hilarious to give passive xp gain to AA and then hear infantry leaders endlessly moaning about people camping in AA when they should be on the point or whatever. this game is like that, balancewise. you can't make a change without people taking advantage and all sorts of armchair generals getting rustled jimmies at how players play.

There are no flak "direct hits." When a weapon that can deal flak damage is shot at an enemy aircraft, whenever the physical bullet gets into ideal range against the aircraft, the physical bullet vanishes and is replaced by the Flak Burst (explosion) which is what deals damage. The aforesaid bullet, the actual projectile of the weapon, never hits the enemy aircraft. That projectile will, however, hit friendly aircraft, rarely some other ground Vehicles, and Infantry, without exploding into Flak Burst, but it does not perform great damage.

Am I the only person who always carries around an Annihilator whenever I play heavy? I get plenty of Harasser kills and a surprising number of ESF kills with it. I also get a fair number of Sunderers and Lightnings and the occasional MBT. I get assist XP more than I get kills of course, but the number of kills certainly isn't bad. I have the Anchor/Orion/MSW-R to deal with infantry. I can't understand why anyone would ever carry a dumbfire launcher unless they were expecting to run into a MAX at close range. And in that specific situation the empire specific launchers do the job just fine while also providing more flexibility.

When I am not carrying an Annihilator I am carrying a Phoenix or Lancer, or on very rare occasions, a Striker. I never carry a dumbfire launcher.

I also spend a quite a bit of time in a skyguard and I feel that AA, both skyguard and G2A launchers are just fine. I feel that burster MAXs are a bit under powered for their resource cost though. A skyguard is 100 nanites less than a burster MAX and is superior in every way, especially once you have spent some certs to upgrade the skyguard. TR bursters with a few levels of lockdown and extended mags are about as good as a skyguard but they still seem to suffer from a worse CoF and they can't match the upgrades that are available to the skyguard.