[Suggestion] Creative Skyguard Changes

Honestly, the skyguard seems pretty good to me. I wouldn't mind maybe a slightly tighter CoF or a small buff to projectile velocity, but it does its job quite well.

Or maybe a "point defense mode" that tightens the CoF a lot but disables the proximity trigger, for engaging targets that are on the ground or getting in your face.

How about making the Lightnings top armor worth using, increase the damage a lightning can take against aircraft using top armor and then maybe the issue might resolve itself

Yeah, thats the right direction. The problem with kobalt are outside skyguard.

My ap lightning can hold off several mbts in a mid range engagement, and ive seen other ap lightnings pull the same thing on the other side. Throw the stats aside, the lightning has a low profile and fast acceleration. Mbts just plain cant do the maneuvers a lightning can do. I can hit mbts at a medium range and give them a tiny moving hitbox to return fire at. In this part im worried because were giving a great AT platform great AI abilities on top of it. This puts MBTs to shame.

My viper lightning is the best ai on the field. Any ai engagement turns into a farm. Mbts dont pull kobalts because for all that cost they could have just pulled a 1-man lightning which already does the job better and cheaper. We put a kobalt on top of this? It will get nerfed. The viper was already nerfed because its ai was too strong, and it wont take much to put it over again.

If we wanna do a secondary, what id like is a short range single shot launcher. No crazy damage, just a decent splash launcher that can hurt infantry and tanks alike with a decent aoe. One shot.
This supports hit and run tactics and gives the lightning better alpha damage.

The other suggestion, 15% reload speed buffs. Lightnings only get 10%. All other vehicles get 15%. I would love for them to fix this oversight.

increase armor, remove rear damage - make is strong as Sundered for aircraft.

Light tank doesnt need to have sundy levels of armor. Light tank players need to l2p light tank role.

its not about tank, its only about SKYGUARD. how came that i can kill it with rocket pods and be alive after all?!

Was more specically thinking about the skyguard turret as opposed to the whole vehicle in itself, and a low-capacity kobalt at that. Something along the lines of 30-40 rounds per magazine, with 150-200 in reserve at base.

You can't really buff the skyguard against infantry (accuracy being the big one) without also improving AA performance, especially at range. Putting another weapon in like the (low-capacity) kobalt would allow modest AI capabilities without being too much for the vehicle.

Because that player is a scrub. It takes several esfs to do this to any competent skyguard. Skyguard ttk is faster then pods, pods additionally have to be aimed and the skyguard doesnt. Skyguard is aoe.

Skyguard doesnt need armor. It needs to l2p. Stop sitting there eating pods.

No, adding a new weapon relates to the lightning. Buffing the skyguards ai relates to the skyguard. Very easy to buff ai. More damage vs ai. Done.

The ap cannon is very similiar to the skyguard and theres no reason to buff only the skyguard with a new gun.

Im not against adding low yield secondaries though, however, balance has to be considered between all turrets.

Guys, this thread is about neat ideas to change the Skyguard. If you like it how it is, don't post. If you think it's too good, suggest a way to change it to make it different.

Stop saying why it is good/bad/correct where it is, and start coming up with ideas like this thread was supposed to be about. If you don't contribute ideas then you're not brainstorming ways to change it.

Another idea:
- Alternate fire modes for the Skyguard to swap between accurate AI ammo and the current flak. Swapping firemodes forces a reload.

any pilots is more scrub then SKYGUARD user

What are you trying to say here, can you please elaborate?

im sat here, reading peoples comments and wondering.

'are there 2 things in this game called "Skyguard" ?'

lets be pretty clear, Skyguard does in no way require a buff of any kind. air is already completely powerless against my skyguard when I use it. i can clear the area of 3-4 aircraft alone provided liberators are in short supply.

the reason? I use stealth on my lightning. most players are SO reliant on the minimap to show them were enemies are, I have often pulled a Skyguard right under an air attack forces nose while they are shooting the base i pulled it from. after that, they are just free kills, completely oblivious, because im not showing up on the map. they will all die.

playing any ground vehicle at all without stealth and you are just offering up your corpse to the air as a free farm. with stealth, it is entirely different, ESFs just hanging over a base farming will die to my skyguard long before they decide to pull out.

however even with stealth you are still susceptible to liberators, which is why after you clear an area of air, you mustnt remain in exactly the same place you were in when you did so. because after you move maybe 100-200m away and reposition, sure enough you will see that liberator you just shoo'd away come flying in from where your 6 would have been at the location you were just at, looking for you, you can then proceed to blast him again, and he will be forced to leave again, and then again you must also change position or become its food.

basically you have to play smart or get wrecked.

I wont even talk about using skyguards on tanks, because skyguards are back row fighters, the most you should have to deal with are roaming harrassers, most of which are also running stealth, and if you are too its a level playing field, dont be tunnel visioned and you will kill it, or at least shoo it away long enough to regroup yourself.

https://www.reddit.com/r/planetsidearmor/comments/3a3k14/stealth_skyguard_indepth/
I could use the input of another competent skyguard driver.

This man understands the skyguard.

Honestly dude why do you need skyguard? because if two good pilot on emerald can't take down your skyguard together, i sugest you to just go out, shot esf with your carbine and let people who face real air fighter talking about skyguard...

Oh man, that's a nasty head injury you sustained whilst trying to make a point. Get better soon.

I'm more worry about you since you think you can kill 2 good esf pilots together with your stat, or you gone have to come on cobalt show me how great you do, i can't wait to see that...

All AA weapons have 2 problems from my point of view.
1: They scale bad, they go from no power against aircraft to overpowered against aircraft.
2: They have skill-reducing mechanics. This causes the bad scaling and other problems. You can't make flak like the Skyguard powerful because nearby aircraft are tough to miss, and it's unfair to aircraft if you can destroy them simply because they are close.

Which brings me to what I would do for all flak-based weapons:

• Reduce the range at which it explodes from the current distance (5m?) to 0,5m. This means you need to fire a lot closer to actually hit.
• Tighten up the COF
• In case of the Burster MAX, reduce damage against infantry to prevent it becoming too good against them due to the improved COF, but an improvement isn't bad. The Skyguard can remain the same, it's vulnerability against any other vehicle are balancing factors.
• Since it has just become a lot harder to hit aircraft, and you'll need a lot better aim and tracking skill to damage them, a damage increase is possible. The flak weapons can now kill aircraft, but aircraft can use evasive maneuvers to avoid damage better due to the decreased distance of flak explosions.

These changes should help make all flak weapons skill-based. Aircraft should be able to fly in any battle, big or small, with less problems. With skill a single aircraft can fly over 8 Skyguards and 4 Burster MAX's without getting hit once, on the other hand, a high-skill Skyguard could potentially blow you apart.

Lock-on AA missile launchers should get a change as well. Rather than "aim, hold aim, lock, fire, reload" with little to no skill these weapons should get the following changes:

• Closer aim for lock. Rather than the lock already starting when you are simply aiming near aircraft, you'll need to aim closer to their center to be able to get a lock. We are talking about close enough that a single unexpected maneuver can destroy your lock on the vehicle.
• After the missile is fired, lock-on needs to be maintained, if you stop aiming the missile will stop locking and fly straight on.
• You can fire the missile without a lock. If you get a lock the missile will go for the target. You can switch targets or re-lock should you have lost your lock on a vehicle.
• Shorter lock-on time to 0,5 seconds or so. Seeing aircraft can break the lock with a single maneuver and LOS has to be maintained, this is almost a requirement.

More skill required because of LOS requirement and needing to aim closer, but better able to deal quick damage or surprise-damage due to the ability to re-acquire a lock, fire in advance or fire instantly when an aircraft is in sight rather than having to wait for a lock.

Lastly, we need a division in AA weapons. We need specific ESF killers and big-aircraft killers.
Skyguard becomes an ESF killer, as well as the Bursters and Rangers.
Lightning and MAX's get another AA weapon without flak. These shells are slower and harder to use against ESF, but deal more damage than the altered Flak weapons, their damage is especially high against Valkyries, Liberators and Galaxies. The shell velocity is slow enough that even Liberators can evade them with a good maneuver at relatively close distances.

Also another addition: MBT primary AA weapons. Think of a Viper canon but without bullet drop. No flak. The shell velocity and perhaps turret speed make this weapon tough to use against ESF unless they are hovering, incredibly powerful against large aircraft. You do lose a ton of power against ground vehicles ofcourse.

Yeaaaah I don't think so. Your entire suggestion is a complete nerf to the Skyguard. That would literally make it useless. So much so you could look under the definition of "Useless" and simply see a picture of a skyguard.