If a player maxes out the "Vehicle Stealth" cert tree, then in my opinion it'd be a good idea to give ESF a quick dash of invisibility by using a utility key. This way, dogfights can end with a pilot turning invisible for a brief moment, and getting away. This invisibility would elude the dog fight radar. This would solve the massive problem of having an ESF behind you spelling out death 9 times out of 10. Running should be an option, and invisibility would aid in that. Maybe like 10 seconds of invisibility and a 60 second recharge. Rockets that have locked will continue to follow the target.
No. I don't know if rockets can be made to keep locking onto stealth things, but as it stands now with the wraith flash as soon as they cloak the rocket is lost. This would make G2A launchers useless against them. Even then I don't want invisible guided hornets with the only indication being the hit marker.
they unleashed this monstrosity to us in PS1 as the "phantasm" and gave it a 12mm rotary - it was quickly found to be OP and they removed the weapons from it. Its still was OP as it than became the Kamikaze overkill machine -
You wouldn't be able to shoot when cloaked. Just run, or dive bomb. It'd work like turning the ESF into an infiltrator. Rockets would still lock and continue to follow a target. That's what the decoy flares are for anyways.
If anything, the Valkyrie could get the cloak. Its weapons are so weak that getting ambushed wouldn't be too scary, but it might make a 2-man Valk combat viable. It would probably have to get its hefty nosegun resistances nerfed, in that case, and probably be made unusually vulnerable to collision damage, to preempt invisible ramming machines.
Anyone remember that bug when the Cloak Flash was released and the Infiltrator could jump in any other vehicle and cloak it? That was and still is the best bug SOE introduced to the game.
There are other ways to solve that problem that would fix other ones at the same time, like making an area a certain distance behind enemy lines off limits. It would be a safe place to run to, and gank squads would no longer be an issue.
The OP's goal is to create a better escape mechanism for aircraft. I think I have a better idea: Updated aircraft frames. Currently Hover Frame conquers all as Hover Fighting and Reverse Maneuver, both the result of bad background mechanics and bugs, are the top maneuvers to pull off and give an enormous advantage. Dogfighting is simply eclipsed, and racer frame has a few uses but is still sub-par compared to Hover Frame. We can change that. Elevating Hover Fighting and Reverse Maneuver to actual features aside we can change how each frame affects the aircraft. Racer Frame: You get very high acceleration and a higher maximum speed, but slow deceleration. It's turn ratio isn't stellar but becomes better as it gains more speed, meaning that at maximum speeds it's much more nimble than the other aircraft. This frame gets the lowest ascend/descent power. Dogfighting frame: Good acceleration and deceleration, this airframe has "normal" turn ratio's at low and maximum speeds, but in between these speeds it's turn ratio's are much higher. This frame gets the middle ground ascend/descent power. Hover Frame: A lowered maximum speed and acceleration, but the fastest deceleration time of all airframes. Also gets the best ascend and descend abilities regardless of it's speed. Still the king of RM and Hover Fighting it will also get an increase in turn ratio's when going slowly but a decrease in turn ratio's when going fast. What will this do to the airgame? Racer Frames can become Fighter-Bombers in highly dangerous territory. Their speed allows them to quickly enter an area, bomb a target and get out. In A2A combat they are designed to fly in, engage a target at high speeds (lower speeds makes them vulnerable) and be gone, then turn around for another pass. Dogfighting frame can use quick acceleration and deceleration to avoid both the other frames. Against Racer it can quickly outmaneuver it and get away from the crosshairs, then try to engage it as it passes or seek cover before it returns. It's a good frame for quick attacks where you turn around for another pass quickly. Hover Frames are the suppressive turrets in the sky they've always been. Capable of hovering around and acquiring targets with their low-speed agility, and doing easy pop-up attacks by utilizing cover and popping back down again. When flying fast and engaged by other air they can quickly slow down, ascent/descent to avoid incoming fire and do unimaginable turns to retaliate while his opponents are still trying to decelerate. Because it has trouble chasing the other two frames it needs to rely on it's ability to hide in every crook and cranny, or try and combat enemies by using Hover Fighting and RM to gain an advantage as they attack.
no. just no. Considering the level of farming ESF's already do, giving them the ability to turn invisible would open up so many other ways to make people rage. Vanguards blocking the zerg? send a mosquito stealth suicide squad. AA would become even more difficult.
I actually like the idea. That would allow someone to actually get away from those lock on spammers or those 1/12 galaxys that try to farm esfs like there is nothing else to do in this game. Also it would work well for suprise attacks, allowing you to take that one shot before flak shredds you to pieces. However I would make the invisibility time 18seconds and the cooldown something like 2-4 minutes so that it will not be used to constantly annoy infantry that want to take you down cause you farmed them for the last 30 minutes.
Thank you for recognizing that. Your ideas make a lot of sense as well, and I could get behind their implementation. I'm just tired of trying to accomplish anything in an ESF, and having the end result be another ESF chase me down. Two ESFs are generally going to be going the same speed because they'll both be using the hover frame. The aircraft in the back is going to have a massive advantage, every time. During the chase, during an attempted reverse manuever, during the awkward stages of retaliation. There's not really a run option, even if you are a skilled pilot. Maybe ESF cloaking isn't such a good idea. I don't know, that was the first solution I could think of to let somebody run if they wanted to. Maybe something like solar flares would work. Maybe if you are flying away you can hit a utility key and dump the equivalent of a flash grenade that would only blind other pilots in air vehicles. You get like 2 at the most to deploy, and they float in the air for a moment before blinding the pilot behind you (and any other pilots chasing them). Maybe it could be used offensively too, to blind those OP lib pilots and hoping they crash. I don't see how giving ESFs flash grenades could be seen as that OP, esspecially if they just blind other pilots.
