Air Defense Shields are total !!!BS!!!

Happens to me yesterday evening, shy shields can be overloaded by shooting at it. 2-3 lockdown prowlers did it. (But i saved the HIVE with my MAX's shield )

Actually, my observation ever since coming back to this game is that very few people actually bother to shoot at aircrafts even in big fights, I was a bit surprised especially during double XP week there were swarms of ESF's from the other faction and I only saw 1 or 2 AA's shooting at them. Alot of weapons on vehicles can't point that high up to the sky and a lot of players don't realize they can shoot at ESF's with their infantry weapons. One reason why I picked up both Gorgons for my MAXes, so I can deal with air while dealing with ground at the same time, not many people seem interested in being dedicated to watching the sky but if I see threat from the sky I'm switching to anti air as soon as possible because no one else really seems to bother and even at full flak armor ESF's shred you apart.

How about this: Defender shots can go through the shield, but at reduced damage?

50% reduced damage is already a lot, but considering the tactic you just described a 10% reduction would do.

EPIC!!!
You sir are credit to the Conglomerate.
Anyone who puts themselves infront of Prowler shells to tank the damage must have balls the size of Pluto.

Ah yes. Beg until something gets easier. Please turn our Fs and Ds into Cs!!!

Trump 2016.

You sir get a like. I never thought to use Aegis like that.

Everyone in this thread should take note. Its this outside the box thinking you all need to be doing. Not complaining to the devs to code out a problem you all can solve yourselves.

Well, it is a GIT GUD reply, because that's what the OP needs to do: GIT GUD. This isn't an issue of skywalls being overpowered, merely an issue of someone who apparently up to now had no idea he could literally fly through it.

That's called weapon choice buddy. Every ground vehicle except the flash can equip weapons that can shoot up at planes. If you didn't equip one then you are sacrificing the ability to combat air for more ground killing power. Planes, while having much fewer weapons restrictions, still have to choose between more air kill power and more ground kill power.

This ridiculous idea you have that cover only counts for ground if it approximates a roof is myopic. ANGLES MATTER. More so for dodging plane fire than anything else because the plane has to move in line with their guns (bombers excepted.) Here is an example, get next to an object that is somewhat taller than the ground vehicle, forcing planes to come in at a different angle, forcing them to stop firing at you and move to even get into that angle while getting shot by everyone else in the area as well as you if you are equipped with an AA gun) is absolutely absurd. Your argument has been shown to be demonstrably wrong (probably) due to your hate and bias -- we are done.

I personally would not argue to make Skyshields easier to kill. The concept of air cover is a good thing. I just think being 1 way is not acceptable. Air is already the most marginalized troop type being able to participate (effectively) in the fewest number of battles while overly dominating the one type of fight they can get into. Mechanics that push this mean Air is going to farm small fights more, piss more people off, and be more angry themselves because they can't play in the big fights unless their side has an already overwhelming advantage (which is, also, not so fun.)

This is sometimes true. In my experience, rarely. You cannot fault planes for ground players not using the tools that they have as crappy as they are you don't need many to kick planes out. As it stands, in a 48 player fight, if 6 people, just six, pull AA stuff -- enemy planes can no longer affect the battle. They can (sometimes) fly through it without dying -- but they can't stick around to kill anything -- without dying themselves.

Again -- that's a player failing -- not a plane or AA issue.

I came really close to agreeing with you. And in some aspects, I still do. I'm the first to say that AA sources when added together make air obsolete in many cases.

However...

The reason I don't agree here is due to the Effort that goes into a skyshield. Air has a unique ability to traverse the map in a 3rd dimension. It also can do so very quickly. So that means you can Prevent the ANT from even get the corium or destroy the skyshield and/or its builders before it comes online.

If you allow the skyshield to come online in the first place. You should have an uphill fight. I get that many build bases under the radar and don't Hive it until the base is mostly complete and online.. but it is the duty of SOMEONE in your faction to be on patrol and alert others. And its the duty of LEADERS to take said alert and have their subordinates do something about it.

You can't compare a ESF or Lib to a Skyshield. That skyshield took alot more effort to place than pulling an air vehicle at a warpgate.

... and is technically seen a Buguser.

Yeah, real credit to the Conglomerate.

In an experiment to confirm the posts in this thread. I took 2 fully manned AP/Halberd prowlers. Locked down above a VS base by the crown on Connery, blew threw 2 skyshields and the Hive shield inevitably killing the HIVE. As a prowler driver that thought that these shields were impervious to all attacks and wasted WAaaaayy too much time trying to get angles on the HIVE... I am very excited...

-PROWLING INTENSIFIES-

If a sky shield is effective at blocking aircraft fire, the sensible thing is to get on the ground and try something else.

HIVE shield went down, a gate keeper was sitting on the hill, shooting at will. I saw the core shield goes down! I was triyng to tank some damage with my little engie body. Run to the sundy,!!!! I tought, get your MAX suit. (picked the first loadout comming, was burster max )
Jumped on the HIVE and crounched shield up in front of the core. An engie repairing me. It turns into a Mickeal Bay movie. Explosions everywhere. But I hold it for ages (hold the door!!!).

(Until some dickheads switchs to their NC account to drop tank mine everywhere in the area. That's how we lost this base...)

What are you talking about?

"Swaps the Phoenix with the Unreal Tournament Redeemer"

What are you guys complaining about? Ah yes, you are just begging until something gets easier. Please turn our Fs and Ds into Cs!!!

Trump 2016.


Or if you didn't get that: You can't deflect by saying people just want easy mode. If a weapon is OP or UP compared to it's counterparts it needs balancing. You can't say "well git gud" if the enemy can be just as good with half the skill despite using the ES counterpart of that weapon (or weapon combination in MBT cases).
Your logic is the same as saying "well no single game ever needs balancing patches, because you just need to git gud". If you ever designed games then Every. Single. One. Would. Flop.

Honestly i think the skyshield was designed out of fear.

Not for balance but purly out of the developers fear, that their construction feature, which took a lot of work to complete could possibly be annihilated during the crucial early weeks of launch.

Just remember how much more air was in the game when the construction system launched.
Part of it were returning pilots that wanted to check it out BUT the majority i think were people that felt using an esf or liberator gives them the reach and freedom to actually find and engage in base battles early on.


It's a bit sad but the truth is we generally make up our mind about something rather quickly ... so the skyshield was needed to help prevent a bad first impression/reaction for/from the guys that actually took the time to grind and build a base.


Now long term, it's utter bul*sh*t and needs to change.


I personally (and that's as a pilot, so take it with a grain of salt) would love to see 2 types of shields.

1. The base protection bubble
Basically what we have now ... just that it works both ways ... so nothing in and nothing out.
Maybe increase the damage it does (or should do) the longer you are actually piercing the shield.
Meaning, if you risk it as an esf and dodge trough and under the shield you only take by comparison a tiny amount of damage BUT that get's compensated by the fact that you are now basically hugging the ground and a very easy and mostly immobile target.

On the other hand if you try it with a lib or gal you are on borrowed time, the damage you take should quickly ramp up and making more than a single salvo if not impossible at least a very risky action.


2. The "mobile" bubble of doom
I would love it if we had a tool slot that allows for a very small but effective bubble within the bases range.
This bubble would have the same mechanics as we have now and even take a "generator" building to provide the zone where it could work.

You pay some energy and can deploy a small bubble that not only protects you and squaddies that huddle up BUT allows to fire from below.
This shield should have a very short duration ... maybe 5seconds and a 1-2 second deploy time.
Ideally this would be used to make a bridge between cover for your guys to run back to their defensive positions and work as a reaction mechanic to an incoming esf or lib.

It wouldn't save you every time, but give you a few precious seconds to either get out or defend.

Plus it would allow for a more mobile approach to breaking a siege ... if the guys definding are well organised.

Eh no. Skyshields were designed to prevent Galaxy drops becoming instant-wins against fortresses. Just fly over the center of a HIVE, drop your load and tear the base apart with 12 guys before they can protect it.
Additionally they were designed to prevent a few aircraft from tearing it up. A Liberator and a few ESF shouldn't completely curbstomp these bases. In fact considering the amount of ground forces needed it would be bad if a mere 10 aircraft could blow any base to smithereens.
So they designed Skyshields to be pretty damn durable and damage any enemy unit that passes through. These fortresses took time and effort to build, they were supposed to take time and effort to destroy.

That sounds reasonable, except that it would allow Gal Drops to be pretty devastating since the infantry would barely get any damage.

That can be solved of course by simply giving infantry a high starting damage, they aren't supposed to hang about inside the shield anyway. One problem though is how to deal with aircraft in this case: While the shield is up it protects the aircraft who could be wearing the shield down. Then when that shield pops they can wreak havoc, get out of there in time and return (if the shield doesn't regenerate and protect the aircraft from the AA below again).

Maybe a better solution is to reduce the damage from any weapon that moves through the shield. If it deals 10 to 50% damage it is enough to warn enemy aircraft and prevent them from having an easy time picking off anything that tries to get a shot at them when they peek out from under the shield while not instantly being ultra-deadly despite the aircraft not being able to retaliate.

I would rather add a variety of utility-shields with different resource costs and power. The shields have health and can be broken, unless you destroy the generator the shield will simply regenerate after a while. All shields block all fire from all directions. The goal would be that there are no bubble-shields, allowing a flank attack to directly destroy the generator and with it the shield. None of the shields block people from walking/driving/flying through them.

One against vehicles and explosives, so it doesn't stop infantry fire but it does stop aircraft MG's and other weapons that can damage tanks. handy for engineers on the battlefield to place and use as cover while they repair or if they need some impromptu cover to pop up from behind. Also handy for infantry that try to advance despite vehicle fire. Can be placed as a rampart wall so you can turn it and place it from a safer position.

Three against infantry. Good to protect against grenades and small-arms fire but collapses quickly when faced with AV weapons (if it stops them at all). Has less total health but is good for placing your own cover.
One is a full-body cover to hide behind. One is a low cover that hides you if you duck but allows you to fire over it when standing. One is a shield facing upwards to protect from infantry attacks from above.

One against aircraft. Places a low shield (as high as a Sunderer) facing upwards to protect you from attacks from above. Combined with a vehicle shield you can potentially box yourself in although a small area-denial range will keep small gaps between the shields that players can still fire through.

You're looking for excuses, and then humiliating yourself by begging for them to be valid.

Sorry, but when you graduate into big-boy-pants land, that's how you'll be seen. You should act on the fore-warning (this forum) now.

Good god you aren't ready for big boy pants for the next 50 years are you? You make zero attempt to even come up with an argument and just try to attack people hoping that will magicaly make you right.

I saw this thread the other day and was inclined to ignore it, despite being a pilot. Honestly, I'm okay with being mostly blocked out, or having limited angles of access to bases as a pilot. I'm not a big ground pounder, so I suppose I couldn't much speak for how effective they are in that way. Today, however, I saw how broken they were against infantry. With proper placement and good AA support, the skyshields pretty much make assaulting a base impossible without drastically overwhelming numbers. Small arms fire literally does not go through or have any effect on the top of the shields, meaning the defenders can shoot you without your being able to retaliate at all. If the terrain is rough and they've placed their base well, they pretty much turn an altitude disadvantage (normally being inside of a pit is a bad tactic) into a huge advantage (you are always exposed when descending a hill).

So, in conclusion, not only can a base be built that is practically inaccessible to ground vehicles, but it can also be made invulnerable to aerial attacks and almost impossible to assault except through a massive simultaneous close air drop. It's ludicrous. The skyshields either need to go, or they need some serious rebalancing, especially in how they affect the non-airgame.