What do new players have as AA options?

Short answer to original post:

Use some bonus certs (650 certs, shame that it is not 250 anymore) to unlock G2A lock-on launcher for heavy assault.

Maybe you won’t kill many ESFs, but you will scare them away and sometimes you may be lucky enough to receive some salty skyknight cries

Here's a better question:
When will Skyguards ever NOT be complete trash unless used en masse? They've been laughable for years now, and yet nothing has ever been done to give them a proper fighting chance against even halfway-decent pilots. Why?

I have more luck taking out aircraft with my AP Lightning/Vanguard for crying out loud. And you know what the worst part is? On top of being barely-effective at taking out aircraft, Skyguards are also ABSURDLY bad at everything else. They can't do jack against infantry unless they're 5 feet away, and their damage to vehicles isn't even worth discussing.

They have none. They are disadvantaged against air units just as they are in most other categories; they lack the versatility of extra suit slots, their abilities and tools are unupgraded, their weapons lack attachments like ammo or barrel mods, they have little capability of constructing defensible HIVEs (a vital strategic asset to winning these days) and they lack powerful and upgraded implants.

Game's always been hostile to new players, it's only becoming moreso, much to its detriment; the game's playerbase has been on a downslope since the new, gougetastic implant system (Mar 30, 2017). See for yourself.

Having to rely on teammates would be all well and fine, but a team with a higher saturation of new players (regardless of skill; and yes, new players can be more skilled than veterans, this should be obvious) will always be more likely to lose due to this.

I've always hoped this would decrease as time went on, not increase. It's not hard to fix, but... well, you know.

Blah Blah Blah.

The devs know that if they gave everybody a lock on rocket air would be worthless and they would have to redesign it... so you get 1 burster arm and nothing else.

That is how they do balance.

Please look at players like n0ot on how to troll harder, you are making a very bad attempt.

If every TR player had a Striker at their disposal every time there was an issue with Air... there would be no issue with air... they simply don't want to spend the certs or pay DBC or are just too stupid to use it.

Maybe you did not play then, or remember Lancer/Striker (or even random lock on) squads... but they were OP broken and took care of any air or armor anywhere. You just don't see them anymore, because the game does not have the organization/player base anymore.

Those things did happen already in game, and they were OP.. they have just worked themselves out due to a diminishing player base.

Your definition of trolling is apparently when anybody says something you don't like... you get an "F". Facts are Facts.

So every single TR on the ground, must have a striker, pull it out at the same time, and aim at the aircraft at once to not have an issue.
That Striker was nerfed, in addition, every soul looking into the sky would be shot to death by the equal number of enemies on the ground, and from the aircraft whom hadn't yet died, or been fired at.

As well, if that is "effective" AA, heaven forbid the enemy isn't aircraft that let themselves be targeted, in a zone where the enemy has tanks & infantry that don't vanish the moment you want to attack the aircraft.
After all, the Striker isn't the grandest thing against tanks or infantry.
And if it takes so many focus-firing just to ward away aircraft... it's broken.

As with that logic, A Max is easily handled by a Knife since all you need is 30 knives or so mobbing the singular Max in a warzone where it isn't the only target.


Like dear lord "If every had an AA load-out, and focus-fired on the fastest thing in the game..."
As that also requires the majority be heavy, have a specific launcher, and all ignore everything else.
Lunacy.

They are too stupid to use it.

Count all the heavies around you who are not gonna use their launcher and you know every single one of them actively decides to NOT equip a G2A launcher (which everyone with a month of playtime should have) in case of an A2G attack.
Even if aircraft is not killed, if it has to flee and repair you got rid of it for a minute or more with 6 seconds of effort.

Despite all the complainers, whiners etc. the ground rarely is getting farmed by superior aircraft.
Its the ground who decides to get farmed instead of doing something about it.
Mostly because if a single planetmans can't imediately create a sparkly explosion out of an ESF NO planetmans at all is bothering because they decided by themselves its not worth it.
Which leads back to the beginning with said planetmans complaining about getting farmed....

Are you honestly going to carry an G2A launcher rather than any useful launcher, just so the done-in-a-second air attack that you can't predict, and are not 24/7 but ground vehicles are, just so you can pray someone else also has the G2A launcher randomly without any aircraft to warrant using the Launchers that are only effectively used for G2A?

Yeah, seconds of effort if facing the proper direction, that the aircraft doesn't have flares, and didn't manage to simply outrun the missiles or shoot you dead during the lock-on.

Aircraft is less common, however every time the much faster aircraft which can travel the entire map and come from any direction, angle and height appears, it has the firepower to take any target that including dedicated AA that isn't in a cluster.
Any vehicle can't achieve the same, let alone against AV - Singular AV is dangerous to singular ground vehicles.
Unlike aircraft.

Ah yeah, it's the people whom aren't geared for the more uncommon air assault that they can not affect not the godly chariots that can pick the fights they want.

Yes, thats what I'm saying.
I can kill a MAX just as well with my grounder as with my standard launcher.
And what are those oh-so-dangerous ground vehicles gonna do? Stare really mean at the indestructible base walls I'm behind?
If a vehicle goes in there a launcher is the wrong tool, leave it to the C4 fairies.

I have little trouble with vehicles either way. You seem to be pretty troubled by them.
One of us seems to do it wrong.

Lock-on launchers are stronger than decimators vs sunderers, the most common vehicle heavys fight.

If you ever leave the base, they will Kill you.
Or go on a hill, and kill you - After all, the inside of those walls isn't free from vehicles nor where Aircraft is only going to attack.

Ah yes, so every LA is to have C-4, and every Heavy is to ignore the majority of Launchers for AA.

The most common vehicle I fight is Lightnings.
The second is Sunderers, Followed by MBTs.

ESFs have this lovely habit of invaliding Lock-ons more often than not.
As well, why in hell do we have Launchers if all Heavies are expected to only have G2A launchers, and rely on every single heavy to ignore everything but aircraft?

I'm guessing you two are pilots, whom run flares.
Given you both seem to think Heavies should only run G2A lock-ons, and mystically all manage to notice, track, and lock-on to the most agile target which gets a warning about the lock, and aren't not only able to kill you, but disrupt the lock, and aren't the only enemy to face.
Aircraft can be upon you in a second, and kill an entire squad before you can even turn around.
Your launcher ain't worth crap.

I am a pilot, but I don't run flares:
http://ps2.fisu.pw/cert/?name=Lodertria&page=9
http://ps2.fisu.pw/cert/?name=QuizicalExpresion&page=7
http://ps2.fisu.pw/cert/?name=LayZboy&page=8&extend=285

It's really hard to run flares when you've only got them unlocked on 1/3rd of your characters, and even the 1 that does it's only rank 1 from when A2A missiles was the cancer everyone run.

Oh the hardship.
Try fighting ESFs from the get-go, with every possible disadvantage let alone on new characters.
We don't have a mystical Immunity to a weapon, that we can trigger at will.

But hey, ESFs also have the built-in boost, or the automated repairs, or can use Fire-suppression.. at the same time.
So what was that about if everyone focused on G2A Launchers, and focused-fired on every singular aircraft like they were never doing anything else & aircraft were slow, aircraft wouldn't be a problem? As I haven't mentioned Liberators yet.

It's almost as if I don't have/run flares out of choice, rather than not having access to it. You made an incorrect assumption and failed at it.

And yes, if infantry did decide to take care of aircraft they can totally remove them from the fight, you know like how it is now? How many aircraft stick around once the G2A or Flak goes beyond 2 people doing it? That's right none because it becomes a no fly zone. They don't though because "eh some-one else will do it" is the general attitude towards AA until they start getting killed by a vehicle of any kind, in this case Air vehicles.

Oh and if you're having troubles with libs or galaxys, use the masamune rocket-launcher, it totally shreds them. You do have to aim though which requires some aiming skills & some certs, although this is apparently too much to ask.

It's almost as if you have the option to run it or not: Something apparently anyone with any way to have AA weaponry must not have.
Given they must have the G2A option only & always - but aircraft can choose flares or not.

Oh you mean by literally having to focus-fire with all available units using dedicated specialized counters to singular aircraft?
That takes around 5-24+ soldiers with AA focus-firing, praying for no liberators.
Guess what, 2-4 AV can deny main battle tanks.

If a tank engages an opponent, it's either die or kill if they can't outrun it - Which is 50-50, if they go to close.
Aircraft can disengage even 2 meters from dedicated counters.

How many aircraft bother with a fight that has any G2A if they can visit any fight on the map in a matter of seconds?
Easier kills, given that not only can you not predict them coming, they can attack & retreat before anyone can react.

Ah yes, the guided quad-launcher, which makes you stationary.
Praying the aircraft doesn't move or notice the low velocity globes pin-pointing your location.
And pray it doesn't just rise up, avoiding it entirely - Or press fire-suppression while unloading or moving.

Apparently it's too much to ask for aircraft to need any help from the ground, or to specialize; Or to need numbers.

But ordering all ground units to focus-fire on singular aircraft after dedicating themselves to ineffective AA weaponry that requires groups, has direct counters to, and renders them horridly vulnerable to all other ground units is well within reason.

A singular ESF needs more support to damage, than a singular Lightning Tank.
Which is the closest ground vehicle to the ESF that is solo.
The ESF which has more weapons in one guy's hand than any ground vehicle.

A solo liberator is miles more dangerous than a Solo MBT, which can be killed by Tank mines.

If this is what you actually think how many people it takes to kill air units then there's no hope at all. 24+ people? ******* lol.
Try getting 2 of your friends together and lock onto ESF's with the lock-on launchers. You'll find out that you can insta-gib them.
If you want to take it to the next level grab 3 burster maxes and completely deny even galaxies from coming towards a base of
your choosing.

Well for locking air out - it takes a lot per ESF.

Great, I get to convince two additional people into the open, to stand in LOS of lethal aircraft whom are warned about a lock-on and can:

• Boost away & Return
• Open Fire on those in the Open
• Launch Flares

Or all three.

Ground Vehicles can:

• Roll back a bit, praying for Cover vs Infantry & Ground Vehicles
• Pray Smoke Helps
• Die

Yeah grab 3 Maxes with Flak weapons, that each cost more than the one ESF, into the open where a single ESF can rocket-volley them to death in an instant.
They'd get so little EXP, risk a Max unit, and lose a lot of nanites while also being vulnerable to everything including the aircraft they are shooting at.

You ever try being those Maxes or infantry? You know, those targets to most aircraft?
They get barely any EXP, run the largest risk, need groups, and all for singular solo pilots.

There would still be an issue with air.
What you are expecting: Air becomes an issue and starts murdering stuff. Suddenly all HA's in the region look up in the right direction, have an unobstructed view, open fire without being shot in the face by enemies in the meantime, move on. And for some reason you expect all 3 factions to suddenly be TR since otherwise this would only work for 1/3rd of the playerbase.

In reality infantry fights happen around bases, and situational awareness (SA) will be limited. You can't do a 360 every 5 seconds to check for aircraft, especially considering the fact that it would take multiple 360's to check the entire sky. Then there's the direction people move in. When you come from the spawn you don't check behind you, there's friendlies behind you and you are walking towards the enemy, so 80 to 90% of your focus is forwards. And that's smart, if it was less then you would often get gunned down in the back by the enemies you are walking too and start losing more fights. This is the same reason why people with lock-ons aren't near the fights: You want to have the time to do stargazing without easily getting gunned down, so you need distance from the enemy. Then there's these things called buildings. Standing close to a building can easily take away 40% of your entire vision of the sky, and that's just a single building. Allied infantry walking around that cross your LOS can also hamper locking and firing things. This is why lock-ons tend to try and find a relatively safe spot at a height like Spawnrooms: It cuts down the amount of things that block your view and the chance that allies walk in front of you, as well as keeps you at a distance from enemy troops that might be gunning for you.
Infantry that drops everything and magically has the right view and the right time to pull their G2A launcher and fire is unrealistic. Even if you gave every single player a lock-on tomorrow and swapped their default rocketlauncher to be the G2A launcher, aircraft would notice very little change. Except for the pilots who think it's a good idea to hover in front of spawnrooms.

Yes I remember. I remember that if that squad was positioned wrong a single Zepher Lib approaching from a safe angle (IE using some cover to approach unseen) could obliterate half of the teamworkers and still survive.
You are talking about an entire squad attacking a single aircraft, and calling it OP broken. If two Zepher Libs attacked that squad, one would die and the other would obliterate most of that squad, possibly taking out their Sunderer as well. Because what you are missing is that it wasn't just the launchers that were "OP", it was the aircraft themselves as well that were even more blatantly OP back then.

And nerfs to anything capable of attacking aircraft. Such as the flak nerf that meant landing a shot close to an aircraft didn't deal more damage anymore, or the recent nerf to flak turrets "because they hit things at render-range". Sure they hit at render range, but a hovering Liberator will have 80% of the shots still miss him even if the flak turret aims perfectly. They aren't effective at that range. The only effect they could have was to finish off a target that was already badly damaged, say a target that had strayed in their area for too long... Well with the recent limit of 450m on flak turrets range those turrets makes it pretty much impossible to defend any base with them nowadays.

Except that I don't call anyone a troll, just the people who post ******** over and over again with the intent of a reaction. But yeah, I use facts. You however use incomplete facts with the purpose of misleading, if you use facts at all. Case in point your "but that launchers used to be OP broken... In large groups, not mentioning that the aircraft themselves could hit back even harder given the chance".