It's about time someone said something about this.

Well balance is easy :
ESF have little effect to the ground
Liberator have a lot effect to the ground, but it's easier to claim the sky-control.

I get that but if you read what I responded to, the intent was for no focus on ground.
I'm all for a decent rock/paper/scissor as your mentioned form of "balance".
I am against air messing with air only.

Pilots roaming the continent killing everything without a care for defense. Why bother enemy air? Takes too much effort if you have all those defenseless ground targets.

Which is exactly why I propose that ESF with no wing weapons be half off, so A2G always has that counter to worry about, the A2G farm would be crushed, all the while getting more air to air combat happening. I also support more lethal and skilled AA, but the cheaper ESF are critical, you have to have numbers on each side for balance to happen

You're killing me. Not only are there major shifts on a hotfix by hotfix basis, but you've actually NEVER used the premier AA vehicle? And you're arguing with people who dedicate most of their time in this game to air?

"Air" is a vehicle category. The equivalent suggestion would be a ground player asking why any air vehicle other than the Liberator has any anti-ground capabilities at all.

Not arguing - expressing an opinion as per your invitation in the final line of your opening post.

• 

Arguing, debating, expressing your opinion.... Whatever you want to call it. Are you a new player or did you just spend a ton of time away from the game.

The Skyguards works like that because:
- ESF have a boosted version of Fire Suppression.
- ESF have autorepair by default.
- ESF have afterburner by default.
- ESF have engagement radar by default.
- Stealth grants full immunity to Engagement Radar so they are extremely hard to spot for Skyguards.

I would say ESF pilots should just shut the **** up.

Skyguards have little reward because they take little skill to use. Boosted FS, Stealth, and default radar were all mistakes by devs who just don't understand the game, so I'll give you that. But tanks rely on armor to survive, it's silly to think that a vehicle which relies on agility to survive has different traits. If you complain about afterburners by default I could complain about small arms immunity by default, but that would be silly.

Probably by farmed ground units who have pulled AA - only for all the sky-knights to immediately run away as soon as something start shooting back.

The ground unit is then left with little to do other than ping aircraft overflying the area.

Some weapons seem to have been designed solely to farm infantry - the Mustang AH for example. It's one of my most hated weapons - especially given it's so hard to counter (an EZ mode aircraft mounted shotgun that also does area damage so you barely have to aim it - and it can one clip an AA max from full health in less half the time it would take the max to destroy the ESF.)

It's the impunity with which air can farm ground units that grates - plus the fact that as soon as something shoots back - they just sod off and find another easy farm.

An ESF should not be able to go toe to toe with a dedicated AA max (especially one with full kinetic/flak armour) and win........and the ridiculous tracking time nerf to NS-Swarm needs to be looked at.

My Skyguard is actually more than air deterrant. From preventing auto repair on any vehicles (be it air or ground) to a bad/mediocre infantry shooter, to a drifting roadkiller everything is possible. And ofcourse to deal with those ESFs that just get to low trying to get just one more kill. Even libs pre-CAI were possible targets. Nowadays the drifting is improved and the Lib-swatting is more effective although less common.