[Suggestion] Could we finally address a2g

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by JustGotSuspended, Dec 9, 2021.

  1. Bovine74

    Fact is G2A literally is no impedance to A2G at all, A2G can farm ground units all day long with no effect at all. There is nothing stopping a Lib or Gal from loitering, any amount of hits makes zero difference to them. ESF can loiter for a long time, with the only time they break when they get a bit of damage, in which case they just go repair and come back, there is a reason why its literally impossible to get out of spawn at times. Telling people to go A2A is ridiculous and you well know it, the barrier to entry for a2a is stupidly high, because its not something you can practice, and newer players cannot learn it in battles (if you are a new A2A player you literally have no chance of competing with established pilots, and will be shot down in seconds of entering a battle), I say this as someone who has played aircraft inmany games and sims of all sorts.

    Of course people like our A2G defenders on here want the meta to stay as it is, racking up your K/D as a A2G farmer looks good.

    In truth I don't know what the ideal balance is, A2A is not it, harder hitting rockets is not it, my thoughts are you need something that prevents loitering as it is now. Maybe a weapon that takes some time to lock on, but when fired will take of half the health?
  2. JustGotSuspended


    Give us SAM batteries. Like as a vehicle gun and/or a deployable for engineers, where you place down your battery and can spam a hellfire of auto-lock SAMs before a long reload. It would basically be a striker xl.

    What's important is that the thing is easy to setup and can potentially quickly kill air. However any misses would be costly due to the reload time. What's important is that the weapon dishes out high damage extremely quickly, since it needs to heavily damage, possibly kill air vehicles quickly before they turbo away. As a downside the rage and reload can be penalized.

    For the launcher lockons, I would at least double the range, and bring back the adaptive lock-on times, so locks at shorter ranges are faster than at longer ranges. In that sense you have more opportunity to deal some damage to aircraft, without tweaking damage.
    • Up x 2
  3. Bovine74

    I think you would have to limit the number of these batteries that could be placed though as that would become heavily meta. A2G really ought to have the same problems/benefits as it does irl. CAS is an important factor in modern warfare, but is way more limited due to the fact you cant just hover over an area. SAM batteries that hit for 80% damage, but can only fire once per few minutes, and maybe you can only have 1 deployment every 2-300m radius
  4. JustGotSuspended


    Why. We need to limit AA but spamming an airball or infinite esfs from a silo or bastion is perfectly fine. No lol, there's no need to limit the number of SAMs deployed in an area. People will adapt to place them based on how much air there is.
    • Up x 1
  5. brutes359

    or perhaps the devs could....oh I dont know, remove the range and damage nerfs they forced on AA launchers. That would be a good first step. or maybe remove the range nerf they put on Flak cannons that now allows orbital galaxy's and libs to be a thing. This entire thread is trying to find a solution to yet another problem the devs themselves made with their wild swings of the nerf hammer.
    • Up x 6
  6. Scroffel5

    News flash guys, it is never impossible to get out of the spawn. It may just be almost impossible to live after you do so. Please, do not believe you can't leave the spawn or else you will die. Leave the spawn and die for us, and hopefully do some damage when you do so. I'm gonna make a threat just about this.
  7. Pat22

    Buff AA launchers
    Maybe have a new construction tactical item like the Flail, but it's an AA missile launcher to create large denial zones
  8. Tormentos

    I'm going to repeat myself, but OK: SOFLAM laser designator for the infiltrator instead of the usual recon tools

    A third party lock-on tool for the infiltrator would give HAs so much joy to unite their fire under one lock-on. It might even permit cross launcher lock-on, so you could lock on to aircrafts with a AV launcher or vice versa to tanks with an AA launcher.
  9. BlackFox

    Or having a data link connecting launchers - if one launcher locked on it could reduce the lock on time for all others, basically painting the aircraft
  10. Botji

    Why try to invent new mechanics when the obvious answer is to just make the most premium G2A weapon available not hit like a wet noodle. Aka, buff the Skyguard.

    Im fine with AA launchers being meh and Im fine with Burster MAX being meh because they are either free or can be swapped out for other weapons when they are not needed.

    Im fine with turrets on MBTs, Sundies and Harassers being meh because those have other functions and options or in the case of Harassers, high mobility and can be hard to get rid of for both ground and air vehicles.

    All of these can be supplemental sources of G2A but there is no other vehicle more specialized at one task than a Skyguard is, it cant swap weapons, its not nearly as mobile as a Harasser and its a sitting duck if any other ground vehicle finds it so its not exactly a lot to ask for it to be actually GOOD at what it does rather than being hunted by Liberator crews for certs or heck, sometimes even a Valk or ESF.

    The balance is so badly skewed that even if we went crazy and doubled the damage on the Skyguard it would still lose against a Liberator if it gets close. Even with double damage it would take a bit over 2 seconds to kill a ESF with 100% accuracy and while Im sure everyone would have a fit if thats how much they were buffed and claim that its insane that their solo plane can die that fast and Im stupid for even saying it even though I dont think they should get that much of a buff... still, thats about how long it takes a Liberator kill a Lightning at close range and they have about 0% chance to escape from it while ESF would actually still have a decent go at surviving... so perhaps it wouldnt be so stupid that the super specialized G2A tank was about on par with a Liberator on how fast it can kill a single seater vehicle its "designed to counter"?

    Well ofc double damage would be crazy but the current theoretical TTK with 100% accuracy on a ESF is just under 5 seconds, thats way too long given how insanely fast and agile they are.

    Then we have the fun scenario of a Skyguard shooting at a Liberator and I could go on and explain things but this is already long enough so I will just put it like this:

    Yup, I see nothing wrong with a 14 seconds long TTK that also requries 100% accuracy against a Liberator with Composite Armor and Fire Suppression.


    Edit: Just as I post this I realized that I probably have to explain why I think its only the Skyguard that should get a buff so here goes. Wall of Text, use Brick Formation!

    Counterplay, simple as that.
    A Skyguard has to be decently vulnerable to be able to do anything, it cant hide within spawn and its a obvious target when its shooting at something being loud enough to be heard from half the continent and now also features bright shiny tracers if anyone somehow couldnt locate it.

    I will be using something that pilots like to throw around "Combined arms", they use it to justify why aircraft should be used to kill aircraft(tankers should have pilots to back them up) so I want the pilots to have tankers to back them up by killing the Skyguard for them, like any decent game you need to send in ground forces to take out the big G2A weapons before the flyboys comes in to nuke everything.

    And Skyguards are weak enough that even a Harasser can easily deal with them while every other G2A can either be hard to kill because its dangerous like a MBT or because its hard to reach them(hiding in a base/spawn).
  11. Clone117

    If a2g can nuke ground then g2a should be able to nuke air.
    • Up x 1
  12. Scurge

    PS2 Skyguard has always been trash. The original Skyguard was a 2 seater buggy with flack and a chain gun that was fun.

    The Ranger vehicle AA weapon was a nice weapon but they smashed it with a sledgehammer and dropkicked it in the balls, now it cant hit anything, not even a galaxy.
  13. CompletelyDeadCoyote

    The airplay in PS2 have always seemed... out of place. It doesn't add anything to the game. It's like a completely different game sewed into a good mp-shooter. In the same way a poker simulator that kills people can be edited in, and all the poker players would defend its existence with "learn to poker" strategy.

    I'd say removing the air completely would only make the game better. No one will miss it.
  14. Tormentos

    Removing stuff is tossing out the problem, not solving it. When the aerial phenomenon event was part of the game, there was much more A2A combat. No, removal of stuff is not the solution, adding purpose to said stuff is. In short, there should be infantry control points only flippable by infantry and there should be vehicle and aircraft control points. Would that stop people from farming infantry? Not entirely, but now they have to be on their toes since they are the targets of enemy aircrafts and vehicles out for these control points. No more unhindered HESHing into the base anymore

    He agrees as well. What this game needs is more PURPOSE!
    • Up x 3
  15. Scurge

    What people are seeing is favoritism to certain parts of the game.

    As far as aircraft go over the years

    GTA lock-on distance and damage, nerfed
    GTA COF bloom, drastically expanded making hits unlikely past a mere 50m in some cases

    But aircraft have only got buff's on killing things faster.
    • Up x 3
  16. Scroffel5

    G2A is still broken but I just had an epic experience yesterday doing it.

    We were on Amerish at The Ascent attacking it, and we had a lone sundy with one of those barriers protecting the top of it, and we upset some air elitists, and they came for us. Oh boy, the came for us. We were dealing with ground troops when we sniped a pilot, and he got his pilot friends with A2G loadouts and started shooting us at the sundy. Well, NC had a somewhat functioning brain, and the Sundy had an AA gun on it and all of the Heavies switched to AA loadouts. We kept getting hits on them, but they'd just fly away behind cover or keep peeking out, unloading a volley of rockets, and going back in. So we repositioned to cover their hiding spots. And we started popping them out of the sky!

    Then a whole galaxy squad came, and they were no match for our AA. The idiot in the sundy started shooting at them, which attracted them to us, but we popped them out of the sky too. Then TR brought a Bastion planetside, and it was GGs from that point on. Nothing we could do about that.

    This is unrelated, but NC got dumber. I wish people would just listen to each other in order to win. We had another sundy behind that one with a cloak on it, so I told everyone after I spawned that the Bastion could see us and an ESF is looking for us, so don't leave that shield, otherwise they will track it back to the sundy. One dude stared at me and listened, while everyone else ran out in mass, stopped a little bit away from the sundy, and started shooting at the guys who were unknowingly running from the blown up sundy towards our new one. The Bastion was LITERALLY TURNING AROUND TO GO TO ANOTHER BASE!!! It saw us, shot all those fools, got some splash damage on the sundy, the ESF circled around, saw us and the sundy, blew up some survivors and the sundy, then the whole mass of TR that came from the blown up sundy got there and capped everyone else except for one guy. Like bruh.

    The second thing that happened that day was awesome. There was a base being attacked somewhere, and I hopped into a sundy with some randoms. We were communicating with each other and it was cool. Little did I know, they had AA loadouts too. The sundy had a Kobalt and an AA cannon, so we rolled up on the base, flanking enemy lines, and we got to a whole swarm of air that didn't see us. So I kept asking them, "Do I shoot, or are we being stealthy?" They hopped out, starting shooting, then I was like, "Aight." And we ended that whole swarm. The distraction and damage was enough to let the other troops pull their AA, and they all died. We lost to the Harasser squad though, hence my recent post about the Halberd...
  17. VV4LL3

    My favorite is when a Reaver or Mosquity obviously has snap targeting. Flies past you with afterburner, does a 180 with surgeon like precision, and kills you without scanning, missing, over compensating...

    Welp, there goes another 350 nanites to a 5 second lock on that does minimal damage to a hacker. I guess I'll just hide some more.
    • Up x 1
  18. Tiili

    If you get 3 people to play G2A you can work wonders with only a double ranger sundy.

    Get 6 people and run 2 repair AA sundies and you've become almost impossible to kill if not hunted by a dedicated tank AV squad, even repair galaxies will die really quick when focused by such a crew.
    Add in a skyguard and it's just impossible to even come to the hex without flying low, which has it's own downsides as well, like being easy kills for AV tanks.

    You can also have gunners play AA heavies or AA maxes, so when their first mag runs dry they can jump out and keep on shooting without pause.

    The biggest problem you'll encounter with such a setup usually is that air will simply leave and find some other place to farm where there aren't any AA players around, so you'll be left roaming around without purpose and watching the skies for someone unlucky enough to not have gotten the memo that the area they're about to enter is a no fly zone.

    A normal planetman runs to the same doorway where he died 10 seconds earlier with glee, but it's quite difficult to find air players who deliberately fly to their deaths, so imo the easiest way to really fix this is to make AA weapons more effective in AI and AV roles and thus making them way more common than they are right now so there are less areas in the game without any effective AA support available at any time.

    From a balance pov: AV weaponry already oneshots ESFs, so I don't see any reason to not have AA guns dealing more damage to vehicles as well, it's not like the skyguard is shooting confetti, but it sure feel like it when you're facing one in a vanguard.
  19. Scurge


    A year ago this would me more realistic. Back then when the ranger didn't have the COF bloom nerf to stupid proportions. I drove a 2 turret AA sundy but the player pilots cried and cried hard they got shot down.

    Ranger is now trash especially past 50M. You can literally watch the rounds go 45 degree's the wrong way!

    Guided? Nope hits like a noodle with less and less range as the time goes by.

    And if you think the skyguard has killed anything worthwhile except for nanites and time I might want some of what your smoking!

    AA max, again another waste of nanites and time. Same problems as above.
  20. Tiili

    They definitely still all work well enough to rack in kills, so dunno.

    Perhaps you need better gunners :D? I know they're hard to hit with but it really aint that bad once you get used to it.

    Unloading a clip into an ESF with my skyguard seems to kill them really easy.