Upcoming adjustments to Air vs Ground balance

Piss poor update to balance AA.

Essentially you have nerfed heavy infantry. Our launcher is a little better vs air, but useless against everything else.

+1 for decimator, not really needed, but now that our "smart" launchers are specialized to AV and AA only I guess its neat to see the old deci back. Will it one shot a hovering mossy?

+1 for rocket pod radius reduction. Would rather see the pods stay the same and have a substantial increase damage to bursters and skyguards.

I am fine with air having powerful tools to kill ground targets. BUT ground should have powerful tools to kill air. Air should be fragile. Air should be very wary of coming down onto tanks and infantry.

Your philosophy of "deterrence without killing" is severely flawed.

Out of all the changes and fixes that could be done for the game, this is the one to post on? This is a focus?

Even from all the balance issues that exist in the game right now, this is the one that stands out above all others?

Yep, just chk how many threads were created on the forums about air in the last 4 days. It's a really hot topic atm so he posted to address it.

I just want to say, is it really so hard to change one thing at a time. As Rocket pods are the primary problem surely the best thing to do is adjust them in isolation until they are balanced, then look at if AA needs any additional buffs. Changing a dozen things at once is a recipe for over-compensating or generating unintended changes.

Horrible changes honestly.

Flak is already insanely powerful and effortless to use, the damage it deals is absurd, and combined with the issue that maxes just don't render is really a joke. The change it needed was more range and accuracy but a bit less damage, not just a flat out damage buff. At least buff esf composite armor to give 50 flak and 100 small arms resistance at max rank.

G2a rocket launcher changes make no sense either. It's already great at killing aircraft, it was pretty balanced, instead now you're making it plain op against aircraft and USELESS against everything else, i'm sorry that's not balance, that's bs.

Rocket pods.. well, where to start.. aa is so powerful and effective, and there's so much of it, that right now, unless it's lacking (it almost never is) it's unlikely to make more than 1 or maybe 2 kills (or none at all) before having to escape on fire if you don't want to die. Nerfing them is just caving in to whiners who have no idea what they're talking about.

New av rocket, lol, as if vehicles didn't get annihilated fast enough already. Vehicles are a problem cause of the maps layout, and the moronic camping that is allowed basically everywhere, and cause they do a bit too much damage on infantry. Changing how fast they die from fast to faster isn't going to change anything, it's just going to make them more frustrating to use.

Infantry flak armor, irrelevant for me, i'm never going to use it regardless. deaths from explosions are either fully avoidable or not at all avoidable, so it's pretty much pointless imo.

Walker aa needed a buff, it was terrible, that's the only sensible thing about the patch notes.

There are also a huge number of topics about hackers, rendering issues, client crashes, optimization, new player experience, the list goes on and on.

Those are issues that effect every moment of all players' gameplay. Not just when players were killed.

I see it as only a flavor of the month change. Cyclical balance changes like in WoW, for that supposed balance sweet spot.Forums are flooded with players complaining about X class. Hindsight, did that class really deserve the nerf? Beware of vocal minorities.

Now you have totaly change the mechanics of the AA rocket launcher and how it worked, will you be offering people who bought it based upon how it worked there money back? just curious

As all rocket launchers should be able to be dumb fired and restricting this now proves what some have previously said about how SOE will manipulate in game items.

First of all, optimization is ongoing, they've said it since day 1. They continue to say it every week since. The team that's responsible for making design changes are not the same people that are working on optimization and bug fixing. I find it strange that almost year 2013, after so many MMO's have come out, that I even need to say this.

Secondly, these devs play the game, they see what we see. Just watch Friday Night Ops, you can tell they play their game. So don't think they only listen to the forum vocal minorities. Often they see what we say, so they make appropriate adjustments according to what's going on ingame. It's not as if they don't see what goes on ingame, or see the actual statistical data that's only available to them.

I have to applaud them for not making big sweeping changes, because so far with all the cries about air, they are making small steps instead. Make no mistake no matter what they do, they're going to get criticized. That's the nature of these gaming forums, people are always here lobbying for their own interests. So when something is done against their interest, they'll be up in arms about it. Sounds like how things work in real life, that's because it does.

I don't mind any of the changes. I don't even mind the changes to the AA launcher, but I do expect a refund. I bought it specifically because I had the ability to defend myself while using it. Taking away the dumbfire prevents this. I see little point in using a weapon that leaves me wide open to attacks. Had dumbfire not been one of it's features, intentional or not, I wouldn't have bought it. I can't justify spending $7 just to be killed and have no ability to fight back.

Seriously people, don't you get it. The new changes will not make the G2A launcher op. As a heavy you have to make a choice, are you fighting tanks or are you fighting air. What the change will do is reduce the amount of G2A launchers since you cannot longer fight tanks or sunderers with it.

With the flak it is the idea that you do not fly your ESF right in it. Getting to close to flak AA should be punished for you as a pilot are being careless. The changes made however do not influence skilled pilots that know what they are doing. It only affect those people that go for the quick-kill-close-range-rocket-run. I am glad to see that these people will now be punished severely.

With new av launcher it will require tanks to actually use tactics and skill to make a kill, instead of just rolling in a base, get some quick infantry kills with their HE cannon. It is good to see that those players aswell will be blown to kingdom come alot easier now.
Since this rocket travels very slowly it will not affect tanks at a distance (except if they don't pay attention to their surroundings >:3 )

The flak armor buff is a very interesting one for you can now survive a bit longer against HE weaponry. Will it render grenades useless? Maybe the maximum level, but are people going for that maximum level if they only use it once in a while. I am most certainly not.

@Laraza: Devs never act only on people complaining about weapon x or class y. They compare the game data with complaint x, do the two match they will investigate some more and eventually try to fix it. People thinking that the devs only act when people are whining on the forum are just plain stupid if you mind my french.

@all the people claiming they cannot defend themselves anymore with the AA launcher. Play as a team! Join an outfit!This game is intended to be played as a team. You balance out your squad or platoon so you can react to different situations. Removing dumbfire effectively requires you to teamup with some other people, who can then defend you from tanks, while you keep the sky clear

I don't think these changes really address the balance issues.

Rocket pods do too much damage to vehicles, liberators and tanks are very vulnerable to strafing. Rockets can kill a vanguard when hit in the back in two seconds. Liberators are large targets and can also easily be killed from the side or above.

What do tanks need another counter for? Let me list all the things that counter tanks:
Rocket ESFs
Liberators
Other tanks
AT mines
AT base turrets
Heavy Assault
C4
AV Max

Flak might not need changing at all and suffers from draw distance issues. Skyguards badly need a buff to be more than a joke, for a anti air only vehicle that you have to spend certs/SC on their performance is awful.

AA roles also need to more reliably return certs ground AA provide a terrible level of income.

This. More than anything.

I don't even mind these complete weapon redesigns as long as I have the option to refund my certs (That I've spent 70+ hours earning for a single weapon I no longer have any interest in using.

I agree with this. A lot of the people calling out for a massive buff to ground based AA don't seem to realise that it'd render air useless. People don't seem to understand what airs role is in the game. Ultimately Planetside is a ground based game. The role of air is to provide support for the troops on the ground. If air can't even get near ground it can't do its job.

This I don't really agree with, HA are a bit too good already. I take it "other armored targets" includes MAXs, as if HA couldn't take them out easily enough as it stands.

But that's ******* wrong. If you have some super secret way to render infantry without decreasing airspeed, please tell us.



I have no problem with the majority of these changes, but when I can't see an AA max 250m above the ground (but they can see you) or take invisible flak from random directions--a direct buff to flak is a ******** way to try balancing air and ground combat.

Normally I wouldn't care since these changes haven't actually been implemented yet, but rendering distance is ******* ridiculous at the moment and I can only see these changes turning aircraft effectiveness discussion to a moot point.

An A2G missile nerf and skyuguard buff would have been sufficient by itself. This is just idiotic.

A2G requiring lock on? I never use the thing anyway and now it's even more useless. I'm just going to run around with the default.

As a person who plays primarily as an AA heavy the launcher changes are making me cry. Removing the dumb fire option is a major nerf to AA capabilities because it's now harder to justify carrying that weapon. A faster reload isn't going to help you down air targets because they're already in the next time zone by the time the missile starts chasing. As it stands the AA launcher is pretty weak vs armor and infantry, but it's usually at least enough to injure them or pose a threat with a direct hit/back attack. With these changes I now have no real options against maxes, armor, long range infantry, air with stealth/flares, and I'm still going to suck against air.

Keep the increased tracking range, drop the faster reload speed, and bring back dumb fire. Those small buffs in no way compensate for the loss of dumb fire and you're going to see way fewer AA launchers carried. Were you trying to buff air power with this change?

On the one hand I'm extremely glad SOE have acknowledged this blatant imbalance and are taking steps to balance the game again, I'm glad this is being addressed and for the most part the changes seem reasonable.

However...that said...this line is really quite upsetting:

Removing dumb fire from the missile launchers is a REALLY awful idea, there is a very reasonable skill trade off with the AA and AV, where you risk dumb firing the weapon in order to avoid the lengthy lock on wait and avoid the lock indicator which might otherwise make the target flee. But obviously your chance to hit drops dramatically, so much more skill is required to achieve this.

Honestly it's less of an issue with Aircraft and more of an issue with tanks, I'm not sure why ground AV is being altered in a Ground to Air balance patch. If the reload and lock speed has been buffed so much that both added together is the same as the old reload speed on its own then that's less of an issue but it doesn't mitigate the fact that you're forced to lock vehicles and alert them to your presence before you fire when you might not otherwise need to.

A better balance would be to leave AV alone, force the lock on AA to compensate the reload time. It's not reasonable to alter AV in an AA balance patch.

PS 2 dev's addressing the problem and not doing a insane swing to unbalance it, We'll see how it works but main thing is that their doing something about it.

For all the flyboys crying, this is a good change for me.
More skilled piloting and use will force some poorer pilots to give up, giving me more airspace.

I do believe the lock on rocket needs a change though because I can dodge the missile once and it will come back from nowhere and shoot me in the back when I'm boosting away.
The no dumbfire will hopefully put some HA off the weapon completely, making it a TRADE-OFF (quite right) it is an AA launcher after all.

The rest:
-Flak meh, Turrets easy kill, skyguards shoot in rear armour, Maxes are the only tricky target.
-Rocket pod nerf, happy and sad at the same time.
-Still dont feel a ground target should be able to shoot me outside of my render distance, feels wrong.

All in all a good change, but I still want to be able to fly somewhere skillfully without getting dominated by one turret.

For you ground targets that think your getting away from my rocket spam, think again. I will be spamming those pods making you cry "nerf!" until they are basically a direct hit weapon, low damage weapon.

Whilst I welcome the changes... Please ensure there are cert refunds for changed weapons/vehicles please SOE. Otherwise you may find your fanbase dwindling at a very fast rate. I'm certainly not spending time and money to adjust my play style to fit into your buff/nerfs each month!