I think because most pilot hate being taken out with a specialized weapon. I can understand not having teir 1 decoy flares from the start though. The UI elements, including cockpit instruments in the aircraft are nearly useless (EXCEPT for speed, ammo count, weapon selected) are useless. Great I got a lock on and I have no direction where the lock on is coming from, so let me fly in a random direction and hope its the right one. If I gave a AA missile closing in on me, I don't even get the distance and direction. Also if I want to look at my radar to find signatures of enemy vehicles, I need to take my eyes on off my screen to a smaller corner of the screen. I've said this before, Arma is a infantry/mechanized infantry simulator, NOT a flight simulator but it contains modern military aircraft, yet is has the most effective GUI display for radar for the player. They really either need to make the cockpit instrument panel for pilots more useful for engagements, or make more GUI elements to give us a better idea of our surroundings. Some specialized G2A missiles don't, they specifically are used for aircraft, so why should specialized tech for the aircraft have to maintain lock when missile is in flight? In both cases G2A and A2A missille lock can be avoided by using the terrain and I do agree new pilots should have air vehicles that start with limited/cool down decoy flares. For me I don't want to have to maintain a lock while the missiles in flight, I already maintained a lock prior so I could shoot the weapon. If the pilot is smart he can lead me into his contested area or use the terrain to his advantage. In the case when the player is a higher rank, acquire decoy flares and stealth armor, it will force me into a dogfight. Agree with in relation to "not just players opinions that cater to the players personal game style." <-- (dogfighting only) As an example. this is why I wish they tried out prone stance in the beta before it went live. It was the perfect time to test more gameplay features during the beta period. If it didn't work well in beta, it could have easily been taken out if wasn't working in PS 2.
At that point he must be really close to you and you are in a dogfight with him. So I can't disagree with you then, in that situation, the terrain at that point doesn't matter if he is that close to you, behind you. Other situations where he is getting a A2A missile lock from a longer distance you can use the terrain and booster fuel (then decoy flares/stealth armor when unlocked). This is why decoy flares Teir 1 need to be free, it gives new pilots a second life per say in a dogfight against a specialized aircraft (when hostile pilot uses A2A missiles of course).
A2A rocket QQ? Come on they are super weak, and very easy to counter. First and foremost everyone needs to realize that both the G2A and the A2A rockets only hit from BEHIND, not from the front or the sides!! This makes it very simple to expect as youhave only one direction to watch out for, and thats your butt end! Here is what you need to do to counter them without flares: 1. Wait until they have a solid lock on. 2. Drop speed completely and turn as sharp as you can 180degrees. 3. As youre coming out of the turn punch it and use afterburner Very sharp turns will loose the rocket 70-80%of the time IF you push the pedal to the metal and completely change your vector and use afterburner. Thats all there is to it!
Please don't take offence to this as I mean none, but that just means that you have plenty of room for improvement. I find that on a good day 1/4 A2A missiles launched at me will actually hit me. That said, sometimes it's just unavoidable. Practise some more! They're not as impossible to dodge as people claim! Fly around obstacles when capturing bases for practise! Also this is good advice too
Always the wrong attitude, nerf, nerf. Leave them as they are, just give pilots more counter measures, it makes it more fun.
You'll only get support from a minority group of players who want some skill to exist in the game. This is SoE's solution to lack of air defenses. Sitting in a burster isn't fun. Flying a A2A fighter is much more entertaining. Look on the bright side, if they have A2A armed they really can't affect the ground game.
lol people talking about "skill" in dogfighting.. i will start this counter rant by stating that, if you run Hover you cant talk **** about dogfighting, and if you are one of those pilots who crashes into the ground on purpose b4 you die then you have no honor. now onto this "skill" topic, this is a relative topic and is usually bias'd on the individuals defination of skill, we all are guilty of this, no point argueing it. there is no one answer for what is skill, and there never will be, if you want to be a sheep and go with the flow and rag on people for using missiles then so be it. But last time i checked Planetside 2 was set far in the future, and yet here we are in 2012 using..... OH boy you guessed it Missiles. its not World War II anymore people, get the idea out of your head that "dogfighting" is Guns only. guns are there simply for air CQB long range fights are ideal for missiles. and if you guys want to complain about that, think about RL A2A missiles, you would never be able to out run them as many can travel in access of 50NM at speeds over Mach 2. so there not that bad, and they dont kill you in 1 shot so quit crying. but, a way to balance the whole air issue, would simply be for SOE to nerf Rocket damage done to aircraft, IE Libs/Gals as right now unfortunaly this is the most effective way to destroy them. and buff Tomcat damge to larger aircraft. lower CD on flares would be nice as well, and maybe since it is a fantasy game, some sort of Aerial Armour that reduces missile/gun damage, could be 2 different sets of armour. anyway thats my two cents on this issue, bottem line is that if you fly, and u dont run Rotary/missiles then get the **** out of your ESF and get in a lib.
I'm pretty sure by default pilots already get a way to deal with lock on missiles, namely the freaking Afterburner fuel. If people choose to use Rocket pods without certing into flares it's there own fault they can't get rid of them.
Errm there is composite armor for ESF-s just sayin... Then you could cert into the dogfighting airframe and wonders will happen with survivability!!
comp armour for ESF reduces flak and small arms fire only.. last time i checked that didnt include A2A missile damage reduction or cannon bounce. and for the record i have dogfighting 3. im not complaining here, just stating my opinions.
I do like A2A missiles very much, and yes I might be a terrible pilot but I just like to sit on a tail of the enemy pilot and watch him blow up by a missile, also. I think this is how it should be :3 Autocannons just should not be fixed to the center of the screen ) It would have been amazing if they were tracking the enemy
I think that the main problem is that AA missiles are too accurate. They will get hits pretty easily even in a high aspect crossing shot, even if they overshoot at first. I'd like to see limited maneuverability to missiles, to where you really need to be behind the opponent to have an even decent chance for a hit. Cut magazine size in half and increase damage substantially. You only have a very few shots, and you really have to be in a good position to hit, but if you do you will do a lot of damage. This would add to the dogfight feel of AA aircraft fighting, keep missiles useful, but not make them a death ray. Also with the long cool down for flares you could actually use them to escape. Right now if you dodge one missile with a flare you can bet another one is coming in just a few seconds. With my proposal you can use the time the flare gives you to make the next shot a very low probability by turning into the shooter. Leading to more maneuvering and dogfighting.
I'll never bail and deny the skill in a dogfight, UNLESS they're using a2a missiles... then they don't even deserve the kill. I used them in beta, you can get two locks on a scythe before they can react, no skill.
I'm curious about this reasoning...why? beam rider missiles went out in the 70s...even the Stinger carried by a single man is fire and forget, and the missile itself only weights about twenty pounds. Nothing wrong with fire and forget, you just have to limit how easily the missiles track to make it fair. Fix that and you don't really have to change anything else like flare timers.
Excuse me, but what's the reload on the AA missles ?) Also you can dodge them in the terrain pretty easy by flying in the canions. Actually you need 2 hits to kill a ESF, a single rocket does 50% of the hull damage or less, that is not a lot... You cant take libs easy with those things... not talking about galaxies....
Reload time is not long enough to matter compared to the huge cooldown on Flares. And there is not always a canyon to fly into. Basically unless the guy is the most terrible pilot ever if he gets behind you with the A2A missiles you will die. Your best bet is to try to out run him back into friendly territory but if he follows you will probably die but can hope he ends up getting a taste of his own medicine an lock on spammed by all the other friendly fighters in the area. People say you can try to do sharp turns to lose them. But I have watched the missiles do a 180, and still hit the aircraft. If they nerfed the missiles turning ability then dogfights would probably return.
