In the beta, the AA launcher had virtually no rocket drop. It also had a 100% chance of hitting aircraft unless they flared or went behind cover. The game launches, and obviously users of the AA launcher from the beta are probably going to think they are buying the same thing. Turns out the chance of a successful hit has been severely nerfed. The rocket drop is now equal to the defualt launcher You can clearly see why people may have felt cheated. But okay, you could argue that they did this for balance. I would disagree, but that would lead me off topic. Time passes by and the Annhilator comes out, a common pool weapon that has a longer lock-on time but seems to hit successfully more often. Since the Annhilator is common pool and locks-on to all vehicles, it clearly has many advantages so players who bought the AA launcher may have preferred this, so now they are unhappy they bought the AA launcher and not this. Obvious cash grab that the annihilator and Decimator came out after the original launchers. However, the main problem relies in the further nerfing of the AA launcher. The rocket drop has become absolutely appalling. the rocket starts to drop ~20% of the distance compared to the defualt launcher. I propose that is returns to it's launch state.
The old and new lock-on launchers can miss due to flares / terrain and yes there does seem to be the odd dud that doesnt hit anything. The question you should ask yourself is do you want a launcher that can only fire when locked on and does less damage than the older ones or do you want one that packs a bit more punch and can be fired in dumbfire mode as well. Also stop comparing lockon weapons that take little to no skill to use with the default launcher that you actualy have to try and aim with. Ive ended up with some weapons at launch that I realy didnt like, Im not QQ ing to Sony demanding that they give me all my certs back just because I found somthing better a bit later. p.s. The game is free, no one forced you to pay money for what you probably considerd at the time a pay to win weapon.
The beta lock on AA launcher was far too good, it was better for sniping infantry than the bolt driver
I can honestly say I have a higher hitrate with the Default Launcher than with my G2A. Against Liberators.
I can't say I care about the G2A launcher's dumbfire while it's lock on remains hopeless in the face of any pilot over BR5. Yes, I got mine just before update 1. The dumbfire change feels like a bait and switch. But at the end of the day I need it to shoot down all the insufferable airplanes.
I tried the basic G2A launcher, it felt SO useless. Lock-on on the dumb pilots all day, noone gets flares, not even trying to dodge, not getting hit. There were times where the locked-on missile missed against a STATIONARY target. Literally - they were hovering there, not even bothering to move, and the rocket was missing them.
One huge problem is the hit detection. I regularly 1-shot ESFs with the default launcher (well placed/timed shots). 1 hit makes them go into red HP and they die a few seconds later from fire damage. The Default does 1700 damage. The A2A launcher does 1500. That minus 200 should still be bring the ESFs to low yellow, high red. But often times it takes 3 or more hits to take down an ESF, sometimes the hits don't even do anything (register)! I think people are having more success with the Annihilator because of the increased speed of the hit even if it lacks damage (1150 weapon data sheets). (or maybe it's 1500 only for dumbfire and they nerf it when hitting aircraft, if so, what a POS)
I fired 4 rockets in a row at a liberator that was hovering, and none of them hit. It didn't move, It may have flared the first one. it didn't go out of range, and there wasn't any terrain in the way. If the lock-on range is beyond the effective range of the launcher, then something needs to change, IMO the effective range should be farther than the lock-on range.
the gta launcher is utter bs - today i had a funny situation. sitting on a hill near a conquered base i fired my gta launcher at the back of a hovering mosquito ~150m away of me and "accidently" i´ve hit him and set him on fire. he flew around my hill to repair him self up again. while repping i shot my left 4 rockets at him, 1st missele hit but did no dmg, 2nd changed its directen and flew elswhere no idea why...3rd hit and did dmg, 4th and last one hits the ground a few meter away from the plane... so this blody rocket launcher is not beeing able to hit a stationary target on a reliable rate! thats definatly nothing i would ever buy again.
I honestly think the AA launcher is just horribly bugged. I got it yesterday in the now fixed AA bundle, and I watched so many rockets track just fine, contact and explode, and do zero damage. These things should be fixed before any buffs are really considered, because when I picked my shots properly, they hit at a rate I'd expect from an AA launcher.
Lets be honest here these Launchers are absolutely terrible, i got suckered into buying the Nemesis-Hades becuase of Beta, bought the new ones because of the descriptions,Decimator-Annhilator, these two are also terrible. The Deci hits like a girl in a pllow fight, Annhilator fizzles out more than it hits, tracking is also terrible. Guestimated wasted SC 2500 for all 4, thats £20 GBP " Note to self, Never believe whats written on the tin can", and never ever believe SOE's definition of upgrade..
Yes, I have at least an 80% dud/no damage rate. I see the missile track, see an explosion, but no damage tick or anything. I might get damage on air 2-3 (at most) out of ten shots. Also - the lock on range is further than the weapon will actually do damage. I've locked on and hit hovering air, mostly libs, and the weapon locks on and hits, but there's no damage 'tick' indicator, and the vehicle is still at the same health! I don't care if these things only do 1000 damage per missile, just fix the damn bug so they are reliable please!
Odd dud? 50% of the missiles don't do **** thanks to the lock on being longer then the effective range of the missile, and piss poor tracking. The drop needs to be reduced and the default launcher's velocity needs to increase by 30% because at the moment it's near impossible to hit a magrider from even 15m.
this - im totally fine with 3 rocket hits needed to down an EFS but currently you need 15-30 rockets due to those bloody rocket behaviour. its easier to destroy an ESF with the free stock lightning-tank gun than it is with a dedicated AA weapon that costs 700sc/1000cert and that is extreamly silly...
I also was suckered into spending money on a preventative measure against the up coming air op problem. At release I bought the AA Rocket. Then to my horror I would watch as missile after missile would 'swerve away' or 'narrowly' miss a flying target stationary target etc. There seems to be a little trick enemy star fighter pilots can do that if they 180 their plane before the missile gets to them the missile appears to miss and continue on tis merry way without turning to follow. I have killed a total of 7 air craft with my AA rockets since launch. I find its more reliable just to juse my HA weapon to shoot ESF than it is to use my AA rocket launcher. And finally ... what did we all spend out cert points on when I will have all five shots Miss or have detonation failures against aircraft. The only thing it seems to be able to reliably hit are Liberators and Galaxies and I don't have enough rockets on me to kill either one. First rocket fired, swerves away last second and misses. Second Rocket fails because the plane has sped away and used afterburners to out run my rocket. Third rocket when aircraft returns swerves and misses. Fourth rocket tracks aircraft as it flys past me and follows to detonate, but does no damage. (wtf really?) Fifth rocket swerves and misses. This is my standard experience. Now usually after a reload, I'll be able to hit a ESF with 'a' rocket out of 5. So about ever other Reload of my HA i can hit a ESF once. Don't even bother with liberators, they are watching for rockets, and soon as you fire, they see you and blow you the **** up with six rapid fires from their zephyer.
SOE wants AA to suck. Do not buy crap upgrades. Use the lock launcher for vehicles or stick to the default. If you want to kill planes a MAX or ESF are the only real options.
SOE should not sell it if it doesn't work. The worst thing they can do from a business standpoint is make people feel dumb for spending money. I have over 600 shots fired from my hawk, I've shot down about 3-4 planes. We'll say 4. So it takes about 150 shots to kill a plane on average. If it takes 10 seconds to lock-fire-reload each shot, that means you'd have to stand on a hill firing unhindered for 25 minutes straight with infinite ammo to shoot down one plane. This was my first purchase in the game and it made me feel like an idiot for falling for it. Think long and hard about the business model here.... Proposed fix - instead of making it faster/more powerful, give it a crit chance (or let us Cert into crit chance!). I'm sick of pilots being able to calculate exactly when they need to leave the battle based on their slowly falling health bar, G2A damage output should be unpredictable so that a pilot cannot feel safe just sitting around taking hits. This would make the battle more fun for everyone, more high-risk for pilots which justifies their reward of being OP. Last point - A $7 rocket launcher should be comparable to a $7 flak gun. Not rocket science, nerf flak and buff the Hawk.
Make it so G2A missle takes out esf's in 1shot without ful ranks of composite armour, folks are just buying rocketpods and going to town on players who have spent 1000's of certs on Vehicles just to be laughed at by p2w ESF's.
