Ground vehicles should have an equivalent hard hitting counter to Liberators & Galaxies, but it should require Skill, Coordination and cost similar resources and man power to operate. The reason this sort of weapon is necessary, is that FLAK or Lock-ON type weapons are inevitably more effective against ESF's because of their much lower HP and we do not need another form of AA to kill ESF's, the skill level to pilot them is already incredibly high. We need a weapon that can pack a punch, especially at range but not be as precise or forgiving as Lock-ons and FLAK, therefore not be very effective against ESF, which already need to contend with Flak and Lock-ons at every turn. With the upcoming changes to the Galaxy and possible implementation of a PROXY or AMMO resupply Galaxy, ground vehicles will need a weapons platform that can dish out damage to the more heavily armored Liberators and Galaxies, on a more 1 vs 1 basis. I suggest a MBT Variant, that has a main gun that can angle up to nearly 90 degrees and fire an AP like round or smaller rounds in fast succession, similar to the viper but with less random spread. The big change will come in the form of the secondary gunners seat, which will be converted to a Laser target designator. The secondary Laser Target Designator, when aimed and fired at an Air craft will paint a target box around the Air craft, so that the Main gunner will know which Air vehicle is being targeted and give the main gunner a flight path prediction vector as well as a lead target reticule. This designator will use a targeting computer to calculate the projected flight path of the Air craft being targeted indicated by a line and provide the gunner with a circular reticule, that indicates the approximate area the gunner will need to fire in order to hit the Air craft. This will be a guide meant to assist the gunner, but will not guarantee a hit, skill will still be a factor. Below is an image of what the Main gunner would see once, the secondary gunner has painted the target... Here are some counter / balance ideas... - The designator should project a beam at the target, thus giving away its position... - Instead of Flairs, Liberators would get a new option for Chafe, that would disrupt the laser designator... Please let me know what you think....
BF3/4 style. I'd rather they bring out vehicle weapon terminals first, and see if that doesn't see a rise in skygaurds.
Vehicle terminals are an absolute must. I completely agree... As long as there is a timer between switching out your load outs, or a nominal resource cost...
More skill ceiling reduction. No. Not unless you're willing to make sure its recommended area to shoot is large and slow to recalculate after the aircraft in question jink's into a new flightpath.
Here are some questions/statements: The Liberators will obviously be moving so how long will the beam help you? Chafe will be a useless idea, considering that it will not deflect a tank shot, only disrupt the beam. (considering the tank user will fire within 1-2 seconds) 1-2 seconds is very little response time, and considering the server lag it will be even less. The beam should have a similar feature such as the lock-on time to let the pilot react. And it should only grant 25% or less. (we dont want a lock-on guided tank round) The circle in which you are supposed to fire should be much be much larger. (to achieve the above) Cannons that have this feature should be weaker towards vehicles (like the lock-on) But in return they should be allowed to aim higher. (just a little)
If you allow sky guards/ bursters/aa turrets to switch from proxy to direct hit then we really won't need something like this. But I do think MBT aa should be a thing. Just aimed more towards killing heavy air.
The secondary gunner is going to need to keep the beam on the Air craft continuously, if the Main gunner is going to be able to take advantage of the target trajectory prediction ridicule, and seeing as it is a computer making a calculated guess the main gunner may still need to compensate, there will also be some room for error with in the circle reticule and the trajectory prediction is also going to be based off the secondary gunners accuracy and ability to keep the air craft on target. This would not be a skill ceiling reduction, this is going to be as difficult and require about the equivalent amount of coordination between the 2 players as is needed for a Dalton pilot/Gunner need to land targets on vehicles in the 300-500m range. If the Dalton Pilot/Gunner can sit at ranges up too 500m and lobe rounds at ground vehicles, then there is no reason a specialized MBT can't fling AP rounds back up at the Liberator. As I stated I want this to be a skill based counter. It takes a certain level of skill to accurately lob Dalton Rounds at ground targets, Shooting rounds up at a liberator that can move in 3 dimensional space is much more difficult to judge and will require the aid of a targeting computer, whose output is going to be reliant on the skill and accuracy of the secondary gunner to keep the beam on target and the skill of the Main gunner to find the sweet spot in the prediction reticule.
The only issue with that, is that they will become that much more effective against ESF in general and at range. ESF that are at range tend to be the AA or dog fighting versions and are out of the ground fight for the most part. We have plenty if not too much AA that is effective in the sub 300m range. What is needed is a weapons platform that can effectively and equally hit Dalton Liberators that utilize the 300-500 range to snipe ground targets. So basically a ground based Dalton that shoots up instead of down.
The beam is fired from the secondary gunners seat, so for as long as the gunner is depressing his mouse button and he is hitting the Air craft. Chafe is a reflective material that will disrupt the laser beam, giving the targeting computer multiple returns and as such disrupt the target prediction. While the Main gunner can still take the shot, he is going to lose the assist from the targeting computer for a few seconds, until the chafe dissipates. /agree the pilot would need an indicator letting him know he is being lazed. And the beam will be visible to other players in the area meaning the AA-MBT's position is going to be given away. Meaning they will need protection from enemy vehicles and infantry. /no this is not a guided round. It is going to require the secondary gunner to keep the beam on target, and the gunner is going to get a calculated guess based on the range,speed,direction of the Air craft along with the drop of the round and its velocity and time to target. but just shooting into the circle will not guarantee a hit, the gunner is still going to need to use skill and intuition to make the shot. Its not hard making these shots under 200m, however when aircraft get beyond 300m there are just too many variables to make those type of long range shots UN-assisted. Yes, this weapon would need to be weaker against ground vehicles, and it will especially since the secondary gunner spot will not have a weapon. I also was thinking this vehicle is a specialized AA-Variant, it would be designed in a manor that its top armor is reinforced at the lose of its side, front and rear armor. This would make it stronger defensively against Air, but weaker against other vehicles and even if it fires its AP like round at other ground vehicles it just won't be able to go 1 vs 1 against them, because it's armor is reduced.
Chafe is what happens when it's hot out and your pants are too tight. You are referring to chaff. OT: No.
I would rather get an heavy AA artillery option for some bases and a mobile lightly smaller version to put on some vehicle. It would be slow and suck against ESF's but a lib up high would crap him self in fear when one of those shells explodes near him/her >
Why? MAXes don't need to expend resources or wait between swaps. In any case, being able to swap between AP, Skyguard, HEAT, and Viper would be amazing and I'd prolly never take anything besides a Lightning again. Would also be really nice to swap my ESF loadouts for PPA, or lolpods, or dogfighter.
Main reason so that the vehicle load out terminal or Ammo tower doesn't get congested with people sitting next to it, swapping out load outs on the fly...Ie switching from AA to AI to AA to AV to AI back to AA and literally, just sit in the same spot, which may block others. I figure there are probably about 3 ways to handle it. #3 being my preferred choice... 1. Universal, instant load out swapping 2. Instant Load out swapping, but 25 resource cost per swap 3. 1 min timer between swapping load outs, but no resource cost. I agree swapping out Air vehicle load outs as well, would be beneficial.
I am a BIG advocate of improving Base Turrets. In fact I think that players should be able to cert into Turrets, which would allow them to upgrade the turret, much like they can weapons on vehicles...ie... improved ammo capacity, faster reload, improved heat sinks and even the type of round used...or even giving the player the option to modify the type of turret available to them... Imaging being able to chose AP, HE or HEAT rounds for AV turrets or even be given the option for a FLAK, Walker or even an AP type round AA turret. Since Beta I have advocated that base turrets should have the greatest vertical reach and power vs Air and ground, since they are fixed and easy targets to destroy and they should be Key in base defenses. As for a Heavy AA artillery option... That is pretty much what I am suggesting. In my opinion, Liberators and Galaxies are Multi-crew vehicles that bring a lot of fire power to the fight and there is nothing wrong with that, but there really isn't a Multi-crew heavy AA ground vehicle equivalent. I do not mind bringing more or stronger AA into the game but it ABSOLUTELY MUST require more then one person to operate and it really shouldn't be very effective against ESF they already have to face enough AA weapon platforms that can easily 1 vs 1 them.
Almost a good idea on paper, but near impossible to implement. Latency would murder these implementations and when you change the scale to a 30v30 fight (or bigger), these things would effectively make the whole hex a no-fly zone.
Agreed. Not being able to change vehicle loadouts is incredibly frustrating. When I pull a Skyguard to fend off air, I don't want to be utterly useless when said aircraft is no longer around. We should be able to swap out loadouts just like infantry!
Way I see it working is you get out and run up to terminal. You can spawn a new vehicle of the one you already own without cost or timer reset and it despawns the old one when it spawns in the new one. That way you couldn't just toggle back and forth too easily. You have to get out and run up to the term, and wait in queue if it's a busy terminal. Hell, time to jump back out, run up to term, and spawn a new one would probably be close to a minute and that's spending no time in the vehicle you just spawned.
