I making this thread as if the ideas I proposed in this thread (https://forums.daybreakgames.com/ps2/index.php?threads/max-weapons-lock-in-spawn-room.244543/) where to happen. The frequent remarks I would see in the thread would be concerning Aircraft camping ground targets, but the real issue is feel that pretty much all air vehicles can fill that role with ease. It feels as though Aircraft are all different teirs of an air-based swiss army knife; they can all do the same thing with varying amounts of success. I think each aircraft should fill a very specific role with "sidgrades" when the situation calls for an adjustment of tactics and changing vehicles is not ideal. There SHOULD be a dedicated bomber, a dedicated fighter and dedicated troop transport. To Summarize the changes I have in mind: -ESFs become true air superiority fighters built to fight air-to-air and have minimal air-to-ground capabilities -Liberators become true bombers, built to counter ground assaults but be quite weak vs. other air -Galaxies become a dedicated and durable troop transport (pretty much already there) -Valkyries also troop transports but would be built for anti-infantry purposes as an agile strike platform akin to a Blackhawk helicopter. The important thing to consider here, is I want each aircraft to serve a very specific role well, not just be a multi-purpose vehicle that is good at everything. I feel a way to effectively balance air is to define roles and create weaknesses that can be exploited to counter the offending aircraft. ~~~~~~~ ESF (Empire Specfic Fighter) To start, ESFs would be changed to be built for striking aircraft from the skies, and less about farming infantry. To that end, Certs would need to be refunded for each faction's "lolpods" as they would receive the most significant changes, and therefore may not be a pilots secondary-of-choice after said changes. The damage of noseguns to ESF, and Valkyries would be unchanged, however noseguns would gain a damage bonus vs. Liberators and Galaxies such that the TTK (time to kill) is roughly equal to the TTK of a Valkyrie. In this way ESFs would be the general purpose counter to other aircraft and the way a squadron of Liberator and Galaxies could live, is through having an ESF escort; at which point its down to the ESF pilots to keep their allies safe. The "Lolpods" would be reworked to act as a scouting tool for finding ground targets for Liberators and mark them for all allies inside the Hex. The Direct damage would be unchanged, so if the ESF pilot is a good shot, they can still hit ground targets. The splash range would be increased significantly but the damage would be reduced to do about 1/8 of an infantry's total health pool (one bar, either shield or actual health). When your "lolpods" hit a target they will become marked for allied players to see. This marking effect would reveal the enemy armor and infantry for 20 seconds and if the target has vehicle stealth or Infiltrator cloak active, the duration is reduced by 50%. ESFs would remain fairly vulnerable to Ground-based air deterrence with lock-ons and Skyguards being highly effective against ESFs. In order for an ESF to be protected from Armor and flak they have to rely on Liberators. Liberator Liberators would act as a counter to Armor and Flak based weapons, they would have a natural damage resistance to Flak and Rockets giving a default damage reduction of about 40% and with Composite Armor, a total reduction of 75%! The Liberator's job would be to bomb ground targets, wiping them out and being able to fly away for another pass or to repair. Aside from their tailgun, their armaments would do minimal damage to other aircraft with Dalton, in particular, dealing 90% less damage to aircraft compared to it's effect vs. Armor. As I said previously, the Liberator's counter would be ESFs, thus it would be up to ESF pilots to keep their allies safe from "bomb squads". Galaxy The Galaxy is actually already pretty close to what it needs to be: a durable airborne troop transport. Aside from the odd "battle Galaxy", I think they only thing we need to worry about is weapon tuning and balancing. Valkyrie I would love to see the Valkyrie become a widespread anti-infantry aircraft. It would still be vulnerable to things like AA and lock-ons, but it would act as a weapons platform and a 3rd dimension to the battlefield where you can insert soldiers or attack Armor from above with Heavy Assaults or the infamous "C4 fairys". If there is anything I'd suggest, it would be to add a utility slot to the Valkyrie that replaces 2 of the passenger seats with Gunner seats facing out the sides with Anti-infantry guns like Miniguns or Rocket Launchers; I think that would make the Valkyrie a more potent attack craft and all the more cool for it. Other Idea? I would love the idea of an aircraft that could transport vehicles like that of the Lodestar from planstside 1, but PLEASE, no flying shoeboxes! I'd prefer the idea of an industrial aircraft that flys at the speed of a Valkyrie that picks up NS (Nanite Systems) vehicles (no empire specific tanks, otherwise whats the point of a tech plant?), say 2 flashes and 1 of all other NS vehicles. Thoughts? Comments? I wanted to see how people would take to the previous post with MAX weapon locking so I could address any issues that where considered frequently.
I suggested most of this all the way back in May 2015. Nobody listened then, nobody's gonna listen now.
If enough people read this and say something, Daybreak MAY do something! Personally I like the idea... No... I LOVE the idea! i dont like ESF "lolpods" anyways and i find flying difficult so i sdont find enjoyment in things that i cant partake in... especially if it ruins the game. i talking about the NEW players, they have NO CLUE what they do or how powerful they are and ALWAYS die because of it. they either learn quickly or fail. and if they fail they mostly quit or "ragequit" still, i like the idea and i also suggest being able to have MORE FREEDOM when CUSTOMIZING the CONTROLS. that way newer players can get into flying more easily and actually able to have some fun! i personally SUCK at flying, and i wish it was easier. it the fact i cant rebind the roll to the keyboard and Yaw to my mouse and it makes it very difficult to use/learn. I SUPPORT THIS CHANGE!!!!!
My dream for PS2 is that ESFs have their rocket pods and anti tank missiles removed and instead receive bombs. This relegates them to either air superiority or lightning quick attacks where they drop their bombs and bug out. The rocket pods and AT missiles will be given to the Valkyrie which has the option of replacing the rumble seats with them. Dunno what should be done with Libs and Gals though. Just my 2 cents.
Bad idea. You shouldn't decrease the versatility of these weapons, you should increase the versatility of both air but especially ground. The problem is that air can hardly be countered and has an easy time to murder things, as well as the highly niche A2A combat system that favors a teeny tiny portion of the playerbase and prevents any average player from joining and enjoying it. If you make ESF even more niche air-superiority fighters all that will happen is that all other aircraft have an even harder time. What you should do is give aircraft different ways to perform their roles. For example you could reduce the ESF's capability to turn while hovering, making it harder to fight while hovering and pushing ESF more into a dive-bomber role. The Valkyrie can get different modifications to make it a more helicopter-style aircraft, but it would still have an A2A loadout designed to destroy big aircraft like the Lib and Gal available etc. This way each aircraft is slated to specific roles and combat techniques, but none are actually prevented from executing different roles. To take the Valkyrie and ESF example, both would be capable of doing A2A and A2G depending on their loadout. But the way these roles are performed are different and their preferred targets can also be different, allowing for more diversity in the air. Naturally ground needs the same treatment. HEAT and HE canons should get higher elevation to function as skillful and relatively short-ranged G2A weapons that can't OHK aircraft (Vanguard HEAT would get a slight weapon-specific damage reduction against ESF to prevent OHK's). That would make the HEAT and HE canons great against bigger aircraft and give them almost no hope of destroying ESF who have plenty of time to get out of the area. Other G2A weapons should also be more available. It's ridiculous that any new player has practically no suitable G2A weapons available, and yes a single burster only tells them "shoot me shoot me!" so that doesn't really count, and the Rocklet is pretty pathetic in it's damage output especially because an aircraft can actually outrun your shots and the accuracy+range on the thing is extremely short. Other weapons to add would be co-ax/top-mounted remote-turrets that can function as light and skillful G2A giving vehicles an actual chance to go up against aircraft and more G2A weapons for infantry, again with the need that they are skillful.
I was a2a only for a long time its hard mode not much xp and even less kills since even if shoot down enemy mechines the pilot can just ditch his airplane fall to the ground and suiced and it was one of the reasons i stopped playing in the first place now im back right for the IR nerf hard times for pilots ar here
Also, please remove all guns from Sunderer. Please remove Anti-Infantry top guns from MBTs (AV guns only). Please remove guns from Flash. Ground vehicles are too versatile and hurt my infantry game.
i like the concept, But if they turn the lib into a pure bomber they better remove that infernal op tankbuster, its good against literally everything. shreds galaxies, esfs if you can get them in your sights (most people run stealth so its not too hard), MBTs, sundies, infantry.
Personally, I like better specialization. It gives meaning and depth to team play and choices. Simply put, I like the idea of libs being hard bombers and ESFs being skylords.
It has actually been suggested quite a bit more "all the way back" - in beta even. I think the mistake stemmed from SOE wanting to make stuff more cool than it was in PS1 (also easier to draw $$ from, but that's not the important part, right!). I.e. merging the PS1 reaver and PS1 mossie into one versatile fighter (with only cosmetic ES differences), and reworking the liberator bomber into a liberator gunship. But that's sort of ok, the game was still "experimental". Then people learned to exploit a lot of stuff on the lib (shooting back at chasing ESFs while flying away, prolonging afterburner by switching seats, etc, all working to this day afaik) and generally show the full potential being much higher than expected, and that's when it should have been reworked back to a bomber role. Instead it got overbuffed, then overnerfed, and now it's too late for anything reasonable.
I hear there may be some new top guns in development for Sundies, so that wish seems unlikely to be met. (PS I realise you're post is not entirely serious). On the point about Flashes though, I have no objection to their guns but using them as unmanned C4 delivery vehicles seems a bit wierd............I mean, if you are an infil and get a mate to stick the C4 on it, you can drive in under cloak to delivery the explosives. Yet infils are the only infatry class that can't personally carry C4 (or shotguns, unless, no wait, they are on the Flash).
Dont need a m8. You can do it solo, just spawn as LA, grab a flash, place c4 on flash, switch to infil.
