Aircraft pilots, here's how its supposed to be.

This game is an team based warfare, your aircrafts are supposed to be torn to bits in the sky if the enemy has presence of anti-air. Your ground forces should deal with the anti-air (whether turrets, maxes or skyguards), and then you should move in. That's the games focus, and your aircraft isn't supposed to be "safe" up in the skies if AA is present. That's the primary reason for buffing AA in the latest hotfix, its supposed to remove the other factions air superiority, if present. You alone are just another small pawn on the chess table, and thinking yourself as anything more than that is the problem here.

The thing is, you aren't supposed to be viable solo, as the game is an combined arms game.

Sincerely, a team player.

The problem is... Air Units have been spoilt rotten. They have mostly been selfish solo players and now, for the first time (if they are good), will have to reconsider flight patterns, angles or even the viability of aircraft. Just like Land Vehicles do in every engagement.

Yea...What about Invisible Anti Air? Last time I checked, Units should not mystically appear, and vanish when you move inside/outside 250m. Let's also add that Said "invisible" units can fire well outside of 700m, and we call that fair? No no...When Jan 30th comes, and we can finally SEE Anti Air units, things will be right in the world. I've no issue with AA damage. I've only got a issue that they raised the damage and effectiveness well still allowing the most widely used form of AA to stay cloaked in a magical bubble from eyes in the sky.

And still, air units aren't the only ones who suffer from unit render distance issues. A MBT has the same issue, he cannot properly spot the AT enemies from longer ranges, snipers suffer from it, anyone specialized in medium/longer range suffers from it. You pilots aren't alone in the matter.

I love the tears that are currently forming a tsunami on the forums. And while the render distance is a problem, that's a problem for pretty much everybody, and I don't think that's a good excuse to have AA do almost nothing.

Actually, you, and most of the "Air is OP" moaners really haven't thought this through have you?

The direct result of this patch will become apparent in a few days time as people adjust, and you're not gonna like it, I promise you that.

Sure, the folks too lazy to organize a proper anti-air response got what they wanted, better AA so less people have to take it to be effective - ESF's are pretty much insta gibbed now against an organized burster group that waits for range before firing.

But, "Why won't we like this patch then" you ask.

Reason, two words: Zepher / Dalton - and the free reign they will have due to less natural counters (ESF) in the air.

just think about starcraft

Actually, I do not moan that air is OP. The only thing I hated was the complete inefficiency of my 7 dollar Skyguard, or my Hawk which did not deal damage because of an glitch. both are now improved.

Maybe SOE did that on purpose: giving AA two WEEKS of OP to make up for the 2 MONTHS of OP that air has had.

Render distance is an optimization and engine-related thing, so we shouldn't delay balance changes just for rendering. It'll be interesting when people can see each other and more people farther away by the end of the month.

There was no problem with AA before the patch. Teamplayers who participated in open battle know this.

I sincerely believe that the campaign to increase AA strength was won by campees, who only saw aircraft from their spawn door.

Watch what happens when the campees get super spawn fortresses, and everyone huddles in their tunnels, robbing the open battle of infantry. Air support will be unable to stop what you call the zerg by themselves, and your what you call a zerg problem will only become worse. For you.

Beware of unintended consequences. Gloating only accelerates them.

Yea, and AT cannot effectively fire from long range anyways. Sure, it's a issue but a hostile none lockon missile will hardly hit from max range. If you sit still and let them hone in on you, that's your issue.

Agree with snipers but most combat with snipers happens within the 200m sphere anyways. If you wanna snipe from 700m away then your asking too much. 200-300m should be the max infantry render distance to keep performance down.

As for long range. What type of range do you want in a tank? A tank is not a ultra long range machine anyways. The issue is that a Duel Burster Max can effectively shoot at a Aircraft LONG before the aircraft can combat them. A sniper not rendering a infantry troop from 500m is not in any danger from said infantry. A tank not being able to render a dummy firing missile is hardly in any effective danger, a Heavy assault unable to render a infantry from across a tech plant is also not in real danger of dying.

However, EFS and Libs are in considerable danger from Burster MAX units from well outside their visual and effective firing ranges. The difference in the danger levels are vast. Would I love to see infantry from 1000m away.. HELL YEA...However that's a long ways away. What I want is a fair fighting chance on a visual front. If they can see me, I should be able to see them.

Lastly, don't get me wrong. I agree with the damage increase, I don't agree that they should have do it without also adding the Render fix as well. That's from a "balance" perspective.

What's stopping AA from shooting at Libs, though? If it's height, then friendly ESFs can get to work on that.

I didn't need to be part of a team to kill ESFs faster as an ESF than if I were in a Skyguard or Phalanx turret. Also, I have rocket pods equipped.

The only thing that required teamwork in the air were Galaxies and Liberators. What you're basically saying is that AA being good at what it's supposed to do is bad.

Oh..You never played Beta...Welcome mr. Joined Dec 16th 2012...You missed the long beta phase were AA was extremely overpowered. If we want to do the *** for tat, then EFS got something finally. However I don't think that's a valid reason. You've been here for almost 1 month. Talking about "2 months" and you've not even been here long is hilarious.

Maybe get some history of how the game has changed/evolved before you start talking about stuff you know NOTHING about.

Why is MAX render distance an issue to ESF pilots?
You're a lightly armored aircraft, when a dedicated anti-air unit starts firing at you ( MAX, Skyguard, AA turret ) your thoughts should not be "I'm going to kill it" but rather "holy poop I'm getting the hell out of here".

Now to liberator pilots, who can actually tank the damage and effectively kill MAXs, the render distance issue is actually important.

You kidding me? 3 Burster Maxs can already wreck a Lib, this is just going to make AA even more fun. Watch out pilots, you're guna have to spend a whole lot more time watching those cool down timers. Also don't ***** kid me, 80% of ESF pilots wouldn't go against a Lib unless they see one on 20% or less armour cuz they're all kitted to go ground farming. If SOE hadn't made ESF's so viable for A2G maybe we wouldn't have this problem, but they did and people abused it, now they don't know what to do because they can't take the pods away cuz people have spent a ton of hard cash getting them quick to farm with and they can't nerf them much more than they already have or people will stop buying them. Solution, an endless circle of buff AA until it gets stupid, nerf AA until it gets stupid.

All I'll say is for periods of BETA AA was stupidly powerful and not many people bothered with air and I remember it being way more fun.

The issue is flying into AA without being able to see it prior. If everything rendered up to 1km, I'd never be flying anywhere near AA, for example.

You didn't need to be a part of a team in order to survive in the air against enemy ESF? Dang. You are good.

What I am saying: Be very careful about making game changes. There will be unintended consequences that will allow the entitlement group to push us further down the slippery slope.

In open battle, any aircraft that got close to enemy positions got the poo shot out of it.

What will be the unintended consequence of making ground attack in open battle even more dangerous? I predict that what you call a zerg will become even more powerful and that the entitlement crowd will use that to gain impetus for the next dumb-down campaign.

ESFs are not countering libs anyway. Might do the opposite to what you state, and ESFs may stay further away from the ground and concentrate on taking down libs.