Aircraft vs infantry is out of hand

The Striker doesn't have drop. The Rocklet rifle does. I can tell you that from the air, the 3 things that aircraft worry about are the Striker, spawnroom Bursters, and vehicle flak. The Rocklet rifle has such short range that it's really only good against the worst of pilots. The Striker does have a slow velocity, but within the range that other launchers operate, it's leagues more effective.

Last time I checked G2A missile launchers were one of the least used HA missile launchers. Can you explain where you get your numbers from?

But last time I checked G2A missile launchers did show a rather unfortunate fact: Even a dedicated G2A launcher kills more ground vehicles than it does aircraft. Also the whole "3 lock-ons in the area negates air" is grossly overrated as there are far too many requirements to actually pull it off effectively.

Taliban soldier shakes fist at 29 million dollar aircraft that costs 10.000 dollars per hour to operate and requires multiple hours of servicing from a platoon of people after each flight. It fires missiles and bombs that cost from 17.000 to 600.000+ dollars, with the average that I could spot of around 300.000 dollars.

Auraxian soldier shakes fist at a +/- 300 dollar aircraft (based on the price of a C4 or grenade in-game vs the aircraft) that requires servicing in a minute from the pilot to get it back up to full strength and it fires ammo that is completely costless. For the price the aircraft shouldn't even be able to get off the ground, let alone have any notable armor. If you want realism I'm happy to let you wait a week or two in-game just to get the ammo together, and then another year or two to buy the aircraft with the resources you get per minute.

Yeah it amazes me too! Infantry at least have some teamwork, but aircraft and vehicles are absolute solo beasts with at maximum a guy in your tank to gun with you. Yet the players expect that these cheapo tanks need to take on everything they lay their eyes on? They expect that just because they could find a terminal and buy a vehicle that reduces the skill they need to play and be successful that the infantry suddenly has to "play as a team"? It's both unfair and doesn't go with PS2's design, as it's too easy for the attackers to remove the defender vehicles and retain this superiority. Forcing infantry to do teamwork, especially without proper tools to actually perform teamwork on the level you are asking, is a giant middle-finger to everyone who is playing infantry at that time.

To make the game enjoyable there has to be a balance, and that balance requires infantry to be on-par with vehicles. Since vehicles cost nanites, infantry need nanite-based weapons to deal with vehicles effectively. The costless AV weapons they have available have far too many drawbacks and weaknesses so they are great as a secondary option if you run out so most of those don't have to change at all.

No, it's not. Lol. I've Auraxium'd the damn thing and I can tell you I'd rather just hop on an AA MAX or a turret, and if I don't have anything else then maybe I'd consider using it... if only I didn't have the Grounder. Besides, I've died to plenty of Phoenix launchers in an ESF, and been forced out of combat by single Lancer heavies. If you die to a Striker, that's your fault for hovering in one place like some unaware jerk. The auto-lock is the only thing going for it, and that's niche when the Rocklet can do it and mag-bump in a single 1-second burst. Oh, and LA's fly too, in case you forgot that.

I don't think you'd be happy at all, as that real life time/money is well worth it for the domination those aircraft provide. Those few hours an aircraft was down would have to be balanced by a game-killing level of misery when it was up.

Not to be a dick, but that says about all I nead to hear about your A2G expertise. I'm not an expert pilot by any stretch of the imagination, but after about 1,500 hours in the air I can count on one hand the times I've died to the Phoenix, Lancer, and Rocklet rifle combined. They're simply not an issue. And yes, I'd be more effective in a spawnroom Bursters than with a Striker, which is why it made the list of one of the few things decent ESF fear from the ground. Maybe you think the Striker sucks because your aim is as bad as your flying, but I can tell you that every single pilot out there would happily face ground locks instead of Strikers, even in their current form.

No it wouldnt be balanced, it would use realism for those planes.
Even if a single bomb is like an instant OS it would still cost so much, the plane, fuel, a platoon to service it, people that spot targets and the bomb itself. Compare that to someone who would simply buy a PS2 ESF or tank for less cost than the cheapest ammo of the F18 (even a single machine gun ammo drum costs more than one ESF). Get destroyed mercilessly? Well he's out of ammo within a minute and you are still going strong for the literal years he needs to even START using that aircraft. PS2 is 6 years, with how fast resources come in even a member with resource boosts would have gotten about 12 sorties at maximum, assuming he doesnt buy anything else, doesnt damage the plane or it gets destroyed while beig serviced that is...

What happened to laughter. It's a joke killer. Nothing else.

I've actually seen them shaking their fists at FA/18's through binoculars, bombed or not. . We had a good chuckle at the time. Just trying to share the humor. .

You can't play that game. Realism works in Arma because that expensive vehicle with limited ordnance puts a target down for the count. You can't have realistic vehicle logistics and immortal infantry.

What?
Where do you get your smoke?

Infantry this, Vehicles that........sigh...
Its all part of the same empire, the same army, the same attacking group, the same defending group. Stop seperating the game into 3 seperate games, it cannot be balanced like that.
Teamwork involves asking on /re for assistance removing vehicles, its about platoons making setups that counter the enemy effectively.
When we tank, we tank as a team, we take AV/AV, AV/AA, a skyguard, a repair sundy with either increased AA power or some AI power depending on the situation we need to respond to. Thats at least 6 players working as a team to counter what the enemy throws at them, not 6 soloists.
We often get asked to join other platoons, last night is a prime example, 3 squads, most in vehicles but some spawning at the sundy Bravo squad was protecting.
I swear you lot play a different game to me, you must do.

I can seriously count on one hand the amount of times a vehicle has 'farmed' me, it just never ever happens, solo team whatever.
If it is a 'solo excretioner' as you call them, they definitely die (and quickly) as they have not backup, no spotters, nothing to help them when my c4, lib, tank etc comes looking for them. Even a phoenix can piss off a solo tank.

You want to know why the 'infantry' have to use teamwork?
There is so many of them, too many of them.
If you give them a weapon thats as powerful as a titan AP cannon why in the hell would anyone make themselves a massive great big target by pulling a vehicle?
Why would anyone pull a tank to kill a sundy when they have an AP cannon on their pocket?
And also, why isnt that weapon strapped to the tank? I assume its light enough for a troop to carry, so a tank can carry 100 of them yes? Destroy a base in 1 shot.

You have some good ideas, but your thoughts on the 'infantry vs vehicles' situation is far from what the game is intended to be.

Well ye.
You might think its worth piss taking (tbh thats all i see you do), but ye thats about right.
If the game shouldnt stay the same, even tho i like it, why should the game change because you dont like it?
Thats a bit conceited isnt it?
Are you some how more entitled to your opinion than everyone else?

I think you lot also forget 1 thing, inside every vehicle is an infantry.
You cant go giving them 1v1able weapons against vehicles or a vehicle fight would never actualy be a vehicle fight, it would be who can jump out and kill the opponent as infantry first.

Theres nothing wrong with the way the game is designed, and the way its intended to be played, except for your personal preference on how a game should work.
Well, it doesnt work like that get over it, i did a long long long time ago, infact it was pretty easy to do, went something like this:
'O in this game vehicles are dangerous, ok better be careful then'
Job done.
I didnt beg the devs for a safe space, i didnt whine about 'imbalance' as if its somehow just me who cannot use vehicles.
I played the game presented to me, and i loved it.

Hate to parrot this phrase again, but if you dont like it dont play it.....

*looks at what the thread is devolving into, shakes head*

Sometimes, I wonder if part of the issue is that some players are dead set on being 'specialists' that can do one or a few things really well, while being mediocre at everything else. Like, they focus on just one class, and cert the living daylights out of it. And it works very, very well... right up until the hard counter to that class or role inevitably shows up.

And then they're screwed, because they're basically a 'one trick pony', and suck at anything else, or simply refuse to practice performing other roles.

Then you have players that are 'generalists', typically being more flexible at what roles they can perform at any given time, since they don't specialize so narrowly. For example, I'm not 'godlike' in any one particular role, but I'd like to think that I'm 'decent' at most of them.

Need repairs and ammo packs? Lemme swap to Engineer and I'll get right on that. Short on Medics, or a MAX died near an infantry terminal? I can switch to Medic and fix that, easily. Got an enemy spawn point giving you trouble? Give me a sec to swap to my Light Assault, and I'll break that sucker with C4 and Typhoon Rocklets. Need close air support against enemy ground forces? Give me a moment to hop into my ESF with a 'ground pounder' loadout. Enemy air units giving you problems? I can introduce them to either my dual Burster MAX, my Skyguard Lightning, or my lock-on Heavy Assault.

The list just goes on.

And on and on and on....
Completely agree, and is how the game is designed and intended to be played.
Really wish people would learn that tbh.

Thumbs up.

P.S. Im not saying, and i dont think you are either, that player type 1 in your example is bad or wrong, its fine to specialise, you just cant then complain that your specialism isnt 'killing everything my reticle aims at', because thats not a specialist.

Oh yes, specialization isn't, in itself, the 'wrong' choice to make. Hell, having the right specialist for the job at hand can be an absolute godsend.

It's the ones that whine and complain that their specialization is being defeated by the hard-counters to their role, while being unwilling to adapt and learn at least one other role that might compensate for their primary specialization's weaknesses. Those are the ones I take issue with, as there are undoubtedly a number of balance changes that came about because of that overly whiny 'vocal minority'.

Hossin groundpounding, bro. They can really sneak up on you with the Phoenix.

Do you not play with a decent headset?

Hard to hear when your Banshee is claiming souls, plus all the ground fire. Considering Hossin has so much tree cover, guess where you need to fly to get in with a groundpounder? Under the canopy. Anyways, this is getting off topic. Point is, I've found anti-air options to be plentiful and effective in this game. I reckon the people complaining about it are the ones who haven't really specced into anything to fight off aircraft properly.

My Scythe's Light PPA is arguably even louder than a Banshee from the pilot's seat, yet I can still detect the distinctive 'whine' of a Phoenix missile coming my way, and effortlessly dodge it. Even with ground fire added to the mix, I can still detect and dodge it without fail; it's when I'm being a tanker on the ground, that I start to have trouble dodging Phoenix missiles, and only because I'm limited to a 2-dimensional plane of movement, versus the 3-dimensional freedom I enjoy in a Scythe.

Then again, I bought and use a Sennheiser Game One specifically to improve my ability to locate and track things in-game almost solely by sound. It works both defensively, and offensively: If I'm playing as infantry, for instance, I can hear the approach of enemy aircraft or vehicles long before they reach line of sight with me, which gives me time to sprint into cover. And if there's an enemy Infiltrator running around, I can often track and corner them solely via the faction-specific cloak and decloak noises they produce; seriously, some of the Infiltrators I've cornered this way, were actually silly enough to perform callouts while cloaked, which just makes pinpointing their location by sound even easier for me.

Personally, I don't think audio-based awareness is ever emphasized enough in multiplayer games anymore, whether it's a first-person shooter, a real-time strategy game, or some other genre that would benefit from training one's audio awareness.

I also mostly play on PS4 these days, my man, and hit detection and lag are pretty severe. By the time I can actually hear the Phoenix coming in, it's too late. But I'd still rather put up with that than construction bases impeding the map flow.