Aircraft vs infantry is out of hand

This discussion is pointless since the beginning of PS 1 in 2003. Its always the same and leads to nothing! I recommend to specialize in something where you are good at and keep it and so you can gain some success.

Pulling the short stick in a fight, because your skills are below average is always frustrating and when you use a toon, vehicle or aircraft that isnt made to defeat the current threat, then you should learn how to retreat very fast and pull something else that is better suited and which is better skilled for the task.

Whining in the forum isnt the solution.

But it is a time-honored pastime.

Ignoring that you think you need 2-3 skyguards pre-post CAI to kill an ESF... I mean for a Lib or Gal... maybe...

Essentially you want a 20mm good against nearly anything but master of none gun. Kinda the one bullet to kill'em all dealy. I remember when the skyguard was the auto-archer, pre-flak. There's, again, a reason it was nerfed. It used to be a lil' too good at melting everything around it. They toned down the damage, it did nothing anymore to anyone cause well... automatic archer is hard to balance and now air over-ran them easily in DPS. So they turned it to flak instead to give it one purpose specifically as it was meant to be in their intended design. Used to melt air easily cause it would hit it from the moment air was visible until they left said vision. Then we ended up with the nerfed range we have today. Again, boost that range, watch air's survival rating plummet to nothingness.

Yesterday while I was playing, I kept track of the number of aircraft around me. I'm sure my buddy was less amused as I kept saying "Look at all that overpowered air." every time I saw any air vehicle. In fact, I said it each time I saw air die horribly which was... often. I thought about screen capping each one, but that'd be going beyond necessary. I'm just not seeing this dominance you are.

That said, I did see a sudden uptick in air presence in one map in particular. Amerish. Lots of nooks and hills to hide behind, difficult terrain for ground vehicles, and... it's just generally perfect for air combat. Here's where the AAA will feel the most pain due to their being such nice places to hide. Hossin is a mixed bag as it's not the easiest to fly through the cluttered terrain so there wasn't much of a difference in air pressure here. But back to Amerish.

So here the air was getting ballzy and getting in close for longer due to having closer hiding spots they could utilize. Had to get creative to put them at any threat. Basically had to hit them well before they got into the combat area which meant going mobile with the harasser ranger. I started to see some of this fabled air dominance, but there were also fewer AAA tanks. Hmm. Looking into it, bad terrain, narrow valley areas limiting approaches, generally less escapes for "vulnerable" tanks. Sounds like a murderfest by terrain to me. Kinda what I witnessed too.

Still, keep in mind, this is one map that seems to favor air's mobility. Any time AAA showed up, they still left the area. Most areas where air over-ran me it was due to the enemy presence in the area being much greater than ours. It also still took far more than 1 to make much of a dent in me if I was running AAA. A frisky Lib pilot or two with a tank buster attempted a flank on occasion, but I'm one of those tricky types that watches rear too so often he'd get hammered as he'd approach and abort. Two or one with other support tended to give me trouble, but this is as a lone AAA. Even then they had the darnest time trying to take me out, during which they were unable to kill anything else, including me. Seems to be working as intended even on what I'd designate as "air's home turf."

Indar. Open areas, clear easily viewable skies.. Not hard to spot air coming and swat them down. See'em die often.

Esamir. Much the same. Air normally dies quite horribly except for those libs flying super high, but it's quite hard to get good clear aimed shots there.

Hossin. Often times panic ensues when you hit air with AAA leading them to smash into trees. It's cluttered and not the easiest to fly through so it's 50/50. You know those amazing pilots when you see'em though, but it's not as common.

Amerish. Air's home turf. Much larger presence due to having places to quickly hide behind in bulk. I witnessed them running amok here more. Got overran far more and actually had to switch to AAA myself. I hadn't had to before as 90% of the time I didn't have to look far to see a skyguard. Seriously, there's lots of them.

Again, I don't see this dominance you speak of anywhere except on where air would generally be theoretically superior in the first place... But hey, if you wanna buff the ranger/skyguard/AAA missles.. I won't say no as I don't play air. I do however have concerns for those brave few that learned those controls. As fun as it is to be on the giving end, try it from the receiving end too to make sure it's still fun.

EDIT: I'll also say I wouldn't mind better options for those guys flying WAY up there and just hovering over objectives. Dumbfire is the only real way to push'em off as ground folks. However, usually these guys don't get to stick around too long before friendly air shows up to give'em the business end too.