First off...If you are not bringing in friendly Air to fight for Air superiority above your ground troops...You are doing it wrong, I do not care what your excuse is ground can NEVER be a hard counter to AIR, otherwise there would never be a need for Air. Here are the tweaks and thoughts that I think will improve the Air vs ground dynamics. I am a big fan of vehicle specialization and I think with some minor tweaks to the Sky guard, harasser and the MBT we can really improve the game for everyone both on the ground and in the Air. #1 TOP ARMOR (ANTI-AIR Armor)- Currently top armor, really doesn't offer enough to make it a viable option or have much of a role, I think this needs to change. Top Armor really needs to be the Anti-Air Armor of choice. I would like to see top armor buffed from 5% to 10% over all and increase its resists to both the Tank Buster, Shredder and Zephry. This change to top armor would be a defensive counter to the Tank buster and since the shredder is a multi-role non specialized weapon, Top Armor should be the specialized Armor that neutralizes the effectiveness of the Shredder. However, the Dalton being a specialized AV weapon will still be able to punch through, only the 5% base buff will effect the Dalton. *** Side note - I think Blockade armor should also have resistances to tank busters, shredder and Zephyrs. #2 Harraser - I love the changes to the Harraser and I think it is a very viable vehicle now. I think with its speed it could be one of the best AA vehicles in this game, since it can keep up with Air vehicles more easily. The biggest issue with the Harrasser as an AA platform is that the Ranger jumps around way to much to be used while driving, which defeats the purpose. I think if turret stabilization was added to the Ranger/ Walker, then we might see it used more often. #3 Skyguard - Tighten COF and add an Ammo capacity Cert line. Top Armor would be the biggest buff to this vehicle. It is already a very good platform, it just needs a bit more armor to protect it from Air and top armor would solve that problem, by allowing the player to specialize a bit more. #4 MBT - This is a 2 man vehicle, that requires a tech plant and can only be pulled from certain bases. I do not see any reason, why the AA secondaries can't be more effective. I think the MBT's need their own Walker and Ranger variants. This is a heavy tank, If the player wants to specialize and forgo an AV/AI secondary for the AA secondary, then the Ranger should be almost as strong as the Skyguard and maybe give it Dual Walkers. These weapon buffs + the top armor buff would give players a more specialized AA MBT, that would be less effective against ground targets but more resistant and stronger against Air. I think the Air and ground game is pretty balanced right now and other then giving the MBT a bit more bite and allowing the harasser to become a viable fast attack AA platform. What ground vehicles really need is a choice to increase their base armor and resists against Air vehicle weapons, especially those that are not specialized AV weapons such as the shredder and Zephyr. TLDR; - Buff Top Armor - Make it the Anti Air Armor - Turret Stabilization for the Ranger on the Harraser - Skyguard tighten COF + Ammo Capacity Cert line - MBT - Buff Ranger almost to Skyguard level, Dual Walker
I have no issues with a tighter COF on the Ranger either and I think the Walker needs to hit what it is aiming at, or at least improve the tracers.
/signed /signed /signed /signed Can I sign this some more? I really do like what you are proposing here.
I forgot to mention. That I also think one of the biggest positive changes that is somewhat related to this topic, is that players need to be able to switch out their Vehicle load outs from the vehicle terminals. Basically if you pull a vehicle and it is 100% full health, then you should be able to go up to a vehicle terminal and change the weapons or load outs for that vehicles and the terminal will spawn you the new vehicle and recycle the old with out costing additional resources of effecting your timer.
I am also /signing this, too. I would be fine with deterrents if I could get rid of them after their use is no longer necessary.
Nothing truly objectionable. I'd like to see some minor buffs to ESF flak resistance if skyguard is changed though, or at the very least a smaller flak detonation radius for smaller air vehicles. Skyguard already overpowers ESFs at all ranges (as it should) so it doesn't need to be better at it.
I think if they went along the lines of what they did with composite armor on the liberator, might be a nice choice. Force the player to make a choice between Auto-repair and Composite Armor. If you want to be able to fly around in high flak areas, then chose Flak Armor, you may only be able to make on pass before you sit down to reapir, but at least you might not be instantly vaporized and the draw back would be you have to land and hop out which exposes you much more then flying off and waiting for auto-repair.
Really, I just want to see some scaling of lockon/flak effects. The larger the vehicle, the easier to sense them, so ESFs should be slightly less vulnerable to lockons/flak/heatseaking missiles while valkrie keeps current lock/detonation stats and liberators & galaxies get increased stats.
