There's been a lot of talk about Libs and AA and what not... I think AA against Libs is a nice notion, but hard to pull off without imposing more hardships on ESFs in the form of being downed faster. I think part of the issue is that we keep thinking in terms of TTK when this games provides examples of utilities/abilities which aren't necessarily damage/defense-based solutions to use against enemy combatants. I know "adding another weapon" is usually not the solution folks want to hear... but I think some kind of A2G EMP weapon for the MBT secondary and ESF secondary would be a fair compromise between ground and air trying to provide defense against air vehicles attacking ground units. The idea is that the weapon locks-on and fires a fast-moving rocket on the air target... The lock-on range might need an adjustment so that an MBT gunner can hit Libs sitting way up high yet are still hitting targets below (maybe to be fair to ESF's, the larger the target the farther distance you can lock onto it). While the missile doesn't necessarily do a lot of damage, it would apply an effect similar to an EMP grenade by disabling the HUD and activated abilities of the vehicle (flares, afterburners, fire suppression). Alternatively, it could do any number/combination of things like knocking out the targeting (rather than the entire HUD), increasing the damage the craft takes, reducing the aircraft's top speed/acceleration, disable it's abilities, etc... I think disabling the HUD/targeting is a pretty important feature so that aiming on ground targets becomes a more difficult task while also giving ESFs an advantage with engaging a Lib since the gunner can't line up the Dalton sights because there are no sights. This effect would last 3-5 seconds... maybe longer depending on who's firing (MBT or ESF) and whether or not this weapon should be designed to disable targeting systems for one air unit or multiple targets (by hitting one then another and just mentally keeping in mind the debuff timers of all the units you've hit). The EMP missile should make a different and discernible sound when it's pursuing the target so that pilots are aware it's an EMP missile and not your standard damage dealing A2G lock-on missile. Although this type of weapon isn't dealing with air targets by destroying them, it does help diminish their effectiveness against ground targets, more so for the Lib pilots more prone to just taking lock-on hits and less for ESF pilots which usually set up faster runs with flares at the ready. I wanted to keep this weapon A2G and lock-on because I think it should be counter-able with an ability and I also think it would be a little too powerful if it could be used against other ground vehicles... but maybe there's an opportunity to bring more "alternative weaponry" to the field.
