Anyone else sick and tired of Rocket Pods?

Seriously, the rocketpod spam does need to come down a notch. It's not the rocketpods themselves, its that they lend themselves to farming - which means our air isn't flying air cap, they're farming their infantry/vehicles. It does mean the rare A2A flyer gets to have a situational field-day with all the farmers...

The common opinion (fact or no) is that most AA (skyguards, walkers) are completely rubbish - so people just won't cert them. The second problem is that spec'ing G2A means sacrificing capability to do other things - so you end up being entirely dependent on poor quality flyers coming into range. Specing A2G, on the other hand, is the fast way to farm thousands of cert points and makes you effective against everything.

The added problem here, of course, is that flyers only need to spend $7.50 on rocketpods, then farm their way to everything else. This can't be good for Sony.

ESFs need their A2G capability diminished in favor of Liberator A2G. A liberator requires crew and its designed as an A2G vehicle - it should be doing far more and far scarier damage than an ESF to ground units. The problem is that with rocketpods and its far superior speed and manoeuverability, the ESF is the top-tier bomber and strike fighter and air superiority fighter and ... well.

So yeah, rocketpods need some dev attention - either directly or, more likely, indirectly by changing something else. AA usability, for example, or AA cost to just get more of it out there.

An ESF pilot seeing a vehicle mounting a skyguard or walker should think twice before engaging it. As it stands, the usual response is mild pity followed by the joy of watching said vehicle explode.

Don't nerf rocket pods!!!!! I use AA mosquito and every enemy fighter packing those are my easy kills

Where are your AA ESFs eh? See what your enemy does with rocket pods when they have a missile lock. I make enemy ESFs regret certing that schiz...

No

Rocket Pods should kill AA

My biggest gripe with the rocket pods is that, while the infantry spawn areas have force fields, it means jack if the enemy (typically TR on my server) are hanging with their Mosquitos in droves of more than 4 around the spawn blasting everyone who dares step outside. And, of course, outside of range of AA. Kind of defeats the entire setup.

I like using them. But the fact is, aircraft is USELESS without rocket pods, which is a sad thing. I've tried to succed without them ( while having them unlocked) but found myself getting killed too often without being able to do significant support to ground troops. So yea, while its getting too much, it is necessary atm for pilots to have a bit of succes feeling.

Being primarily a Scythe pilot... yeah, I don't care about most AA. The only things I care about are the AA missles and Base Turrets. Whether it be from HAs or other ESFs, they are the primary reason I've ever been killed.

The whiny beta testers did all of you a huge disservice when they nerfed AA into ineptitude. I don't care about the tiny pings of the disgustingly pathetic A30 Walker or theM20 Basilisk. The MAX Burster was overnerfed... I literally don't care about them. I mean, I'll fly away when they start pinging me, but I'm not threatened at all. I just think "Oh, that feels like a MAX... I guess I'll move away" and I go look for my next target.

However... Base Turrets are in a good spot. Let's keep it real. If you actually get people to man the turrets, that will immediately clear out the airspace, either by destroying the stupid pilots that overstay their welcome, or forcing the good pilots to g t f o. Be honest now; How often do you see people manning any of the turrets at say.. an AMP Station? You see maybe one guy try, and then he gets focused down because we pilots are looking for that. Why? Because the turrets are effective and we don't like them.

Also, how many Skyguards have any of you seen? Honestly, on Waterson US East I haven't seen a single one. I primarily play on Amerish (where we VS are constantly horrendously outnumbered...) and I haven't seen ONE Skyguard. The last time I fought against one was at the end of beta. They were my rivals, my main targets once I saw them... because they were a threat.

That's the problem. Most people don't have the effective AA... and the AA that is currently at their disposal is sub-par at best (with the exception of the base turret). Give slight buffs to the Burster, the M20 Bulldog, and ffs make the A30 Walker useful... really, that thing is garbage, don't be tricked into buying it. UGH. It's disgusting.

Once more people get AA missles for their HA things will change. It literally takes 2 missles and I'm dead. My vehicle that cost resources, has a cooldown timer, and took either time or money to upgrade will be completely nullified by a single infantry who bought a weapon that cost the same as the rockets.

You're tired of Rocket Pods? Then ******* do something about it. No, your sniper isn't going to be effective against EFS, and no your entire army can't be comprised of snipers! Yes, you actually need a balanced attack force. Yes, you actually have to dedicate time/money to get AA Missles the same way the pilots had to dedicate time/money to get the rockets.

JOIN AN OUTFIT AND GET IN A SQUAD. While I readily admit that the aforementioned specific AA do need buffs, your story only shows that your problem is a lack of coordination. Get AA Missles, get a Skyguard, or be an engineer and get in a base turret. If you don't want to use the tools available, then TOO ******* BAD, you deserve to die from rockets. If no one else in your army wants to get effective tools against aerospace, then TOO ******* BAD. Ask for reasonable buffs to the MAX Burster and the M20 Basilisk (the only two free AA sources), fix the overpriced and completely useless A30 Walker, and actually coordinate and get into a squad!

End rant indeed.

Rocket Pods

The problem is AA ESFs are rare because you get many more certs by farming infantry/vehicles with rocketpods, so most of our air are farming their infantry while their air farms ours.

AA ESFs are effective, no denying it. AA ESF pilots can have their moment in the sun when the rocketpod-zerg swings by. But the twin issues of rocketpods being acknowledged as the go-to farming solution combined with AA's current bad press means we're just going to see more rocketpod zergs. People want certs, so many are going to take the path of least obvious resistance.

Screw them. I am sick of their "oh then work together" ********. 4 Burster Maxes and a Skyguard and you still get ***** by the flyboys. I am done with "cutting them some slack", especially since they are everywhere and their numbers are just increasing. Thanks to people on the forums posting numbers like getting 150 certs per hour in the blasted ESF.

Try that as Infantery player.

Light Assault is 100 times better infiltrating than infiltrator. Don't yell at him due to his classes poor design.

When I came into this thread, I thought I'd at least be seeing a complaint from a tank driver, a skyguard buyer, or someone who invested hard earned certs into another AA weapon like the HA lock-on launcher or a burster MAX, feeling underpowered.

But an infiltrator!? AN INFILTRATOR!?

Come on guys, that's far enough. Be reasonable. If you're caught outside alone as an infiltrator with an ESF hovering meters above you staring you in the face...

You're dead. Dead.

Don't stop to complain about nerfs, because there shouldn't be anything in the game mechanics to accommodate you escaping from that situation beyond an absurdly clever use of nearby terrain or buildings. It's not a singleplayer campaign where you can pull of crazy quicktime ninja ****. You're dead.

Rocket pods don't even factor into this scenario. If you're an infiltrator, you're dead with a quick burst of default gun fire. It's not rocket pods you don't like, it's the situations you're getting into, out in the open, no support, with the weakest suit in the game.

Lets also keep in mind, ESFs can't even see infantry to begin with at the moment unless they fly low enough that they put themselves in range of all sorts of fire that isn't even intended for aircraft (tank rounds, HA rockets, small arms, sunderer/vanguard turrets). If someone is "camping" in an ESF, and a few people with the above friendly assets directs their fire on it, it aint going to be camping anymore.

InhumanTurtle hit the nail right on the head in the first page. At some point you have to realize you're going to come up against a threat that you cannot sit toe to toe with, and for all intents and purposes WILL kill you unless you have proper support from the 300+ other players/roles walking around in your immediate vicinity.

Additionally, some people are going way too far with their claims of walking away with > 50% from simultaneous, sustained fire from 5 AA Burster MAXes as an ESF. I'm calling horsehockey on that one straightaway. Claims like this don't help the game get balanced properly. They ensure a constant cycle of overnerf, underbuff where some significant genre of people who invested money are unhappy for months on end.

Skyguards need a buff, and the tracking on the HA AA launchers need serious help as well. Rocket pods are fine where they are.

The only thing I'm sick and tired of is the quantity of ****** players whining about being terrible at this game, while placing the blame on aspects of the game mechanics or modules. EVERYONE ELSE who isnt crying like a ***** is playing this game your ***** finds unbearable just fine. Maybe there should be a summer's eve forum category to shove all these terrible whiny ***** into.

Nope, my AA launcher keeps the annoying flies away.

Azure do you even play this game ?

I think you are just being a baby, they are not that bad.

I'm starting to get very, very tired of air in general. As someone stated above, the majority of air players of all factions are going A2G - which means no air cover, and no contesting air superiority.

My argument is simple, though it's obviously SOE's choice; the majority of their playerbase seems to play infantry. Being rocket-podded is just not fun - it's a particularly passive way of getting killed. Ergo, they need to review the progression of air players (I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that the highest BR players are air jockeys).

I roll with the lock on A2G missile, but it's tediously unrewarding - I might get 40xp for an assist, occasionally I'll take a newb out completely.

I have no idea why AA ESFs are rare, as people are going on about ESF rocket pod spam, logic dictates there are many vulnerable air targets. I am AA ESF and I regularly got 15 killstreaks taking out rocketpodders Don't like rocketpodders spam? Get in the air and sort it out!!!

It's a pleasure to come at a base getting camped by rocketpodders. If they are stationary I can take them out with one burst if nose cannon and a single missile each. And I got 7 missiles ready...

I spent some time today repairing an anti-aircraft turret.

As soon as I was done fixing it, a Mosquito swooped down and instantly destroyed it with one rocket pod salvo.

What's the freaking point?! Nothing else works on these damn planes unless you spend real money or are some kind of gaming savant who has managed to master the stupidly awkward aircraft controls in this game.