Are ESF's Fighters or Helicopters?

Yeah because the one engine defiantly wouldn't have it back to full HP before it came back

But see that would create dynamic gameplay and less reliant on a gimmick.

No, you see, air is only supposed to be a deterrent to ground forces. Air isn't supposed to kill ground units, just damage them slightly to make them go away. Until they repair and come back.

Just like the Skyguard, you see.

How the heck would you kill anything when 2 people in the tank can jump out and repair the plane while it is looping around.

You can't kill an ESF with a skyguard??

How about we keep it as it is. But Pilots don't get XP or kills for destroying ground vehicles or killing Infantry
Tankers don't get XP or kills for shooting Infantry
Infantry doesn't change
That way you're encouraged to seek out fights with people that have a similar level of equipment. Because, lets be honest, we're not farming Infantry, we're helping our team take the base by suppressing resistance. We don't need XP or kills to know we've done our job well, this is a team game and we're all working as a team. :^)

Strafe runs with multiple ESF's?

That doesn't really sound very balanced

Hey, don't take it from me. That's what the pilots around here tell me. That the Skyguard is purposefully weak so aircraft have time to escape, because damaging aircraft is just as good as killing them or something.

Or the other thing pilots like to say is that you should need multiple Skyguards to take down one aircraft.

Not so fun when the shoe is on the other foot, is it?

You don't need many skyguards to blow up a ESF. If an ESF commits to an attack and you have a skygaurd he will get toasted

Well sure. Those new pilots who decide that it's a good idea to keep flying straight at the source of flak that's pelting them. They're dead. But then again I'm sure they'd lose a fight with a stationary tree too.

Most ESF pilots with half a brain cell though will immediately evade and disengage whenever they feel the flak. They will make use of cover and break line of sight quickly, and since it takes 32 shots/4 seconds to kill an ESF with 100% accuracy, that's plenty of time for the ESF to get out of the danger zone.

You know, if they're awake.

It's the future. So the ESF can do pretty much whatever nanites will let it. What's stupid is that the skill set basically involves trading ammo like it's WWI. We should have infiltrators able to laser a target and an ESF swoop in and nail that spot. And carpet bombers. And precision strikes that don't involve pointing the nose straight at the ground. Why do I even need to fly the thing? I should be able to sit at a terminal in the warpgate. The whole thing is a big step backwards. Not even keeping up with modern fighters.

I play a lot ESF with a joystick.

The problem I see today is that ESF do the job of every other air unity. Liberator is just an option which players use to farm when theres no AA or other air unities. Galaxies, damn, poor guys, can't do much because the game have SO MUCH AA options which its big size is a con. Valk is just a bad version of ESF and nobody use.

Now if you wanna help your faction (as I do) or just farm (like the majority), you pick an ESF. Because the first hit you get from the inumerous AA threats you just burn fuel and wait they forget about you or change direction. But I admit ESF as the majority use is pointless, specially when the players insist with the stupid AvA duels. Man, what silly combat... When I can't escape to an area with ally AA, I just drop my ESF and take another.

ESF need a rework to open space, and the AA need a rework too. I remember when the Libs was the supreme farm machines, and all the problem happen because hover. Remove hover from ESF and Libs and the ground unities doesn't have to watch the skies 50% of the time. I met players which don't do anything besides fight air, man, this is ridiculous.

Without Libs and ESFs trying free farm hovering, the number of AA will eventualy reduce, opening space for Gals and Valks players.

I just want my aircraft to behave like aircraft, not one-man Harassers that can fly.

Yep.
I've never loved the hovering mechanics for ESF. Imho they shouldn't be able to do that, and their weapons should be adjusted accordingly with some extre firepower.

The Valkyrie should be the hovering vehicle, which is what it cannot do at the moment because its armor is still too low for a vehicle that lacks speed so much. When I equip the hovering frame I get often hit by tanks AP shells, which cut my hp by 60%....

they are neither. Just flying turds that are in process of being polished.

They're Space Hybrids. They're Planetcraft.

I will say first off, I am a Mozzie pilot. I focus on A2G. I avoid hover farming, instead preferring to fly in, smash the enemy, and fly away.
But, the constant complaining about AA is ridiculous. I have pulled AA plenty of times. Turrets, Bursters, Skyguards, I've used them all, and done the job fairly well. The enemy aircraft either run away, blow up, or focus on me, which means they leave my allies alone.
But, to those complaining about Air fleeing, what else are they supposed to do? Take the blinding flashes, deafening noise and massive damage of flak? Supposed to stay and blow up?
If infantry gets shot at and is about to be overpowered, they run for cover. If a tank is getting pounded, they hide behind a rock. (Which doesn't work when a certain NC specific weapon happens to be getting spammed <.<), so why is it suddenly BS for an ESF to be able to escape? An experienced player in any role will attempt escape if overpowered, and AA does that to an ESF, therefore they tend to back away.

Seriously, spend an amount of time killing troops on the ground. Enjoy the small arms fire, the flak, the lock ons, the dumbfires, the walkers and the crackshot tankers.

It's not as easy as it seems to stay alive in an ESF. Even when we're focusing on enemy aircraft, we're getting pounded from the ground, because suddenly we're not so intimidating, and are just targets circling around in the sky.

Then go play something else.

How about you get ******

huh?