[Suggestion] Buff G2A

Hmm well here is the thing.
When people play in squads and outfits they look out for each other and notice things like Air. Either they use air to further their current goal or they bring weapons to counter it if it becomes a problem.
To them incoming air vehicles is an expected part of the game as it is Combined arms. And they act accordingly as is expected of them. A lot of randoms tend to just rush into a battle with the simple idea that anything that matters in this game is them and that one guy in their sights. Forgetting that beyond those few seconds this game is a combined arms game, danger is everywhere and average player life time is counted in seconds.

So was the lightning once until it became a bit to dangerous to run around alone unless you where prepared to die for those extra certs.
The ESF's are a powerful multi-purpose tool. And considering if 5 guys shoot at it with their rifles you can bring it down quite fast.
It's a glass cannon. And yes you will see lone wolfs in them because the pubbies on the ground will not look a single inch above their noses. Nor will they try to chase it away so the pilot is free to farm a lot before people become annoyed enough to rage counter it.
Heck i can easily admit pulling an ESF to farm those last Certs to upgrade one of my guns because i know it will be easy to farm the blind randoms in a battle not only because of the ESF but also because of the lack of resistance. Only time i tend to be more careful is if i see an Outfit of some sort holding that zergs hand. Guiding it's simple mind from base to base. Because i know they will kill me if i get to close.

I mean is it really that hard to just for a short moment focus on a target as a group?
Just for a little moment?
Why is it so easy to farm ignorant players until they get pissed of enough to move as a force against you?

... When? The Viper canon was OP for some time, but it was never a lonewolf ultra vehicle.

Considering 5 guys shooting at it? It will usually be at their maximum damage falloff range, and it can escape them in literally 1 second. Even then, when 5 guys shoot at it an ESF can quickly make that 4 or 3 guys, then move away, repair up and repeat. Small arms fire has never, ever been a good air deterrent.

It's a glass canon that can deal so much damage that it makes tanks look like glass canons. Seriously, if you can avoid 95% of the damage dealing weapons in the game and can almost always escape the few things designed to kill you while being capable of destroying, without possibility of escape, just about anything else, you aren't a glass canon. You are a powerhouse. Why then isn't the sky filled with aircraft? Because of the ridiculous way the game handles flying, that means that a few pilots who spend hours and days practicing can kill anyone else, meaning that any pilot that wants to make use of the power of an ESF needs to content with these guys as well and quickly die to them, not to G2A weapons.

Let's put it in terms you might understand:
Tanks vs aircraft: Most weapons don't have the elevation, a few weapons can OHK them but that requires the pilot to come into that elevation. The few "dedicated" AA weapons completely nerf them against anything else and still allows aircraft to escape regardless.
Infantry vs aircraft: Small-arms fire can hit them, but it's not like there's a lot of aircraft being killed by it. Lock-ons have the firepower but not the speed, the lock-on time and reload time mean any aircraft can escape them, if not find them and kill them in time. From my own A2G forages I've seen a big lack of Lock-ons, and the few that are there could easily be avoided by, for instance, diving to the ground as they fire forcing the missile to auto-kill itself.
Aircraft vs everything else: Aircraft can be equipped with weapons that outmatch their ground counterparts, multiple at the same time. Even their supposed AI weapon the rocketpods are powerful against tanks. Your speed, agility and method of movement (flying) can be added to your armor and health, as you can avoid almost all firepower and the few dedicated AA weapons can be escaped in a matter of seconds.

Gee, with AA weapons being as they are, why would no one use them or look a single inch above their noses? I mean, all AA weapons are among the most unrewarding in both kills, destruction and XP without exceptions, and with the exception of the Heavy all AA weapons nerf your capabilities against anything else completely. People must be standing in line for such weapons!
... Or you can admit that AA weapons simply are not good as they are, and need changing. Not simply buffing, changing. The current method of handling AA is detrimental to the game, and has been since the beginning.
Seriously, I bet you were one of those people who thought that at launch the Rocketpods were supposed to OHK tanks from the top, and nosecanons were capable of doing what Hornets do now. Back then it was defended just as much because "flying takes more skill", that's not excuse to make it this lobsided.

why the hell should only ground units require to focus on a target as a group.

It's easy because the AA game is completely ****** up, no one wants to use AA weapons. They are underpowered, they are bad for all your statistics if you value them, they don't earn you enough regardless of what you do. This is an easy way to explain why ESF farming is that easy.

"they look out for each other and notice things"

Normal players can do that.
You don't have to communicate somebody is in trouble when looking at them.
Or scream down the mic.

You can either help, or some f* Infiltrator points at the body and waits for a Medic to stand still next to it.
But you still see them and somebody else with percentage hits you never even saw for the most part.

Infiltrators' distance attacks should be removed.
They've got cloak. Let them SMG with it. That's all the fun they need. Because at least you're aware of it to some degree and not hovering over a body on the ground.

I've seen the YT videos.
No matter who is playing the game, from Wrel (who isn't that great btw) to some godly good player, frustration at some unlikely event, is frequent.
And the Squad chatter is mostly disappointment every other battle.

It's the system we have, but not the one we deserve

But you actually kind of perfectly described the desired AA changes. Most pilots over the years have complained about the range of AA, which is the main reason aircraft are excluded from large fights. If AA was much shorter ranged, generally more versatile, and perhaps stronger for the AA only weapons, that would mean that aircraft could still come near fights, and try and engage while they see a tank is distracted, but an aircraft that sits around and tries to camp would get knocked out of the sky.

I hit a Liberator three times, THREE, with a Halberd lastnight. It was taking other damage as well. Yet it could still casually fly off and survive.

The only one who thinks G2A is balanced are pilots. Fighting air is simply the least rewarding and most futile aspect of this game.

Pissed at air targets? Want to make them go away? Want them to log off and say "f' this s*** man"?

THEN LOOK NO FURTHER!!!

Now introducing TOMCAT A2A pods! This brand new, A2A weapon gives you and your friends the ability to say "F*** you skyknight!" in the palm of your hands!

The weapon is simple,
Step 1. have you and 3 buddies lock-on to said skyknight
Step 2. click with your mouse button!
Step 3. Profit!

Having trouble with step 1? Put skyknigh in circle and try again!
Having trouble with step 2? Go see a doctor!
Having trouble with step 3? You think having alot of certs makes you a greedy bastard.

Guarantees rage tells from BR 90 skyknights and above.

DBG is not responsible for your inability to do step 1. Jake the Dog aka: Neogenesis does not condone pulling esfs over G2A and has little opinion on this issue and should be disregarded as an actual human being. He does however sexually identify with an A-10 thunderbolt if that has any effect on your opinion.

Actually, buff a2g, so that killing air feels more rewarding. Make aircraft more glassy while increasing damage.

And with that, you made the rest of your comment irrelevant.

Nice troll attempt.

I don't want A2A missile pods, I don't want to join the messed up air mechanics game anymore! I just want a fair ground-based AA counter that actually has a good trade-off for the power it sacrifices against other targets!

Demigans sarcasm detection settings: Low

G2A really goes based on the level of skill of the pilot ur up against and what weapons they are using. Fighting any regular pilot you actually do very good with minimal effort. its the Ace pilots, the people that obliterate against 4+ in a dogfight by themselves. Yes, those people exist.... Those are a lost cuase to fight against

Demigan -- a lot of that is hyperbole. You know that...cmon man...

Why should unsupported aircraft get to escape when infantry and many vehicles can't?

Infantry can go inside. Vehicles can fight back. Both can see the aircraft coming from hundreds of meters away and react accordingly.

One possible solution I like is the possibility of deployable AA guns from mana packs.

So in a thread about the effectiveness of Anti-Aircraft weaponry in Planetside, your suggestion is to pull another aircraft to fight aircraft.

Uhhh, that's kind of the whole problem with balance right there.

I think the main problem is actually that G2A is too easily avoidable, and tankable whenever it isn't. G2A lock ons need 2 things (Number 1 and 2, the others are more optional, take them or leave them)
(This is as someone who's main source of enjoyment is driving around in a Walker harasser with an NS Swarm, Anihilator, or GD Hawk/equivalent.)

1) better tracking pattern. How many times a quick dive before a rocket is fired causes a missile to hit the ground in front of me, or a building that is still UNDER the target causes the missile to hit the foliage instead of flying out into the CLEAR BLUE SKY to then go unobstructed towards the target, is rediculous. About 10-20% of my lock ons fail to track into anything other than the ground- pilots know this limitation and exploit it- never mind when they have flares or vehicle stealth.

2). G2As need an ability to establish lock outside of the range it can fire, so you can pre-lock an air craft but not fire until it is within it's range. (Say, 25-50% more range than the lock on actually has). This will actually deter aircraft- and allow you to counter them immediately when you see them coming in on a strafing run, instead of being guaranteed to be murdered by their rocket-pod barrage to the face. This means that a single player has a credible chance of actually causing an ESF to HAVE TO ABORT an attack run or risk dying- currently, it takes 3 g2A rockets to even deter an ESF- and if he has flares, he can make all three of those first shots miss. ESFs routinely circle through attack patterns- direct fire flak is both too slow in dps to be effective without massing AA firepower, and even then, the nanite cost for doing so vastly outweighs the nanites spent on the aircraft. This problem gets even bigger for Liberators.

3) Increased damage at close range. It is rediculous how an ESF can hover 50 yards in front of you, ignore that you lock them, and fire the rocket INTO THEIR CANOPY, and kill you. They then pop fire suppression and can take a whole nother lock on before catching fire.

4) Liberators need to have no afterburner. None. The burner allows them to zip into firing range, or zip out FAR faster than anything short of a squad-sized dedicated AA (I mean about 12 men with g2As OR 3-4 skyguards and bursters) to kill it before it can simply get away. And I am basing this "Get away" on the liberator being at a hover within 40 meters of said AA presence. Just last week there were 2 liberators, attacking us one at a time. We had a Skyguard, a walker harasser, and no less than 2 G2A launchers on hand. The Liberator STILL had time to fly in, tank all of that, blow up the skyguard, then fly out, taking every single hit we dished out, and made it all the way to Warpgate under constant fire from my walker, before catching fire. But in the warpgate, he could simply heal up (any piece of terrain, like a mountain or valley) would have allowed the same outcome. We were 2 hexes away from the warpgate. This happened with both liberators for about 30 minutes- we even were focusing and coordinating all of our fire, and we -still- had no chance against them. The liberator could tank everything, and just fly away, without even -trying- to dodge any AA at all.

Flares should be a neccessity for ground attack ESFs to survive, not an optional thing. Yet, ESFs rarely need to run it, because they know G2As are easily counter-able with planned attack runs and use of terrain- for pete's sake, on Indar and Hossin, it is nigh impossible to lock an aircraft that puts a single tree between you and him on his flight path.

No, it's not hyperbole. And even if it was you still seem to agree with the underlying tone: G2A is not where it should be.

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