[Suggestion] /Discussion: A way to solve the AA vs. Air Problems? Warning: Hardcore!

DISCLAIMER: IF YOU READ THROUGH THIS AND HAVE NOTHING BUT "NO!" TO SAY, PLEASE DONT RESPOND.

Now I just returned to the game after a 2 month hiatus since Mid-November after I totally facepalmed at the release date back then.

I see Air vs. AA is still one of the biggest issue of the game, with both sides listing tons of arguments and suggestions, with neither side being able to convince the other.

Now my approach to both sides is pretty hardcore and would require an extensive redesign of some gameplay elements.

Without further ado, let me get straight to it:

1. Remove the silly Flak stuff. We are in the far future. We need proper SAM, be it stationary or mobile/self propelled. A few real life examples:



The Phalanx CIWS. Now, to be honest, thats not really a SAM, but its still incredibly powerful with a 3,4k RPM ROF.



The 9k22 Tunguska-M self propelled AA-weapon. 2x 2,5k RPM HEIT Miniguns plus 8 medium range AA missiles.



The M1097 Avenger AA System. Small, mobile and armed with 8 short-range AA missiles.



The 9A34M "Gopher" MTLB-based AA. Simply armed with 8 AA-missiles.

Now those are just some examples of IRL AA.

2. Instead of havin Flares with a cooldown, give the aircraft a limited amount of flares, such as 30, but let them spam the flare button as often as they like until they run out of flare-ammo. Let them resupply the flares just like normal ammo.

3. make AA missiles lethal! One hit kills for ESF, two hit kills for Liberator, 3-4 hits for the Galaxy.

4. A2A should be limited to 2 Missiles, after that the ESF has to rearm.

5. Make AA missiles lock onto flares instead of simply forcing AA missiles to reroute if flares are nearby. Makes the use of flares tactical, such as prematurely flaring when there is suspicion of AA being nearby.

6. Make the rotary guns viable against Air again. They shoot 20mm rounds, they should be able to rip things apart indeed.

Now how would your average dogfight look like now? Well, simple. Aircrafts spots other aircraft. Aircraft locks on with its A2A missiles, opponent flares alot, both missiles miss if flared correctly. Now the minigun comes into play. If both pilots are skillful the dogfight should be in the end solved by the miniguns alone.

Ground AA would obviously be powerful now, but remember that you can potentially flare all the way through your attack run and the AA might not hit you. It all comes down to teamwork now. If nobody tells you that there is AA on the ground it might happen that you get screwed over ofc.

Yes, this approach is as hardcore and milsim as it gets, I have just seen it working in other games.

The major flaw of this system might be the fact that experienced pilots could easily farm unexperienced pilots which dont know when/how much to flare.

A special message to all your A2A-haters though: This is again the future, no reason to ********** around in the skies with just your guns. The reason why A2A is terrible (or was in beta) is that the flares are an awful counter to it since it has such an arbitrary cooldown.


This is by no means a totally serious suggestion, just food for thought of a maybe more demanding gameplay.