ESF A2G Rocket Pods

This is not a whine thread about ESF being overpowered. The point of this is to discuss the fun factor behind a particular ESF weapon. Simply put I find the gameplay behind engaging ground targets as an ESF dull and boring. Who else enjoyed bombing runs in Battlefield 2? I know I did.

There's a lot of griping about ESF and air in general being overpowered. A major target of these complaints being rocket pods on ESF. My suggestion is a simple one, and should've been suggested back in beta but oh well. It's probably been mentioned before and I'm just going to renew it.

Remove rocket pods from the game entirely. Replace them with dumb drop bombs. I find no enjoyment from having sniper accurate missiles that I can spam on a target with pure accuracy. Keep in mind we're not discussing realism here, but fun factor. If realism were a design goal then the game would play like Arma or another simulation shooter (which I love and would be plenty happy with if PS2 were that, but it is not.) So let's not make the technology argument here. Lets observe this from a mechanic and skill factor. The fact is ESF can snipe with rocket pods, and their mechanic just leaves them to be nothing beyond spammy explosions on your crosshairs. I believe a drop angle, and speed, calculated by a reticule and displayed on the UI would be much more challenging and fun to pound the ground with. I'm a pilot, and I want my gameplay to be a tad more challenging, these rockets just don't cut it. They're just plain boring to use. Sure there's plenty of maneuvers to drop them on your target but at the end of the day it amounts to just spamming rockets on point x. ESFs are hit and runny types of crafts, they can't take the punishment a Lib can withstand and they are highly agile and swift. Give them an in and out style weapon, and dumb bombs will be just that. One or two before reload, where the angle of attack dictates. It will encourage swift dive bomb maneuvers and more so force ESF closer to ground AA to get successful hits and flee before being slaughtered. This instead of hovering infront of turrets or lightnings and just out shooting them rocket pods.

Hit and run exists as is, yes, but dumb bombs would eliminate the sniper element behind the current mechanic. It's extremely easy to do, and that's the problem currently. Three bombs should drop an MBT, so perhaps 3 per reload. The damage would be entirely based on how accurately you land those bombs on target. The center of the blast the strongest, and weaker as the radius moves outward. Simple.

Libs would well remain the strong-arm of A2G simply becaus they can put more rounds on a position, more accurately, and take more punishment.

bump

Lol, you want dumb bombs? that is even worse, I am a BF pilot and dumb bombs are basically 10 times worse than rocket pods if you consider them a problem.

I think there is a reason why libs didn't get carpet bombing like in PS1.

I completely agree with you nubery... accurate dumb bomb drops would be lovely.

But then again I want the A2A missiles removed completely too.

Bring back the WW1 dogfights to the future!

The rocket pod spam is by far the most anti-fun mechanic in this game. I just had to log off and take a break because of it. At least if a lib is bombing the place you have time to react and attempt some form of escape or retaliation. Rocket spam = gg the moment the fighter decided to push the fire button.

These things do the Liberator's job better than the Liberator, require only one pilot, and have 3-4 times the mobility. Why even play as a Liberator when rocket pods exist? Just have the 3 buddies who were going to chill in one Liberator all buy rocket pod fighters.

Don't know if dummy bombs are the answer. But, there has got to be another way than what is currently going on. Reduce the number of rockets fired. Increase the reload time. Decrease the number of rockets a single fighter can carry before having to reload. Something.

I'm not sure where you're getting that idea from, but an ESF cannot stand up to a Liberator's ground **** capabilities. Get a zephyr, a good pilot, and go flying. You'll see why. There is nothing wrong with this, either, this is how they are intended to be. The point here is rocket pods don't feel right on ESF, they're in no way better than a lib though. Rockets are just a spammy and boring weapon. Liberator weapons are turrets.

I think to really understand it you must both die to rocket pods, as well as use them. When you use them you see they actually are not that powerful. It takes a ton of rockets to drop a tank or sunderer. But you have a lot of them so it's just a matter of time really. Mainly because there are only a few forms of effective AA left in the game since the nerf. Dual Burster MAX is about the only one, and make no mistake it tears ESF's apart with both arms at close range.

So yeah if there are other effective forms of AA pilots wouldn't have time to hover an spam that amount of rockets they require to actually kill stuff. They would need to do more hit an runs. And yes rocket pods do not even compare to the power of Lib's with Zepher cannons. Especially since the Lib also has way more health than a ESF which makes even dual burster MAX not that effective unless there are several.

I agree, from a Pilots perspective I can't stand the rocket pods. They are totally over the top and have massive magazines so you can stay on station blasting away for ages. I much prefer main cannon strafing runs and air to air combat myself. The ESF should not be the best ground strike craft around.

I like the idea others and myself have raised before which is you keep rocket pods but taking them severely hampers the flight capability of the ESF forcing it to fly slower and lower. Or drop the shots in the rocket mag right down so you get one chance and then have to return to a friendly base to re-arm. Still effective against slow moving ground targets byt much less so against air targets (which the rocket pods should not be effective against).

I stopped playing last night because we (the NC) were completely pushed back to our Warpgate and could not move out and capture a facility without hordes of Mosquitoes coming in, launching volleys of rockets at anything that moved (regardless of its threat -- tanks, Flashes, infantry were all targeted), then flying away before anything could be done about it. Our Reavers were out there fighting valiantly but ultimately we were overpowered. What upset me the most is the way in which we were completely helpless on the ground. At one point a Mosquito flew down and literally hovered for 15-20 seconds, almost mocking us, delivered its payload as missiles whizzed past it, and flew away to reload. The Cert prices are so high for basic AA functionality on the ground -- lock-on rockets, bursters, you name it -- if you're not in a Reaver or don't have an AA tower nearby to use, you're utterly helpless save for the occasional lucky rocket or tank shell that connects. This, to me, is just not right.

And what is this reason ?

As far as I know BF bombs 1-shot tanks.
Why would PS follow this stupid idea ?




Anyway, link in sig for bombs.

BF3 lock on "smart bombs" are 2 shot, dumb bombs are from BF2 and 1942, dumb bombs are more overpowered than pods because you can shoot as you pass through the area, they need to have a high spread and damage else they are utterly useless.

Pods at least push you to hover and aim, if they were to add dumb bombs, you will never able to kill an ESF from the ground.

Let's not forget getting all the way up to 1000 meters and just showering whatever you see marked on your minimap.

You should get your information straight before replying.

They don't need to remove it, you have to give newbie pilots a chance, what they can do is increase the darn main canon damage already.

Trolling yet another thread with your "constructive" ideas I see.

On a more related note, dumbfire bombs would only be fun if the ESF's lost their VTOL capabilities. I think rocketpods simply need to be replaced with faction specific weapons that somehow limit their lethality against infantry and add a higher skill cap.

For example Vanu could have a 2 shot laser that has fast travel time and deals large damage but is limited by ammo and reload speed while the TR could get something along the lines of dumb fire missiles with poor accuracy and a large ammo count good for bombarding large areas with little to medium damage. I'd present my idea for NC rockets but realistically there are many changes that could be made and my opinion is only one of many.


*This just popped into my head but how cool would it be for liberators to have TV guided missiles like those the NC had in PS1?

You don't happen to play on Briggs, do you?

OT: I spent 700 SC on them last night and I completely agree, they're not very fun as a pilot because they take absolutely no skill to use.

Nope, Jaegar. It was something else, though. I almost wish I'd recorded it before I left in frustration just because it was so ridiculous.

Rocket pods for infantry
(Or reverse these)
Dumb bombs for tanks

A2a missiles for air (need more skill involved)

Point being rocket pods should not be the solve all solution for A2G

My only complaint about rocket pods is that they kill Liberators and Galaxies so easily, because it's just idiotic when a Fighter sprays missiles at your Liberator and takes out 40% of your health with only 2, 3 hits out of 14 missiles.

Remove them entirely, and refund certs/SC.

If you want to attack the ground, use a A2G gun, or pull a lib.

ESF's should be used for air superiority and close air support. Not used as a faster, easier, more effective solo replacement for the lib.

ESF's should be clearing the skies of liberators, or escorting their own liberators. Libs can't dodge flak, outrun lockons, or juke fighters, their only option is to live through and get out of dodge. While a ESF with a decent pilot can fly around backwards raining death from the sky, all while breaking locks with terrain.

It isn't fun for the pilots, it isn't fun for the guys on the ground.

It isn't right.

Pleasant as ever.

I remember BF2 jets could kill a tank in a single pass; not sure if it takes one bomb or two bombs but you can still do it. And it really depends on the damage your bombs do.

If your main gun outdamage bombs, then fighters will hover more often.

I don't see rockets being a problem, really. If you were to make any change, though, it would be to increase their power and decrease the amount that can be carried. The "ESF swarm of death" problem only exists because an ESF can carry so much ordnance without requiring re-armament. If ESFs could carry only one or two volleys of rockets, but those rockets were actually genuinely powerful, I think it would make the weapon a lot more interesting.

Also, for the record: BF2 had lock-on anti-ground missiles fired from the second seat of the two-seater fixed wing aircraft, and TV guided missiles fired from the gunner seat in attack helicopters. Desert Combat (the BF1942 mod) did have free fall bombs, although some of them were the hilariously overpowered cluster bombs. BF1942 didn't have any code for missile locks or guidance, though, so that probably had a lot to with it. BF3 has a rather silly air vs ground metagame because of auto-repairs and infinite ammo and I don't even see the point of comparing it to Planetside.

Edit: Almost forgot to mention this: we kind of have to sit around and hover like fools because infantry targets won't render unless you fly right next to them and wait for several seconds. This is a bigger problem that affects many aspects of the game, but it would make dumb fire bomb drops pretty maddening.