I agree with everything you posted in here and before I got to your reference video I was also going to reference a Extra Credits video as well. Heck I'll post it anyway. I saw this video in these forums somewhere and it perfectly iterates what you and I both think. It really sucks to hear things that the ace pilots have been saying This is the worst thing you could want in a game where the most important content are players. Sorry man I would rather see 100 n00bs in the air rather than 20 aces. Skill ceilings don't have to be brought down, you can still have an edge over less skilled pilots, but they need to have fun too and feel like they are a valuable part of the game. Also grinding out 20+hours to fly is NOT fun at all. Finding a skilled pilot to teach you in VR is NOT fun all either and doesn't make the player feel like he is helping his team in the least. Most players want to dive in and have fun, NOT have to die, wait for reasorces/ cooldown, die, repeat. That is bad game design As for the changes coming they look fun! But I wish they would change the current A2A missile mechanics to something more like the striker, in its current state they are just boring. The Locust cannons I hoped would have stayed as they were for the same reason as others have posted, strafing runs.
The idea of Air to air missiles is to have an easy to use weapon for inexperienced pilots which is all fine. What isn't fine is the fact that the weapon becomes completely game breaking in the hands of very experienced pilots. This causes a situation where every pilot out there is forced to use air to air missiles or be at a disadvantage. This exact issue is explained in the video you linked, as the video says there should be things that are fairly easy and fairly powerful to make the game accessible but there has to be hard to execute options which are more powerful than the go to for new players. In short, the easy to execute option shouldn't be the most powerful available. There absolutely should be weapons which are easy to use but when those weapons are the go to for high skilled crowd as well the game becomes stale since they lack the depth of more challenging weapons which are needed to keep the game interesting in the long run. New players are extremely important but the air to air missiles we have now is not the right way to go, new players have no access to them and they cause flares to be mandatory which means that every new player has to cert flares before flying becomes viable and that is only small part of the problem.
Shouldn't you guys also increase the flight ceiling ? I think that is a must for more air to air combat.
Any plans to make ESFs fun again? Ever since PU2 the only mossy loadout worth pulling has been my banshee/tomcat loadout which is now also useful A2A AND has been forced to drop scout radar due to lockon buffs. It still bears the "AWACS" name, which was never really a fitting name, but it kind of looked the part if you didn't actually know what an AWACS is. It just seems like all of this stuff in the update is kinda moot at the moment.
Would also like to be able to bind mouse instead of A + D. I just hate the whole "aim with the keyboard" thing.
It's been asked for over a year but allow us to bind yaw to mouse and maybe you'll see more ppl trying to learn to fly Flying is really uninstinctive for newbies
If they want to make a weapon that is easy for newbies to use, they should make it a variation of the nosegun and not TWO more lock-on missiles. Higgles you already said lock-ons were a bad decision, why are there more on the way? A newbie friendly weapon would be a nosegun with a very competent auto-tracking and leading mechanism in exchange for low damage output and low accuracy. Not the same botched system as the old Reaver noseguns, but something that can reliably point itself at another moving ESF if placed inside an aiming circle within a certain distance, even if the low accuracy might mean some shots will still miss if the range is too far. Lock-ons simply aren't good for teaching newbies how to pilot their aircraft and aim their weapons. It will get them to point themselves at the target for a while as they fly in but then the weapon is fire-and-forget. A nosegun with an aim-assist will force them to maintain their aim over time, to learn how to space themselves correctly and to not crash into the ground. If you're going to take away the fun wingmount Locust cannons, might as well turn that Locust gun into the newbie-friendly design I suggested above. Heck, even the name of the weapon would fit right in with newbie aircraft swarms. Still want some wing cannons though.
I agree. But it's hard to say how much difference there is between skill and power with the new weapons, I do want to see how they pan out in PTS. I also think that the new mechanics are a very good step and they should just replace the current A2A with the guided missiles.
If 2 equally skilled players are fighting and one has a2am, the one with a2am wins and won before pu2 just by the time you always had to waste on dodging the weapon (whichs skillceiling is to look at your enemy with inner half of the screen) while the lockonpro is shooting you with the rotary and you have to perform that sitting duck maneuver. Obviously you did not much in the 85h in an esf but lolpodding or you would know that. I do not understand how anyone can defend a2am or the future heatseeking missiles as they do and will only dumb all airgameplay down. If you dont want to learn to fly and aim you shouldnt be rewarded with easy kills. And A2G lockons? Really? I cant find the words on this one
I was re-reading one of the old threads on the idea, and I was wondering why it was never jumped on? I mean, it lowered the skill floor, raised the skill ceiling and allowed an opportunity to further individualise PS2's airgame. The potential for new tricks alone is worth including a dedicated hotkey for it.
Make the new lockons dumbfire drop bombs. Please don't add anymore lockons Higby. Please. And an AB nerf? I'm already careful with my fuel but it's already not even close to spammable.
I've seen that extra credits video about balancing for skill but I don't think that that has a lot to do with the problems the PS2 airgame is facing. I think the problem is that at the moment, The Aces can survive and no one else can - And that's not because the aces are killing everyone else, it's because AA fire is killing everyone else, and that's just going to keep happening. Lockons only really make sense in this game if something is done about the hover nose to nose meta, but on the other hand, actually balanced lock ons might deal with that on their own. Before you start, I've played multiple games that have pulled this off.
An example: You are a vastly better player than I am. Everytime we encounter you kill because your aim is vastly superior to mine. We both wield a weapon that deals 10 damge per shot and require incredible good aim to hit something. You, with your incredible aim hit me almost everytime, while I keep missing. You deal 10 damage per shot, I deal about 0 (always missing). This situation is not fun for anyone. For me: I get very frustrated that I do almost no damage, and constantly losing (and losing hard) is discouraging. I eventually simply leave the game, that has become not fun. For you: With all new players leaving, their will be no competion, and the game becomes a very small ghosttown of elites. Not fun for you, as you have only very few fights. Now imagine they introduce a second gun to the game. This game deals only 6 damage, but requires no aiming at all. I will gladly take this gun, boosting my damage from almost 0 to 6. You still have your original gun, and with your superior skill, still deal 10 damge. You will still win every fight (6 to 10 damage), but at least now I could deal some damage. I feel like I now participated in the fight, I contributed. These beginner weapons are intended to help new players contribute to a game (low skill FLOOR), while not negating the skill advantage of veteran players (high skill CEILING). That is the role of assisted-aiming weapons. They are easy to use. That's what they are for, to help new players. They deal less damage, that's because they are designed to be replaced eventually. Assited-aiming weapons are not inherently wrong, they serve a very important role. As an introduction weapon. I know the classical argument against this would be for me to simply train more and practice ..... But that requires time and commitment not everyone has or is willing to give. Not everyone likes to be absolutley destroyed for hours before being able to marginally contribute. Losing can be fun, if you still feel like you achieved something, even if is only a posthumous assist.
Having easy to use weapons is all fine, that is not the issue here. The issue is that the easy to use weapon we have now the air to air missile is the most powerful even in the hands of very experienced players, this makes the game stale and boring since it forces pretty much all players to use it. In short: Easy to use weapons are ok but there should be hard to use alternatives which are more powerful.
On this we completely agree. I have very little experience with ESF's, so I don't know how powerfull these weapons are. And maybe they really are too powerful in skilled hands. I'll leave said judgement to people with more experience and more detailed statitics. The point I was trying to make is just that aim-assisted weapons are not inherently evil or wrong as many people in the first few pages seem to think.
I don't like the idea of aircraft being able to tell how many people are locking them. It's rare enough that people actually run in lock on squads (I've tried organizing this MANY times. It's tough enough even in an organized outfit squad.) Making air even more powerful only serves to damage ground game even further.
And there we go. Even more lock ons. Great! And no A2AM tweak. Geat! At least they want to make them dodgeable again... thanks.
Ok soe more lock ons. will please make some heat seeking granates and auto aim sniper skopes wile your at f-ing up the game!!
Reason for new changes means that donate system of f2p game require to add more "pay and play toys" to keep game live. All new incoming changes will bring more cotroversial discussian to already brocken lock-ons missiles and nerfed nose guns issues. We have fly community and mostly players are not happy. I understand that infantry players which not fly regularly, and dont have such expirience to compare with fly boys, want to be able to defeat most expierenced pilots. But its not right way in my opinion, to provide a weapon which doesnt based on particlar level of players. More "win buttons" will not improve a game. As set in the ring Muhammad Ali and random guy with machine gun. Is it fair? I dont know. If main goal of changes to clear sky from ace pilots, SOE looking in right direction. Best VS pilot of woodman server mijoman ununstalled his game already.