Daikar I really do not think you disagree with me. You are saying that a scrub who can't use his nosegun could beat you in a dogfight if he uses A2AM? If you are as good as you claim to be, that cannot be true.
Okay, I have played support for a Long time and have been trying to learn to fly, so I am taking that a lot of these changes are aimed at people like me. So here is my take on what I am reading. I talked to a couple pilots last night about this, so those points will be spread throughout. Before I get into this, again: I am a new pilot. I have been flying galaxies a good bit, and occasionally use ESFs for scouting. I will avoid most dogfights, and wont stick around swarms too long, because I am incapable of outflying flak. The biggest problem I have right now, other than misjudging my own distance to the ground, or not giving myself enough room to climb over something, is G2Am. They are unavoidable, and they ruin my day. I get shot down by those the most. Behind G2Am is flak, then small arms fire, THEN A2Am and THEN the nosecannon, in terms of what kills me the most. G2Am are my biggest problem, so that is what I was looking towards perhaps being changed. A2Am aren't fun either to be honest. It seems like a rather heavy handed "**** you" to get slapped out of the sky by someone using A2Am. It should be mentioned that I use the annihalator and the striker a Ton. I do G2A a Lot myself, because if ESFs reach critical mass above a base, they can really ruin your day. Thing is though, that as they are, all lock on missiles that target air, are overly powerful. Here has been the way I've looked at it for a long time, lock on launchers that target air are there to take out ESFs AND heavily armored Libs and Galaxies. I would say that the G2Am are perfectly balanced against Libs and Gals... against ESFs, it's rather unfair. On the flip side, Flak seems perfectly fine to me against ESFs, as regardless of what you say, it isn't easy to hit an esf careening through the air in an inverted barrel roll. I'm good with bursters and skyguards, and I am okay with that. So all of that said to explain my bias and background, here we go: Hit me with your best shot Kevmo... Okay, I was really excited about the top speed changes. Fact of the matter, is that the top speed changes for afterburner tanks meant that you would push those tanks which are already chosen by A2A people I know, even further forward as something preferrable to rocket pods or A2Am. Shame that those changes are gone. Making the ESFs into trick fighters, which is what the old AB changes looked like, seemed like it would be Really awesome, and would give pilots something really fun. Just AB is nice, but I hope it's quite a bit more AB to compensate. The only other thing that stands out to me, is the stock regen rate going down. I think I see where you are going with that, but you are nerfing something to push the AB cert line... I think it'd be better to just make AB's -that- much more effective, rather than do that unnecessary nerf. So just let the certed ones recharge 2 seconds faster than what is already planned. That is largely just me knowing that a nerf will universally be reviled, while saying that you are boosting something will be universally accepted, just how the community is. Okay, does this mean that G2Am and A2Am will be something that can be dodged by ESFs in a way that a newer pilot can actually accomplish? To be frank, if not, Seeing that you are boned because you have 4 G2Am on you isn't going to help much. If you are going to go with: "Different for all factions" Spend the time to make them Empire specific, in terms of look and ammo and everything please. Just a request What role does this have though? Being an inexhaustible bullet hose, doesn't define for me what this will be good at. The old Locusts looked like they would be good for straffing infantry... what will this be aimed towards? If it is an alternative to the rotary, what reason does one have to choose it? Close Range, and low damage. Okay. I don't see the gripes people have, as long as they are just what it says: Close Range, and Low Damage. Seems fine to me. When I heard this was out, I mentioned it to a pilot buddy of mine. His immediate response was: "Thank God, those things were horrible. They 2 shotted an ESF, from ungodful ranges." The idea of air sniping was initially pretty cool to me, but in retrospect I see where he was coming from and so I'm not exactly going to decry the loss of this weapon. That said, I would like to revisit this right about... ...Oh, here we go, this looks like a good place. Okay initial reaction to these: Good. I have wanted Bombs for a long time, I thought it would be with mass drivers, but this will do nicely. I would say that something like this needs to be such, that they are relatively slow... and they need to be something that can either be shot down, or give ample warning. This raises one point though: What is the point of Rocket pods now? My thought was that Rocket pods were supposed to be about AV. I use them for AI, but if this is going to fill an AV role, why let Rocket pods do the same thing. The point of this, by my understanding, is that you are trying to differentiate roles. Okay, this is a Bomber role, the guided missiles, designed around taking out tanks and heavier air targets at range. If this will fill that AV role, why not just make Rocket pods into AI and nuke their AV damage? If you do that, you define an AI, AV, and AA role for the ESF. It'd be easy to do, extend the indirect of pods, make them like the Marauder changes in that they cause no Armored damage, and lower the effective range. Just be careful with damage, otherwise these will be hilariously bad for tankers. Stealth equip to avoid auto-detection. Good. Question though, why don't you just make this passive? It seems like one of those things that is just Critical any way you cut it. And, making it so that the cert cost is low... okay, why make it something that is certed at all? Making people choose between this and flares wont work, because you -HAVE- to have flares, because of the sheer volume of lock-ons. Okay, but what about G2Am, will they be more avoidable? They will track you over hill and dale, it's silly. A2Am are being used to farm people, Because pilots don't want them being so powerful. I'm sorry, but flak should be the counter to ESFs, not lock-ons. Anywho that is my take on the post, couple things I saw in the posts: You are missing a point here. Zaps, NUC, DA, and FCRW aren't good because they are Better players like what you are saying. They probably are just at the core, on an individual level, Better... but that doesn't matter. I have played with or against all but one of those groups, and what makes them -better- is communication and teamwork. You wont see them going into a building to kill 6 people. You'll see 3 of them acting in a coordinated fashion going into a building. They are better than you, because they are their own force multiplier, while you are You... one dude. 3 people working together can wipe 8 uncoordinated morons gormlessly staring at a point. The rest of your point stands... somewhat. I kind of agree. Somewhat. Sorta. I don't think the ESF will be too bad off with the guided missile personally. You will have to sacrifice your Afterburners to do this, which means it'll be that much more difficult to avoid getting shot down. Plus, against air, it doesn't seem like it'd be that effective, unless it is against libs or galaxies. Against other ESFs, I don't think it looks like it'll be too bad. My suggestion: make lock-ons MUCH easier to dodge for ESFs. Those kinds of weapons should be used against heavy and slow targets, not nimble strike craft. If people want to deal with strike craft, they should pull flak.
I can see that you get it. That is exactly how they are supposed to be used. What I do not understand is how a low DPS weapon that is inferior to rotary in almost every way and good at ambushing unsuspecting targets (which the rotary is just as good at with higher DPS) is overpowered. Especially with flares and the fact that they can be evaded (PU2 missile tracking bug notwithstanding).
A: This has been done by so many players and probably happen all the time. B: This is also possible though very risky but it depends on how the battle field looks, I've done this myself so I know it can be done. First you max out stealth and then you find the tanks and come them from behind and start shooting. And don't tell me that they will see where I'm from the dmg indicator since most players have no idea of what's going on around them. When they start taking dmg with enemies in front of them the just assume it's coming from the front. C: This one is prolly very hard to pull of and I don't see it happening. So do you see the pattern here? Both ESFs, MBTs and Infantry can pull this off (unless lockons are used in the ESF fight) So maybe Maxes should be buffed. We don't think we are special but we do have a better idea on how to improve the air gameplay then most of the players that doesn't fly. SOE shouldn't just do what we ask, all we ask is to be included in process of improving the game.
agree, here a big community of pilots who prefer to fly and like flying in planetside which have unique mechanics of ESF`s. A lot points about improving of air game provide MattiAce, but sound like SOE doesnt want to listen him by some reasons.
No Empire specific fighter should have the speed advantage IMO. Its just too much of an advantage for air superiority. TR trait is high rate of fire, not necessarily also the fastest esf, Speed is very important in this game and the advantage should not always be given to the TR as a faction trait. Please add to the ESF changes list balancing all faction fighters to the same top speed to your list of balance passes. Its just another reason why this game is hard for new pilots, its because two thirds of them don't start out as TR.
Can we just accept that in the first two pages, in the same way as with the membership changes, there are half a dozen posts that have more likes than the original announcement, and ALL of them are saying 'NO MORE LOCK ONS.' Frankly, the best thing they can do for getting new players in the sky is -remove- A2AMs, and implement the radar changes so new players can tell what's locking them and where from and try to flee. Oh, and what on earth happened to the counter to the HUGE BUFF G2A lockons got in the last patch? If you remember, they were supposed to lock faster BUT REQUIRE MAINTENANCE... I wouldn't even care if that maintenance was quite a loose aim and worked through cover etc; just so long as we stop this fire and forget nonsense that allows a single player to down an ESF in less time than it takes the ESF to locate said player... It's nonsense.
Reaver's are the fastest, Scythes have the best hover, and mosquitoes have the best maneuverability ( A.K.A. dog fighting )
Reaver has been buffed recently, but speed of all three should be the same. I'm for asymmetric balance but couldn't they just do that on the weapons and give everyone a fairer flight mechanics across esfs. And then just make the additional air frames 10% more different in the advantages they supposedly hold.
Roll left, aim with mouse using pitch up/down See the thing is that using the mouse to yaw left and right will remove a huge amount of maneuvers that you can do with the current system in place. But I do understand what you mean, when I first started flying it felt really weird with the current controls and it took some getting used to. A suggestion might be to have the weapons follow the cross-air when in free look mode, or add a new similar thing but limit the amount you can move the aim.
This is in my top 5 of the most awful things I have EVER read on the forums. Good pilots don't need to be checked by lock-ons. Good pilots need to be checked by other good pilots. Munitions that are controlled by the server will make every skilled pilot quit because any noob with $7 can buy lock-ons and kill people without skill. People that have skill won't tolerate people using things to kill them that take NO skill. Why do you think there's already so much lock-on hate in PS2? You're a bad pilot, and I don't even have to look up your stats to know that. Being a fan of lock-ons tells me you need to get better and stop being salty about people that have worked hard and developed flying skill in this game.
I probably shoulda posted this here instead, but take a look at this! I see many people saying similar here.
You are honestly saying that a lone MBT can fight six others at once? Hint: TTK of 6 MBT vs 1 MBT is zero
My Feedback: AB Fuel Tanks Please dont nerf the Hover Thrusting with ABs. Nobody called for it. I like the Regeneration Certification. Coyote Missiles If you really, really want another Lock-On Missile System, is has to have very low damage or bad tracking, so it can be avoided with AB Bursts. A2A Missiles Revert them to be like before the last Patch. When they actually were dodgeable. G2A Missiles are not really dodgeable atm, so changing the A2A Missiles to be like them wont fix the problem. Locust Cannon You feel they are nothing special, so you put them into the primary slot? Well, the fact that they were in the secondary slot made them special. Now they are not special anymore. But if you want them to be a high spread / low Damage / big Magazine Rotary for beginners, im fine with that. Mass Drivers Sad, these were looking promising.
First thoughts... Seriously? What, rocketpods aren't good enough, gotta make something even better at popping tanks? Can't handle getting close enough and just flying in the blind spot? Need to do it from 300m away? Downside... The ground vehicles that move at 1/3 or less your speed can escape your sights... That's ******** and you know it - This will kill the game faster than BFRs. But air... Don't think you're safe from these... They aren't A2G exclusive... Furthermore, they aren't countered by stealth and flares, they're slowed down. I guess I'll go on the test server, test if they're as broken as they sound and have my feedback ignored - Just like on beta.
As someone who generally doesn't fly, dislikes aircraft in general, and carries his Nemesis launcher way more often than is probably necessary; I do think Lock On missile tracking/AI is too good. Here's an example; Yesterday evening on Indar, the VS were attacking deep into NC territory in the canyons. We had Sunderers set up on the cliff walls around Broken Arch Road, and infantry up there with AV/AA to suppress vehicles so our own armor could move in mostly unopposed. A Liberator flies overhead, starts trying to shell us. I break out my Nemesis and start locking it. 1 shot. 2 shots. As I am waiting on my timer for the third shot, the Lib strafes away over the ridge. BUT my launcher lock turns green the half second before the Lib is out of view. So, I fire my rocket. By the time the rocket flew about 50m, the Lib had solidly place a rock outcropping between us, if you had drawn a straight line. Didn't matter. My rocket flew around the rock like it was sling-shotting off of the moon and right up the Lib's tail; hit. Now, again, I want to reiterate; I am an avid G2A user. Anytime I see enemy aircraft, I feel compelled to try and kill them, or at least make them go away. But the tracking and maneuverability of these Lock On missiles/rockets is ridiculous. That third shot should not have hit. So please, NERF LOCK ON TRACKING. And by that, I don't mean "plz make rockets easy to dodge by Ace pilots doing aerial flipping, reverse, barrel rolls". No. I mean people using terrain intelligently.
