[Suggestion] HA Lockon Rocket Balance

Anyone that flies would agree that the amount of people running around with lock on rockets is very annoying. For me, its just way too common. I still think they should exist, but not as much. Following is a solution that would be a step in the right direction.

Make lock on rockets just like grenades and mines.... they should cost nanites. You also have to restock them from a terminal, ammo packs wont work. So, heavies still have access to them, but now they can't spam them. What if grenades worked like rockets? Cost zero nanites and can just chuck forever due to ammo packs.... it would be annoying no? Well, that's what rockets are. Dumbfire rockets, ya know, rockets you actually have to have some skill to use? They should still work like they do now. So, people have a choice. The cost per rocket is debatable... I'd go for 75/rocket.

More heavies than fliers, so I anticipate more negative comments than positive (and due to forum rules negative comments are the norm).

Devs, think about it please. I think it would make for a more interesting game.

In the time it takes me to lock on to an ESF, that ESF can kill me 5 times over, or more.

In addition, in the time it takes me to KILL an ESF using a lock on, he could kill 15 of me.

Maybe you don't see rampant infantry farming by flyers as a problem. I say nerf ESF no skill rocket barrages.

Were you farming Infantry & now you are mad they killed you?.....

Oh wait AA is a "deterrence" so it only scares you away so you can come back to Farm again.

you looking in wrong direction, lock-ons already cost 650 certs, but the main problem is HA class itself, most forgiving class in game. but you suggesting to punish infantry for pilot's greed. is so easy to kill infantry, and lock-ons not a problem. why no cost ammo for aircraft - it should cost nanites, less farmer = less lock-ons.

A lockon requires zero skill, by definition of the weapon... it locks on. An ESF has to avoid: buster maxs, skyguards, tanks trying to shell you, any infantry that wants to rifle you, other enemy planes, the terrain... AND heavies with lockons... which, are very common because lots of people play heavies. The actual rocket poding infantry isn't the hard part, its avoiding the 50 things shooting at you.

HA's job is also AV work.

This game has vehicles & aircraft.

Doesn't take alot of thinking.

The skill is in not dying while you're waiting an eternity for the lock to first pick up the target, and then lock, and then make sure when you fire it's not going into a tower, tree, mountain, building, or friendly player before it gets to target.

On my INF I can make a steady living from lock on heavy players, and I do.

Lowering rocket pod accuracy would be a good start. Don't need to be that accurate to hit tanks and vehicles.

You still have to track the aircraft. And get a lock. And watch the aircraft fly away unharmed once you start aiming at it. Or flares.

wo-wo, wait a second, what ESF lost there?!

Yep Scr1, heavies have AV capabilities. Notice I'm not saying remove lockons. I'm saying make them cost nanites, just like grenades and mine do. There should be a cost associated with taking out a vehicle without having to aim. Also notice, this would not effect good players, because they redominately use the decimator.

You......still have to aim with a lock on.

Which lockon exactly are you referring to? I know there's ONE you can dumbfire, but the rest, yeah. Perhaps you don't consider pointedly moving the mouse to track a target for 5+ seconds aiming?

There are plenty of downsides to using a lockon, but it sounds like you never have.

Not sure why 'do you have to aim to use a lockon' is being debated. Sure, you have point the lockon in the general direction of the target, you cant be facing your back to the plane..... but this is not aiming.... I mean come on.

I only play infantry so I cannot say what this feels like from the flyers viewpoint. I should say though that I almost never manage to down an aircraft single handed with a lock on and it takes luck as well as huge skill to hit with a dumb fire (more skill than strafing infantry or rocket podding them I suspect). A lot of them seem to get away damaged from even a barrage of fire from several players. Conversely, if I get caught unaware by an aircraft I am dead meat, no argument.

Something like three quarters of my deaths nowadays are due to long range artillery, C4/grenade spam or air attack** so please, leave me something that allows me even the illusion of being able to chuck something back (when I can actually get a target lock, that is).

** except when I play stalker infil where my most common causes of death (roughly in order) are:

• failing to notice his mate running around the corner behind me when I uncloak to shoot or stab someone
• not finishing the target off before he is able to respond
• stray shots and overshoots or getting run over

No, it's exactly aiming. It's the actual, literal definition of aiming.

What it is NOT, is leading your target and adjusting for movement, velocity, and drop.

But you still ignore the time difference involved. How much more likely are you to be killed when you can scope a deci and shoot it in roughly 1 second, versus having to stand basically still in a fight for literally 5 seconds or more?

I swear harrassers just drive circles around the back lines in hopes of this happening. It happens to me a lot.

kinda balances out after you killed 15 people with rocket pods. but yeah i guess having to get killed by a lock on must really suck... you know because you couldnt get that 20 kill streak

As someone that does a fair bit of A2G work, lock-ons are the least of my worries and the easiest of AA to deal with. I mean I can't even think of the last time I was taken out by lock-ons. ESF's can use speed and terrain to break a HA's attempt at getting a lock and to also deal with incoming rockets. There's been plenty of times I've swooped in on a group of infantry, gotten a handful of kills, and boosted out before someone could get a lock on me. On top of that ESF's can get decoy flares and/or vehicle stealth. Infantry have nothing but their rifles to defend against an ESF unless they're a HA and happen to have a G2A launcher equipped.

I do find this suggestion interesting though since usually suggestions from people go the other way and feel ESF's have it too easy against low damage AA.

I like your idea. I like it so much that I wholeheartedly support applying this nanite-cost to all vehicle large-caliber shells and rockets. Since vehicle shells and rockets are bigger, those should have a 100-nanite cost per round. So, if you spawn an ESF, you'd have enough nanites for about 4 rockets and then will have to wait 15 minutes (50 nanite per minute) for a full barrage of 75 rockets.

This is awesome when it happens while you're trying to lock down the scope, because you get a really close up view of your own death much earlier than you might if you weren't using a lock on.