Hornets are meant to be precision weapons. Why do they exhibit traits that actively counter this?

Listen god's gift to gaming, being able to do anything in the air is dependent on how incompetent the ground forces are, which is a lot more common since pilots have to go through a manly rite of passage right out that warpgate bubble where they get greeted by BR 100 MLG dog fighting pros who have 100% of their time spent in their aircraft. If they survive their rite of passage they can proceed to get shot down by flak and homing rockets.

Yes the hornets are easy to use, much like anything, its the trade off it brings with it since it requires you to remain aiming at your target, it isn't fire and forget, the missile travel is slow so it isn't like they are super easy to use, but that the people on the ground tend to be super easy targets with no resistance to your presence.

I think for a brief while (possibly on the test servers) they followed freelook aiming, but it turns out that made it way too easy to use.

So they got changed into what they are now.

MAX + Flak5 gets 2Shot by those, or perhaps requires 1-2 bullets from the ESF(Literally not more), can't tell because I drop too fast... While I'm firing at the damned ESF(Which also has no Comp)... While I'm in Lock-Down even. But yeah the same happens if I try to strafe(GL doing that in a MAX). And when I say firing at the ESF, I mean literally dumping my 2 Bursters on it, all hits giving markers.

I'd say that based on that, NOBODY should complain that Hornets are hard to use and if you miss, just try again!? Also they are much more reliable against other Air units than Rocket Pods, which is a plus. Hornets are the Dalton of the ESF in that case... So to speak.

So it went from easy and intuitive to use, to what we have now... great

Now thats interesting. It is true that MAXes get 2 shot by Hornets, but that is not easy. They are a pretty small target to keep pointing your nose at, although the target being locked down makes it considerably easier. And that they get 2 shot is not because Hornets deal OP damage but due to FLAK armor not working on direct hits, not even reducing the splash damage. The reason(ing) for this I do not know.
Also in my experience its easier hitting enemies with rocketpods than hornets, although I could not explain why.

That's true in large fights. Not in small ones (yes they still happen). And in those small ones everything is at the grace of aircraft.
As for the whole rites of passage for pilots, I'm keenly aware of how that works, considering I'm not one of those MLG Sky Knights (basically I die like everyone else).

For the insult you seem to enjoy... At least show some imagination if you're going to insult people more than once, and change it up from one post to the next.

Ps: There are ways to dumb-fire hornets. Isn't that just fancy?

if you think you are such a gift from god to gaming why dont you explain how to dumbfire them?

Or not explain it, as they're obnoxious enough already.

I've already tried all of those. The only way to deter an ESF reliably is with a Walker, the others simply won't do the job.

Except now I'm driving around with my gunner in a Walker just in case some ESF decides to attack me. I'm at a large disadvantage against the things I'll be fighting 90% of the time (infantry and other tanks) just to help in one scenario (being attacked by Hornets).

INB4: The same goes for ESFs. Not when you can equip combinations like Rotary/Hornets or a Banshee/Coyotes. With those loadouts you can effectively fight both air and ground targets. If I take AP/Walker I'll be disadvantaged against the majority of 2/2 MBTs, I can barely fight off an ESF (still can't reliably fight off a Liberator/Galaxy), and will lack a good defense against infantry.

That's not to say that AP/Walker doesn't work. I do use it from time to time and I like it. But expecting someone to use it as a general purpose loadout for the sole purpose of deterring an ESF with Hornets is absurd. You're sacrificing so much effectiveness in just about everything in order to be able to fend off one ESF.

I am a noob and not taking sides here. My flying experience is about 30 ESF crashed in VR and I might have killed a lightning but can't be certain as it took me 3 planes to do it

I drive a sunderer and eventually I had to realize that I need a full time Walker on it, so I p!mped it out to maxed clip size and ammo with a 1.75x zoom. It is THE BEST WEAPON in the game, it does what it meant to do.

I almost never have gunners, so I have to drive and switch to shoot the guns myself. I am not familiar with the aircraft weapons yet, but the most damaging rockets they shoot at me, I still calmly switch to the walker and make them realize they messed with the wrong sunderer.

Libs and Gals start their panic escape after about 2/3 of the clip landed in them. And they get another full clip of damage before they can hide behind mountains. Even two aircraft ganging up on me will give up fast and escape after I turn the Walker onthem never to return.

My other gun is a Fury, but I still try to park my Sundy in a way to be able to shoot infantry with the Walker. It is very effective.

If I had a tank, I would definitely have a Walker on it as a secondary if possible.

While the original post doesn't contradict the thread title, I was expecting something a little bit more related to actual gameplay balance versus other weapons.

The overwhelming issue with the Hornets is that they defy the rules of precision weaponry on a fundamental level - that is to say that precision weapons trade raw firepower for pinpoint accuracy. The most glaring flaw is that ESFs can carry a maximum of 76 missiles. I cannot even begin to comprehend how a small fighter aircraft can carry 76 laser-guided missiles, and I do not even want to know who decided that 76 (40 at base) was a reasonable number from a gameplay balance perspective - Hornets have 404% more direct damage potential than rocket pods, and 244% more indirect damage potential (yes, INDIRECT DAMAGE POTENTIAL on a precision weapon is higher than a barrage of high-explosive rockets). The second thing is that Hornets trade next to no firepower whatsoever for accuracy. Rocket pods aren't exactly difficult to aim to begin with, but Hornets have frickin' laser-guidance and appear to be able to roast a tank from behind substantially faster than rocket pods, though 'appear' is the key word here as I haven't done extensive testing.

For bigass laser-guided precision warheads, ESFs can carry way too many of them and they are disproportionately powerful compared to high-explosive rocket pods. The ammo pool at the very least needs to be cut in half, and even that is generous. To match the total effectiveness of rocket pods, their ammo would need to be reduced to a maximum of 16 missiles. It is worth bearing in mind that rocket pods tend to blind the user without thermals and can be inaccurate against some targets - Hornets do not suffer from these issues.

Also goodluck finding someone willing to sit in an MBT using a walker... AA secondaries on an MBT are for Solo drivers really.

Hornets are harder to use than firing an AP round at a stationary target...

You have to stay on target until they get close enough for you to actually change direction. Hornets PROMOTE tunnel vision because that is really the only way you're going to hit anything with them. There are just so many more obstacles you have to deal with using Hornets vs using anything a tank can do. They reward skill. They are doing exactly what they should.

If you have to give up your secondary tank gun to deal with ESFs, then you SHOULD be at a disadvantage fighting ground forces, and you are. I don't see the problem with this. It is the same deal with pretty much every other vehicle in this game. No reason tanks should be excluded.

125m/s forward though. Their steering sucks and the missiles aren't even laser guided like described.
I'd prefer there be a toggle for the guidance while auto-correcting the drop.

Well, if its only useful 10% of the time, don't use it.

I don't see why anybody should be effective/protected against something when he consciously chooses to NOT take the weapon to do so. I don't expect to win against A2A ESFs either when I pull my G2A ESF.

.... Also you don't need a walker to shoot me down. I will usually come from behind and try to kill you with 4 Hornets to your rear armor. That means im flying so low you can shoot me down with your main gun (that seems to rotate insanely fast)

You don't need to be within my angle to get rear shots. I shoot down a ton of ESFs but I can only defend myself if you let me.

Entering my angle is a conscious decision and is one that you never have to make.

I'm not complaining .
I'm a fairly good pilot, so I usually manage to kill tanks with 2 hornet salvos using that approach - that is less than 4 seconds for the tank to react if I don't mess up.
Of course the tank is not really helpless - Vanguards can still pull their shield or Magriders simply boost away. Vanguards can turn their turret a full 180 degrees before my reload is half finished, and of course they can simply turn the tank a bit so I hit the side.

And yes, im fully aware that I can hit your rear armor by firing from anywhere at any part of your tank and dive into your rear 45 degrees section so it counts as rear hit. And I'm not at all above using "cheesy" stuff. Its a warsimulation and I usually go "whatever works".
But the hitdetection for vehicle armor feels like a bug to me, and I don't exploit stuff I consider a bug, so I do the risky approach and try to actually HIT your rear. Also it looks and feels so much cooler

lol, tanks excluded? Tanks are the only ones that have to give up their effectiveness against other things by equipping an AA secondary. If you're good with the nose gun you can kill any ESF/lib out there with hornets as your secondary, meanwhile tanks are basically balanced around if you have an AV secondary you're going to win every fight against anyone who doesn't.

Needler + Coyotes vs AH + Rocketpods = Needler + Coyotes loadout wins, atleast on paper. Both vehicles give up effectiveness when they specialize at killing a specific target. If you want to stay balance with a tank, you run Heat + Basilisk/Halbred.

Of course there will still be those times that you will win some engagements, regardless of loadouts, due to your personal skill. If you out play your opponent, you can still win, but the point of having loadouts is to create a pros vs cons system against other loadouts.

There is nothing wrong with this, as all vehicles currently have this system and, imo, the system works well.

Good reticles should exist on all weapons, certainly.

The drop is fine, because the weapon ends up being very effective when you learn the skill to it. If it was 100% precise, it would be a lot less fun to use and have used against you.