In Praise of A2A Lockons

When I first started playing about a year ago, I tried flying a Reaver and found it hard to handle. Also, I was always shot down by aces and figured enough was enough. So I stopped trying.

Months later I decided to give it another shot. I got rocket pods and lock-ons, and I also tried the rotary gun. With lock-ons I found that I could survive a little longer by staying out of dogfights and shooting from the periphery. I even got a few kills.

Gradually I got better at using my primary too. I would still get hammered by aces, but I found I could take out libs about half the time, and newbs consistently.

Over time I noticed a funny thing. People REALLY hate lock-ons. I have had lots of snide remarks directed my way. I have even been team killed by another reaver who disapproved of my style. Eventually I had a discussion with JARCODE, who reasoned with me and told me that I would never get better as a dogfighter with my tactics. I was convinced. Since that time, I have been running burner with the default primary. (Side note: the default is pretty nice. It never seems to run out of ammo compared to the rotary.)

So I've been doing my thing, getting a little better at dogfighting, but generally not having as much fun. I plan on giving it some more time with the traditional approach because I'd like to hang with the aces some day. In a one-on-one match between aces, lock-ons are losers. A good pilot locates the source and engages in close range immediately. At that point you're screwed.

But one-on-one matches are not the only kind. My reasoning is, from a strategic point of view, don't lock-ons make a lot of sense? Does it make sense to have everyone running burner with primary guns? I have found that this is suboptimal. In case where two aces are duking it out, or where there's a chase, lock-ons can come in extremely handy as an auxiliary. Just like you wouldn't want a squad of all heavies, I don't think it makes sense to have an air squadron of all the same loadout. Lock-ons cover territory and situations that guns do not. They have better effectiveness at range. They force pilots with flares to use their flares, making them vulnerable to G2A missiles. They induce pilots without flares to exit the battle. AAAAND -- rockets are stealthy. Primary guns give away your location to everyone nearby in a way that A2A rockets do not. And using lock-ons can be "legitimate," too, like throwing a javelin before engaging hand-to-hand.

Something else I have noticed is that pilots who look down on lock-ons, still use the short range lock-on pods. How is that any different?

These are just some of my thoughts on the matter, I'm musing out loud. What do you think?

I think you should use whatever you have the most fun using. Haters gonna hate.

Short range rocket pods give them utility against ground- if you don't have A2G weaponry as a pilot, you're useless to your team as soon as enemy air stops bothering your ground forces. Regardless, A2AM is a pretty boring playstyle. I own them, but never use them because either a. I'm alone and they're useless, or b. I'm in a group of two people, where trying to manuever for the lock means I'm not dealing damage, meaning my buddy is at risk or 3. I'm in a group of more than three people, and therefore against a single target lockon missiles are superfluous, and against multiple targets I wouldn't get much use out of them, so it would be better to have just equipped lolpods or ab tanks.

Coyotes are plain OP, so I'm expecting (and hoping for) a nerf soon, so I wouldn't shell out the certs for them.

If you're frustrated with dogfighting, try your hand at an AI nosegun/ab tanks build. You'll improve your flying and aiming skills shooting at infantry, get more kills and thus feel rewarded for flying, and unless you use the ppa you have decent self defense capabilities against enemy aircraft.

I bought tomcats cause I'm lazy and want to relax. I don't wanna get all worked up with all that fancy joystick dogfighting, I had enough of that as a kid. I want to relax.

Tomcats are anything but relaxing, they're more stressful, if you lose your "lock" which is pointing the nose directly at the target as if you're shooting him anyways, it's even more stressful than simply normal dogfighting. DPS isn't the issue, it's the playstyle that's wrong.

You're absolutely right. especially this:

There's a set of honor rules a few "aces" have set. These rules are there to exploit noobs into being farmed kills. Basically they have mastered only a single set of skills and do not wish to have to deviate or adapt from those skills. That is a weakness that can be exploited. Exploit them so they don't exploit you.

Half the time you can get an air lock and the opponent will suicide. Most of the time they freak out. Many times its because they air rage quit in order to deny you the kill. Let them. It takes them out of the air.

Do not get wrapped up in "honorable" dueling. Use lockons. Use teammates to gang up on them. Hell if someone is way better than you, and you know it. RAM them! Do whatever is neccessary to get them out of the sky. Don't worry about their feelings. A good player will take it in stride and understand whats going on. A crap player even if skilled, will take it personally. Let them and exploit their anger and frustration for the good of your team.

You may not be an ace, but your understanding makes you better than 90% of those so called "aces" out there. Keep on doing what you are doing if it works. Report anyone who team kills you for your tactics. Let them get banned for it. Take any hate tells from your opponents as compliments.

Play your game, not your opponents'.

OK so you can't join the flyboy social club in this game if you use lock-ons? Who cares? I seriously don't get how people choose a game to play and then arbitrarily pick what they feel is "right", or "honorable" play in that game, and what is "wrong" or "cheesy" and denounce others who don't play the same way. Lock ons are in the game. If you aren't using them because of how someone else may feel about them, then you are as dumb as they are. If you like them, USE THEM. That's why they are there. If you think it makes things too easy, then don't. Simple. Don't expect everyone else to follow along though, and don't whine when you lose while playing your version of "hard mode".

I think you illustrated the issue perfectly when pointing out how you've noticed that some of those who denounce lock-ons are actually USING LOCK-ONS! Just a different kind. I guess since you have to be closer to get them to lock, then its OK? You don't see these same idiots swearing off lolpods , do you? HELL NO! Apparently they are perfectly fine with cheesing grunts on the ground, as long as it helps their K/D farming. But those PESKY LOCKONS have to go, after all they might get shot down from, like, sort of far away by someone of marginal skill and can't lolpod anymore for like a whole 90 seconds!

If someone has a problem with a game mechanic, take it up with the devs. It is not any players responsibility to "police" the game based on their own point of view. Get over yourselves.

So here's my take on this: everyone above is correct. Use the weapons that work best for you. There is literally no reason not to. You are even more right when it comes to having a varied loadout when flying in groups. The tomcats don't perform well when you're being engaged with directly, so bringing in some friends can ensure that you get maximum efficiency out of them. From a strategic standpoint, having a more varied loadout will generally mean that you can handle a greater number of threats.

That said, though tomcats are useful, they have disadvantages and they won't make you a better pilot. First and foremost, extended AB gives you plenty of wiggle room when it comes to taking risks. If you get in trouble, you will at least have enough range to get out of the area quickly, regardless of the threat. Pair it with racer 3 and you get to pick the start and end of most of your engagements. Second, with the possible exception of coyotes, extended afterburner is by far the most useful secondary for 1v1 dogfighting. When a good pilot knows he's being locked on to from the air, the very first thing he'll do is either engage you, or immediately dive for cover to break the lock. If he has good terrain available, you might not even be able to get one tomcat off before he's broken LoS. At that point you either have to close in to fight, or pick a new one. Either way, your tomcats will do you no good here. Once you've gotten close, trying to keep a lock on an extended AB ESF that's actively engaging you is almost impossible. You now have a distinctive disadvantage against your opponent, who will be able to make full use of his secondary. Use tomcats, but don't use them as a crutch. Understand what they're good for and use them at those times. Extended AB is the absolute best secondary for learning how to dogfight, which is the soul of air combat.

As to honor in the air, it DOES exist. If someone is just mad that you killed them with tomcats, that's not your being dishonorable. If two pilots are otherwise out of combat, engaging each other in head to head combat, it's kind of a dick move to break that up. If you're in a situation where you actually need to clear the airspace (pretty common), or you're running with friends, or are covering the ground, etc, **** anybody who tells you not to use tomcats. If people are just trying to have a good fight, at least let them finish it up.

Oh, by the way, Racer 3, extended AB, and Airhammer (magazine capacity 3 is a must) is basically the most beautiful thing ever. Get that certed out as soon as you can.

This topic always reminds me of knights and samurai.

The no lock on pilots are a lot like knights and samurai who believe in single combat, and only use melee weapons.

The pilots who use lockons are like peasants who get a hold of early hand cannons. They're not necessarily "better" than an armored warrior with a sword, and at close ranges will actually die without being able to put up much of a fight, but their range and firepower means that a highly trained knight or samurai who's been honing his skills for 20+ years can suddenly be killed by someone who picked up a handcannon the week before and learned some basic ambush tactics.

Personally I think it's fine. Lock-ons aren't OP, but that doesn't mean that those "honorable" elitist pilots will like you any more for for using them.

I'll remember those words the next time a Lib comes to ruin a good ground fight

Take down your enemies by any means necessary.

And yes, the reaver stock gun is great. Is like a LMG to a carbine when comparing it with the mosquito gun.

Libs are a different game. There are no rules of honor when it comes to killing libs, so don't expect any in return.

Kind of hard to see skies with only ESF

If someone on my team sees me fighting another fighter.. hell yeah they better come and assist. My goal is to take that continent, not pat my self on the back because I killed one lone ESF. Its a dick move NOT to assist. Get those enemy fighters down and down quickly. The quicker the faction gets air superiority the better.

If you want honor duels there's plenty of other games out there where you can host your own servers and duke it out. Don't expect me to honor your silly little needs for "honor." How about this. Anyone who wants an honor duel to not be disrupted, do not play NC on Connery. Stay off that server or play VS vs TR and pray I (or people like me) don't decide to play at one of your warpgates (couple of outfits on NC like to spawn behind enemy lines). This suggestion isn't debateable since you all cannot stop me or those in my static squad. So you might as well avoid us.

Am I being a jerk, sure. But consider it a challenge. I'm going to disrupt any duels I see. If you're red your dead. Someone might be better than me. For them I've got plenty of air resources laying around that I can ram them with something.

In otherwords.. don't try to honor duel in a PVP MMO. You're just setting yourself up for frustration.

How I'd change tomcats

1) Double range, or max visual range.
2) Lockon time 10 seconds
3) Increase the lockon reticule thing to fill like half your screen
4) Nerf rocket damage by half or a quarter
5) Can shoot off all rockets at once, the receiving pilot at max range would have plenty of time to hit countermeasures or fly away
6) Alt-fire shoot rockets, not switch between guns

This way tomcats, like real life radar guided rockets, are for long range work while the guns are for short range work. And buff those guns cause they're really pathetic.

One more thing. Most pilots I've found don't think lockons (tomcats) are OP, just incredibly unfun to play against. On the flipside, coyotes are absolutely, objectively OP. They're strictly better than nosegun/ab in dogfights, even if the enemy is running a nonspecialized loadout like airhammer/coyotes.

Fact is, this is a game, and if you want to use the cheesiest tactics possible to attain victory, no one can stop you. On the flip side, the more noobs use cheese against the aces, the more likely the aces are to band together in twelve-strong gank squads, using that exact same cheese, and since the noobs are a. Worse flyers b. Outnumbered and c. Can't run away (no AB tanks) they get wrecked over and over again with no chance to even try to improve. So, don't use cheese, and it turns out better for everyone.

Using racer 3 and AB, I really haven't had any problems against coyotes, at least no more so than pilots with extended AB.

You don't have any problem running away. You'd be screwed trying to fight a coyote user alone though.

Hey, you're playing a PVP game with team damage. If you can't handle it, there are a lot of great games that turn off friendly fire for you.

Nope, fly circles around them. I've seen them used, but they're no more threatening than anything else.

And you've done this sucessfully, alone? If you're both flying around each other, the coyote user will win because they need far less time on target to aim.

Nah, I think he's saying that you clearly just play like an arsehole. Friendly fire is not there so you can team kill when someone joins in your fight. No one else but you knows your petty rule, and are probably only trying to help... not get a cheap kill.

Stay off my side.