G2G lockon is useless, it only scratches the paintjob. Waste of certs. Dumbfire also is way too low damage now, so if tanks are involved and you want to play infantry it is best to leave the area or stick to fighting inside.
Lock-ons are nesessary, because it's the only way an infantryman can repel an ESF. Small arms fire is moslty useless, and even I, being a bad pilot, rarely die to lockons. Sometimes I take 2 hits, and I just land and repair. It's usually enemy air what kills me. Dumbfires can't hit you if you are not a blatant hovering lolpodder. All those who whine about lock-ons are just cert farmers who want to farm helpless infantry. It would be completely and utterly stupid not to have them in 28th century.
Also, lock-ons are extremely funny to use if you are a guerilla fighter. Go behind enemy lines and finish off those damaged ESFs!
I believe I stated this opinion in another thread but one of the easiest fixes to lock-ons....just raise the flight ceiling. Let pilots have a place where ground units can't touch them (and of course they cannot touch ground units). This way air can dogfight and whatnot without being pecked at by a single annoying lock-on as this ranges as the MOST annoying thing about lock-ons to pilots. On another note, aside from my last post, ESF's should be able to EVADE lock-on rockets as well as use flares. As it is right now you either have flares and can shake a lock-on, or have no flares and YOU ARE GOING TO GET HIT, period. This is the main reason almost EVERY ESF has flares. Especially if they aren't specifically going A2A build. Go ahead and buff the lock-ons a small bit to compensate or whatever...but let ESF's evade the rockets again. It was fun for pilots, it was useful for pilots, and it was a way to dodge lock-ons that took skill so the infantry didn't feel cheated. *note: Obviously, some ace pilots can still dodge lock-ons from time to time, or you may just be far enough away that you can run...but on the whole you ARE going to get hit 95% of the time without flares. This is why I generally say you can't "evade" them.
I really don't see it being positive effect for the game as a whole for allowing pilots to remove themselves from the game and drain the population by playing the Ace Combat multiplayer high in the clouds.
Perhaps, but the main complaint from infantry is that "Air should be fighting air, not lolpodding the ground units constantly." This is basically the only reason for lock-ons, to deter air from striking against the ground forces. This being said, it makes no sense to pull air units, to combat air, to have a lock-on smack you mid-dogfight and doom you. Funny thing is...the same thing happens to the person you were dog-fighting. Now you both lose and didn't even get to dogfight each other properly. Just because you raise the flight ceiling doesn't mean, by any stretch of the imagination, that you are removing pilots from the game nor are you draining the population. Pilots will still want to shoot at ground targets as that is the most plentiful EXP out there. Ask any pilot, they will never make as many certs shooting down other aircraft as they do striking ground targets. And draining the population...well that doomsay has no backing whatsoever I'm sorry, that in no way has anything to do with "draining population". If you mean that pilots will more often stay away from the ground game, and therefore thin out forces on the ground....then too bad. You cannot pigeon-hole nor force players to play a certain way. If they stay in the sky longer, that is what they want to do. They shouldn't be forced to the ground when there is a more fun alternative for them. Last note, if you want to pull more pilots out of that higher flight ceiling to do air strikes...use organization. Perhaps set up an air wing that swoops down to give A2G strikes. This change in no way removes pilots, it just allows them a place to dogfight/air battle without having to deal with lock-ons ALL the time. They will still be an active force on the ground game.
People still pull aircraft all the time, And they see action in every battle ever and easily are the single most dangerous vehicle in the game. Nothing can Solo a single target as effectively with such success as a ESF minus the few dedicated platform designed to counter them. This is the same with Tanks, They don't get to honorable 1v1 Samurai dual , Infantry don't get to be shut away from infiltrators, Flanking LAs and MAX suites. Everyone else is at all times threatened by something designed to fight them. No one should get exceptions. As a pilot you already have the absolute best option to simply relocate yourself at a moments notice. If pilots are not even playing the same game in their own personal Sky Valhalla then they simply should not bet included if thats what they want. Its really just not fair to get special treatment.
They are definitely over-rated and boring, but when we are being swarmed by ESFs they help a lot. However, trying to lock onto a lib with a dalton is scary.
My experience with G2A is that i use them to shoo away planes and if i score a hit, to reap the surprisingly generous kill assist points. I wouldn't say that G2A is an Air killer as the number of kills i get with it are minimal and 90% of the pilots pull flares, fly behind something or even out of range and come back for more. Plus with the amount of damage they deal, 1 will never kill them. But there aren't that many viable options for the normal infantry solider other then to pull a max or a sky guard and both can be very expensive solution. Not to mention very inflexible in the long run. At the very least i can use the g2a as a standard launcher, even if its a bit disappointing at times, but its cheap and for the majority of the time its a workable solution. Are they boring? sometimes, but with a chance to score big points and the necessity to carry one usually off sets it. Not enough people seem to carry them. Are they overrated? they are a deterrent for air even if its just to scare them away so i suppose its effective; sort of like a paper tiger i suppose. Just don't expect to kill them like before they Patched that multipurpose NS launcher. That thing was everywhere.
Well, I think it falls to personal preference but since I got the Hawk(NC G2A), it's basically become my default RL. Ofc you don't OHK air, and it doesn't aim to do that. It only serves to tell those pesky flyboys to go somewhere else, or enter into risk/reward territory and try to kill me while I do the same. Let's face it, unless they're trying to kill you with a nosegun, it doesn't take any more skill to lolpod/dalton infantry then it does to sit and lock onto an ESF/Lib. The dumbfire mode is also great, even after the speed nerf, since you could effectively snipe people with an G2A RL. It still OHKs infantry and 2 shots MAXes(can't kill a MAX with 2 phoenix shots). Tbh I only pull phoenix now when the enemy armor is too close for AV turret, or on squad leader request.
1. Why a single infantryman should be able to repel an ESF? 2. How many pilots out there fly without flares? 3. You do realize it takes THREE HITS from the lock-on launcher to blow up one ESF, right? You will be dead ten times over by then.
Not true. I often advocate on the forums that infantry small arms should do more damage to ESFs (all air actually). They require skill and a close proximity. I say nerf lock-ons down to the newb tubes they are meant to be, and give infantry more skill-based options for dealing with air. Ground may not usually kill you, but all of the ground lock-on spam is very often what drives pilots into losing situations. If you hit a plane with a lock-on and he has to run, he now is smoking with his back to enemy aircraft who will jump that pilot like a pack of jackals. Ground may not get the kill, but that kill is because of ground fire.
Because it's the future, and we have lock-ons even today. It would be completely illogical if infantry could not do that. Also, in PS2 avoiding getting killed by lock-ons is easy enough.
