New ESF Weapons and Cert Lines - 01/10/2014

Well that's great, I'm glad he can't instagib me. I think they should remove damage bonuses for tail shots for some weapons. 4 missiles putting you near on fire is ridiculous in a game where there are tons and tons of people. Honestly I think 8 shots from any angle would be a better play.

Put the cruise speed bonus back on the fuel pod certifications !!!!! Racer Chasis doesnt give anywhere close to enough speed bonus and im pretty sure the extra cruise speed was the main reason anyone was actually looking forward to the new fuel pod certs in the first place.

Coyote missiles, I like these, however the lockon range could use a small buff from its current 15 to 20 or even 25, as 15m is reeaally tight when trying to get an intercept while flying.
Also could use a bigger buff against libs and gals as at the moment it tracks distance to pilot, not distance to hull, meaning on those targets, you can fire those missiles within inches of the tail or wings without it locking on.
An important quality of life improvement is having them fire full auto, especially as you plan to increase the clip size to 6.

I want to note for others that the lock distance and lock time attachments for Coyote missiles don't actually do anything on PTS right now.

I feel like there is no reason to grab the new noseguns. The default ones already provide plenty of ammo, and the rotaries are better at close up stuff.

Me and some outfit members were testing these extensively. I was able to dodge them quite well and avoid the missiles ever locking on to me unless one of my friends was very close. At further ranges, as long as the other pilot is expecting them, they can be dodged very very easily.

There is hardly any, if any at all. You need to get a direct hit with these to hurt infantry. But yes, these do a fairly immense amount of damage and probably need to be toned down.

I think flairs actually do work, even against coyote missiles. For the latter you have to time it pretty damn well, but the former actually it might not even be necessary. Only in chasing/engaging scenarios do I see them being useful against ESFs. Too easy to lose the lock on a target if they do any bit of maneuvering.

Use AB fuel pods then?

Thats not bad at all. To hit the rear you will have to be relatively low, or the tank angled down-hill. Puts the ESF in a bad spot since they have to maintain that aiming point until the rocket hits. I seriously doubt an ESF will be able to get precise shots off from mid-range and consistently hit all shots on-target per mag.

I was thinking it, but was trying to be nice and not say it lol

One thing with the new nose cannon, considering that this weapon is meant to be a more aim forgiving option with it's higher magazine size, the lower muzzle velocity seems to be at odds with this.

I feel like it should be brought in line with the default 800m/sec

That way it just becomes a +mag size -DPS option, the way the rotorys are a +DPS -Range option.

Also another thing about the coyote missiles, I think they could do with a slight damage buff per mag.
Currently on PTS they need 4 full mags to set an ESF on fire, bring that down to 3 or 3.5 for an ESF kill.
Even assuming a 100% accuracy with them, I think this is reasonable, and with you throwing out a half dozen spread that 100% isn't gonna happen often.

Question: how come Hornets are a ESF weapon? Shouldn't this kind of AV be in the Liberator's arsenal?

You do realize that they would be exponentially more powerful on a Liberator (stable firing platform, more health, more staying power etc), even with the same stats?

If they got put on a Lib, they'd replace the Dalton for AV work in a heartbeat.

lol I didn't think you could make a air weapon that shoots slower then the Mustang.

Nothing is impossible - Coca Cola Zero.

From what I tested its 8 shots (thereabouts) from other angles but 5 from the rear. I do foresee problems with that given the state infantry AV and vehicle balance is at currently but hey... it's SOE. They want them OP so people buy them. Then then nerf accordingly several months later after the game has been sufficiently ruined. Rinse and repeat

Is there any work being done on stealth for the ESF's and how the new weapons will be affected?

Speaking of stealth - it really should muffle the sounds of the engine more as you level it up, on ESFs and on ground vehicles too.

Definitely a yes on this. This would be huge, especially for ESFs and the Flash when using Wraith cloaking.

And, will stealth counter the engagement radar?

Yes.

Please do everything, even giving 160 shots in a magazine for TR but please

PLEASE

DO NOT nerf the standard afterburners and their cost while hovering; if new people want to learn to dogfight there is something called "VR Training" and something else called "Game Time";

Nobody thought me how to fly, I did all alone since the game beginning and I'm still (hopefully) learning.
Reverse maneuver is a high skill maneuver that people need to learn with experience and stuff and a dogfight will be much more quick, so less funny/skilled.

NOBODY was asking for this NERF; now that much new pilots learnt to fly will learn again how to use hovering, how to dogfight and the oldest pilots aswell (I changed my way of flying 15 times, one for each update that was nerfing air)

Give us the afterburners we had for 14 months, don't change them, they are pretty OK.

Aren't you excited to fly and win or lose a fight 100% based on positioning?!

Just tried out the new Photon pods (Tomcat missiles)...

While I am okay with having to maintain lock, I am finding it rather hard to do so against anyone who doesn't fly in almost a straight line. While I admit that I am definitely not one of the better pilots around, I can hold my own in the air... but I am finding the lock-on reticle to be too small for the missile's intended range now that lock must be maintained while the missile is in flight. Here are my thoughts on how this could be improved:

Suggestions:

- Increase the missile's top speed, so that lock doesn't have to be maintained for quite as long.

- Decrease lock on time for closer targets

Or instead of the above:

- Increase the size of the A2A missile lock-on reticle by about 50%.
Unlike with G2A launchers where the launcher is (most likely) stationary, the A2A launching ESF may be moving up to ~200kph (Without afterburners or racer chassis). Considering that the opposing (Target) ESF is probably moving just as fast makes it considerably harder to maintain A2A lock than it is to maintain G2A lock. This change would make maintaining A2A lock slightly easier for new and average pilots.

Just my thoughts on the matter...