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

This is great, except it's a useless information. You can't avoid a missile, it will follow you everywhere anyway, so what's the point?
What would help is recognizing, even before the missile is in the air, what weapon is being used. That would help immensely more than a dot on the radar that only serves as countdown to hitting you.

Infantry doesn't get crutches? The list of crutches is so long its stupid. That said, there needs to be a skill balance in the game, you cant expect rotaries to be used by everyone as skilled players will dominate and no one else will consider flying.

For the record, the A2A missiles that PS2 has had since launch wasn't a crutch. It was a god damned power chair with nitro.

With a 6 shot magazine the Coyote are now fairly usless, the lack of automatic fire and the increased time needed to fire a clip means they are no longer useful to switch to quickly for some extra damage when you have a shot then switch back.
With such low DPS you are better off sticking with your nose gun.

Auto fire is a quality of life MUST
and they NEED to be able to fire out a quick spread OR receive a BIG damage buff to make them competitive with nose guns

I really wanted to respond to this, but i got to the 3rd paragraph, and it was so full of factually incorrect stuff that 5 seconds on google would disprove, that i just..... tell ya what. Go google things like 2 man fighter jets, motion sensors, Radar, and stealth planes, perhaps even ask someone who knows how to code what code is, and then perhaps you will be worthy of my response.

Yea, they are totally over powered..... If you are flying at 40kph, in VR training and hitting an already damaged driverless prawler without the slightest chance of anyone firing at you. If your going to do fake tests, at least do one that isn't obvious to anyone who has fired the hornets.

Unless they resort to treating this like an arena game, there's no way in hell they can fix the population imbalances without a lot of social engineering. And given how the forum is, that's gonna be hard.

Code is code, but all code is typically different. And it's constantly evolving to bypass security measures. You can find the code, but now you have to rip it open to view the source code. That's usually encrypted to make it take longer to break into.You're also assuming that people use the same code to do the same exact thing. They usually don't. People like being special little snowflakes.

And there are people that can wield +40% accuracy. They're few and far between, but they exist. You are not an arbiter of who is and isn't a cheater. You're no one important. :l

Good luck convincing people to not throw money at computer screens. You're such a special snowflake. I'm sure people will give you Mary Sue grade attention and obey your every whim. Totally.

On-Topic: The additions look interesting, but I'm still not gonna fly. I was god awful at it, and all the pros make it near impossible for anyone new to join in on the fun.

I was actualy afraid how stupidly OP they will be, but according to you I might like them. They are not ment to replace your nose gun, they're just there for it's down time (reloading). That said, I still think there's no reason not to use them over the new tomcats.

Fixed.

Can anyone explain to me how the current air to air missiles are overpowered and ruining air combat? Right now I would think they are underpowered and need a buff. Anyone?

Great changes!

Some weaponry bit OP atm, but that just requires tuning. They are fun to use, nonetheless.

Good job on AB+hover and the new A2A lock-on. I know most ppl that play on that actually visit forums, not to mention go on PTS, are those that have mastered A2A and the reverse-mechanic to its fullest and have blissfully farmed with this twitch-move for months.

To dogfight against these pro's for new and returning players is a nightmare (and many end up just using their ESF as transport), so levelling the playingfield is really what the airgame needs.

He is purposefully trying to make it look OP. What he forgot to (********, intentionally didn't) mention is that this video was taken while the Hornets were still on the wrong damage type, as posted by SOE Joshua in the original post of this thread. http://bit.ly/1do4tUz - 2 mags to kill a Magmower, and that sundy had already been shot several times, so well over 2 mags to kill it... yeah...

Bit.ly link leads to a YT vid. Apparently the SOE forums auto-convert Youtube links to embedded videos, and it ignores timestamps...

There are so many things wrong with this post it hurts my brain... The only thing that could possibly explain it is that you are trying to troll. Screw it, I'll dive into the post.

Kinda what they are going for here.

Clearly you don't play TR. That said, A2A has been OP for a long time. This is called balancing. Not only does it remove the automatic Win, but it also helps new players get better at aiming. Keeping the nose on target for the A2A translates quite well over to guns. Given that the A2A missile is fast as ****, it doesn't take long for the hit to happen. Using it properly, meaning at medium to long range, it will still dominate; That is to say, the person being shot at must be pro-active on countering it.

*ACK*
Sorry, I choked on the sheer amounts of "BAD" this suggestion is. Do you understand how insanely much damage a Lib could do with this? No longer leading moving targets, able to stay in the area and take damage for far longer than an ESF, and replacing the Zephyr (and probably even the Dalton) in terms of firing speed vs. damage output? Thanks, but no thanks. Tankers will appreciate that not happening. Ever.

Obviously you don't know how heat-seeking works... One problem with heat seeking missiles in the real world, which mind you has been a consistent problem since... well... heat seeking warheads were mounted on birds, is a little thing commonly known as "Background Noise". A Heat Seeking missile is not going to lock onto a tank, much less an ATV. Why? The ground gives off IR radiation, same as practically everything else. The difference between the ground and the tank is so small that the missile can't positively see the difference. In the real world, aircraft in hot climates have been able to defeat heat seeking missiles by getting close to the ground. Though less reliable than traditional countermeasures, this goes to show how stupid it would be for the Coyotes to lock onto a tank, ATV or "anything that would show up on a thermal optics" (because thermal optics are totally the same thing as a seeker head).

"don't push something on the test server let alone on the PTS"
Damn. Here I was thinking that PTS stood for "Public Test Server". Before you say you were talking about the internal test server, just stop. We have no business saying what they should and should not have on their internal testing environment. Evar.

As far as anti-cheat goes... You do realize that they already do that right? During the first 6 months there were several *maintained* hacks out there that were constantly being updated because SOE was updating their anti-cheat stuffs. One of the biggest goals that SOE has for Planetside 2 is stability, both client side and sever side. Guess what, crap happens. There will always be stability issues of some sort or another. No MMO out there, even EVE Online, is immune to this. As far as population locks are concerned... I guess you didn't read up on the continental lattice system, did you? That is part of the function of the continental lattice. That said, it will never, ever, be 100% population balanced, there will always be variance. Pop balance will not stop people whining about guns being OP. You obviously don't understand why people complain about stuff that is balanced, but want to make it seem unbalanced.

Ehm... You said that the Hornet missiles should be on a Lib, which is a guided missile, which (yes, i know, lots of whiches) is typically handled by Fighter-Bombers, or otherwise known as "Tactical Bombers". Newsflashness: PS2 ESFs are Fighter-Bombers. Carpet bombing was done by... wait for it... Heavy Bombers AKA Strategic Bombers. In PS2-speak... Liberators.

Ehm... The tail gunners can shoot up. Lots of up. The Walker has lots of vertical movement in both directions. That said, bad flying accounts for a lot of why walkers don't hit attacking ESFs.

Trololololol

SOE likely already has read this. This is the PTS forum. They are especially interested in feedback posted here. You know, for testing.

A single new weapon alone changes a small part of the game-play. Adding a group of new weapons changes the entire dynamic. They are looking to change the air-game as a whole, so why would they limit their feedback to 1 weapon at a time to where they can't take into account the changes that the others bring? Do you not understand that they need to watch the big picture? Macro vs. Micro.

As far as the flak goes... lol.

You do understand how much of a force-multiplier aircraft are in this game right? Previously, ESFs were able to take a ton of hits from Flak without having to leave, which was BAAAAAD for the ground players. 2 ESFs could shut down the old Crown. THE CROWN. That change was needed. BTW: I am a pilot, flying in PS2 is what I do. If anything, I should be biased against that change.

guided bullets in a FPS game. If you don't see the absurdity, you're a lost case.
Sadly, so are the devs. Or some of them. It's a year into the game, at least half year of public tests before that, 8+ years of PS1 before that, and they still haven't learned.

Proactive... so, you mean "*** it, I'm not taking this ***** anymore, let's pull a tank instead"?

There are crutches, yes, but still there are no weapons that aim for you.

I know rotaries (and now to a lesser extent, coyotes) are meant to be the better choice for a close-in dogfight... but I also think that the photons/tomcats, while not nearly as good for that type of battle, should still have more of a place in ESF-to-ESF combat than launching at escaping opponents who got out of rotary range. Not all ESF duels occur at point-blank (rotary) range, the photons/tomcats could be perfect for those times where one or both (or all three) parties prefer to keep their distance from one-another.

Here are my up-to-date ideas on improving the photons/tomcats for mid-range combat... some of them more possible than others:

- My earlier suggestion to increase the size of the missile lock-on area on the HUD would make it easier for the user to maintain a lock on an actively dodging target, without staying with the "fire and forget" method currently on live. (Perhaps this suggestion could be implemented as a cert line alongside increased lock distance and decreased lock time.)

- Instead of the missile instantly heading for outer space the moment lock is broken, allow a short period (no more than a second, possibly less) where upon losing lock, lock can be regained before the missile stops tracking and changes course.

- Keep the current live "fire and forget" variety, but nerf the turn rate and restrict the missile's tracking ability so that it permanently loses it's lock if it's target escapes a detection area (a 90 degree cone-shaped area for example) directly in front of the missile, making it much easier dodge than it is currently on live, but keeping the current user friendliness of the live missiles. This should also not conflict too much with the new coyotes, as these photons/tomcats would still require a lock before firing and still have to reload with every shot, while the coyotes need to do neither. (If this still seems too good, maybe a slight damage nerf would be in order)

I'm not sure if the last one is a possible alternative to the current changes, but the first one would make the missiles somewhat easier to use when the target is closer than max lock range and actively making an effort to break your lock by moving erratically, and the second one would help prevent those moments where your missile heads for orbit when centimetres away from it's target, all because the enemy ESF got too close to the edge of your lock circle while you were following him through a turn.

I'm not understating where this extra initial afterburner cost for hover mode is coming from. Are you trying to ninja nerf the reverse maneuver?

Penalizes hoverpodding/gunning ground targets is what i'm thinking mostly.

Umm... No? Just pulling from the obvious, get behind something. Some more obvious stuff: Close the gap, get in close.

Where did you get tank from??

Preaching to the choir... Its the numbnut on the other page that thinks heat-seeking bullets are a good idea.

if you noticed. it was full health. i was also pointing out the range on top of that, don't just read what you want to read and ignore everything else, read the WHOLE book, then write your report.