Pay2Anni-lock

Awfully convenient that you "Cant Say" if they were actually a team or not or even if there were others in on it. I can believe that a large outfit could really do something like this. They would be in comms and calling out targets. Even then I would doubt that it could happen the way you say in almost any situation. It just takes too much damage to take them down. Sure they could shoot down a couple but then the rest would be on top of them...unless they are stupid and sit still.

I think lockons are needed because dumbfire is never going to hit air with even double digit %'s. I use my deci on tanks even though I dont hit too much. When I do I like to think the improved damage might make them leave for a minute...and I cant make the stupid Anni hit them in the bonus damage rear armor like i can the deci.

I am in a medium outfit and we do this all the time, it is easy for the leader of the anni squad to call out the name of a tanker or aircraft and say 'lock', wait for the soldiers to confirm lock then say 'fire'.
It is super easy for tanks to take a few hits then retreat behind cover to repair, this is really the only tactic that can neutralize them until respawn.
Libs are a similar story since they can soak a lot of hits, ESF not so much but that is the weakness of the ESF not a balance issue.

Teamwork > lone wolf.

All the vehicle babbies that are getting their arses handed to them by teamwork need to drink a cup of concrete and harden up.
The only thing in this game that needs to be balanced and further nerfed is lone wolves being able to decimate organized platoons ie vehicles.

So you are seriously asserting that sitting with invisible god mode killing people with invisible auto hit weapons is great game mechanics and a fine example of teamwork?

Render distance issues != rocket launcher balance

Its god mode when all it does is take you down a little on health and you can just fly away after you get hit to counter it. What a weak god you have in your world.

render distance issue is part of the game. So yes, it plays a huge part in why the annihilator ruins any semblance of game balance.

Thats what I am saying. Only about 10% of rocket launchers are in an organized unit like this. The rest can be easily countered by being in a group of vehicles and not being timid and sitting at range from the rocket launchers. The closer you get the less effective the lockons are.

If so then why is the game still dominated by the outnumbered vehicles?

No God mode is a reference to DOOM. It means to be invulnerable, and also there was an invisible orb you could also grab, making you invisible.

You litterally fire rockets at players in invisible god mode with fire and forget invisible rockets, and call that teamwork. It's not, make no mistake the fact you have invisible god mode impacts viable tactics immensely. For all we know if SOE created a high end non render capped server, Liberators would once again rain supreme and be stupid as well (it's not a bug, it's a design hard capped limitation so that high end computers don't get an advantage over low end machines). We just don't know, but make no mistake one of the key reasons this is so broken is some random group of yahoos can insta pop light vehicles and organized groups can insta pop massed vehicles all in invisible god mode, often with the terrain offering no way to even forgoe vehicles and attack with infantry.

Hate to ruin your BF3 hate parade but BF3 has a better lock on mechanic than PS2. Air has has an option to use an Air Radar unlock where it tells you from what angle you are being locked from. Infantry Lock on according to their target vehicle, either Air for Stinger, or Ground Vehicle with Javelin... not some super weapon Launcher like PS2 has where it locks on both. Sure the Javelin can lock on AIR but it needs help from another person to lazer designate it....This is just a start. Sure there is Lock on Spam in that game but not as much as there in PS2.

P.S. Your previous examples are ok but shouldn't be a one kill solution. One shot kill Guided missiles and Super Fast one shot launchers are actually better than lock Ons as it isn't that hard to aim and shoot at a hovering or parked aircraft. 50-75% damage is ideal but not as a final "one shot" kill. If it's like that It'll put all Air at worse state than it currently is.

Render

OK...but your whole basis is that organized groups can kill too quick. Those organized groups would kill you even if you could see them. When a platoon decides to stop air or armor, they will. Nothing you can do unless you have a platoon to go after them with. Teamwork is always going to outclass unorganized play. The main thing is...dont stay out in the open. Keep moving.

To me the real issue is that the majority of pilots(armor and air) want to be a lonewolf. Lonewolfing in a vehicle with this many people in the game is always going to put a target on you. Tanks are used to take ground fast and disrupt enemy defenses by rushing in on strategic points. Pilots need to fight a war of Maneuvering and not a war of attrition. You are outnumbered...the war of attrition is not going to work. If you are going after a big base you better not go in alone and you better not sit still if you are near it. Smaller bases are better if you dont group up. They wont have enough people to pick you off before you can in on the bases with small numbers. They are also still being farmed by air.

At this point I cannot bring a vehicle within 200m without that stupid lock on light flashing. That is a problem. At this point lock on missile spam can quickly neutralize any vehicles within range easily.

So why even bother having vehicles then.

HA's double as the best AI class in the game. Holy **** that wasnt hard to think of. still numbers are the determining factor............

im saying this is a problem. im saying that we need to push for a game where quality outclasses quantity. Dont think to hard about that. your bound to hurt yourself.

my comment was aimed at the fact that BF3 is built around lock-ons, where as PS2 simply has that feature. in BF3, there is only one vehicle which is capable to killing planes/helis with direct fire, and it can also use lockons. ins PS2 there are half a dozen means of direct fire, and a few lock-ons mixed in. I diddnt mean to imply that the mechanic itself was better than BF3's. Im still allowed to hate!

Also, i diddnt mean for those weapon solutions to be one hit kills. Maybe i worded it wrong, but that was not my intent. I agree 100% with your second paragraph. the weapons are very easy to use (though there will be a rather large segment on the population that complains profusely about the learning curve), as both these ideas come from BF1942 mod DCX, and would certainly cause more trouble for air than lock ons if they were an insta-gib.

so what, are we playing chess or something? dont want to give away tactics? I think thats the point of forums buddy, to discuss ideas and theories: tactics included

that depends. your making the assumption that this annie crew is perched up on a canyon cliff with an un-adulterated view. annie crews could easily exist in a means of a defensive posture atop, or in towers. their defense could be directional, making them very well protected. they could be in a difficult to get spot, or simply so close to a base that re-spawns are easy. (insert number here) of anything SHOULD NOT be OP. it should be used for a very specific reason, bt not for anything and everything. large groups of identical soldiers should nerver be in the position to immediately deal with any, and all threats. annie squads can do that. the only class/vehicle that can outperform them in any way, is the sniper. even then, the HA can equipt their rifles to EASILY counter snipe. yes its possible to over-come an annie squad, ive done it a few times before, but it is impossibly more difficult than it should.

the point remains valid. the annie offers numbers of soldiers to be damn near impervious to vehicles, as zero cost. it also combines as the easiest weapon in the game to use making it extremely easy to pull off. combine that with the fact that the holders of the annies are also the best AI class in the game, and you have the perfect tri-fecta armed with the baby-proofed gibbers. can you beat annie sqauds? of course. But its not about tactics and strategies (something which is apparently very close to your heart). its about numbers at that point with a VERY small amount of tactics involved. that does NOT adhere to good balance and gameplay.

I have never been a part of the crowd that cannot over come, adapt and preserver. (in fact most of my posts are very long versions of your last sentence), but there comes a time, when weapons become to universal, and to easy to use (lol just look at every modern game and compare it to its old counterpart). in order for tactics, and strategy to become an important part of this game, the gameplay must not only cater to it, but it must demand it. My contention is that the annie does its VERY BEST to eliminate ANY need for tactics and strategy and simply becomes a one-gun-does-all platform that dumbs down the entire game to near BF3 levels.

Weapons need to be defined, and have very clear roles. THATS how you incorporate tactics and strategy. the annie does nothing of the sort. if you think teamwork is simply "everyone grab and annie and meet here. ill be an engi, and you 2 be medics", then you ned some learning. if you DONT think thats as advanced as teamwork gets, then you have no choice but to agree that annie crews are about as teamwork oriented as COD (literally, ive used more teamwork in COD than in an annie squad)

Honesty is like that, I guess. I could have sat them all down and asked but things were kinda hectic. Maybe next time, eh?

It's Mattherson and I recall Bonk and AOD and TE (it wasn't an ops night) and a lot of no-tags. It was a smattering of the usual suspects plus hoi polloi. On the other side you get your regular Goon, BBRO, AT and the like. They might have been running ops but the no-tags would have been pug at best and, again, it wasn't a TE night so 50/50 either way for them, too.

The point is this, the Ann is a weapon that doesn't require coordination to achieve impressive results. It's right above hitscan for point-and-click ease of use. The hardest part about the weapon is buying it and once you're there, it comes down to indoor or outdoor. What's your engagement range? Outdoor, Ann. Indoor, dumbfire. Anybody with an Ann can put it on, point it at something and be effective. No orders required, pick the closest target and let fly. Hell, pick any target, with enough bodies others will join you and either drive it off or score a kill.

I didn't mean to say that everyone was focus firing single units. The Annspam was random and the only time folks got on the same target was when there was only one on the field.

Planetside's true strength & advertisement IS the quantity part; Looks like your brain got already hurt a while ago

I read this and just had to LOL

Some of you seem to be under the impression that there is no teamwork involved in squads working together to area deny with lock on rockets. I can tell you that this is not the case. When you are being shot down by organized rocket teams and vehicle columns torn apart, I can assure you from personal experience that we are calling your name out in voice chat with a direction. Everyone turns to the named target, locks, and fires nearly simultaneously. Not only this, but most of these squads run with one or two medics or engineers, plus a counter-sniper to scan for snipers. It is the epitome of teamwork. There reason you didn't see this often before is that you didn't receive XP for partially damaging vehicles. Now you do, so there is incentive to run in groups.

Missiles are not invisible, but you won't see them if they're on your own six. You will see them if they're flying toward someone else, and you will certainly see where they are coming from. Annihilator rockets, unlike others, have an "Itano Circus" effect -- that is, they whirl around with large contrails, Macross style, which point right back to the source of the rocket.. Sure, the other guy they're shooting at may die, but you can see where it's coming from. If they lock on to you, pop your flares and get out of range. If you know where they are, rockets can't lock on to libs at max altitude, but you can certainly bomb them even if you can't see them.

Want to get rid of a rocket team? Try a pack of liberators. Try a squad of snipers. Try light assault C4 attacks. Try teamwork. Or admit that you need to withdraw. Use your own Annihilator team to keep their vehicles on lockdown. If you're going to play this game by yourself, don't be surprised when you die by yourself. Are you Vanu? Need to get rid of a rocket team? Try the Lasher.

Penalizing players for good teamwork by nerfing lock on rockets would be silly. I would be in favor of drastically reducing the flare and IR smoke cooldown, however, and making the flare or smoke canisters inexpensive purchasable aerospace or vehicle resources, however.

I would, by the way, LOVE to see a "Big Bertha" style long-barrel artillery that can hit the next hex over, but will require another player in that hex to be a spotter (if they actually want to know where anything is firing) with some kind of laser telemetry targeter.