Requiring people get 3 ESF kills for 'Basic Training' was a bad idea

tl;dr New pilots are getting farmed in droves, and something that was likely supposed to encourage people to get into the air is going to turn them away from it. This isn't a thread about how to balance ESFs or the air game, it's about how to make the 'basic training' directive better.

Since the patch I have seen a ridiculous amount of clueless ESFs getting farmed, both by air and by AA. At this point, If I gank someone and they don't respond, or they respond like a fish having a seizure on dry land, I back off and leave them alone. But most people don't do this, they just take the easy kill.

What makes the matter worse, is that they are required to get kills with the default nosegun. Unless they buy an AI nosegun or rocketpods, those 3 kills are going to be very hard to get. Of course, they could just sit back and pelt vehicles and galaxies with their nosegun at a safe distance, but I don't see most of them figuring that out on their own.

Short term, this is going to give people in AA and air, or even AV tanks, some extra farm. Long term, it's going to turn more people against learning to fly an ESF, maybe even away from the game, by putting a bad taste in their mouth. This isn't the way to convince people try to learn to fly.

• I think the kill requirement should be removed, and instead make it 10 assists. Assists are much easier to get.

• Alternatively, more direction could be used to guide people toward safer targets. Something like a voice over saying "Look for Galaxies and slow tanks. Keep your distance and stay high, and they should be an easy kill" would at least give some guidance on the matter.

• Another option would be to give everyone a free weapon to make getting kills easier for inexperienced players. Rocketpods are probably the easiest to use, with the AI nosegun coming in second. But the high capacity magazine noseguns aren't bad either, and they were supposedly designed with newer pilots in mind. And I doubt they are selling well at this point.

Personally, I love the air game and don't want to see people being practically forced into doing it to finish an entry-level directive. But if they must be, it should be done better.

A lot of non-pilots on PS4 figured it out super quick.

Land a few shots into an enemy ESF. Ram it. Higher life gets the kill.

Put down AT mines. Get in your ESF. Wait.

Put down Proxy mines (or whatever). Get in your ESF. Wait

Shoot unmanned AV or AI turrets. (yes those count towards the objective)

Put C4 on your ESF. Restock at a terminal. Put on more. Ram anything.

I don't know about PC...but PS4 finished that **** quick.

Make ESF damage inversely proportional to BR.

A BR 1 player will have their weapons do 99% of the listed damage.
A BR 99 player will have their weapons do 1% of the listed damage.

Now BR1s can be competitive against BR99s. And BR99s will remain fairly balanced against other BR99s.

If you are a BR100, this means that instead of flying combat missions, you are now promoted to an air trainer. It's now your job to fly alongside new pilots and to teach them how to fly.

It's a win-win system for everyone!

If you're on PC version, do it in Virtual Reality.

For NC players in 5 easy steps

1. Get mustang air hammer with trial in market
2. Go to a base with mostly infantry
3. Fly high and dive bomb infantry
4. 2-3 shots kill an infantry
5. Profit

The higher life doesn't get the kill in a ram. As long as someone dies, the other player gets the kill. If they both die, they both get a kill. Or at least that's the way it is on PC, but I don't think the PS4 version is different in that regard.

I didn't know about the mines and turrets. I guess it's good that players found an easier way to do it, though if it encourages ramming I would consider that be encouraging bad gameplay. They are basically making the air game worse for the people who do want to be up there. That's not as big of a deal, since those people aren't likely to quit flying because they got rammed, and the really experienced players probably won't get rammed in the first place.

I didn't know kills in VR counted towards it.

Not a bad idea. I suppose the same would work for rocket pods. But if they, for whatever reason, don't get all their kills during the trial, that might be frustrating.

Since Rockets have been nerfed the air hammer is better if you van aim, Rockets are secondary if your not NC or bad at aiming. They take 6ish rockets to kill one soldier which doesnt seem either efficient or easy. Atleast they dont require 3 esf kills while in an esf cause then for new players you are SOL

I think this Directive highlights how poorly equipped a starting ESF is for a New Pilot to do anything. THAT should be a wake-up call to the Designers. That the Designers need to give starting ESF pilots access to a Loadout that will allow them to actually play in the game with it and have an impact.

Starting ESFs have basically a finesse A2A Loadout, that is poor vs. all targets except ESFs and Libs (and Valks). And most specifically it is a Loadout for Air Duels vs. ESFs and Libs, that is severely handicap vs. those targets because of it's Uncerted Mag Size, lack of Fire Suppression, etc. And if these new pilots attempt use this stock ESF to take on even a low level Lib or ESF in an Air duel, they are almost assuredly going to be overmatched and die fast. In addition, unlike most other units in the game, ESFs are both easy to Suicide in and hard and non-intuitive to move in.

Designers should use this Directive as a Road Map on how to make the ESF work for new players. Almost every other unit in the game is good enough and user friendly enough for new players to use it to do something. ESF currently fails that test.

My Design suggestion is to give all starting ESFs either the AI Nosegun, Rocket Pods, or to make a new, weak AI Secondary that starting ESFs have access to. This would give New Pilots *something* they could actually use a default ESF for. Likewise, they can give TR and NC starting Infils access to the low tier Bolt Action while they are at it.

In addition, putting New Players in ESFs also helps highlight the confusing/difficult/frustrating experience it is for New Pilots to deal with AA. Design should use this as an opportunity to adjust the AA experience to be less confusing: not nerfing AA, but working on the messages/sounds/etc. to make it easier for new pilots to understand and be better able to work out how to deal with it.

Fun fact: you can get 3 kills by blowing up 3 empty base turrets or empty vehicles with ESF, i reported this bug week back but i guess they haven't fixed it yet.