So, about the Reaver vortek rotary nerf

Hit box is bigger... and yes, cruise speed is slower

but Reavers have top AB speed, top AB acceleration, and top V-Thrust.

Vortek + AB fuel + Racer 3 Reavers rule the sky

I think a tiny dmg nerf is in order.... just an extra bullet or 2 to kill. That's it.

The offset usually caused you to miss them anyways.

It was a huge issue. Notice that people are only talking about a nerf after the offset has been fixed.

Reaver has 10% damage bonus and 25% bigger aircraft. Shrink the reaver, and remove the bonus. Or just give nc mosquitos, and then people will be calling for a nerf to that.

25% now huh? I've heard 10, I've heard 15, and now I'm hearing 25. It seems the Reaver gets larger over time so that their pilots always have an excuse.

here let me revitalized your memory;





go nut with the percentage

I propose a buff to compensate for the damage increase in enemy AA which the NC did not receive.

What? Its the complete opposite, the only time convergence WASNT an issue was when you put the nose into the other aircraft

You cannot even start to talk about the reavers rotary until the rocket pods are addressed, reaver has the worst pods by far, unless thats fixed the reaver needs to excel in some aspect, leave it alone or fix our pods

I don't think most people understand the problem. The Reaver having a damage bonus is fine. But when it leads to Reavers typically needing one reload less on average to kill another ESF (given in dogfights, one clipping is really not going to happen that much unless you get an easy target) its a sizeable advantage.

I don't think the Vortek needs a nerf (and for that matter, the AH that was unfairly nerfed IMO too in the past) though.

What needs to be done is a bit of a buff to both the Hailstorm and M18 so that the accuracy margin gaps between the 3 nose guns are reduced a bit for what it takes for each to one clip an ESF. The Vortek should of course retain its advantage. You can do this not even by changing any damage values... just give the Hailstorm and M18 more starting ammo, or scale their mag size level 1-4 more in line with their starting ammo pool.

Currently, all 3 ESFs mag size cert are the same, but their starting ammo pool is different. Makes no sense that you're paying the same certs but getting less burst DPS increase with the Hailstorm and M18.

I'd do this...

Vortek mag size 1-4 remains the same, 2, 5, 7, 10 rounds.
Hailstorm mag size 1-4 would be 3, 6, 9, 12 rounds.
M18 Rotary mag size 1-4 would be 4, 8, 11, 15 rounds.

As long as you get the bear's permission first and promise to cuddle, everything should work out.

*cough*

Stat dumps have the Reaver's Vortek performing dead on with the Mossie rotary. It'll probably get a little better after the camera change but not so much that it'll get crazy.

Another case of Paper Balance vs Actual Performance. Not that perception isn't often different than reality.

Forum: A2A missiles are terrible.
Play stats: Second highest kills/destruction per hour for an ESF weapon.
Forum: A2G rockets are terrible.
Play stats: Highest kills/destruction per hour for any weapon in game.
Forum: Vortek is OP
Play stats: Nearly identical to Mossie rotary, both just a little behind the Scythe's Hailstorm.

It does sit oddly that the Reaver can one-clip so easily but, apparently, that ability has little impact on the game in general.

It's nice to have access to the API so we can see what dev sees.

woot don't you like ram scys?
90% of death to scys are rams for me.
9% is a2a lockons 5v1
1% is hailstorm. (ruvan you will die for that one, although i did kill you and bob twice so...even?)

Can we stop with the whole 2 seconds vs 3 second bullcrap. No one runs without mag size upgrade, the reload speed cert tree is their to trick you, if there is a problem with the reaver vortek it will be related to the damage per mag not the 2 second versus 2.2 second TTK for a stationary-assassination-of-scrub run.

Claiming that "damage can't be compensated for by skill" or anything like that is ridiculous, if that were true then NC obviously need an equivalent DPS gun to the carv/orion/msw. We don't have one yet I still think that we have (in general, bloody EM1 pos) the best lmg's, that's because DPS is not the only stat that matters - with guns just as with ESF's.

The Reaver has the largest profile face to face and (IIRC) the loudest engine noise.

The more leeway the Vortek (larger damage per magazine) gets is probably to offset the larger face-to-face profile, as with two equal pilots the one who is shooting at the smaller target will get fewer hits.

When on a 'chase' fight where the Scythe might get a bit bigger (the Reaver is still pretty large though), damage per mag is less important as with constant moving you'll easily have the 1.5 seconds to reload where you have to re-align your sights and target leading.

It is still 1 clip.... which feeds the magazine.
1 clip ... 1 magazine..
Still taking 1 clip to do it.

Magazine may be incorrect, as it's a vehicle weapon we don't know if it's a box that moves the ammo for you or what.

It's odd because the weapons look clearly belt fed (look at the Vortek on a Reaver, or the CAS30), but still have the reload mechanism.

Actually, we should probably be calling them 'belts', because it's probably feeding 35-60 round belts into gun and changing them.

The Airhammer probably uses actual clips, as I don't think it has the belt feed like the others.

SOE did adjust the reavers engine noise level in GU09 by adjusting the sound radius and loudness of it, however the distinctive sound of reavers engines are far easier to be identify that the counterparts

I knew it! Those basterds have been able to sneak up on me much more often lately whereas before I was able to at least *start* accelerating my scythe to a point where it could keep up with my granny before the bullets started hitting me. Now I'm half dead before I even hear them and down to 25% or less before I'm moving fast enough to try and dodge some shots.

Yes yes.. don't hover... guess what? ESF's are build to hover and the small SOI's above bases don't exactly help aircraft to stay close enough to get the points/credit for bases flipping.


Solution to ESF inbalance: return everyone's invested certs. Redesign and turn all the ESF's into NS aircraft, Mosquito a scouting craft, Reaver the attack-craft (hint: PS1..). Turn the scythe into some modern NS experiment, no clue what it's battlefield goal should be. Maybe a stealth equipped dogfighting craft? Unlockable to missiles (no heat signature) but little/no usefull firepower for anti-ground.
Mosquito can be low HP, fast moving, comes with scout radar. Reaver more HP, slower moving, more firepower, only esf able to equip rocket pods.

There... everyone's happy since the aircraft don't HAVE to be balanced to each other anymore, can have different hitboxes, different HP's, and they all have different goals on the field which also solves that problem as to what an ESF should actually be able to do. No more "you're OP" fights between factions either since everyone has access to the same vehicles. And besides it adds a little more content to the game.

Well this is getting as bad as ZOE nerf threads...
With the lack of good API site you can't also get some good stat arguements, Cupboy had to stop his project, which was honestly, in my not so humble opinion, best place to check out stats. And PS2 stats site is kinda crap.

Guys, just wait till the ESF Update.
I am sure, there will be quite some Changes to all that Stuff and nobody knows who will come out on top, or if SOE manages to get the Balance right.
Be prepared for every Scenario.

So true lol