I'm very frequently confronted with the frustration of no satisfying air to air combat in the game. (At least not in my experience) No having to out maneuver your opponent, no having to coordinate with wing-men to make sure your back is watched, very little (if any) need for learning how your main gun projectiles work while in hard turns trying to draw a bead on an enemy ESF. "Dogfighting" in it's current state results in the two involved players both going into "hover turret" mode and exchanging point blank fire until one of them either dies or runs away. It's ALMOST as fun as watching paint dry and it could be SO much better. I can't possibly be the only person that feels this way, but I wanted to pool opinions on suggestions to fix it.
The air game in PS2 is what it is. It's not changing so get good and like it or go somewhere else. It looks like most have gone somewhere else, as it's the same few pilots every day like clockwork. There are also enough topics on this already, the search bar is your friend.
Pilots cry so hard over the **** AA that's currently in the game. If there was AA that could hit a fast mover, which would be a necessity, it would own ESFs. I'd actually love to see those babies cry even harder than they already do. I say bring it.
I like the air game in planetside its unique. This was way more a challenge and took a lot longer to pick up than the easy mode jet fighter style combat. I've been doing that since f22 lightning 2 as a kid. Too easy to dominate games that run off that flight style. Case in point: http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf.../vehicles/363310733/1/#vehicle-air-jet-attack http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf4/battlereport/show/1/451483584646503936/363310733/ 41-1 in jet in a single game cause ppl just are too dum to cut it with air lol.
War thunder air fighting is amazing. I wish ps2 was like that. You actually have to learn ariel manuvers to survive.
PS2 skyknights love the way PS2 way is, how it differs from other game's air battles. They say the alternative is BF3 style which consists in a never ending competition in who can make the smaller circle.
What aerver are you on? I want a go at these hovering certs. On Briggs, our pilots cartwheel and loop in physics defying ways, and factoring in projectile velocity and drop is a must. Also, try getting involved in the initial air battles of a continent shift. Once again on Briggs, we often have 40+ aircraft in one little area engaged in a massive battle, and the RM generally takes a backseat. Turning more into conventional aerial combat.
Seriously... I fly in War Thunder, and the complexity is amazing. I mean just such a simple concept as stalling doesn't really exist in PS2... you can point your aircraft straight up and not go tumbling. In War Thunder flight is a beautiful game where even if I die (and you die a lot in War Thunder) you never really feel frustrated. PS2's "flight model" is pretty much WASD plus Space. There isn't an accurate modelling of gravity, air resistance, lift, or anything else usually associated with flying. It just feels so hollow compared to a fuller, physics-based flight model. That's just PS2 overall though... it simply does everything worse than other games in each genre. The tank fights are dumbed down from World of Tanks or Armoured Warfare. The air fights are dumbed down from War Thunder. And the infantry fights are dumbed down from ARMA. The only draw of PS2 is that it has combined arms... but that's about it. Which is why PS2's numbers are significantly worse than any of the above games. Imagine what PS2 would be with the tanking of WoT, the flying of War Thunder, and the gunplay of ARMA!
PS2 infantry plays like most fps games. The vehicle play is very simplified and smoothed out. Tanks don't have the downside of limited vision they are associated with. You get regular view and even the 3rd person view option. You don't have the problem of having to look through narrow slits where you need a commander to give you situational awareness from his 360 deg cupola. A single guy can jump into an MBT and drive and shoot like a big bulky infantry man. Turret rotation is fast enough to not impact the aiming and it doesn't inherit the rotation of the chassis. Also getting in and out of the tank takes no time. I imagine in real life getting out of that cramped vehicle with it's heavy hatch takes effort. Also all secondary weapons are remotely controlled and somehow remotely reloaded. And on top of all this, being inside a vehicle gives you the infantry man temporal godmode. You take no damage from any weapon until the vehicle is broken. One could speculate what PS2 vehicle gameplay would be like if these features were changed/added: 1) Entering and exiting vehicles takes a few seconds, specially tanks, like in PS1. Also you have to stand at the door/hatch just like in PS1. 2) Fire inside the vehicle causes damage to the crew. 3) Tanks have the same limitation of reduced vision as all other vehicles in PS2. Tanks would have it the worst. 4) No 3rd person view. 5) Separate gunner and driver. Also a commander needed to provide situational awareness from his cupola, radar panel and what not. 6) Top mounted weapons are mostly manually controlled or at least the AV weapons are manually reloaded like halberd. 7) Damage through armor. Infantry takes a portion of the damage dealt to the vehicle if it hits the right spot. Pilots would aim at the cockpits. 8) Infantry can open the hatches and throw down hand grenades or shoot the crew.
Would love to see them setup these changes for PS2 and then see how it played. Provide it in a Battle Island or brief stretch of Days option for players. Common sense for design would be to emulate the most popular gameplay out there. Especially in a game struggling to retain players. Though of course taking differences of genre into account. This too I would love to see them setup these changes for PS2 and then see how it played. Provide it in a Battle Island or brief stretch of Days option for players. I expect for at least ESFs, the skill gap would widen. Less experienced/skilled pilots would struggle to land (the wheels on a Mosquito don't actually work, you have to land VTOL), and more experience and skilled pilots would target cockpits or other weak points (sing wing, etc.) to reduce the effect TTK on other ESFs. I would like to see some concessions for "scifi" and weapon systems being more advanced. Auto-reload on vehicle weapons seems like something scifi would have, and many weapons like most ESF noseguns wouldn't need reloading at all: they wouldn't use small Mags. Also, I think either ejector seats of jet pack pilots would be the norm. I would want similar "updated scifi tech" to other Vehicles as made sense. I often think of my vehicles as different forms of Infantry Exoskeleton. It matches up really well on a mechanics level. Infantry has access to amazing armor suits when you think of it that way.
