So, my question to anyone who thinks Rocket Pods are fair and balanced...

I remember during the beta when it seemed everyone had skyguards. I couldn't fly through a bit of territory with the liberator without a few taking potshots at me.

And yes, rockets aren't that menacing. They still require a lot of accuracy and proximity. If you let a fighter just hang around over a target like a balloon, then the people in the area are doing something wrong. If the enemy has that much air superiority that there are multiple fighters doing this, then you shouldn't be there. Spawn nearby and attack from outside the kill zone rather than feeding the farm.

Are you kidding ? Its the only way to get rid of this pests.

I don't understand why fliers think this only happens to them?

Drive a tank or lightning into a heavily contested area. What do you think happens?

Take anything into a heavily contested area and the same thing happens!

It's bordering on the bizzarre that people keep saying "try flying a plane...everything shoots at you! Really? Whatever next!

If you don't want to individually get shot at by lots of things, then take lots of friends with you. That usually works. Except that planes are for soloists and they only think about what happens to just them

Are you ********?
Cost of rocket pods=1000 certs.
Cost of any other decent gun that make your class/vehicle 10x times more versatile and usefull=1000 certs.
You can buy all these with station cash.
All you need to save up for is upgrades for ammo and stuff like that which cost like 50 certs(not to mention the fact you can buy 50%XP boosters).
I bet you are one of these players which goes around with a fully upgrades aircraft thinking he is sooo pro for tacking out enemy air with default equipment.

I won't bother read the whole 5 pages and say this:
I have both rocket pods on my reaver and zepha canon on my lib
I have WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY (kind of emphasize how much) kills with my lib
I played a lot, have rarely been killed from any of those two.

I think experience of the issue is more pertinent to this situation than infantry weapon imbalance. Mainly because there are a lot less variables.

The results are clear to see. The weapon does too much damage on it's own.
I'm fine if they are strong against air (if you're hit by a dumb fire rocket, either the other pilot is good or you're awful) and individual infantry, but against armor and groups of infantry, it's ridiculous. It simply needs to do less damage per shot to armor, and the splash needs to be reduced. I'm talking a 20% reduction at most, nothing over the top. The rockets are too well rounded and there needs to be a trade off. The primary weapon needs to be just that, the primary weapon, the one that defines the role.

My point is there is a reasonable approach to it even without statistical data to base it off of. Not every criminal needs a confession to be proven guilty.

Even with less variables, human experience and perception is always worthless when discussing a situation that can be broken down into math with enough available data.

And you're right, a criminal doesn't need to confess, but you require enough data (evidence) as the prosecutor to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

I'd actually love if balance discussions were broken down into the same set of rules as a court case, I thrive quite well in that arena.

The positive assertion would provide their evidence (in this case, the PA is the "rocket pods are broken" side of the fight)
The negative assertion would then poke holes in that evidence, just like the defence in a court case.

That really is how all debates should probably be handled.

I shot a Scythe out of the sky today with my Trac-5. It was already damaged by a G2A rocket, but I still damaged it enough to kill it.

When flying into a heavy infantry area for a rocket pod attack, I found that by the time I got one kill, I was already half destroyed and locked on. People that harass infantry with their ESFs are good pilots, simple as that. All it takes is 2 of the guys getting harassed to pull HA and rocket the guy.

Not a lot of people spend the 1k certs or the 7 USD to buy the rocketlaunchers. Air is a huge problem and more and more people realize it which is the cause of it. @Hael it's nearly IMPOSSIBLE to land an unguided rocketlauncher on a flying aircraft unless they bend over for you. the standard small arms fire(Rifles, etc) take like 100 shots to kill a plane. and out of thsoe 100 shots you may land 1/20 or 1/10 of those shots. And this is when they're flying straight at you with rocket pods smashing your face. If you aren't a heavy assault you stand no chance at surviving the punishment. Small arms fire also don't dmg libs or galaxies. Investing 7 USD or 1k certs is the only way to have a chance at air.

If you want to argue that point... you can't. Air can't combat air unless it's organized. Most of the time when an enemy is invading your shiznits they come in huge huge packs and circle your facility you can't possibly communicate with people to organize a counter-air combat it's impossible without a pre-made group. No one cooperates

Get a friend, cert missles and pull ESFs. Fly in formation, lock on in sync and don't fire until after the enemy ESF launches flares. Fire in sync. Instant ESF death. 2 players using this level of coordination can defeat almost unlimited amount of rocketpodders. They literally have NO CHANCE. Anyone who thinks rocket pods are OP just straight up doesn't have a defensive airforce in their unit.

Rocket pods are fine.

It's Infrared that's broken. Being able to see giant white silhouettes that are oblivious to you seeing them is the real issue. You could have spent thirty minutes sneaking stealthily to a base, using terrain and cover to hide as you went and a single ESF flying by with Infrared on will spot you 9 times out of 10. Infrared needs to be limited to tanks and Liberators IMO.

Yes.

This isn't a 2004 animu image board.

Yes.

It dies in an instant to any outfit level of play which is what this game is centered around. If you are lonewolfing it and dying because you did not bother to bring a counter that is your problem. I have shot down more ESFs with antitank cannons on the Lightning than I have been killed from air while on foot or in a vehicle. ESFs and Libs have no recourse except retreat when two or more heavy assaults start firing on them with G2A missiles. Skyguard projectiles need to shoot faster to not make the extra 10 rounds they received meaningless but should not even approach their past balance of locking down an entire hex by themselves.

Yes. Stop being an idiot.

And then there is tank spam which is still present but no where near the issue it was before AA was toned back. MBTs with a AA gun on top should not be a hard counter to EVERYTHING. They should be able to defend themselves if they can put fire on and only on the one ESF doing a strafing run on them and only if they shoot first. Skyguard and tower turrets need an accuracy buff or rocket pods need a accuracy nerf. One or the other so the pendulum doesn't swing too far when SOE inevitably nerf bats something too hard.

If you're dying to air in a MBT or non Skyguard lightning, balance is working. MBTs and ground to ground lightnings should not have a counter to air in addition to tanks and infantry. Your side brought a badly balanced tank zerg and no air/AA to back it up. Deal with it. Skyguard mobility and infantry/MAXes invisibility at long ranges give them just as much defense and invulnerability to high flying aircraft as those aircraft have against them. Projectile speed buffs that would help make Skyguard worth the time investment and not a role with little benefit beside forcing aircraft to run away would be nice. A rocket pod damage nerf would be overdoing it and tank spam would be the primary gameplay again. A rocket pod accuracy nerf might work but only if AA is not buffed to coincide with it.

Here's a summary of my recent session.

Logged in at Warpgate, deployed to where there was action. Within seconds of landing in the drop pod I am killed by a rocket pod. I respawn at the facility proper. I go outside and don't make it 20 meters before being killed by rockets again. Rinse an repeat around 3 -5 times. So I decide to move elsewhere and redeploy to a sunderer. I begin heading in the direction of the fight and within about a minute I am killed by rockets again. This happens twice. I again try to redeploy to a (different) facility and again find that there are aircraft with rocket pod swarming outside and I'm once again killed by them before I can retaliate. I log out in frustration. Out of the 15 or so times I was killed, only 3 were by non rocket pod means.

Take from that what you will, that was how my last play session went.

This is like complaining about being shelled by a tank outside your spawn door. News flash: There was a pilot pounding that base.

Maybe rocket pods should be switched to dumb bombs that can be dive bomb or "carpet" on a target instead fo straight.

I'd 100% rather rocket pods be laser guided bombs that infantry have to designate and keep lazed for your bomb to precisely hit a target. As long as it did considerable enough damage to where tanks couldn't sit there camping without worry.

my point was basically the same as yours.

you still get shot at by everything when piloting aircraft, just like piloting a tank or any vehicle.

rocket pods dont make you immune to enemy damage, and using them effectively actually requires you to put yourself directly in harms way (either strafing runs or hovering, both of which leave you very vulnerable).

when i use rocket pods, i usually get one good strafing run in before i have to start evasive maneuvers, find a safe place to land and repair so i can do another strafing run.

I like that idea but make laser guided bombs for libs that way they can also hit stuff that is out of their render sight but within render sight of the observer.

There needs to be more ground controled air support features in planetside. Having where ground can point out targets to air is definatly needed.

So what's your question?

Number of times I"ve died to rockets playing as a ground pounder = 0.
Number of times I've killed ESF's as a HA = lots

People roll with the zerg, no organization, playing medics and engineers to farm certs, and then expect to be immune to air power when their side has lost air superiority.

Nothing is stopping them from spawning a ESF to win back the air war (you can do so at your warp gate and get to the battle in a minute or two), nothing is stopping them from spawning a mech with AA, but instead they die without thinking and then whine and whine and whine "ITS NOT FAIR".

I bet these are the same people trying to shoot INTO the shield of a spawn room giving the other side free kills.