Moin I agree. Hossin looks great, but it's yet another vehicle unfriendly continent. They should've left esamir alone, it certainly looks better now, but lattice and basedesign are horrible. I actually think this is a good thing and I might enter hossing just for the night fights when I'm in the mood for infantry only action (doesn't happen very often). It's about time that night becomes night and not just a cloudy day. You don't seriously fly, don't you? It takes zero skill to stay behind an enemy when he has no real change to turn and fight back. Oh, and even with this massive nerf he still can turn around and he still can blast you in the face if you're bad. It just will be a lot more static. The reverse maneuver is what makes flying in this game fun at all, because it gives the attacked a chance to turn the tables and breaks endless circle pitching. It's the more skillful variant of an infantry shootout. Strafing around while still trying to hit the enemy. That is good. It's not only about putting that crosshair on that guy in front of you, he's moving and so should you. Movement increases the skillceiling, because you have to hit a dodging target while constantly dodging yourself. I seriously hope they don't **** up this combat mechanic. Because if they do we will lose a huge bunch of great players in exchange for (maybe) having more mediocre players in the sky. Grüße, regards, the Toast €: Troll?
I want to make a second post to address a couple of points people keep making, points which are wrong. This is to reiterate my opposition to the proposed ESF maneuvering nerf. 1. This change only affects reavers. No, sorry, you need to fly more. Reavers do have the strongest vertical thrust, giving them the highest skill cap in the hands of very good pilots. But the scythe and mossie are equally capable of performing these maneuvers. 2. You need to learn vertical thrust maneuvering before you can be successful flying an ESF. This is also wrong. I racked up 2500+ kills in a scythe before learning vertical thrust maneuvering. I did it with good aim, situational awareness, teamwork when available, etc. I was aware of the technique but I was no good at it so I did not use it in flight. Sure I lost a few fights when I got on another ESFs tail and he flipped around and killed me, but even then I knew I'd had plenty of chance to kill the other fighter before that happened if I'd aimed better. We don't even encourage people to use these maneuvers when flying in a large outfit group, since you're probably going to ram another scythe. Just call for help if someone's on your tail. By the way, try to stop thinking of this as "The Reverse Thrust Maneuver". That limits your thinking, and limits your flying. There's a lot more you can do with vertical thrust maneuvering than just turn around quickly and go backwards for a second or two. You could read this post and say what's the big deal, you make it sound like vertical thrust maneuvering is a non-issue. Not true at all, it's a tool in the hands of a skilled pilot raising the skill cap in the game. Removing it removes that tool and lowers the skill cap, which is the opposite of what you normally want to do when designing a game.
Aww, looks like your a bit of a sour looser... cant take being shot down. For starters, lockons can be quite painfull, and their lock-on ranges can seem abit to much sometimes. Have you even flown with a striker lock?. Bursters are still quite effective at close range, skyguards seem to be effective at most ranges now. Then you got a2a missles with locks too... And why should an a2a esf, thats flying at max altitude bother you? on the ground? And if you do fly, whining in the forums isnt going to make you any better. Get out there, watch some youtube vids, learn stuff, practice it and you eventually get better. How'd you think ACE's got to their level?
If you think that this is somehow going to benefit non-NC factions you are irretrievably stupid and demonstrating that you haven't got a clue about what you are talking about. -Stigma BR100 Vanu pilot Miller, ca 15.000 ESF kills and 370hrs flighttime.
You trolling bro? ... Because according to your stats you are low-tier as far as piloting goes and almost exclusively use the Light-PPA and photonpods to farm infantry - exactly the sort of player you seem to rage against. 12% kills with an proper nosegun ... ouch. I guess I can understand why you might be miffed at getting one-clipped while you farm with the PPA - but I hope you realize this change won't do anything to stop that... It would be quite the irony if we had to listen to someone like that about how to balance something that mostly affects ESF-vs-ESF combat now wouldn't it? ... That seems to be the trend in this discussion by the way. The people who think this is a good change either have never set foot in an ESF and hate anything in the air because they can't hack it themselves - or are barely low-tier pilots who end up having stats showing that they run only A2A missiles and other scrub-weapons. The number of actually skilled pilots with some name to themselves that support this change seem to be almost nonexistent. -Stigma
I've had a lot of good dogfights with Vertical Thrusting, Dogfights that last a few minutes. Dogfights that get your heart pumping! Now, it's a guaranteed win for the pilot who sneaks up behind you. It's a big step backwards. And too late to implant this in the game. Way too late.. What is wrong with you, SOE?
If you have certs, the stealth can be situationaly useful at times. I just wish you could change out your already deployed vehicle's loadout at least at the warpgate or something.
I gotta be honest here... I think we've been distracted from the fact that we can't unlock the new ESF weapons in PTS. Let's ***** about something we all agree on. DIRECT YOUR HATRED FELLOW FLYBOYS
New weapons will be irrelevant if they destroy the flight mechanics. Obviously this is a far FAR more importantt issue than having those weapons be delayed a little longer. -Stigma
I wouldn't mind them raising the vthrust from +2 to say...+5 or +6 ...it used to be +10. That'd be a pretty happy medium for me. That said, pretty much the only thing I patched the PTS for is to try out the new ESF weapons. I can't imagine everyone here patched JUST to try and whine about the new reverse maneuver (which still works to evade bullets, as my compatriot Insolence mentioned earlier). To each their own, I guess. The PS2 community is more full of QQ than an alphabet factory sometimes, I swear. I'm assuming alphabet factories are a thing.
Yeah, had 3 threads open at once... Modified my post a few seconds later. The Reaver needs a slight hitbox alteration and the Scythe needs inertia added to it's maneuverability to allow for drifting, which the Reaver excels at. I'm not suggesting a 1 to 1 mirror across factions, but right now the Scythe lacks the ability to maintain strafing momentum when flipping and turning, like the Reaver can during dog fights. The Scythe is much easier to predict where they will be flying and aim accordingly.
Hossin - AWESOME What a great view and an awesome place to fly a plane. The gal is a little tricky, but great design. BUT - come one, no spash when you ride a car in the puddles? is this 1995? I love the afterburner changes when hovering.
That is a already a critical skill, and indeed the recommended way to deal with a tail currently since transitioning to hover mode leaves you very exposed. I would recommend all prospective pilots spend some time in the VR area zooming around and under terrain. The vertical thrust maneuvers aren't the entirety of flying, they're just another part of it that makes the flight experience in this game more complex and more rewarding when you're good at them. This nerf won't make ESFs all go away, it will just make the experience of flying one a little less interesting, and a little less skill based.
Dude, I actually do know how to fly and use the maneuver .... and that's exactly why I think it needs to be changed. I'm a pretty good pilot
Has anyone actually tried to do the reverse maneuver on the test server before coming on here and screaming bloody murder??? I tried it and I did one just fine. I couldn't reverse quite as far but it was actually easier to initiate and steer, even with a stock scythe. And it DID still reverse, I just couldn't reverse a whole kilometer like I can on live, not that I could steer that in a straight line anyway (so not all that useful to reverse that far) I think you people need to try this on the test server before you jump to conclusions.
