The Skyguard Is Not a Viable Deterrent

Or you could just buy TB for both Libs, and then cert out your Shredders (and you can farm infantry when you are done. Win-Win).

Seriously, the Skyguard (and also the Ranger) is so specialized that it can only do one thing without being laughed at. Skyguards are useless against armor and have **** accuracy so they can't hit infantry unless they are close enough to slap them with the barrel. The least the thing could do is more damage to a Lib than a A2G cannon can do to it (Shredder/TB vs. everything you can hit). Mount a Shredder on a Lightning and I think that the problem will be mostly solved since the Shredder does more damage to air, has a faster ROF, and even has a skill ceiling that is actually taller than its skill floor. And of course you can always just farm infantry with it once you are done because it instantly kills them but has 2x the velocity of a tank cannon.

Seriously. I bought a Skyguard for SC since I needed AA that wasn't just for tickling and Lightnings were always fun to drive. I can say now that you would be better off just getting TB and certing a Shredder on a Lib for AA duty since that will be way better.

Definite plus one for engagement radar. I really don't think they need a damage buff, but a velocity buff would be greatly appreciated. It is hard (at least for myself) to land shots further than ~75 meters.

side note - skyguards do very well against armor, such as sundies

Also they can one clip Phalanx turrets because of a resistance bug. Has shocked more than a few gunners of those turrets lol.

SSSHHHHHHH!!! Don't ruin it!

its been mentioned in every other thread involving Skyguards and/or Lightnings. Aside from that, it is just a little quirk and isn't generating any forumside rage so it probably won't be changed for awhile.

the reason a skyguard doesnt drop a lib in one magazine is because of balancing. Even slightly increasing a skyguards damage will make a HUGE differencce when you take into account theres no limit on skyguards allowed ingame.

Balance is fine.

I wish we could go back to the days when game designers MADE THEIR GAME and we just PLAYED IT.

Use chat to call plays or have someone call plays and save up the certs for it then. Ain't rocket science.

I find it funny that someone who's had their Planetside character for about 2 months feels like the almighty master of lib balance...skyguards can wreck in a hurry if the lib isn't sneaking up on you. If my friend and I see two skyguards or a skyguards and one AA turret (which is free), we basically designate it as a no fly zone for a while. Situation awareness is key in a skyguard, have it and you more than likely won't get ganked by a liberator. Also, join an outfit. You don't even need a mic for most, just hop on and play with some organized people, it makes a world of difference.

Hard to have any when you have all that dakka sound hitting your ears. Who had the great idea of making the loudest gun precisely the one that shoots for longest??? Add that to the fact that I can hear a damn quad bike before I can hear a Lib flying low!

I'd agree to this once they've improved performance enough that nobody ever gets less than 60fps when getting hit by flak.

Skyguard vs Liberators are fine.

I've occasionally gunned down Skyguards with the tank buster, but in all these cases it was due to error on behalf of the Skyguard and they were always by themselves. All they have to do is move towards cover and Liberators wont be able to sweep with a tank buster effectively.

I enjoy flying Liberators as I play with 2 other friends. In my experience, unless a Skyguard doesn't keep track of us, or if they are alone, we don't even consider attempting to engage them. Alternatively we attempt pot shots from a great distance or move on.

I play on Briggs and there are some insane ESF pilots out there. We're not fully loaded out, and currently running Dalton, TB and walker, but it's about 50/50 chance that we'll come out of it, but most of the time close to death.

If there are two, and they don't suck at flying, we don't have a chance. We also don't chase down ESFs we see, likely cause we're not the most skilled out there.

I think this part of the game is pretty balanced as is.

make some, get one, join one

I'll tell you one other thing the Skyguard is good at, scaring MBT crew who are sitting behind a gate shield - oh no... my tank is taking (very little, but constant) damage whilst behind the shield... run, no heal, no shoot, no charge, no run, no heal, no run, run away haxxor cheat expoiter.

Once broke the deadlock at Tarwich depot with another skyguard dude to the cheers of 'phear the skyguard'. As the bullet spread is quite large, everything behind the shield was taking damage, MBT's, Sundies, Lightnings etc... Because of all the HE spam (which was having little effect) the TR didn't notice that it was two humble skyguards who were slowly chewing through their armour.

1v1, a skyguard can take on another lightning, regardless of weapon (except maybe the AP, but I don't know anyone apart from me who uses that weapon) as long as you keep your nose to their side or rear. They're also good for mowing down infantry and killing close up.

They are a very specialised build, and it can be a bit boring when there's no aircraft around, but they're still good as support weapons, pinning infantry and light armour, as well as baiting MBT's into AV mines and crossfires.

Never make the mistake of comparing one weapon system to another in isolation as you should never put yourself in that situation in the first place.

It's cuz we aren't buy'n yoru BS. You did notice he said it wasd ONE guy on a lib right? Just the nose gun? So it's a 1vs1 scenario and the skyguard is a hard counter.

These solo lib guys are having a hayday. The tankbuster alone is enough to kill most skyguard pilots. Then you get the guys who are good enough to solo lib and use both the tankbuster and belly gun.

Gee wish I could switch between my AP turret and skyguard turret as needed in my lightning. It's toatl BS and we're sick of it.

And a solo guy in a 1/2 MBT will kill most lightning users.. so I don't see your point.
Go solo a lib for a while, get some perspective on how easy it is...

This is a large part of why awhile ago on the Roadmap (probably Lightning thread) I requested an option/toggle/whatever to see our vehicle on the minimap while we're still in it. If you get out, it shows on the map as a different color (well, last I bothered to pay attention anyway) but while you're in it you just have the vision cone.

Technically you could look at the vision cone, and then elsewhere on the screen where it shows your viewing angle in comparison to the front of the tank (on top of actually aiming in a third area of the screen), but that's asking quite a bit. Even with the vehicle on the minimap you would still need to remember the terrain based on the map for optimal usage, but anybody that drives a Magrider and goes a direction that isn't forward already does that anyway.

It depends. In an AP Lightning in most cases I can take on lonely Mag riders and Vanguards assuming they don't get the jump on me. However, 2/2 MBTs will usually win because of the additional awareness and additional firepower involved.

Libs are different. Surprise or Alpha means nothing when fighting Libs as all weapons take an immense amount of time to bring one down. AP rounds do the most damage but take skill to hit Libs (unless they are low and flying straight) so at least 2/3 shots will miss. Yet, every shot does so little damage (6 shots to kill IIRC for the Python AP) that there is little point in wasting your ammo.

Skyguard, not accounting for COF because trig is not my strong point, takes around 128 rounds to kill a Lib not accounting for composite. Including reloads, it takes around 25-30 seconds to kill a Lib. COF will make you lose rounds and human error will make you lose even more.

I think that lowering the resistance so that Libs can be one clipped by Skyguard would not be too much to ask. COF loses maybe 10% of the rounds and human error probably loses 15% or more. I would say that this is fair, considering the TTK against the Lightning tank is far less even accounting for travel time of the Lib and projectiles.

They should run top armor if they want more resistance to air damage..

No friggin way should a skyguard be able to 1 clip a lib..
Yeah lets make it so a viper lighting can 1 clip a MBT while we at it.. Sounds ridiculous right?

Except that skyguard is AA and crap at everything else, but viper isn't specialized AV and worthless for other things.