[Suggestion] Upgraded Lightning AA Systems

lol, what would make anyone think any AA is going to be upgraded? AA is okay because the ratio of air to ground is okay. Of course Liberators are over powered and Skyguards / MBT AA are under powered but because most people prefer to play on the ground it has to be this way to keep the ratio where they want it (IMO at the expense of the overall popularity of the game)

Making AA defenses more effective could bring the story of "WHY cant i customize my MOUSE AXIS for AIR?"...
When it will be easier to FLY, so it could be reasonable to be EASIER to be SHOT DOWN... IMHO

The Skyguard loses in a 1 v 1 fight against a Lib regardless of what nose gun the lib is using, just about. (They will have a tankbuster, they kill you in 1-2 mags, and that's just the nose gun. A Dalton can 2-3 shot you. Event he stock shredder can kill a lightning before a lightning can kill a Lib. And are we forgetting that lightnings cost -almost- as much as a liberator? And that the Lightning doens't -come- with a skyguard, you have to buy one?

I flew a stock lib for 3 hours two weeks ago, no upgrades -at all-. We killed over a dozen enemy tanks a life- even when they had a single skyguard, he barely took out a third of our hps before we killed him- and by the way, my nose gun was never used. (So Lib at maybe 50% of it's maximum dps potetial, with about half of it's normal survivability still killed a skyguard without even having to land for repairs.) Nevermind the biggest problem with the skyguard is that... Say, somehow, the Lib pilot is scared of skyguards, (for no good reason) and flies away. The air leaves. The skyguard, the 350 nanites of AA tank, is now... completely helpless against all ground armor (A basilisk harasser can kill him in the front now without moving so long as it is more than 25m away). It is completely useless if there is no air!

Whereas aircraft are always useful, even when (even especially when) the things it is designed to kill are absent. No vehicles for your Lib to kill? No problem, you can farm infantry. Also, aircraft too if you're kitted out right... and by that, I mean in a stock liberator, as shredder/drake combo can bring down ESFs and other libs with ease.

No, ground based AA is laughably weak in PS2. It only is viable when used in huge, fun-breaking concentration relative tot he air. And players who pull that kind of AA are going to make miniscule certs and if they are in any AA vehicle, fail to be able to contribute when, inevitably, the pilots leave.

The only time I do any good in AA, is with a Walker Harasser. I don't do enough damage to scare enemies off, I park near big air battles, and shoot up into the sky. They don't realize it's ground fire, and continue dogfighting. The second they realize what I am, they either leave (easily, as I cannot chase them even in a harasser built for speed), or roll in and dive bomb me. Nevermind a nose gun on an ESF can kill a harasser in the same time as an AA harasser can kill them back, and the harasser can't dodge the incoming fire to any extent like an ESF can.

There are 3 kinds of pilots in planetside:

1) The Air-Samurai who believes nose guns are the only weapon in game, and if you don't use a nose gun, you are a nooblord and deserve to be griefed, and focused down by you and your entire clan of air-samurais who will relentlessly hunt down any player who uses lock ons of any sort, and if you ever lose to them, you send hateful messages about how noobish they are for having the brains to pick the right weapon for that fight.

2) The ground farmer: Kills ground all day. Runs away if any of #1 show up. Farms infantry and vehicles with AOE rocketpods and exposive shell firing AOE noseguns, so that they don't even need to actually aim at infantry, who are helpless as ven with AA Lock ons, rocket pods will kill you before you even can fire half the time. Nevermind you have to lock, fire, and reload 3-4 times to get a kill, and if the ESF has a -tree- nearby, you can never lock them or hit them. If you kill one of these from the ground, they cry tears, and go to the forums complaining that ground AA is OP, because they sat there and let it kill them.

3) Sane pilots, who enjoy a spot of both ground and air to air combat, who frequently play all aspects of Planetside, and understand that if they die to ground fire, it is entirely their own fault in the present build, as no single ground vehicle can match the firepower of a single liberator, and rarely can match the firepower of a well kitted ESF. They do not complain when other pilots beat them using lock ons, and will use them too, if the situation calls for it, because they, unlike the other two kinds of pilots in the game, do not think they should be immune to death, and do not think their aircraft should be unkillable by anything other than other ESFs. Why? Because they're not hung up on a power trip obsession.

If an ESF takes off, and gets 2 kills of any sort- air, vehicle, or even infantry, that should be considered good enough. You get a force multiplier, sure. But you should be as vulnerable as everything else to being countered.

And right now, there is nothing that can reliably counter air threats, without becoming a nanite waste the moment the aircraft fly off.

That MAX? 450 certs. That Skygaurd? 350. You're now essentially relegated to pulling flashes and harassers for the remainder of whatever fight you're in.

You no longer get to pull force-multpliers that matter for ground v ground combat, which is about 75% of the gameplay in Planetside. Why? Because Infantry and Vehicles are the main show. Aircraft are secondary to those two things, by nature of objectives being located -on the ground-, not floating in the air.

While I would love to have airborne bases for capturing, the fact is, those don't exist, and until they do, AA needs a pretty sizable buff across the board.

And I'm saying all this as someone who does actually fly. Even in my novice days, I have no difficulty killing 4-5 infantry, killing at least one or two tanks, or other aircraft before going down.

Remember humility air friends: 1-1 KD is a positive KD, and should be the average for vehicles when fighting other vehicles, just like infantry fighting other infantry.

skyuard could definitely need some love, but it's hard to do due to the range a skyguard has, two skyguards are evil, and three skyguards are a hexwide no-air-zone

balancing the skyguard is very hard, right now it's okay, as long as you don't scare air away to soon, and hide from liberators

if there would be a way to balance the skyguard by reducing it's range while still being able to hit maximum height galaxies and libs, i'd love to hear that

the most effective thing i have ever witnessed against air are three guys with lockon launchers in a sunderer