Whats the role for Hornets?

I wonder how people would feel if the hornets were Air-to-Ground Lockon's rather than laser, or both chose lock-on as a sight Attachment

I think it's more like an Anti-Lib/Gal weapon slightly stronger than A2Am's (don't forget you can use nosegun to increase damage output while guiding them in) that can also be used against tanks.

That's how I'd try to use them at anyrate... Off-hand I think they need a velocity increase.

They'd be super cool if friendly infantry could designate targets for you.

They are made pointless because of rocketpods. They should be the go-to AV weapon, but they aren't.

They are made pointless because they were gimped from the get go - people were far too afraid they'd turn into the next AV mana turret. Increase the range, make them faster, and more importantly, make them REALLY pack a damage punch on vehicles. I'd say the tracking and turn rate needs a bit of improvement too to go along with the speed increases.

I can't blame people for fearing any weapon that uses the same mechanics as the AV mana turret - that ridiculous OP turret has ruined Hornets beyond a doubt though.

So you're saying people wouldn't use hornets if the rocketpods weren't in the game? They would be the only AV secondary at that point.

Ideally, the Hornet would be a weapon you fired from long range and tracked in as you flew, allowing you to make long distance shots that are guaranteed to hit. With the range it has, you can'd do that so you end up firing at about rocket pod range, at which point they lose their advantage over the fire and forget rockets.

The Hornets as they are now would be a much more potent a2g strafing weapon if they implemented the same suggestion that I made for rocket pods a long time ago: put the targeting reticle under where the nose (and nosegun) points. That way doing a strafe would not involve having to fly directly at your target, instead they'd function more like drag bombs.

I ran them for a bit yesterday and found nothing they excelled at. Pods work better overall still. If you can manage to land a pair on a hovering esf you can just about instantly frag it - but that never worked out for me. They mostly were just dead weight on my wings.

Terrible against infantry as well.

I'm saying that an AV focused weapon should do AV serious damage. If pods weren't in the game today, ESFs might as well just forget taking on tanks, cause Hornets are bait to get yourself shot by Vanguard guns and such.

they have a lot of burst, the two rockets fire quickly so both of them will hit almost at the same time. They do 1800 a shot so 3600 a salvo which is decent damage, two salvos will rear kill any tank, three will top kill most tanks (if its a vanguard or has reinforced top armor it will just be on fire, needed some push from your nosegun), so coordinate with two or three others and you will effectively kill that tank in half a second from the perspective of the tank driver. Unless there is some extra resitances in there somewhere, but I doubt MBTs have any, lightnings might (they have some rocket pod resistances that make them about as tough as a MBT against pods), but its unlikely for mbts.

also plows maxs, a max can hit f and charge to get out of dodge when rocketpods start landing around em, but with hornets by the time they they react they are already dead.

If you are flying solo, or with lose coordination, yeah pods will be head and shoulders better, but with some coordination you can take advantage of that 3600 burst.

It's the only missile that can kill you after you fire it. Be proud of such a purchase.

They need DMG BUFF

Hornets will be good as a tertiary belly-mounted weapon.

So you have your nosegun, your secondary wing-mounted pods/A2A missiles, and then your belly-mounted hornets. So you can adjust to any situation. You can only carry 2 hornets initially and max 6 hornets when fully certed. Only then will hornets become useful.

Getting ESFs killed.

I mainly use them to unload 3.6k dmg before the enemy can react - or at least I try to, since stupidly the damn rockets are laser guided and fly where I fly to, so I often find myself staring down my victims' main gun and have to abort.
I think they would work far better if you could choose NOT to laser-guide them.

As a weapon hornets are inferior in almost every way to rocket pods. But the reason I'm using them lately (other than to get a new auraxium medal), is because hornets carry a ton of extra ammunition so I rarely have to land and resupply.

Agreed. Perhaps make it so that while left-click is held down, they're laser guided -- then if you release left-click, they aren't?

I've been testing the water with these and I'm still on the fence with them. Yes, they pack a nice punch (took out a Magrider doing a rear 80 degree dive. I assume it must have sustained some other damage too and did the same to a max ) but the major flaw is having to guide them in all the way to target. If you are spotted, then that's it. Abort.

I've tried using them on Libs and Gals in close range with limited success.

Perhaps if they could be changed where you have to guide them in so far until they get to within a certain range of the target before they can then lock on themselves leaving you to safely break off?

I'm still occasionally going back to my pods now and then.

During Vietnam the F4s being one of the first supersonic aircraft used in war ran into an interesting problem. They actually would fly so fast that they would fly in front of their own bullets and shoot themselves down.

Anyways, carrying the momentum of the aircraft would be an interesting change. It would give them a velocity increase but only if doing high speed attack runs.