Where's The Flak?

You really want to drag that up again? How come you dare say that you can't say anything if you are shot at by ESF, but somehow being shot at by AA or small-arms gives you the right to tell us how AA should work?

Also, I'm not "just" throwing stats around. You guys almost asked for these stats, and in this case these stats tell a clear-cut story: Even at perfect conditions it takes more than 14 seconds to destroy an ESF with small-arms, assuming it doesn't use FS or try to get away and sticks within 10m etc.

I've performed much much better at A2G than you, so there's that.

I tried flying, I tried AA as well as I don't go for a single solution in most fields I play at. 'normal' flying is something I can do very well, but with the completely borked system we have that forces hours of practice in non-intuitive gameplay based on but a 1 or 2 tactics? That system is broken as hell.
Also there's the whole AA system that is completely ruined, as I've shown time and again. So no, this isn't 'just' that the air-game is screwed, it's also because the mentality with which AA was handled screwed up any alternative way to handle taking down aircraft, unless you use larger amounts of AA which is also completely unbalanced as well as not fun nor fair.

Or you can't interpret stats, as even a simple paper analysis of simply how much magazines and time it takes to take aircraft down in perfect conditions with small-arms are somehow meaningless to you, even though it's a perfect indication for how "terrible" small-arms are against ESF.

I love flying in any game, within an hour I managed to get gold medals on every single flying course I could find in GTAV when they came available. I can fly easily in any game, even Planetside 2... up until you get to the glitches used to get an advantage, which screw over any other type of air-combat you can think off as they are simply better by far.

I have flown, I have used AA, I have used small-arms, I have been shot at by AA, I have been shot at by small-arms, I have been shot at by other planes, I have used tanks, infantry and done most scenario's you can expect to have to do in the game. I'm not looking at it through a microscope, I'm looking at the entire perspective, then analyze it through a microscope to get the most exact reasons as to why the system needs changing.

> Argues that a player's stats decree if their arguments are valuable or not - thus combining elitism with ad hom attacks to try and belittle the person making the argument, while ignoring the argument itself.

> Uses "Groundie" as a derogatory term to continue to belittle the person arguing and to boost his own ego.

> Still wonders why air-farmers are universally vilified and despised.

Try again. This time by quoting his arguments and countering them with something other than "because of stats your argument are worthless" and maybe you will get some more respect.

I couldn't help but smile at it :3
I just don't have the patience to do a huge lengthy post that most players won't bother to read/won't understand just to prove something with numbers-only.
For the same reason that you wouldn't do it if I asked you to give me the EXACT answer to pi = n (find 'n') and to give me an answer without leaving one digit un-written. It's simply a never-ending task that would accomplish nothing (although pi is extremely important and yada yada, you get the point).

Hey, I mean it's been tried before I guess. There's always something to be said for optimism!

He does that.

You're not going to find the secret of the mona lisa by looking at the higgs bosons/fields that are composing it. I've never yet seen you once look at the entire perspective though. So that would be a fun surprise.

I'll give you the curtesy of asking you: are you sure? If you don't want me to, I won't bring up the stats. I'm actually not even looking at them right now, nor will I look at them. But if you want me to, I'll do as you've seen me do countless times by now (probably).

Wooohooo.... Like I hadn't spent WAY more time on the ground as infantry than in the air...

To re-use a joke, your interpretation of stats is that gang-r@pe is good because 9/10 (90%) of the participants enjoy it.

That actually made me giggle like an idiot while starring at my laptop

Remember when you tried talking to me about politics? That sentence does not strike me as a wise move.

False equivalence - shooting WWII-era aircraft zooming overhead with semi-auto rifles is not the same as peppering a hovering (or inbound on a very narrow and predictable trajectory) VTOL fighter that holds nearly in place a little distance away with multiple guns shooting at full-auto, is not the same.

Picture made me laugh a little though.

hmmm well, you might be right there. I took a shot. We'll see where it goes.... But I did declare it as a joke at first though, so there's always that.

No one ever tried that so far
But we aren't talking about a subjective painting and it's painting methods (which have to be discovered by close inspection), we are talking about a system that is both subjective and quantifiable. As said before, the top player in anything will have a completely different perspective than an average or low-skill player. Does that mean the game should be tailored to their wishes? No. Does that mean he's got more insight? Possibly, but you can barely keep their subjective opinion out of it and seeing all the internet atrocities that happen every single time you give some players more privilege than others, you can't expect them to go for a fair system.

Hence, quantifying it. We've got data collected from good and bad players in every situation possible, good days, bad day, in the exact average effectiveness that all these situations combined give you, to create a clear picture of how the game works.

You mean like the time I compared the power aircraft have against infantry, tanks and other aircraft, then compared that to the power the average tank or infantry has against them? Such as every weapon that has a similar counterpart on the ground being more powerful than the ground version? DPS, reload time, magazine size etc being all better than almost any ground counterpart? etc etc.

Well, since it's quote-mess and it's 3:48 AM for me, I'll reply to you tommorow without fault!
Though as a quick note, the last part made me laugh.

... why?

Basilisk compared to Drake:
http://planetside.wikia.com/wiki/M20_Basilisk
http://planetside.wikia.com/wiki/M20_Drake

Drake has got lower damage falloff, faster bullets and a lower minimum damage.

M60-A compared to M60-G Bulldog:
http://planetside.wikia.com/wiki/M60-A_Bulldog
http://planetside.wikia.com/wiki/M60-G_Bulldog

Double the speed

The only thing with equal stats is the Walker:
A30 compared to G30 Walker:
http://planetside.wikia.com/wiki/A30_Walker
http://planetside.wikia.com/wiki/G30_Walker

But then we get to things such as Hornets, which can deal about 150% the DPS of the AP primary of the Magrider/Vanguard and has better ghost reload etc etc.

Rocketpods, which are a mile and a half better than any HE weapon a tank can bring to bear.

The AI nosecannons, which are upgraded versions of their ground counterparts:
AH vs Canister:
http://planetside.wikia.com/wiki/M30_Mustang_AH
http://planetside.wikia.com/wiki/C85_Canister

Higher velocity, more damage per pellet but less pellets (25% less pellets but 29% more direct hit, as well as having an AOE attack dealing 200 damage a pellet which ramps up the damage per pellet to 325 at max range), can damage vehicles while Canister cannot, lower mag size but upgradable.

Rotary vs Marauder is not a good weapon-stat comparison, we would need to look at performance then.

Light PPA vs PPA... Do I even need to compare them? One having a massive COF while the other is pin-point perfect across any range?

Alright, i see it now and you make a point.

It is however possible. He probably pissed off enough people to warrant more than one wanting to do something about it, or one person enough to pull a flak max from the sundy no doubt at the grav lifts. Generally AA is balanced (im not only referring to your comments now) but in order to kill something with AA, it has to be there in the first place.

For people to pull AA, it has to be both balanced and fun, where the whole problem begins.

I don't understand how you can call a system that is either completely UP when you are solo, but escalates in power when you get more quickly, is balanced. Especially when it offers the user almost no chance to get better or have fun with skillshots, and the one it's used on can only hate it because there's no way to actually dodge it unless you are at range, at which point it barely matters anyway.

So to respond to your video: the only miracle you can hope for is dumb pilots or that you get to 'share' your kills with a few other guys who pulled AA without getting your face smashed in by ground troops or the very thing that you are trying to destroy.

Wait... Morgan Freeman is God? It all makes sense now!

Solo skillshots are decis and S1/ml7/shrikes

this game is a teamplay game, meant to need people working together to deal with force multipliers with options to take them out alone.

Tanks, can be detonated with C4 alone, but need teamwork to deal with (one heavy probably wont be able to stop a tank alone)

maxes need c4 or combined shooting

ESFs need two-three burster maxes, but one works well as deterrence and can be soloed with a dumbfire or your own ESF (airlocks are friends)

Air to ground ESFs are supposed to cause trouble and area denial, to get rid of them get a buddy or pull an a2a esf.

If you meant why I went to sleep... Because although you might find it hilarious to see me sleep deprived, I actually don't particularly want it.
And if you meant why I laughed, I'd just say because the analogy. It was funny. Now I have to answer that post of yours as I said.

You never compared how many people had sight of said targets, and how much damage they do on the aircraft for instance.

I'll be lazy, so assume that everything with a ---- is a paragraph below.

----------
General statistic eh. Well here: DA grade:

You AH: C++
Me AH: A

You Pods: A++
Me Pods: A*

Note: A* is higher than A++
-----------
We're talking maybe 28% of my time? give or take
----------
Skyguards, heavies, walkers, basilisks, rangers, maxes, tanks, other aircraft. Those are all possible condoms. And I'm sure I forgot some.

If only Heavy Assult was a popular class. I've heard they have a whole extra weapon slot which specializes in all things AV/AA. Could just be rumor though.