Why am I not spending anymore money in this game?

^The continued pattern of this does lead me to believe it is part of the plan.
They need to learn how to not overbalance things. Make small tweaks until it is right. Yet it typically swings hard one way or the other.

In fairness, this seems to be common practice among F2P games. Im very new to this game and pretty bad at it, so im not clued in to the specifics here just yet. However I have played World Of Tanks since 2011 and there is a similar cycle there with new powerful tanks being released, a few months later they will be nerfed, and then the a couple patches later rinse and repeat. At this point many of the original tanks that were in the game are practically useless.

Not to excuse anything, but it seems to be a fairly successful model for whatever reason.

Where did I state my friends only liked infantry? One of them in particular was quite eager to get into aircraft but between getting blown up by ground lock-ons or shot down by veteran pilots, he gave up. It wasn't enjoyable for him on the ground getting farmed by aircraft, nor was it enjoyable for him to get farmed inside a cockpit either.

The relationships between the different types of play are completely broken atm. Air/Ground vehicles is broken. Infantry/ground vehicles is broken. Infantry/air is broken. Heck, even Air/Air is broken half the time when lock-ons are involved. Between the poorly designed relationships between these groups, the poor choice of flight models, Sony cutting back on PS2 for other games and the bad dynamic render distances I doubt things will ever improve.

One of the situations that happens a lot is that a small group of ESF will dominate the few ground units on the ground, locking down a location. The pilots are dedicated air farmers, they know how to beat lock-ons and bursters, and they will probably succeed in keeping the base from being used a s a deployment area or possibly keep defenders pinned down (which should almost never happen ideally, as control areas should not require a jog across an ESF killing field).

The game just isn't tuned correctly in this area. You are right to vote with your wallet.

The problem is playing A2A esf is no longer fun so you see an increase of A2G esfs,is now more fun to play A2G than A2A and there is way more survivability and its more rewarding, even tough is really easy to farm ground at least i have to aim the shots not let the game aim for me.

i think the problem is that there are to many spam weapons in a2a combat like the coyotes or a2a rockets.... if the esf would be a vehicel with a primary weapon only, the whole airgameplay would be more balanced: if a a2g esf only can equip a primary, an lower skilled a2a pilot can kill the "farmer" because he cant defend with himself with coyotes or a2a missels. like this even low skilled pilots can kill an esf which is dominating the air about a base. a2g would be much more balanced in my opinion because esf cant be so versatile and kill groundtroops with the primary and defent itself vs air with the secondary.

If SOE removed all air tomorrow, 90% of the players would rejoice.

Skyguard should kill an ESF as fast as TankBuster kills a skyguard.
Until that happens, air is completely unbalanced in my opinion.

Either you or those 5 ESF pilots have drank too much battery juice. I'd suggest you stop it.
So one ESF is locked on by two missiles. Flare. Taddaa.
Next volley: building/tree, or, nose-point-down. Tadaa. Even if both hit; you should still have time to land & repair. Now there are temporarly only 4 aircraft in the sky. Gee, I wonder what they'll do seeing those rockets fly up from the ground, locating the heavies.
2 heavies vs 5 pilots: I'd expect that fight to go in the ESF favor, even if they're not running A2G loadouts. >But but but.. I don't like flares!. YOUR problem

A liberator can fly through the flak at the lightning and kill him with the tankbuster; faster than the lightning kills the liberator. oh dear.. Add in the dalton of all things, and.. yauwch. Liberator is effective against a skyguard. Also: cert investments are not a balancing argument; although the cert investment required to go to the air is high. But hey, there's good news: you dont need to spent a ridiculous 12k in the liberator to take out a skyguard. The default shredder works fine I think; even so, dalton is 750 certs. Tankbuster is a grand 100 certs to unlock; thermal is in fact not "necessary" for hitting a lightning. And you'll blast that skyguard down without max reload for that dalton..

So.. multiple, dedicated AA weaponry, can chase away the transport airplane? Note, chase away, not kill, unless the pilot is stubborn. Oh, and which side has spend more nanites? Hmm.. galaxy, 550 nanites. 2x skyguard: 700 nanites. 2x burster max: 900 nanites. Oh, and good one on the max being better at AA. You're aware the galaxy default weaponry is decent against air, but it can bring 2 walkers?

This is the state of compulsive liars.
Ground forces have to "chase away" air, requiring higher pop counts and often higher nanite investments too. Leading to a game with no true victory against enemy air, as they run away, repair and come back; slowly dwindling ground forces.
As an example, Air has by far more powerfull weaponry than ground vehicles:
1 ESF with hornets and rotary magdump from behind puts an mbt below 25% health.
The dalton vs tank cannons, etc.
If, IF ground forces massively outpop the air, and spare dedicated G2A resources, (which are looking at the skies and not participating in the fight), then air can simply go to another fight; far quicker than any mbt, sundy, lightning etc could.


This game is in high need of a few things:
a ESF kills an MBT faster from behind with nosegun only then he kills a liberator.
A liberator takes 7-8 lock-ons to destroy.. same as.. an mbt! Yet, the mbt has a weakspot (rear armor), and is far, far easier to C4, vulnerable to AV mines, AV turret, ..
Galaxy takes longer to destroy with ESF nosegun than a prowler from the front.

-> Give mouseyaw, (more people willing to take to the air to fight of an enemy airzerg)
Make rotaries, or a dedicated nosegun very effective vs liberators and galaxies,
liberator should be less though than an mbt; or it must lose manoevrability.
make lock-ons less likely to hit trees, or to chase into the ground. ("chase" behavior instead of "lead" behavior).
Some AA needs to be kill, not deter. Most likely candidate is the skyguard; or a new "skyguard" turret: double walker turret for the skyguard: requires accuracy, but massive dps if you have it vs enemy air. Some A2G needs nerfing: dalton gets AP resistances; ESF carry less hornet missiles, more tomcats/coyotes. (A2G should be a secondary role for ESF; primary is A2A)

I`m talking from xp as a heavy,not as an esf,in fact i only bought the 250 cert lock-on only a couple days ago and I`ve already broght down atleast a dozen ESFs in under 3h playtime as a heavy.Sure some will try to dodge,some will even manage,but at that time they are not killing my forces and i am already priming the next rocket .
That,and even if they kill me 12 secs later and im back exactly where I was(top of the spawn room or 20 meters from the sundy)

Only if the lib knows where the lightning is b4 he gets his *** lit up,and even then,only if the tank is caught out in the open away from cover.

Yup,the Gal is tough,deal with it. Get air if u wanna finish it off.Comets are better vs armor then the dogs,bursters are better vs both air and inf then the walkers,the blueshifts are MUCH better vs inf then any of the above + you can change loadout at any inf terminal without paying for a new MAX. SUUURE you might not be as tough as a gal but u can go anyhwere with a max,and even use teleporters,lifts and jumppads unlike any other vehicle. Also you can get revived.

This is the state of compulsive liars.
Sure immortal air and whatnot,still I`ve got more ESF kills last week then ANY other vehicle,got to finish a few libs and gals with the lock on as well.

As an example, Air has by far more powerfull weaponry than ground vehicles:
1 ESF with hornets and rotary magdump from behind puts an mbt below 25% health.
1 vanguard with stock gun kills an esf in 1 hit,you can call that a magdump if u want

The dalton vs tank cannons, etc.
Didnt get that one,how is the dalton "by far more powerfull" then a tank cannon exactly?

If, IF ground forces massively outpop the air, and spare dedicated G2A resources, (which are looking at the skies and not participating in the fight), then air can simply go to another fight; far quicker than any mbt, sundy, lightning etc could.

The point is you do NOT need to even match air in pop to chase them away,and yes you do need G2A to do it,same as how a knife cant cut an MBT,you have to figure out what works on your own + while you have that AA with your forces air will not farm your mindless zerg and they can go on doing whatever zergs do,and still farm with whatever that mbt has as a main gun,and still spawn at that sundy and the lightning is still better at AA or AI then a stock nose gun (not to mention easier to aim)

Highly doubt the game is in high need of nerfing the already underrepresented airgame further,but some esf rework or heck even more control options could be enough to make it playable for nubs like me.

I do want to fly,the airgame just doesnt work for me as it is now,the incredible skill discrepency between ground to air and even only flying an esf is pissing me off,let alone trying to hit stuff with the gun.
It took me f`kin hours in the VR to actually learn how to do all the fancy moves aces show in combat,and a few dozen esfs later i got the hang of A2A fighting,and all of that time spent has ZERO effect vs a ******** BR100 that scrambled a squad of fresh new ps2 players wielding the free 30 mins lock-ons to protect his outfits zerg.

I think I've died to air, 3 times in the last months? Maybe 4, and thats counting playing drunk. I've killed probably, 400 esfs/libs/valks (i ignore gals for the most part) and i quit flying months ago. Just a case of bads attempting to tryhard better players than them and dying, like they should.

If I were a billionaire, I would give this game $10,000,000. I just want to see it get better.
Sadly, my parents own the money, I can't get a job (they won't let me, despite being 19), and even if we were billionaires, the least he would think about is giving it to a game company, however good it is. That's how much I love this game, and I will never stop playing.

@ Robes
So you're a ******, thanks for piping up. And nobody thought it was bots staying in the air 24/7.

A big factor in bringing down an enemy ESF is pilot error: hitting an enemy with a G2A weapon means the ESF has made a mistake.
And you need several hits to destroy him so..
(depends on terrain of course)

Likewise, the lightning needs to spot the lib in advance.
If the lightning is constantly looking at the sky, he's not noticing the engineer placing two AV mines behind him.
Why should the lib be able to tank damage from, and destroy it's supposed counter?

"get air if u wanna finish it off" Ahahaaa. Good one.
Again: Galaxy is tougher vs lockons than a mbt.
an ESF can kill a prowler faster by firing nosegun into frontal armor, than a galaxy. Is the ESF nosegun a counter to mbt's?
The galaxy can also bring up to 4 MG; 2 of which can be AA MG.
Valk.. LOL
So, liberator tankbuster run? O-kay. But, the galaxy can be used to ram those out of the sky.

Air is too tough, against AA weaponry. Including ESF nosegun, especially liberator and galaxy.

You're comparing an MBT shot (450 nanites, 2 man vehicle..) to an ESF.. and in order to make the MBT win, you have to compare the mbt firing at a flimsy vehicle, and the ESF at what should be the toughest target on Auraxis.

Here's a thought: no lightning weapon can deal over 50% of mbt damage from behind without needing a reload.
Lightning's dont get a secondary weapon to deal another 25-ish% damage.
Maybe you're not convinced. Reaver rocket pods: 550 dmg, 12 shots/mag.
mbt has 20% resist, and 30% rear armor.
550*12*0.8*0.7=3696. Add in nosegun, and you can take out an mbt in one pass. Admittedly,launching the pods takes some time, and they are not pin-point accurate.
But: compare that possible damage, again, to what should be the toughest target in game, to what a tomcat or a coyote salvo do to an ESF; flimsiest air target in game.
A2G weaponry > G2G weaponry, and A2G > A2A weaponry.

A more apt comparison than vanguard vs ESF 1-on-1 would be vanguard cannon vs dalton, at an enemy mbt:
vanguard: 2075 dmg/shot. 4s-> 3.5s reload. AP: 1.15 x dmg vs mbt's.
Dalton: 2000 dmg/shot. 2.5s->2.125s reload. "liberator cannon": 1.5x damage vs mbt's.
Because of resistance multipliers, the Dalton is the one that deals more damage to mbt's, not the vanguard AP cannon.
In addition, it reloads faster, quite a bit.

max certed dps comparison:
[2000*1.5/2.125] / [2075*1.15/3.5]=2.07xxx.
A dalton cannon has approximately double the damage output as a vanguard cannon. (vs enemy mbt's).
In addition, typically this damage goes into top armor, and doesn't have to deal with extra front or extra side armor upgrades.
Note that this is without taking into account the tankbuster.

[/QUOTE]
Mouseyaw, yes. But: ESF should be more effective A2A (including liberator, galaxy, (valk)), but lose some A2G. (amount of hornets carried for starters)

In my perception that all changes have been made due to tears. Your perception easily fits into that model; tears create a nerf, and the weapon functionality is then re-introduced somewhat covertly.

Imagine how creative the dev team could be if forum tears did not to be weighed as consequences of their efforts.

Fixed that for you *Grins*

I jus' kiddin' mayne

Once again, if you introduce effective AA there won't be any airplanes anymore, because everyone would use it until the sky was clear. It is only either/or and no in-between. SoE made the decision in favor of planes. What I don't understand is why they didn't make like it was in PS1 where air was generally perceived to be quite balanced.

The problem with PS2 air is that ESF aren't balanced against each other. One empire will clear all enemy ESF first and proceed to dominate the air. Hint: It's not NC! The NC Reaver is the slowest least agile plane with by far the biggest hitbox.

In PS1 all ESF were common pool, so no empire had a build-in-advantage in air combat. Every empire had a fast Mosquito with just a front gun and a slower Reaver with additional rockets. Later all empires received the Hornet which was a Mosquito with AA rockets.

It is true though, that's how it usually goes.

No. This game should be primarily infantry, and the ONLY Thing aircraft do is farm infantry. With all the experienced pilots out there, its impossible for new players to learn.