[Vehicle] Why Tomcats are amazing!!!

Who ever said the nose gun was fun, I am bored with my araxium rotary. Currently levelling all the other just because there is little else for air to do except level a boring nose gun.

For a comparison, you know why infantry don't fight with only knives, because that's bloody boring too. Nose gun would have to be the most boring weapon on the ESF, just under tanks. As a pilot I want real firepower, I want to see large explosions etc. as a foot slogger (because I like to play all aspects) I want to have control over air firepower, I want to find the targets and tell the aircraft where to drop the bombs. I would also like hard and soft counters for these bombs/missiles.

I want complexity in this game, not a machine gun on the front of a VTOL, if I wanted that I would have started a WW1 fighter game, because it is pretty much the same except for the RM.

Conclusion, air duels = boring
Nerfs = boring
Ps1 = exciting
Ps2 = Boring

Moin

I agree that choosing the right tools for the job is a skill. This however has nothing to do with the fact that some tools might still be overpowered, either compared to other options or in relation to the effort they take to use.

Except that you are wrong. I change my load out depending on the forces I encounter and if I have a wing man or wing to fly with. You see... the battlefield is a fluid thing and those that expect ONE load out to rule them all in any one aspect of the air game are doomed to fall behind and be blown to bits.


No matter the load out if you keep using the exact same one you WILL get outplayed by someone that adapts to it. Case in point... someone that relies too hard on A2AM? Flares, Stealth, Hover frame, Vortek and Fuel Pods. I've used that load out many times to spank A2AM weenies that bottom feed on the outskirts of fights.

Person uses Fire Suppression/Hover/Fuel tanks? Thinks they are a hover duel god? Spank em with Lock Ons or Coyotes as they are intended to be used.

My 34 ish days /played give ME the authority to say you are full of it in this conversation by the way. You have NO reaching authority to state YOUR opinion is FACT... so suck it up.

And this is exactly what you're trying to say. lockons always > AB tanks. You don't want complexity, you just want lockons to be uncounterable, except by using more lockons.

flares counter A2AM, but make you worse against every other target, compared to fire suppresion. Yeah, you can kill a single A2AM dude by running a hard counter to their loadout, but then you're boned if you chose AB tanks. Why should the hard counter to ab tanks ( any lockons) be so much better than the hard counter to lockons (flares)? Plus, coyotes, even though they're lockons, are barely affected by flares and not at all by stealth.

So where's my hard counter to coyotes and stealth? Why can't I have a loadout slot that makes them completely and throughly useless, without taking any skill of my own? For starters, stealth could completely negate both.

How about you suck it up, and admit that you're biased by your 765 tomcat kills, and 240 coyote kills? approximately 1/6th of your total a2a kills are by lockons (taking into account your noseguns and A2A secondaries). I'm inclined to doubt that you're looking at the effectiveness of lockons rationally.

Don't all threads?

So Tomcats is for new players (like me) I guess?

The Sky Knights surely do wish to paint the image of the weapon this way, so that it will be "balanced" in this manner.

You go on a decent rant about Coyotes right after this, but I have to point out what you've done here is describe a perfect Rock/Paper/Scissors arrangement.

FS + Pods > Flare + Pods > X + A2A > FS + Pods

Not quite. A weapon balanced for a new player would be one that's easy to kill with, but hard to do well with - i.e. the "noob tube". And Sky Knights certainly don't want any weapons in the game that are easier to kill with than the noseguns.

Yes but isn't it more fun to learn how to fly if the lock ons are too easy to use?

This ignores a few things:

ease of use of lockons
liberators
utility in gank squads

Such an arrangement could theoretically work, but only if it took as much skill to use lockons as to use AB tanks. Plus, FS is miles better than flares against most ground AA, and there's no job Flare+pods can do that coyotes+flares can't do better.

Really, what needs to happen is that either stealth, flares, or both need to be made into something that counters both A2AM and coyotes. This would be pretty easy to code in on the stealth side of things too.

What? these are new player weapons. They take objectively less skill to use than AB tanks, and should be balanced as such. I have no problem with lockons as a low skill floor/low skill cap weapon to help out noobs in groups, but not experienced pilots, they just don't serve that purpose now (that is to say, they make every loadout better).

I see the point is too complex for you as it went right over your head....

I'll state it VERY simply for you.

NO. ONE. LOADOUT. BEATS. THEM. ALL.

Suck it up, learn to play.

Please read and understand all the jousting rules before getting into an ESF:

Rule #1
All combat must begin with the challenger gently slapping the challenged across the face with a glove while saying "I demand satisfaction".
The reciever can then either accept the challenge, or be dishonoured.

Rule #2
Before engaging another aircraft, you MUST first get in the jousting line/queue and wait til its your turn to joust.
When its your turn, make sure your opponent is ready.

Rule #3
When jousting, you must ONLY use your nosegun and afterburners.
Anything else will immediately result if the forfeit of both the duel and your honour.

Rule #4
Bailing from your aircraft or crashing into your opponent at any point for any reason is stictly prohibited.

Rule #5
After defeat/victory, you must send your opponent a tell that strokes both epeens at the same time, disquised as a "well done" tell, while calling eachother "sir".

Rule #6
All rules are unspoken, and it is assumed that everyone who gets into an aircraft knows and understand all the above rules and abides by them at all times.
Lest they loose their honor and forfeit all rights to joust.

This is false.

rotary/A2AM/FS/NAR or Stealth, as preference/Hover beats every other ESF loadout. I can wipe the floor with enemy ESF's who use flares with that loadout, except with the rotary switched for a banshee. If you really think locks are balanced, you're the one who needs to L2play. I'd accurately describe you with a buzzcut psycho quote, but I'd rather not get the mods on my tail.

This again? Seriously? If all you can do is spout Ad-hominems, get of the thread.

I dunno. Plenty of fun games have missiles as the "primary" weapon of aircraft. Many of the fun-arcadey non-realistic flight games (HAWXS and Ace Combat come to mind) mostly have you rely on missiles and cannons as a "finisher". Even BF3/4 have A2A missiles play a prominent role in combat.

Most of the flight games out there that rely on nose-cannons as your primary weapon are your older games, or games based on WWI-II (War Thunder, IL-2, etc).

It's not necessarily about realism, but what works. And for most modern aircraft, A2A missiles just seem to work better.

I don't know, I must be using them wrong, but all trying to use A2A tomcats has ever done for me is get me killed if its anyone other than:

-A brand new player on his maiden flight
-Somebody fighting somebody else (which just makes me feel like a d8ckhead, so I don't do it)

Trying to use those in any other instance than the two stated above, I'll get the floor mopped with me.

This is a quality thread with respectable and coherent replies made by people who clearly understand the grace, skill, and precision required to fight in an ESF, and the horrible lack of skill required to use A2A missiles in the perfectly balanced game that is Planetside 2.

That hurt to type.

The fact that PC players are asking for Aim assist its really sad... gaming today is way to easy and boring, less and less games are actually a challenge. You cry babies in love with your AUTO-AIM ruined this game for me, do me a favor and go play Halo. I out of online games, im bored with the alternatives and i want to come back to play PS2 but not if the Cheap Aim Assist its still in the game.

Missilee can be fun with the proper mechanics, I admit, but with ps2 flight speed, really weak flares, flight mechanics in general, and clientide hit detection, lockons work poorly.