How about a little xp for actually hitting a plane with a lock on? It's a deterant, so probably not going to get a kill. But if im going to spend my time pulling a lock on, exposing myself to snipers, and give away my position to A2G ESFs, the least you could do is give me a little xp for my trouble. Im not talking about tons, but something to feel accomplished for when I scare A2G farmers off.
For a fix amount of damage you'll get some XP, and for some ticks of that you'll get a ribbon. Think every 2 hits you get 50-75 XP and every 10 ticks of that you get a 250 ribbon. Hilariously little for a ****** job, but there is some reward at least.
You're missing the big picture. At a decent pop fight it's not just you with a lock on, it's like 5 to 10 heavies pulling rockets out oi f their bums all at once. The deterrent is just you all being there. Also with Thermals gone, standing with line of sight trying to lock on doesn't give you away. Only way to track where the heavy is, is to watch the minimap after the rocket is fired.
And yet every time I play air there's never more than 2 or 3 HA's with lock-ons, and they even more rarely aim and fire at the same time, which I've seen maybe once ever. The problem is that these HA's are busy, and like any decent infantry unit they'll be behind cover so they wont get insta-killed. Not only that, their attention will be focussed on the other infantry. If the aircraft attacks from the same side as his own troops then most of the HA's will either not see him as they are using cover against that direction, expose themselves to enemy fire trying to lock-on or in a few exceptional cases just happen to stand on an open area with a view of the approaching aircraft without enemies around. If an aircraft attacks from a different angle then its hard to see it coming in time, there's still cover everywhere as you weave in and out of buildings that can take away vision of the aircraft and most of the infantry will be busy. The end result is that aircraft are rarely shot at by random HA's fighting in a base. Finding a lock-on user is exceedingly easy because of that: check the nearest enemy spawn and 9 times out of 10 you've found your lock-on user. Who the hell needs cheatvision to find them with such easy guidelines? One of the big problems is that A2G aircraft can pick and choose fights and arent forced to learn how to do A2G properly. I always notice how exceptionally bad the A2G aircraft are at basic tactics. They fly in from the same direction, at the same heights, at the same angles and repair up in the same general area almost every time (which is the point where I auraxed my Skyguard, I dont waste time being a barely useful deterrent). They'll also flail about finding good targets, with most targets being full-health enemy infantry still moving to the fight. They dont target a tank under fire for example and have trouble finding the frontline where a couple of shots of their ridiculously powerful weapons can easily help their team move forwards. Tl, DR: HA lock-ons are grossly overestimated in usage, A2G players generally suck balls (but that doesnt matter much if you have weapons so easy and strong).
I would be good with a small xp tick like the one i get when my harrasser gunner damages but doesnt kill air with the walker. I mean its like 25 xp so nothing great but it just feels good. I want to feels good with my lock on lol. As for a bunch of heavies pulling AA lock ons in a fight, rarely,,,and if that, you need at least 3. My buddy and I pull lock ons to deter air all the time, coordinate our attacks, but we rarely get kills because the lock on is so easy to avoid and it takes like 4+ volleys to kill an esf with fire suppression, which we never get off because they bug out so quickly to repair or line of sight us. It's not a big problem...just something that would be nice
Air Deterrence ribbons are already in game. Trouble is they're a little hard to come by unless you're doing a lot of damage to Aircraft, and aren't getting your sorry behind farmed.
