The AA "ladder" is messed up.

[MrMak]

As the TR MAX lockdowm emphasised the burster is the most effective AA weapon in the game. Now how does that make sense? Both from a gameplay and logical point of view.

Logicaly what we see here is a small 15mm(ish) flak gun more effective than a quad rapid fireing 30mm flak gun(Skyguard) not to mention the ranger and AA Phalanx which are both clearly bigger.

From a gameplay point of view we have the 2nd most accessible and hard to spot AA option as the most powerfull leavign the others rather obselete.

Of course nerfing the burster alone would be idiotic since it would just bring us back to the "good old days" in beta when AA was smacked with a nerf hammer coated in dry cement.

AA needs to be rebalanced not so much in relation to air (though a little bit of that is sort of needed aswell) but in relation to itself.

Bursters should be where the Ranger is now. A deterant which is only a major threat en mass and at close range. This can be done with either giving it the ridicoulus fireign cone the Skyguard and Ranger curently "enjoy" or by scaling the flak damamge over distance much more drasticaly than it is now. This \will also make lockdown burster MAXes much more bearable.

The Ranger needs to have its fireing cone tightened siginificantly to actualy make it hit stuff at the range it is supose to deter them.

The Skyguard needs to have its fireing cone tightened. This may have to go in hand with a damage nerf (Ill take the ability to hit stuff for potential damage on the off hand i hit stuff anyday). If the firepower and mobility are too scary than perhaps make the skyguard turret give the Lightning a anchored mode like deploy finction that tightenes the fieing cone. That way the driver has to choose between mobility and acuracy. Its overall effectivness should be where the dual burster MAX is right now.


The phalanx AA turret seems to be pretty much ok as it is if the bursters get kicked down from the top of the food chain. They are pretty powerfull as it is now, the problem is its more effective to just put a burster MAX next to it than man it. MAXes should be asuplement to the turret not the other way around.

Finaly the Walker and AA lockon launchers (except maybe the striker but thats another problem entirely) are in a good place right now.


Finaly the air. ESFs will be fine once Skyguards take over from bursters. They are easier to spot (and subsequently avoid or eliminate).

Liberators are in a bit of a pickle since they dont have the speed of ESFs to get the hell away once they get targeted. They should probably get a similar armor upgrade as tanks got. Make hem more rsistant to flak so AA realy is mostly a deterant to them and make them perhaps more vunerable to Rotaries so that ESFs are the hard counter. Perhaps give ESFs a heavy A2A lockon "torpedo" that is highly effective against Liberators and Galaxies but unable to properly track fast targets like ESFs.