AA max VS Sky guard! Why they must be changed.

[snafus]

Now as many of you know the balance between air and ground can be a very delicate situation. From our experiences in Beta we saw the extremes of both sides and just how ugly they can get hurting the over all game experience. And even though I hate AA with a passion it is a necessary part of the game that counters air. What I am going to propose is a roll reversal between the burster max and the skyguard. Currently the pros and cons between the two are just ridiculous. Making the vehicular based AA platform "Sky guard" a far less capable deterrent to air.

Burster positive attributes:

1. Incredibly accurate and small COF.
2. Very fast round velocity, requires very little leading to hit targets effectively.
3. High damge 44 rounds to destroy a full composite armor ESF.
4. Incredibly versatile in placement, can be placed on any terrain in the game.
5. Very small size from a long distance perspective.
6. Able to be invisible due to render issues and effectively kill or hit air units without risk of being hit back.
7. Able to be ressed via medic.
8. Available at any infantry terminal or sunderer in the game.
9. Has the ability to switch between AA, AI, and AV roles without any penalty or respawn.
10. You can place a large number of Burster maxs within the space a vehicle may take up and still be invisible.
11. They take no loss in accuracy while moving.
12 Have the ability to utilize cover or spawn rooms making them immune to damage or difficult to engage at all.
13. Very cheap 100 infantry points.
14. They have no restrictions on angle of guns. No other AA unit has the ability to fire down with out moving the vehicle to a lower angle.
15. Oddly effective against infantry even with the burster.

Burster Cons:

1. Require infantry terminal or engineer to re supply.
2. slow run speed requires transport to keep up with convoys.
3. Able to take damage from all weapons in game

Sky guard positive attributes:

1. Mobility able to keep up or surpass other vehicles in speed.
2. Only explosive or vehicle based machine guns can damage it.
3. slightly higher damage takes about 40 rounds to kill a ESF.

Sky guard cons:

1. Visible at max vehicle range, no invisible shooting for them.
2. Can only spawn at vehicle terminals.
3. Cannot change roles once spawned.
4. Infantry can engage you without being rendered.
5. larger COF compared to the Burster.
6. Able to take rear damage allowing for quick disposal by any AV unit.
7. Cannot be rezed by a medic
8. Slow turning speed of turret.
9. Required ammo towers or ammo sundy to rearm.
10. Cannot utilize the same terrain the burster max can use.



This to me is a huge issue which is quite damaging to the current balance in game. I strongly believe ground forces should be able to defend them selves. But not to the point where it gives such a large advantage to ground that it is near game breaking for pilots.I would wish that they would tighten up the sky guards COF as this causes the largest issue with tracking targets. At the same time reduce effective range of Burster max. increase the COF and possibly reduce the round velocity depending on other changes effects on the test server.

Now before all the infantry lynch mobs come in for me just take a minute to think on how these changes could help the game. This would allow air the ability to equally engage the threat that is engaging them. But it would still give Infantry the ability to kill or scare away any pilot that intends on farming them. This would also force ground units to actually make a tactical decision before moving out. Not simply be able to instantly switch to the burster max and **** any form of air that may make the mistake of being rendered by you. I have asked many people on Connery of their opinion on my perspective changes. And the majority feel it would be a good change, minus the occasional person who hates all forms of vehicle combat. So I ask you gentlemen and ladies to add your two cents and help bring attention to a major imbalance currently in game.

Here is an older thread in which I described ways to help reduce the versatility of the ESF. Some of these changes have already been acknowledged that they will be coming but more has to be done in my opinion. We can't just focus on AA as it was buffed for a reason and air needs to be equally balanced for the sake of the game. https://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/...of-esf.116325/