Making Air Power more practical in PS

[Baneblade]

Maybe fuel should be for something less obvious. Like Lartnev said, for added bonuses. Maybe have a Fuel Supercapacitor that can either be routed to the Afterburners on aircraft (and maybe a turbo on land vehicles), maybe the vehicle shield being redesigned to be more like the NC MAX shield and have the FS charge that too.

The basic operations wouldn't change or be limited, but overall battlefield survivability would be impacted.

[MrVicchio]

One of my great earlyjoys in playing PS was flying my reaver, I spent most of my time Air-to-air...

then they added all that anti-air crap from the ground...

And it boggles the mind that the three empires have various guided weapns to use against air targets but the simple act of sticking a guided missle for air-to-air use only is too complex... Boggles the mind.

Dumb Fire rockets and LOS chain guns constituting air power in the future... come on, gimmie a break.

[Baneblade]

My sentiments exactly. I think a two seat Reaver sort of made to do what an AH-64 Apache does is a good idea.

Course the two seat could be the empire versions. The CP Reaver could just have the center mounted 20mms and dumbfire 'Super Decis'.

This is sorta how I imagine it:

CP Reaver:
2x 20mm guns, and Devastator Missile System, basically a time locking missile that is as slow as a Deci, fires at about the Vanguard's 150mm rate , but does maybe twice the dmg that a Deci does. Each ammo box could hold maybe 3 of the Devs, and only 3 are loaded at a time. The lock prevents it from being used as an AI weapon and the slow speed makes it harder to use against AA targets like Skeeters.

TR Reaver:
This machine would be most similar to the current Reaver, the 20mms would be doubled to have quadlinked chainguns that actually will fire twice as fast and not just be for show. The Gunner would control a missile system that is similar to what Reaver's have now with one major difference. It would be laser guided with a nose mounted system, the missiles can only launch when the gunner has a target though else they are dumbfire.

NC Reaver:
This beast would sport a single 25mm gun for the pilot instead of the dual 20s. The gunner would control a Phoenix like missile system that is guided and packs the punch of a Deci. One shot at a time though and the range is maybe only about 450m.

VS Reaver:
This one would be the least like the current Reaver, the pilot would have a lighter version of the Magrider's main railgun, but it would have a faster RoF and no splash. The gunner would control a hardly accurate neutron cannon that acts similar to the Radiator in that it goes directly into the health of the target crew bypassing armor, but not sheilds.

This is just an idea blog really, obviously some tuning would be needed.

[Warborn]

Originally Posted by Lartnev

If fuel was an optional add-on to give added bonuses I think people might begin to like the idea even more.

I think this is the only hope fuel has for being a good addition to the game. If it were something that would enhance you when you have it, and not cripple you when you don't, people would refuel because they want the bonuses, not because they have to if they want to keep driving/flying.

[MrVicchio]

I've complained about the simplistic air power since this game was in Beta.

[Baneblade]

The simplistic nature of ground power is annoying too. It's like driving a go cart in my Enforcer.

I want gears, hell even engine choices.