Dopplers Air Hate thread

[Doppler]

Ok i'm just going to toss out a few issues I have and see how many flames I get back. I need to make this clear from the get go, I hate aircraft, i understand their purpose, but i still dont find it very cool when I get rocket spammed by a guy with possibly less then 1/4th the certs i have invested.

I think th main imbalance with airpower as it stands right now is its ease of escape and repair. If a vanguard or a prowler get beaten down below half health. They cant exactly disengage and slip away. Airpower, can hit the boosts, fly back to the nearest air tower, and be ready to go again in under a minuete from barely able to fly.

This ability to resupply and repair so easily is what is seriously breaking the game in favor of airpower. Perhaps if the developers ever carried through on their promise of making watch towers duplicate the same feat for ground vehicles I whould find it more pleasing. This whould especialy be a boon to the skyguard, the vehicle with the most jacked up ammo allocation/loadout. It is just not time effective to deploy skyguards in the field without the dropship center link benefit.

Two additional changes i want to see made are more air defense as standard equipment on bases, and the ability of base autodefenses with interlink benefit of targeting mossies.

[Cryptica]

I like your ideas. I agree that airpower has advantages that need to be looked at and possibly modified. I like the idea of giving towers repair/rearm terminals for ground vehicles. It would help offset the advantage that aircraft get. In my opinion nerfing the aircraft would only make people bitch and whine, whereas taking that advantage away by giving ground vehicles RR terms would prevent most people from complaining. It wouldn't be making anyone weaker, it would be making everyone ELSE stronger. And I'm all for raising the power level of the game. I wanna see nukes!!! Wooooo!!!

[Cauldron Borne]

I play Air on 2 out of 5 of my charas. I, personally, don't find them overpowered. The AA max's can clear the skies rather quickly. My VS AA max, alone kept the skies clean from air for over an hour in one base, didn't die once. Got 30+ kills, and about 60+ reavers running away in terror.

More on Topic: I agree that there should be a RR term on the towers, too. And that the Skygaurd needs an ammo buff.

I do NOT agree that you should take away the mossies' 'steath' ability. You can already see them if they fly over an interlink facility, or a base connected to one. If you let those tower guns hit them, too, it will only be yet another Infiltrator nerf. The VAST majority of Infls use the mossie to get around and do their jobs. If you hurt the mossie, you hurt the cloakers.

[Electrofreak]

Cert Skyguard. Problem = Solved.

Edit: better yet, park a skyguard near a friendly lodestar. Repair / rearm all fricking day.

[Doppler]

I have a skyguard, it is far from satisfactory for the reasons i've noted above, additionaly because the developers are so sold on flak it is a pain in the butt to hit a aircraft thats not standing still, a skyguard cannot do crap to a reaver making diving passes or not directly approeaching.

Cauldron i fail to see how disallowing mossies to hover over bases will hurt cloakers. It will disallow them from just landing in the courtyard yes, but wont affect their ability to hotdrop over bases etc. If there is a battle on and mossies are over the base their most likely straffing targets, not exactly infiltrator territory.

[BadAsh]

I understand your frustration with air power in the game. It can be devastating and very frustrating if precautions in your strategy are not taken. After getting �reavered� by rocket spam one too many times while on foot I dropped a weapon certification and picked up a Mosquito or Sky Guard (I switch up between the two often). You will almost never find me walking on foot unless it�s from the base to the immediate base tower. So by changing my tactics (walking everywhere) you will now find me either in a Mosquito or Sky Guard. All I can say is �Bring your Reaver over now Hero and I�ll teach you the real meaning of spam weaponry�. Besides giving me the advantage in those reaver confrontations this change also saves me a LOT of time in foot travel. I now spend more of my playing time in hot spots in the thick of the action rather than spending much of my time in transit. Even without stray aircraft owning you, Rexo hiking is super lame as is.

I�ve spent much time in aircraft and that experience has taught me that they airpower is fairly balanced IF the enemy bothers to take the counter measures. When in a reaver or mosquito and a VS or NC AA MAX locks on you are dead unless you immediately hit your AB and fly AWAY. If you hesitate you are nearly insta-gibed by these powerful weapons. While in an aircraft any TR AA MAX or Sky Guard that you don�t see will insta-gib you. By the time you start taking damage it�s already too late.

The real problem with air craft is that for some reason not enough people want to get AA weaponry. AA weapons are in the game and are very effective. I don�t really see it as a problem with aircraft being too powerful. What I see as a problem is when your entire squad or platoon can�t field one single AA weapon. All it takes is a handful of AA MAX units stationed in a base to stop an entire Zerg of enemy aircraft.

One of my most satisfying killing sprees in the game came with my VS AA MAX. I was guarding the rooftop of an Air Tower and just spanked enemy aircraft that were chasing friendly aircraft back to the tower. In about 1.5 hours I racked up 73 reaver/mosquito kills and got 4 liberators to boot.

In summary my point is if you don�t like getting killed �OBA� (Owned by Air) then get an AA vehicle or MAX and get some payback!

Some basic AA tricks that I find to be VERY effective:

1. Don�t position yourself where you can easily be seen. You want to be undetected until you attack. By then it�s usually too late for them to AB away.

2. Don�t attack until your prey is close enough to kill. I can�t tell you how many times while in my reaver I get a lock on warning from a VS/NC MAX that is too far away. He locks on and let�s loose, but I have plenty of time to turn and AB the hell outa Dodge. If he had waited until I was closer or preoccupied�

3. As hinted at above, wait until your prey is engaging a target and preoccupied before firing if possible. Typically if you lock a Reaver just as he starts firing a load of rockets he will try and finish the clip before reacting to your lock. This is a fatal error that most (guessing 90% reaver pilots) make.

[Peacemaker]

I enjoy flying and as anyone here who I have played with knows my prefered air to ground weapon is the Mosquito. The Reaver rockets on infantry are just a waste. I prefer to use the reaver as a fighter except when there are AMSs, Tanks, or LARGE infantry groups. Even when using the reaver unless im cleaning up a battle field I dont use rockets on infantry, just the 20mms. My best suggestion, mount the 20mm center line and make rockets alot less effective on infantry and more effective on tanks, but lower the max you can carry (reduce the box to twelve rockets).

[drsomewhere]

/agree
center lined 20 mm cannon would stop reaver rocket spam. Right now hitting infantry with the 20 mm is quite innefective

[Rbstr]

Originally Posted by Peacemaker

I enjoy flying and as anyone here who I have played with knows my prefered air to ground weapon is the Mosquito. The Reaver rockets on infantry are just a waste. I prefer to use the reaver as a fighter except when there are AMSs, Tanks, or LARGE infantry groups. Even when using the reaver unless im cleaning up a battle field I dont use rockets on infantry, just the 20mms. My best suggestion, mount the 20mm center line and make rockets alot less effective on infantry and more effective on tanks, but lower the max you can carry (reduce the box to twelve rockets).

hell fucking yeah! make the clip size 12, and let the new rockets do enought damage to take a lightning/buggy in one pass, but not only enogth AI to take one Agile and make the 20mm more accurate, that way we just made the reaver AV and now you only have to worry about libs

[Onizuka-GTO]

I just wish there was at leased one useful AA weaponary that Vanu infantry can have. Sure we have the Lancer but its useless compared with the Striker and Phoenix. Sure the Phoenix is slow but at leased it ca nguide itself to the target, and it scares them away, and if they do hit it does much more damaged then the oversize laser pointer....as for the striker, it's almost perfect except of unable to lock-on to target near or on buildings. At leased give the Vanu a single shot disposable, lock-on AA only launcher would be something.

[Peacemaker]

Actualy,

I am dead scared of lancers. They are by far the hardest thing to dodge. There is zero warning. Very accurate. Scares me into thinking there is a magrider around. Of all the AV weapons the lancer scares me the most, striker the least (omg so easy to loose). THe phnx is in the middle, just so many people use the damn things. Lancers are the best AA infantry have. The others have a comparitivly limited range, the lancer can reach out and tap me several hundred yards away. In a face off, if I know where they are I can kill a few lancers, but the second they get the drop on me I am flying back to base for a quick repair. Just to tell you, I have flown for the NC and the TR. The striker is a POS against aircraft if you know how to fly. Its sooooo easy to dodge it.

PS why does doppler always title his threads as "Doppler's ______ Thread?" I mean it tells you who made the thread right under it.

[WritheNC]

Hah, so that's what happens if you hit quick reply by accident!

I hate aircraft, i understand their purpose, but i still dont find it very cool when I get rocket spammed by a guy with possibly less then 1/4th the certs i have invested.

The devs have stated more cert points will not and are not there to make you more powerful, just give you more choices. I have Rexo, MA, AV, MED, ENG. 14 certs. Any vehicle cert worth 3 points or more will almost certainly own me.

I think th main imbalance with airpower as it stands right now is its ease of escape and repair. If a vanguard or a prowler get beaten down below half health. They cant exactly disengage and slip away. Airpower, can hit the boosts, fly back to the nearest air tower, and be ready to go again in under a minuete from barely able to fly.

That is the whole point, unfortunately. Aircraft get damaged very quickly, and if you're not good, you'll be spending a lot of time at the air tower, or in front of the vehicle terminal waiting for the timer to expire. Air Cavalry is by design a fast response, lightning strike certification. As for tanks, they are the opposite, but they and aircraft rely on each other.

This ability to resupply and repair so easily is what is seriously breaking the game in favor of airpower.

You'd have to elaborate, since I don't see how the game is really breaking from it. Aircraft can't just fly willy-nilly over any base without molestation.

Perhaps if the developers ever carried through on their promise of making watch towers duplicate the same feat for ground vehicles I whould find it more pleasing.

I agree.

This whould especialy be a boon to the skyguard, the vehicle with the most jacked up ammo allocation/loadout. It is just not time effective to deploy skyguards in the field without the dropship center link benefit.

A good skyguard gunner and driver can clear all the air cavalry around a base in 2 minutes or less. Keep clearing them out, and most aicraft look for a greener patch of grass to fight over.

I have a skyguard, it is far from satisfactory for the reasons i've noted above, additionaly because the developers are so sold on flak it is a pain in the butt to hit a aircraft thats not standing still, a skyguard cannot do crap to a reaver making diving passes or not directly approeaching.

I'll gun for you sometime. Just lead your target more.

I just wish there was at leased one useful AA weaponary that Vanu infantry can have.

The starfire is powerful enough to compensate for that. They turn faster and walk faster than other maxes, and do 300 damage per second to aircraft. Sparrow and burster do 150 damage per second. Only a locked down burster can match the Starfire's dps. In fact, VS have got to be the most god-awful empire to fly against. The Magrider is an air cavalry's nightmare, and the Starfire is the best aa max.


I think aircraft is pretty balanced.

[Rbstr]

Mags and lancers do huge damge to AA, tahts it why we try to only engage mags in groups that mag gun can take a reaver down in 3 hits, and its super accurate

[drsomewhere]

Originally Posted by Onizuka-GTO

I just wish there was at leased one useful AA weaponary that Vanu infantry can have. Sure we have the Lancer but its useless compared with the Striker and Phoenix. Sure the Phoenix is slow but at leased it ca nguide itself to the target, and it scares them away, and if they do hit it does much more damaged then the oversize laser pointer....as for the striker, it's almost perfect except of unable to lock-on to target near or on buildings. At leased give the Vanu a single shot disposable, lock-on AA only launcher would be something.

sadly enough, i was shot down by a lancer while hovering in my mosquito. I killed the guy shooting me as i went down however

[DeadTeddy]

a good way to get rid of reavers would be to simply make their rockets capable of locking on to other reavers and only other reavers. it will make surviving in the skies a much bigger task.
mossies are stealth aircraft so the missiles can't lock on and big planes have counter measures. now you even have an explanation.

yeah, it's a dumb idea but I guarantee those reavers won't be hovering around shooting infantry anymore when they know the moment they are at less then full speed a missile can bite them in the ass.