Higby on Air/AA balance.. Is it the fast track to Airside?

[Helwyr]

I was listening to the PC Gamer Twitch Stream with Higby Wednesday and he made a comment on balance that really left me thinking WTF is he thinking. Essentially Higby said what a lot of the more 'out-to-lunch' Air players have been saying for some time.

They(SOE) do not want ground based AA as a hard counter to Air, just a deterrent. Air is the counter to Air.



So, what are the consequences of this...

Who in their right mind would play AA? It's fairly boring to begin with in PS2 IMO. Add to this its given up the ability to fight non Air units to counter Air, but if it's not meant to kill aircraft then in a game like this the motivation to use it by your typical player is zero... No kills, no certs, no joy! In fact it's not even an effective deterrent at present.

Air is king of the hill, can kill anything not in an inclosed building and can only reliably be killed by other Air units. No unit in the game other than Air is only countered by itself and effective vs everything. Could you imagine if I asked the equivalent for Infiltrators.. Give us the means to kill any unit in the game and a phased cloak that only other Infiltrators can defeat. Yeah it sounds ridiculous, but that's how many view the Air unbalance.

I personally don't want to play an Aircraft Sim, if I could just ignore Aircraft as Infantry that would be one thing, but I fear as more players discover illconsidered SOE vehicle additions like IR/Thermal sights and Scout Radar PS2 is going to get really lame very fast.

[Bags]

The consequences of this is me not spending another dime on the game.

If SOE refuses to balance or give a damn about PS2 post launch then I'll spend elsewhere.


Anyway the general consensus on the forums is air is fine so I don't see that changing

>I agree. Air vehicles should use the main guns. Ground vehicles, well imo they shouldn't even have air defenses.

Yes 1/3rd of the game should completely dominate 2/3rds of the game. I wouldn't give a damn about being useless against air if air was only good against air.


Oh well, further proof in my eyes that the devs for this game are completely terrible... I can't think of anything PS2 does better than PS1, and don't say scale because LOL10FOOTPOP-INs.

I hoped if all else failed they'd at least balance better than PS1...

[Tooterfish]

I spent the 1,000 cert equivalent in cash for the NC's HAWK, the Anti-Air rocket launcher for the HA. This is, and probably always will be, my biggest regret in Planetside 2 micro-transactions.

Here, buy this rocket launcher so that you can be a "deterrent". *sigh* For the record, it takes 3 solid locks and hits to take a mosquito down from full health. I'm not sure about libs. If this is a deterrent for you, time to give up flying.

Frankly, being a meat shield, standing out in the open waiting for locks and being bombed, shot at and humiliated while I simply try to be an annoyance for someone in the air, all while my team is indoors playing the game and earning XP, does not sound like my idea of fun.

[Bags]

I've killed 3 HOVERING, STILL aircraft in 1.5 weeks with it

That's almost as many kills as ESF get in one strafe on biolabs with their rocket pods.

[Boomzor]

The whole mind set that something is only meant to be a "deterrent" is silly. When that deterrent comes at the cost of any and all killing capacity against vehicles and infantry it's down right ludicrous.

It should be the other way around.
If you cert into a specialist role forsaking pretty much every other killing capability;

YOU. SHOULD. BE. DEADLY. AT. WHAT. YOU. DO.

Anti air is currently putting all their eggs in one basket and they all turn out to be half baked? Come on...

[Snipefrag]

One person with AA shouldn't be able to destroy an air vehicle on its own unless the pilot is stupid, that's his point. And i agree with it. I guess for all you VS out there that were so used to camping pads with the Skillfire PS2 has been a bit of an awakening to you guys. The counter to air with ground troops? Teamwork. That's the way it should be, the TR on Waterson we're getting zerged by massive amounts of air at one of the bio labs, no one could get anywhere near. You know what solved it? Archangels rolling up with 20 people. AMS, Burster maxes, HA lock on rockets and engineers. Planetside is about teamwork, not one man armies.

[Mavvvy]

Guys its a deterrent individually yes. But two Skyguards and a couple of guys with hawks, do keep the airspace clear.

I'm surprised that teamwork hasn't been already considered in the equation. No one expects a single heavy assault to hold up a tank push, so why should a lone Skyguards be able to take on multiple aircraft buy itself, give that guy a few buddies and its a battery which hits hard.

Even better co-ordinate with other air units setting up a flak-trap works wonders.

That said the hawk could use a little more punch.

[Snipefrag]

Originally Posted by Mavvvy

Guys its a deterrent individually yes. But two Skyguards and a couple of guys with hawks, do keep the airspace clear.

I'm surprised that teamwork hasn't been already considered in the equation. No one expects a single heavy assault to hold up a tank push, so why should a lone Skyguards be able to take on multiple aircraft buy itself, give that guy a few buddies and its a battery which hits hard.

Even better co-ordinate with other air units setting up a flak-trap works wonders.

That said the hawk could use a little more punch.

Exactly, the people in this thread are thinking about things in a 1vs1 situation. Which in a MMOFPS like PS2 is exactly they way to screw balance up.

[Sledgecrushr]

I see Im stepping into a mess here but, if you run with a2a missiles you will get a boatload of air kills. The game is ballanced so that air dominance fighters dont really have a problem killing other air at all, but air dominance fighter suck at killing ground targets. This will equalize when folks realize that the 1 sec radar lock missile kills are sooper easy xp. So before we rush out with pitchforks and torches lets let the game ballance itself out we are just at the beginning.

[Storn]

I fly my Mosquito with A2A missile a lot and find that AA can be very effective as a deterrent. I have to stay high out of the general AA view to hunt effectively. The problem with people is they want to be able to do it all. You can’t be a one man army able to take down tanks, air, and infantry. That’s what DEVs are trying to get across; it’s a team game. If you’re tired of getting shot-up on the ground get in the air or throw out a Skyguard. I have had several frustrated nights due to effective AA

Like where your head is Sledgecrushr

[PredatorFour]

I killed a TR liberator with 2 direct hits in my mag yesterday overlooking a canyon. That was a free mag too, maybe thats more of a deterent than buying the AA weapons and taking ages to drop them.

[Storn]

Originally Posted by PredatorFour

I killed a TR liberator with 2 direct hits in my mag yesterday overlooking a canyon. That was a free mag too, maybe thats more of a deterent than buying the AA weapons and taking ages to drop them.

Are you VS with the Magrider sniper cannon

[EisenKreutzer]

I've killed lots of air rat, both with the Burster MAX and the Liightning post launch. Still havent killed one with my anti air rocket launcher, but it sure does chase them away.

Even if all theae options are just deterrents, I still fulfill a vital role for an outfit, a role that helps my outfit capture and hold bases, granting me xp in the long run.

[Hmr85]

I have about 35+ kills with my Hawk currently. I would say its doing a pretty decent job and we do not really run into many issues with air. With that said though I am usually sitting on top of a hill with a big AA battery locking down a area. So I get to pick off the stragglers/half damaged for free XP.

[Mordelicius]

They ought to give Light Assault a basic Anti-Air rocket that is useless against land vehicles. It's simple logic. Light Assault are the fastest to go up a building or structure. They are the best troops to match against air spam.

At four rockets base, they won't be overpowered at all.