News: ESF Update Plans via Kevmo - Page 2

Lonehunter · 2013-07-01, 11:15 PM

The Galaxy repair is a long time dream of mine, as long as it's active while airborne

snafus · 2013-07-01, 11:19 PM

Dog fighters rejoice! The A2AM plague will hopefull be brought to an end and things will be back to enjoyable flight game. Well done so far SOE, really liked the gal updates to. Just need to see some love for our other friend in the sky the Liberator. Those poor bastards still take a beating from everyone in the game.

KesTro · 2013-07-02, 01:26 AM

Originally Posted by snafus

Dog fighters rejoice! The A2AM plague will hopefull be brought to an end and things will be back to enjoyable flight game. Well done so far SOE, really liked the gal updates to. Just need to see some love for our other friend in the sky the Liberator. Those poor bastards still take a beating from everyone in the game.

No way, I'll still come at you with my A2A missiles only now I can say I have skill! *Tears of self satisfaction*

SternLX · 2013-07-01, 11:20 PM

Originally Posted by maradine

https://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/...-plans.138396/

Experience Changes
Players will be awarded kills and assists for players that suicide or log out.
The kill will be awarded to the player who last inflicted damage, whether that damage was done to their vehicle or to the player themselves.

^^^THIS I have a HUGE problem with. Amount of damage needs to be taken into consideration before anything is awarded.

How this reads to me is if say for example I Dual Burster it up and hit an ESF 1 time and 1 time only then say that pilot gets a little careless immediately after down near the deck and eats an OP Tree or Mtn side(it happens all the time). I get a full kill point and the pilot still gets a message I killed him when it's clear he ran into something? No, that's not right and should not be this way.
Or swing this the other way. I work over an ESF really good with some kind of AA and that pilot flys away and then an Infantryman hits it with his Primary, pilot suicides. That little Primary user gets the kill, and me, the guy that did all the work gets what? Nothing other than vehicle kill assist exp as it should be.
Kills should be worked for, not given away for minimal effort. Don't fall into the trappings of catering to the

kids who only got vehicle kill xp and not a pilot kill point. This will artificially inflate kill counts imho.

Alternate suggestions:
Combine the separate Vehicle Kill count with Regular Kill count. So if you do kill a vehicle with someone in it you get 2 Kill points. 1 for the driver, one for the vehicle.

Digging all the other listed changes however.

typhaon · 2013-07-01, 11:48 PM

Are you planning to make it significantly easier to maintain a lock?

All things being equal - no changes to flight mechanics, no changes to anything else -and just adding the changes you listed - I can't fathom a situation where someone would ever see the missiles as an effective choice.

I just tested my rotary canon and I unloaded the whole thing in less than 3 seconds.... with 5 rounds added.

At some extreme range? OK, maybe... but then we're back to the firing a pixel at a pixel and trying to keep your reticle on the target pixel. Just between you and me... that's a crummy mechanic that isn't much fun...

Missiles sure need a change - but I'm not sure this is it.

Maybe if ESF's had a 2nd seat and that guy was in charge of maintaining a laser lock after the missile was fired... also got to run some other countermeasures/put out fires or whatever (no I'm not talking about the ridiculous Harasser repairer).... that could be fun. Leave gun-only/dumbfire ESFs as still an option for solo warriors... but allow a configuration that is more dangerous and durable for teams.

At the very least it would get rid of the silly mechanic of chasing your missile to the target - WHEN YOU COULD JUST BE SHOOTING THEM INSTEAD.

Keep working. I have faith.

SternLX · 2013-07-01, 11:56 PM

Originally Posted by typhaon

At the very least it would get rid of the silly mechanic of chasing your missile to the target - WHEN YOU COULD JUST BE SHOOTING THEM INSTEAD.

Keep working. I have faith.

Wait what? did I miss something? Are the current Fire and forget A2A missles going away? I often fire away a missile and follow it in with rotory blazing up the target. And sometimes its the missile that finishes off the target after all my bullets riddled the target.

If this mechanic is going away then Cert Refunds can't come soon enough. I will never fly a Scythe again.

Valkar · 2013-07-02, 07:36 AM

I like the changes but a few reservations, firslty the new weapons seem to indicate the Reaver will now be good at long range and up close with their buff to damage fall off and new long range weapon?

Second I was hoping to see the A2G fighters be the only ones able to hover and the new A2A fighters super fast without certs firstly and unable to hover (to remove reverse power thrusting dogfights)

This way A2G hover and are slower and wide open to A2A fighters whilst A2A fighters must dogfight in a more traditional way instead of the helicopter way we have now?

CrankyTRex · 2013-07-02, 12:45 AM

Not a fan of losing the fire and forget A2A missile. What's the point of having them if you have to maintain the lock the whole time? You might as well just use rocket pods instead.

I can't see any reason to use A2A missiles in that instance unless they are extremely high speed, high damage. The whole advantage to having them was being able to lock on, fire it, and then switch back to guns to continue doing damage while it was in flight, or lock on a target fleeing into dangerous airspace for one last shot at finishing them before you had to turn back.

If that change happens, I want my certs back since that is a very different weapon from what I purchased.

Don't know about the mass driver either. You can already hit with the regular nose cannons from quite a significant distance so I can only see this thing becoming the absolute bane of a Lib pilot's existence. They're going to be getting hit from everywhere and having no way to escape it.

Love the additions to knowing what is locked on and having it on the minimap though.

Also I share the reservations about the sum total of the changes really widening the gap between newbs and aces.

typhaon · 2013-07-02, 01:02 AM

Sniper guns on ESFs sound hilariously bad for Lib pilots - I agree.

The overall changes to missiles and cannons seem designed to make the air game more inaccessible for the masses.

The XP change is an obviously good one.

You know... one of the best times in this game (for air fun) was the early beta when lock-ons had silly range... ESFs had a small timer and low resource costs... and ground AA wasn't this omnipotent shield.

Yes - everyone was blowing each other out of the sky with impunity - but damn were the skies full of aircraft.

I really wish someone at SOE would come in with a sledgehammer and just wipe out the current air game - it's really the weakest part of PS2's air/infantry/ground vehicle triangle.

GeoGnome · 2013-07-02, 05:48 AM

My only complaint is that I kind of wanted to see some kind of A2G Bombs... Ideally with laser designators attached to infantry that have to paint targets before said bombs will work.

I was kind of expecting that, after the statements made by Clegg about combinations that require multiple people to work.

But such is life I suppose.

As to the lockon changes, I am kind of glad "Fire and forget" is going to be going away. I am not a pilot, but the fact that we have something so obviously easy mode, is in and of itself sad. It's a zero skill weapon, a crutch. There exist such things in the game, and regardless of where they are, and who owns them, they should be removed. Personally, if they changed it so that that change is across all lockons for ground and air targets I'd be fine with that.

Valkar · 2013-07-02, 07:48 AM

Also obviously the gauss is NC but I read somewhere that the Coyote was TR and Locust VS but can't find it, anyone know where this was confirmed?

Gatekeeper · 2013-07-02, 08:14 AM

Originally Posted by Valkar

Also obviously the gauss is NC but I read somewhere that the Coyote was TR and Locust VS but can't find it, anyone know where this was confirmed?

The name they give for the first weapon is the NS-50 Mass Driver. It seems odd to give it the prefix NS if it's an NC weapon (unless that's a typo). I assumed it was NS for Nanite Systems and hence a common pool weapon - in which case I'd expect the other two would be as well.

Valkar · 2013-07-02, 08:20 AM

Originally Posted by Gatekeeper

The name they give for the first weapon is the NS-50 Mass Driver. It seems odd to give it the prefix NS if it's an NC weapon (unless that's a typo). I assumed it was NS for Nanite Systems and hence a common pool weapon - in which case I'd expect the other two would be as well.

Well I did think that initially but if you read the title above it says

New ESF Weapons

Reminder, all the below weapons are works in progress and subject to change.
The weapons below are designed to be air combat options for the secondary (wing mounted) slots. They are intended to supplement the nose cannons.

So from new ESF (empire specific) and there being 3 I assume its one each

Gatekeeper · 2013-07-02, 10:18 AM

Originally Posted by Valkar

Well I did think that initially but if you read the title above it says

New ESF Weapons

Reminder, all the below weapons are works in progress and subject to change.
The weapons below are designed to be air combat options for the secondary (wing mounted) slots. They are intended to supplement the nose cannons.

So from new ESF (empire specific) and there being 3 I assume its one each

Could be, but I think it's a bit unclear TBH. The weapons seem to fill quite different roles, which might be interesting for faction variety, but seems like it could be tough to balance well. I guess we'll see.

Also, in terms of ES characteristics - both the Locust and the Coyote seem to be TR-style weapons - the Locust being a spin-up weapon with a high RoF like the MCG and the Coyote being a lock-on swarm-missile much like the Striker.

I'd expect there to be some kind of annoying-to-use charge-up weapon for the VS

Rbstr · 2013-07-02, 10:50 AM

I hope for a larger proportion of empire-specific guns. Especially when you're homogenizing the current ESF weapons to an even greater degree.

Originally Posted by Gatekeeper

I'd expect there to be some kind of annoying-to-use charge-up weapon for the VS

Sure, plop a couple powered up lancers on the wings....without the huge damage reduction the ground based gun has against aircraft.

I'd like a new-Sauron-esque burst fire sort of gun. Maybe that can be the new A2G weapon. I'd really like a pure anti-armor cannon or wing-weapon. Easier to balance than anti-everything pods.
I hope there are new A2G weapons. Something people seem to not want to recognize: There's no point to A2A planes if there aren't any A2G planes to shoot down.

Though I really like the sound of that mass driver.
Nice big "fuck you" to all the belly-up dalton libs that have more maneuverability than a scythe.