AA targeting landed Aircraft?

[DayOne]

Originally Posted by Raka Maru

My pet peeve, is that AA flak should be able to target anything in the air, including jet packers. If feet leave the ground, they should be vulnerable to standard AA damage.

Sooo, on the inverse, they land and standard AV damage should apply to aircraft, and back to AI damaged for jetters.

I see were you're coming from but you made one mistake, you assume aircraft and vehicles are different.

The only difference between them are that aircraft can move in three dimensions and things like this annoy me in battlefield when heatseekers only lock onto one type of thing, either aircraft of vehicles.

The difference between the ordnance used to take them down is that, due to less armour, aircraft can be taken down with smaller, faster rockets. Tanks, on the other hand, have more armour and so require a lot more to be taken out.

AA should be able to take out vehicles, very slowly of course, and AV should be able to take out aircraft, but with great difficulty.

[Erendil]

It's only difficult to reconcile an AA weapon's ability to lock onto or detonate near aircraft only - whether or not they're occupied - if you try to explain it using mid-20th century technology instead of tech that is several centuries ahead of our own.

An easy explanation would be to look at all of the obvious wireless communication going on in PS1/2. Chat channels, Voice chat, 2d/3d spotting, objective markers, CE placement, etc all reveal that there is a TON of information that is constantly being slung all over the airwaves of Auraxis. I think it'd be easy to design weapons that can home in on the unique signals that constantly emanate from enemy aircraft - which would also explain why they don't lock on/detonate near friendly air.

It's also pretty clear that even unoccupied vehicles never completely power down. They're always awake enough to allow for different levels of vehicle ownership, so the vehicle can identify and only let certain individuals or groups of individuals enter. It's also ready to roll the instant you get in without having to push the ON button. So there's always a unique low-power energy signature present that could be detectable by AA weaponry.


But of course, for me gameplay generally trumps technobabble. As such, I'd prefer it if a target was designated as an "air target" and that it would keep that designation regardless of whether or not part of it is pounding dirt. From a gameplay and a balance perspective I'd generally prefer that lockon/prox capabilities be based on the type of target (i.e. - is it an air unit?), and not on its current state or position.

It used to bug me in PS1 for example that I could only lockon to FV BFRs in a Starfire when they were actually up in the air. The second they touched ground I'd lose the lock, regardless of how close I was to it or how clear my view to the target was. Stooooopid.

IMO, If AA can lock onto a target, then it always can, since it will always recognize the target as an air unit. If AA can't lockon, then it never can.

[Rabb]

Originally Posted by DayOne

But it wouldn't be used to actively set off the explosive.

Current air burst systems use a timer set by the weapon as it fires to burst at a set range I see no reason why this tech would change much

[Kipper]

Purely for purposes of looking cool, I'd like to see WWII style air burst flak, it would certainly add something to the game trying to fly through it.

If Galaxies are big and slow; then this stuff needs to be a threat, but not spell instant death.

For the faster 'gunship' type vehicles, its more about putting up a screen to stop them operating than actually shooting many of them down. But a few lucky hits or someone flying too slowly or dithering should be good XP for the AA player...

It will be tricky - you have to have it so that AA can't farm air, and Air can't farm ground, good luck to the balance team on that one

[Xyntech]

That would be pretty awesome to see some realistic flak clouds. Hanging in the area sort of like giant radiator bubbles, fly through them with an aircraft and take damage.

[Traak]

I like the prox. fusing as it is now. Lock-on, too.

I like that the lock-on no longer locks on to ANY plane, but only enemy planes.

[Marinealver]

If Air is caught on the ground it is pretty much dead. Besides you don't find too many landed aircraft as there is really no point in keeping a vehicle instead of simply getting a new one.

[Purple]

Originally Posted by Marinealver

If Air is caught on the ground it is pretty much dead. Besides you don't find too many landed aircraft as there is really no point in keeping a vehicle instead of simply getting a new one.

in planetside 2 people will keep anything as long as they can so that they dont lose the resources.