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Old 2013-09-26, 02:55 PM   [Ignore Me] #52
Lepalose
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Re: Community Clash TXR and MERC vs NNG and TGWW


Originally Posted by TorinPS View Post
I see this as further disadvantaging the side with a lesser skilled air squad. If you are allowed 12 people in the air at any given time, and your 12 people cannot compete, you outright lose the air battle. You don't have the option of putting 24 people in the air to try to counter it, you just lose the air battle. And IMO, 12 people in the air is still more than plenty to handle 48 people on the ground. 1 Liberator is still ample to hold down a spawn when they don't have to worry about air threats. Basically this turns all air vs air battles into strictly a matter of skill and the 'right' air squad loadout. (lib/esf balance) Not that this is particularly bad, it just gives even fewer options to outfits with less experienced air squads.
But this explains why it gets out of hand. Pulling 24 aircraft to deal with 12 so that you can dominate the air would work, yes. But then pulling 36 aircraft to deal with 24 is more effective too.

So then why not just put 44 people in aircraft and have 3 infiltrators on the ground to do the ghost capping? Because honestly in the current state, that is a stronger force then actually dedicating any more forces to ground battles.

But some of this is broken mechanics currently on Nexus. When you are not in the base hex of one you own, you cannot spawn back at any other base. That means lots of redeploys to the WG, pulling resources again to get to somewhere new. Oh, and if you don't have the air superiority? Then you are going to be attacked coming out of WG. Galaxies will definitely die, sunderers most likely as well. So your mobility is extremely limited. Combine it with the lack of spawn beacons & squad deploy, it quite simply means that either you control the air or you spend most of your resources trying to get to a location you need to be from WG.

Moreover, because air dominance allows for easier mobility, in combination with this issue with spawning at bases behind you, you cannot set up a defence - that means basically to defend bases like Nexus Secure essentially becomes an attack against your own base.

Further, to answer everyone saying we pulled sporadic AA, I would argue multiple times in both my squad and in another squad did we have people go full AA. Did we have resources for Skyguards & AA MAXes everytime? No, definitely not. AA grounder missile just can't make up the difference against skilled pilots. Indeed, AA ground based units were simply a deterrent against the air, and completely ineffective. But the issue is that while this AA is needed, it is a huge resource pull. This means that if you lose the air, not only have you lost air resources (the most effective resources against fighting air), you also burn all other resources doing deterrence.

To speak of the base design, there is essentially one base (Nexus Omega/Alpha) that largely limits air's effect on the game. All other bases require infantry to move with almost no cover from air from point to point. For example, Bitter Gorge can basically be completely dominated by air as the points are basically exposed to it. Defending becomes less about engaging other infantry forces and more about scrambling to avoid air-to-ground fire on your way to point.

In addition, there is literally no where you can protect sunderers from air at most bases. That means if you do not have air dominance, you get one shot to hold point if attacking.

These reasons stated (poor and limited spawn mechanics, AA as a deterrent for these sized battles, open base & map designs that allow air to dominate ground forces) I believe that my hyperbole of 44 air, 3 infiltrator strategy could actually be viable in the current state of these matches, with the current form of the Nexus, with the balancing of weapons.

Is this a complaint? Well, partially. I love all aspects of PS2 gameplay, and I feel that allowing air to be the only deciding factor in these matches would be poor for highlighting all the other kinds of gameplay that PS2 offers. That said, air battles are epic and air dominance should have an effect on battles on the ground.

Of course, this could flow into a discussion about weapon-platform balance that we could also have, particularly about the multi-purpose role of all aircraft in the game, but I will leave that for another time.
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