AA has officially gone to far.

Hamma · 2013-02-09, 01:23 PM

First a disclaimer, I am primarily a flyer. Even my ground based outfit mates are starting to agree AA is starting to go over the line. Our air division is grounded most operations due to air - and you can't expect ground based infantry to take out ALL AA.

Anti Air has gone to a level in which air power is almost completely pointless. AA should be a dedicated role that requires teamwork and combined arms to master. It should not be something any tom dick or harry can do. Let's take a look at all the different forms of AA (Correct me if I've missed some)

Sunderer (2X AA Guns)
Prowler (and MBTs)
Lightning (Skyguard)
And all the aircraft (which isn't extremely bad)
Annhilators
All the various ground based lock-on systems.
AA MAX Units
Tower AA

The only ground based vehicle without AA so far is the Flash.

Why is this? The only things that should have AA are dedicated AA roles. The Skyguard, The MAX etc. Dumb fire of AA weapons should not insta kill Aircraft - it should be just as damaging as the lock on versions.

Rail on me all you want - but this is taking out of a LARGE segment of the game many people enjoy. Coordination and combined operations should be rewarded, undefended Sunderers and tank columns SHOULD be easily dispatched by aircraft.

Essentially the rash of AA being added ot the game is now making it fun for everyone on the ground and NOT fun for everyone in the air. There needs to be either A) More way to armor your aircaft or B) Remove AA from all the vehicles it doesn't belong on.

MrZero · 2013-02-09, 01:27 PM

I agree i cant even dogfight without getting torn up by aa usually

AnamNantom · 2013-02-09, 01:35 PM

I'm usually an infiltrator. That's what I do. I sneak in, hack, plant mines, leave mines for other infantry to "discover" as well as snipe you from half way across a mountain range, causing you to second guess ever leaving your spawn room.

That said, I love the magrider and seriously love the Scythe. I used to fly my beautiful Scythe a lot. Now I'm more hesitant than when I think of using my Magrider.

Once the battle gets to a certain point, there's no reason to even deploy one. If the enemy is harassing my friendly ground troops by air AND has all their anti air out (which is much easier now since there's so much of it), game's pretty much over as far as vehicular combat.

So, give me a new way of hacking, and more things to hack because it really seems we are all grounded.

Rolfski · 2013-02-09, 01:35 PM

They recently increased composite armor for ESF's and did some nerfs to lock-ons as well. I suggest for this game to be played out a bit more before coming to any drastic conclusions about A2G balance.

Pella · 2013-02-09, 01:37 PM

Speaking from a Pilot with lvl 3 ESF composite armour. [800 Certs]AA is just a deterrent and isnt to much bother when you have it.

But agree being forced into using composite armour and Flares is a problem.

And the new Render distance changes are much better. As AA Maxs can be easy picking on a second run in.

maradine · 2013-02-09, 01:46 PM

I spend most of my solo time in an ESF, and most of my outfit time on the ground shooting at them. They are the two tasks I truly enjoy in PS2. I am happy with the balance between them. I'm sorry that not everyone is.

MaxDamage · 2013-02-09, 01:47 PM

Good pilots are still ridiculously hard to kill. Aircraft should not be flying over big battles without plenty of support, or troops on the ground to kill those people looking up constantly. A gal might even have use to that end.

Sledgecrushr · 2013-02-09, 01:48 PM

I was playing some last night and air was swarming us in large coordinated groups. And therein lies your solution. You have to use air like people use aa, in a group as a coordinated effort. I am glad that the game has evolved this direction.

Pella · 2013-02-09, 01:50 PM

Originally Posted by Sledgecrushr

I was playing some last night and air was swarming us in large coordinated groups. And therein lies your solution. You have to use air like people use aa, in a group as a coordinated effort. I am glad that the game has evolved this direction.

Planetside 2 is Literally a Number game.

Hamma · 2013-02-09, 01:52 PM

It's evolved in the direction where everyone can use AA? Not quite the direction I'd call "Evolution" more like "Let's give everyone AA weapons"

Mox · 2013-02-09, 01:53 PM

The only problem are the infantry lock on launchers and the aa base turrets. Everthing else is fine imo.

Sledgecrushr · 2013-02-09, 01:54 PM

Originally Posted by Pella

Planetside 2 is Literally a Number game.

With up to 2k people on a map yeah in a lot of ways it is a numbers game. Even though we were able to get five dbm as aa we were swamped by air power. There was a point where our sundy was blown up and everyone was dead and there I was trading shots with enemy infantry and dodging lolpod attacks. It was a fine moment for fighting personally.

NewSith · 2013-02-09, 01:56 PM

I can SS a nice picture right now, near Vanu Archives.

7+ Reavers, 2 Galaxies, 5+ Liberators. And all with different outfit tags.

EDIT: Okay, they got the cap and all flew away...

Ghoest9 · 2013-02-09, 02:00 PM

Originally Posted by Hamma

First a disclaimer, I am primarily a flyer. Even my ground based outfit mates are starting to agree AA is starting to go over the line. Our air division is grounded most operations due to air - and you can't expect ground based infantry to take out ALL AA.

Anti Air has gone to a level in which air power is almost completely pointless. AA should be a dedicated role that requires teamwork and combined arms to master. It should not be something any tom dick or harry can do. Let's take a look at all the different forms of AA (Correct me if I've missed some)

Sunderer (2X AA Guns)
Prowler (and MBTs)
Lightning (Skyguard)
And all the aircraft (which isn't extremely bad)
Annhilators
All the various ground based lock-on systems.
AA MAX Units
Tower AA

The only ground based vehicle without AA so far is the Flash.

Why is this? The only things that should have AA are dedicated AA roles. The Skyguard, The MAX etc. Dumb fire of AA weapons should not insta kill Aircraft - it should be just as damaging as the lock on versions.

Rail on me all you want - but this is taking out of a LARGE segment of the game many people enjoy. Coordination and combined operations should be rewarded, undefended Sunderers and tank columns SHOULD be easily dispatched by aircraft.

Essentially the rash of AA being added ot the game is now making it fun for everyone on the ground and NOT fun for everyone in the air. There needs to be either A) More way to armor your aircaft or B) Remove AA from all the vehicles it doesn't belong on.

Wrong.

The game was NOT fun for infantry before. And it drove away most of the players.

Now the game is reasonable for infantry(and we still get killed by aircraft sometimes.) Hopefully people who left in disgust will return.

A better solution would have been to make aircraft terrible at killing infantry - but everyone complained about that suggestion so this is what you get.
The problem is the old way one or 2 aircraft could casually roam the map and kill everyone who wasnt in an organized large squad or zerg.
Thats not fun.
It should have been ESF - kill aircraft and some vehicles but not ground troops. And ground troops cant kill ESF.
It would have been more fun for everyone.

Rockit · 2013-02-09, 02:01 PM

I didn't even need to read any further than the title to say I agree. I know the general thrust lately has been infantry focused but I think they have swayed the fight far too much in that direction.