Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

1: NC

2: NC and TR

3: NC, TR and Vanu

[GreatJustice]

Also, cert gain is way to goddamn slow to unlock a lot of weapons. I mean, I've been playing for several days now, and I've only got maybe 300 certs on both of my characters combined, and the "Generic Assault Rifle 2000" is going to cost between 500 and 1000 certs. Really, all I need are some command certs, some decent firepower for a Liberator and an anti-aircraft gun, but combined that's something like 4000 certs or so.

[Jelle]

Ack I'm getting so frustrated trying to pilot a light aircraft without the pricy certs that are pretty much mandatory. Damn you near impossible to dodge lock on for putting a quick end to my dogfighting.
Actually any sort of aerial combat is impossible without getting locked on and destroyed in seconds, pretty much can't compete without those flares. Guess I'll just have to farm the certs doing something else.

[SalmonGod]

It seems like the heavier aircraft pretty much dominate everything, because they're so resilient, while a scythe gets torn apart like paper as soon as it leaves the ground.

[Jelle]

Light aircraft wipes the floor (bad wording I know) with heavy aircraft, there's little a liberator can do against a light aircrafts manouvrability. Liberator can dominate vs ground in my experience, bust tanks like they are nothing, not even mentioning infantry.
Frankly I don't know why that thing has a front gun, apart for taking down galaxies. The back gun is obviously to fight off light aircrafts but can be avoided.

[Ivefan]

Get the anti-tank gun for the lib and you'll tear anything apart if you manage to hit.

[Glowcat]

Ack I'm getting so frustrated trying to pilot a light aircraft without the pricy certs that are pretty much mandatory. Damn you near impossible to dodge lock on for putting a quick end to my dogfighting.
Actually any sort of aerial combat is impossible without getting locked on and destroyed in seconds, pretty much can't compete without those flares. Guess I'll just have to farm the certs doing something else.

Weird, it seems like everybody and their dog is able to dodge my Hawk missiles even without a flare. They just do a little spin w/ burner and off goes my worthless missile. Then then come back and strafe me with dumbfire rockets. It feels like the only decent G2A weapon now is dual-burster AA MAX. Haven't had experience with A2A variants so those might be better.

Even a few liberators can sometimes dodge missiles although them and Galaxies are the only ones who have problems evading, but they have crazy armor and stay high up in the atmosphere instead.

[Thexor]

Ack I'm getting so frustrated trying to pilot a light aircraft without the pricy certs that are pretty much mandatory. Damn you near impossible to dodge lock on for putting a quick end to my dogfighting.
Actually any sort of aerial combat is impossible without getting locked on and destroyed in seconds, pretty much can't compete without those flares. Guess I'll just have to farm the certs doing something else.

Flares are pretty much necessary. Whether you're dodging or outrunning missiles, you're taking a serious risk, and you certainly aren't attacking. Flares give you a sweet 5 seconds to engage without worrying about lock-ons. That said, flares are, what, 100 certs? Not terrible.

The real cost is getting the A2A missiles, which are pretty much necessary in a dogfight. Likewise, if you want to deal decent A2G damage, you need the rocket pods. That's a lot of certs to become reasonably useful in ESF combat. 

[Gabeux]

Hey, just installed this, looking for info.

Which empire are we B12ers are playing mosty?

[Flying Dice]

The majority are NC on Waterson and Matherson. I've got NC and VS characters on Matherson.


Incidentally, now that I've played it, I've come to a hesitant conclusion: The problem with air isn't necessarily the strength of individual aircraft, but that it's so easy to zerg with them. One or two ESF or libs aren't a big problem, but when you've got a dozen overhead they are. In company with this is the lack of AA weapons that don't need to be unlocked. Tank spam can be stopped because any brand new player can hop into a MBT or switch to HA and pull out their RPG, but there's no equivalent for AA. ESF are rubbish without certs, whereas MBTs can still hurt other tanks relatively easily without certing. By the same token, there are no infantry AA weapons that are automatically available. Hell, just adding some sort of lower-grade Burster as an optional tertiary for the HA to use instead of the RPG would work well. Enemy aircraft? Two dozen HAs firing flak will kill them or chase them off.


So there's a simple, automatically available way to shut down tank zerg, but no equivalent for aircraft. That's the problem as I see it.

[Neyvn]

Whats this. Havent you heard...
Only air is the best counter for air...

[Flying Dice]

Whats this. Havent you heard...
Only air is the best counter for air...

Yes, and the point stands. Both the A2A cannon and missiles have to be certed into. You can jump into a MBT in your first five minutes and, provided you can aim, the main cannon will still be good enough for you to go toe-to-toe with enemy armor. The same is patently not true for a brand new player in their ESF pitted against one with flares, A2AM, and/or an AA primary. Nice try.

[Thexor]

Whats this. Havent you heard...
Only air is the best counter for air...

This. That said, you have to draw a distinction between A2A (which is pretty harmless to ground units) and A2G (which turns infantry and tanks into paste, but is defenseless against A2A) loadouts.

Whats this. Havent you heard...
Only air is the best counter for air...

Yes, and the point stands. Both the A2A cannon and missiles have to be certed into. Nice try.

This is the reason air is currently OP - nobody has access to decent G2A or A2A weapons. Someday in the future, it'll be assumed that most HAs will have access to the G2A launcher, and most ESFs will have access to dogfighting kit. At that point, G2A will immediately become balanced.

[Flying Dice]

Heh. Just spent the last ten minutes duck-hunting idiot VS lib pilots around the Crown with an AT turret.

[Knight of Fools]

Whats this. Havent you heard...
Only air is the best counter for air...

Yes, and the point stands. Both the A2A cannon and missiles have to be certed into. You can jump into a MBT in your first five minutes and, provided you can aim, the main cannon will still be good enough for you to go toe-to-toe with enemy armor. The same is patently not true for a brand new player in their ESF pitted against one with flares, A2AM, and/or an AA primary. Nice try.

Actually, he's quoting what one of the devs said. Air is supposed to counter air, according to the makers of the game.

I still have a mark from the face palm that followed hearing it.

[Neyvn]

Whats this. Havent you heard...
Only air is the best counter for air...

Yes, and the point stands. Both the A2A cannon and missiles have to be certed into. You can jump into a MBT in your first five minutes and, provided you can aim, the main cannon will still be good enough for you to go toe-to-toe with enemy armor. The same is patently not true for a brand new player in their ESF pitted against one with flares, A2AM, and/or an AA primary. Nice try.

Actually, he's quoting what one of the devs said. Air is supposed to counter air, according to the makers of the game.

I still have a mark from the face palm that followed hearing it.

Agreed.
The MOST Annoying thing I find thats stupid is that Infantry are effected by Explosions and such with Screen Shake. An ESF hit by Flak or a Rocket just has a Dink noise...

They either need to make it so that a Rocket causes the WHOLE ESF explode (cause heck we all know that Modern Strike Fighters can take a rocket to the face and keep kicking) or makes it that the Pilot has to be bloody effing good to keep it stable when the thing gets rocked by the impact...