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1: NC

2: NC and TR

3: NC, TR and Vanu

[GreatJustice]

I take it things have been seriously rebalanced in the time since I left about... a year or so ago? I got on earlier and discovered that flying a Liberator with a Dalton isn't quite such a straightforward and easy way to get ludicrous amounts of XP now, and that anti-air weapons were actually somewhat effective. I assume, then, that even if planes with rocketpods are a problem, they aren't as much of a problem as they were earlier, when one or two could basically demolish an entire armoured convoy and stop an offensive in its tracks with basically no danger.

[Sonlirain]

IDK, I think that lightnings and harassers are ridiculously more powerful AI platforms and they have a similar resource cost. And lock-ons *never* hit harassers.

Suprisingly enough i never had problems hitting those when using the striker...
Assuming that it didn't go all out derp on me of course.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC5bayNjKmw

And since the annihilator has a similar tracking system i'd assume it can track and hit harrasers as well.

Oh and yeah rocket pods got nerfed a LOT so you don't see things like this anymore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mW2Fpc2_eo

[Flying Dice]

I honestly don't get why people are still bitching about ESFs. It was justified back when pods had obscene damage and blast radius, but now you pretty much need a direct hit to kill infantry with them. That aside, I've had great success with all my AA--G2A missiles, burster MAX, and Skyguard lightning. In medium-large battles (especially against NC and their love for airzerg) a very large chunk of my certs comes from shooting down ESFs and Libs. One of the best parts about the missiles is that, often as not, the pilot will crash into shit trying to avoid them.


On a marginally related note, I shot down a Mossie with my Sirius yesterday.

Yeah, you read that right. He was damaged and hovering near a building shooting at someone, so I burned my jets up to him, unloaded a SMG magazine at the cockpit, and got the kill. XD

[Sonlirain]

From what i heard you need 27 shots from the Commissioner to destroy a EFS.
I wonder when people are going to team up and shoot down ESFs with those for the hell of it.

Also i had an encounter with a scythe osme time ago when playing infiltrator.
Managed to get him to half health with my sniper rifle alone (he had rocket pods but i had stealth).
He ran off to a nearby tower for rearm and repair and got murdered by a lolpoddingm ossie on my very eyes.
He must have repaired most of the damage tho because i didn't get any credit for it.

In another instance i saw a scythe and mossie duking it out above ourr infantry zerg so i decided to spray away at the scythe with my trusty Trac-5s (i'm an engineer so ammo is a non issue).
Got a kill credit for that because i apparently hit him just as the mossie was finishing him up.

[BurnedToast]

I honestly don't get why people are still bitching about ESFs. It was justified back when pods had obscene damage and blast radius, but now you pretty much need a direct hit to kill infantry with them. That aside, I've had great success with all my AA--G2A missiles, burster MAX, and Skyguard lightning. In medium-large battles (especially against NC and their love for airzerg) a very large chunk of my certs comes from shooting down ESFs and Libs. One of the best parts about the missiles is that, often as not, the pilot will crash into shit trying to avoid them.


On a marginally related note, I shot down a Mossie with my Sirius yesterday.

Yeah, you read that right. He was damaged and hovering near a building shooting at someone, so I burned my jets up to him, unloaded a SMG magazine at the cockpit, and got the kill. XD

People (or at least I...) bitch about ESFs because they are the ONLY vehicle in the game that's anti-everything... at the same time. Rotary + rocketpods makes it an air-superiority fighter + ground attack fighter in one package with no compromises. No other vehicle is capable of slaughtering infantry, vehicles, and air equally well. Probably 90% - 95% of my ESF deaths are... to other ESFs, it's only real counter is it's self (flak and missiles can chase you away but they won't usually kill you unless you derp or get back luck)

The dual-role thing also hurts liberators very bad. Any anti-air has to be able to deal with the nimble ESF (because it's an A2G platform) which means it absolutely slaughters the slow moving, easy target liberator. Throw in the fact you can get two ESFs instead which fill the exact same role (but are faster and more survivable) and it rarely seems like a good idea to pull a lib.

They will never do it now (even the ESF/air update seems like it's going to be a massive buff, not nerf, to ESFs) but they really, really should have forced pilots to specialize. Rocketpods should have removed the nosegun (or forced the banshee) so that you can't be good at killing air and ground at the same time. Or even better they never should have added rocketpods in the first place, balanced anti-air around killing libs not ESF, and made the ESF into an air-superiority platform that can only contribute to anti-ground via straifing runs with the nosegun.

but of course, it's F2P and I'm sure they made a *LOT* of money off lolpods when the game was new since it was inarguably pay2win at that point, and the cynic in me says that was the point.

[Knight of Fools]

A while back I was taking pot shots at some distant infantry with my DMR, just single shots with plenty of time to make sure I had a high chance of hitting them. Suddenly a Scythe flew down right as I took a shot, and it was apparently enough to blow it up. Probably one of the most surprising kills I've ever gotten.


The balance between ground and air has improved a lot since the beginning of the game, mostly propelled by cheaper G2A launchers and more people being able to afford bursters and sky guards. The AA buff a while back helped too.

Air still obliterates unprepared infantry, and most infantry are geared for anti-infantry combat. I've been gunned down almost instantly by ESFs with the high RoF cannons. I can survive a missile pod storm in the open if I'm lucky, which I'm fine with, but I can never do anything to retaliate unless I happen to have a G2A launcher. Dumb missiles are just too slow and innaccurate to be effective at anything beyond 50m.

Aircraft, including liberators, just need to feel more like actual aircraft and less like flying tanks. Not enough to be destroyed easy peasy, but it's kinda silly that ESFs can take a tank round, dumb missile, or an entire clip from a machine gun and survive. If a pilot is slow or dumb enough to take one of those things, then they deserve to die. Instead they just fly off and repair, costing them nothing but a little time.

Of course, the AA weapons we have now are perfectly fine against aircraft. If aircraft get nerfed, so should those. This means that ESF canons would get a nerf, but there could be some sort of damage bump to aircraft's canon damage against armor to keep them where they're at there, because armor-versus-air combat is just fine now (Except eating tank rounds and entire clips of MG fire).

One thing I'd really like to see is a burster for heavies. A single burster isn't really ever a massive threat to aircraft that aren't sitting around being stupid, but it'd be nice for non-MAX infantry to have a viable, non-lock-on AA weapon.

[Aseaheru]

Ooh! There is a forum for this here? Good to know!

Spoiler: Things not liked (click to show/hide)

You have to buy the same upgrade for each weapon or vehicle. It just sounds a bit retarded to me.

I love maxes. Shooting down aircraft with shotguns is just fun. And that second weapon that you get for free? Wondrous.

Also, the shield door things, that let you shoot through them but not get shot? Best exploit I have found in a game.

[Flying Dice]

I have almost the exact opposite experience with ESFs. The only times they ever give me trouble are:

1. When one catches me alone, without AA, in the open. I'm running between bases, driving a Lightning back to reload my HE, etc. That's good, he gets me dead-to-rights, and he gets the kill.
2. When an air zerg rolls over a base with one of the tiny or small spawnrooms, and they're so saturated that they have more aircraft than we do burster MAXes and G2A launchers. More annoying, perhaps, but not unreasonable.

If it's just one or two ESFs harassing a base or a large group of people, they're going to be promptly driven away, and if they aren't, they'll die. No sensible pilot who's just had to run and repair because of a concentration of AA is going to go back to the same spot. Hell, as long as I have cover and ammo, I can deal with them myself, even more so now that the G2A launchers are two hits to kill on ESFs. I wait until they're overhead (or past me into friendly territory, since they don't get a directional indicator for the lockon), and either they burn flares and take one hit while getting away, or I kill them.

[Toaster]

From what i heard you need 27 shots from the Commissioner to destroy a EFS.
I wonder when people are going to team up and shoot down ESFs with those for the hell of it.

I smile inside whenever I hit a lolpodder with the Phoenix.

[zombat]

The reason people don't like ESFs is because an ESF can just pop flares and full burn out of there, escaping any retribution.

Tanks on the other hand have a much harder time of escaping, and the best way to kill a tank is for some dude with a jet pack and a couple of brick ambushing it - which isn't an option for air craft.



Also AA wasn't buffed it was nerfed, flak accuracy, damage, and prox det radius was all reduced a couple of months back

[Aseaheru]

Oh, do we have a faction or whatever they are called?

[Kanil]

Oh, do we have a faction or whatever they are called?

We have an NC outfit on Mattherson, but it is completely and utterly inactive. So, not really, no.

[Aseaheru]

Shall we make a new one?

What servers are you guys normally on?

[DJ]

IMO Harassers are a lot better at escaping and repairing than ESFs.

[Flying Dice]

IMO Harassers are a lot better at escaping and repairing than ESFs.

Mostly because ESFs can't have a guy hanging from the wing with a repair tool.