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1: NC

2: NC and TR

3: NC, TR and Vanu

[Jelle]

As someone who occasionally single man libs, I can tell you you're nowhere near as effective as a two man crew. You rarely see three man crews because tailgunning isn't very good or rewarding, especially with how belly guns are superior for fighting off other aircraft. It's also nearly impossible to fight an ESF that knows his shit when you're solo libbing, as you can't get in position fast enough when he knows how to avoid your danger zones.

Is a wraith flash a must for a serious sniper? Might buy me a renegade just for shitz and gigglez if I'm going to be driving one of those.

Edit: Looking through my stats my highest source of deaths this evening was... c4 surprise surprise. 

[sambojin]

It depends on what you mean by serious. I tend to think that an esf is probably as good of a single-man transport vehicle as any. Gets you where you need to go, you can end up in some very cool spots, and it gives you a gtfo option as well. Plus a bit of AT/AA functionality if you want. The cooldown isn't a massive problem when cloak sniping, because it takes a while to do that anyway. Grav shutes are an option if it's just fast transport to a sniping spot, but not that necessary (just land it so you can use it later).

Maybe take the wraith and switch to that if your esf is on cooldown?

edit: I wonder how a VS unlimited ammo sniper would do in some scenarios if you put him in an odd spot with an esf? It totally ignores the advice below, but that tends to have more to do with target priority. Engies, AA and medics first, kill anyone else later. Just because you're a self-centered lone wolf doesn't mean your contribution isn't useful, it just means you have to kill the right things first.

[Kanil]

Be useful to your team

No really? 

Anyway, what's the kind of accuracy that's considered normal when sniping? I managed 44% so far, but many of those were body shots.

The vast, vast, vast majority of snipers don't follow that rule. It's worth repeating.

Be useful to your team.

[Astral]

I feel like AA is weak and wildly inaccurate compared to, say, Battlefield 3-4 (which parts of this game attempt to emulate to varying success). Skyguard either needs to have less damage fall off so that long range sniper Daltons aren't as much of an issue, or have less of a spread. Needing 2-3 of something just to take down 1 of something else when it is supposed to be a "counter" isn't balance.

Then again, AA in Battlefield 4 is borderline overpowered, with accuracy that allows it to take down ground troops with ease on the 30mm cannon, and the secondary missiles can either diversify your role (making you decent against light armor with unguided rockets) or having tracking missiles of various types.

It would be nice to see a secondary gun system for the Lightning, as well as a revamp of the MBTs. Right now, the Magrider feels more like a tank destroyer in practice than a true MBT, as while being able to out strafe enemy tanks is nice, it seems a bit more lightly armored in comparison to the other two factions. Our bullet velocity is kinda terrible on the main weapon projectiles too.

If only we could get true mobility like this (but balanced obviously):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWhoqStSX4I

Cue Flight of the Valkyries as a line of Magriders descends on a line of anchored Prowlers, both firing wildly at each other.

[sambojin]

AA just comes in many forms. If it was more powerful than it is, air couldn't make a reasonable impact in battles. Skyguards, turrets, AA heavies and MAXs, esfs and libs all fall under AA. Hell, against enemy esfs some concentrated small arms fire can be just as effective as flak to drive them off. Three on one fights is a reasonable tactic at any given time, in any scenario. It's that inverse squared law in action.

I'll agree that it takes more man-power and resources for good AA defense in planetside 2 compared to the damage that air can cause, but it's a reasonable balance. Air should cause damage if there's not overwhelming AA, and as mentioned above, the balance between a bit and a lot tips very quickly due to the nature of AA. There's nothing stopping you jumping into a fighter or lib and doing unto to them as they do to you, as AA or AG, if you truly think they're that good.

Like many things in ps2, how much is enough? A rockety heavy or AT engy is annoying and reasonably powerful. Five of them blows away anything.

[Ozyton]

Well perhaps the AA we currently have should be more specialized. Instead of a rapid firing AA gun how about a large flak canon similar to the German's Flak 88 from WWII? High damage/armor pen on libs and such, but maybe low muzzle velocity to be less effective against ESF?

[sambojin]

So, ummmm, you want a SkyDalton that explodes in the genetal vicinity of aircraft? Like the lib dalton, but aimed upwards? But that can't be aimed side to side. Otherwise every tank would take it.

I'm still not sure if that's a horrible suggestion. It would be broken, and the normal bullet drop might actually let you use it as artillery if it wasn't "upwards only" with the low velocity of the proposed gun, but it would just be a new broken. In theory the projectile would just "disappear" after visual range had been reached. Like, ummm, nope. Can't think of any problems with hard hitting AoE projectiles and render distance at all right now.......

Nah. Horrible idea. Less AoE, or damage, or more drop/lower velocity on Daltons is fine (even more drop/lower velocity can be gotten used to). Maybe less armour on libs. SkyDalton flak probably isn't the answer. Although, Sony has done stranger things.

edit: anyway, just taking the piss. They could make it "balanced" with huge resitances for tanks/infantry against it, but they'd have to explain why. Maybe it's using stuff that's specific against whatever nanite-y stuff aircraft are made of. Or something. Try and "just miss" an aircraft at range with a tank shell and it'll give you an idea of what the weapon would be like. Then hit one with a shell directly. Is that what you mean essentially? A proximity-fuse tank gun for AA that's specifically fused for aircraft? It'll probably be underpowered, but still broken. Meh. Bring friends. AA just means "plenty of AA, in all its forms". If anything, the skyguard just needs a boost. Or more skyguards. If there's two people in that lib, you'll need six people worth of weapons to bring it down quickly and reliably. At least four with support. That's ps2. You *could* do it with one skillful person, but 3:1 odds work reliably. One or two-man skydaltons aren't the answer. Two esfs do fine against a two man lib though. They at least stop it bombing while more AA gets ready, at most they destroy it easily. Giving you air superiority for those same esfs in that area. Probably the best 2v2 matchup really. Skyguards are shit AA, so use something better or use more skyguards. No one complains about using 8 skyguards in a team. They work fine as AA. The platform that the skyguard is on has a lot more uses than pew-pewing the sky. PS2 isn't even close to a single person game. Turn on chat or something.

[TolyK]

The only change I really see needed is rocket pods doing more damage to libs. I mean, seriously? They take more photon pods than sunderers. And the nose gun isn't much better.

Meanwhile, buff tailguns so that you don't have to try to skydalton.

[BurnedToast]

The only change I really see needed is rocket pods doing more damage to libs. I mean, seriously? They take more photon pods than sunderers. And the nose gun isn't much better.

Meanwhile, buff tailguns so that you don't have to try to skydalton.

MORE damage? are you crazy? Rocketpods already slaughter libs (and galaxies) way, way too fast considering they are an air-to-GROUND weapon. IMO rocketpods should do virtually no damage to air vehicles at all - that's what the specialized A2A weapons (that nobody uses because rocketpods are too good) are supposed to be for.

[alway]

As someone who plays exclusive AV heavy (most AA, but I bring enough 'splodeys for everybody), I would say AA is actually about what it should be. 1 or 2 guys doing part time AA is really all you need to protect against all but a determined, organized attack force. The heavy AA rockets are actually really effective at telling aircraft to buzz off, can be dumbfired at ground targets, and still gives you your regular weapon slot and C4. Sure, you probably aren't going to kill an air target on your own, but it's basically a free potshot at taking 40% of their hp. Those that are dumb enough to stick around for the second shot give you a good 500 points. Libs are more problematic to small groups, but they tend to either be too incompetent to do anything or are running with a zerg anyway and get ESF'd after you drive off or take down the enemy ESFs. Get a second guy doing AA, either with rockets, and ESF, Max, or Skyguard, and you will start racking up points.

Also, the Skyguards aren't all that weak, so long as you aren't long-wolfing it. Which would just be dumb, since you're driving around in a bit tank, staring at the sky, and running over every mine and C4 pack in your path. The other day, I was in a platoon in which someone switched out of their well upgraded skyguard, leaving it free for the taking. I hopped in, and spent the next 3 hours in that skyguard without dying once, up until the platoon disbanded and I got bored and ran into a fight between the 2 other factions. Go about the same certs I would playing heavy; 140 in that one life. Got 39 kills, all but 1 or 2 from aircraft.

[Jelle]

The only change I really see needed is rocket pods doing more damage to libs. I mean, seriously? They take more photon pods than sunderers. And the nose gun isn't much better.

Meanwhile, buff tailguns so that you don't have to try to skydalton.

MORE damage? are you crazy? Rocketpods already slaughter libs (and galaxies) way, way too fast considering they are an air-to-GROUND weapon. IMO rocketpods should do virtually no damage to air vehicles at all - that's what the specialized A2A weapons (that nobody uses because rocketpods are too good) are supposed to be for.

They're not that great against libs, if you get close enough to land rocket pods you put yourself at risk of getting dalton'd/shredded/tankbusted. I wouldn't say they need buffs in this regard either though.

So there's talk this month they might look into adding melee weapons? What's the bay's opinion of this?
Personally, after them having just added a crossbow, to me it seems they're preparing this game for the console version if you know what I mean. 

[DJ]

The thing with skyguard is that you need to park it where they're not expecting you. It's a lot harder for libs to spot you than it is for you to spot them. The precious few seconds they take to figure out where you're shooting from means they'll be too low on health to go for you.

Anyhow, as far as dalton is concerned, I only have a problem with it having such big splash, it just makes zephyr pointless. IMO dalton should be dedicated anti-tank, ie AP rounds (no splash at all).

[Duuvian]

I've always wanted a polearm or something in exchange for primary weapon, as silly as that is in the future.

I got the idea while running around stabbing people in a tower as an adrenaline pump LA fight a long time ago. I got to the room the A point used to be at in most towers and missed a stab to someone just out of range.

[Myroc]

Liberators aren't even remotely as dangerous and bullshit as rocketpod ESFs. At least Liberators are supposed to be a dedicated A2G bomber. ESFs meanwhile get to be more influential in the ground combat than liberators, whilst still retaining their air superiority role. You think liberators are bad? For every dedicated liberator team you can have three ESFs that are guaranteed to inflict far more damage than the liberator ever could. Having your anti-air be destroyed by a liberator team co-operating with each other is nothing compared to having it destroyed by a single uppity pilot in a 200-resource craft.

Seriously, fuck ESFs.

[DJ]

That hasn't been my experience with ESFs at all, neither as AA nor as pilot. Lolpods seem fairly weak these days, takes like four hits to kill infantry.