ESF vs. Infantry Balance.

Getting the balance right between the Air vs. Infantry game is tough. Right now aircraft end up being good at everything because their load outs are not specialized. They need to be retuned to focus on countering specific things. Be it Tanks, Infantry, or other aircraft. Once that is done lock on launchers and bursters can be tuned down as well.

[@jamesgeorgi170]

I think the Valkyrie should take its place in Close Air support. They should expand on its current abilities. I imagine having the option to remove the rumble seats and replace them with rocket or gun pods would turn it into a gunship kind of like the Huey in Vietnam.

[@CMDRCyrious]

That would be pretty cool.

[@NuclearNuke41]

Flying aircrafts in Planetside 2 has the most difficult controls I ever encountered. Idk how anyone can fly steady, let alone balance the aircraft and easily aiming at infantry to shoot to kill...

[@KrimsonStorm]

Give a class the ability to have an air shield, similar to how ants can build the large anti air shield. A deployable that costs nanites that maybe isn't that expensive to cert into that gives decent protection from air until too much is inflicted and it explodes. Alternatively we could have an anti air shield mitigator, so air can still do damage, but will do LESS every air shield it goes through.

[@CMDRCyrious]

Good thoughts

[@mostpalone6077]

Damn, the devs must've read this

[@AniketBaniket]

@@mostpalone6077 fr XDD

[@corruptedpants]

It's easy: Make ESFs actually as flimsy as their speed, agility, firepower etc implies: They're flying fuel canisters. 1 lock on launcher hit sends them burning. A flyby over a skilled Walker or Skyguard gunner kills you. No flying away. No "Deterrance". Dead. Make it as risky to fly an ESF as to be anything in a world with ESFs

[@a1kid]

Good idea. I would add that Tower AA defenses ought to be SUBSTANTIALLY stronger. They are laughable right now. It defies logic making an important (and one assumes, expensive) base with virtually no defensive weaponry.

[@thetayz72]

Late-night Banshee / PPA farmers were some of the most malignant tumors to ever infest this game. I shudder to think how many newbies quit after hours of being harassed by A2G ESFs and 3rd-faction Libs flying around ruining fights their team isn't even involved in by murdering all sundies.

[@siratthebox]

How to balance inf vs ESF: Literally spawn a single shield sunderer, use the guns on it, when the ESF pisses off because you hit it a few times, go do planet side things with your sundi.

[@Andoulline]

I always were of the mind that the AI noseguns could be simply given to the Valkyrie instead of the cas. Since the cas is pretty much useless, and the valkyrie is a 2 man vehicle so it wouldn't retain the one-man murder aspect. Plus it's much easier to shoot down, even if it has stealth/others since it's slower movement and bigger profile.

[@CMDRCyrious]

That's a great idea.

[@plasticpeon]

RIGHT ON! Not many has touched on this subject. Great video.

[@CMDRCyrious]

Thanks!

[@awylh]

ESF vs. Infantry was balanced by getting rid of infrared vision. It's now MUCH harder to see infantry running around on the ground from an ESF.

[@CMDRCyrious]

Yes, that was good for balancing.

[@zacpackman9186]

as a primary inf player i find esf's the most fustrating thing to fight aganst. it would be better if there is a one hit esf killer. as i have no hitback to esf's

[@CMDRCyrious]

Tough to counter ESFs for sure.

[@HOOOPER]

Cyrious Gaming use you fucking gun/ rocklets. It is piss easy to kill something that costs 350 nanites with something that costs nothing.

[@CMDRCyrious]

If you are flying low enough that rocklets are hitting you, you are fucking up. Small arms fire do very little damage to ESFs.

[@zacpackman9186]

hooper pls show a vid where you alone are doing this as id love to lern how. and as cyrios gaming points out if ur flying low and slow enuf to he hit by roklets to hit u consistanly ur fucking up. in my experence by the time u get anything down to 50% with any rocket based wepons the pilot had located you and will hammer u with lol pods or other things. but please prove me wrong id love to see that.

[@fabiovenegas9331]

Zac packman if the infs have anti material rifles

[@Lauscus]

I think CG touched on all the major points of this issue. Anti-air is too static and puts you in a position where you can no longer fight enemies on the ground because your guns don't do decent enough damage (sometimes a skyguard can kill stuff but it's impractical). CG makes the great point that as soon as you pull that dual burster max, the ESF can just go somewhere else. Hell, I've been up against pretty damn good pilots that know that in a 1 to 1 trade the ESF will win, AND your MAX costs more auraxium. Often they've been farming for so long that if they die they can just pull another ESF and come right back. The problem here is that ONE ESF can cause so much havoc and now'a'days there is a general lack of newb pilots willing to take to the skies so usually that one ESF is gonna destroy your intimate 12 v 12 base fight. For the giant fights at amp stations and tech plants there are usually enough players there that 2-3 of those 50+ people will pull some anti air cumulative enough to almost one shot your ESF if you're not being careful. It's those 12-24 fights that if you gave up 2-5 people to do air defense (against usually an empty sky because that ESF goes away until it calms down a little, will cause you to lose the base since the enemy faction has pop on the point. CG is trying to show you with his air farming montages that this is kinda f'd up. I've never ever liked VTOL style ESFs in this game since day one mainly for this reason. It's clearly imbalanced. I know people would hate it if we took the VTOL out of these aircrafts, but the controls are too stable. Let's be real, you can hover over bases and easily keep your crosshair on little tiny infantry targets without having any recoil- no shit you're going to get tons of kills. At least keep some of that (you're flying in the air) type of crosshair wobble so infantry can at least react. I'm glad he put this video out.

[@DeusJensenGaming]

and I'll admit I bought a skyguard out of frustration

[@highgrounder5238]

I know this is an ancient video by now, but whats the name of the song? I've been looking for it for years by now

[@name1name28]

Seeing this video and the comments as someone who just started ps2 again after 5 years makes me think a developer must have found this video and its comments and taken it to heart.

[@TheBlueDevilXD]

nearly 3 years later of this video nearly all esf pilots can only kill ground using the broken nose guns /rockets and nobody cares to even use aa because skyguards are trash against other armour/multiple esf's and lock-on rockets take so long to fire that you are dead. Taking out a max serves nothing but to deter then get bored waiting as the esf went to farm a different lattice, so just as you switch to ground weapons, look who's back.After game flow, anti infantry esf is a good deterrent from me continuing to play this game.

[@yourmother5810]

I've actually given up on learning ESF. The only way to practice is to get someone on your faction to train at warpgate (good luck trying to find someone like that on PS4). I find that most pilots you run into are going to be better than you anyways so I don't see a point in trying to learn flight. I feel like my issues would be amplified like 10x for a noob. Oh well. Guess I'll be a tanker...

[@SirMandokarla]

This entire video made me livid. Nothing that was said - everything said was perfectly in line with things I agree with. I just *hate* ESFs so much.

[@BIGESTblade]

I wounder if flying filth really don't understand why I hate them so much that every time when I see more than 1 ESF flying around I pull an AA MAX. Unlike other factions, TR AA MAX is actually a very deadly thing. Not boring for me at all, to making them suffer is actually very satisfing They either come down on the ground, or I will not let them approach the base. The day when their anti-inf is nerfed will be the best day of my life, my hatred won't go anywhere and I still will fuck them up whenever I can, but least I wouldn't have to worry about them killing everything if I won't shoo them away.

[@theperpetual8348]

I'm so glad I play TR and have the Striker for this as it allows me to make ESF fuck off and leave me alone most of the time

[@tragsweg7246]

In my oppinion, another Problem is that auraxium an esf does not have enough aa weapons. (aa lock ons and coyotes don t count for that)

[@angelmin8819]

I can't fly because of the controls so I won't talk about how easy or hard the ESFs are to fly. Roll the aircraft with the mouse? Excuse me? But as a person who primarily plays infantry, I can say ESFs are generally very annoying, but it really depends on the pilot. I'll mostly be speaking from my experiences playing BF1 since that's the only BF game I've played so far, of relevance. But the worst part is how they can do everything easily and get away with everything because they can fly away from AA and apparently lock-ons too. So, like the Heavy Bomber from BF1, some pilots are capable of getting killstreaks of up to a hundred if they play carefully. And this is not okay. At least in BF1, there are different kits for the same plane e.g. attack plane has anti-infantry which drops grenades, and anti-tank with a strong anti-tank gun instead of machine guns. At least in BF1, AA is very strong so pilots have to focus on AA guns or avoid a whole part of the map. But in PS2, AA guns are not as good against ESFs because they're pretty inaccurate at longer ranges, which greatly limits range, and ESFs are way too fast anyway, so they can just escape! I can't even spawn sometimes because they just hit-and-run the Sunderers while we're attacking their base. With the other aircraft like the Valkyrie and Liberator, they can be easily taken down by coordinated AA and missile fire so it makes the pilot more careful and they learn to avoid them, or tell their gunners to shoot the AAs first before going in. But the ESFs don't have such a big problem with AA because speed. So the main counter to aircraft, is not very viable against... aircraft. At least the lighter, more annoying ones.

[@EZMawloc]

I think, because flying an esf is very skill based, infantrys counter esf option should also be skill based. I don't really know how to do that, but I'm sure someone smarter than me can figure it out.

[@CrazY-dm8id]

The best way to kill an ESF is pull an ESF. If you're suck flying like me, what you can do is crash into your enemy's plane as I do always!

[@kaiserdarkangel]

Striker.

[@xMinos]

I was just about to invest into my Reaver. May I know, which Utility, Defense and Performance Upgrades I should cert up? Thanks in advance!

[@lichtanethual7025]

Utilit: Fire suppression. You should either save it for when you're on fire to get the maximum healing from a single use or you can use it after losing a third of your health to get the cooldown ticking for the next use. Defense: little bit of personal preference but I go with stealth. It keeps you from showing up on enemy esf's HUDs and keeps you off the mini-map when you're close to enemies. Added bonus of lock-ons taking longer to lock-on to you. Performance: Also kinda personal preference but only between racer and hover. I choose hover to have more control of my aircraft when fighting other aircraft and racer to attack ground targets. Racer helps you get away from aircraft chasing you down and combined with afterburners it makes you the fastest thing in the game. For what to cert first, go first level or two of fire suppression and stealth, max out performance upgrade of choice, then max out stealth, then fire suppression.

[@CMDRCyrious]

I'll start backwards. I prefer maxing out the "Hover" Frame. By holding up (space default) and forward, you can almost make the same top speed as the racer airframe. It is also great for hover duels or A2G farming. Defense, I have ever option maxed out and use them situationally. My preferred option is stealth. It gives you longer before lock-ons fly at you, and it is amazing how sneaky you can be when you don't show up on other people's minimaps. Once you are in a 1v1 duel though, this option then plays against you, and I would recommend composite armor if you expect to be in those situations. Utility, the number one option is Fire Suppression, it is the most versatile ability. Great in dogfights, and can basically negate the damage of one lock-on launcher. In heavy lock-on areas, I will sometimes use the Flare option.

[@xMinos]

Thanks a bunch for both of you! Just maxed out Hover for the beginning.

[@shadow83398]

what do you think about the nerf to the thermal sights?

[@CMDRCyrious]

Definitely helped with balance.

[@dakotadawn5789]

As a pilot I hate it

[@kingnight4823]

2 years later this is still a dam issue.

[@a1kid]

Very good video and right on point. I would add that ground/base based AA is insanely weak and nearly pointless. Improving that would also help.

[@watchtower4870]

How about this. To keep infantrymen happy and pilots happy… is there a way to tweak the lock on launchers for infantrymen up, BUT…. Make them have a set range? Set that range to the pilot’s view of the ground. So, if a pilot wants to farm infantrymen he still can, but through the pilots sights being harder to hit and if the pilots get to close. Lock one’s will hit and with the set range. It forces the pilots to stay outside of lock-on’s. But from the distance and such a small target pilots who want to try can. But for those pilots who linger around are easy picking for other pilots. Forcing more air-to-air combat.

[@lord6617]

would be interesting to see how the air dynamic would change if the smaller air units required refueling, and afterburners drastically drew down your fuel. Kind of offsets their ability to just jump to a new zone or afterburn off, repair, and come back in if someone pulls a skygaurd, etc. if they have to return to an air base or abandon their ride and pull a new one because they didn't manage their fuel.

[@redlord4321]

i mostly play a AA bus solely becuase i got so sick of being spawn camped by esf

[@biome23]

ALso, the best counter to a ground farmer is an esf. even if they have tomcats/coyotes, default nosegun has much better dps and they will be just hovering pointing at the ground so it is not hard to chunk half their health before they can even fight back

[@redtsun67]

You could nerf ground farm by giving lock on launchers faster projectile speed when locked as well as doing more damage to aircraft. Also give the ground farm nosecannons recoil.

[@diggles27]

I like your suggestions but also think that ESF to be far more vulnerable to Small Arms fire, especially rifles and lmgs. If you are not running composite armor, half a squad laying into you should have a good chance of killing you

[@billy_cross5580]

but I do agree they are kind of powerful for how small and agile they are having two separate weapon systems all at the control of the pilot

[@wick9427]

Do you have a glados announcer?

[@CMDRCyrious]

Yes I use the portal voice pack for recursion.

[@geryz7549]

Cant get a lock when you get killed in 0.3 seconds by a banshee cant get a skyguard when you're instantly destroyed by tankmines cant get a max when you get killed by the banshees again, c4 or archers...

[@Dullahan2]

The only scary thing is a pilot who doesnt panic. Normally I just lock on to a mosquito or scythe and they're already running for the hills or crashing into something. The best balance I can think of is increase the camera recoil you take when you get hit an in ESF. It's not a heavy ship like a Galaxy; By the time a Hawk slams into you you should be turned 270 degrees for taking that heavy hit.

[@GoDM1N]

What server do you play on?

[@CMDRCyrious]

I'm on Connery.

[@gihadflab]

I agree with most of what you are saying, except the whole "interrupting muh air battle" point which I have heard over and over again. As a pilot with 3,000+ hours in ESF, Liberator and Valk, I can say that lockons need to stay as they are. Dodging rockets is part of becoming a good pilot. And ESF pilots especially, with their 350 nanite kill-everything vehicle, are cancer and imbalance incarnate. I play mostly air, but that said I support any decision that involves ripping planes out of the sky as quickly as possible.

[@growen6474]

If I had to say something of how I'd balance the ESF's in the game and their counters, I'd make ESF's much more fragile against lock-on weapons, possibly even make them a oneshot. This would make it a lot easier to counter an enemy ESF who's just racking up kills, but still give the ESF a chance to escape before getting destroyed. Another change I'd like to see, which is probably gonna get panned, but hear me out, is to lower the cost of ESF's to 250 nanites or 300, but at the cost of lowered health. This would make ESF's a more common part of any battle, on par with something like lightnings or harassers, but still make them fragile. Planetside 2 is a game were most players spend at least 5 min every session looking at a respawn screen. But as the ESF's are now, they are just too tanky to warrent the amount of damage they can put out. Lowering the cost of the ESF would also make them a more accessible airgame for new and f2p players, who often don't have enough nanites, and need multiple tries at flying before learning how to fly an ESF. That's what I want. A more diverse airgame with differently skilled players.

[@df6597]

They could increase the vulnerability of these platforms to small arms fire.

[@Alexbl100]

No no no... As you said... The key for a weapon being used is its flexibility... ESF gets multiple choices in specialization but AA gets only 1 and that's AA. Skyguard is good for nothing against anything else, it can't even defend its self against a harasser. Anhilator loses dumb-fire. Nemesis or other AA lock on variants lose their high damage to ESF and other air while dumb-fire. Burster loses any form of defence against infantry or other maxes. The trick is making AA useful in other types of combat. Ex. I tend to run harasser a lot and my prefered choices are newer generation AV weapons for it (for VS that is) Aphellion its simply ridiculous against air.

[@Alexbl100]

I picked up Nemesis(AA lock on) for the directive and I miss the pure destructiveness of a decimator and high skill shots against air and I find my self being less rewarded when going against the air.

[@CMDRCyrious]

You make good points, other than Skyguard I disagree there. Skyguard can do some work on armor, and is decent against infantry.

[@Alexbl100]

yeah its decent in a 50m range.

[@HOOOPER]

As a harasser driver I should always be able to kill a skyguard with a gunner but there is No way to avoid the damage compared to other lightnings

[@fwsa3874]

I know this video is old, but the VS Lancer can easily destroy an ESF going A2G. One fully charged shot followed by 2 charged bars is enough to take one down even after they activate fire suppression. If you miss the finishing shot, it's okay, you spooked them off for a minute or two.

[@he1613]

new players dont have much anti air capabilities i think they should give new players something specialized in AA

[@thbran7417]

Ngl I want a support Esf that I can use to give ammo and heal allied tanks

[@OnlyJT03]

The fact that 4 years later this is still a problem🤦🏽‍♂️ honestly I think of anyone who plays a2g as a coward w low skill. To be able to effectively farm infantry and get a 5kd in a banshee mosquito, you only need to spend a couple of hours practicing. Compared to playing infantry and getting even a 3kd, which, Even as a cs and valorant player, I only have a 1.5ish kd at br 82. After probably 100+ hrs. It just takes much less skill and practice too use mainly because there are no counters, and like you said, they are jack of all trades aircraft.

[@zdjhjsbfhushx]

I feel that both playing and playing against ESFs is pretty frustrating these days coming from someone that had a 4+ year break from the game. Thermals made it much easier to pick out targets which added to the fun value for me. Nowadays they’re useless. Lock on launchers seem pretty useless as well - it takes far too long to lock on, especially if they have stealth considering the missile might not even hit and even if it does it won’t do that much damage. 1 infantry can hardly do much to an ESF unless you pull a skyguard/burster max which is expensive and even then they can speed away with afterburners while your skyguard/burster max might be getting picked off by another tank or something else. Why shouldn’t 1 infantry be able to do a good deal of trouble to an ESF? They can be spammed and only require 1 player as well.

[@DeusJensenGaming]

don't even get me started about Hornets -.-

[@Timoruz]

AI ESFs need to exist in order for AA fighters to have more purpose. Personally, whenever I see a base being hammered by AI ESFs I pull my AA Esf and get a few fighter kills as they're very weak against me.

[@urded1145]

I've never been comfortable with flying in this game but I still manage to make multikills with these stupid AI weapons without having to be accurate. I try to talk about this on forums and people just yell that I'm retarded and poor TR only has the banshee and it shouldn't be touched.

[@lichtanethual7025]

Some parts where in-game comms and RTST voicepack overwhelm your voice and what you're talking about.

[@CMDRCyrious]

Yeah recursion was intentional. highlighting the air problems. The platoon chatter I was unhappy with, but didn't want to lose all sound effects.

[@HotaruZoku]

"All nose guns SHOULD be in the realm of Air-to-air combat only.* *The A-10 would like to know your location* *The Harrier would like to know your location* "Air-to-Air ground weapons are not a counter to ESFs." Except there's no ESF weapon system in the game that can kill a Lightening faster than a skyguard cannon can kill it, and I'd have to check, but I'm pretty sure i have more Air kills with my Lancer then my Scythe.

[@MrJaaaaake]

Yeah but in real life infantry can be extremely dangerous to any modern vehicle. Drones, lock on launchers, tank penetrating rockets that explode once they penetrate the armor , anti material rifles etc etc. This game makes vehicles absolutely murder infantry while infantry flings stones back.

[@JCT1926]

not sure how any infantry player could ever be afraid of air in this game, and I generally don't fly...

[@CMDRCyrious]

Air has been reduced thank goodness.

[@thel8815]

I don't think A2G is op people just need to be aware and pull AA. When I see an ESF farming so few people are getting a striker/lockon launcher / burster.

[@CMDRCyrious]

Striker is faction specific, can't really count on that. But Lock-on launcher/Burster game-play is about the most miserably boring game-play out there. Cannot make that type of game-play so required.

[@diegos4463]

Hey salutes from Cali,colombia you are a great player, i like the game a lot because is free thank's to god so my player name is DIECHOCK

[@CMDRCyrious]

Hello Colombia! Thanks for saying hi, see you Planetside!

[@vladslavtsisyk9459]

dude your so right

[@HeroRaze]

*you're

[@ghostkilla2016]

Yh i think vtol for the esf should be taken away thats how it is in real life u dont see jets making helicopter manuvers with a shotgun nose gun singling out induvidual soldiers on the battlefield they make quick in out strikes on high value targets

[@fetB]

On asidenote. Saying "buy" a weapon, might sounds weird in the ear of new players. Just saying. Unlocking would probably be more fitting

[@JP-xn7si]

Personally I don't think A2G is op because of how good anti-air weapons are currently

[@TheUnchainedMind]

Not a good argument. A2G is piss easy to abuse in small to medium fights where AA isn't too big an issue. In large clusterfucks on the other hand the amount of AA and the air space denial is insane. Both are shitty situations. The solution is nerfing both A2G and AA. That way farming ground would take skill/good aim regardless of the fight size and AA wouldn't be as cancerous in large numbers.

[@CMDRCyrious]

Yeah this is what I am generally getting at. Reduce both infantry and air capabilities to engage each other. That way air can operate over bases without such a threat from the infantry, AND infantry can run around a base without being bombarded by A2G cancer. Just make it so Air has to be really close, lolpods, to engage infantry, and only then do they think about pulling out a bunch of lock on launchers.

[@JP-xn7si]

You have a point, but what I think Daybreak should do is make flying A2A ESF easier for new players. In my mind if your faction is being farmed by A2G at a base. Then it's your factions fault for not being able to control the airspace around the base.

[@Lauscus]

Making it the victim's fault only goes so far. I think people have general common sense as to what they should be doing. For example, if you get attacked by tanks, people are usually smart enough to pull rocket launchers since their machine guns wont work. People pull maxes, you throw C4 and rockets at them. People know to pull AA when there are ESFs swarming around. What CG is getting at is those lock-ons are too slow, or the flak damage is too slow compared to the mere moments an ESF needs to stop, aim and fire. I've been in situations where I was in a burster max, but the ESF was so on point that they knew to target me with their other buddy ESF and I couldn't put out enough DPS to kill. Even if I did kill them, they'd just pull another ESF and come back- ESFs are not expensive.

[@lord6617]

Why would you ever carry anything other than like a grounder as a heavy? It locks on air, and you can dumb fire it at just about any ground unit in a pinch.

[@HeroRaze]

0:24 glados?

[@CMDRCyrious]

Yeah, this game has community created voice packs. I use the portal voice pack.

[@justsomeguy8385]

I don't think you can really make the noseguns A2A only without an extreme change to their damage vs infantry. As it stands now, any experienced pilot can farm the shit out of infantry with any nosegun. Maybe this doesn't matter because most A2G farmers won't have good enough aim to use the stock nosegun against infantry without making themselves an easy target for dumbfires and tank shells, but you better believe if I'm trying to auraxium a nosegun, I'm farming the shit out of infantry with it.

[@CMDRCyrious]

Its true you can farm infantry with noseguns, but you put yourself in a very vulnerable position when doing so. I think its balanced due to that.

[@biome23]

THe thermal nerf actually helped a ton. it is significantly harder to find infantry to kill with ppa/banshee/AH. I am also of the opinion that the rocklets are a great addition to help with this now. I am a pilot who doesnt care about kills but just wants a good dogfight so it is also important to me that i dont get locked the second i show up at every fight. Air is in a good place rn except for the dalton nerf and g locks

[@CMDRCyrious]

I would love it if they removed lock-ons entirely. Will cover that in a future video. It punishes pilots that just want to play A2A, and doesn't deter the A2G pilots well enough.

[@darthmusturd9526]

3 words: lock on missiles.

[@CMDRCyrious]

In my world all lock-on missles would be removed, all of them being striker-esque variants.

[@spamonly]

the only reason esf were that strong is because people are too lazy to use AA launchers. you have maybe one or two heavies that actually care about esf an equip the AA launcher in a big fight and actually use it. now with the thermal nerf farming infantry is only a thing for the very top gamers anymore. a shame because i really loved supporting my platoon by killing this anoying snipers that are everywhere now since they have it a loot easier now.

[@braydenregnier6031]

Make lock on lonchers do little damage after a surtant distance

[@CMDRCyrious]

Yes, that is a nice idea.

[@shilopnamreg6468]

Shhhhhhhhhh

[@personperson1239]

This game needs bombers

[@personperson1239]

Like with massive aoe range but tiny damage (more of a support)

[@CMDRCyrious]

Would be cool. Try playing the duster. Its not the huge range you want, but still pretty big carpet bombing range.

[@2Pzp]

Duster? Oh, come on! Its good only for dust cleaning. Never use it, it's a trap! Greets from shredder 5k kills.

[@zap2960]

Liberators, are the closes to bombers

[@Yahuaa]

Still hating scythes.

[@billy_cross5580]

oh what nonsense I shoot down esf's all the time. To fast people just don't understand how to shoot you down or and they don't care mostly because you can't really I won't say you don't affect the battle win column rolls in with a bunch of armor and a bunch of air it does affect the battle but your own individual part of the battle you don't really affect it at all you shoot a few people who destroys people to respond and they go back.but when you die you have to go back to the last bass spawn a new aircraft and probably or possibly wait to respond a new aircraft only to have some heavy swarm you a couple of times and you can't outrun that shittI've watched pilots swirl around in circles and climb and dive try and outrun it those rockets don't stop

[@jenna0551]

Mossy's move to fast, ESF'S dont

[@CMDRCyrious]

A Mossy, is an ESF. ESF stands for Empire Specific Fighter, and the Mosquito is the Terran Republic's ESF. Reavers have the fastest afterburners and are the strongest. Scythes are the most agile and have the highest bullet velocity. Mossies have the fastest top speed and highest RPM on their weapons. But all of them are tuned so close to each other its tough to tell the difference. All very well balanced.

[@jenna0551]

Cyrious Gaming Iknow what an ESF is, it's just that you were constantly showing a mossy and talking about the banshee (mossy weapon) yet you say you are talking about ESF's.

[@thomasferlauto7981]

My idea to make ground-air more entertaining is to make the damage methods more charge-burst than woodpecker arts- heavy assault lock on launchers would bring an aircraft to a burning state immediately, but to lock on the user must keep the aircraft in a small circle in the redicule of the rocket launcher, and if at any point the target leaves the circle, the lock on is lost and must restart the proccess (forcing skilled tracking), meaning if a craft is alerted to lock-on warnings, the best thing to do is spaz out and put a barrier between you and your enemy, like taking cover from a sniper. Starter rocket launchers would allow more error but deal less damage. Anti-air vehicle/max weaponry would have small, fast ROF magazines with slower reloads, yet each salvo would deal immense damage (1/2 health at maximum- freaks the f*** out of aircraft), and allows team play by linking salvos to make suprise their weapon. Aircrafts could gain a skill-based ability similar to vangard shield thats lasts 1 second and has a 12 second cooldown to counter salvos they predict. Basically what I want to be is aircraft fencing matches.

[@redamonblood5165]

well im triggered and i don't know how to respond to this ... oh well

[@lelunbalanced7621]

I hope Wrel watch this and once take some ideas into consideration...

[@HOOOPER]

Pls no.

[@theunseenunknownthatcanbeheard]

personally, I think the ESFs should not able hover or lower their speed below a certain level. they have longer range and scope, automatic safe deploy mid-air like Valks and the ability to repair mid-air if the pilot is an engi. While valks should provide the role anti-ground with more side gunner seats, dedicated pilot nosegun for ground, greater thrust and lower than all aircraft forward speed. liberator pilots should not be able to switch seats mid-air( solves all dalton spammer issues) this is my personal opinion

[@CMDRCyrious]

Not a bad idea.

[@Dallows65]

So I'm watching this a year after posting, but damn even last year this thing just seems like it was made to vent. The 650 cert launchers solve the ESF problem. idk if you've been on emerald recently but ground pounder ESF's don't really exist between the Interceptor and Lockon ESF's as well as all the G2A locks. I fly almost exclusively Air to Air combat mossi, everywhere I go there's a ground lock or a skyguard trying to shoot my ass down. The balance was fine back then, with the exclusion of the Hornets. Now? It's heavily ground favored, congratulations you salty infantryhard. Your solutions are also definitely counter-productive, and would outright obsolete the ESF's role in ground combat. Of the AI noseguns, the most stand out broken ones were the PPA and the Hammer. Now they're not too bad, but the Banshee was pretty well set where it was, and even got buffed with the changes preceeding the Emerald Internal Smash last year. But to bring this to context? Back then, the solution was the same as it is now: G2A locks. Bases have flak cannons on them. Anti air is not there to outright KILL esfs, or even libs and galaxies. It's a deterrent that keeps those aircraft from outstaying their welcome. Side note: Watching your video almost makes me want to shout 'cherry picking'. With all the times I've engaged on A2G esf's only to be met with ground to air lockons, it's really hard to imagine an infantryhard's biggest problem being an ESF these days. The ones I hear from are mostly complaining about MAXes.

[@CMDRCyrious]

My idea of balancing ESFs also includes removing G2A locks, and turning them all into striker-esk weapons. If the aircraft are low, they are deadly, but if the aircraft are more than 100m up, they are useless.

[@Dallows65]

In either case, where it's been at is still pretty fine. The issue I've seen in your video is that nobody is even bothering to find SOME sort of air deterrence to bring against you.

[@Terenin]

"The balance was fine back then, with the exclusion of the Hornets. Now? It's heavily ground favored, congratulations you salty infantryhard." No it wasn't. Are you miserable now, you little bitch? GOOD. Keep being miserable. What you feel is a fraction of the agony it was to keep skies clear back before "Threat Detection" was a thing. I should know, I flew and use AA in equal measure. Striker is the only launcher I ever use because compared to the others, it's a no-warning 2-mags to kill weapon that MIGHT score a kill on occasion as opposed to watching you fly off without a worry in the world. Also, there weren't a single minute in this video where the OP didn't get AA'd or got a lock on him, he was jsut good at avoiding it, because doing so was an still is easy if you don't overextend yourself.

[@vodomes4841]

in 2018 this video is not actual. remove it and forget. The thermal optics was nerfed and it is now very difficult to find crawfish with AA rocket launchers.

[@Jormungrandrserpent]

agreed, since the CAI update anti-air platforms are now freakishly powerful to the point where one AA-platform can effectively counter all air in a hex. Also ranger harassers are a plague on all air. As for Lock-on launchers a single rocket does about 40% of a ESF's hp, so in a large there is plenty of counters to aircraft. ESFs are still the swiss army knives of air but because of CAI, the effectiveness of all non-noseguns was significantly nerfed.

[@TheUnchainedMind]

I wish A2G noseguns were gone, and lolpods too, and hornet damage against tanks should also be cut in half and the splash gone. I like trying to farm infantry with the default nosegun, and A2A duty is actually the highest skill, most rewarding playstyle as far as I'm concerned. A2G would then take great aim in order to land direct hits and not scale as badly. In return, A2A should be tuned to have much less range . None of this render range Walker bullshit or flak interrupting a dogfight 500 meters in the air. This would be fucking amazing, but it's not going to happen. My sessions usually start with me using the bushido loadout, getting pissed off at ground locks and flak spam and pulling A2G in anger.

[@oscarvroomen9984]

Esf's shouldnt be nerfed people just need to stop bitching around and pull anti air. Recently I started flying and its just rediculous how powerful anti air is

[@Lauscus]

What CG is getting at is ESF is jack of all trades. AA is not. So, if that ESF flies away, you're sitting there getting no certs and no action. You'd need to be in a place where you could quickly switch your loadout. A very good ESF pilot rarely has issues dealing with AA. It just takes the right fights to realize how messed up it is when you are actively trying to suppress the aircrafts farming your team.

[@2Pzp]

Actually problem with AA is that usually, 30 sec after u pull it, u get stuck with them and being useless/nothing to do. If u pull AA max or even worse skyguard, 95% time u have nothing to do.

[@Terenin]

Said the useless bitch who don't want to lose any of his favorite toys, and don't care how frustrating or rage-quit inducing this whole issue is. I'm a capable pilot and have a history of utilizing AA to stop pilots from farming. I know exactly what I'm talking about when I say I know your type, I've run into you all the time. You don't care one iota if the game dies and you were the cancer who killed it, so long as NO-ONE does anything to stop you and your one-trick pony-fest, and everyone somehow accepts "no, you just need to git gud" as some kind of argument. Pay attention to the video next time and LISTEN to what is said if you don't want to be bitch-slapped with all the verbal abuse your worthless ass deserves.

[@ImperatorAsus]

more heavyside plz. o wait i already play 99% of the time as heavy when i'm not in a vehicle........ it's a combined arms game, don't like getting farmed? get your own vehicle;

[@x_x5009]

ImperatorAsus heavy assault or hoovy?

[@HOOOPER]

ImperatorAsus couldn't agree more

[@johndoe-kj1xd]

wont happen. hell they will never even fix the HA and its the most fucked up class. doesn't even fit a role.

[@fetB]

erm, i hate HA as much as the next one, but they have a role, they're the first to go into a room or any frontline

[@lelunbalanced7621]

I dont know what class are u playing guys, but heavies are the standard soldiers, its a standard class....I dont know whats the problem with it... The main probem I think moreover maxes and motion spotters (Im main Infil)

[@BDSM420]

What about the millions of AA turrets or the haraser with ranger Walker halberd or canister. What abiut the fact they buffed small arms to the point were lmgs cab put esfs to fire in one clip. If the buff to default sundy guns. What about the fact that almost every vehicle in the game can equip aa. What abiut maxes they can do av aa and ai. The esf.can move to a different hex so can u or your lighting. And if you have a bansshe you are useless in air to air. Av The default mode gun could easily out do you. An esfs can't do much in high pop flights (the idea of ps2) before dieing. La rocket rifle can do serious damage to esfs. And yeah some of this stuff was done after this vid but the vid is still being viewed so I need to.let them know the problem.isnt much of a problem anymore

[@CMDRCyrious]

They certainly have made major improvements. Primarily with removing Infravision from ESFs.

[@ammarfd1361]

Well I don't agree of changing the esf right now, because there is an important aspect you forgot and that's the skill, esfs have a very very low skill ceiling, and being a good pilot needs alot of training and alot of time doing so, secondly you speak as if the esfs have free access to all of the weapons, but the truth is that ypu have to invest alot of certs or money to get your esf into a decent place and buying weapons and such, and that means it's the same decision you have to make as buying AA weapon for your vehicle or infantry as for buying A2G weapon for your esf. Thirdly and the most important part imo is the fact you underestimate the most powerful A2A weapon, namely the enemies other good pilots, as judging from my experience most pilots have a very specified loadouts for A2G or especially for A2 infantry, and if you r farming you get another pilot form the enemies trying to kill you, and as a scythe with ppa you can't do nothing with a mosquito or reaver with a rotary and coyotes, and thus this reaction is what really change the flow of battles. Lastly I just want to say that flying is the most joyful thing is ps2 even though I'm not that skilled, and changing them as you said, will be the same thing the cai did to ps2 and just shift the whole combat advantage to infantry. And in quite honestly you also underestimate the amount of people carrying lock on launchers in the game.