I'm getting really really sick of people raping airfields.

[TheCaptn]

<rant>Gulf of Oman and Greasy Mullet are where it happens most. If you get in a jet and hightail it straight to the enemy airfield, there to bomb and strafe the jets, helicopters and people spawning; you're a cheap asshole and I'm getting really sick of people like you.
Don't kid yourself that you're doing it 'for the team' either. You're just trying to rack up cheap kills like the worst little vanilla whore, and you're to much of a pussy to let it become a fair fight.</rant>

Ok, now that I've got that out of my system, this is still a serious problem. On Gulf of Oman the MEC Frogfoot even has a delayed spawn, to give the US a chance to get a foothold on the beach, but often the F-18 pilots will destroy everything at the MEC airfield and then simply loiter until the Frogfoot spawns.
On the flip side sometimes when the frogfoot does get up all it will do is bomb the US carrier. I had one guy in my squad a couple of days ago who did that. When I told him to quit it and focus on the beach flags (two of which the US team already held) he told me to "get f***ed" and left to join a more lenient squad.

I know some people will want to argue that 'airfield suppression' is "realistic" but I really don't buy it. The real world doesn't have hostile airfields 2km apart and still conducting flight operations, and the real world -does- have long range, computer controlled, radar guided, networked and automated air defense systems... What we get in game is AA guns with no sight (for some teams) that do reasonable damage but only when they hit, and shoulder fired AA missiles that also do reasonable damage but are more likely to miss the target than hit it anyway.
At least the carrier has a sighted AA with multiple missiles (which is primarily an Anti-Missile CWIS system in real life, and only an AA-of-last-resort).

The way I see it PR is trying to recreate a force-on-force situation. On maps where both teams have air power the whole point is that they should meet in the air. It's not really a difficult concept to grasp.

With that in mind I have a few suggestions for possible changes, in descending order of technical difficulty:

1) Delay the spawning of -all- jets on those maps for five minutes. Not just the Frogfoot on Oman. Think of it as a slightly more realistic travel time to the front.

2) Adjust the point system so that destroying an empty jet or helicopter within a certain area (airfield) translates to serious negative points.

3) The only AA that pilots can be genuinely frightened of at the moment is the Carrier's Phalanx. It's got the appropriate level of firepower and it doesn't light up on the HUD when active... So model and implement a comparable system for MEC and China to use at their airfields, and let the mappers be liberal with them.

[[R-DEV]eggman]

Yeah the AA needs some tweaking .. should be lethal for aircraft to go near an enemy airfield. Will work on it.

That said .. I gotta admit that 80% of the time I see a pilot in the air they are typically useless.... F18s bombing snipers when there's an Su25 raping away

[Tempus]

We've got a full discussion about it here at Tactical Gamer. I've redirected them to give feedback here.

[[R-DEV]eggman]

Also we gave a huge boost to AAA in the v0.509 update .. so see what difference that makes. The MANPADS stuff needs a client update, but the AAA should be much more effective after the v0.509 server update.

[coolhand]

I dont mind if I get strafed while boarding my plane at the start of the round. The way and see and feel about it is that its 'scramble' time and pretty much pilots get the same exact amount of time to get to their jets. Now, the one who is closest to it and flies the shortest course wins and to me that is just part of the strategy.

However, i do agree; enemy airfields should have super-nasty AA's able to take any plane down with ease for anyone who decides to fly over it. One of those AA rounds should tear a plane in peices... or 3 rounds at most to take one down; then maybe pilots would learn to respect them. I myself am not afraid of those gun AA's at all.

[[R-DEV]eggman]

The thing is with the AAA firing against a static plane .. a short burst will destroy the plane. But when you add in server lag and hit detection issues, effectively they become useless.

Am hoping between fixing the server lag and boosting the damage they will be much more realistic in their impact on aircraft.

[Fishw0rk]

Sorry Captn but I can't agree. I do think its a valid tactic to destroy enemy air assets as soon as they spawn, especially if you're flying something like the A-10 or SU-24, which are vulnerable to fighters. Base raping from jets is frustrating for sure, but I'd not call players 'cehap pussies' or whatever for doing it. The purpose of the F-18 & MiG are to take out other air assets first and foremost.

I agree wholeheartedly that main bases need much better AA. I think we may need to eventually 'bend' reality and make AA emplacements extremely hard to destroy, and very protective to the operator. AA emplacements are ALWAYS at a disadvantage against jets because their cannons/bombs will kill the operator before the operator kills them. The only exception now is the Phalanx AA on the carrier.

Also the Stinger and Grail need some updated code eventually. I find that they randomly veer off course way too often--even when the target doesn't pop flares. It's like the missle looks like it's on course, but right before impact it goes off at a 90 degree angle toward the ground. I *think* a proximity fuse would be the best solution. PoE2 did some kinda of changes to AA missles and they are LETHAL in there. I dunno if its proximity, or if the missles are just 'smarter,' but they're something to be feared.

[Cyber-Couch]

What about muttrah? If all of it's AA guns are manned it is almost impossible for a LB to get in and out. The AA rapes the helicopters on muttrah, and the LB gunship is just too poorly equipped to take them out, and the minigun convergence distance on it is way too far away. Where it is right now you can't even see the enemy from a certain distance, so might as well make the convergence distance to where the enemies start to come into view.

[coolhand]

Originally Posted by Cyber-Couch

What about muttrah? If all of it's AA guns are manned it is almost impossible for a LB to get in and out. The AA rapes the helicopters on muttrah, and the LB gunship is just too poorly equipped to take them out, and the minigun convergence distance on it is way too far away. Where it is right now you can't even see the enemy from a certain distance, so might as well make the convergence distance to where the enemies start to come into view.

Well, the problem with Muttrah is pretty much the placement of that dock AA - its really unecessary. The rest of the AA's are fine since their placement balances out the difficulties for the Marines landing on the docks. The LB gunships are pretty deadly vs. AA guns.. I have no problems taking them out whatsoever so long as I plan out my route of attack beforehand so I get to 'sneak' up around the gunner.

[Cyber-Couch]

Coolhand, I don't doubt your flying skills but I highly doubt you have taken out an AA gun before he has taken you out. With the AA gun being on the dot accurate I have never seen an LB take it out before. Even if you take out the gunner which requires a very steady aim since the rounds don't cause any shrapnel to injure nearby targets. There will be another gunner to get back on the gun and take you out.