The formerly dreaded aero.

[(TLL)martinroshak]

I say we demand a rifleman    Complete with an open top cockpit (like the atlas, but useful!) that can be used to twist the arm mounted weapons up to shoot at air targets.  It could be like the partisan load out with a few extra weapons.  AA-Mech solution fixed!  Obviously, this means a heck of a lot of work the dev team, so it's just a suggestion, i'm happy with the balance at the moment, although AA needs a slight damage reduction in my opinion.  Or maybe i just need to practice air assets more xD

[(TLL)Siilk]

 @dimachaerus & MercenaryMuffin: I agree, aeros could use a little more climbing power. Firebombing turns kamikaze too often.

 @martinroshak: I'll say "hell, yeah!" for a Rifleman. With it's prime variant (2xLBL, 2xAC5, 2xMBL) we could have not only able AA mech, but a powerful anti-mech sniper, no weaker than a warhammer. And it's look is really awesome.


 And, to keep the balance, Clans could have their IIC

[Gallonigher]

I could do without added climbing power so long as I had a working CPIP/pipper for my firebombs. 

[Redvan]

I could do without added climbing power so long as I had a working CPIP/pipper for my firebombs.

it does work... when you're level... lol

[Aposiopesis]

What I like about aeros:

They're aeros
They're an oft-unvisited part of BT warfare
I like flying things
Good amount of firepower on a stand-off weapons platform

What I dislike about aeros:

A well-placed AA tank with a decent gunner can shoot you from across the map, including on your own runway/right after takeoff. Usually resulting in death in under 3 seconds regardless of range.
If an AA tank sees you, you're dead
If an AA tank doesn't see you, but shoots at something and a couple stray bullets go you're direction, you're dead
Since you're in the air, you're easy to spot. An AA tank can go passive, so not only do you have no idea you're in an AA zone, but you're dead before you realize you're being hit
Did I mention that an AA tank can kill you in a second of well-placed fire at over double their gun range?

What I dislike about aeros that doesn't pertain to AA being overpowered:

Sloooow pitch rate.
Stall speed wtf. Frequently these things can barely fly at barely under half throttle. You can't even do a good 1/3 throttle cruise without going into the ground. Speed variance needs to be adjusted, preferably, I'd like to see a higher top end while also lowering stall speed (say, under 1/4 throttle).
If you put yaw instead of rotate on your mouse x-axis, it's inverted (that is, left is right and right is left).
Random deaths while taxiing.
Random deaths while taking off
Wall on IS side in Sandblasted taking off your wing half the time you try to taxi out of the lefthand hangar
Random deaths while landing. This particularly pertains to Sullas


As for mechs or non-AA tanks, I have no problems presently taking out aeros (the Oro excepted, since it has no worthwhile vertical movement). It's hard to engage someone that's divebombing you, but it's easy to engage someone that's divebombing someone else. Don't want to get hit by aeros? Stop camping and start moving. It's easy. Aeros are the anti-camp, and I think some of the people that are afraid of AA getting nerfed are campers/poptarters/boaters that don't want to deal with aeros. Usually, my response to aeros while in anything with long range weapons excepting the Oro 'hey, free CBs!'

[Raptor Khatib]

The main fear of an AA nerf come down to how we don't want an AA to be utterly useless as they were in the last patch where the only effective AA in the game were the Harasser C and the Huilt A. All the other AA tanks were next to useless as ti could take 20-30sec of fire just to bring down the ASF. While things are too good for AA tanks right now I don't want to see the AA being that useless again. Also I'm rarely in a poptarting mech( thats asking for someone like snowball or myself to cut your mech in half while you float around the only time I hold back is when I'm waiting for the rest of the attack line to play catch up. ASF and VTOL's should not be god's falling on mechs and tanks with impunity as they pretty much did pre-patch. They need some help but not buffed back to where they were. Also narc Tbolt ASF could easily take out RT armor on pretty much anything if you have that much firepower then you should have something to make you shit your pants about when your buzzing their lines.

long post short. slight buff to ASF or a slight nerf to AA don't over do it we have seen both extremes so aim for the middle.

[Aposiopesis]

The main fear of an AA nerf come down to how we don't want an AA to be utterly useless as they were in the last patch where the only effective AA in the game were the Harasser C and the Huilt A. All the other AA tanks were next to useless as ti could take 20-30sec of fire just to bring down the ASF. While things are too good for AA tanks right now I don't want to see the AA being that useless again. Also I'm rarely in a poptarting mech( thats asking for someone like snowball or myself to cut your mech in half while you float around the only time I hold back is when I'm waiting for the rest of the attack line to play catch up. ASF and VTOL's should not be god's falling on mechs and tanks with impunity as they pretty much did pre-patch. They need some help but not buffed back to where they were. Also narc Tbolt ASF could easily take out RT armor on pretty much anything if you have that much firepower then you should have something to make you shit your pants about when your buzzing their lines.

long post short. slight buff to ASF or a slight nerf to AA don't over do it we have seen both extremes so aim for the middle.

As you can tell from my post, my main beef is with the absurd range AA has. If it rapidly lost its effectiveness outside of its posted range and had a minor damage nerf, it'd be fine (you know, killing an ASF in 5-10 seconds instead of 1-3)

[AlfalphaCat]

long post short. slight buff to ASF or a slight nerf to AA don't over do it we have seen both extremes so aim for the middle.

Supa Dupa Agree 

[Redvan]

yeah, AA is quite OP.  Tone the range down and it should balance out.

[(TLL)Siilk]

+1 to reduction of AA effectiveness at long ranges. A little more spread and, maybe, some damage loss after 800m could do the job.

[Gallonigher]

I could do without added climbing power so long as I had a working CPIP/pipper for my firebombs.

it does work... when you're level... lol

Wrong.  It works when you're in a near-vertical descent, but a lot of the time it just lies to you.  It's more accurate than it was in the previous build, but I still can't rely on it even straight and level!     I have to use mk I. eyeballs for the most part.   

[Ralux]

Making the AA less effective against Aeros is also not a "nerf to hell" request. Undeniably, a single AA can keep an entire team's Aero assets grounded, so modification there is needed for Aeros to have a place on the battlefield.

This.

I suggest nurfing the AC5 dmg vs everything except heavy and assault mechs by 2/3 (66%) and the ac2 dmg by 40% - thats seems quite a lot eh? It would only increase the lifetime of any air unit from 2sec to 6sec... BAs would still be insta gibbed...

Light mechs just shouldnt die that fast vs a damn AA unit - right now I always start in that ac5 partisan just to get 4-6 easy light mech kills at the start of a match, allowing me to buy a heavy mech after my 1st death... (or 2nd return to base to buy ammo)

The only thing that semi-protects an air unit from AA tanks is a -huge- lagshield... It needs to be huge enough to evade the AA spread as well.

Yes there are ppl who somehow evade AA with a small lagshield (flying up in a spiral increases the lagshield) - but thats only because the AA guy has no skillz or lag on his side.


One single AA tank shouldnt be able to protect his whole team (10+ ppl) vs 3+ air ppl on the other team, thats just stupid...
AA guys should have to team up as well, 3 AA tanks (successfully)  fighting off 5 aeros together seems much fairer than the current one-man-show.

[SquareSphere]

Umm yeah i'm on board with this now.  Just played a game where 1 partisan locked down my town teams air field from his beyond his max range. 

[Redvan]

my shiva prime got chewed up in literally 2 seconds by a partisan the other day.  \o/
didnt even give me enough time to get a missile lock on it, which is the only thing i could do against it, since he was out of my gauss and laser range...  hint hint.