STOP!
Before I write anything else, I want to attempt to lay down some ground rules regarding the intent of this post. I want this to be a good hard look at how the issues with aircraft can be resolved without adding or seriously impacting any features. That means NO Stinger kit (new feature, not gonna happen) and NO comments about just removing bombs from fighters (impacts intended game play).
What I want to see is some good logic and grown up attitudes. I don't want so see "Plane whores suck" or pointless slams on EA/Dice. If you can present a logical argument or point out a flaw in the following suggestion, please by all means do so. DO NOT make alternate suggestions unless you have previously made a good logical argument as to why this suggestion is not optimal.
If you AGREE with the content of the post, show your support by saying so and keeping it "live". I would also encourage you to post links and pointers to it in other forums and/or e-mail Dice suggesting that they look at it (POLITELY!). The idea is to get a workable fix in place by pushing for a real and good solution.
Mods, if you can help out with this, it would be much appreciated!
I should also mention that this solution has been stated before by myself and others. I feel that we need to consolidate on it.
On to the meat of the matter:
Before proposing any kind of solution, you had first better take a good look at the problem.
The current issue is that the intended "rock, paper, scissors" formula is broken. There is no Rock to oppose the plane Scissors.
Why is this true?
The answer is very simple. The AA missile code isn't up to the needed task. We know this to be true, but do we know why it's not up to it? Let's examine that for a moment.
There are two main problems with the AA missile code as it stands. The primary is lock issues.
Missiles tend to break lock and chase friendly aircraft more often than is reasonable. This is likely caused by some variables that should be fairly easy to tweek. HOWEVER, it's also complicated by the inclusion of helicopters. If AA missiles are too accurate, choppers will become useless. That would be a bad thing.
The second issue is pass-through. It's common to see missiles pass cleanly through their target without detonating. This is likely a lag issue. Since we're dealing with 2 object that are moving at high speed, it is very easy for the program to miss detecting a missile impact.
SO, that's the issue in a nutshell.
On to the proposed solution (about friggen time, eh?).
- Improve the lock code. Missiles should not stray nearly as often and should never chase a friendly aircraft unless the lock has already been broken. In that case, the missile should have every chance to lose lock that it does when chasing an enemy. Instances of AA FF need to be reduced dramaticly.
Why this is good: Fairly obvious. If you can't hit your target, it's very hard to kill your target! The only problem is, as mentioned, that if AA missile were made too accurate, helicopters would become sitting ducks. Hopefully, the following points will help alleviate that issue.
- AA missiles should use a proximity fuse. They should detonate when they are a fixed distance from the target. I'm thinking about 20 feet. Probably less. The warhead should have a splash damage radius slightly larger than it's detonation distance and damage should be fairly even across it, but ramped down steeply at the edge. Actual base damage should remain the same. If they impact on something with no lock, it should not be very damaging.
Why this is good: A proximity fuse would give the missile multiple chances to realize that it needs to detonate. If it misses a check, it will still be in detonation range for the next check. Instead of flying through the target and continuing on it's way, will blow just a little later than it should have. With the blast radius involved, it will still cause suitable damage. Here's the really fun part... since the missiles are more likely to detect their detonation range correctly when locked on a chopper, they should blow early and actually cause less damage! This works as an offset to the fact that they are now much more accurate and save use from a flood of ticked off chopper pilots.
- Air Plane Armor needs to be reduced. I'm thinking that a reduction of about a third is appropriate, but the exact amount would have to be experimented with.
Why this is good: AA's should make pilots sweat! Since it's likely that missiles will be doing less damage overall, the planes need to be made more vulnerable. Also, since those missile hits are now going to be variable in damage (splash falloff) it would be very cool to see a close missile hit knocking a plane down to almost nothing. This works hand in hand with the chopper issue as noted above. We don't want to ramp missile damage up, because those chopper pilots are going to be getting slammed. Note: if required, the cannons on aircraft might need to have their damage slightly reduced. This should be alright since already we are seeing ridiculous cannon runs blowing away tanks and the like. It's something that would have to be carefully player with to make it "right".
And that's it!
With these suggestions in place, planes should now be more vulnerable to AA fire and yet we've managed to avoid overspill that would cause helicopters to become useless.
I hope I have stated my/our case well and offer this up to whoever might be able to do something with it.
Before I write anything else, I want to attempt to lay down some ground rules regarding the intent of this post. I want this to be a good hard look at how the issues with aircraft can be resolved without adding or seriously impacting any features. That means NO Stinger kit (new feature, not gonna happen) and NO comments about just removing bombs from fighters (impacts intended game play).
What I want to see is some good logic and grown up attitudes. I don't want so see "Plane whores suck" or pointless slams on EA/Dice. If you can present a logical argument or point out a flaw in the following suggestion, please by all means do so. DO NOT make alternate suggestions unless you have previously made a good logical argument as to why this suggestion is not optimal.
If you AGREE with the content of the post, show your support by saying so and keeping it "live". I would also encourage you to post links and pointers to it in other forums and/or e-mail Dice suggesting that they look at it (POLITELY!). The idea is to get a workable fix in place by pushing for a real and good solution.
Mods, if you can help out with this, it would be much appreciated!
I should also mention that this solution has been stated before by myself and others. I feel that we need to consolidate on it.
On to the meat of the matter:
Before proposing any kind of solution, you had first better take a good look at the problem.
The current issue is that the intended "rock, paper, scissors" formula is broken. There is no Rock to oppose the plane Scissors.
Why is this true?
The answer is very simple. The AA missile code isn't up to the needed task. We know this to be true, but do we know why it's not up to it? Let's examine that for a moment.
There are two main problems with the AA missile code as it stands. The primary is lock issues.
Missiles tend to break lock and chase friendly aircraft more often than is reasonable. This is likely caused by some variables that should be fairly easy to tweek. HOWEVER, it's also complicated by the inclusion of helicopters. If AA missiles are too accurate, choppers will become useless. That would be a bad thing.
The second issue is pass-through. It's common to see missiles pass cleanly through their target without detonating. This is likely a lag issue. Since we're dealing with 2 object that are moving at high speed, it is very easy for the program to miss detecting a missile impact.
SO, that's the issue in a nutshell.
On to the proposed solution (about friggen time, eh?).
- Improve the lock code. Missiles should not stray nearly as often and should never chase a friendly aircraft unless the lock has already been broken. In that case, the missile should have every chance to lose lock that it does when chasing an enemy. Instances of AA FF need to be reduced dramaticly.
Why this is good: Fairly obvious. If you can't hit your target, it's very hard to kill your target! The only problem is, as mentioned, that if AA missile were made too accurate, helicopters would become sitting ducks. Hopefully, the following points will help alleviate that issue.
- AA missiles should use a proximity fuse. They should detonate when they are a fixed distance from the target. I'm thinking about 20 feet. Probably less. The warhead should have a splash damage radius slightly larger than it's detonation distance and damage should be fairly even across it, but ramped down steeply at the edge. Actual base damage should remain the same. If they impact on something with no lock, it should not be very damaging.
Why this is good: A proximity fuse would give the missile multiple chances to realize that it needs to detonate. If it misses a check, it will still be in detonation range for the next check. Instead of flying through the target and continuing on it's way, will blow just a little later than it should have. With the blast radius involved, it will still cause suitable damage. Here's the really fun part... since the missiles are more likely to detect their detonation range correctly when locked on a chopper, they should blow early and actually cause less damage! This works as an offset to the fact that they are now much more accurate and save use from a flood of ticked off chopper pilots.
- Air Plane Armor needs to be reduced. I'm thinking that a reduction of about a third is appropriate, but the exact amount would have to be experimented with.
Why this is good: AA's should make pilots sweat! Since it's likely that missiles will be doing less damage overall, the planes need to be made more vulnerable. Also, since those missile hits are now going to be variable in damage (splash falloff) it would be very cool to see a close missile hit knocking a plane down to almost nothing. This works hand in hand with the chopper issue as noted above. We don't want to ramp missile damage up, because those chopper pilots are going to be getting slammed. Note: if required, the cannons on aircraft might need to have their damage slightly reduced. This should be alright since already we are seeing ridiculous cannon runs blowing away tanks and the like. It's something that would have to be carefully player with to make it "right".
And that's it!
With these suggestions in place, planes should now be more vulnerable to AA fire and yet we've managed to avoid overspill that would cause helicopters to become useless.
I hope I have stated my/our case well and offer this up to whoever might be able to do something with it.
When someone on the ground desides to psyc out a chopper, they can be very effective even with the broken AA tracking.
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