Introduction of LBX-2's and a retooling of dedicated AA

[Arghy]

I was on a wonderful map today with lots of open areas and a very high flight ceiling. On this map a flying bus mistakenly labeled an aero was attacking groups of 3-4 light/medium/heavy mechs alone and kill 2-3 of them then fly off before anyone could kill him. The only way to defend yourself was to walk around with an LBX20 since a single hit from this would put the entire aero into red but even then he would claim 1-2 mechs in every pass. The most disturbing thing was people buying dedicated AA units such as the parti, huit and other AA mechs and watching them getting slaughtered. I watched the flying bus killed 2 mechs and 1 huit with 7 people shooting at him and he still flew off into the distance.

I had another occurrence on mirage where i was in a parti and huit prime and repeatedly got attacked by aero assets and never killed  a single one.

The problem is all current dedicated AA units have good DPS but horrible alpha so on any open map with good pilots theres no chance you'll actually kill the air unit before he decides to just fly off while you helplessly stare at him beyond your effective range. All of the AC based weapons are a joke vs air units, their either to short ranged to finish the job or to low damage to deter the air unit before he kills his target. The current AA units win the battle but lose the war. The LBX weapons are honestly the only effective AA weapons and deterrents but even then unless you have multiple units shooting at the target you'll never kill it before the air unit flys out of your effective range.

I'd love to see the LBX-2 replace the AC2 as the general purpose AA weapon on dedicated AA platforms--lets face it trying to lead a target at 800m+ thats presenting its smallest silhouette isent going to do a whole lot esp if that target has a ping difference in which case he'll be jumping all over your screen. The spread and hopefully RoF of the LBX-2 will hopefully make up for those extreme ranges and pixel thick air targets to atleast give the pilot a sense of danger instead of just a light show of tracers missing. The current low caliber AC weapons are also really underwhelming currently as it seems you need a completely flat map and 5 minutes of shooting to get anything done.

TLDR: flying assault mechs being tickled

[Cloudburst]

Flying bus? No, sir, I am afraid that is a flying submarine.

[«اك§» Trooper_Thorn]

A good dual use Huit is the ac2/ac5 properly used against BA, Mechs and Aeros, also the ATM9/Arrow Huit will take down aeros, the twin lbx10/Arrow Huit works well against BA, Aeros and Mechs. Finally the dual Gauss/Arrow/MG Huit works against all units that you will engage. I have not used the large laser Huit so I cannot give a proper report on that. I have seen quit a few Aeros taken down including the as you call it "flying bus" using erppcs by mechs. I have taken several down by letting them get almost at the end of my Arrow lock on range and then firing, they go back to their base to rearm and repair only to have two arrows hit them in the butt when they think they are safe and landing. (It really pisses them off) I once had one guy try 7 times to take my Huit out only to die a failure all 7 times, he even tried to Kamikaze my Huit only to turn my Huit yellow. He rage quit after the Kamikaze run on the 7Th try and with me trash talking him. LOL 

[NSallaNuto]

Good pilots are almost invulnerable, especially in Mirage. They can occasionally die because an unseen LBX20 demo or trying landing.

What you can shot down with AA are newbs.

[1N4001]

In before aero hater circlejerk

[=CJW= Bin Fish]

I want a hollander with nothing but lbx all over it with jump jets. Ultimate kamikaze AA

[Arghy]

I just want more LBX equipped AA units instead of AC's so aero units actually have fear again instead of having the armor of a medium mech that chooses when and were to fight. I still laugh at how they somehow lost the technology of long ranged seeking missiles in the 30th century. The problem with ATM's as AA is their clan only so IS will be screwed where clan can just put some ATM equipped units on the field and any air unit will quickly be dead or running.

I'd also love if small bore AC's were actually useful--when a raven can walk up to my huit prime, casually shoot me then shoot a narc and waltz away under a constant stream of fire the entire time you know theres a problem. In other MW games i always saw small AC's as ammo dependent heat free lasers with a higher RoF, no idea if this is still represented in MWLL but i figured AC2 = small laser, AC5 = medium laser, AC10 = large laser.

Hell at this point i'd welcome the riflemen/jaegermech in the game.

[Cloudburst]

AC5, in MWLL, does more DPS than a large laser (at a longer range). Not per hit, per second, but still higher DPS.

Still, Hollander has got to have enough variants so one may choose which large ballistic weapon he wants to throw on his Holly. D would be regular ol' AC20, E would be LBX20.
-That's besides the point of AA, kind of. From what I've seen and gotten out of the Noisy Cricket, LBX2's are pretty good at AA duty. Would love to see more of them.

[General_Armchair]

The tighter spread on the AC-10's (EDIT:  LBX-10's, AC-10's are shit) would make them good for AA duty....if anything mounted more than two of them.

I've also never been impressed by ATMS against aircraft.  Are the maneuverable enough to hit planes?  Usually a few would hit.  Enough to kill the plane?  Unlikely.

The real problem with low caliber AC's against aircraft is that competent pilots will merely orient themselves so that their shields are in the way of incoming fire (sorry, their wings).  Its really weird watching those birds with clipped wings non-nonchalantly fly back to base.  Especially since you'd think that a plane missing a wing would be as crippled as a mech missing a leg.

[=KoS= Saber15]

The tighter spread on the AC-10's would make them good for AA duty....if anything mounted more than two of them.

lolno. The 4x UAC/10 Shiva is utterly useless at killing planes, even with good ping and a plane that isn't trying to avoid your fire.

[ELH_Vivicector]

lolno. The 4x UAC/10 Shiva is utterly useless at killing planes, even with good ping and a plane that isn't trying to avoid your fire.

Wrong, in fact. It can kill other Shiva pretty fast (in a second, in fact). But it is very hard to hit the target and lead it.

LBX-2 on ground units won't really work, since they have the same DPS nature as UACs. Best weapon against bombers is LBX-10 with its balanced range/spread. But then bombers would be having too hard life since Huit can easily mount 3 LBX-10 and oneshot any Sulla. This would only cause another balance problem (oneshots suck, you know?)

May be devs should give most mechs better torso rising, so that they could shoot back at the aero, add white/blackout effects for pilots, stalling for too fast turns so that aero can't turn in place and then REDUCE that crazy multipliers on damage and add some more armour for aero. This would be way more interesting.

[[CW]Aresye]

lolno. The 4x UAC/10 Shiva is utterly useless at killing planes, even with good ping and a plane that isn't trying to avoid your fire.

Outlaw is actually pretty good with the 4 UAC-10 Shiva.  It can take out another Shiva with a few well placed shots, and because of the firing rate, it isn't that hard to do, just takes some getting used to the lead.

Now, to join this circle jerk next to the rotting horse.

I watched the flying bus killed 2 mechs and 1 huit with 7 people shooting at him and he still flew off into the distance.

Labeling it the flying bus is cool and all, but could you at least list what ASF it was.  Shiva? Sulla? Sparrowhawk?  Which config?

My point is, there's only a few ASF configs that are actually feared by those on the ground.  Given your exaggerations, I have no idea what asset, config, or overall time period you're talking about.  I'm pretty sure one ASF pilot didn't take out 2 mechs and a huit in one pass, unless they were already damaged pretty badly.

I just want more LBX equipped AA units instead of AC's so aero units actually have fear again instead of having the armor of a medium mech that chooses when and were to fight.

The quad LBX-20 and quad Light Gauss mechs are absolute nightmares to ASF as it is right now.

Choosing when and where to fight is one advantage of ASF.  If we didn't have that, we'd be pretty screwed, but I'm getting the idea that you want that.

The problem with ATM's as AA is their clan only so IS will be screwed where clan can just put some ATM equipped units on the field and any air unit will quickly be dead or running.

Your confidence in your ATMs will be your undoing.

ATMs can be defeated quite easily by a competent pilot.  Just takes more practice and a fast reaction time.

The real problem with low caliber AC's against aircraft is that competent pilots will merely orient themselves so that their shields are in the way of incoming fire (sorry, their wings).  Its really weird watching those birds with clipped wings non-nonchalantly fly back to base.  Especially since you'd think that a plane missing a wing would be as crippled as a mech missing a leg.

The devs already know this is an issue.  No point adding a second dead horse to this.

[=KoS= Saber15]

I just want more LBX equipped AA units instead of AC's so aero units actually have fear again instead of having the armor of a medium mech that chooses when and were to fight.

The quad LBX-20 and quad Light Gauss mechs are absolute nightmares to ASF as it is right now.

Choosing when and where to fight is one advantage of ASF.  If we didn't have that, we'd be pretty screwed, but I'm getting the idea that you want that.

The only AA unit that has decently sized LBXes is a Huit variant, which moves at the speed of the island of Australia and costs an obscene amount of money. LBX mechs are at the mercy of divebombing aerospace, especially if it's a Sulla A.

What we need is an AA unit with mixed UACs and LBXes, like a Huit with an LBX/20 and 3 UAC/2s or something.

[General_Armchair]

The tighter spread on the AC-10's would make them good for AA duty....if anything mounted more than two of them.

Crap, I meant LBX-10's, fixed this for me.  AC-10's would be pretty shit against aircraft from a ground based platform.

A ground based AA platform with high rof weapons to lead a target backed up by LBX-10's to kill that target would be ideal.

[xInVicTuSx]

WHERE ARE YOU CHUCK CONNERS? WE NEED YOU AND YOUR EPIC MECH!