"Sky Camper and the World of Tomorrow"

[Manfromx]

To clear up future confusion I suggest renaming the mod to "Mechwarrior and friends"  

[Alexander]

To adjust this, The Partisan Prime for example (All AC5) is less effective against armor, but more effective against air.

Thumbs up, I certainly didn't think of a move as simple as that  

With regard to the swathes of people baawing about "Why should I be forced to ride AA to shoot down a pilot"

Think back to other "Combined Arms" type games. In this case, BF2 was a good example.

If you were a Medic, and a Tank rolled around the corner, What did you do? I'd be surprised if it wasn't "Die in a hail of bullets"

Edit: This is not an invitation for those with e-peen deficiencies to tell us how imba they are.

[Gunhead]

In accordance to the swath of posts like this, we've increased the effectiveness of AA weaponry like the AC2's and 5's. They now have a tighter cone of fire over range and make Aero quake in fear To adjust this, The Partisan Prime for example (All AC5) is less effective against armor, but more effective against air.

Nice! Personally i love the Partisan prime and to be honest good call on lowering the armour damage: even though it's a very enjoyable vehicle to play i did slightly feel that it's a mite too strong for a first-buy tank. Switch the quad autocannon to chain fire, squeeze down the trigger and the next time you have to release it is when either your magazines have run dry or you've run out of things to shoot at :p I mean the thing could tear any first-buy light 'mech to ribbons with little risk to itself.

Regarding the air/anti-air stuff have you guys considered to provide flak ammunition to AA-capable weaponry (namely AC2's and 5's)? That's of course if you're planning to - or if it's even possible - do different ammo types for vehicle weapons. Best game reference to its use would be Planetside's Burster AA MAX suits and vehicle/turret mounted flak guns: their shells did rather puny damage against ground targets but against airborne units (aircraft and jumping BFRs) the shells had proximity triggers that bathed aircraft in a flak cloud damaging them from the "splash" of the explosions - it also looked cool and was a rewarding experience when you played as airguard.

IF it'd be possible to have different ammo for some weapon systems you'd of course need to have free tonnage and c-bills to buy the alternate ammo plus switching ammotype on the field should take at least the same time it takes to rearm a dry magazine from stored ammo bay.

Then there's the obvious chance of implementing dedicated AA 'mechs like the Jagermech and the mighty classic Rifleman - them puppies would give players like OP the best of both worlds with a 'mech that's able to effectively defend against air and go toe to toe with other 'mechs.

[KSerge83]

Mmmm, rifleman.

Is this thread for real? I could ALMOST understand if the complaint was about Aero jets (the Tbolt sulla RUINS mechs in the early game) but there are of course counters to that too.

VTOLs to me are almost a joke. They're easy to shoot down, less effectively armed than sullas or shivas, and more difficult to fly for most people. I can't believe there's a thread about the ONE advantage VTOLs have, their ability to hover above mech firing lines.

My advice (as the devs have already said): get a tank, or get a teammate to get a tank. VTOLs are so susceptible to gauss fire it's not even funny.

[(TLL)Frosted]

L2P mechs arent king of battlefield anymore and shooting down air isnt even hard just take the sulla prime and hunt them down. If you can only get vtol in the map(inferno) get a AA vehicule or a mech whit gauss.

Everyday theres a new thread about complaining that his mech is getting owned by some BA or air.

[Skunker]

Like many others, I'm going to have to say that while VTOLS and Aeros can get annoying, they are easily destroyed by other Aeros. Your team either lacks pilots or your pilots suck, in which case you should help them out by flying your own aero and taking that pesky VTOL out yourself.

[KerenskyIsMyHomeboy]

I've had some very fun times in a Sulla B (NARC/Tbolt) doing bombing runs for endless days. But when one guy gets angry at me nuking his mech and decides to get even with a little bit of dog fighting then my day goes sour. I have no choice but to run back to base and dive into the warm embrace of my teams auto turrets.  The same pretty much goes with VTOLs, except I find dodging missles and AC5s all the more harder.

The point here being that one guy in a cheap fighter can halt my entire set of tactics. He can effectively stop the other teams air superiority with something that a Cadet can purchase. Yeah it may be hard to fly/hover but that's what practice is for. The only reason I can surf valleys and fart on mechs with my aerospace fighter exhaust is because of practice.

tl;dr deal with it. 

[The Sweetie Man]

If anything VTOLS are underpowered.  The only times you're gonna get a mech kill is if you fight someone already damaged or can harass 1 opponent for minutes at a time and by then he'll be killed by a mech.  Very lightly armed, and the thunderbolt variant seems to be the best damaging yet you have to go back to base and reload after 1 shot.  As for aeros they have to be in range to hit you and I've shot down many with mech's and lasers when they dive down.

[Thanatos676]

Arrow IV work wonders if u can get a lock onto aircraft. My buddy has been using them to great effect on aircraft.

[Bowrrl]

Today I was playing on Clearcut. The enemy had two VTOLs and two Sullas (Air-to-Ground variants) out spanking my team because my team had no air support. Me, being credit to team, decided to hop into a Sulla Prime and see what I could do.

I killed all of them with ease and kept them out of the air for pretty much the remainder of the match. Just one Air-to-Air variant Sulla can keep the skies completely free of aircraft for your team.

Personally, I feel that because of lag Ground AA is a bit unwieldy. Hopefully the new AC5 and AC2 damage modifiers will help them out a little.

Also listen to Thanatos676. Those things are magical.

[Virt]

Everyday theres a new thread about complaining that his mech is getting owned by some BA or air.

Yes, but rarely are they done with such humour, flair and style LOL.

[Ninjars]

In accordance to the swath of posts like this, we've increased the effectiveness of AA weaponry like the AC2's and 5's. They now have a tighter cone of fire over range and make Aero quake in fear To adjust this, The Partisan Prime for example (All AC5) is less effective against armor, but more effective against air.

Oh, now I am disappointed - I thought the mods were generally sticking to their guns over perceived balance issues as people learn how to play!  You certainly seemed to over the BA nerf calls, but now because people can't be bothered to take even one AA unit on a team you're messing with the Partisan Prime balance?  I though it already did too little to mechs to be effective as it was, and sure it was a little tricky to swat aircraft but lag issues surely were responsible at least partially for that.

Today I was playing on Clearcut. The enemy had two VTOLs and two Sullas (Air-to-Ground variants) out spanking my team because my team had no air support. Me, being credit to team, decided to hop into a Sulla Prime and see what I could do.

I killed all of them with ease and kept them out of the air for pretty much the remainder of the match. Just one Air-to-Air variant Sulla can keep the skies completely free of aircraft for your team.

I've had some very fun times in a Sulla B (NARC/Tbolt) doing bombing runs for endless days. But when one guy gets angry at me nuking his mech and decides to get even with a little bit of dog fighting then my day goes sour. I have no choice but to run back to base and dive into the warm embrace of my teams auto turrets.  The same pretty much goes with VTOLs, except I find dodging missles and AC5s all the more harder.

If anything VTOLS are underpowered.  The only times you're gonna get a mech kill is if you fight someone already damaged or can harass 1 opponent for minutes at a time and by then he'll be killed by a mech.  Very lightly armed, and the thunderbolt variant seems to be the best damaging yet you have to go back to base and reload after 1 shot.  As for aeros they have to be in range to hit you and I've shot down many with mech's and lasers when they dive down.

VTOLs to me are almost a joke. They're easy to shoot down, less effectively armed than sullas or shivas, and more difficult to fly for most people. I can't believe there's a thread about the ONE advantage VTOLs have, their ability to hover above mech firing lines.

In regards to shooting down VTOLs/ASFs it's not very difficult from a mech either.  Yes mechs have limited firing arcs but as a general rule you can see the VTOLs and ASFs coming inbound so you have an opportunity to tackle them before they are a problem.  Lasers in chain fire are typically the most effective method, pulse lasers even more so, or spinning up the autocannons to take them out.

There are a few players out there that tend to try to sit just out of your reach to harass you but most of them suffer from the same flaw: the remain relatively stationary or fly in a consistent direction (I suffer from this problem in VTOLs as well) which makes them easy targets once you get used to leading your shots slightly.  Missiles also tend to hit a lot more on VTOLs as they don't maneuver as well as the ASFs so pop a few missiles at them.

Do i need to go on from just the last few posts?  Devs, please don't break your track record of doing things right and ignoring whiners now, just cos three or four people are bitching - I think opinion is heavily on the side of 'this isn't Mechwarrior 4'.  Sure, if you planned to make the Partisan Prime dedicated AA then that's great, but for the love of god don't do it because of people complaining!

[Virt]

I thought the mods were generally sticking to their guns

The ARE sticking to their guns.  They're just making their guns do more damage to pesky low-skill skycampers in VTOLs.

[(TLL)Highlander]

Everyday theres a new thread about complaining that his mech is getting owned by some BA or air.

Yes, but rarely are they done with such humour, flair and style LOL.

So if you take a dump in public then put flowers on it then it is acceptable?

[Bowrrl]

Oh, now I am disappointed - I thought the mods were generally sticking to their guns over perceived balance issues as people learn how to play!  You certainly seemed to over the BA nerf calls, but now because people can't be bothered to take even one AA unit on a team you're messing with the Partisan Prime balance?  I though it already did too little to mechs to be effective as it was, and sure it was a little tricky to swat aircraft but lag issues surely were responsible at least partially for that.

Do i need to go on from just the last few posts?  Devs, please don't break your track record of doing things right and ignoring whiners now, just cos three or four people are bitching - I think opinion is heavily on the side of 'this isn't Mechwarrior 4'.  Sure, if you planned to make the Partisan Prime dedicated AA then that's great, but for the love of god don't do it because of people complaining!

The Partisan IS a dedicated AA tank. http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Partisan

They are making it better against aircraft and weakening it to the heavily armored ground vehicles so it fits its role better.