So where are the AA vehicles?

[dCK-Ad_Hominem]

Beatstick = Scrap raining from the skies.

[Brainwright]

Don't you think it's a bit strange situation when you need a hit from Massive anti armor canon to destroy a plane?
Planes should should be fast and survive by speed but in 3.0 they are a flying tanks capable of taking insane amount of damage.

Now AA is a paint to play (especially for clans with no starting  AA units at all). If there were a fast moving hover craft with good AA capability... NORMAL AA missiles (LRMs/SSRMsare useless as a AA weapon )  or nice array of dedicated AA guns this should solve the problem. AA support can get to needed point quickly and get out of the harm way if needed.

We have plenty AA guns, and in Battletech, LBX autocannons are considered supreme AA guns.

Think about it.  Shotguns are the best way to take down birds in real life.  It extends to games, as well.

[DracheM]

Someone let me know if I got this summary right:

It sucks to be the one who draws the short straw of fielding AA for your team because it's either prohibitively expensive or (and?) it's SO slow to get to the front lines that once it's there, it gets to take care of (or spook) one type of threat and is mediocre/complete shit against everything else.


...is a (the) solution to this fielding more jack-of-all-trades 'mechs that have some manner of AA capability so that the entire team can spread around the suck instead of having one person do it?

[The Saint]

I don't think it sucks playing the AA role, it's quite enjoyable. The poor handling of the tank and the rocking problem do detract from the fun, though.

Tanks are overpriced across the board the now, AA or otherwise. People still use them.

The AA tanks can usually do good damage (Parti A) or long reach enough to suppress missile or light Gauss snipers (Parti Prime). They are jack of all trades in their own right.

You seldom see only a single person carrying the AA burden. The adjust air assets are good enough that the necessary ratio is a lot closer to 1:1 than it was in 0.2.0, especially now that the Parti Prime has lost some of its damage output.

[SquareSphere }12thVR{]

There are plenty of jack of all trade mechs that can supplment AA roles now that we have the Sky Watch crouch.  For mechs with rapid ACs, they generally play AA + Anti BA roles for the team.

[Deathbane]

\ive seen quite a few people out in the hollander rac and other aa tanks recently.

I hardly play the role ill admit, but when i do, its actually quite fun.

Also shivas and sullas are prime targets for the vulture a#s dual gauss, especially now the projectile speed has been increased.

[Freakazoid]

I ran a beatstick today for the 1st time since 1.1. I  onshot the same shieva Pilot 3 times in a row and ran low on LBX 20. So I had to fire 2 volleys of lbx 10 to kill him the 4th time.

Don't you think it's a bit strange situation when you need a hit from Massive anti armor canon to destroy a plane?
Planes should should be fast and survive by speed but in 3.0 they are a flying tanks capable of taking insane amount of damage.

It occured to me the other night that, if you look at aero progression, it mirrors nearly exactly the progression of mechs. In that way, it makes sense that anything not an assault mech with good AA can't take down a sulla in one swoop. After all, a single light mech can't take down most heavies anymore (exceptions to heavy missleboats that have no other defenses).

Not trying to excuse aeros, just trying to pin down what the devs were thinking.

[sleepysheep]

I ran a beatstick today for the 1st time since 1.1. I  onshot the same shieva Pilot 3 times in a row and ran low on LBX 20. So I had to fire 2 volleys of lbx 10 to kill him the 4th time.

Don't you think it's a bit strange situation when you need a hit from Massive anti armor canon to destroy a plane?
Planes should should be fast and survive by speed but in 3.0 they are a flying tanks capable of taking insane amount of damage.

It occured to me the other night that, if you look at aero progression, it mirrors nearly exactly the progression of mechs. In that way, it makes sense that anything not an assault mech with good AA can't take down a sulla in one swoop. After all, a single light mech can't take down most heavies anymore (exceptions to heavy missleboats that have no other defenses).

Not trying to excuse aeros, just trying to pin down what the devs were thinking.

Depends how good your aim is And how much lag shield they have.

[KingLeerUK]

The quad LBX5 Partisan is an absolute terror for aerospace and VTOLs out to 800m.  I was taking off wings in single salvos and destroying assets entirely in two hits.

[LordHack]

I've been staying sort of neutral on this, but you guys are killing me....

In perfect circumstances, AA may "work as intended" - or if there are like 4 part/huits focus-firing from a cluster - and then only maybe.  But, generally speaking, all you guys that say how effective it is and how many kills you get with AA are smoking crack.  Sorry, but there it is.

I've been flying non-stop for several days.  TBolt+narcs, almost to exclusion.  Right into clustered AA, base campers, bases, whatever.

The biggest "threat" to me in ASF, is my suck-ass piloting (and crashing or lag-death).

I think three players (over several days) actually took me out in AA on a run, and that's because I float down so badly to line up a shot (I'm old and I can't aim).  Not that I haven't died to incidental fire, or a mid-air crash, but the amount of damage I had to take to allow for that incidental death was silly (I don't even worry about it, or repair, even when all orange).

If I didn't kill myself so often, I'd have something like 60-6 ratio - and that's being stupid and aggressive (i.e. dive bombing the base and camped at base AA) - and not being very good at flying or hitting things with a aero in general.  Full server, partial, no matter.

I think I should be a little more worried about AA, or ground fire generally - and, yes, I have jump-shotted a few lumbering, careless aero with LBX-20 or whatever.   The point is: a bad mech pilot is pretty much consistently punished for being, well... bad.  A bad aero pilot should be, too.

Notwithstanding what you guys are saying, AA is "under-feared", underperforming, and under-rewarded.  There is nothing compelling the removal of an 80K aero counter, in the same vein as removing an 80K LT (think how many assets people coordinate to take out a protected LT).

I'm not anti-ASF - in fact, I think it's fun and useful.  But after hours and hours playing it, I see no evidence --- at all --- of what you guys are claiming.  In fact, I would say it is just the opposite.  Not saying v0.2 AA is correct either; but, I'm very comfortable saying ASF are too safe at the moment.

Flame away.....

[Colonel Drego]

Like KingLeer just said, the LBX5 partisan is a beast. Yesterday as SINGLE PERSON was using it, and I would either have my wing shot off or I would be critically damaged every time my Shiva would get anywhere near hime. The one time I did try to take him out myself (with a UAC shiva), he swatted me out of the sky with minimal effort.

[ratbuddy]

It's pointless complaining, folks. The devs have made it pretty clear they want aeros to be OP, or at least way too hard to kill, so that's probably how they'll stay. Someone said 'if both sides are complaining, the devs are doing things right' or something similar. Well, I haven't heard a single pilot complain that aeros are underpowered or too fragile.

[Colonel Drego]

It's pointless complaining, folks. The devs have made it pretty clear they want aeros to be OP, or at least way too hard to kill, so that's probably how they'll stay. Someone said 'if both sides are complaining, the devs are doing things right' or something similar. Well, I haven't heard a single pilot complain that aeros are underpowered or too fragile.

You're right. You shouldn't have to use the correct asset to deal with another asset. All you should have to do is buy the largest mech you can afford, and that should be able to kill absolutely everything. That 150k cbill Shiva should be able to be killed in a single shot by whatever glorious assault mech you decide to stomp out onto the field with.

[MercenaryMuffin]

I hate 95% of you here. I just wanted to say that. Stop yer bitching and play the damn game. LBX annihilates aeros, RACs shred aeros without problem, gauss rifles and large beams can rip the wing off an aero with a few hits. Aeros are not OP, they're not ruining the game, and the devs want to throat-punch you every time you claim otherwise.

[Profane Arbiter]

So ,as an aside, out to what range do you folks feel that lbx5, 10, and 20 respectively are effective vs airpower?