General Aircraft Changes

[decibel_spl 76]

I am writing this forum post to express my woes of a number of concerns regarding some aircraft on I&A.

I had left the server for a period of at least 6 months and recently joined back in the past 3 or 4 weeks, and now I have been enough to be considered a regular again I have this to say:

1. My number one request regarding aircraft in this server is to reconsider the state of friendly and enemy jets.

• I propose the following:
  • Rework the loadout of the current jets to be strictly Anti Air or CAS only with no mixture and allow it so you can choose to have anti air or CAS.
    • Either do the above, or bring back two jets - one anti air and one CAS, this way you don't have the problem of having no anti air capability while running CAS and vice versa
    • Currently there is a serious lack in either anti air or CAS capability when in a jet, in the case of the wipeout it's no anti air, and in the case of the shikra/gryphon it's next to no CAS (2 bombs and that's it)
    • When there are enemy jets, it is next to impossible to have any form of good CAS because you will be shot down while trying to strike targets. If you shoot the jet down, another one spawns in 5 minutes - this is ridiculous.

2. This has been suggested before so my apologies for reposting an older thread, but rework attack helos to both be more available and more useful. I was over the moon to finally see a blackfoot as a reward after having not seen one in forever. It brought me much sadness to find all it had as armament were HE DARs and 20mm. This is just ridiculous, it makes the helos completly useless + they use up a pilot slot. They either need to be reworked so they actually have some use and not as fragile as paper mache, or be removed entirely.

3. My third and final concern in regards to aircraft is helicopters that spawn at base for pilots.

• I propose the following changes to helicopter spawns:
  • Move the mohawk into the rotation of the taru transport and add a huron into this rotation as well - this will be classed as the mass troop transport helicopter rotation
  • In replacement of the permanent mohawk spawn, will go the ghost hawk/orca/hellcat rotation - there needs to be another smaller troop transport available as it is far more agile and accessible than the mohawk / taru.
  • Leave the 2 permanent GHs and little bird, this is ideal as is
  • In adding the huron to the mass troop transport category, make the taru on the heavy lift pad permanent dedicated to heavy lift. When there is a huron that spawns in place of the taru, it only ever gets used as transport + the taru is a superior heavy lift helicopter.
  • Obviously you can leave both the blackfish / xian as they are fine as well.

I very much like this server, so my apparent harshness in criticism is out of love - people when they like something criticise it because they want it to be better, not just to criticise it. I appreciate all the work the staff team do and want you to continue making this server great.

[webbie 186]

 

@decibel_spl

First off thank you for making the time to put up the post.

Everyone's time is valuable but spending 10 mins to do a forum post allows everyone an open communication.

You know better than anyone that my ears and eyes are always open.

All of your suggestions have merit however when it comes to the jets we need to have balance.

The main purpose of I and A has always been as an infantry oriented platform.

I think we've all seen that one tank on a hill with an ammo crate  makes an AO redundant for infantry.

IMO the cas is suited in its current state as it removes the ability for cas to overpower in the AO.

While cas is just that, close air support, it keeps the pilot busy with multi tasks while flying as AA and AtG.

As far as it getting shot down if an enemy jet is watching base then that needs to be prioritised over anything else. That in itself needs to be communicated to ground forces and you will always find at least 1 or 2 players that will help to resolve that situation. 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, there's plenty of ways to shoot down an enemy jet.

Multiple enemy aircraft spawns indeed do happen but it's not really intended that way. I have done my homework on this and it is definitely not 5 mins however if enemy jets are neglected from being dealt with, yes there will be multiple enemy jets in action particularly if a defence overlaps into either a new or old AO.

Cas, while powerful, it really is no different to a handgun/rpg and a secondary tool. I do however believe a pilots ability to select a jet is critical and this has been raised in previous topics and discussed many times, both here and other I and A communities.  https://strayagaming.com.au/topic/18491-selectable-cas-jet-spawn/

Blackfoots aren't heavy armoured by design. I ran a sim of an AO with just a fully armed blackfoot and an AI gunner. The result was needless to say even Tigs had no hope of countering as the chopper could essentially hover from behind cover and destroy large sections of the AO without blinking an eye. Again, Balance.

 

I do understand though that its frustrating especially as the rewards for such aircraft are rare at best.

 

 

[decibel_spl 76]

Webbie, I appreciate your response and I do agree with majority of what you have to say. I certainly agree that the jets are probably in a good state as it is and it was just more annoying than anything. As far as the choppers go, having them a bit stronger certainly won't alter the balance (without any lock on or fire-and-forget munitions) as they require a good pilot to be worthwhile and most certainly require support from other assets to be useful with how many threats you must confront. Switching the focus onto attack helos from jets as a primary form of CAS, as if you basically swapped the two around, would certainly change the balance towards the infantry side of things. A suggestion for this would be to remove the wipeout/neophron from the jet rotation and make them mission rewards, and alter all the jets loadouts to include no bombs with a strictly AA loadout. Then the alternative would be have a blackfoot or a pawnee available once per AO like the old CAS system (due to how fragile they are) leaving the kajmans as mission rewards.

Ultimately, I am certainly more than happy to switch the focus off jets and make them more a supporting asset for countering enemy aircraft. Hell, if you really wanted to nerf cas in general, you could add a third Tig/Cheetah to the AOs. As a transport pilot mainly, I know that adding that would for one, prevent CAS from doing anything while there is a heavy AA threat, and force pilots to land further out requiring the infantry to do more work. I have noticed recently a trend for pilots to land in pretty damn hot areas without much difficulty and I must say I'm not the biggest fan of that.

only thing I just have to ask you webbie was what is your thoughts on my 3rd topic? You never responded to that

Edited June 7, 2018 by decibel_spl

[webbie 186]

I was actually good with what you had said their. I think seperation the classes wouldn't hurt.

[decibel_spl 76]

A modification to my suggestion of changing helicopters:

• Rather than having the hellcat and orca along with a ghost hawk, have 3 permanent ghost hawks
• Make the mohawk on the rotation with the orca and drop the suggested huron, leave the taru transport
• Make the little bird on rotation with a hellcat (they have the same capacity) 
• Leave huron/taru rotation for heavy lift

In summary it would be as follows for spawn pads:

1. Ghost Hawk
2. Ghost Hawk
3. Ghost Hawk
4. Taru / Huron
5. Little bird / Hellcat
6. Orca, Mohawk, Taru (transport)

[Nova 1779]

12 minutes ago, decibel_spl said:

In summary it would be as follows for spawn pads:

1. Ghost Hawk
2. Ghost Hawk
3. Ghost Hawk
4. Taru / Huron
5. Little bird / Hellcat
6. Orca, Mohawk, Taru (transport)

personally i'd rather have 

1. Ghost Hawk
2. Ghost Hawk / Hellcat
3. Ghost Hawk
4. Taru Lift / Huron
5. Little bird
6. Orca, Mohawk, Taru (transport)

[decibel_spl 76]

I would support that Nova

Edited June 7, 2018 by decibel_spl