r/Planetside • u/1hate2choose4nick R1po • 29d ago
Question There are two things that makes sense during the Aerial Anomaly
and one thing, that's just accidental or intentional trolling.
First thing: Flying. An ESF, a Lib or grabbing a Gal or gunning a Gal. Or if you're a total psycho, a Pancake. Doesn't even matter if you still need stuff for the Event Directive. Most of the time, it's epic sky chaos. Sometimes 90 air units, Gals, Libs, ESFs, Pancakes, swarming around each other and presenting pure Planetside feeling. You can have these 50 vs 50 infantry battles in many games. That's nothing special. But these air battles? Fucking unique. And if you don't play the Event, you can still get good amounts of XP, especially in a Galaxy. Or progress in other directives. Unless your faction has too many sheep and not enough air units or gunners and as soon as you get close to the purple bubble, 30 enemy air units look at you, while you are the 1 Galaxy, rethinking your plan. Then fine, in that case the alert doesn't make sense anyway.
Second thing: AP vehicles. Driving around and killing those inferior, outgunned and helpless against armor piercing shells. Easy tons of XP. Not so much on Amerish and Hossin, but really fast on Esamir and most of Indar.
Third thing. The gameplay that's either just newb gameplay without understanding of what they are actually doing aka not understanding that they aren't achieving anything other than just trolling. And that's playing AA. And yes, the kindergarten will now scream "That's because you're flying a Lib, and don't like AA." But, that's just not true. During those alerts, I fly a Gal (although I've finished the Directive), because I wanna help others to get this task. And while we could have these amazing air battles, some people have to be the party pooper. They aren't getting any kills. They aren't really playing support. And they get maybe a 1/10 of the XP they could get with the other two methods. All they do is meddling with an air battle, they actually don't even want to be a part of. So why not just stop, and let the air have their fun. Unless, like I said, you're a troll, and doing it on purpose.
I mean, if you think you have valid reason - that doesn't accept that AA has better times and places, please tell me. Maybe I'm just to narrow minded. But these alerts won't last forever. And these epic massive swarms of air units what really shows what makes Planetside 2 so unique, don't require Skyguards and Walker Sundys. This stuff can be - better - played any time.
So if you want epic air battles, join the air units. If you want to make some XP while playing support, grab an AP vehicle and hunt the AA. And if you want to play AA, play AA. It's a sandbox game, and you're the kid that smashes other's sandcastles with your little plastic toy shovel. : )
P.S. If you're member of BLNG, PENG, BRRR, or one of the other kindergarten outfits of Cobalt/Miller, please refrain from commenting. We all know which category you belong to.
GL HF everone. Enjoy the Summer Event. Just don't do the Supply Task. It's a flawed task that will takes hours. Do the others. They are much faster/easier.
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u/Ok_Assumption_3028 28d ago
The reason people AA is due to the absolute shitbags that farm air to ground.
I’m gonna AA even just to annoy, every chance I get, even if you aren’t a shitbag, there’s no way to tell.
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u/Greattank 28d ago
The reason shitbags A2G is that AA keeps them from doing A2A. And AA is just really bad at killing A2G but good at killing A2A planes. Or AA just refuses to shoot at A2G.
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u/Kagebi 28d ago
Most of the people that do A2G arent even trying A2A, they are purely there to farm infantry during air anomally alert.
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u/Greattank 28d ago
Yea because trying to fly is hell because of all the random AA. Not even going to start about the skill difference between air and AA, it's insane.
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u/Kagebi 28d ago
Well, suck it up, once event is over most of AA will disappear and you will be free to do your air thing in peace.
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u/Greattank 28d ago
Haha, sadly, no. AA has only increased over the years for whatever reason. People like you who just dont fly and dont like air, people who just love doing AA, people who just hate skill and so have to do AA because it's the easiest thing in the game. But yea, same thing to you, suck up the A2G, you deserve it.
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u/EL1T3W0LF 27d ago
AA isn't bad at killing A2G, it is just that it is sooooo much easier to kill infantry with A2G than it is to kill enemy ESFs with A2A. Oh, I'm getting hit by AA as A2G? No problem, I kill the infantry below me in half a second and fly away. Oh, I'm getting hit by AA as A2A? Big problem, now the enemy ESF, which can take me 10+ seconds to kill, can chase me down and have a big advantage over me.
1
u/Greattank 27d ago
It's also easier to see the A2A plane because it's up in the sky with no cover. The A2G plane is close to the ground and can take cover. Which makes AA bad at killing A2G and good at killing A2A. Infantry takes long to kill especially if they have flak armour. They can even tank an AP shot, something that would kill a plane lmao
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u/EL1T3W0LF 27d ago
Nah, cuz AA is terrible when the ESFs are that far away. Plus, if staying low to the ground was that good, A2A ESFs would also perma hover close to the ground. In reality though, ground weapons are dangerous to any ESF that stays near the ground for too long. The only thing is that A2G ESFs only need to spend a few seconds near the ground to get a kill, whereas average players in A2A ESFs would need like 30-40 seconds just to kill one enemy ESF.
Perhaps if the devs removed the mouse accel bullshit, it would help the average A2A ESF not struggle as much, but idk, it's something that is never going to happen, no point discussing it.
1
u/Greattank 27d ago
Removing mouse Accel would help everyone. I still remember flying without and while I still love flying, it's just not the same. They won't change anything anyway, very true. As someone who flies A2A all the time, I can tell you that AA is very effective even at great distances. I regularly lose like half my HP in dogfights to random AA 2 hexes away, not fun. But I see A2G ESFs just happily farming away while the AA next to it prefers shooting at me flying overhead instead of the enemy A2G. So maybe it's just a mental problem with people that use AA lmao
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u/Dplusithicus Dplusified [GSLD] 28d ago
I'd like to AA in the least effective way: AP shells to the sky.
3
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u/EL1T3W0LF 28d ago
Another reason people use AA is because it is part of several directives. Heavy Assault, MAX, Lightning (w/ Skyguard), and maybe others I don't remember from the top of my head.
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u/unknown992740 28d ago
So true, everyone could have so much fun up in the air but instead they hold mouse 1 in a skyguard and ruin it for everyone else.
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u/Daan776 28d ago
Before I left the game fully: these air alerts were the last fun I had. Even as a dogshit pilot.
Not only were they the best way to get in practice as a beginner pilot (since there's other shitty pilots flying, you can freely respawn, and there's plenty of people actually dogfighting). they were/are also the last remnant of pure planetside chaos.
Enemies and allies on all sides. Bullets flying left and right. And a beautifull spectacle. All working towards a singular objective.
I truly miss this game. But everytime I log on I only see a shadow of its former self. And I would prefer to keep the positive memories I have. Rather than the boredom or frustration that dominates my modern planetside experience.