Air-balance is still a problem.

[235Nuke]

Sound is definitely an issue as its sometimes hard to hear planes.  AA is really good atm if you can see them.  If there is a good pilot in the air I highly recommend having 2 squad members carry fliegers.  They bare insanely powerful, and a good infy squad can pretty much clear the sky of planes.  Just make sure you ADS with it as you arent going to hit anything hip firing.

[ElliotLH]

@Real_Noobalishus Sorry to hear you're having that problem on Al Sudan man. What you've described is what I experience on Panzer haha.

I am starting to wonder if gamemode is a factor here. I'll need to go back to Conquest and play around (not played it for a long time) as it's just the one map I struggle on playing Breakthrough. My thinking is that as AA will only be 'active' at set locations, for the most part, I can plan my attacks better.

[aztec1289]

The issue is the planes are an all or nothing weapon.  They either completely overpowered, so you create a counter and it completely nerfs them.

The aa has far too much range now, and the damage model makes it hard unless the ground team are co-ordinated and taking out aa through sniping or capture.

So either scale it back and make planes less deadly thus not impacting the flow of the game so immensely  or put up with inbalanced aa.

The other issue is that the aircraft are too capable at both ground and air attack. Looking at bf4 games the jets were ok at armour but not so good at soldier killing. Helicopters on the other hand had more in common with BF V in terms of op, and were constantly being nerfed or modified. Things like double flares in the attack helicopters were a massive issue for balance, but there were sooo many methods for taking down attack choppers that it wasnt as bad as BF v bfv. 

The bombers needed a counter because there was literally no way to take them down from height. So fighters are introduced. Fighters get boring if they take downall of the enemy aircraft so you give them limited ground attack, but reload timeis too fast so the fighters become op. So then you introsuce heavier aa which completwly undermines the ability of .fighters.

So end result is...bomber kills a few soldiers or tanks, good fighter pilot akes down bomberand dominates, so soldiers camp in aa.

To break the cycle you almost need to limit the attack ability of the bomber against soldiers vs say armour or improve bomber rsistance to fighters. Then aa becomes less necessary to be as powerful.  And fighters wont need as much ground attack capability.

[GUTENTAAAAG]

@aztec1289  I agree, it is difficult to balance things out but armor being as OP as it is, it needs a counter, and that is air force.

For it's role I would limit air capability vs infantry. Explosive rounds are just not fair.

And to not ruin completely the flying experience limit the damn range on AA, it should function as a local defense point, not like a superweapon which can deny you more than half the map.

Additionall, reduce the spawn time for planes. From 90 seconds to 0 seconds so you won't have to keep waiting and clicking like a maniac to get a seat. As soon as you die, others on the map can take the plane. If they don't, you can.

To make things more fun it, the number of planes which could be deployed during the match could be tied to the number of flag captures your team achieves. For example each capture gives you quarter of a plane.

[Finrod_Fierceaxe]

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@GUTENTAAAAG wrote:

@TTZ_DipsyYep, I think that's true, sometime certain sounds are just missing. The limit should be unlocked for 6+ core CPUs...

Regarding AA: nah, it's still super easy to kill planes. I think my AA K/D is around 10:1. Meanwhile Air vs AA probably below 1:1.....

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^^^ This...

I cant believe there are people who think it's still not enough. You guys obviously dont fly, or you would be more than fine with the AA buff.

In reality, its WAY over the top. It takes tons of hours in a plane to get to where you are halfway decent. But any no skill monkey can hop on an AA and shoot down the pilot in seconds. 

We have to chase each other around trying to score an air to air kill, which is pretty hard to do without a lot of practice. Only to get shot down by some scrub sitting in the spawn.

They are overpowered, and the range is beyond ridiculous. The entire game can be ruined for the pilots because two angry little * decide they are camping they're AAs the whole match.

And you guys whine about getting killed on the AA? Unbelievable.

The reason you get killed is because as pilots, we have to sneak around the edge of the map and make every effort possible to kill you guys. Because the game isn't playable while there is someone camping the AA. And it's nearly impossible for most planes to attack the AA head on.

Stop whining..

[aztec1289]

I don't find the armour OP, so I am not sure about that.

However I do agree with your idea around removing infantry focused weapons from aircraft, and focus on hardened positions and armour. This would mean the impact is more strategic, and thus people are less likely to go aa camp. 

AA is a problem- again the issue sits with either its an annoyance you can ignore due to repair cycles, or its completely op. May decrease aa  damage but increase over heat timing? This would mean planes have to gamble or plan rather than ignore AA, but by flying in less linear path can still escape?

I really don't know as the map sizes and design in combination with aa structure is really bad. BF 3 kinda had it right- if you flew too close to the spawn the automatic AA would open up, ensuring aircraft couldn't easily spawn camp- and that is a fundamental problem in BF v.

Currently on many of the maps- I go and set up spawn beacon in visual range of aa guns and snipe them, to give my team a chance with air. It seems to work but then it becomes very one sided as the other team doesn't attempt the same. 

[Real_Noobalishus]

The AA situation at this point will probably remain for the duration of the game.

Best suggestions I can make to any players wishing to fly is try to find a wingman that you can work with. It might take time to get use to each others flying abilities but eventually you'll be able to coordinate effective strikes to both AA and enemy aircraft.

It's better to adapt than sit and wait for things to potentially (but not guaranteed) go back to the way they were