if you're like me, you have experienced the pain of seeing a massive horde of T2 (or an even larger horde of T1) bombers scream in out of nowhere, gun straight for your commander, and boom, you're dead. sure, there's AA Fighters, but that requires that you see them coming AND have them before the bombers come. and if he brings in AA fighters of his own, well then goodbye commander. there's certainly the old standby of placing hordes of the current AA turret down everywhere. but they can only hit one target at a time, and many gun for the same target at once, wasting their effectiveness (that same gang-up bit goes for fighters as well.) also, their range is somewhat limited. i, therefore, propose that a Tier-2 AA Turret be implemented. more specifically, a Flak Cannon of sorts The premise behind this is a few different reasons. the first being that if ground lasers get a T2 variant, why not AA turrets too? Secondly, this could easily make games a bit more fair in regards to air-rush tactics, mostly with T2s, since they can (currently) actually withstand the assault of one or two AA turrets long enough to kill something. here's how i imagine such a beast would operate: Range: greater than the current AA, but falls short of a T1 artillery Turn Rate: a bit slower than the AA missile turret. positioning and rotation would be important Vision: reasonably shorter than its actual range. radar would be important here. Damage output: slightly stronger than the Missile AA, but would also deal light splash/AoE damage. Fire Rate: a bit faster than an artillery turret, but not fast enough to spam its projectile Health: beefier than a T1 AA, but still frail compared to other T2 defenses. Accuracy: not 100% accurate (then it would be OP), but accurate enough to land a few good shots. the ability to aim better at a moving target would need to be worked in. now, i don't expect Uber to be all like "woo! let's put this in right away" because i know it's their game. but i would love to hear the community's thoughts on such an animal.
I have a very simple fix for AA. Give stationary AA an area of effect blast about 1/3rd the size of a single t1 bomber. Then a major wave of attack can still be effective but a single directed attack will not. Alternatively, if there were to be a T2 AA, it should be some form of high-tech flak cannon. Fires a cannon shell full of quick little short range missiles or something to that effect.
I'd like to see them too. I always found T1 AA turrets to be completely useless after 10 minutes into the game.
You would need to build turrets before the bombers come, too, and turrets only cover a tiny area of your base while patrolling fighters can easily cover the whole thing. Just think of fighters are your T2 AA defense and you'll be fine.
i can fully understand that part. however, the thinking here is that fighters can become their own worst enemy. i did state that if he brings his own fighters, your own fighters are (at least partially, depending on numbers) negated. a solid emplacement is something that enemy fighters can't negate.
unfortunantly without better AI the t2 fighters are about as dependable as an ADHD gaurd dog. You can draw off the entire swarm of defensive fighters with two minutes investment in air scouts to screen and kite them away from the base. T2 flak would be much more dependable.
I think T1 AA should be flak guns, and T2 AA should be SAM. Of course in either case, the T2 would have longer range than the T1. Also, some sort of laser anti-air that can also shoot down missiles and artillery would be cool.
I'd rather they concentrated on the game mechanics before balance. After all if it's a choice of moonbase vs T2AA I know what I want first. After all it is in alpha so balance isn't a thing yet
that being said, T2 AA would only take a fraction of the time to put in than working out the moon base stuffs.
SHAMELESS BUMP! anywhoosle, it's nice to know that there are at least close to 50 people that agree with the need for a T2 AA. hopefully Uber takes notice.
I'm pretty sure I've read that we are already set to get T2 AA (somewhere in the PA general discussion forum) along with a bunch of other units. Apparently the devs aim for somewhere around 100 units across the two tiers - meaning there is plenty more stuff to come.
I wouldn't mind multiple variances of aa. They could even be all same tier. Flak for low damage but whole sky aoe, miniguns for sustained hitscan dps, and sam for slow but single shot kill lock on aa. Honestly, wish there were unit variants too.