Gunship DPS/HP

I just got out of a game on a Size 1 Moon with 10 people. FFA, you know. Just for fun.

Whether Air should even be on moons is one issue, but the DPS of Gunships meant that one guy just rushed T2 Air and wiped the floor with everybody else (literally like 5-10 gunships per person). We were 5-10 minutes into the game. This happens to armies and bases on larger worlds, partly because there is no Mobile T2 AA Flak - Gunship damage is too high at the moment.
In any situation without Flak, Gunships as they now are are going to be the go-to rush tactic. That's fine, so long as it doesn't end games this easily; it was a tiny world, and these fun matches are supposed to emphasize ground combat/walls etc as you wrestle with 10 other robots for a tiny rock.

Isn't not their damage that concerns me, it's how their HP has been buffed, for reasons that escape my reasoning.

Flak for taking down swarms, that is fine, but the current T1 AA should, absolutely be able to kill any aircraft in a 1 on one, every time, as it has no AOE.

That's my problem, the T1 AA is ineffective unless THEY outnumber the units they are supposed to defeat.

They can't shoot at ground targets any more, fine, but why are they still using missiles that are worse then the T1 fighter?

Gunships are a bit OP when you catch an opponent without AA. But I don't see how all 9 other players let someone build 50+ gunships without pushing out some AA. One bot factory can produce enough AA to keep up with an early T2 air factory, the problem is when you try to play catch up after they are already attacking you.

Likely everyone else was busy building up walls and ground turrets for those 5-10 minutes.

Well, let's look at it this way. Gunships have an insane mobility advantage over AA. So it's only logical that AA would beat them very handily if gunships are used in a straigth confontation against them. It would also make sense for AA to significantly outrange gunships.

Sadly, that isn't the case. Gunships have slightly more HP for cost than stingers, significantly more DPS for cost than stingers and to top that off - same range. AA isn't anti-air in this game, the anti-part is not deserved, because both bombers and gunships are extremely strong against mobile ground AA (if you take their mobility advantage into account).

As they should have been. It was a tiny planet. If Ground cannot counter Air on even a tiny world with short travel times, something is wrong.
We had T1 AA, but anybody without Flak was doomed. The Commander should have Flak or something.

Gunships are very good, i have had games where i only have 3 factories bot t1 air and t2 air pumping out gunships and peraguins (i really dont know how to spell that lul) and was able to fend off huge waves of ground attacks to the point where i just go find his com and gun him down (unless flak of course)

But that isn't fine. It's a complete abandonment of understanding how air and ground work together. Uber is forcing techflation to create an issue that should never have existed in the first place.

Peregrines and Kestrels are my end game, they're the counter to everything including themselves.

You have hit the nail on the head.

What
The
Hell

is with t2 air....

I'm perfectly okay with a High DPS gunship.

But anti air should make short work of it, not the other way around.

Well to be fair I think flak shuts them down. But they're another air unit that ends the land game.

rangebuff + dpshotbuff t1 ground aaunits and stuctures ... peregins and hummingbirds are already powerful cause of mobility and speed

Someone tried that in a FFA I played recently. I basically gauged from the complaints of the first person to die what was going on and hurried to make some flak, fighters and mix more AA into my ground forces.

Things did not go so well for the air spammer. If you try to win with scissors, someone is going to make some rocks and that's the end of that. He made a pretty good push against me for a while but he never diversified from air and eventually the AA just got the best of him.

Gunships right now handle a bit too derpy to be useful for me.

Gunships are slaughtered by T1 fighters. That gives you enough time to go t2 yourself. But with enemy already on T2 air, you will not be able to keep up with just t1 yourself. I tried it once. ONCE.

10P FFA, scale 1 moon, and one guy manages a t2 air rush? Is this real life? Is this just fantasy?

But seriously you can't balance based on games like this. Catapult is overwhelming OP on this setup but it doesn't mean it is OP in a real game. The real problem is that peregrines are uncounterable and means you cant stop gunships or bombers unless you want to turtle away map control by hiding in your little flak hole.

It's not just there. I've hosted games with large planets and Gunship rushes end games early. They're too cheap and do too much damage.

Yes I agree they are somewhat too strong. It's not even very cost effective to try to stop them with t1 fighters or AA. I think the only real counters are flak and t2 fighters.

Yup they are cheap and the factory is cheap and the fighters are cheap. and killing an air factory with fighters is cheap. Total overhaul of air needed before we can even start discussing why the vanguard is crazily OP.

I feel like preventing Air Stacking would also make them easier to balance, as they'd have a maximum damage output per square metre.