Give the AA kit a rifle with optics

[AnRK]

There's no way in hell any armed force would let a guy with a toy like that out on his own, personally it think it's no simpler then that. I think Funks WW2 analogy got it spot on (despite him being an advocate of them choosing to have optics), the 2nd most important thing this class needs to do under shooting down aircraft is staying alive so he can shoot down more.

[PFunk]

Yea I don't know if I actually like my own suggestion the next day (about the optics, the rest is pure GOLD!).

Really though its about reality. Is it realistic for an AA squad member to have an optic or an ironsight or either or both? After that you ask whether limiting it makes sense. And after that you lost the whole meaning of the AA discussion because you can't talk about this without getting into that endless circle jerk about optics vs. iron sights.

[[PR]CATA.Mobius]

In real life the two man team manning a Stinger launcher or its foreign equivalents are behind the main lines of battle playing the role of platoon level air defense to the troops actually engaging the enemy. Shoulder fired missile launchers are expensive and bulky, and are never carried by soldiers actively closing with the enemy, as many of you are suggesting.

In Project Reality, having a squad member assigned an anti-air kit reduces the combat effectiveness of that squad and the greater team as a whole, as you've essentially neutered that soldier's ability to engage any other target beyond short range self defensive operations while robbing the team of a vital kit which can be deployed to a more effective firing position instead of slaving it to a constantly moving and vulnerable infantry squad.

Anti air soldiers are, much like the sniper or to a lesser extent heavy-AT kits, best deployed in a support role behind their infantry comrades because their roles are particularly specialized and are unable to provide effective leverage of accurate and rapid firepower that is key to success in an infantry firefight.

Aircraft are too fleeting of a target to waste grabbing an AA kit if you're a frontline infantryman. Instead, a team should focus on strategically placing their shoulder fired launchers at locations either in support of ongoing operations or in areas that see heavy enemy air traffic in order to maximize their effectiveness. Parceling out a Stinger launcher to infantry squads on the frontline is, to reiterate, a waste of a valuable kit simply because the soldier assigned to the kit will be too busy holding a rifle and engaging hostile infantry (and potentially being killed in a firefight) to truly provide an effective anti-air presence should the opportunity present itself.

[Darkpowder]

I disagree largely with the original poster for the following reasons.

Largely what Mobius said.. (nicely put by the way)

a: This soldier should not be on his own, and has to prioritise the use of his primary weapon over and above his roll as a rifleman, ie. ammo supply, long distance accurace fire in coordination with machine gunners.

b: The ideal way to play any kit is not to lonewolf in a vehicle with ammo supply, the same way as its not the way to play sniper, HAT, or any other kit.

c: AA -is- a very important supportive kit, as a good attack chopper will get a lot more confident when they see the AA vehicle get destroyed and thats just where the AA infantryman comes in, attacking from a differing direction or infiltrating somewhere unexpected in an urban environment, as well as supporting an important location until AA emplacements or AAA arrives. If you don't believe me try using that kit as the commander position in a tank, and jumping out when your TWO-man tank is setup, you will be thanked a lot by your TWO man tank team.

c: There is more reason to give the kit optics than medics who should be healing not fighting primarily, but as it is such a rarely used kit on most maps because of the lack of optics mainly it can be taken by an inventive, patient player who is prepared to use it cleverly against the target it is designed for. Agreed, LAT kits don't become lonewolfs with optics but this one, like an engineer is primarily a utility class, optics are not given to every class in the game for one reason. It makes RIFLEMEN the mainstay and CORE of any armed unit rather than making the unit like a swiss army knife. More optics on other classes diminishes the value of the riflemen, and riflemen should be given the most focus in this type of infantry FPS.

Someone said they devastate servers with lone wolf camping style. Sure you do, but i would recommend a flexible approach and more ordered and coordinated play will result in a more satisfying game for you. Any decent pilot will have his attack location well surveyed as well as routes in and out of any target before approaching land. This type of behaviour does happen on PR servers, you just need to play with and against the right people.

I look forward to increasing elimination of all lone wolf play in future versions of PR. I would say a single round only coming with the weapon would be best, that and good control of squadleaders over kits deployed by their squad ineffectually when other squads could make better use of it.

[IAJTHOMAS]

RA(Royal Army for you non British military folks)

As an aside, I thought it was just the British Army and doesn't contain a 'Royal' pre-fix?

[[PR]CATA.Mobius]

It's the British Army, only certain constituent units use the 'Royal' prefix as the British military as a whole contains colonial and auxiliary units such as the Gurkhas and Scots, which makes the Army ineligible for the Royal prefix.

[Howitzer]

As well as

Canada
New Zealand
Australia

witch are ex British colonies (they are not anymore) but we carry the royal in our military names like Royal regiments , Royal college...

[Camlost]

Nerf AA-kits as much as possible - I HATE how easy it is to get killed by them while piloting!

THIS should be the "hand-held" AA launcher



and THIS is how hard it should be to operate



Yes, I think this would probably be a good interface option on the AA rocket launcher.

[[PR]CATA.Mobius]

Nerf AA-kits as much as possible - I HATE how easy it is to get killed by them while piloting!

You must be an incredibly bad pilot, then.

THIS should be the "hand-held" AA launcher

I prefer that to the missile launcher. 20mm rounds aren't distracted by flares.

[Camlost]

Might not have been 100% serious(for reference, ask anyone who has ever flown with me about my piloting skills).

[BobAndy]

CATA.Mobius;682976']You must be an incredibly bad pilot, then.



I prefer that to the missile launcher. 20mm rounds aren't distracted by flares.

I agree... the less distractable a weapon is from a flare, the happier I am.

Someone give me a flakpanzer.

[Waaah_Wah]

Might not have been 100% serious(for reference, ask anyone who has ever flown with me about my piloting skills).

Cant. They are all dead coz you crashed the chopter

[Ragni<RangersPL>]

Since AA rifleman carry heavy (and expensive) weapon, just like anti-tank soldier it shouldn't have optics for the sake of gameplay (IMO).

[gclark03]

We need to try this in a game before we jump to conclusions. Here's the problem with many forum suggestions: a lot of them are great, but their greatness can never be seen until they're tested in game, and they'll never be tested in PR unless someone gives enough of a damn to implement them themselves.

Not to say I'm innocent of this; in fact, I'm probably one of the prime examples, as none of my suggestions (except, perhaps, giving crewmen an M4 - not sure) have seen the light of day, and I've had no clue about how to make them happen independently. That type of innovation is Mosquill's specialty.

[Mongolian_dude]

I would think iron sights are fine.
The truth is, your not going to be wanting to go a'fighting with that kit anyway, and only use it as a personal defense weapon. It'd encourage some of our newer players to just go 'gung-h0' and die, leaving the kit to go back into its long cycle.

Its an important and devestating kit, on the same level as the heavy AT (perhaps more devestating to the enemy), designed and used for destroying enemy assets.
Making it an infantry buster too wouldnt be the right way to go, for balance or gameplay.

...mongol...