CAS helicopters are OP
Posted: 2013-01-31 02:54
Gunships in project reality are overpowered. Tactics can be practiced that render them almost unkillable, and some maps that include them, especially ones with lots of armour, and 2 per side, the game's outcome depends massively on who wins in the sky, leaving armour out to dry. This thread does not address jets as they differ in certain mechanics. It is not uncommon to see skilled pilots completely dominate enemy armour over a game, resulting in massive ground advantage for their allies, and a huge ticket loss for the enemy overall. This dependence on one vehicle to win a game is imbalanced.
Firstly, there is zero hope for ground AA against a clever CAS helicopter. The short draw distances, ability to dive perfectly vertical with no trouble, lack of RADAR for AA weapons, and the inability to look straight up renders AA on the ground mostly defenseless, only hoping to get surprise attacks. Because of draw distance, and in general short ranges of lock on, cas choppers can fire on enemy AA before they can even lock, meaning even if the AA know CAS is about to show up CAS can fire before the enemy can, and because AAVs and static AA cant look straight up, a skilled helicopter pilot will never be in any danger at all, too. AAVs lack any kind of RADAR systems that could warn them about enemy helicopters, so its all up to eye, really, this doesnt really reflect reality. The only AA weapons that can look up are the handheld, but the strela is so neutered its not a very viable weapon. The strela should be made equivalent to the stinger, and static ground AA/AAVs should have longer ranges, or failing that, shorter lock times. Gunships themselves are the best gunship counter, and as a result, the battle in the air decides a lot of the game, which is a plain imbalance.
Secondly is the omnipotence of the hellfire, and equivalent. IT kills everything in one hit, and has a huge splash. This reflects reality, but a reflection of reality needs to be full for there to be balance. Because of draw distance and short AA range, a simply unstoppable tactic is to dive perfectly vertically on the opponent and quickly switch between LT and LG missiles proceeding to dump 8-10 missiles on a target area. A gunship flying by itself at ~1500m alt on a real battlefield would simply be annihilated, so at the same time we cant have absurdly powerful missiles on an unrealistic model. A way to curb this, would be to greatly lengthen missile reload times. An important feature that keeps attack helicopters in check, is their reload times, and constant need to resupply flares, creating considerable down time, and resulting in a lesser presence. Upping missile reload times by a significant factor would prevent missile dumping, and a complete domination of armour in general. Also, because of how useful the AT missiles are in chopper-chopper engagements, this change would also mean that using up all your missiles in a fight would not be as catastrophic to the enemy team because of how long you would have to resupply for.
In conclusion, the best weapon in the game (AT gunship missiles) is attached to a nearly uncounterable vehicle, if the right tactics are practiced. This of course is rather imbalanced and should be addressed by nerfing the missiles in one way, and making the vehicle less than invincible. However, despite what i've stated, there is an issue. The degree of overpowered that a gunship is, is dependent on the map. Shijia, and pavlovsk for example are very forested, and dont have nearly as much armour, thus less targets, and more challenging targets is what happens. In this case, a long missile reload time may make the gunships not particularly useful. MAps like black gold, kashan, iron eagle, and vadso the CAS is however far too dominant. So a reload time adjusting by map would be the best solution I think.
For evidence of overpowered gunships, observe the countless videos posted on youtube, and the PR forums of players executing vertical dives in helicopters, and racking up easy kills. I think virus has like 8.
Firstly, there is zero hope for ground AA against a clever CAS helicopter. The short draw distances, ability to dive perfectly vertical with no trouble, lack of RADAR for AA weapons, and the inability to look straight up renders AA on the ground mostly defenseless, only hoping to get surprise attacks. Because of draw distance, and in general short ranges of lock on, cas choppers can fire on enemy AA before they can even lock, meaning even if the AA know CAS is about to show up CAS can fire before the enemy can, and because AAVs and static AA cant look straight up, a skilled helicopter pilot will never be in any danger at all, too. AAVs lack any kind of RADAR systems that could warn them about enemy helicopters, so its all up to eye, really, this doesnt really reflect reality. The only AA weapons that can look up are the handheld, but the strela is so neutered its not a very viable weapon. The strela should be made equivalent to the stinger, and static ground AA/AAVs should have longer ranges, or failing that, shorter lock times. Gunships themselves are the best gunship counter, and as a result, the battle in the air decides a lot of the game, which is a plain imbalance.
Secondly is the omnipotence of the hellfire, and equivalent. IT kills everything in one hit, and has a huge splash. This reflects reality, but a reflection of reality needs to be full for there to be balance. Because of draw distance and short AA range, a simply unstoppable tactic is to dive perfectly vertically on the opponent and quickly switch between LT and LG missiles proceeding to dump 8-10 missiles on a target area. A gunship flying by itself at ~1500m alt on a real battlefield would simply be annihilated, so at the same time we cant have absurdly powerful missiles on an unrealistic model. A way to curb this, would be to greatly lengthen missile reload times. An important feature that keeps attack helicopters in check, is their reload times, and constant need to resupply flares, creating considerable down time, and resulting in a lesser presence. Upping missile reload times by a significant factor would prevent missile dumping, and a complete domination of armour in general. Also, because of how useful the AT missiles are in chopper-chopper engagements, this change would also mean that using up all your missiles in a fight would not be as catastrophic to the enemy team because of how long you would have to resupply for.
In conclusion, the best weapon in the game (AT gunship missiles) is attached to a nearly uncounterable vehicle, if the right tactics are practiced. This of course is rather imbalanced and should be addressed by nerfing the missiles in one way, and making the vehicle less than invincible. However, despite what i've stated, there is an issue. The degree of overpowered that a gunship is, is dependent on the map. Shijia, and pavlovsk for example are very forested, and dont have nearly as much armour, thus less targets, and more challenging targets is what happens. In this case, a long missile reload time may make the gunships not particularly useful. MAps like black gold, kashan, iron eagle, and vadso the CAS is however far too dominant. So a reload time adjusting by map would be the best solution I think.
For evidence of overpowered gunships, observe the countless videos posted on youtube, and the PR forums of players executing vertical dives in helicopters, and racking up easy kills. I think virus has like 8.
