Very nice post, sir or madam. I have always felt that Jets were a shoe-horned feature into Battlefield. It would make more sense in my mind if the fixed wing aircraft were all light attack/CAS designated air frames like the A-10. Even the F-18 felt out of place though it does fill that role as well. Don't you think the really hot aircraft, like the F-15/22/35 'types' would be better suited as a Commander call in, like the C-130 was in BF4? Instead of loitering like the C-130 though, the Strike Jets would be directed to an area selected by the commander.
Just a thought.
@Snack_Weasel While I think the A-10 Thunderbolt would be AWESOME to fly in Battlefield like they are used in ARMA and other games. I really feel like the apache and nightbird do the job well from a CAS standpoint. Also while the A-10 is quite literally a butt pucker for any infantryman on the ground caught in its cross hairs. You have to agree the merits of Heli's in close quarters CAS like cities. The effect on target and consistent albeit "gentler" pressure of a Helicopter is imo a better fit to the explosive devastation an A-10 would rain down. If A-10's were added there would still be a need for a fighter jet either way. While A-10's can dogfight they are not really designed for that. If we used A-10s I think we would need to sacrifice the Apache over one of the fighter jets we currently have considering the current jets have almost zero impact on ground targets.
As for making the fighters a commanders call. If the fighters called in could then be operated by an actual pilot. I could see some fun in that idea. However if the commander call for a fighter plane is more like what many games including BF did which were simply "kill streak rewards" from COD. I am not down with that. I love the aerial combat of BF because that wasn't something I really got to experience in the military.
@mesterKGI could not agree more. There are definitely times where a player "feels" that way. Dice needs to also understand that sometimes it "feels" that way because it IS that way.
As for your statement on the infantry and jets. I whole hearted agree with you. Jets MUST remain mostly anti-air. Which is why outside of the VTOL planes I did not make any statements regarding the inaccuracy of the 25mm or 30mm when strafing targets. I feel this is necessary in this game due to plane speeds. While the planes do feel slow to pilots from a ground perspective they zip.
The reason I gave the Panther the ability to attack infantry in this rework is due to its VTOL ability. I believe using VTOL to attack enemy ground troops is a equally risky venture as VTOLs engage and disengage is exceptionally slow. Leaving the plane vulnerable to locks. That said if it was me in the dev seat and they used my changes. I would be watching the long barrel 25mm cannon closely on the VTOL planes that can attack infantry. If I felt the weapon was too strong I already have 3 nerf options for it. 1) would be to make it overheat faster. 2) would be to make the bloom of the cannon increase with sustained fire. Basically you would be able to take burst shots at infantry but if you slum on the trigger for too long your shots become more inaccurate. 3) would be to reduce the ROF of the gun as well. That reduces their ability to strafe at full speed and increases the need to be in VTOL.
Also the design of the VTOL planes loadouts is specifically to provide high risk. The miniguns I mentioned are in fact the same on the night bird. As you know they need to be rather close to use them. Same would apply with the VTOL planes.
Finally, with the new token system mentioned above. You would actually have less choppers in the air at one time. Because I put both Nightbird and Attack Heli's in the same group. Players have to decide which of the two to use.
Example: hourglass on a bot match you get 3 aircraft tokens. 2 for Attack (Jet/Attack Heli) 1 for Transport (Condor/Nightbird). With the current system you can actually have 2 apache's and 1 nightbird in the sky. With my token changes you would have 1 Jet (Panther/Raptor) 1 Chopper (Apache/Nightbird) 1 Transport (Condor/C-17) max. So in this case more is less and less is good for ground troops enjoyable gameplay!
I suppose my example of the A-10 was to highlight the use of subsonic fixed wing aircraft in Battlefield as it has traditionally been focused on squad level battles - rather than theatre based strategy. Think the A-29 Super Tucano. That's my take anyway. Don't modern super sonic jets typically use guided munitions from 10's of thousands of feet? It's effective for sure, but in Battlefield terms they would basically be satellites raining death on dozens of players at a time. I just don't think they fit, certainly not in a CAS role at low altitude.
