Hello, I’m making this post because honestly, after several hours of playing, frustration has completely replaced the fun. And judging by what I see online, I’m clearly not the only one feeling this way. The biggest issue right now is the balance of air vehicles. Helicopters and jets are far too difficult to counter as infantry. No matter which equipment you use, it constantly feels like there is no real effective solution. Lock-on launchers are almost useless against any decent pilot: they instantly use flares, hide behind mountains or buildings before impact, abuse terrain and radar masking to break locks, or the missile simply misses despite a full lock. In the end, infantry players spend more time being helpless targets than actually fighting back. AA turrets and anti-air vehicles also feel extremely underpowered: inconsistent accuracy, low damage, and air vehicles can easily escape, repair, and come back a few seconds later like nothing happened. The result is that one skilled pilot can dominate an entire match almost uncontested, while infantry players just feel farmed. But this is not the only problem. The netcode and hit registration also feel extremely inconsistent: bullets sometimes do not register even when aiming directly at enemies, rockets sometimes go straight through tanks without exploding, gunfights often feel random, players die behind cover, or get killed by enemies they can barely even see. I personally have multiple clips showing: rockets going through tanks, lock-on missiles disappearing or doing nothing, hits not registering, and situations where part of the damage simply seems ignored by the game. On top of that: some maps feel way too open for infantry, vehicle spam is constant, deaths often feel unfair or impossible to understand, and matches feel more like fighting against the game itself than playing a balanced Battlefield experience. Another thing that is becoming very noticeable is the increasing number of bots in Conquest matches. More and more players seem to be leaving games, and bots are replacing them constantly. Sometimes it genuinely feels like nearly half the server is bots instead of real players. That says a lot about the current state of the game and how exhausted or frustrated many players already are. The most frustrating part is that the game clearly has potential. But right now, many mechanics create a feeling of unfairness rather than competition. Losing a fight because someone played better is fine. But when players feel like: their bullets do not register, their rockets go through vehicles, anti-air systems do not work, and some vehicles are almost untouchable, then frustration becomes stronger than fun. I love Battlefield and I want this game to succeed, but right now the frustration is stronger than the fun.(Cm edit updated title for vis)

I don't understand what is wrong with the AA missiles in this game, including both the AA tank and the Engineer not-Stinger missile.I lock on, the aircraft pops flares, I wait, after all the flares come out I wait another couple seconds until the flares disappear, then the lock on re-appears, I shoot and the missile starts going after the jet or aircraft then suddenly turns into the ground, and the reticule changes to miss. I know you are supposed to wait for after the flares come out, but it just doesn't work. The missile refuses to chase and makes a visible turn into the ground and crashes. Are the flares bugged and last longer than the graphical effect? This is really concerning because it makes it extremely easy to exploit by pilots and avoid missiles completely by exploiting this flawed missile behaviour.Second balancing problem I noticed while piloting is that the flares recharge REALLY fast. I have seen this from the ground too, because many times a helicopter will pop flares again as soon as I reload and acquire the second lock on with the AA missile. It is incredibly disappointing and many players are giving up on equipping this gadget entirely because it is so ineffective!Overall there are significant balancing issues with the dedicated AA options on the ground, the AA missile and AA tank are both extremely weak and likely bugged and not working as intended. Funnily enough, the TOW missile seems to be a much better option at countering aircraft because it doesn't suffer from this buggy behaviour that the lock on missiles exhibit, the IFV is better against aircraft than the Mobile AA tank! Please EA don't turn this into another BF3 or BF4 where aircraft were invincible from any threats on the ground. For comparison, in BF4 aircraft are essentially immune to lock on because not only they have ECM with uptime longer than its recharge (ECM took 7 seconds to recharge and last for 9 seconds, meaning that aircraft can have ECM more than 50% of the time on) but the lock on missiles used to be really weak, unable to even disable an aircraft IF you got lucky enough to hit one.I can already observe matches in BF6 were helicopters have been totally untouchable from the ground because the AA weapons are so ineffective, players are actually discouraged from even attempting to target the enemy aircraft. There is a serious likelihood that players will give up on AA entirely if the gameplay does not reward players who try to fight against aircraft from the ground, resulting in even greater imbalance in favour of aircraft like the one seen in BF3 and BF4.

I’ve been using AA a ton since BF4 and in BF6 there is something weird/broken definitely going on with the Stinger. I can fire at Helo or Jet that’s flying straight as an arrow and that hasn’t popped flares and I’ll often get a “miss” message or, as you described, my rocket takes off just fine towards target then diverts at an odd angle nowhere near the locked target.

100% with you. We've just finished a game, 2 of us side by side firing AA and couldn't take down a single aircraft. Either out of range before you can lock on or drop too low for lock on. It's a rocket not a radar, it doesn't care how low they are!!When it does lock on an no flares, it's like the jets just outrun the rockets.I agree, flares are stupidly quick to recharge.It's getting boring now

Hehe and then you will see posts from pilots that cry about constantly being shot down.I've spent a lot of time taking down aircraft in BF6 to get the challenges done and, yes, if a pilot is half-decent they are pretty much unkillable unless several players all over the map are all attempting to bring them down.If someone (more than one, really) is laser painting everything for the whole match then you might get a chance if the jet/chopper doesn't fly low and fast enough after they pop their counters. Might.It's interesting the OP mentioned BF3/4 jets. Yep. They were unkillable with a half-decent pilot in them.BF6 feels pretty much the same to me.The only thing likely to kill is one of the later unlocks on the Bradley tank, but that seems like a bug that will get fixed and it is a later unlock, so most won't have it available.Jets really don't add anything much to this game but kicks for griefer troll flightsim nerds and annoying frustrating unavoidable random death-from-above for everyone else.You cannot balance jets with a ground objectives based game.

Agreed the stinger is a heat seeking missle and aircraft can just fly behind a mountain or below the deck and the missle drops off. The AA tanks are weak the jets and helos can pretty much destroy you.

Forum Discussion

PCPZzblaydar

Rising Newcomer

5 months ago

Feedback on AA and lock-on systems

Hello,

I’m making this post because honestly, after several hours of playing, frustration has completely replaced the fun. And judging by what I see online, I’m clearly not the only one feeling this way.

The biggest issue right now is the balance of air vehicles. Helicopters and jets are far too difficult to counter as infantry. No matter which equipment you use, it constantly feels like there is no real effective solution.

Lock-on launchers are almost useless against any decent pilot:

they instantly use flares,
hide behind mountains or buildings before impact,
abuse terrain and radar masking to break locks,
or the missile simply misses despite a full lock.

In the end, infantry players spend more time being helpless targets than actually fighting back.

AA turrets and anti-air vehicles also feel extremely underpowered:

inconsistent accuracy,
low damage,
and air vehicles can easily escape, repair, and come back a few seconds later like nothing happened.

The result is that one skilled pilot can dominate an entire match almost uncontested, while infantry players just feel farmed.

But this is not the only problem.

The netcode and hit registration also feel extremely inconsistent:

bullets sometimes do not register even when aiming directly at enemies,
rockets sometimes go straight through tanks without exploding,
gunfights often feel random,
players die behind cover,
or get killed by enemies they can barely even see.

I personally have multiple clips showing:

rockets going through tanks,
lock-on missiles disappearing or doing nothing,
hits not registering,
and situations where part of the damage simply seems ignored by the game.

On top of that:

some maps feel way too open for infantry,
vehicle spam is constant,
deaths often feel unfair or impossible to understand,
and matches feel more like fighting against the game itself than playing a balanced Battlefield experience.

Another thing that is becoming very noticeable is the increasing number of bots in Conquest matches. More and more players seem to be leaving games, and bots are replacing them constantly. Sometimes it genuinely feels like nearly half the server is bots instead of real players. That says a lot about the current state of the game and how exhausted or frustrated many players already are.

The most frustrating part is that the game clearly has potential. But right now, many mechanics create a feeling of unfairness rather than competition.

Losing a fight because someone played better is fine. But when players feel like:

their bullets do not register,
their rockets go through vehicles,
anti-air systems do not work,
and some vehicles are almost untouchable,

then frustration becomes stronger than fun.

I love Battlefield and I want this game to succeed, but right now the frustration is stronger than the fun.

(Cm edit updated title for vis)

24 Replies

SixBlackRavens
New Veteran
10 months ago
I've witnessed the stinger rocket divert from impacting the back of the aircraft to go after a flare that was yet to be seen leaving the aircraft, something is really not right with this. It's like the rocket had locked onto a flare that wasn't fired yet, maybe it was server desync.
UP_Hawxxeye
Legend
10 months ago
Fly around and tell us how ineffective they are. They do not have to kill you, they can compromise you even if they just make you spend your flares at a bad time.
JudasSheeple
Seasoned Hotshot
10 months ago
Piece of advice when shooting down aircraft. I am no Mujahedin able to do it 100% of the time but have a lot of success.

In the AA tank. Lock on, if they don't pop flares, shoot 1 missile. Re-acquire and fire the second one... should hit, unless they fly really well or it hits an obstruction.

When using MANPADs, acquire and track. Get them to leave the scene or pop flares. If they refuse to pop or leave, shoot. Re-acquire, they will leave or go low. Keeping the helo low is just as good as getting it to leave. They can't hit the targets they want and the moment they go high again, acquire, track, shoot. Do this enough and you will either get them to be shy about coming into your AO or they quit engaging. Regardless, you reduced or removed the air threat.

My only complaint when playing solo is the low flying can't acquire. MANPADs should acquire regardless of altitude. A real stinger has a minimum acquire altitude of 15m. A Russian Igla is 30m. That is plenty low for in game. If we know anything about the stinger, it was used to great effect in Afghanistan vs Russian helos back in the early 80s. Especially when fired down into their rotors. On the BF6 map Liberation Peak, a stinger "should" still be able to be fired down when a jet or helo goes into the valley.
The biggest issue is on maps the helos have buildings to fly behind. They hide behind those till their countermeasures are up again. At least staying on them and shooting missiles at them keeps them from just raging over the battlefield at will. You will also have way more success teaming up with someone. Sadly chasing the helo off is not shooting it down for credit and you get no appreciation for keeping the skies somewhat safer.
Reokar
Seasoned Rookie
10 months ago
davek1979 wrote:
Let's not forget the idiotic "Below radar" functionality...
This. And AA's AA' gun does not work on any air vehicle. Velocity is way too low. They must either nerf air's movement or buff aa's aa velocity.