- 1,320
- Setúbal
- dacc10
1 - The problem with having a hand full of super planes is that it effectively means that most of the roster is basically useless. With AC: Infinity, the vast amount of planes and options almost assured that a player would find their favorite plane and use it without fear of never being competitive. Having 100's of planes with near equal specs thanks to mods and levels is what kept the multiplayer at a nice balance.
2 - Like you, I enjoyed all the PS2 era Ace Combat games immensely (specifically the Yellow Squadron), but I just didn't reach the level of enjoyment that you did when flying inferior equipment. When I wanted more challenge, I handicapped the game myself.
3 - I spent a considerable amount of time in AC: Infinity and worked very hard to get my favorite planes to Level 15 (+/-). Along the way I did spend some money on fuel but as with any game I buy, I generally budget around $100.00 for it so buying fuel was easy for me. I do get your frustration though, I routinely ran into Level 20 "whales" and was quickly shown door until I leveled my craft to around 15. The system was really good to me but those who spent money did have the advantage.
4 - I would love to see all the US Aircraft share the same weapons but I also understand that by doing so, there will no longer be fighter-multirole-attacker classes that have nice bonuses and keep balance in my book. Would I love to have an F-35A with GPB's? Yes. But not at the expense of balance.
EDIT: Didn't need a reason to buy it, but this will surely make many people happy.
http://www.dualshockers.com/2016/12/05/ace-combat-7-return-strangereal-reason/
The planes in game are already balanced, by the developers ignoring different radar ranges, countermeasures, missile warning systems, avionics, etc. All this stuff makes more difference in modern combat, than pure agility or thrut to weight ratios. Planes with similar performance, will differentiate from each other because their respective avionics.
The balance here should be with the organisation of all aircraft in classes. Each class would consist in a criteria of era, maneuverability and type of aircraft.
If the game doesn't restrict the player to use a plane of a certain class, there should be a warning about the class that is in use in the server and which aircraft are recommended. A server using a class of top aircraft, could be open to lower tier aircraft, if the player wants, knowing that their plane is inferior. Lower classes shouldn't receive opponents from the classe above.
Other detail about balancing, the players should play with someone with similar skill level. Atleast in game modes like Deathmatch and such.
The thing is, if the game doesn't simulate every other feature of each plane, atleast it should simulate their flight characteristics. If not, the game will be a generic flying game, where the only difference between each aircraft is their looks.
Imagine a player who knows how a Phantom flies, enters an online game, sees other Phantoms and thinks that the planes are all equal, and then in the middle of the combat he notices the other planes are twice as maneuverable and their missiles lock-on twice as fast. Where is the balance there? The moment someone gets in a plane, he should know what to expect from the opponent, change is tactics and weapons of choice to win that confrontation. All this is lost with a bunch of mods thrown at each airplane. The planes lack personality, and strengths and weaknesses.
But the balance shouldn't be a concern.
Attackers would have much better resistance to damage, bigger amount of secondary ammo, faster reloading times for air-to-ground weapons and better canon.
Fighters should have a faster reload for air-to-air weaponry, more effective canon for air to air combat, higher number of secundary air-to-air missiles.
Multirole aircraft should fit in the middle, they should be able to be as effective as the other two in air-to-air and air-to-ground missions.
The big difference in weapons is that an Attacker will have a vast array of air-to-ground weapons and no secondary air-to-air missiles, a Fighter would have access to pretty much all the air-to-air weapons available, and a few options for air-to-ground (an F-22 could carry a small amount of guided bombs, the same goes for the rest) and Multirole fighters would be able to carry almost every weapon available, apart from extra-long range air-to-air missiles (limited to the Fighters) and larger bombs (exclusive to the Attackers).
There's also nothing stopping the developers from seperating the planes into classes or year of introduction, thus allowing for online games with less capable fighters.
This. It's not that difficult.