Poll - airstrike cooldown

[Sn4ke]

Hey guys,

Airstrike spam every half a minute is pretty annoying and favours the winning team (or at least the one with the current $ advantage).

What do you think about the airstrike cooldown?

Regards,

Sn4ke

Edited April 8, 2017 by DarkSn4ke

[j0g32]

Team-based cooldowns are difficult to begin with: similar to an ion/nuke beacon, players buy an Airstrike on their own, with a certain plan in mind.

I find it very annoying when I cannot use the airstrike that I bought, only because someone else used theirs  (anywhere on the map), which is entirely out of my control.

The laser-targetting takes time and exposes you, and in many cases an incoming airstrike is noted before it hits.

Also there is substantial time between calling in and striking, allowing the enemy to evade/avoid major damage.

 

Buying/using an airstrike is thus a risky endeavour with limited chances for success, where timing can be crucial.

I think it's good thr way it is, 30sec. can be a very long time when a defense/siege line is about to break, and you just need airsupport right now...

[limsup]

38 minutes ago, j0g32 said:

I find it very annoying when I cannot use the airstrike that I bought, only because someone else used theirs  (anywhere on the map), which is entirely out of my control.

I agree - could we somehow make it possible for teammates to identify others who are walking with airstrike binoculars in their inventory, for the sole reason to enable a more effective coordination of airstrikes? I do know that this is physically visible on a player, but if people with airstrike binoculars are present at different sites of the map, each with his own intention, trying to execute their plan concurrently some possibility of coordination (in my personal opinion) should exist. In the past I have died numerous times with airstrike in my inventory, because for 5-10+ minutes long others kept spamming it, denying me the chance to utilize the $800 airstrike  

 

46 minutes ago, j0g32 said:

The laser-targetting takes time and exposes you, and in many cases an incoming airstrike is noted before it hits.

Also there is substantial time between calling in and striking, allowing the enemy to evade/avoid major damage.

 

Buying/using an airstrike is thus a risky endeavour with limited chances for success, where timing can be crucial.

I think it's good thr way it is, 30sec. can be a very long time when a defense/siege line is about to break, and you just need airsupport right now...

It makes one an easy target for snipers and tanks (plus the occasional Stealth Black Hand). To my observations, apart from the occasional successes (when the enemy isn't paying attention to the airstrike in the heat of battle, or a particularly smart air strike targeting and timing) the only general use to this is assisting in the breaking of front-lines (assuming that the enemy line has no viable means of withdrawal).

Apart from this,multiple consecutive airstrikes are often used to torment the enemy base already under siege, providing setbacks for any attempts on mounting a defense. The way I saw it, when the enemy armored division is already knocking on your front door, your own airstrikes don't seem to be of much help in stopping them...

P.s.: one exotic use-case for the airstrikes: I have observed some people to utilize airstrikes in order to take out prodigious (and entrenched) snipers, with varying degree of success...

[Henk]

Airstrike cooldown is a setting in World Info now. On Reservoir I moved it up to 50s, might push it up to 55.

I haven't played a lot since it was increased, but as far as I 've been able to see it's better now.

[Madkill40]

15 hours ago, Henk said:

Airstrike cooldown is a setting in World Info now. On Reservoir I moved it up to 50s, might push it up to 55.

I haven't played a lot since it was increased, but as far as I 've been able to see it's better now.

Yeah, this. ^

Frostbite has a 75s cool down.

[Chralex]

I haven't experienced that the air strike should be the deciding factor of any match. I just came back to this awesome game, after probably more than a year, maybe several. I've played around 10 matches over the course of two days, and I didn't actually experience that the air strikes were particularly annoying or unbalanced in any way.

The first post describes how the air strikes seems to favor the winning team, I don't agree, since the maps are designed in such a way that the enemies will have to go through choke points in order to damage each others bases. That means that a defender will easily be able to defend the choke points that leads to the defender's base with well placed air strikes, and that is more effective on the defense since the defender isn't standing in the choke point but spread out in an area that has visibility on that choke point.

I guess the air strike is hard to balance though, since the defending / losing team is already low on credits. But I'm not sure that should be changed, since they have to lose somehow, their situation is based on an earlier failures.

I may just be rambling here, but I thought I'd share my views. It is a forum after all, so I guess even a rusty player's opinion can be voiced here.

[yosh56]

8 hours ago, Chralex said:

I haven't experienced that the air strike should be the deciding factor of any match.

Less of a deciding factor, and more of the one and only factor on very particular maps. 

[R315r4z0r]

Instead of a cooldown, what about a charge up?

The mechanics of the item would work the exact same way, except you have to wait for it to be ready before you can use it. This waiting period would be unique to you and would not impact your team.

Basically, you spend money on an airstrike and that initiates a "charge up" period of a substantial amount... like 3-5 minutes. Maybe even more. Then, you simply go about your business, playing as normal. When the waiting period is over, you head back to a PT and claim your airstrike.

The charge up timer persists through death. So if you initiate the timer, you can pick it up when it's ready even if you've died multiple times. However, after you claim the airstrike, if you die before using it, you lose it and have to buy a new one.

 

Some damage balance would have to be made. This would allow airstrikes to be made more viable while simultaneously avoid being spammed. The only way to effectively spam them in this situation would be with team coordination... and isn't that the goal of the game?

[RoundShades]

I didn't post it here, but on another thread, I suggested airstrikes should sustain fire on an area longer, but have a longer cooldown.

If they bomb an area for 9 seconds right now, make it bomb them for 18 seconds, but then delay 72 seconds between next airstrike. Doesn't even have to do more "damage", just space out the shots to deny safe repair for longer.

GDI A10: 5 strafes instead of 3, 60% damage done by 1 strafe, instead of current 100% of what a strafe does.

Nod AC130: Twice as many cannon strikes, half the damage of each, same RoF of cannon.

[Luhrian]

That charge up isn't a bad idea, but if the time reset with every time you die, it will end, that the people buy the item and camp inside a building instead of helping their team. I think it is better, that you buy the item, then a cooldown is starting and you can get this item when the cooldown stops in the purchase terminal.

But the mappers can decide anyway how long is that cooldown. And that is good, because airstrikes are on every map differently effective.