A concern about flight vs ground

[Wolve]

It has been said that there will be flying units in the game, and after talking to one of my mech friends today, he pointed and I realized, we have never really dealt with Flight units vs ground units before so to say in a mech game...

The scenario is as follows, you get some flying units who drop bombs on the grounds units below. The flying units flying at higher altitudes will basically be out of weapons range and have a distinct advantage .....how are you going to balance this besides air vs air combat?

[Kurimuzon]

the aircraft for one probably wont be able to get high enough to be out of weapons range and they wont be as strong as mech so mechs have an advantage there. Also the mechs probably will have jump jets and beable to get anything in the air.

[Wolve]

the aircraft for one probably wont be able to get high enough to be out of weapons range and they wont be as strong as mech so mechs have an advantage there. Also the mechs probably will have jump jets and beable to get anything in the air.

Well unless you got a quote and a link where it says that, I would prefer an official answer No offense ...

[Hamilton]

That is what long range missiles will be for, to engage high-flying aircraft.

The fly higher than long range missiles, requires being in orbit, which then takes on the role of Planetary Bombardment Rules.

The best method for aircraft to attack would be to hug the terrain, fly low and fast.  Unless using helicopters or VTOLS, in which case, using pop-up attacks would be best.

[Harakeen]

...and they wont be as strong as mech so mechs have an advantage there.

And what about Pit Viper?
Since hes a flying mech, he probably wont be as weak as an aircraft and would take much more damage before going down.
And missile "boats" in FOA wont be able to do that mass damage as in Mechwarrior 3 for exemple.

Got it in "What would you NOT want so see in FOA" post
from Hamilton

"...in FOA missiles take up a lot of internal space and weight.  Most launchers will only have 1 to 3 shots.

So Missile "Boats" may be good for the first strike capability, but are kind of useless afterwards.  They'll have to head to back to a resupply center or vehicle."

So based on this, will Pit Viper be a hard mech to take down or will he be made of lighter compounds making him very fragile?

[Ronin]

Greetings,

Allow me to weigh in.  The ultimate balance in air verses ground will depend upon the speed and maneuvar power of a flying mech.  If the game allows even a 10th of the remarkable speed of modern aircraft, then the careful pilot of a flying mech will have the advantage of always choosing the time and place of encounters and through maneuvar can likely make direct fire weapons against them an impossiblity except through pure chance.

If the game design is such that flying mechs must be much lighter, and their weapon loads dismal then this will serve as somewhat of a balance, however then...why have flying mechs at all if they cannot make a significant difference in a battle except for scouting purposes.

I propose the balance be with special missiles for anti-aircraft operations that track extremely well.  Once locked on and fired the Air-mech pilot must maneuvar and use anti-missile equipment to avoid it.  This will temporarily force the air-mech pilot to worry about surviving instead of attacking ground targets.  It will also be butt clenching fun for the pilot.

In this way the usefulness of the air-mech will be preserved, but like our modern aircraft today it has vulnerabilities and limitations.

Ronin

[Wild_Card]

I agree, to be flight capable, it is logical to assume that an air mech will have less armor as it would weigh it down to much. Where a land mech would have plenty of armor due to not having this constraint.

So therefore a flight capable mech will have to rely more on maneuverability and sneak attacks then a drawn out fight. If it can't knock out a land mech in the first salvo or two, it would probably be forced to retreat.

To compare it to other games, the flight capable mech would be most like a rogue. It can fight yes, but most of its power comes from its ability to sneak attack, and its versatility, not the ability to stand up in a drawn out duel.

That being said, in the right hands, it would probably be devastatingly effective.

[dude1744]

That is the point of air units. If your stupid enough to not put any air defence on a mech, you deserve to be bombed to bits. Also, an 11 foot SAM of today can shoot a spyplane out of low orbit. You can't fly out of weapon range