All credit goes to Labby:
AA Missiles + Suggestions
Warning: Long Post
First lets go over some major changes to the AA missile mechanics when compared to BF3
Countermeasure reloads increased: Flares and ECM reloaded in 11s in BF3. In BF4 they reload in 25s and 30s respectively. Flare’s effective cooldown has gone from 7.5s to 20.5s, nearly tripling, ECM’s has gone from 6s to 23s, nearly quadrupling.
New missile types: active radar missiles which lock in flight, and passive radar missiles which must maintain lock added.
Missile speeds and accelerations increased: The BF3 Stinger and IGLA launched at 16m/s, accelerated at 35m/s^2, and reached a top speed of 200m/s. The BF4 Stinger launches at 20m/s, accelerates at 100m/s^2, and reaches a top speed of 250m/s. The BF4 IGLA also launches at 20m/s, but accelerates at 125m/s^2 to a max speed of 500m/s. That’s 3.5x the acceleration of the BF3 missiles, and 2.5x the top speed.
Missile turn radius reduced: Max turn angle in BF3, 155. Max turn angle in BF4, 3600. Along with the .25s reduction in tracking delay, this makes dodges at very close range without CM’s impossible. It also makes ECM unreliable, as missiles will do very tight loops around the vehicle when it’s active, often hitting the vehicle in the process.
Locktime reduced: BF3 = 1.25s, BF4 = 1s. Compared to the other changes, it’s relatively minor, but combined with the increase in CM reloads, it makes stealth utterly worthless for countering locks. Reduced spotted time is the only thing it has going for it, and that isn’t even mentioned in its description.
No below radar vs. air to air missiles: This makes heatseekers from other aircraft practically unavoidable outside of the very urban maps, as small dips in the terrain that work as cover against surface to air missiles do nothing against missiles coming from above. It also makes helicopter fights very shallow. Altitude is pure advantage, and staying low
gains you nothing.
Missile damage reduced: BF3 Stinger/IGLA damage 65%, heatseeker damage 40%. BF4 Stinger/IGLA damage 45%, surface to air missile damage 30%, air to air missile damage 20%. (except scout heli which does 30% for some reason)
Crit system added: Hits >= 20% cause light crits (low power) hits >= 30% cause heavy crits (loss of control)
Don’t get me wrong, I like some of these changes, especially the new missile types, but as a system it verges on terrible. The low missile damage and slow CM reload is frustrating for everyone. It’s almost impossible to do anything productive in a heli on the more open maps unless you’re a) flare glitching, b) rep-tanking with gyro, or c) spamming TV’s from a mile away. Attempting to be aggressive isn’t possible when for each time you use your CM’s, you have to spend three times as much time waiting for them to regen. On the other end it’s annoying to shoot a scout heli with heatseekers only to have that damage erased in a matter of seconds. The only missiles doing a reasonable amount of damage are the Stinger and IGLA at 45%. A stealth jet whose sole purpose is anti-air can carry two heatseekers at a time, doing 20% damage and a light crit each. Those missiles take ~20s to reload once used. An infantryman with a Stinger can carry five missiles capable of 45% and a heavy crit, and can reload them in 3.6s. Does no one else see a problem here?
A fast CM reload, high missile damage system would be much more interesting. Fast CM reloads would encourage more aggressive play, but a single slip up would likely result in being shot down. Here’s how I see it working:
Miscellaneous changes:
Countermeasure reloads reduced to 15s
Crit thresholds for aircraft changed from 20% light, 30% heavy, to 30% light, 40% heavy.
Add a .67x acceptance angle modifier to stealth, giving it some effect vs. active radar missiles, and making tracking with the other types slightly more difficult.
There are three types of missiles, heatseeking, passive radar, and active radar, and vehicle mounted and infantry versions of both the heatseeking and passive radar missiles. Infantry carried missiles would be identical to their vehicle counterparts in function and damage, but have 100m less range, and come in single shots rather than pairs.
Heatseeking missiles: 500m hemispherical range for vehicles, 400m for Stinger. Almost identical in function to the current heatseekers, but doing 45% damage no matter the platform. 45% damage means a single hit causes a heavy crit, while two consecutive hits cause a full disable and health bleed. Heatseekers carried by aircraft can be countered by below radar, MAA heatseekers and Stingers are unaffected.
Passive Radar missiles: 500m cylindrical range for vehicles, 400m for IGLA. These missiles would retain their current hold lock mechanic and high velocity, but their lock range would be calculated using only horizontal distance to the target. Altitude would be ignored, allowing these missiles to reach all the way to the flight ceiling to create a true hostile air space allowing ground forces to influence dogfights, however all passive radar type missiles would be counterable by flying below radar. These missiles would also do 45% damage.
Active Radar missiles: For the most part the same as they are now. These missiles would do 30%, for light crits on single hits and a three hit disable. These missiles do lower damage than the other two types as they are much more difficult to counter. Unaffected by below radar.
That gives us three distinct types of missiles, heatseekers for use against low flying helicopters, jets can counter by staying high. Passive radar for area denial vs. jets, helicopters can counter by flying low, and active radar missiles which deal less damage but are faster to fire and harder to avoid.
Notable AA missile changes between BF3 and BF4
http://forum.symthic.com/battlefield-4-general-discussion/5803-aa-missiles-suggestions/ [forum.symthic.com]
