Gunship shields..

[HBrutusH]

This happens ALL the time to me.

It seems that sometimes, the gunship shields just don't work.

Hear lock on tone, press X, still die..

I'm trying to figure out if there is some kind of pattern to this, it isn't just the AA weapons that seem to be penetrating them.

[draeh]

I don't know if this was the case or not, but if you were low enough to pick up a motion mine they trigger the warning and cannot be stopped by shields.

[Uranium - 235]

Originally Posted by draeh

I don't know if this was the case or not, but if you were low enough to pick up a motion mine they trigger the warning and cannot be stopped by shields.

... which is totally gay.

[Birdman1011395]

Originally Posted by Uranium - 235

... which is totally gay.

That gunships can be killed by MM's or that shields don't stop MM's?

But about the shield issue, I do recall that the tails of the gunships (or was it the transports?) used to not be protected by the shields, although that was fixed in 1.25...

[Freeboter]

I think the shields only stop missiles so it is pretty much useless against all anti-air except the saw.

[Anospa]

The shields now completely cover the gunship, there used to be an issue where the tail was open, but that is closed now. The biggest issue is the timing. If a missile is tracking your before you shield, chances are it will go straight through and hit. I'm not sure if thats a bug or lag issue, but thats how it is sadly. As for SAAW missiles, they will appear to blow up on your shield, but sometimes will in fact hit you if you shield just as they hit. Your best bet if you know its a SAAW missile is to get some type of speed going, some buildings in the way and hope they lose their lock. Any form of EMP will sap your shields and allow anything straight through, and flak from the AAA cannons will always go through, as well as tank and walker turret.

[Tarenth]

I would assume the shields of the gunship would operate much like the shields on the ground vehicles and stop all nonEMP damage sources including AA guns, Small arms, and tank shells.

Then again, I have a different problem with gun ships. I've hit one twice in a row with a tank round in Highway Tampa and the damn things are still flying without bothering to deploy their shields. I swear, if I place a tank round through the canopy of your gunship you SHOULD go down...not take another one and still be able to hit me with the TV missile and fly away.

[Uranium - 235]

Originally Posted by Birdman1011395

That gunships can be killed by MM's or that shields don't stop MM's?

The latter. If you only had like 2 of them it'd be one thing, but you can carry 5 or 6 and they can be resupplied and spammed everywhere, it's just way too easy to instagib a tank. MMs are one of the most laughably poorly balanced things I've seen in a game, and since their only counters are high-tier unlocks, I wonder which mentally challenged retard at DICE thought this up.

[Lyramion]

Like Anospa already said. If the enemy Gunship Missiles already went from "fire streight" to "Lock on Air Target" there is no way a shield can stop it anymore.

[Tarenth]

Originally Posted by Uranium - 235

The latter. If you only had like 2 of them it'd be one thing, but you can carry 5 or 6 and they can be resupplied and spammed everywhere, it's just way too easy to instagib a tank. MMs are one of the most laughably poorly balanced things I've seen in a game, and since their only counters are high-tier unlocks, I wonder which mentally challenged retard at DICE thought this up.

The first counter is the Engineer defuser which is a tier 1 unlock I believe. Second counter would be to kill the engineer which causes the mines to fade out after a while (not an immediate solution, but handy for clearing the way). Next solution would be the FAV which can out run MMs and drags them away from their area of deployment a little. After that you have the 'stop and go' movement tactic where you lead them away and then hop out to disable the MM lock and keep doing so until you either leave the lock on range (takes a while for them to get up and moving) or you draw them out of their deployment zone. Then you have the high tier unlocks of the Recon Zeller (bang boom) and the Engineer MM bait (zip bang). The only problem is aside from the unlocks all the ways to counter motion mines are time consuming.

I remember you used to be able to shoot motion mines and make them bounce away a bit, but I'm a bit fuzzy on that since I just usually avoid the suckers which is the easiest and best counter messure and unlocked shortly after you're born and have two functioning eyes.

[mentholated]

Originally Posted by Tarenth

I would assume the shields of the gunship would operate much like the shields on the ground vehicles and stop all nonEMP damage sources including AA guns, Small arms, and tank shells.

Then again, I have a different problem with gun ships. I've hit one twice in a row with a tank round in Highway Tampa and the damn things are still flying without bothering to deploy their shields. I swear, if I place a tank round through the canopy of your gunship you SHOULD go down...not take another one and still be able to hit me with the TV missile and fly away.

Sorry about that. Force of habit.

I try not to do it too often though, and it really depends on whos the gunner. Usually I freak out when I'm around tanks because I would get shot down a lot by them prior to 1.4, for some reason. I'm not sure what change suddenly improved my ability to dominate the airspace of a map for such long periods of time, but I digress. Apples and oranges. Maybe it has something to do with the shield changes.

[Augustus Gloop]

The problem with motion mines isn't that they unbalance tanks. IMO tanks are meant to fire from a distance, like short range artillery. I have seen groups of tanks line up to bombard a flag from about 150m, and be devastatingly effective while an apc rolls up to unload infantry for the flag cap.

[Birdman1011395]

Originally Posted by Uranium - 235

The latter. If you only had like 2 of them it'd be one thing, but you can carry 5 or 6 and they can be resupplied and spammed everywhere, it's just way too easy to instagib a tank. MMs are one of the most laughably poorly balanced things I've seen in a game, and since their only counters are high-tier unlocks, I wonder which mentally challenged retard at DICE thought this up.

A few things:

First, an engineer can only deploy 5 MM's at a time, any more and the oldest MM will disappear. And once that Engineer's kit disappears, so do the motion mines.

Second, speaking of poor balance, how balanced would it be if the shields could stop motion mines?

Third, Tarenth is still correct, every kit in the game has a Tier Zero unlock that "defuses" the situation, guns. MM's can be moved by shooting at them, and they do not go back to their original spot.

Oh and Brutus, another idea just popped in my head, could it be that the missile impacts are coming just after your shields power down? I believe Dreah has said that sometimes it takes his SAAW rounds up to fifteen seconds to hit their mark, which is longer than the duration of the shields.

[MDFubar]

It wuold be just like in BF2 when you where locked by AA while in a jet. You can not depoy counters immediately, they lose thier effectiveness. Timing is everything when it come to countering anything that is shooting at you. Now, if the shields don't stop the incoming...........well.....bail out.

[Uranium - 235]

I've just had several experiences with gunship shields not working. In one case I was taking coax tank fire and threw up the shields, but kept taking damage as I fled. Happened several times.