SPAA are highly mobile and have enormous damage potential, and they can angle down to hit infantry.
The HMG exists as a form of heavy infantry suppression. At the time that the stationary AA guns had the ability to angle down remover, the HMG did not exist. Now that it does, there seems to be basically no reason to not be allowed to angle the stationary AA guns down, as they still won’t be as effective as a HMG.
So why do I want this ability for the stationary AA guns?
So that support players hanging out at a distance can use them more like artillery snipers in addition to being able to keep an eye on the sky. Helping their teams out with multiple types of support at once.
HMG has a limited turning range and SPAA consumes vehicle slots. Thus, there are some limitations when using them.
AA guns, which can be installed by engineers, have a 360 degree turning range, 1 hit kill for infantry, and can be installed as many as 2 per player, with no per-team restrictions like vehicle slots. If the AA gun can be used for ground attack as it is now, it is more OP than SPAA or HMG.
If we add conditions such as the number of AA gun installations in exchange for the ability to use AA guns for ground attack, the means of air defense would be limited at once, and aircraft would become OP.
The current situation is the best because it is better to have AAguns concentrate on air defense.
AA needs to have the same logistic limits as AT cannons (max 1 active and higher building costs so you can only build one even with perks) so people don’t spam them so easily. Maybe also adjust their building time.
Stationary AA guns used to be a cancer of Enlisted because noob players abuse them instead of their rifles, SMG and MG. If AA goes back to 0 angle, these lazy players would do it again. And they already have more powerful staionary weapon, HMGs. Before you are shot down by snipers or vehicles, you may have kill dozens of enemies.
Let me tell you what will happen if AA angle goes down: some will build AA, HMG and LMG shooting infantry all the time, they will never build rally or defend the cap.
In conclusion, never.
Surely. But HMG and LMG are enough for treating infantries, just buff the AA guns and make it efficient for aircrafts.
And some engineers really fall in love with all fortifications and stationary weapons, except rally. I don’t know why but they prefer to camp behind.
Nobody really use LMG buildings anymore and HMG can do three things at the same time.
Nobody builds rallies and that was already a thing before people started to spam AA which just got replaced by HMG, which are far better at their jobs of killing inf, wrecking light and medium tanks and partly even take out planes.
However, except DShK, most HMGs have a limited angle of elevation and can’t follow aircrafts. Also they have no hint circle when shooting aircrafts. HMGs can do it but aren’t good at that.
Which still sounds better if you can do 3 things while the other gun can only do one thing (and even that not that good at the moment). Not to mention that AA guns have worse overheat rates and ammo count while HMG dont have them.
So… oh no, if people use AA against inf, they wont build rallies… as they do rn… oh no…
Have you actually hit any infantry with the new ones? I have. It took two direct hits to even knock infantry. HMG is literally one hit kill.
Yes it can turn 360 but it is still stationary.
I played at that point in time. Though the reason they were so powerful then is that they were quad-barreled and had a giant shield on them. Neither of which is the case any more!
The HMG and LMG are good against infantry RUNNING FORWARD IN MASS. Enabling the AA to be used would allow for counter sniping and countering enemy nests as well as AA defense.
I actually do a fair bit as they are easier to build sandbag slots for and also fit in some windows the HMG does not. Plus it is far more accurate at range. (especially if you utilize the less horizontal recoil perk when standing. If you are standing when you enter control of it, the perk applies.)
You can build them on a slightly uphill slope and do just fine.
HMG does overheat. As far as ammo is concerned, I’ve had it where it just clicks when I pull the trigger, I assumed that meant it was out of ammo, but it could have been a bug.
Yeah. There are support players, and there are rush players. Unfortunately, majority of rush players think its not their job to put down a rally point but have no problem badmouthing the support players for not doing so.
Yes, I had the opportunity to do that at D-Day a few weeks ago.
After we took control of the beach as US troops, we built an AA because the Germans were bombing so hard that the Thunderbolts we had in our unit were unable to go out.
After shooting down the aircraft, I realized that I could shoot the Germans who were building a MG nest behind the third base with just the AA.
I shot them and got a one hit kill which also destroyed the MG. I then kept shooting at the Germans respawning from the cliffs until the AA was destroyed… mostly one hit kills.
We were able to hold the Germans completely at the spawn point and the Americans were able to advance to the top of the cliff without difficulty.
It was an exciting moment…but I felt that being able to fire AA horizontally would have been too OP.
Well, I believe those were the days when you could build a quad flak, so the current AAgun might be a bit more vulnerable.
I would say if you would want to allow the AA guns to be used against infantry, the most important thing to consider would be that those guns are mostly “only” OP indoors, where you can cover up choke points.
Thus, limiting the AA guns to be only usable outdoors would be “probably” the right thing to do.
But HMGs are usually easier to destroy as several shot can destroy it. AA guns should still be more vulnerable to small calibre infantry weapon if this will be implemented (specially for Soviet and German because of shield), the magic optics should be penetrable and damageable, rifle should be able to destroy major functional modules such as barrel, breech, and cannon drives to temporally disable it.
That would make the previous suggestion I listed even more viable actually.
HMGs are still stronger on damage output and only have to worry about overheat, in addition to being able to be placed indoors (or at least in close proximity to terrain, similar to a rally point).
HOWEVER, their drawback is limited angle of rotation and is susceptible to small arms fire.
In comparison. the AA:
Can only be placed outdoors or in an area wide enough that it can fit without blocking a walkway (large rooms).
Its still not as high of damage upon impact as the HMG, but causes splash damage (as well as low penetration)
Has a magazine, so its bursts of fire are much more limited than an HMG.
Still has full rotation and able to be angled down to attack infantry, or high enough to hit aircraft.
Is still immune to small arms fire, requiring an anti-tank weapon or explosive to take it out.
IF the AA was changed in this way, I would also suggest changing the names of the “AA” and “AT Gun” fortifications.
Instead, list the “AA” as “AC” (Autocannon), and the “AT gun” to “FG” (Field Gun).
This is a problem of inconsistency which should be fixed in the future. 12.7 mm bullet should not have more damage than 20mm shell with similar or higher muzzle velocity.
Because laziness of developers and use of resources from other game, now there is several different damage system caused exactly same weapon in different platform have very much different damage, infantry weapon highest, ground vehicle middle, plane lowest. For example, M2HB have around 100 damage from HMG, nearly bolt-action damage from tank and SPAA, and below semi-auto damage from plane. The same ammunition from HMG (considered as infantry weapon) and anti-tank rifle do much more damage than AA gun (considered as vehicle) and other vehicles.
One way to test that is by shooting balloons in training field.
I do not mean to destroy, but to damage and temporally disable. Buildable AA guns now have unfinished damage model of HP only, while SPAAs already have damageable functional modules.