A Path Beyond Yaks and Ridge War

[Mojoman]

18 minutes ago, Pushwall said:

 but Yaks rarely fly straight over the enemy base anyway, right?

Lol but that's what's most fun to do with them.

Seriously the number of Yak deaths on Guard Duty is hilarious.

[ChopBam]

Ever since the inception of Yaks, I'd wager that W3D Hub's KD has decreased drastically.

[SarahNautili]

Honestly Push I'd go with some mixture of maybe a small amount of "most of the above" or "all of the above".

 

Even arties, the things Yaks were supposed to help counter, have no trouble hitting yaks because they've basically gotta dive straight at the arty to do any real damage, a minimum of twice, and can be seen coming from miles away anyway. Add to that that yes the AA gun placement gives the Yaks no room to maneuver besides basically straight long the allied front lines, putting them in the line of fire of pretty much the entire allied team for as long as possible so it's super doubtful they'll even get a second strafing run on an arty... At this point they're more of a detriment to the soviets than a help. 800 credits to maybe take out a single 900 credit arty, maybe, but much more likely die a firey death near instantly isn't exactly an amazing deal. 

Edited July 26, 2017 by SarahNautili

[Killing_You]

15 hours ago, Pushwall said:

I think first we need to figure out how to make it a more viable unit period (without it displacing the Hind too much). It's really not as useful on GuardDuty as I'd hoped. Maybe enough damage to take out arties in one strafe again? More range so there's more leeway between lining up and being able to fire? Extra HP since pretty much any strafing run involves going into the danger zone of 3+ redeyes anyway? Or maybe just a special armour type that takes less damage from redeyes but not other weapons, so it's not completely unstoppable if the field isn't full of redeyes and insta-dead if the opposite is true? Maybe another physics overhaul so that they have a more lenient tolerance for what speed counts as instant death, so hopefully people screw up with them less? Obviously can't do all of this though, don't want the pendulum to swing the other way.

Personally, I'd go with a bit more range (Yaks have to line up their shot from a distance on approach anyway), a little bit of extra splash (so that it has an easier time hitting infantry, it is known as the "infantry eraser" in the manual, after all), and perhaps a little bit of extra health/armor. Not too much, though, maybe 25/25?

[Ice]

More range would definitely be nice, and perhaps slightly more direct damage and/or slash to help it live up to its old reputation as the 'Infantry Eraser' and give it slightly more punch against light vehicles.

IMO, any ordinary infantry unit that takes a direct hit from a Yak's autocannon should suffer grievous damage if they're not killed outright.