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[arctic coyote]

AI image

[median haven]

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this tbh. Not sure whether I like it or not yet

[supple jetty]

AI image, not gonna read.

[rugged vessel]

Guess what the best aerial denial aircraft is?

A highly sophisticated air superiority jet fighter.

Shocking.

[digital tide]

Im hoping this is an early april fools joke

[rugged vessel]

it’s never an April fools joke with this guy

[rapid shuttle]

Laser turret plane. With high powered pulse lasers, it would probably work well. But the issue is no one’s gonna like getting blasted down by a flash of light.

It would make more sense than making a flying SPAAG

[unkempt garnet]

spaag but as an aircraft? just clip two aerosentries together and they will fly around the map at mach 2

[fierce sundial]

Sorry but this just feels like a medusa but less fun and less effective

I am trying really hard to think of a situation where most of the players would find it fun to play as or against it, but it all comes back to just feeling like this would be fighting either a worse medusa or an overpowered SPAAG

[quiet shard]

Cool concept, but it just sounds like a buffed Medusa at heart. Just maybe kick up the effective range to about 8km and that sounds like your suggestion.
The Medusa is built the way it is for both realism and gameplay.
The VTOL on it is basically non-existent unless you have no fuel and a clean loadout, this means it's going to have to turn around at some point, otherwise it'll basically be begging to be killed or risk losing the assets it's defending.
This offers some counterplay for the Medusa, so it's not the end all base defense.

However, I'm not shutting the idea down entirely. This is a good Medusa counterpart concept whenever that pops into the conversation.

[unkempt garnet]

medusa vtols just fine at 50% fuel and default loadout, it's just a bit slow on the ascent

[quiet shard]

Painfully slow for my tastes, but true nonetheless

[carmine vault]

i think i suggested a medusa roof mounted laser before
a dish-shaped turret with 360 traverse and 5-10 degrees of elevation

[rapid shuttle]

360 traverse with 90 degree elevation. Just a ball turret. You would only have coverage of the upper hemisphere over your plane, so fly really low.

If someone gets under you your main weapon is useless

I don’t think such a plane would go in the game though, since it would just sit there and pulse laser explode holes in your wings

[carmine vault]

i was thinking of just more effective missile defense
having to face the threat you're trying to defend from is quite inconvenient
with a dish you'd have to bank the plane carefully to preserve some of the skill requirement

[rugged vessel]

Honestly the Ifrit would be better at missile defense than a gun based platform, being able to launch over a dozen heat seekers at a wave of incoming missiles is faster and more reliable than sniping each one with a laser sequentially

[fierce sundial]

Honestly yeah

The way the game currently works, Medusa is great for dealing with high value munitions while ifrit or even compass are great for dealing with cruises and arads

[light meadow]

What about a YAL-1 type design, presumably for Primeva?

[rugged vessel]

Could be interesting if merged with an anti ship platform like a P-8 and a traditional AWACs, but would be very asymmetrically balanced compared to the Medusa. It’s worth a thought for sure.

There was discussion about it in this thread https://discord.com/channels/909034158205059082/1339993819029966979

[nocturne linden]

The concept of a flying SPAAG is interesting, but largely unnecessary given the capabilities of existing air superiority fighters and defensive platforms. Modern fighters excel at area denial with their speed, agility, and long-range weapons, allowing them to engage threats more effectively than a slower, turret-based aircraft. A large, loitering gunship would likely be an easy target for precision strikes and struggle to keep pace with fast-moving aerial threats.

Relying on ballistic weapons for missile defense adds significant drawbacks, including limited ammunition, barrel wear, and recoil management. These issues would reduce the platform’s sustained effectiveness and flexibility compared to missile-based or energy weapon systems. Current in-game options like the Medusa and Ifrit already offer layered, balanced defensive capabilities without the need for a specialized gunship.

From a gameplay perspective, this type of airframe risks promoting static, passive play and reducing opportunities for teamwork and strategic variety. It could also feel frustrating or unfair to engage with, potentially upsetting game balance. The current system encourages dynamic, combined arms defense, which a flying SPAAG might undermine rather than enhance.

[edgy prawn]

Lets get real lol, no one in a medusa goes out of their way to intercept anything that isn't coming for them. and like I said in the suggestion, the effectiveness is intermittent at best. People use it for SEAD and E-War and if they arent, its a waste of the airframe.

and this notion that this airframe is vulnerable to CAP is just bogus lol, like the guns that are shooting down the hypothetical cruise missiles down cant fire at the incoming missiles about to kill you.

The actual problem with this thing is that it would be invulnerable lol

[polar pulsar]

Bro unironically suggested a gunplane

[unkempt garnet]

slightly disagree with this, on actually organized servers or NOCS for example, nukes and other incoming munitions are often intercepted (to a decent degree of effectiveness) by medusa players, especially before the nuke break patch

[brittle sparrow]

On Talon 1 for example the Medusa pilots usually intercept whatever they can and will intercept anything pointed out to them

[fierce sundial]

Yeah, if enough high alt nuke attempts are happening, then a medusa standin over their own airfield is a very common sight

Oh and you can also always spam AFV6 AA to help defend a base

[full jewel]

Definitely in the top 3 worst suggestions list, and it’s not 3 or 2

[fierce sundial]

Hey, at least it ain't the 10th A-10 warthog copycat suggestion

[steep ginkgo]

As a Medusa main, you're dead wrong. Half of my playtime is spent covering allied units and mopping up cruise missile waves

[edgy prawn]

lets see you make a better one then genius, spoken like someone with a track record of success

[unkempt garnet]

suggestion posting isn't a competition, please keep things friendly, y'all :)

[polar pulsar]

Yea it's uh. Called a Medusa

[full jewel]

I have, check out my HUD suggestion

Everyone has bad suggestions it’s okay to admit that you might’ve been off on this one
Edit: he left the damn server lol

[supple jetty]

thats a shame :(
it was a weird but atleast unique suggestion

[vocal gulch]

Man people take the suggestion forum real serious

[digital tide]

actual warfare

[vocal gulch]

In the future I hope to see less "it sucks lol" comments on suggestions

[supple jetty]

people sharing and then defending something they are passionate about
people like the game and want it to be better and they all have very different ideas on how to achieve it, it causes conflict which is a shame in a suggestion discussion forum

[digital tide]

Bro deleted a message </3

[supple jetty]

it was too real for the world to see

[digital tide]

Dw I saw it!!

[vocal gulch]

😒

[digital tide]

[vocal gulch]

Too real for mods

[supple jetty]

since the original poster is absent this is now the suggestion forum meta thread

[edgy prawn]

explicitly stated it uses ballistics to intercept incoming ordnance but it seems everyone drops their 2 cents without reading the entire thing

[rapid shuttle]

I did read it. I suggested a better weapon for the purpose.

[edgy prawn]

except its not a better weapon for the purpose stated, literally a paragraph of text explaining this

[rapid shuttle]

I disagree. Lasers have no recoil, hit instantly, and have more range. Such a large plane with a lot of internal volume could maybe also accommodate bigger capacitors.

They’d be turret mounted too, so able to fire in all directions.

All you need is some fiber and lenses to direct the laser, or with more primitive tech, some big ass mirrors.

Issue is that it might be really good at air superiority if the lasers aren’t tuned to be bad at it, which could ruin the game for some people.

So don’t add it! (Unless you want to play stealth sniper vs laser plane)