Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25142096-20140902063932

With the recent addition of the F-15C -Pixy- and the SU-33 -Strigon-, I couldn't help but notice that Namco is adding a lot of planes, maybe even too many, that mount common secondary weapons, while others are completely left behind, mounted just by low level and/or underused planes. This bothers me a lot, as I think that secondary weapons are what make the gameplay of apparently similar aircraft, varied and fun.

If you check the Pixy and Strigon's stats and weapons, you'll notice that they mirror, in a weaker way, the F-22A and T-50 respectively; so, other than the "special factor", there is no real reason not to choose the standard planes instead.

Looking back in the tech tree, there are weapons that many haven't seen even once in battle, or that are very rare anyway. Before proceeding, I'd just like to mention that the 4AAM are used by 16 different planes, 14 exluding the copies, and the QAAM by 16/13. Here is a list of the forgotten secondary weapons in the game, with the number of planes (both general and exluding the copies) that can mount them:

-MGP (3): the double machinegun is a weapon that personally, I've never seen in action. Only three early game planes mount it (MiG-21, SU-25 and SU-24), and all three of them need to be upgraded a lot in order to use it; at those levels, most players will just go to the next plane before upgrading theirs more than once or twice. Even if it can seem useless, as missiles are generally more reliable, I can imagine how good it could be to have an advanced attacker/multirole with MGP on Stonehenge.

-RKTL (4): my favourite ground attack weapon, yet completely forgotten by Namco. Only four planes can mount it, and only the F-2A can be upgraded enough to use it at its full power (at level 15 though); the only multirole able to use it is the Gripen, but unfortunately it's a low level aircraft as well. Maybe upgraded all the way to level 15 it could be competitive, but I don't get why anyone would have to do that when the Shinden was able to mount it in Assault Horizon, while here they gave it the much more common GPB. If it had the RKTL, I would have bought it regardless of its speed, and the Ridgeback might have been more worth of its tournament.

-LAGM (5): one of the most effective and versatile ground attack weapons, it's limited to just five planes, including the F-4E and F-4G. With the LASM being similar to this weapon, but given to 11 planes (8 excluding copies) I don't understand why the LAGM was left behind. And just to say, the LASM-mounting Shinden, in Assault Horizon had the LAGM instead. Namco screwed it up twice.

-SOD (3): the Stand-Off Dispenser is one of the weapons that I wanted to see in action, but with only three underused planes mounting it, it's a rare sight. The Vent d'Ange replaced it with the 6AAM, while it could have replaced the much more common LASM, but as long as my VA has the six missiles I won't complain too much.

-FAEB (3/2): this bomb, well, it was the A-10's signature weapon until the F-15 S/MTD was added, and it's still limited to those two planes. A pity, considered that the MTD's LAGM are generally better, if upgraded in explosion range.

-SFFS (3/2): another wide-area bomb, still limited to just two planes. Also, despite being a ground attack weapon, only multiroles can mount it; but as the only attacker that was added since the game's release (the Shogun) was given the most pathetically common of weapons, it's understandable.

-ESM (2) and ECM (4/3): the electronic warfare isn't very popular, and people prefer actual weapons on their planes, but it would be nice to see more jammers in the game.

-6AAM (9/5): my favourite secondary weapon in the whole game, and the most expensive one (along with the MPBM). I included it on the list because, excluding the copy-planes, only 5 aircraft can equip it, as with the LAGM. The 6AAM in my opinion are the ultimate air-to-air weapon, being the only reliable long-range one available, but compared to the 4AAM, they're so rare to see. Recently, the first 6AAM-mounting multiroles were added, the Vent d'Ange becoming my new main, but as the Shinden doesn't offer much to it (being inferior to the VA {Shinden} or basically equal to it {Ridgeback}) I still see this weapon as forgotten. I think it deserves a 750-Cst fighter, it's sad to see just the SU-35 mounting it (and being stat-wise inferior to the SU-37 and special SU-33s).

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I limited this list to the weapons that are effectively mounted by 5 or less different planes (the MPBM and TLS don't count, for obvious reasons).

TL,DR: 4AAM and QAAM are clearly overused, while less than 5 different planes can mount MGP, RKTL, LAGM, SOD, FAEB, SFFS, ESM, ECM and 6AAM.

What do you think of these forgotten weapons? Would you like to see something different than 4AAM and QAAM in the future? Rare weapons finally given to high level planes that can make justice to them? 