Static vs Mobile Flak should be reevaluated

At T1, static AA is basically 3 mobile clumped together, at least mass and DPS wise.

Average T1 AA comparison, static vs mobile

• Mass: 150 vs 55
  DPS: 68 vs 27
  DPS/Mass: 0.45 vs 0.49

At T3, static AA is much more efficient in exchange for the loss of mobility.

Average T3 AA comparison, static vs mobile

• Mass: 800 vs 840
  DPS: 333 vs 181
  DPS/mass: 0.42 vs 0.21

At T2 though, mobile flak absolutely wipes the floor with its static counterpart for no apparent reason.

Average T2 AA comparison, static vs mobile

• Mass: 400 vs 160
  DPS: 150 vs 146
  DPS/Mass: 0.38 vs 0.91

The only reason you'd ever build static instead of mobile flak is because you're panicking at an incoming snipe. Otherwise, mobile is just as effective (if not more because it can dodge and follow air) for only 40% the cost.

I'm not sure if mobile flak needs a nerf, or static flak needs a buff, but the (lack of) difference between the two doesn't make any sense.

Mobile flak fires very slow projectiles. Static flak fires very fast projectiles. Mobile flak is very strong against bombers and gunships and you don't want to put an interceptor cloud over it, but it's not going to stop corsairs from getting a first pass.

Static flak is also quite effective against strat bombers. Against t2 bombers t1 mobile aa might actually be more mass efficient than t2 mobile flak. Also gunships can dodge a lot of the t2 mobile flak damage if microed a bit.

@harzer99 said in Static vs Mobile Flak should be reevaluated:

Static flak is also quite effective against strat bombers. Against t2 bombers t1 mobile aa might actually be more mass efficient than t2 mobile flak. Also gunships can dodge a lot of the t2 mobile flak damage if microed a bit.

I did tests how to counter T3 bomber.
Against 1 T3 bomber assuming equal mass investment static T1 AA > static T2 AA > mobile T2 AA.
That's about 20-30% difference between static T1 and static T2 so when static T2 AA can hit more than 1 bomber it becomes better than T1.

It's true that usually mobile flak is better than static as it can move around and is much cheaper, but static flak has way more hp, (~2500 vs ~1000, granted it can't dodge), greater range, slightly more dps, and much faster build time. It's something that can go up fast and is relatively effective against BOTH t2 and t3 air. As you said it's a good panic weapon for incoming snipes, it doesn't have to be really good to make up for not being able to move IMO.

I'd love to see tests against microed corsairs. Well microed corsairs can fire and retreat with almost no damage from mobile flak, I wonder if it fails against static flak.

AIr has been OP forever, I told everyone that to fix it requires a fundamental repositioning of the entire Air section of the game as much weaker to AA than it is right now (See SupCom 1 for successful Air balance).

Nobody listened.

People are too stubborn.

This will never be fixed. Until I become a millionaire and make SupCom3. So, 15 years

IceDreamer Equilibrium mod when?

Well IceDreamer the original game (vanilla) had far better balance in many key areas than FAF, but the game style is completely different so its very hard to compare. Balance choices for convenience caused more problems while also providing many solutions to problems vanilla had.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand.

I think Static AA is fine as is. Mobile AA is better at dealing with Air clumps, while Static is more generalist. Also you can build static AA anywhere with a T2 engineer. Mobile AA requires a T2 Land factory investment, and then either a secondary factory or transportation if you are on any map with island and not having the advtage of being a hover faction.

If a replay was posted for analysis it would probably show this.

Yeah I thought the same a while ago. i think the key here to understand is that mobile flak requires HQ. If you compare mobile shields versus static shield then the mobile version probably also looks pretty good in comparison to static. Buff static shields??

@Psions
Ehh, but you need access to t2 HQ anyway? Unless I missed some balance patches that allow you to get t2 engies without t2 HQ?
Not to say I don't see t2 engies following armies compared to flak being mixed in quite often? Unless I'm really missing something among the lines...

@JusticeForMantis You can get T2 engies from an air or naval factory, or you can upgrade your ACU to make T2.