Jets weren't my thing until today. I got good enough at dogfights to unlock some shit and to win me some air superiority every now and then. At that point, in previous Battlefield games, I'd start to participate in the ground wars. I'd become 'Death from Above', kill tanks and infantry with impunity. In Conquest, where the A-10 and the Frogfoot are absent (they've got killer air-ground gatlings on-board per default, but are available in Rush mode only), there was just nothing to do, unless you either like ineffectively shooting at groundtargets with MGs or if possible spawncamp the enemy force's jets on the runway (a big no-no for a fairplayer). Needless to say - I was not too happy with how jets are implemented in BF3.

I had the rocketpods as my 'next to unlock' item for a couple of days, I just didn't have the urge to fly anymore at that point. Boy should I have! Rocketpods make jets a blast, because finally air to ground comes into play. Winning air superiority feels rewarding now, instead of making jets feel tacked-on for the heck of it. In the end, Battlefield 3 does right by me, it just kept FUNctionality tucked-away in an unlock system. And there-in lies the crux. When the player starts out, Battlefield 3 is kinda hamstrung by all the held back gameplay elements. Withheld for the purpose of a deep and rewarding metagame. The early game and newcomers suffer, whilst veterans become gods on the Battlefield.

I'll soon be over the hump. I'll have all gadgets and guns and vehicle customization options and at the very least basic gun customization for every gun unlocked. I'll be playing BF3 as it's meant to be played. In MMORPG terms, 'I will have reached the Endgame!'. Battlefield 3 how it's meant to be played. And thus I will no longer care about this issue. Just sayin' my piece. Rocketpods rock and why the fuck is something this FUNdamental tucked-away in the unlock system?

Are you asking why something is locked in a battlefield game?

I have almost all of the unlocks for the jets and all of the air to ground stuff seems ineffective, especially the guided missiles which are about as powerful as a bee sting. Maybe I'll give the rocket pods another go.

It took me so god damn long to unlock jet flares, I feel like the jets need co-pilots so that one newbie can fly with a good player and thereby gain some of the early points, that's how I unlocked some of the early stuff for the attack helis until I learned to fly it.

Battlefield would a mych better game with a better unlock system. In every class, in every vehicle you start out missing stupid stuff. Flares for aircraft are an extremly big deal. Same with aa missiles. It would have better to start people with one flare, no reload and one aa missile, reload as normal then at the first unlock you get flare reloads and aa missile upgrade gives you the 2nd missile.

I play the engineer class and its the same story there. Without the at mines and anti air missile that class is limited with what you can do.

@Voxel said:

I have almost all of the unlocks for the jets and all of the air to ground stuff seems ineffective, especially the guided missiles which are about as powerful as a bee sting. Maybe I'll give the rocket pods another go.

A full rocketpod volley takes a full-health tank almost out. If you've got a good angle and slow down for your attack run, you can get two volleys in and some MG-fire to top it off. As for how to aim. The rocketpods both in the jet and standard rocketpods in attack choppers behave equally. You have to aim 'under' your target, because the rocket trajectory will make the rockets hit above the crosshairs. Oh - they don't seem to have any drop whatsoever either.

Oldest trick in the book of Battlefield vehicle design. The most powerful weapons aren't spot-on crosshair. Find out where the actual hits are and aim accordingliy.

P.S. Rocketpods are awesome for air-to-air dogfights too. Try it out. A finisher when you're right ontop of your foe or an opener to take them unawares from afar.

@Seppli: As weird as it sounds, I can understand locking stuff away in this game until players have gotten familiar with the basic mechanics. For a really simple example lets say you've never played an FPS with a medic role before and you pick the Assault class. By the time you've gotten it in your head that you should be throwing that bag out whenever you take cover with some guys, you'll have unlocked your defib, so you progress onto learning when best to revive people already secure in the knowledge that you're doing right with your standard healing.

Giving everything to a player from the start is fine in retrospective theory, when you already have the knowledge. But for most people who will be picking it up, its pure overload, they'll need that time to get familiar and comfortable.

Place sights on enemy tank, fire all 14 rockets from the rocket pods, that'll disable or destroy, if not switch to minigun and finish it off. Enemies never escape in time. Pretty awesome.

I'm still finding it enormously hard to use them effectively, but that's mostly because of dickish enemy teams who will group up into three engineers and a sniper and combo me with the SOFLAM and stingers.

@Seppli: Very well stated. I'm an inveterate tank player and I can attest to the brutality of a rocket pod assault.