Planetside 2: Aircraft vs Anti-Air balance

  The balance between aircraft and anti-air has always been a problem during the beta. It has gone back and forward from aircraft being utterly useless because they were easily shot down by the anti-air to being completely overpowered with each major patch.

  In the latest pre-launch patch it felt it was close to the right soft spot, however there is a small oversight which most do not seem to realize. The balance was made based on the state of the game at that point:

• the developers gave a couple of thousands certificates due to rollbacks or other problems on 2-3 occasions.
• when we could still use auraxium(which was giving every 5 min based on the territory your faction controlled) to unlock stuff it was fairly easy to stay afk, come back from college and have enough to unlock a weapon.
• it was much easier to get certificates before the xp/cert ratio was severely reduced to 500:1. 

...meaning everyone had a huge number of unlocks and upgrades, and it was very common to see heavy assaults with AA lock-on missiles, MAXs with dual AA flacks, lighting-tanks with skyguard and other aircraft with AA guns and/or missiles.

  Now imagine how it will be on launch, the only AA you have by default is a MAX with a single flack or another aircraft, small-arms fire does so little dmg its not worth the ammo and it can even be further reduced by defense upgrades.

  You can say that "the ESFs(Empire Specific Fighters) wont have the air-2-ground rockets yet so it will be fine", sure but that only means you will be safer inside a tank even so the default main gunner weapon on the Liberator airship was buffed and it will shred through infantry and tanks alike.

  My advice to you is that you spend your first certificates on AA because the skies will be a major concern until there is enough AA to reach a balance, I for one plan to be up there on a Scythe or a Liberator wrecking havoc.

  What are your predictions about it?