Hey guys,
Here are my thoughts on why making air dodging universal without changing how it works might be not as good an idea as some people seem to think.
(CQC = close quarters combat)
1. Some weapons will become obsolete
1.1 Hellfires
Dodging HFs unscathed on the ground is an advanced, hard-to-pull-off manoeuvre. This is due to their considerable splash radius and peculiar homing algorithm. Dodging HFs in the air, however, is an easy task, as you don't have to worry about the splash, and the homing is just not enough to cut it. For this reason, the time frame for dodging HFs in the air is almost double that on the ground. Thus, in my opinion, making air dodging universal will considerably weaken this weapon, to the point where people will be using it much less often.
1.2 EOC and EOC-P
Even high-tier players will find it hard to land a high percentage of their pucks on air-dodgers, let alone low- and mid-tier players. It might not be a huge problem in CQC, but in mid-range combat your pucks will likely miss half the time, or more. Making air dodging universal will make these two weapons weaker as well.
1.3. Heat Cannon
It is possible to land a decent percentage of Heat shots on air-dodgers, but that is only either with charged shots or in CQC. However, charged shots have lower dps, and CQC is not always an option (and it can be evaded by the air-dodger; more on that later). In addition, you won't be able to capitalize on the weapon's large splash radius, except when your opponent flies near a wall or some other map structure, which he can avoid doing.
1.4 Rev-GL
Landing Rev grenades on an air-dodger takes a lot of skill even in CQC, but doing so consistently outside of point-blank combat is nearly impossible. In my opinion, this weapon will suffer the most from introducing universal air dodging.
1.5 Redox
Low projectile speed + low damage = almost useless against an air-dodger. Although the tech shouldn't be an attacker in the first place, so it doesn't matter much >:)
1.6 Grenade Launcher
Because grenades have a low projectile speed, an air-dodger, given a somewhat decent ping, can dodge away unscathed from an incoming grenade, starting at a certain distance that depends on your ping and reaction time. This is a huge problem outside of CQC, because you do have enough time to dodge away most of the time. In point-blank combat it is also a problem, because GL's minimum detonation time is longer than that of the TOW, which means your opponent will have a bit more time to dodge away from your shot or otherwise evade it. Now, the same applies for ground combat, but there is one difference: it is much more difficult to utilize the grenade's bounce against a flying air-dodger, and without the bounce, the Grenade Launcher, even with its large blast radius, is strictly worse than the TOW.
1.7 Corsair KLA
The grenade mode will suffer due to more flying going on in the game. Hitting flying targets with a KLA grenade is quite a challenge. And again, it will be much more difficult to take advantage of the weapon's large splash radius.
1.8 Seeker
Conversely, the Seeker will become stronger, because its cooldown is shorter than the dodge cooldown, meaning that you'll be able to dependably hit a good percentage of your seekers. The weapon is quite strong (a quite annoying, frankly) as it is, and making it stronger will make things worse.
2. Hitscan/TOW meta
As you might have noticed, all of the aforementioned weapons are projectile. And all of them, save for the Seeker, will suffer from making air dodging universal. As I see it, air combat will become much more widespread (because there are so few drawbacks to going airborne; more on this later), and this will lead to players — especially low- and mid-tier ones — massively favor hitscan weapons and the fast-travelling, easy-to-use TOW. This will create an array of new balance problems.
Now you can say, "Okay, but you just pointed out that everything's fine in CQC for all these projectile weapons! Why not force CQC?"
And the answer is this:
1. Forcing CQC is often risky, because you have to boost towards your opponent (walking won't cut it), which makes you visible on the radar for the air-dodger's teammates. You can find yourself in a trap once you get into that CQC you strived for. In addition, forcing CQC takes precious seconds that the air-dodger spends pounding you with lead.
2. More often than not, the air-dodger can boost backwards mid-air to make forcing CQC more difficult. If his mech's air speed is low, he can air-dodge backwards. So at the point when you get into CQC, you already have too little armor to win the fight. Right now this is not so much a problem, because the Air Compressor occupies whopping 3 slots that you can use for something that makes you live longer, but it will become a problem should air-dodging become universal.
3. Flying meta
There are really few drawbacks to flying when you can air-dodge. Here are some of the advantages:
1. With hitscan, you get immediate advantage against enemies with projectile weapons if you can force mid-range combat (which you will be able to most of the time) for the reasons mentioned above.
2. A flying enemy has a better shooting angle against a ground enemy, so why be on the ground?
3. You don't care about splash damage of any sort.
4. Spamming air-dodge against low-tier to mid-tier players or players with high ping works wonders.
5. If you're piloting an SS or reaper, being in the air means you have a better reach to the enemy mechs, but without the drawbacks of flight if you can air-dodge. This is especially noticeable on Bunker.
The only drawback I can think of is that by going airborne you make yourself more vulnerable to snipers. The fuel thing is not really problematic because a) fuel converter and b) you can continue dodging even after landing with no fuel left.
4. Conclusion
So what will we get in the end? I think we'll get ourselves a Hawken where hitscan and the TOW heavily dominate the meta and everyone prefers going airborne.
I will welcome your counterarguments and additional points I might have missed :)