I have to partially agree, and disagree at the same time.
Most beginners/inexperienced air players just go for swifts into full likho spam all game. Thats true.
The reason for this are simple:
Likho admits mistakes: it does not die so fast
Likho deals great damage: 2000 dmg is enough to kill all basic units, and even some more tanky units
Likho does have aoe: unit clusters are no problem for likho
As you can see likho does provide an easy gameplay.
But to truely use the full potential of the air factory you need to use the other planes too.
Lets look at the other 3 main planes used offensively:
Phoenix, Thunderbird and Raven
Raven costs 300 metal and deals 800 hp dmg, but only to a single target
Thunderbird costs, i think 650? and does stun basically everything for +-17 seconds.
Phoenix has napalm that does deal 500 dmg including the burn dmg, and the aoe ability is considerable
All 3 planes have the same weakness or relatively low hp. With Thunderbird being the best and Phoenix the worst in that aspect.
The best way to understand how they can be bether then Likho is to go with examples:
1st: One of the main jobs of the airplayer should always be to snipe retreating big units that are nearly dead, but your team is unable to finish them off. Yes likho can deal 2000 dmg, but thats often not enough. Raven is king in this area.
2nd: Sniping commanders, especially early game. You can get 5 Raven way earlier then the likho at the beginning of the game. 5 Raven deal 4000 dmg, Most coms have less or only slightly more hp, so snipe them and if they survive finish them off with swifts.
3rd: Wide spread out units. Shure Likho has Aoe, but honestly the Aoe is very small. And good air players are aware of that weakness. The only reason why Likho is so good against balls is because people tend to cluster units, but if you have good players that spread out their units, then they are quite useless and overexpensive. Therefor Phoenix is the way to go here.
4th: Sometimes you dont have alot of metal, and your team just needs an opening. Then its thunderbird time: If you can stun an army for 15 seconds while your teammate runs 20 glaives into that army the army is dead for a cost of 0 metal. And that is the true power of air gameplay.
5th: Spread out single units, and no teammate can stop them. Use area-attack-command and Ravens will punish the fool that has no aa. Raven has such a fast reload time, and such high dps, with 5 ravens you can kill at least 20 units in a minute. (if you have enough spots for the reloard)
There are certainly more examples, but i think this clearly proves that there are just so many situations where the oither planes are bether suited to do the job then likho that they definetly have earned their spot in the factory.
Just my personal opinion but there are about 10 active players in Zero-k that truly know how to play air. I think that is because of the very hard learning curve, and the lack of understanding what air gameplay is all about.
Air is not only about dealing most dmg.
Air can do so much more:
Air has the fastest units in all of Zero-K, so the airplayer can help everyone at anytime!
Air has the best scouting abilities. Owl is key here, and we all know the Swiftburst for the basescout.
Air is the factory that allows for some of the best teamwork there can possibly be. (Stun, bomb defenses, kill that 1 annoying unit etc)
The airplayer is also the eyes of the whole team! Most players focus to much on "their" front. But the airplayer normaly watches the whole map. So they should be the most actively communicating player in their team, because they see everything first.
Air is an amazing factory, but it takes time to rly understand it.
And experience! Air is not a beginner friendly factory!
Which is partially a reason why there are only very few good airplayers.
If i were to suggest something to people that want to try out air, then it would be to start in a small teamgame, like 4v4 or 5v5. Then there isnt so much anti air, and you wont loose your planes so fast.
Also keep in mind, that there is 1 important thing that you need to do: Make cost overall! Most people play air and wait to make that 1 big hit. Thats why you often see the airplayers charts look like stairs.
But often they do less dmg then they could have done if then just went for the small stuff too.
If a Raven bombs 2 mexes and 3 solars it also made cost! Shure, it takes 5 shtos, but bether do those then fly around the backyard ;)
Ok that post became way longer then expected.
If someone wants any advice towards airplay, dont hesitate to contact me.