The overlap zone between fox-1 only planes and fox-3 missile carriers is far too large. It’s gotten so bad that even early F-16s, with only IR missiles, are being matched against SU-30’s that can carry 6 fox-3’s plus IR missiles of their own. Balance has taken a back seat to selling premium packs once again, specifically the SU-30 packs for Russia and China. Ironically, this is probably hurting sales of the F/A-18 premium packs as well as the other fox-1 only packs like the F2 and Romanian MIG, as experienced players will be less likely to purchase them for grinding, knowing they’ll be placed against much stronger opponents in many matches.
In terms of fox-1 to fox-3 overlap, the planes that are suffering most are the aforementioned premiums and;
F-15A/J/Baz
German MIG-29’s
first two TT Russian MIG-29’s
Hungarian MIG-29
YAK-141
TT F/A-18a’s for US and Australia
F-16AJ
F-4EJ Kai
Mirage-2000 CS5
Mirage-4000
Gripen-A
A couple other planes could be included here, such as the SU-27, SU-33 and J-11, as they are within the 12.3 to 13.0 BR range and lack fox-3’s, but tend to perform better due to their large quantity of fox-1s compared to most of the planes listed above, many of which can only take 2-4 fox-1’s against enemies that can carry 6 fox-3’s. The firepower imbalance is much less severe for the SU-27 line than these others.
These are what I think are the main victims of BR compression in this range, however a number of other planes are worth mentioning, such as the 12.3 and 12.7 F-16’s for USA, Israel, Sweden and France, the Kurnass 2000, the Rank VIII JH-7’s, the Mirage-2000D’s, and the 12.3 Tornados for Germany and the UK. These are also helpless when faced with the fox-3 carriers that become common at 13.0 and 13.3 but are either strike/bomber craft that aren’t meant to fight other planes anyway, or are planes that have only IR missiles anyway, putting them at a level even more overtired than the ones I just listed out.
Air RB is based around fighting planes of a similar technological level. This BR range is the beginning of Rank VIII, as the game shifts away from early cold war jets and into more modern models. However 12.3-13.0 is in kind of ‘muddy water’ territory, dealing with the dangers of rank VIII without getting any of the benefits.
I think the solution to this problem is simple BR decompression. If it were just one or two planes, a change in BR could fix it, but with this many planes affected, and a very clear meta of premium SU-30’s and other fox-3 carriers dominating in constant downtiers, a more complete solution would be decompression.
I think that the IR only planes (F-16’s, Kurnass, strike aircraft) could remain in the 12.0-12.3 range, where they would be matched against less powerful opponents. There isn’t a real argument to be made for planes that have only IR missiles facing off against fox-3’s, which does occur for all of these planes in an uptier. They should be placed at a rank making it impossible for them to queue with fox-3’s.
In terms of the fox-1 onlys, I think specific BR would vary based on versatility and power of the plane, with more dominant aircraft like SU-27 models being placed at a BR that would only match them against fox-3’s in a full uptier, and leaving the less advanced planes in a bracket of their own, allowing them to have the aforementioned strike aircraft and 12.0ish planes be present in downtiers, while the SU-27-J-11-SU-33 would be the most advanced craft in the bracket.
This would open up a lot of possibilities for early tier 8, and make a lot more aircraft feel playable. The fox-3 carriers would essentially be in a bracket of their own and the list of aircraft that I mentioned, most of which are rarely played in the current air RB meta and heavily outclassed when they are, to play against each other instead of existing in the shadow of fox-3 carriers.
In terms of premium pack sales, since that’s clearly a factor in terms of balancing, this would bump the Venezuelan and Chinese SU-30’s down a fair bit in power, since they would no longer be able to seal club. However, amongst long time players familiar with the meta, sales of the F/A-18 packs, the F-20, the Indian MIG, the F2, the JH-7, the Romanian MIG, and the Netz would most likely increase, as all of these aircraft would be made much more viable by being kept away from fox-3 matches since they would now be in their own BR bracket instead of ending up in a situation where their performance is heavily dependent on getting an uptier/downtier.
All that being said, another, much more simple solution, that would maybe help a little, would be to give players the option to limit matchmaking to ± 2 br ticks instead of ± 3. However this would include balance challenges of its own, and could hurt queue time, so I still think the original solution would work better.
What are all of your thoughts on this current BR bracket? I think it’s pretty miserable to play, except in the premiums, and I’ve noticed that many of the planes I listed have low pickrates in my matches. I also could’ve missed some planes affected by this. I tried to name all the ones I could think of but there may be others.