INTRO:
I’m here to present a detailed and comprehensive concept for a new kind of capturable objective: Anti air artillery, and related air defense systems. Recently we saw the adition of new, more modern SPAA, as well as the new radar system for both new and existing SPAA. And while these were fantastic additions, especially in regards to balancing CAS, both aircraft and SPAA players have already expressed that these aren’t always that fun. Not to mention, for lower tiers nothing changes. So I’m here to present an aditional concept that could work great un unison with these systems, as well as aiming to improving other big aspects of the game.
MY GOAL AND INTENTIONS:
I want to make it VERY CLEAR first that this is not intended to replace SPAA, or make SPAA obsolete. Nor is my goal to make CAS obsolete or unplayable. My goal is to create more engaging gameplay for both regular ground players and aircraft players in mixed battles. Player controlled SPAA’s are still very much needed, which I’ll explain further in a bit.
While CAS might have a somewhat higher skill ceiling with this implementation, my goal is not to make CAS weaker per see. With this I want to encourige more teamplay and communication, especially between ground and air units, while also making it so CAS users have to be more carefull about their decisions on when and where to engage. I’ll preface again that IT’S NOT MY GOAL TO MAKE CAS UNUSABLE OR UNPLAYABLE, but simply that it takes a bit more thought, decision making, and teamplay to be used to it’s fullest.
Aditionally, this concept will also place more power in the hands of sole tankers, for people who don’t have good SPAA or fighters to counter CAS. This would also make the simple ground to ground gameplay way more engaging, with more interesting, and potentially more objectives to play and fight over. Ofcourse this would also finaly allow tankers to fight in certain areas without having to worry about CAS.
THE OVERALL IDEA:
With this idea, AI anti air would spawn in capturable objective zones, similar as the ones currently in the game. These AAA could be placed in existing objective points, or added alongside them as new zones (these new zones would not contribute to ticket bleed or directly winning, only the existing zones, though these could also sometimes hold AAA). Adding them to existing zones would generaly be very easy to implement, but it might create imbalances in certain map scenarios (particulairly the ones where all 3 points are all equal distance away from the spawnpoints). I believe a mix of both would work best overall, but some maps would need adjusting, especially the smaller ones (altough I’m of the opinion most maps need a rework anyway, so that would be the perfect opportunity to obliterate 2 avians with a single mineral formation). A singel ‘system’ (I’ll go more into this later) would be placed in each point, with a total of 3 to 6 points per map, depending battle rating and map size. Each of these systems would be random, with some limitations. Each type of system has a limit on how many can spawn per battle, so there will always be a variety of systems whilst still keeping it random each time on which point exactly each system is placed.
These systems will, suprisingly enough, NOT downright kill the player in the air once in range. The goal is simply to make it very difficult to for CAS to engage in certain areas of the map, so the CAS player is encouriged more to help their team push forwards instead of just going for easy kills. This concept revolves around area denial and keeping aircraft vigilant, rather than outright killing them. This means that player controlled SPAA are still very much viable and needed to down aircraft.
Each of these systems would ofcourse fight for whoever is currently holding the capture point, and they can be countered by either conquering the objective from the ground, or by downright destroying the system. Capturing the objective speaks for itself, but when a system is destroyed it will cease functioning until repaired. The system will automatically start repairing without any player intervention immediately when destroyed, but this will take 3 to 5 minutes. This process can be shortened significantly with the help of a player, now only taking maybe 30 to 60 seconds. Each of these ‘systems’ will be decently defended by cover, either by sitting in trenches, or having other obstacles in the way, so players would generally have to get a bit closer, or find a good angle to destroy it. You could also play with this a bit, by adding more cover in certain angles, providing deadzones for CAS to exploit where the anti air systems can’t aim. These systems can also be altered per map or country to fit the setting more, but I don’t think this is necessary, especially considering in most matches almost every country will contribute.
Right below here are some quick sketches on where I’d place these points on some of the existing maps. The goal is that it would be very difficult for one team to controll all of these points, and the losing team should always have at least one of these points under control, unless they either ignore the points or are seriously losing. None of these pictures should be considered final, they’re just here to get the idea across.
Ps, systems placed right next to existing caputure points would placed on said points.
Spoiler
(^Karelia is an example where simply placing the AAA in existing points could work quite well)
THE DIFFERENT POTENTIAL SYSTEMS:
AUTOCANNONS:
These you would find in the lowest tiers, and in midtiers as well. These can range from American double/quad 50 Cals, to German 20 or 37mm’s, or even larger, and would spawn in groups of 3 per point (this number could be somewhat lessened at the lowest tiers, as there won’t be a lot of other systems present). They’d have about 500 meters range, and with it being 3 individual weapons, could technically engage 3 targets at the same time. This also means that each gun would have to be destroyed, but also repaired individually. These anti airs would not be nearly as strong as airfield AAA though, aircraft won’t be shreded upon entering range. The AAA will start firing imediately when in range, but won’t be all that accurate, but they’ll hurt you pretty bad if you stay in range for more then a couple seconds or so. The specific weapons systems could differ per BR for historical accuracy and/or balance, and could also get a range buff in higher tiers if required.
Some pictures for refference:
FLAK GUNS:
These would likely start appearing around 3.0-4.0 and up. An iconic example would be the German 8.8cm Flak 36 guns, now firing large explosive shells, again spawning in groups of 3. Note that these would never intentionally fire at the target directly, but rather around it to pepper them with shrapnel a bit. These wouldn’t do all that much damage, but in return would have A LOT of range, especially in hight. According to my most trusted place to source from, and good friend, business partner, and fiancé, Wikipedia, the German 8.8cm would have an effective firing range of about 8 kilometers high, with almost 15 kilometers range, but this would be nerfed to about 5 kilometers far (remember these will do VERY little damage, so long as you’re manoeuvring), sorry babe. These would be placed alongside autocannon AAA, either on different points, or by mixing them per point (1 Flak and 2 autocannons on one point for instance), and would again scale in strength depending on BR.
C-RAMs:
Counter-Rocket, Artillery, Mortar. As the name suggests, these systems wouldn’t prioritize aircraft themselves, but rather any incoming ammunitions. These would start spawning at about BR 9.0-9.3, where the first long range air to ground ordnance would be come available for aircraft. I mean, I say systemS, but really I’m just talking about the American C-RAM. This thing is so damn cool. The C-RAM has an effective range of about 2 kilometers, but for gameplay purposes I would lower this to just 1 kilometer (The C-RAM can detect and target threats from way further away, but it will only start firing when within range so there are still spots on the map were CAS can be performed normally). Again, these don’t focus aircraft unless there’s nothing else to target, they will prioritize shooting down missiles and other nonsense. They would effectively be an APS system for everyone on the map within about 1 kilometer distance. Unlike previous systems, only 1 of these would spawn per point, so it can reliably counter most threats incoming from one direction, but could also be overwhelmed and destroyed from the air if attacked from different angles. You could even add the “Incoming, incoming, incoming!” sound as well, altough you would run the risk of invoking PTSD in US marines.
V-SHORADS:
V-SHORADS, or Very Short Range Air Defense Systems would work a bit differently compared to the C-RAM, as these will focus both incoming ammunitions AND aircraft. Now there are 2 types of SHORADS, the missile type, and the autocannon type (Key example being the German Skyranger).
Older missile style V-SHORADS would be found in lower ranks alongside the C-RAM, generally targeting aircraft more. These missiles would be pretty damn easy to dodge though, and again are more to keep CAS on their toes rather then to outright kill them. They would fire very slowly, and only have a range of about 2 to 4 kilometers for the sake of gameplay. They would spawn in pairs of 2, and can also spawn at higher tiers, maybe getting better with more range the higher in BR you go.
The autocannon type would spawn later in ranks, somewhere around 11.0 and up, and would again spawn in pairs of 2. These would sometimes replace C-RAM positions, but are not a direct replacement. While the C-RAM would be super good at intercepting a ton of incoming stuff at shorter range, the V-SHORAD is slower but has more range (2 to 3km) and thus can more effectively engage aircraft. When it comes to aircraft, similar to Flak guns, these would fire AHEAD rounds around the target, generally not doing a ton of damage so long as the aircraft is somewhat manoeuvring.
Systems like the Skyranger even has both an autocannon AND missiles, which would be great for top tier, leaving room for other systems.
Spoiler
Youtube video if the Skyranger system in action
^Youtube video if the Skyranger system in action
RADAR:
Radars would ofcourse not directly engage aircraft, but can simultaneously be the most powerfull. These can spawn in BR 2.0 and up (as to not make things too complicated for new players), but only 1 of these will ever spawn on the map. Dead in the center of the map, so both teams have to seriously fight over it to controll it. At every rank, these will put a marker on every enemy aircraft in range, with ranges differing depending on BR and how far away airfields are. At higher tiers, SPAAs with radar would be able to link up with this radar, and spot aircraft from further away. Short range or counter-battery radars could also be added at higher tiers, now instead making target locking and tracking for player SPAA a lot easier. These could also work with stationary AAA, giving them slightly more range, and/or making the C-RAM and V-SHORADS more reliable at taking down missiles. To mix up gameplay, I would make it so at least the long range radar would only ever spawn in 1 out of 4-5 matches.
SAM systems (optional):
Surface to Air Missile systems I’m honestly not sure should be added. They’d almost certainly be way too strong against CAS, and would in most cases make CAS unusable, which is not my goal here. You could make them function like the Flak guns however, having them do little damage, but having a ton of range. Alternativaly/additionally you could make it so these wouldn’t function if the radar system isn’t also under control, or make them take longer to repair. I’m still not sure these should be added though, as they would likely be too powerfull, especially once one team is heavily winning. Not to mention, the new player controlled SPAA’s can already fulfill this role well.
Spoiler
^Youtube video from Gaijin showing the Patriots in action, along with my sorrow of never getting them in-game
One small aditional thing that I would do, is to make it so dedicated stealth aircraft (at the time of writing this is only the F-117) are not affected by any of these systems, and these systems will not engage these aircraft. Their bombs and other ammunitions can ofcourse still get shot down the same as other aircraft. This way stealth aircraft could be more effectively used inside their ‘niche’, whilst still being balanced as player SPAA can still target them the same way they can be now.
AAA IN SPAWNPOINTS:
I would like to briefly mention the idea of placing AAA system behind each spawn, to prevent spawncamping. These would be autocannons for lower tiers, and a C-RAM for higher tiers, both of which will just cover the spawn point and can’t be destroyed or captured. While it certainly would be nice to not get imediately bombed once spawned in, you now run into the issue of SPAA being able to sit in their spawn in cover while still being able to shoot at aircraft. A fix for this could be to not let SPAA use their radar screen when they are in their spawn, or to just not add this at all. I believe improved spawn protection would be a better fix.
CONCLUSION:
I think this would be a great, albeit somewhat complicated fix and improvement for both CAS and the same objective circles we’ve had for over a decade now. Let me know what you think though, additional suggestions as well as any and all feedback on my suggestions are more than welcome (unless you’re going to argue that CAS is not a problem, please, this is not the place).
PROS:
- More engaging gameplay and objectives for ground units
- With new objective points, players are encouriged to play on parts of existing maps normally never/rarely played on
- CAS has to be used more thoughtfully, but is still very much usable
- Encouraging more teamplay and communication
- A lot of opportunity for both creative game mechanics, and creative uses of said mechanics by players
- The battlefield would feel a lot more alive and dynamic, creating a lot more immersion for ground and air players alike
CONS:
- Relatively difficult to implement, with certain maps maybe needing small reworks
- With a lot of creativity on how to implement this, comes a lot of ways of implementing this in an unbalanced or otherwise unfavourable way, I.E. this concept would need a lot of testing
Thank you all for reading, and God bless!
- Yes
- Yes, but with changes
- No
- In all gamemodes
- Only in realistic/simulator mode
- As a seperate gamemode
- In another way
- I don’t want this added to the game