Additional BR separation for Helicopter PVE mode

Suggestions Gameplay
1
[ Do you think it’s necessary to separate long-range ATGM helicopters from short-range in PVE matchmaking by adding an additional BR bracket in the matchmaking?]
  • Yes for 7.7 - 8.7 ; 9.0 - 10.0 ; 10.3 - 11.x.
  • Yes for 7.7 - 9.0 ; 9.3 - 10.0 ; 10.3 - 11.x.
  • Yes for 7.7 - 9.3 ; 9.7 - 10.3 ; 10.7 - 11.x.
  • Make it alternating BR, like in Air Simulator Mode to switch up Meta helicopters periodically.
  • No, I like it the way they are.
0 voters

Hello everyone.

I would like to address an issue that we’re facing with the current Heli PVE mode we are all familiar with since the current matchmaking was set up for helicopters.

Having to participate in matches toghether with helicopters in a high difference in BR
can be an issue if you don’t have the tools to be effective enough in battle in order to score points. This can lead to frustration, low results and even battle abandon since most of the 7.7-8.3 helicopters struggle to get results against 9.3 ones and the same happens at 9.7-10.0 versus top tier ones.

Coming near the end of a match, this is how usually the end results will look like:

shot 2023.02.27 21.43.07
shot 2023.02.27 21.43.071920×1080 156 KB

This is how matches mostly end up and - as you can see - there is a very huge gap between lower BR vehicles and top tier ones.

For lower BRs, my suggestion will be to include 7.7-9.0 helicopters (or similar) with limited range and number of ATGMs or none at all, which will not be able to dominate vs “dumb-fire” rockets like AH-1G, Japan’s UH-1B or AB.205.
This BR could be followed by 9.3-10.0 and afterwards separate the top tier by 10.3+ in order for the matches to be playable by mid-tier helicopters as well.

These BRs are not set up in stone however, I have made several suggestions on how to mix the helicopters in the matchmaking - including the sistem we have today for Aircraft Simulator battles with alternating BR ranges periodically. If you have other ideas, please feel free to also include another BR separation strategy for Heli PVE mode.

The addition of a new bracket will allow vehicles like the Bo.105 series, Mi-24, Ka-29, AH-1F & S series, UH-1 C & D, HKP9A and A109 (plus others that may join these ranks) to actually be effective in battle and be enjoyable to play in this game mode, as well as the upcoming helicopters in the game like AH-6 Little Bird or the OH-58 Kiowa to shine and not compete all the time with Appaches and Ka-50/52s.

This will also increase the interest in this game mode for players that did not reach the top-tier vehicles in their Helicopter trees.

Thank you and stay safe from those pesky AAs!

13 Likes
2

Yeah, this is much needed change, also devs should make 1st br bracket easier by making weaker SPAA and most definitely removing gepards or even better, remove convoys entirely. It’s a nightmare material playing with low rank helis without any ATGMs or short range ones, I think the best candidate for low br bracket will be some kind of 40mm bofors armed SPAA with 1.5km range or any other high caliber slow firing open top SPAA like zsu-57-2. The mid rank bracket will be fine as the current low rank.

5 Likes
3

I would suggest it is split into 3 Ranks.

Rank 5
Rank 6
Rank 7.

This makes it easy to implement, but with 1 extra condition.

Premium helicopters are pushed up 1 rank.

The reason being that they do not need to grind any modifications. Otherwise they out compete stock helicopters who are slow and without needed weapons.

Either way, there needs to be more separation.

4 Likes
4

The problem with Ranks instead of BR separation is related to distribution inconsistency.
For example at Rank VI, we have the Apache AH-64A and the AH-1F on the US side at same rank, so it will not trully solve the issue for AH-1F which has only access to TOW missiles, compared to Apache with 16 Hellfires. There will be too much inconstistency in range and effectiveness. Other nations like China also has helicopters like Z-9W with only JH-8C ATGMs at 3km range, or Italy with A.W.109EOA with TOWs and Mi-24V with Shturm missiles against Britain with Lynx AH and G-Lynx with Hellfires, or the Rooivalk with Mokopa ATGMs at 8.5km range. And the list goes on…

BR is a better system than Ranks because it’s showing the effectiveness of each helicopter with it’s ammunition included. There could be some small exceptions and changes, like the AH-6M Little Bird and OH-58 which gets only 4 Hellfires, so their range will not be too much of an issue since they’re limited in loadout compared to AH-1s and Mi-24s for example, but the Rank system won’t do since it’s too inconsinstent from nation to nation. For example HKP9A at Rank VI Sweden with 4x RB-55Cs and with a range of 3.75km could hardly compete against AH-64, AH-1W or the Rooivalk with 8-16 ATGMs having over 8km range and despite being the same Rank.

1 Like
5

I think we need to go a step further and having a dedicated BR setting for that mode along with maybe even an additional bracket to what is proposed.
Mind you the most is still the best off out of the different PVE modes (which isn’t saying much), its atleast somewhat enjoyable when you can play and got stuff to engage and has a more decent reward system then the other two modes but still poor overall.
Its not just this PVE mode but all of em that need proper love given to them for when people just wanna chill and play something other then constant PVP.

6

After the devs added helicopters with fire-and-forget missiles, there is clearly a need for a separate bracket for these helicopters.

Even with only 4 players in the top bracket, a single helicopter equipped with fire-and-forget missiles can dominate the entire battle.

Example of a battle with four players after ~15 minutes:

Spoiler

Example of a battle with four players after ~30 minutes:

Spoiler

This is completely unfair for other players and it really needs to be changed. And I’m not even saying this from the perspective of my own 9.7 BR helicopter (I focused on bases because I can’t compete with them in killing ground targets).
The funny thing is that even the Ka-50 and Ka-52 (which are great helicopters with very fast missiles) stand no chance against the Mi-28NM with fire-and-forget missiles. And just imagine having more than one of them in the same battle - there’s simply no room for other helicopters with weaker missiles.

The situation in Helicopter PvE is getting worse and worse, and suggestions like this really need to be implemented as soon as possible.

5 Likes
7

9.7 Play With 13 Thanks Gaijin

1 Like
8

I only found that out last weekend trying to do tasks with slow helicopers and ATGM’s that have a max range of 3.75km is rough when top helicopters destroy everything before I even get in range.

3 Likes
9

Is there any particular reason why suggestions like this, as well as other much-needed ones such as:

Proposal to reduce Heli PVE Matchmaking player count per battle

have been getting ignored for years, despite having significant community support? This is also a topic that comes up very often during battles. Everyone who regularly plays Helicopter PvE clearly sees these issues.

Unfortunately, suggestions regarding Helicopter PvE are not forwarded to the developers, which means players can’t really do anything to help fix the issues.

4 Likes
10

I think this issue needs a few things to fix it.
Maybe at higher BRs we have only 2 or 3 players in a match a.
When I try and grind this helis like the Rooivalk, I often have to compete with Ka-50s and Vihkrs slingers. If we can have independent BRs for PvE or even just ignore the GAB consequences of having a lower BR but Heli PvE could make Gaijin quite a lot more money if they fixed it and helicopters

2 Likes
11

please consider some pain points i made here. coments and likes are appreciated. Snail, fix heli pve now ffs!

12

Additional BR separation would be nice, although PVE mode in general is not in a good state with too low rewards and not very interesting activities, so I would like to also see some core changes to the mode itself.
Maybe increase difficulty to RB, add special zones to reload, to justify higher rewards, so it’s actually worth playing.

1 Like
13

Would help out subtract running into time issues if few people are not using it that much for the day. I have to say right now its better then the old PVP my God that was bad you would just feed the Russian Premium heli players back in the day. Played that once and went helicopters are not worth it now you can grind out at least the needed parts just bring a 500% RP booster or something if you have it you will make good use of it.

14

you know how many times I’ve popped a large booster only to get a match with 3 ah-64E’s while I’m in a MI-24P and they are destroying everything within 16km with 16 fof’s and i cant hit nothing with my 4 or 8 6km atakas and some rockets or gun pods SNAIL! HELI PVE NEEDS BR SEPERATION NOW!

1 Like
15

getting eaten by Ka-52 in the old day was no fun.

16

yeah its part of why i quit for about 4 years.

1 Like
17

Rare rank V only sessions were very fun though.

1 Like
18

Just separate helis with wired missles like tow from helis with long range missiles, capable of guiding many of them at the same time.

Same should be done somehow for ground pve + desert map for ground pve should be removed or drastically fixed.

19

really even just by rank V, VI and VII would be a first step to help improve the balance and fun of this mode. no one wants to try and compete against top tier helis with 16 km range fof’s or 20 km laser guided ones.

Snail just added 2 new helis but he ignores the primary mode that players would like to play to spade their heli and grind SL, i get they are working on Nukethunder rn, but just changing some lines of code to separate the PVE heli matches by rank would take a few min and bring much needed balance to the mode.

will the match queue be a bit longer at first? perhaps but I’m sure more players would be inclined to play the mode it if they knew the wouldn’t be outclassed by top rank helis while trying to play mid and low tier ones.

2 Likes
20

I can’t use BO 105 at all - i don’t have ground lineup + even i had grind is extremely slow, i wanted to grind modifications in heli PvE, but i was struggling to have just few kills.

On ground PvE which i play to grind mostly SL bosters and it’s secondary option for grinding helis i was recently using just eitan to get to safe positions, but on desert map sometimes i don’t have enough time to hide at the beginning so this map should be removed or at least around village/base should be cover.

1 Like