Air Match Times need work

Game Discussion General Discussion
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In the early days of WT, Gaijin released a series of Q&A videos regarding game development. One of these videos explained game mode design and Gaijin explained that they were shooting for an average match length of 20 to 30 minutes.

20 to 30 minute matches make sense when looking at other popular miltiplayer games like COD Warzone, Battlefield, PUBG, and Fortnite. 20 to 30 minutes is the average time a person has to play a multiplayer game.

Today, in Air, where are these 20 to 30 minute matches?

They really don’t exist. In my experience,

  • Air Arcade lasts 8 to 15 minutes,
  • Air Realistic lasts 5 to 15 minutes,
  • Air Sim lasts 1 to 2 hours.

This needs to be addressed. War Thunder’s Air game modes do not cater to the average player. Instead they all fulfill small niches of players that argue to the death over which niche the current game mode needs to fulfill.

Especially now that we are getting into very modern aircraft and weaponry, this is NOT working.

Without arguing over specific mechanics like map size, team size, weaponry, markers, or objectives, i would just like the see proper balancing of the average match time.

Ideally, I would like to see.

  • Air Arcade to last 5 to 15 minutes,
  • Air Realistic to last 20 to 40 minutes,
  • Air Sim to last around 1 hour.

This gives every type of player something. Those that want quick, chaotic matches can play Air arcade. Those that want long drawn out matches can play Air Sim and those that want a mid - point between arcade and sim can play Air Realistic.

Right now, Air RB is just a cheap ripoff of Air AB. It’s Air AB Lite.

This would probably require some work to be done on all game modes but the mode that needs the most work is Air Realistic. I think the no respawning mechanic is outdated for the game and no respawning should really just be reserved for tournaments and events.

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I think the time limit on the simulation mode is great, it let you time do to different objectives and respawn in diverse plane. This one is not to change

However I agree with you for the realistic mode, games need to be a bit longer.

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You know what could work? Air RB but with Sim Maps/objectives, and no markers, essentially Air RB EC.

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Sim is probably in one of the better positions in terms of game mode. There are definitely some mechanics that could be added or be changed but yes overall i would be fine with sim remaining largely the same.

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I usually have a match that lasts 20-30 minutes in lower tiers, meaning II-V.

However…

I am playing Heavy/Strategic bombers, and thoroughly enjoy it; don’t understand why people say it sucks, I enjoy it, and the Gunner View is fairly easy to use as Defence, it just takes practice and training.

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At the lower tiers i may get a match that lasts 15 to 18 once in a while but i dont think i ever get 20 to 25 minutes unless someone is afk and space climbing.

Years ago i would get them once in a while but today almost never.

I think with regards to bombers, people just dont like the way base bombing is set up to make teammates compete with each other.

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I would only be in favor of respawns for Air RB if it was for an Air RB EC type mode, or something like that. Adding respawns in the current Air RB mode would further the transformation of RB into Arcade Lite. Otherwise I agree with this post.

On a related note, there seems to be a big tendency of players that prefer a more Arcade-like mode migrating to Air RB, and then complaining ingame and on the forums about things like having to take off from the runway instead of having air spawns, having to spend minutes flying into the battle from the base, and having to return and land at the airfield to re-arm/repair. They are generally impatient and don’t enjoy flying planes, they just want to get right into the furball but refuse to play Air AB for various reasons, usually rewards, though I’m still not entirely understanding what their deal is.

As things are, these players will pose an obstacle to making Air RB into a longer form mid-point between SB and AB.

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I love using the strategic bombers as well. It’s pretty great when enemy players can’t attack any other way than behind you in level flight. Had a game in the B-26 where I shot down 3 players while staying airborne myself and managed to land after the fighting. Pretty fun times. I think the big problem with the bombers is everyone just flies straight to objectives and then comllain when they get intercepted. I usually go wide and don’t even get within spot range of anyone.

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I agree. You would really need multiple spawn point airfields and rolling objectives on the larger maps in order for this to work well.

Yes for sure. I mostly see this at the upper tiers and this is because Air Arcade is completely broken. Air arcade at the upper tiers is completely taken over by squads and many of the spawn points are just too close to get a proper setup.

Gaijin needs to fix their matchmaker for arcade in order to prevent squad stacking and make squads match to against other squads.

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To be fair, taking off from an AF at the start really isn’t needed in WT. All it does is waste time and make the games longer without adding any extra gameplay or fun. The games being longer because of it is bad because it is just dead time, and you don’t do anything meaningful.

It is just boring to waste 15-60 secs taking off for no reason at all.

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except for that whole “playerbase” thing (ie, there isnt one)

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Airfield takeoffs in Air RB are probably the smallest issue with Air RB.

Is it a waste of time? Idk

Does it add gameplay? Well yea by definition it does.

Does it add fun? Idk. Fun is subjective.

But it’s a really small problem if it’s even a problem at all. If taking off is a problem for you then play air arcade. If air arcade doesn’t work for you then there’s larger issues to be worried about then taking off in Air RB.

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Sim is a small community in WT but it certainly has a playerbase at the upper tiers. Honestly i get into Sim matches at top tier faster than i do Arcade matches.

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I imagine some people might be pretty against ‘no markers’

I would be cool with them disabling ally-spotted markers for RB EC for sure

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Sim ground is basically not a gamemode because you cant even play it as your main mode, only as a side gimmick mode, and sim air has the issue of having only about like… 20 people at any given point in time playing any given BR

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“If you don’t like it, play arcade” is a bad mentality to have towards someone giving an opinion on a subject. I don’t enjoy air arcade, it is too chaotic, and too jank for me to enjoy.

I am stating something that I believe to be true about air RB. I never said it was a huge problem, just something I dislike about it.

It doesn’t add meaningful gameplay. It adds a couple mouse movements and extra time spent doing nothing.

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I dont really have a strong opinion on the match start takeoff tbh.

I just see a very common theme of people trying to turn Air RB ingo Air arcade and i feel the mode is already too similar to air arcade.

The takeoff is still a small issue though.

There are far bigger fish to fry for Air RB.

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I cut straight through personally, but I know how to fly defensively, and can use gunner position well, usually pilot sniping, in the B-17 I’ve gotten 2 kills, 2 bases bombed, had my horizontal stabilizer gone; and landed back at base, came back, bombed another base, then finished first place with like 2700 score :P

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That’s a good way to kill a lot of interest. You need to consider that players in RB aren’t as skilled as SIm players who are able to identify.

Now Air EC isn’t a bad thing however not as a replacement to Air RB.