Prior to the Seek and Destroy update, Air RB was in rough shape. The 16 vs 16 addition in March of 2023 really turned match outcome to an RNG. My matches averaged about 8 minutes with extremely repetitive gameplay. I’d go 2 to 3 hours with maybe one memorable match where something interesting happened.
After the Seek and Destroy update, with the addition of many Fox 3’s, my average match time has dropped even further, to about 5 minutes. So far after about 10 hours of gameplay on the new patch, i have yet to have a single memorable moment. Nearly 90% of my deaths were from enemies completely unseen. Even with the 12 v 12 toggle turned on, it makes the furball a bit easier to manage but doesn’t change much. God forbid you have to stock grind a top tier jet. It’s probably the most miserable video game experience Ive had.
The gameplay has become even more stale than before with rinse and repeat gameplay in 5 minute intervals. There is very little replayability in Air RB at top tier.
This was always inevitable with Air RB, as it’s been implemented. It’s a game mode designed around WW2 and Korean war fighters. It has no business being a mode for modern fighter jets.
Air RB is ONLY now for grinding. 1 to 2 matches per day may yield some fun but beyond that its dead. Idek if it’s the most efficent for grinding anymore.
Gaijin desperately needs to rework their game modes or introduce new game modes for the upper tiers.
For anyone looking to actually have fun at top tier, Id really suggest playing Air Sim EC. Grinding is a bit less efficient but it’s well worth it.
Maybe one day when Gaijin is done milking their playerbase for every dollar, they will actually introduce game modes for their top tier aircraft but for now we’re stuck with game modes designed 10 years ago.
Sim EC is where the fun is at. Air RB is dead.
9 Likes
Long live Air RB (top tier)
1 Like
Idk man,my average 4-5 min lasting games pre update now changed to 10 min games,so i love this change. Only people dying are these that dont know how to dodge ARH.
10 minutes? Really?
Are you just staying really far back and lobbing amraams at the enemy?
No,i commit and defend. I just dont mindlessly fly towards enemy. And even my own team stays alive longer than before.
Im not saying that the gameplay is too hard here. Aside from stock grind which is aweful. Im just saying it’s very stale and has poor replayability.
Ive found it pretty easy to rack up 2 to 4 kills per match. But ive only had a handful of matches around ten minutes.
I havent gotten a chance to experience the aim120 yet but ive had a bunch of time with the R77, PL-12, and the Derby. Maybe with the aim120 the experience is different. We’ll see.
I’ve been playing the J 8F and the stock grind is just unplayable and I imagine its the same with the other fox 3 jets, you can’t do anything, try a massive flank and your team is dead by the time you get there and you get 5v1 with no ability to fight back, fly straight forward and you get targeted by multiple enemies with no way to respond. It’s just frustrating and kills any enthusiasm to play the game as the amount of research required to even get the new missiles let alone even spade the things is countless games of pain where you have no chance to make any impact on how the game goes. Gaijin really needs to rework the modification system as at the moment stock top tier is just miserable
2 Likes
They definitely should do something about the stock grind for vehicles. Ground is pretty aweful too but you dont really have any options stock grinding top tier air at the moment.
The other thing i hate about the stock grind is that its also ALWAYS an excuse for not further develoing the game modes. Whenever we talk about longer form air gameplay, people always bring up the stock grind.
There really needs to be some drastic changes here.
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air rb is totally okey just lot of player must learn how to play after the the grasscutter meta…
skill problems not air irb
the planes need 2 fox3 rocket on stock not a useless fox2
need maximum 8v8 sized team
need br system 12.0 plane in 13.0 instantly dead
need different spawn locations
The gameplay itself also doesn’t feel satisfying at all. Now it’s even more of a point-and-click cycle.
Point at enemy with HMD, press lock, fire Fox3, repeat until you either run out of missiles or enemies. That’s it. There’s zero depth to it. How come adding more technologically advanced aircraft with seemingly complex systems end up being this easy to play compared to even biplanes. It makes no sense.
3 Likes
This is why I’m stucking at Korean War era jets.
I have some top tier jets but it wasn’t fun for me even multipathing has been changed.
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Id be fine with much smaller teams and more stock weapons but it still doesn’t address the fact that Air RB at top tier is ONLY hyper fast team deathmatch.
There is nothing for anybody who wants to play differently. Any type of PVE or passive gameplay is useless and not even close to effective right now. It’s purely just a drain on the team as a whole.
There needs to be a game mode outside of Sim where passive gameplay is possible.
It’s probably best for a separate mode like RB EC.
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16v16 is insane that its still an option. Even with the toggle for less player count matches on, I have only seen maybe 3 or 4 “small” 12v12 matches. The default player count size needs to change to 10v10 at the most.
2 Likes