You do realize that air RB was developed in like 2016 right?
You’re wrong by the way.
Your claim implies everything is shovelware when that’s obviously not the case.
Granted, Miragen is claiming the same thing.
A game mode being below an ideal doesn’t make it bad or easy to make; cause if air RB was easy to make it would’ve been done by other developers.
Air RB isn’t bad. It’s not astonishing, and it’s not bad.
I want air RB to be great personally, above what it currently is.
And you cannot know what Gaijin is doing. Changing air RB would require THOUSANDS of work hours in coding.
New AI, new other systems, etc.
And if you want to know how hard coding AI is: Eagle Dynamics took 3 years to overhaul their AI in DCS, a game with less going on. Of course their team is also smaller so we’ll see in time.
Shovelware is defined as software known for its quantity rather than its quality. - this perfectly describes Air RB. Every mechanic in Air RB is designed to rush you in and out of a match as quickly as possible, from the no respawn mechanic to the excessive auto ticket bleed. And there are many well known bugs.
So Yes it’s shovelware.
Sim isn’t shovelware. Ground isn’t shovelware. Naval isn’t shovelware. But Air RB IS shovelware. So im certainly not claiming “everything is shovelware”…
Idk how long it would take for the devs to overhaul AI. Gaijin has a very big team but idk.
However, there are very simple changes Gaijin could make to Air RB that would require a few days from 2 interns that could really help the mode.
No these changes wouldn’t be perfect but they would certainly help - reducing upper tier team size, adding multiple first spawn airfields, spreading out and adding AI targets… We as players can do this in a custom battle or mods fairly easily so im sure it would be an easy task for the devs to do these changes.
Yes a complete overhaul to Air RB or adding a new RB EC mode like some have suggested would be better and take more effort from the developers.
I used to give Gaijin the benefit of doubt. Ya know, when we were actively bringing up the issues with Air RB back in 2017…7 years later and Air RB remains in a very similar state to when this truly was a niche indie game. War Thunder is not niche anymore.
I could forgive the state of Air RB if this was a niche game but Im not going to lick the boot of the devs anymore. They deserve criticism here. So im going to continue to criticize them when they deserve it.
God forbid they have to step away from spamming us with new vehicles for one patch.
There is no auto ticket bleed in air RB; there is AI aircraft killing ground targets, that’s where the ticket bleed comes from.
Vehicle development teams aren’t the same as AI programmers.
The AI team that needs to finish the overhaul needs to complete their work, and vehicle development members ain’t gonna help them.
So no, you’re still wrong.
And on top of that, you’re wrong again. There’s no such thing as simple changes, especially to air RB.
“spreading out and adding AI targets” requires the AI overhaul.
Multiple airfields won’t fix anything at this time, and in-fact would make things worse; the solution is a randomized air spawn along a border in groups. I say randomized because it needs to be balanced in this gamemode.
This isn’t EC, and EC needs the AI overhaul… both for sim and a retest of air RB EC.
We all want improvements; and we need to wait.
Just as I want improvements in DCS and need to wait.
Especially since your post is just blindly ranting.
Yea i know dude. The AI killing AI is the auto ticket bleed im talking about. - its broken on some maps.
You’re just arguing for the sake of arguing here.
As far as your AI overhaul comments…sure id love an AI overhaul but its not “required” to make these changes… An AI overhaul would just be ideal but there’s plenty of ways to do it without a complete overhaul.
-This sounds like Air Arcade.
Again, Im just trying to make changes as simple as possible for Gaijin so that we can realistically get some changes. It’s clear that they do not like to invest time in game mode development.
In a theoretical changed game mode, would this suggestion be better than multiple airfields? I have no clue. Maybe. Maybe not. I think it’s a good suggestion for Air Arcade but Air RB? Idk.
At this point we’re arguing over really small theoretical changes and we just haven’t made it far enough for me to be passionate about these smaller mechanics. The mode just needs to be fixed. Maybe your suggestion is good. Maybe it’s shit.
It is obvious that Gaijin cares about game mode development otherwise there wouldn’t be employees working on all the facets of game modes to begin with.
Which includes and is necessary: AI overhaul. Which is for ALL vehicles; fixed wing, rotor, ground, and sea. All built from the ground up as any new AI system will need to be limited to flight model performance like we are.
The AI has to be better at map navigation than currently to make development of maps easier and quicker.
An AI overhaul will require all maps to be changed as well.
You suggested the multiple spawn locations BTW.
However, you could have it randomize forced airfield spawns in groups, however that’s currently even less coded than the air one.
And no, none of these changes are small; all are large.
Oh, and of course would require new map variations.
We all want improved systems.
I just think your initial post should’ve been created from a place of calm, and after the roadmap publication.
Lol. Dude. We’re typing on a forum. What are you talking about? Im fine. I was just being sarcastic in my OP.
Mhm… I’ll just leave this one here…
There are many user created PVP and PVE missions that use in-game AI which play way better than the current Air RB.
I think you’re WAY to deep into the “AI overhaul” rabbit hole. Yeah AI overhaul would be really nice but it isn’t necessary for a PVP mode.
For a dedicated PVE mode, yes AI would need the overhaul you’re talking about.
But for TDM or even EC, i think you’re overstating the importance of AI. Maybe EC would require AI improvements but again Im trying to keep my suggestions as simple as possible for the devs.
I agree it would still be nice to see an AI overhaul.
We can disagree on this point. You don’t need to try to continue to justify why an AI overhaul is needed. I get your point just disagree on its importance, at this time.
In the long run, i think you’re right. We’re just far from the ideal mode right now.
Halving the player count would help it so much. Its such a complete sense overload right now. There is no way to defend against everyone cause there is too many planes.
The maps are still dogshit with everything being in the center. Also whats with the AIs deciding to face plant into the ground in every fucking match so it ends in 10 minutes regardless of what the players do? I didnt like the 25 min change anyway but even that has no point now cause the face planting AI ends the match in 10 minutes.
Ive had so many potentially fun 2v2s, 1v1s or 1v2s and so on ruined by this dogwater mechanic. Its like gaijin actively wants to remove fun from top tier jets and literally block them from dogfighting every once in a while.
I agree. It really feels like they just deliberately try to block the most interesting moments in a match. At least 1 out of every 4 matches im in, both teams are down to 1 v 1 or 2 v 2 or 1 v 2 or 3 v 3, we all land, re-arm and are on the way to fight each other and then out of nowhere, the tickets drop and the match ends. It’s such a waste.
I also love the occasion AI Yak-38 doing mach 2.5 at treetop altitude.
Don’t insult Russian Roulette, atleast in a typical Revolver, there’s no underlying factor. It’s 1/6. In ARB, it’s like a million of factors, Map, Matchmaking, Team, etc. Besides, I bet Russian Roulette is more fun than ARB LOL
They introduced a small version of Afghanistant for top tier ARB now, it’s about as bad as the small version of (S)pain, and it would be hilarious if it weren’t spammed by the map rotation.
I mainly play air RB, since ground battles is just call of duty with tanks, but with 16v16 they turned air RB into call of duty with planes so after 10 years of playing this game Im calling it quits.
Its just chaos and no fun at all. Honestly, after 2 weeks of not playing, I feel pretty good. Left a negative steam review and now i’ll move on, because its obvious that the devs are comitted to making the game as arcadey and chaotic as possible on purpose, and dont care about the opinions and feedback of their loyal customers. I wish I could get all the money I spent on this game back, or maybe the few thousand hours I spent playing.
It really says something when they claim the game is realistic and authentic, yet in reality the game is more arcadey and chaotic than Ace combat. Why put all this effort into making the vehicles authentic and the physics realistic when the combat scenarios they are placed in are the direct opposite?
I used to almost exclusively play Air RB. Unlocked just about every aircraft in the game. At this point im definitely done with Air RB. Not saying ill never play it but im definitely not into it anymore.
You’re right. It’s amazing how good the vehicle and weapons modeling is but the air game modes are horrific. Air AB, Air RB and even Sim feels like an indie game from the mid 2000s.
Sim at least has an okay game mode with Sim EC but even that has some serious issues that Gaijin just refuses to address.
Ive pretty much transitioned to playing Ground RB. It’s definitely COD with tanks but you can tell that Ground is where Gaijin puts all their effort. It certainly isnt air lol.
It’s really sad to see aviation in the state that its in. Im holding out hope for the 2024 roadmap but idk anymore.
Ive been trying to get a new Air RB game mode or game mode changes for years( since the F4E was added) to no avail and the 16 v 16 ghost patch last year was the biggest slap in the face. Turned Air RB into a ripoff Air AB.
Im not sure what their issue is. I wonder if they even play Air RB sometimes or if they purely just look at stats.
It’s really frustrating. I dont think Gaijin really cares about the air game modes anymore and every match i join seems to be filled with 60-90% premiums so i even think the veteran playerbase is flocking away from Air RB.
We’ll see if they do anything i guess but for now im pretty much done with Air game modes.
Yeah that shit infuriates me so much. Cause that is when i actually have fun in this game. I legit play for those types of matches.
That is where i can use my knowledge of all these planes to my advantage. Before that its just a missile spam and a game of chance. I legit think i play the same every round, and sometimes i get 1 kill, sometimes i die without doing anything and sometimes i get 5 kills. When i get the ace i just feel like i lucked out and that many players just decided to play terribly and faceplant my sparrows. Its not rewarding.
Winning a 2v1 or a 1v1 is hella rewarding on the other hand.
cough Poland with 7.6k ticket matches but a light pillbox takes around 280-300 tickets cough China Civil War the moment the tanks are destroyed, the tickets will bleed indefinitely akin to a destroyed AF cough cough Korsun with the AI planes that don’t count towards tickets when destroyed but can bleed tickets fast
I can list more, and more, and more. Tickets should bleed equally, and the only time you should lose is when an enemy commits to doing objectives e.g: Base Bombing, GT, Naval targets, etc. This shouldn’t be such a hassle if Gaijin actually reworked most of their maps, no one cares if you make the map 20% larger or if you inflate tickets like Poland. This should 100% be a focus on ARB, yet Gaijin will always focus on GRB because of its profitability surpassing that of ARB, and yet they refuse to give an EC mode for “muh reasons.” to alleviate the problem they bandaged this whole issue by turning matches to 16v16 for God knows what, and yet there are still matches that are 6v6 and plagued by Ju-288’s. Most. Infuriating. Sh*t. Ever.
I wish the maps were bigger, some of them are, but they usually offer only one airfield. Still with the bigger scale you can actually try some flanking maneuver etc.
What I would like to see is the ability to respawn like in ground RB. Would make the match last longer and offer the possibility of ending with a better score overall. It would require more ground target of course, but in a single match you could take a fighter, a bomber and an attacker in the same match, making it more lively.
But yeah, Air RB really feels like a very old game mode design. It starts to lose its charm now…
Reject ARB, embrace ASB.
With the recent winter event, I dove into ASB and never looked back
I still think ARBEC is the only future where WT survives once they run out of vehicles to add. Until then we have ASB, if they don’t decide to ruin this mode as well that is.
SB is also almost abandoned by the devs with the only work now being a few BR changes. It’s unbalanced and suffers from random objectives that cause one team to lose. For example, one side keeps spawning AI bombers that get shot down, and the other side does not.
Sim is basically air RB if it had a token PvE focus and first person view. Like with air RB, gaijin has not taken the tiny steps that would massively improve the sim experience.
I feel you 100% but the props are still fun, and jet BRs without all aspects can be really fun too. I even had some extremely fun games in the Kfir C.7 where i ended up in isolated dogfights.
Although i agree so hard that every gamemode in this game is basically CoD with military vehicles. I loved Air RB more than GRB because i felt like i had control. In GRB i could always die to a plane or some random cross-map snipe or a revenge killer. But in ARB i could always find a mistake i did that made me die. In top tier that is not the case. Like the only mistake i always end up making is going into the center of the map, but if i dont do that i will just have 0 impact and will do nothing in the game anyway. So you eventually have to fly through the center. It sucks ass. And when you do, you open yourself up to 20 potential missile launches.