For years, I have been an advocate of splitting top tier Air RB into two game modes: Team Deathmatch and Enduring Confrontation.
Gaijin seems to largely ignore people asking for this and some have expressed concerns that an additional game mode would nuke the matchmaker.
Maybe there is a compromise to be had.
Currently Top Tier Air RB has two map types: Standard Maps and Enduring Confrontation(EC) Maps.
Instead of splitting Air RB into two separate game modes, maybe adjustments could be made to each of the map types in the current matchmaker. My suggestions for adjustments would include the following:
Standard Maps (Non-EC):
Reduce the player count from 16 vs 16 to 10 vs 10. Maybe 8 vs 8 for City.
EC Maps:
Add a limited respawning mechanic. - maybe using spawn points or just allow 2 respawns.
Increase the match timer slightly to 35 or 40 minutes to allow for a more dynamic battle.
Add an additional airfield to each side of the map to spread players out.
Make the enemy airfields unspotted.
This slight adjustment to the existing game mode could help give players more variety.
I personally love the EC maps Especially for top tier. However many years ago there used to be events on the weekends for enduring confrontation which was amazing (bring a whole lineup of planes with multiple respawns). For some reason that disappeared.
This is why Ive advocated for splitting the EC maps into their own mode. Some people just dont want to play them and others really love them.
I could see it from both sides. I just wish top tier air had the ability to create lineups in some form. Sim isn’t for everyone and top tier Air AB is cancer so were just stuck with this beta RB game mode that Gaijin doesnt seem to know what to do with.
This is far too much of an ask and is more likely to get requests for game mode changes to be ignored by Gaijin.
The 5 vs 5 is far too exclusionary to realistically be added. Gaijin will never go for it outside of events. They’ve been asked this during their Q&A’s and Dev Streams and every time they say that they reserve those really small team matches for events and tournaments. Gaijin is also really focused on the e-sports aspect of War Thunder so they certainly aren’t going to change their view on this anytime soon.
The smallest an ongoing game mode could probably be is 8 vs 8 or 10 vs 10. Any smaller and squads could completely take over a lobby causing a very sparse matchmaker. Recall top tier Air AB back in 2018-2019 or Air RB circa 2014-2015.
Gaijin is also never going to take anything away from a game mode. It causes far too much backlash every time its done so don’t expect bases or AI to be removed from TDM Air RB.
If added, Air RB EC shouldn’t be a copy-paste of Sim EC. Sim EC has its issues. Its certainly more strategic than Air RB but Sim EC is farr out of date as well.
I think a spawn point respawn system more akin to Ground RB could work really well for an Air RB EC mode. But players should be allowed to respawn into a plane multiple times so long as they can pay the repair cost and spawn point cost. This would give actual consequences for actions in game and also gives players a reason to bring in slightly lower BR vehicles - cheaper spawn points.
Gaijin could also introduce heli bases closer to the front line in an Air RB EC mode and from these bases, each player could be given a reserve Drone in case they run completely out of Spawn points and they dont have a lower BR vehicle to spawn into… - premium players…
The lack of markers for friendly players would not work for an Air RB EC mode since matches are mixed and if we’re proposing splitting the Air RB matchmaker, the matchmaker is very likely to remain mixed in order to reduce que times.
You have some stuff I agree with but I wanted to add to your statement. Gaijin does do more of a split with naval EC and the mode is definitely popular with full lobbies. They also have a hybrid of no spawn points for vehicles on the lower end of a bracket and spawn points for vehicles on the higher end. Maybe a soft attempt at that would be a good way to try for air rb ec, but I still would prefer the other version of air rb ec to always come back. They could do what they have done with ground rb and have tickets go off on air units destroyed with each player death taking off 100 tickets.
I have been asking for new Air RB game modes for so long. Gaijin has been neglecting air battles for so long and does nothing but add new maps. Meanwhile ground battles is like their special needs child that keeps getting new game modes like night battles and 1, 2, and 3 point cap modes for every map.
Respawns are one thing that I support because at high and top tier you waste so much time when either the game ends before you can get a kill or you die from a missile before getting a kill. This results in only around 100 rp unless you bombed.
If you look at the statistics at the end of a match you will often see that ~50% of players did not get a single kill and a large amount of games at top tier are where one team gets a “flawless victory” only losing 1-3 players.
I totaly agree on the 5 vs 5 concerns - the premades slaughtering everyone was not on my mind.
But SIM EC is more modern than RB at the moment. AF moduels, diffrent tasks, ATG weapons like agm-65 with actual use in PVE.
And for short - if we don’t keep demanding a new mode - no new mode will ever happen. I simply stoped playing top tier RB since its boring as fuck. With SIM I am starting to love it again.
No i wasn’t disagreeing about Sim. Its certainly more well thought out than Air RB at the moment.
A lot of people really struggle with the cockpit only view though so it’s always going to remain relatively niche.
I agree though we all need to push Gaijin to fix Air RB and to add a more strategic mode. It really shouldn’t be that hard to implement so hopefully we see something soon. But i wouldn’t hold my breath.
RB EC but only change - sim FM + no spotting like in SIM, you have to IFF and have to work with your radar etc. At the moment in RB you simply dumbout use the radar to lock and not to find.
Sim stays Sim with no mouse aim and cockpit only.
RB stays like it is.
The split into this 2 gamemodes is needed cause top tier RB is dead (not that its not played but its simply no fun)