The current version of Air Realistic is overplayed, dull, and quite frankly boring. The gameplay loop is exactly the same across almost every battle rating, rank, and aircraft, with little to no variation. However, in my opinion, there is a simple solution: Air RB EC.
While Enduring Confrontation exists in the standard matchmaker it is quite poorly executed and doesn’t allow for almost anything that makes EC so unique. Matches are limited to 25 minutes and basically just serve as larger maps for normal realistic. While this is quite beneficial, it suffers due to many seeing the mode as inefficient since it takes a greater amount of time to reach the fight. Yet this is the core problem with Air Realistic, it is the most efficient way to get research points and silver lions, and it also has only 1 core fight.
The basic ARB match boils down to taking off, flying left in jet or climbing in props, meeting the enemy team in the middle, and having a 5 minute scuffle for who will, 90% of the time, win the match. If you’re lucky and survive, you get to either return to base or hunt down the last few stragglers, but if you’re not, you get sent back to the hangar to requeue and repeat the process all over again.
There’s no variety here, you rarely get the chance to actually go against someone one on one, its just a massive furball with no requirements for skill or positioning, and if you’re stock or playing anything other than a dedicated fighter you’re screwed. The excitement of the mode burns out so quickly that it’s never really satisfying to get kills.
Now enter Enduring Confrontation.
This mode holds a lot of unused potential that could really benefit the game. The largest is a complete reimagining of the basic gameplay loop. Instead of just flying left or gaining altitude and waiting to meet people in the middle of the map, you are able to do so much more. You can run attack missions, hunt down interceptors, fly high stakes bombing runs, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. People will naturally spread out and that means you actually have to hunt down your enemies instead of just expecting to meet them in the same exact place. I doubt I am alone in thinking that this game is at it’s best when it’s just you and one other person in a fight for each others life and EC makes almost every dogfight into that, but this also pushes teamwork since flying with a wingman would massively improve your chances of surviving.
There’s also more PvE potential than what’s already in the game: CAS as well as bombing could be greatly expanded to give future and already existing aircrafts more weapons such as Anti-Radiation, Anti-Ship, and even cruise missiles. Bombers could make a comeback in some form by making escort missions. Fighters and Interceptors AI could be improved to allow for more diverse combat. Staged objectives could be introduced where the objective changes as you move through it, such as a new system for bombing airfields that would require you to take out Anti-Aircraft and other stuff, before being able to attack the airfield first. Or similarly, having to take down a carrier strike group before being able to takedown the carrier.
I understand there are people who do enjoy the standard Air Realistic and would hate a mode like this, but there’s also a large group who would like something new, and I think a separate, proper EC mode would be the perfect way to do it.
- Yes
- No
