Airfield AAA Discussion Thread - Air Realistic Battles

Game Discussion Realistic Battle
1043

The fact that this mechanic is mentioned for various years does not imply that these subjective opinions would have any relevance for gaijin.

You see the same effects regarding mechanics in Ground RB: CAS, ODL, WW2 vs Cold War tanks.

We had some years ago various HE bugs which made hitscan af aaa useless - and ofc there were the vids and posts of the usual suspects celebrating and exploiting this.

The term “viable strategy” requires to have a strategy in the first place, so whilst most of the participants in this thread are highly experienced - the majority of players in your team are fans of the point and click approach.

So if i clearly remember getting strafed in 2019 on certain maps - we still have bugs/features on some maps like Poland and both Smolensk maps (1941 & 1943) which allows strafing runs on specific airfields.

1044

Players who use AAA airport protection to circle around their home, protected airport, that’s a real abuse of the game.

But otherwise the problem is much bigger and I would say the basis is compression and br settings…
Yesterday’s game, end of battle …
A6M2 model 21 + A6M3 model 32 + Kai 108 vs. Wywern, P-47 D22 , P-51 D20…

  1. A6M3 vs. P-47 - mutual killing
  2. Kai-108 arrived already damaged Wywern, but he himself was limping to the airport
  3. P-51D arrived already damaged Kai-108 at the airport, Mustang pilot played extremely smartly on vertical exchange of height for speed and even though A6M2 pilot tried to maneuver, avoided head-on, against the superiority of more modern Mustang D, he was ultimately without a chance…
    Mustang D pilot arrived Zero and Kai at the moment when
    both Japanese have already withdrawn over the mother airport, but AAA at the airport of Iwojima map, is only decoration…

So the complete disparity of aircraft in the duel as historical,
Zero 1940/41 against Mustang 1943,
Kai 108 heavy fighter-bomber-which I have a minimum of regular targets,
Wywern-here is a waste of words…
so as for br and airport AAA, nothing helped…

Somewhere in the topic it is written and I remember that once the airport AAA was not so ultimate and it was also possible to destroy it…
Yes, but the br of the planes was also set much more finely…

At a certain point there are probably not so many players, so the matchmaker will randomly put them into battle, depending on the planes he has available, plus the br of some planes is completely nonsense…

I understand the feeling of some players that under these conditions they want to annoy other players, but this is not a solution…
However, within the other game settings there is a minimum of options on how to play further… If you have a weaker plane and AAA does not help or the AAA is not modeled, it is better to jump out of the plane straight away, not to worry about returning to the airport, repairing it, … but even this would be criticized over time…

The only thing is that the opponent would make a mistake, but in marker modes, it is only very rarely, everything is visible…
When you think about it AAA, there are a lot more things that are related…

1045

No offense man, but your defeat has nothing to do with af aaa.

Your team lost because they made simple mistakes and a rather average P-51 smoked your team whilst playing 1 vs 3. The replay (link) shows basic mistakes and a clear lack of map know-how within your team:

  1. The landing strips at A point on Iwo Jima are not defended by the deadly light af aaa with hit scan. Every halfmost experienced pilot is fully aware of this and will never ever land & repair there; especially not when an enemy is close.
  2. Iwo Jima is like Saipan an auto-win for US/UK teams as their ai units will either capture A & B point (Saipan) or your own ai is useless and ticket wins are impossible (Iwo Jiima). In other words: US/UK players win these battle just by not dying - even with 0 points mission score.
  3. Therefore it is essential to spot all enemies before JP playerscan go low - due to their lack of speed they are unable to catch any fast US fighter.
  4. In your match your whole team went low before the very late spawning P-51 was spotted - he killed your highest guy (tunnel visioned behind an XP-50) - and your team was low. Your fate was sealed as your A6M3 dove on the low and damaged XP-50 (with one engine and a missing wing tip).

Next time on this map:

  1. Wait until all enemies are spotted, climb just below the contrail at (~ 6.400 meters) and stay behind the Island until all enmies are spotted.

  2. Check player cards of the enemy team in this time - the more experienced they are, the more likely are spaceclimbers as those guys are fully aware of the auto-win on these maps and are experienced enough to assess if their teams will get slaughtered or not.

Have a good one!

1046

If you want to complain about dysfunctional airfield aaa - use Poland map as an example. For years the af aaa on one of the 2 main airfields is not working. A lot of players are fully aware of this and are happy to exploit this.

Evidence? Watch this replay and follow the Bf 110 - he chased an enemy Pe-2 across the map and strafed him on the runway - without significant damage.

To be fair: It looks like he simply did not care about af aaa as from my pov he is not experienced enough to be aware of this special “feature” on this map.

1047

Thanks for the battle review…
So that means…

ad1) Most players can’t land on an aircraft carrier, let alone with a damaged plane, when they have to land there, Iwojima Island is always closer to the center of the battle, so if I want to repair on this map, it probably doesn’t make sense, because I won’t be under the protection of the airport and I won’t be able to reach the aircraft carrier = press the “J” button?

ad2) Automatic win for the Allies… does this map mean for Japanese machine players = map lock or press the “J” button after spawning?

ad3) Mustang D had nothing to do with this aircraft list for the battle, Mustang A at most, but it is likely that the matchmaker for the battle had nothing to compile aircraft lists from … that speaks volumes about the state of the Japanese aircraft tree, overshot battle ratings and not many players of this nation … and I couldn’t think of much with the A6M2 there.

ad4) yes I agree, a late spawning player at the upper limit of br is very close to victory.

ad5) Yes, height is the basis, but quite often, before you climb that high, with a weaker aircraft, you are max 2-3 in the team in the game and so you usually look around and look for a team = bottom …

Personally, I think that modes with markers need completely and significantly differently set battle ratings than the mode without markers. that br expansion in battle, which Gaijin did some time ago, killed a lot of aircraft and the only goal was to enter the game/battle as quickly as possible … but in terms of gameplay it’s useless…

Personally I think AAA has full justification for repairing and rearming, but a player who is staying at the airport or camping near the airport should have been kicked out of the game for passivity after the time limit, or left on his own… I think such a mechanic has already been there and it wasn’t bad…

1 Like
1048
  1. Don’t land on A point, use the regular airfield (with deadly hitscan af aaa) 3 to 4 km northwest of A point. Easy to find, it has a huge crane near the runway. No need to land on the carrier. Inform your team about this.
  2. Automatic (ticket) win means that you have to kill all enemies or you lose. From my pov the WR for JP teams is still >90% on these maps.
  3. Reference to production years is not relevant in this case - otherwise you have to put the Ki-100s to the same BR like the P-51 H-5; both are 1945 productions.
  4. The BR range 3.7 to 4.7 is extremely popular, whilst popular aircraft in the JP tree sit at 3.7 / 4.0 and there are no 4.7 fighters. Technically seen there are no fighters (even if you consider the very rare premium Fw 190 A-5) able to catch a plain 3.7 P-51 C - or a Wyvern with alt to work with.

I mean even if you are not used to play on the Pacific maps - i described very often the things you mentioned, like here:

Details

So depending on your server selection and daytime you play you will have lots of opportunities to help your team to avoid the mistakes in the match you described.

2 things which comes to mind regarding Pacific maps and af aaa you should know when you fly for the JP side.

  1. Midway: In deviation to the Iwo Jima map the af aaa on the Eastern Island (the Island on the right side) the af aaa on the US held Island has a fully working 4 km af aaa bubble of death, you have to warn your team otherwise you lose up to 2 thirds of your team to af aaa as most fights tend to take place above the islands.

  2. Saipan: The airfield on Tinian Island (= A point, to be captured by US/UK ai) has non-functional airfield aaa. That’s why you see US/UK teams easiliy kill the heavy aaa there.
    A lot of not experienced Air RB pilots (Arcade players) even try to capture it by landing there.
    In case your team was able to prevent a capture of Saipan (=B point) by killing the 6 landing craft before they reach the shore and you are fighting enemies above A point you have to retreat before enemy ai captures A point. After capturing the then US airfield has about 10 “fresh” aaa positions with (ofc) deadly light af aaa and the 4 km bubble of death.

Hope this helps!

1 Like
1049

I have to thank you for the interesting information…
I started playing Japanese Tree after years… Pacific maps have a different rotation and are not as well known…

1 Like
1050

My opion if onely one enemy left aa should be disable lading is previlige or reaming shound be use at last play to win a battle if only 2 enemy left aa ahould have timer when isnt let know the player run way it be disable wile reaming

1051

But that would be really unfair on the last guy left. It could be a totally winnable match, heck i’ve won 1v3s before as the last guy alive but I had to RTB and rearm before getting out there and winning the match. It would have sucked if I had made it back to base, landed but killed whilst rearming because of no AAA.

Players shouldnt be allowed to camp the AF after rearming, but just have a timer of say 30 seconds to a minute after an aircraft has been reparied/rearmed at which point the AAA disables (but not necessarily take-off so you cant wait out the clock by just sitting on the runway). The last 2 or 3 minutes of the match, the AAA also disables so the player cant just wait out the clock.

1052

Exactly - why should anybody being punished because he got an absolute braindead playing team of random strangers???

And if somebody feels the need to reply: “But, but it’s a team game” - no, it is just bundling random strangers with deviating personal goals competing for the same targets. Outside a coordinated squad and the extremely rare occasion of having a good cooperation with a random stranger there is no team game play in Air RB.

Imho it is not the question of winnable matches or not.

It is a matter of leaving a game if there is no realistic chance to win without getting strafed whilst trying to land and j out. U can’t leave a match and get fast to another match if even today with deadly hitscan af aaa a lot of guys try to kill you with suicide dives.

There is a huge difference between trying to land and j out and camping, that’s why even in the current state of af aaa you get swarmed by absolute morons who give a F about dying to af aaa.

That’s why i am strictly against any time limitations as long as suicide runs are possible. Even as your 30 seconds looks like a jet timeframe and is therefore not applicable for props It looks for me that you overestimate the passion level and cleverness of the average Air RB player.

An example from my last match (BR 3.7-4.7):

  • 1 vs 8 after 7 minutes
  • There is no point in continuing such a match - especially if you are well behind tickets and you face 8 fighters.
  • I bombed the enemy airfield to get some points and got blind hunted at 6 km alt, the whole team climbing for me.
  • So i flew back to base at 6 km and warned them “don’t die to af aaa”.
  • Ofc 3 of them tried to kill me directly above my airfield, no chance to land and j out.
  • In the meantime 2 109s died, and a Yak pilot was unable to land on his airfield (and landed in a nearby town).
  • The 3 guys attacking me lost vs af aaa leaving me in a 1 vs 2.
  • The last 2 guys were previously groundpounding, based on the kill feed the Ta 154 still had ammo so i looked for the P-51 C.
  • This guy stall climbed into my guns - same as the lower Ta 154.
  • Game won with killing the last enemy at 17:42.

I mean if i would follow your logical path i should have accepted my defeat and let one of these morons get a free kill? No way, Jose…

I am totally fine with a disabling of af aaa if we would have an airborne “exit zone” as proposed in 2023 in this thread. Otherwise things get even worse than today. Which such an exit zone there is no need for af aaa for the last minutes of a match.

Have a good one!

1 Like
1053

Can we add old AAA back to high tier as a patch? msls and radar aaa never works well

1054

I think they should use missiles and ground-based close in weapon systems similar to phalanx in conjunction with each other

1055

old aaa should actually have modeled shells instead of hitscan dot nonsense for this to work

2 Likes
1056

I cant expect new things without a bug… roland is not new, but it change all the times, while yorks and veaks are never reliable… this is meant to be a buff, not nothing and let me dogfight for 5 min over af

1057

I would like any form of AAA as long as it fulfills the intention of updating AAAs. Old AA is reliable, should have a lower chance to fail… as least hit some slow dogfighting things

1058

How about no.

1059

Gaijin updated AAA, not me

1060

The AAA does not work in [Alternate History] Spain.

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1061

Why are you landing before him even though the J35XS + drop tank has considerably less fuel from your J-7D?

1062

Who cares? It isn’t relevant