Even if you were gaijin - the topic is far more complex than you might guess and it is still unclear what the real question is and which kind of players are affected at different BRs with which effects.
As long as af aaa is almost 100% deadly at prop BRs and described mostly as useless at higher jet BRs it simply depends on your pov/BR.
As a prop player i am happy with the removal of af aaa on forward airfields, so it seems like the thread is not completely useless.
If you are interested to get more results from them you might consider to implement a detailed poll covering all aspects. In case you want to go this path you might find some hints what you should include:
I gave up to create this poll as there were no real guides like “how to create polls with multiple questions” available, but in case you are eager to get answers to your questions from gaijin i see no real alternatives.
Forward or back airstrip, a plane that’s stationed there for refueling / rearming / repairs has no means to defend itself, so it shouldn’t be left at the mercy of enemy aircraft. This game should let fighters fight and civilians safe (a landed plane is, by any definition, a civilian).
Pretty hilarious. So basically by this logic if I f.e. play 6.3 jet going 750 at sea level, someone manages to damage me via some miracle, then I can just dive awya to the AF and repair with absolute impunity, then go back to clobbering everyone? Same with BI, Wyvern and every other broken plane.
It looks like you missed my point - the removal of af aaa on forward airfields reduced the “no-fly” zones on maps significantly and made it easier to catch op / broken planes.
Looking at prop matches right now - there are still a hell of players using the forward airfield to rearm (even if you asked in team chat to avoid this). Landing there with undamaged planes is just stupid / braindead. Despite i lose ~10% of my matches as a result of getting hopelessly outnumbered due to 3-5 own fighters being killed there like fish in a barrel, i hope that these guys l2p - this lack of basic game know how is killing the game mode…
For example, the people in this clip 100% do not deserve AF AA protection (especially after landing so soon into the match). Either play smart (conserving ammo, etc) or take the risk with landing.
Lol, no. A landed plane is an easy kill if you are silly enough to land at the forward airfield with enemies around… you are asking to be just picked off, just as much as if you are hanging stalled out in the air shooting at a bomber 2km above you.
You can either
a) land at the main AF further away, mostly less than 30 seconds flying, and be protected by AF AA while you refuel/rearm, or
b) risk the forward AF
Use your brain.
If you want the game to be played for you, I can suggest some mobile games
I think it would be best to make it so people who land on the airfields with AAA protection forfeit being in the match and be forced to go to the hangar but those who choose to land at closer airfields with no AAA protection should have the chance to repair.
There will always be airfield campers but ideally someone should be killing AI to win on ticket bleed if that happens. At least people who get damaged but choose to land on an airfield with protection will end up just giving the kill to the player that damaged them.
Here’s why.
10m of pointless time wasting because Wyvern guy thinks he’s being “camped” by my team, and we’re the bad guys since we’re not letting him bomb.
That’s the “gaijin target demographic” and the reason why we even have AF AAA - to keep such people happy.
No, AF AA exists to keep lames from spending entire games loitering near AF just to strafe people trying to land to repair and reload or J out without taking an SL hit.
Once again I have to iterate here; air matches are not Team Deathmatch. There are objectives to complete and/or ground and sea AI to destroy to drain the enemy team’s tickets. Is it lame for people to camp AF? Sure, just like it’s lame to climb to space or run back and forth between map boundaries.
However, options are limited if your team has ticket initiative but you’re outnumbered. If you’re behind on tickets but have numerical advantage all your team needs to do is split the load; some hit GTs while the others keep eyes out. It’s called being tactical. Now, as for the 1v1? Well, tough shit your team failed to PTFO. Is what it is and you cannot win them all.
GL with that.
It’s one of the MOST ineffective tactics.
The only reason why people get strafed right now is because they are so used to airfield camping, they happily fly towards closes airfield at the 1st sight of trouble and don’t even bother looking around for enemy, and there’s also always some acelord who is trying to lure enemy towards that AF.
Imagine what happenes when you lure me towards 3 guys who are landing? :D :D :D
I’ve even seen 4-5 guys landing at once shortly after they took away the forward AF AAA, not one of them was smoking.
Of course we slaughtered them, game ended.
If we didn’t strafe them, we’d slaughter them 3m later, so what difference does it make?
Camping around enemy AF is ineffective in general, much better to demolish mid-map furballs. While sometimes there are some people using forward AF, it’s more effective to catch them once they disengage from the fight, because otherwise you’re risking your teammates get them first.
Here is an idea that i think would please both sides,
Make it so that AA wont work as long as the player doesn’t land, when the player lands, the AA will be activated. when the player takes off, the AA will be shut down and won’t work for a set time.
of course if the player tries to exploit this by not taking off, the player will be counted as dead. Another potential exploit would be that player would keep landing but a simple cooldown for the specific player should do its job.
In this way, both the pro-AA and anti-aa community should be pleased.
No, I don’t think so. The CoD Jocks got their compromise; only the rear AF has AA. These dudes need to stop throwing tantrums and actually PTFO so they can win matches. The matches aren’t labeled Team Deathmatch and they need to stop trying to treat them like they are.
PTFO or lose. It’s that simple.
And flagging me because I’m right doesn’t help your argument.
This is not a question of pleasing both parties - it is a fundamental difference in understanding of how this game should be played and what is the goal of Air RB.
You saw it at the end of last year when af aaa was ineffective after 2 or 3 updates in a row. The forum was full of “halleluja” and “praise the lord” or “WTF” and “Gaijin fix this !!!”.
So with the deletion of forward af we have now the situation that the majority of clueless players get farmed even easier than before and the already existing experience skill gaps vs experienced players gets even larger.
What is the impact of af aaa right now?
Subjective feelings due to lost time?
Eliminating the need to improve and to make the right decisions?
Problem for prop BRs or jet BRs?
Providing variety of plane classes to participate?
I hoped that the deletion of forward af aaa will have a positive impact on learning curves, but it seems that i expected too much.
Seeing the example of the fellow player with the Wyvern above: Yes, a waste of 10 minutes. Seeing the vid of the player faming 4 guys on forward airfields: Yes, a skill issue of the 4 players getting caught with pants down.
But:
Without af aaa on main airfields we would see such scenes every match. Such easy kills de-validate any air kills you scored “fair and square” whilst playing above the center of the map.
I actually share the view of most players that hanging around the enemy airfield is rather useless, but these guys simply forget that they are not representative for the average wt Air RB player.
Why? The same guys getting roasted on the forward airfield like in the vid above are representing the average wt player. So without af aaa they will do whatever the can to score points - either performing the usual headon nonsense, spawn in an XP-50 to farm clueless bombers - or attack guys trying to land; simply because these are the only ways they can get kills.
So even if i share a lot of views from both parties (so pro and con) i simply see no solution for this issue. And not due to the game mechanic af aaa - it is a problem within the player base.
The average wt prop pilot 5 years ago was way better than today, af aaa was not that lethal and the quality of matches was either very good or very boring thanks to the historical MM - and ofc depending on which side you flew.
I was always defending af aaa as a point of retreat for non-fighter pilots as I assumed that they would play the game due the passion of flying and trying to make a difference - i was wrong. The majority of “new generation” players use Air RB solely as grinding tool.
But this does not jusify the deletion of af aaa on the main airfield as this is simply the only way to survive a steamroll due to the collapse of own fighters for PvE players in non-fighter planes, just to land and j out.
As long as some guys which try to transform prop Air RB into the same 5-8 minutes TDM like in top tier jet matches just don’t get the point that they kill the last viable option for PvE players to participate (and to ensure plane class diversity) the only solution for them would be a fighter only mode without af aaa. But they reject this proposal as this would rob them more or less free bomber / strike fighter kills.
i should’ve worded myself better, yes it still wouldn’t satisfy both parties. But i think this kind of improvement would at least be a stepping stone for both grounds. People who are anti AA don’t like the airfield campers. my proposal is supposed to reduce this and still keep the airfield aa for its intended use. I know there is no real solution that would satisfy both parties because you can never satisfy everyone. I’d love to hear better alternatives, or even a different gamemode for “TDM”
Everyone in here didn’t realise, that there’s a ticket bleed for the faction, wich landed it’s (last) plane.
Implemented since a couple of years? (3-5 years ago i think)
If your not winning due to ticket bleed, there’s another plane up, or you guys just didn’t play the objective - or are just massively behind. (those blue and red bars on top of the screen) Simple as that?
Didn’t count the times, where I had to land to rearm and refuel my Kfir, only to loose due to ticket bleed, hence the fact that i was taking of, but weren’t rewarded for taking of in time…
Edit:
This game orient itself on realism.
Theres no Airfield without any kind of AA at all.