I’d like to make a suggestion for Air EC Sim matches, specifically player-hosted matches, to be able to start with AI for BRs that are not very populated (eg. 7.0 - 9.3). It is very frustrating as a sim main when I finally get an aircraft I like only to find that it is entirely useless because nobody plays at the BR. Having the only option be Air RB is pretty discouraging, since some planes are just flat-out unusable in RB. I understand that sim is not a priority for War Thunder, but it is pretty much the only mode I, and many others, actually enjoy, which is entirely offset by the lack of matches in some BRs.
I, a fellow Sim ̶m̶a̶i̶n̶ Sweat, support this suggestion. Gaijiggles pls
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I agree with this, it would be a nice change, plus it might encourage more people to join matches if there is already AI in it too
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This would be fantastic. On quiet times, it can be a real challenge getting into a SIM match at a certain nation/BR. This is especially problematic if you’re trying to play with a friend so have limited options of what nation and BR you can both do.
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It also frustrates me to not find matches for specific aircraft want to fly because no one else does, but I’m not sure allowing “1 player plus bots” would be a good way to do so, as it could easily open the door for abusing this mechanic for bot farming.
What might however be an idea is to allow to queue for several (maybe limit it to 3) yet unstarted matches in parallel, and then automatically joining the match that gets enough players first.
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The big downside I can see in this system is that some BRs only get one or two servers that will queue with one person and then just disappear since basically nobody is playing that BR. I ran into that with a friend last night at 8.7, the only matches up were a queued match with one player, and a mixed battles match which was just… kind of unfun.
The AI in simulator battles is more than a match for most players with recent updates, even the bomber escort AI is fairly aggressive. My proposed idea is to have a 6v6 for AI and slowly replace them with players as they join, then replace them with bots again as soon as one side drops under 6 players. That way it’s still a populated match without the need for players at all times. On top of this, servers hosted by Gaijin often have bots in them already to keep the players filled, although they don’t replace players after they leave. In the last 2 days I’ve had 3 matches end early because of the entire enemy team leaving.
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There’s currently a system which allows this in the game and it isn’t abused - just open this up to everyone to use in “user created” matches rather than just the random system created match.
I don’t see how it would be any more abused than the current system as the bots are basically just not very good players (at least they try to do their job).
It actually makes it harder to do PvE as the bots don’t care about your verbal agreements and it’s not easy to tell the difference between a player and one of these bots when you’re on the other team.
This issue of finding games seems to be getting worse but it’s especially bad when the BR ranges available are undesirable which is why I say we also need to be able to customize those in created rooms too. Give the bots the highest possible rating for whatever BR (to avoid ‘farming’).
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Especially as those bots can actually be kinda ruthless in a gun fight. Though are not programmed to react to any form of missile
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I can see your point of view on the issue of “bot farming”, but in my experience and through talking with other players in matches, bot farming is not as glaring of an issue and some others, such as balance, BR compression, and objectives (Sabre recon plane at mach Jesus go brrr).
In my gameplay experience, bots seem to have the upper hand more often than not, especially at the start of the match. For example, I’ve spawned into an 8.3-9.3 match, and quite often, I’ll either have been strafed on the runway by a bot or shot down in my climbout. To address the bots further on this, they seem to have unfair flight characteristics in comparison to players. One of the more noticeable “features” of this is the apparent inability for bots to stall out. Several times I’ve attempted to energy trap them, but they’ll follow me up better than the undertiered Yakovlev fighters.
One potential way to implement this in a somewhat fair manner is to reduce rewards for bots that fill in for player slots, but normalize rewards for player accounts.
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The same please, AI tanks for SIM ground battles…, sometimes long queues form as only two nations: China and Russia, fight agaisnt ALL other nations…, a bottleneck is formed. Also, please allow WIDE OVERLAPPING BR fights on sim… as in real world…, you know TT5s, T62s T72s fought M1A2s and Challengers for instance…, or T72B3 and T62Ms fight Leopard 1 and T72Ms… along Challengers and so on… (Irak, Ukraine etc)…, if a player wants to play with a lower BR knowin a WIDER BR range for a game… is its decision… he coul also pick on the other hand, a game where he could be an intermediate or TOP BR player…
This is more for Air (thus the tags) but yeah, would be good for that as well. Though I did 1 match in ground arcade assault, and my god, those ai… just imagine that in SB
Lower rewards is a fantastic way to balance out the matches and prevent farming, good thinking.
The early jets (BR 6.7+) have always been an unpopular period and the upper end of the unpopular range seems to have extended up to BR 9.0 now. The choice for anyone wanting to fly below top BR is usually pretty poor nowadays. You’ll probably find a game for EC1 and a few into the WW2 period, but good luck finding one for the nation you wanted to fly… and against vaguely historical opposition. So, yeah, overall this suggestion would certainly be worth trying. One reason player-created rooms can be abused is the ability to fix it so there is no active opposition; adding bots who ‘just know’ where the nearest player is would make abuse harder, not easier.
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Just happened upon a fresh match with bot accounts, so I figured I’d add some sort of foundation to my claim that AI “player” bots won’t affect how EC gets abused.
Fella on my team was using about 3 bot accounts on the enemy team, which he repeatedly rocket strafed as they respawned time and time again. This lasted for about 30 minutes before he disconnected from the match and disconnected his bots with him.
My entire team was comprised of F-4Js and F-4S’s who were “zombing”. Again, this lasted for approximately 30 minutes.
Here’s the server replay if anybody cares to help me report the blatant use of scripts and exploits: Gaijin Entertainment - Single Sign On
(Image included was snipped within the first few minutes of the match)
*Edited for better definition of “player bots”
Have you reported him the proper way, i.e. via the Server Replay Reporting function?
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That was the first thing I did once the match ended.
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Hello Octavia038
First of all, thank you for raising this important topic.
That’s exactly the biggest problem in WT Sim EC!
you want to fly, you can’t find a battle! you try to start one yourself, it doesn’t work. you wait…10 min…20 min…30… your WT Sim evening is over before it begins.
This problem is discussed far too rarely here. Here in this forum it is too often only about secondary things. and unfortunately now people are coming back who are trying to make abuse a big problem here!
Abuse is not the problem! The problem is that we don’t have enough choice and we don’t have good features to start battles!
This is exactly the problem that needs to be solved next in EC Sim.
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I also think if there are basically more rooms available then the number of players will also increase - then there would be enough room for everyone. the same is true with the doctor’s waiting room and the chairs. if there are more patients than chairs, some patients will leave immediately. so it needs more chairs
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They kill this mode for good to me.
By years dumping down FM’s delete pilot wounds, oil on wind screen. Take out rewards for killing. By bots Looby they make EC and SB PvE mode. They duck up visibility even worse.
Good advice for SIM players… you like ww2 planes buy IL2 if jet DCS. It’s be better fun and lower cost.
Gajin just don’t learn
I believe that’s exactly what OPs suggestion would do.
I usually want to start a new game when I’ve got one of the bonuses applied so I don’t get screwed out of it by joining a game that just happens to be one sided and almost over even though they’re only 40 minutes into the match. I’m sure others are doing this as well.
Lately there’s so few players playing (at any given tier) that it’s a nightmare, but top tier is the worst. I’ve started lobbies up to 3 times (that’s an hour of waiting) and there’s been times where I just never ended up getting into a room that day and had to play again the next day.
Let us turn on the AI bots to get these rooms rolling.
(Ironically enough, usually once the game starts it goes from 2v2 to 8v8 pretty quickly (so the bots won’t be in games long anyway)
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