As someone who enjoys messing around in Custom games, enjoying the chaos that reigns as a thousand zero IQ bots mindlessly shoot each other until one specific area of that map looks like an average day of California. However, something is missing.
There is a lack of air defence to prevent me from being a proper War Thunder Ground player (hiding in the sky in a plane). You see, I would like to see the boys have the ability to be in planes in Customs. It would be nice to see a couple of Phantoms in the sky dropping bombs and accidentally TKing their own botty teammates, or MiG 21 doing a thousand loops in the sky. Plus, it would make training with SPAA a bit easier than sitting in “Test Drive” and firing at helicopters and MiG 15s travelling at a full 300km/h (exaggeration). Plus it would also help people with dogfights in GRB and GSB settings, because everyone knows that ARB and GRB battles are completely different (ARB gets name tags, GRB doesn’t).
As well, I wish they would revamp the BR requirements. For some reason, when I put the BR requirement at a minimum of 7.7 (Vietnam era tanks with the M48 Patton and T-54s/55s, Type 59, etc ), I’m still fighting Shermans. That doesn’t make sense, since the minimum requirement is not 6.7, it is the 7.7 BR.
On top of that, why can I not bring in lower BR tanks, since the bots can do it? Like for my Chinese lineup, I am using the ZTZ99A, ZBD04A, VT4A1, and Z-10. However, if I set it up for 12.0 (to fight modern tanks like the highest available Abrams, Challengers, and Type 90s), I cannot play with the Z-10 or ZBD04A. So then I have to lower the BR requirements, and now I don’t get to fight modern tanks, instead I’m going against a bunch of M-60s (which I don’t want).
So which is it? Fix the bots so they are at the proper BR level, or allow people to bring in lower BRs with the minimum requirement to have the proper BR vehicle.
Speaking of modern tanks, hopefully Gaijin will implement the newest vehicles as bots. If I set the requirements for 12.0 ground, I’m still fighting IPM1s and other 10.0-11.0 tanks. Similar with air: I set it to 14.0, and I am facing MiG 21s, J-8s, Kfirs, and Phantoms. Last I checked, there was no 14.0 MiG 21bis. I don’t see why the newest jets (or at the very least, early Rank VIII jets like F-16s, F-15s, and MiG 29s) are not implemented. They have been in the game for nearly a year.
And lastly, just for funsies, it would be interesting to see the bots fire missiles. Give them the ability to at least throw their stock missiles at you. If they TK each other, no big deal, because if you play Sim in Customs, all they ever do is TK themselves anyways. I just want to see the chaos of it all plus it would teach newer players how to actually use countermeasures and how to avoid missiles (or at least stock missiles). I’m not expecting them to unleash all 10 AIM 120s at a player, but at least give the F-15 bot AIM 9Ls, or the MiG 29 bots R-60Ms. They are in the game, they should be there.
Bog question is why am I asking for Customs to be revamped? Because people enjoy Customs, I enjoy it. I don’t always want to play Pubs, and sometimes I enjoy the beauty of sitting back, playing some Jimi Hendrix, and blasting T-54s in a Huey on Vietnam in a Sim match. Plus, the best way to train for tournaments is by playing against Bots. That’s at least what I did when I used to do stuff for Call of Duty: put myself against three Veteran bots and played a match and try not to get eliminated. After that, I do four bots until I don’t get eliminated, five, and so on. Plus there are fun games you can play with your friends in Customs like “Protect the Children” which is where one guy is in a plane dropping payloads on your team, and you have to shoot them down in a SPAA.
Lots of ideas to make Customs a bit more fun. And even if they’re not coded properly, it just makes it even more fun because nothing is more hilarious than seeing the enemy team going into fireballs as they hurl missiles and shoot each other. I know I enjoy it at least, and so does the team that is witnessing the Red team fragging each other. If you guys would like, discuss more changes you’d like to see for Custom matches.