Fairly simple suggestion, so I’ll try to keep this as short as possible.
Background:
In each game mode (Air/Ground/Naval), there are two in-match awards for getting the most player kills of anyone in the match - the difference between the two is that the “higher” of the two awards has a minimum number of kills required, at which point it replaces the “lower” award for the player who would have earned it.
In each AB game mode, the required number of kills is 12, and the RB and SB game modes get a multiplier to compensate for the increased difficulty of getting kills relative to Arcade. All RB modes get a x2 multiplier, reducing the kill requirement to 6, and the multiplier is different for the two SB modes: Ground SB gets a 2x multiplier like RB, and Air SB gets a 3x multiplier for a kill requirement of 4.
The Problem:
For most of the game modes, these multipliers are fairly consistently balanced - in my experience you’ll see at least one player hitting the requirement in around 60-80% of matches by my estimate. (I can’t personally speak for Sim here, but I assume the story is similar.) However, there is one standout exception: Air RB.
Unlike every other game mode, Air Realistic Battles does not allow players to respawn after dying. That means that there are only 16 enemy aircraft to shoot down in a full-size match, and only 12 if the reduced match size option is enabled. Having a single player take down 6 of those enemies on their own is incredibly rare - I’d estimate that it happens in less than 5% of matches I’ve been in.
With that said, this makes earning Hero of the Sky in Air RB nearly impossible, even for players who regularly find themselves at the top of their team. Personally, 4 kills is a pretty good match, and 5 kills might be my best match of the day. At 6, I’m considering saving that replay and showing it to my friends - it’s incredibly rare.
Meanwhile, in Ground RB, I’d estimate that I earn 6 kills in the majority of matches I play, regardless of whether I’m top of the team - I might earn Heavy Metal Hero multiple times in a night if I’m playing well. I very rarely play arcade, but when I do getting the 12 kills required for Hero of the Sky/Heavy Metal Hero is fairly easy. Similar story when playing naval, either AB or RB.
In any case, the point is that having someone meet the requirement for Hero of the Sky in Air RB is absurdly rare when compared to earning the equivalent in any other game mode, and this is due to the fact that there aren’t enough enemy players to kill given the lack of respawns.
The Solution(s):
My first suggestion is to make earning Hero of the Sky easier in Air RB only - increasing the multiplier to x2.5 would mean that 5 kills in Air RB would “equal” 12.5 kills in Air AB, meaning that the Air RB requirement would be reduced to 5. Alternatively, a x3 multiplier would reduce the requirement further down to 4. For reference, the current kill requirement to get the full skill RP bonus in Air RB is 4 (fewer than required for Hero of the Sky), and the Ground RB requirement is 9 for the full RP bonus (more than required for Heavy Metal Hero). Personally, I like 5 best - I actually wouldn’t mind the award not being something someone gets almost every match, though I feel like 4 kills probably best matches the difficulty of earning the equivalent award in other modes.
The alternative in my mind is to leave the Air RB requirement for Hero of the Sky right where it is at 6 kills, and instead make the kill requirement for Hero of the Sky/Heavy Metal Hero/Terror of the Sea higher in every other game mode, so that they all roughly match the current rarity of HotS in Air RB.
- Yes, reduce it to 4 kills required. (x3 multiplier)
- Yes, reduce it to 5 kills required. (x2.5 multiplier)
- No, leave it at 6 kills required. (x2 multiplier)
- No, leave it at 6 kills, and increase the kill requirement in every other game mode.