They got rid of that mechanic some time ago and I don’t really understand why. Guess the fighter mafia was complaining too much.
But no, I wasn’t aware of that report, I’ll give it a +1
In general, they should reintroduce airfield destruction, even if it’s just for the forward airfield. We need more meaningful targets for bombers and strike aircraft.
It was May 2020 - and this looks rather easy to explain:
The former (still existing on not bugged 3 bases maps) win condition “enemy airfield destroyed” is not easy to balance if your devs add dozens of aircraft with high TNT payloads every few months - and trying to balance airfield HPs with BR limits (for airfield HP) is a dead end if half of your team (including fighters) carries bombs like in Ground RB.
That means that at prop BRs 3 or 4 bombers could often focus on the enemy airfield because 3 or 4 very fast strike aircraft wiped out the 3 bases. The introduction of the F-4E (March 2020) made top tier games ending faster than today as their insane payload allowed winning PvP matches with PvE actions way too often.
In addition: Gaijin’s growth strategy required an easy to use grinding tool - so by getting rid of the win condition “airfield destroyed” they offered a tool which allowed progress by bombing respawning bases and way more potential targets in the way more profitable Mach 2 jet market (outside prop BRs) for PvP players at the same time.
Depending on your aircraft you earn 2-3 times more RP for a base kill than for a player kill - this is a design choice to steer player behavior / actions and support premium sales of Mach 2 jets with high payloads…
The mechanic was still present in low BR battles until somewhat recently, games just never lasted long enough for bombers to even be able to destroy the airfield.
Not entirely - there are still a lot of not bugged 3 bases maps (like Malta, Norway, Stalingrad) on which bombers (can) make a difference if used by experienced players.
Either by a significant ticket reduction (as mission objective “destroy enemy bases” is fulfilled) or by the ultimate goal “enemy airfield destroyed” win condition.
It is still active on some maps.
The last time i saw an airfield actually destroyed was months ago - and about 6 weeks ago i almost lost almost my airfield (HP circle down to ~3%) in a 3.7- 4.7 match on the Britain map.
I do agree that at BR 5.0 or above it gets way harder as base HP and airfield HP increase strongly from 4.7 to 5.0…
Even still, I can’t see how the player base being bias against it would be an acceptable reason to not address a very real in-game problem.
I’d fully agree with your second point if the aircraft AI gunners were at least semi-decent with stock Crew Skills, but even with max Crew Skills and Ace Qualifications, they’re practically worthless. I do agree about improvements needing to be made to manual gunner controls, though. I just don’t believe that’s enough.
I fly bombers (and attackers) quite often, too. I love 'em, and I want to see their potential fully realized without breaking balance. I don’t want the aircraft AI gunners to be godlike (which is a major issue with ship AI gunners ATM), just more effective than their current state.
I am not sure if you have the right perspective on this topic - the ai engagement range would be still far below your engagement range with manual gunnery.
Most people are not aware of that their survival in a bomber is connected to keep chasing enemies as long as possible inside their gunner range (up to 2.5 km) but outside the effective range of their fighter opponents (0.50 cal = 1.7 km, 20mm cannons up to 1.5 km, higher calibers even >2 km).
Yes (in general) and no for reload time - i aced a lot of aircraft with gunners with lev 75 crews. The only really useful crew skill is the aced reload time of gunners (like 10 sec for 0.50 cals and the 13.2mm Akan cannon) which allows you to put constant pressure on enemies, force them to dodge (losing speed & extending your time to pepper him).
The main problems of manual gunnerey are:
An quote from last year:
Have a good one!
yep. “Alongside the bombers, we updated the damage models for other aircraft classes derived from bomber airframes…”
finally took a while im a happy bomber main now
I like the bomber buff. Makes it so you don’t get one tapped by a 20mm round to the tail; gives you some time to react.
But
Absolutely! I’m surprised gaijin have decided to model its legendary durability accurately. Finally I can fly the Canberra as the designers intended: like a cannonball.
(All jokes aside this is a bit much)
Well yes, the larger mass wins.
It’s why semis overpower Priuses
While we’re at it, detonating bombs by shooting them also needs to be removed.
Tldr ww2 air players arent ground players and dont like aiming, and instead want everything they look at to be lasered to death instantly upon their arrival; thus we cannot have fun gameplay.
(Wrong reply i meant to click the message above this one)
Or at least make it far harder
how about
German TT has many strange unit placements, also ground. Lower rank despite higher BR. Order within the TT not matching the BRs, like in your example.
which they did
Straight lies, or you clearly don’t bomb anything.
Playing grb or air, one strike by anything 7.62 or greater typically detonated bombs.
its even worse on naval with its lot of auto-aa guns - not even that planes are mostly killed on their first attack but also often all of the dropped bombs detonate mid-air
Literally in the devserver changelog today:
“The conditions of bomb damage and detonation while they are still on the aircraft have been adjusted. The explosion is now possible either on a direct hit of a shell with more than 80 kJ of energy: so a minimum of 23-30 mm AP shell, or on an explosion of a shell with 30 g or more of explosives in TNT equivalent right on the bomb: so a minimum of 30 mm shell. For a guaranteed detonation of a bomb a shell with at least 3 kg of explosives in TNT equivalent is needed: so a minimum of 100-122 mm HE round. But many hits of shrapnel and low-caliber projectiles are not harmless to a bomb, as they can render it unusable without exploding it, after which the bomb will get discarded.”