I believe Custom Battles needs a better rehaul. At the current moment, the best you can do for Customs are choosing maps, game mode, countries, “vehicle selector” (allowing tanks, planes, and helis), and BRs (minimum and maximum). However, this does cause part of an issue of you are trying to play specific battles/wars.
For example, if you want to roleplay Vietnam, your best chance at doing anything is setting the BR to 7.7, and having America and Britain versus China and Russia. However, you will still have WWII equipment like Shermans, IS-2s and 4s, among other things both well below 7.7 (despite being a minimum of 7.7.
The same thing as planes, if I was wanting a MiG 15bis/J2 versus F-86 fight, I would put it at a minimum BR of 8.3, however when I do that, the vehicles are often well below, being Il-10, P-51, La-7, with the only jet close enough being the MiG-9.
My recommendation would be to allow players to filter specific vehicles, rather than rely on a filter system that is inaccurate and only affects players. This way, players can have a proper customisation of games, whether it be through 1v1s, roleplays, or even practicing on various vehicles.
On the topic of practicing, I believe the Test Drive needs an update as well, with a new high tier practice plane and tanks. The MiG 15 set up should be classified as “Mid Difficulty” while a new jet (say MiG 29) should be put in and labelled as the new “High Difficulty” in test drive. The tanks should be upgraded to T-72, T-80, and T-90 tanks, with the American tanks being upgraded to M60 and various Abrams tanks.
As a last request, I believe the bots need a final upgrade. While the US, Britain, and Sweden get their top tier vehicles (Abrams, Challenger 2 and 3, and Stridsvagn 122), other countries are stuck in the 10.0 BR range (Ariete Prototype, Leopard 2A4, AMX, and Gal Batash at their height). I believe they should get their “top vehicles” as Ariete, Leopard 2A6, Leclerc, and Merkava.
Same as the planes, where the highest are Phantoms (America, Britain, Germany, and Japan), MiG 23 (Russia), J8 (China), MiG 21 (Germany and Italy), Mirage (France and Israel), and Viggen (Sweden). These vehicles should be replaced with F-16 (America, China, Israel, Italy, and Japan), MiG 29/Su-27 (Russiaand Germany), Eurofighter (Britain, Germany, and Italy), F-2 (Japan), J-11 (China), Mirage/Rafale (France), and Grippen (Sweden).
This will allow players to be able to play around with high tier vehicles, to practice against in fights, and to properly test their abilities against vehicles close to their Bars, rather than facing outdated equipment.
Why do we need this? Simple, because it allows the players to have more.
Sure, we have armour analysis, but there is a major difference between firing at a model and firing at an actual tank in a battle. If someone struggles facing a Tiger E in their Firefly (which happens every single match for the Firefly), armour analysis just says, “hey, just shoot at this perfectly sitting Tiger that is not doing anything”, meanwhile the bots will actively fire at you and you can learn through firing towards and getting fired at. You cannot do that currently, because minimum BR says 5.7, so how can you use your Firefly AND face a Tiger? You cannot.
As well, allows LARPers/Role Players to be able to control the battle more. “Why not just make friends/get involved in a group?” *No.
Plus, sometimes people just enjoy doing a proper battle by themselves in a Custom. I myself enjoy playing Vietnam War stuff, even if it is by myself just firing at the rare T-54 or M41, while surrounded by IS-2s getting themselves stuck on a tree.
1v1s will be easier to do, especially since it will prevent angry players from leaving the game and coming back in something OP. I remember 1v1ing someone on Normandy, and I was beating them so badly, they quit and came back in a BMPT. Technically I won, but still, it is just sad people will rage quit and come back in something that they are not supposed to in a 1v1 just because they cannot handle losing. This “Vehicle Selector” will prevent people from being able to ruin 1v1s or getting their friend involved with an outside vehicle.
Higher tier bots means more opportunities to do more modern warfare, test vehicles (like being able to learn where to fire at when they’re in a Merkava, and you’re a Ariete). “But just make friends,” okay, not everyone is on the same level or have the same vehicles. If I struggle against an Ariete (laughable, I know, but this is an example), and my friend is a Russian main, how am I supposed to learn to fight one if I don’t actively have a more controlled environment to fire in. Same thing can be said with planes. If I struggle fighting a Grippen, and my friend only has the Su-30, how will I learn if I am not actively fighting a Grippen? The bots make it easier to learn how to fight.
All in all, I believe a Vehicle Selector and upgraded bots will be a welcome change, for players in multiple communities (LARPing, solo battles who enjoy accuracy, modern warfare enjoyers, and more), and will make Customs even more fun, especially as more and more people are getting tired of Multiplayer and only treat it as a grind rather than a fun game we all believed this game was when we started.