Friendly fire used to exist in GRB. It was removed to prevent deliberate teamkilling griefing, a totally valid reason. However, the removal created an unintended consequence: harassment behavior (sustained fire on teammates, ramming) now has zero in-game penalty.
GRB already has a partial friendly fire deterrent system in place for aircraft-related cases. This post explores extending that existing mechanic to ground-to-ground conduct.
Why the Report System Isn’t Enough
From community experience across squadrons, the report system is only effective for catching automated violations (slurs). For behavioral griefing, players have collectively given up on it being effective. A report filed after the match does nothing to deter behavior happening in real-time.
The Problem
Friendly fire damage is disabled in GRB, which is sensible. However, a player continuously firing MG or cannon rounds into an allied vehicle still causes real tactical harm through direct visual and audio exposure. Tracer rounds fired at an allied vehicle leave a visible trail that any attentive enemy can follow (both back to the shooter and forward to the victim).
- Hits on allied vehicles render visible sparkle effects.
- Ricochets produce audible sound cues.
None of these require a HUD indicator or spotting system to be exploited; they are direct sensory information available to any enemy in range.
The same applies to repeated deliberate ramming. Pushing an allied vehicle out of cover, into an enemy sightline, or off an elevated position causes direct tactical harm with no current feedback mechanism for the offender.
Hull-down positions, ambushes, and flanking routes can all be compromised through both of these behaviours. The player causing it rarely connects their actions to the outcome, because without a feedback mechanism the loop is completely absent.
Proposed Implementation
Rather than importing the Air Realistic Battles system wholesale, this proposal extends the existing GRB mechanic with a two-stage escalation mirroring what already exists within the game:
- Stage 1 – Warning: a visible on-screen message is displayed to the shooter when sustained direct fire on an allied vehicle, or repeated deliberate ramming of the same ally (identified as the vehicle carrying the higher speed at the moment of impact), is detected. [The exact trigger thresholds are for the development team to determine]; the principle is simply to distinguish a single accidental shot, brief stray burst, or incidental collision (all of which are genuinely hard to avoid) from deliberate or negligent sustained behaviour.
- Stage 2 – Kick: if the behaviour continues beyond a reasonable grace period after the warning, the player is removed from the match.
Edge Cases
To avoid false positives:
- Artillery and area-of-effect weapons: splash damage or explosions affecting nearby allies should not trigger this system. Detection should apply only to direct, targeted fire at a specific allied vehicle.
- Ally driving into line of fire: a single accidental hit on a teammate who moves into an active engagement should not trigger Stage 1. The threshold logic should account for this, as the existing GRB aircraft system already handles analogous ambiguities.
- Accidental collisions: given how frequently these occur naturally (particularly in urban maps and tight corridors) a single collision should never trigger the system. The threshold should require repeated high-speed contact against the same ally within a short timeframe, with the system attributing responsibility to the faster-moving vehicle at the moment of impact. This clearly distinguishes a genuine accident from deliberate pushing.
Precedent
The Air Battles’ friendly fire system operates on two parallel triggers: cumulative teamkills, and sustained fire volume on a friendly regardless of whether the target is destroyed. The latter being the mechanic most directly relevant here. Ground Battle’s existing system already follows similar logic for aircraft-related cases. This suggestion adds the ground-to-ground cases to complete the picture.
As an additional benefit, this system would serve as a passive deterrent against targeted harassment, such as players deliberately firing on teammates displaying specific national insignia or decals.
Final Note
Beyond the tactical argument, this implementation would have a broader positive effect on the game environment. A significant portion of the behaviours described here fall into deliberate harassment — players who actively undermine their own team’s efforts with no current consequence. A deterrent system does not need to be punitive to be effective; in many cases a visible warning alone is enough to correct inattentive players, while persistent offenders are removed before the damage compounds. The result would be a measurable improvement to gameplay quality, a reduction in toxic behaviour, and a stronger foundation for the kind of teamplay that makes GRB and SB worth playing at a serious level.
The system asks nothing of players who are already behaving reasonably — it only affects those who aren’t.
Should GRB’s existing friendly fire system be extended to include ground-to-ground sustained fire and ramming cases?
- Yes
- Yes, but implementation details need further discussion
- No