In the past 2 years, we went from F-16s and MiG-29s (12.7) to Typhoons and F-15Es (14.0), introducing a massive increase in performance and progression. I think it is time for Gaijin to lay off the gas, slow down, and focus on high tier instead of top tier (and yes lower tiers, this will be specifically talking about Rank VIIIs though), for several reasons.
Balance and parity- for the first time since 2021 we are at a point in progression that every nation has an aircraft of comparable performance that they operated. These aren’t all in game yet, but every nation has possible 14.0s that would all be balanced alongside each other.
Progression- for the European nations there’s not really anything more that can be added for top tier without subtrees, except for later models of their existing aircraft with more powerful missiles which would be a substantial upgrade over existing technology.
Compression- top BRs are all sorts of compressed and out of whack, by giving top tier some time to settle by not introducing new definitive top dogs the BRs can be more easily sorted out and improved.
So what does this mean? What am I recommending?
nations with 14.0 aircraft currently should not receive any new upgrades to their top aircraft families- no new 14.0s for them (one exception for potentially an Indian Su-30)
nations without 14.0s should still receive 14.0s (I’m not trying to bully them lol), likely aircraft such as the Su-30 family, as well as others
Gaijin should then go back and fill in the many missing 12.7-13.7 aircraft, things like the F-18 and MiG-31 families
decompression as applicable
Overall, 2025 for War Thunder should aim to bring all nations up to, but not exceed, current 14.0 capabilities with one aircraft (or in exceptions two), then additional Rank VIII additions should be below 14.0 and aim to fill holes in trees and add historically significant aircraft. But by no means should Gaijin aim to “push the envelope” and add new aircraft intended to be superior to current ones, nor should they “pack” 14.0 with aircraft
this is cope, we need bigger BR brackets to relieve how compressed most BRs are. And the sooner we get every plausible top tier thing into the game, lower tiers will actually be cared about again as that’s the only new content that could be added
It’s mathematically impossible to do 18 let alone 20.
Back when F-16 was top I mathed it out to 14.0. Right now 15.0 seems to be peak. That’d decompressed 13.0 and 9.0 entirely, which are the problem BRs for air.
Personally, I suppose next month 6 aircraft go to 14.0 and 9 aircraft receive 14.3 because the first major update or second major update 2025 gaijin add new WVR & ARH missile
You can definitely get more than a single BR of decompression. You could get 0.7 out of the current 9.0-10.3 bracket, as well as an extra 0.3 out of the 7.0-8.0 bracket, and atleast 0.3 out of the current top tier bracket.