What if every one of your jets are base, with just guns, and they get a base BR. For example, lets take the ever popular F14A IRAF
Lets say its clean loadout, bare bones, is 11.0.
Adding just sidewinders would bump it to 11.3
Adding Sparrows/R27’s bumps it to 11.7
Adding Phoenix/Faukor bumps it to 12.3
Thoughts?
Adding weaponry adjusts this BR,
Fox-3’s count for a 2 step difference.
IRCCM Fox 2’s count for a 2 step difference.
Radar missiles count for a 1 step difference.
Non-IRCCM missiles count for a 1 step difference.
Not having Chaff/Flares on a plane (9.0 area) and having bombs or cannons would almost ensure that you never catch an AIM9L up the tailpipe.
Variable BR could work for ground as well in terms of CAS and helos. With guided weaponry, fire and forget weaponry, etc being weighed more heavily than rockets or bombs.
Would require locking loadouts once you enter a match, which is frustrating for some, but a system along these lines is a must for balance in the future, particularly at top tier to assist stock grind/event vehicles
While locking loadouts would be a bother for some, ultimately you should be flying out what you intend to play with in the first place.
If your doing multirole, do multirole, ground attack for ground attack, etc.
This post ties in well with my other about ARBEC and developing the future of the game. Ultimately, Gaijin is going to develop themselves into a corner. With no more tanks and planes to add.
What then? Game modes, a subscription based model, reinventing the wheel.
Best to get an early start on that with 4.5gen aircraft already here.
The system could allow custom loadouts. Using custom loadouts, unavailable presets would be locked off, but player would still have a good amount of choice.
This system would work well for helicopters. Such helicopters like Z-9 and Z-19 are heavily overtiered due to their access to the TY-90. Often +0.7 or +1.0 the BR where they used to be. They have extremely terrible anti-ground capabilities for the BR. This system would finally make using these helicopters for anti-ground duties possible again.
Also for rocket rushing helicopters. The capability of a helicopter with unguided rockets is massively different from one using their guided weapons. Using most helicopters, you meet the 2S38 or Begleitpanzer, and it’s an automatic death sentence. Not to mention the lack of light vehicles at top tier. Implementation of such a system would allow this unique playstyle to really shine again.
Although a good idea I think it might be better if instead BR’s were altered by the weapon mods you equip. That way you can still swap loadouts in matches except you would need to make BR specific loadouts instead.
I think this would also work great for aircraft that can currently receive much better weapons/radars than what they have now. Instead of researching a whole new aircraft it would then instead be a mod that when enabled/disabled would give you permit/deny access to said upgrades but would also adjust the vehicle BR accordingly.
See in ARB a BR would be low for a fighter fitting Bombs, but then having best speed and ability to avoid other aircrafts (grinding machines)
Meanwhile the one having all air-air missiles will struggle against other aircrafts of same/upper level ability.
Therefore, your current proposal is Impossibly realistic neither is balance able without a Master degree in Mathematical Theory about Probabilities.
Also,… Fox-2 IRCCM being 2 steps, figures that current air-air missile of same generation are all in same BR steps,… so you’re wildly increasing those BR for last resort / last minute missiles (compared to Modern SARH or ARH missiles)
The balancing issue does seem to be the hardest thing about this idea.
IRCCM is weighed in at 2 steps the same as ARH missiles. This is due to the near-certain kill they bring to the table. Get too close and go back to the hangar. Dont flare properly and go back to the hangar.
SARH is weighed in at 1 step. As it lacks the fire and forget capability and (honestly) lethality of even the early ARH Phoenix and Fakours.
Even modern(ish) SARH’s are more easily defeated than early ARH missiles.
R27ER for example, just fly low, notch, chaff, its done. Save for (I think) the Mig29SMT’s radar, the SU27’s lose lock pretty consistently when I defend against them.
Now how would you balance a smaller amount of missiles, for example what if a J-7D took 2 PL-5Bs rather than 4. Would it then be 10.3? It would be 2 free kills and an absolute stompfest for dogfights after. It seems incredibly difficult to balance.
A clean configuration makes no sense and will make things like F-16 very hard to balance.
Iranian F-14 with R-27R is 12.0 minimum
With Phoenix 12.3/12.7
With Fakour 13.0
Decompression is not the solution to everything. It can only be used if the player base is large enough, so that decompression won’t make queue times unbearable.
Bear in mind that the server, BR, time of day, and mode all are contributing factors to the queue times. It is easy to say, from the perspective of a top tier, ground realistic/air realistic, NA server player, playing at peak times, that queue times are low enough. But consider the same situation, except for one change: you play on SA, or you play at abnormal times, or you play any other mode: especially simulator, naval modes, etc. The situation changes massively.
I am supportive of slight decompression of top tier air and ground at the moment. But only to an additional BR maximum of 1 BR; 0.7 BR would be more reasonable, even. Those who only play in the most populated servers, at the most popular times, on the most popular modes, or on the most popular times, have no power to demand general decompression.
And remember, Gaijin has the statistics on queue times, not us. Remember to think of the minority when calling for decompression.
Also, this is a false dichotomy. There is no reason to believe we could not receive both variable loadouts BR and decompression.
And even if satisfactory decompression were achieved, this would still not solve the problem which variable loadouts BRs would decisively fix. You still wouldn’t be able to use inferior loadouts at an appropriate BR.
Variable loadouts BRs would allow players to have fun playing vehicles with disproportionately strong weapons for the BR (such as the A-10, QN506, Su-27). It would allow players to play vehicles in historically significant ways. Or have more fun playing vehicles in previously ineffective but unique ways, such as rocket rushing in helicopters. Most importantly, it would make the stock grind much easier. You can’t have that if a vehicle only has one BR.
Could work for ground too. At the moment, the only tangible difference between the Challenger Mk2 and 3 is the Mk 3 gets L26, which results in a 0.3 BR difference. Never mind that both could fire that round in real life.
However, there isn’t really a 10.3 lineup for GB, so as a result you’re going to be primarily running the Mk2 with the Mk3 in a 10.7 line, where it’s lesser round gimps it for no reason. It would be nice to have the option to grab L26 on it, raising the BR up to 10.7, just for a bit of lineup cohesion. While still leaving the base tank at 10.3, for people who really like a lineup with 4 SPAAs in it.
It’s a nice bit of added flexibilty that could let some vehicles work in multiple different lineups. For instance, the new French VEXTRA could get 105 G2/3 ammo as an optional round, at the cost of a BR increase, allowing it to work better in high tier lineups without depriving 9.7 of it as well.
I’ve long wanted something like this. We have aircraft in this game who’s armaments changed dramatically throughout their service life, like going from early sidewinders to 9Ls, 9Ms etc, and likewise with sparrows, and changing this would allow them to play at lower BRs for which their flight performances are more suitable, without being OP.
This’d be a nice avenue for decompression too, since we’ve got some power creep with vehicles getting more and better missiles to keep up with new additions to their BR range - see things like the T-2 getting Aim 9Ps, or the yak 38 getting an extra 2 R-60s. Those loadouts could tack on an extra 0.3BR, and the new competition that caused those armament upgrades could also get bumped up when using their best missiles.
I think this is gonna become increasingly important with ARH missiles. Pretty much every ARH-carrying jet in the game can carry newer, better versions of their missiles, and when those missiles come to the game are they all gonna get upgraded? What then happens, do we get no fights with earlier ARHs (barring phoenixes)? Are the 4th gens that can’t carry them gonna get stomped even harder? Because I doubt Gaijin is gonna let there be a big enough gap in BRs to entirely separate the two.