Introduction
As War Thunder continues to introduce more modern aircraft, I believe role differentiation between aircraft is becoming increasingly important.
This suggestion is not about historical accuracy or real-world aircraft capabilities. I am also not asking for a direct nerf to the Su-30SM.
Instead, this is purely a gameplay and vehicle design suggestion. My concern is that dedicated strike aircraft should have meaningful advantages over multirole fighters in the role they were introduced to perform.
The Current Situation
The Su-30SM is currently an extremely capable multirole aircraft. It combines excellent air-to-air performance with a wide selection of precision-guided air-to-ground weapons, allowing it to perform both fighter and strike missions very effectively.
The problem is that this leaves the Su-34 in an awkward position.
The Su-34 is intended to be a dedicated strike aircraft, yet in War Thunder it offers very few gameplay advantages over the Su-30SM.
Compared with the Su-30SM, the Su-34 is:
- Less maneuverable.
- Less effective in air-to-air combat.
- Yet unable to provide a sufficiently superior strike capability to justify choosing it instead.
As a result, many players simply choose the Su-30SM because it can perform almost every mission while remaining the superior fighter.
When one aircraft can replace another in nearly every practical situation, the replaced aircraft gradually loses its gameplay identity.
This Is a Gameplay Design Issue
I want to emphasize that this suggestion is not based on real-world military performance.
Whether a specific aircraft can carry a certain weapon in real life is a separate discussion.
My concern is about gameplay.
If War Thunder chooses to include both multirole fighters and dedicated strike aircraft within the same tech tree, each aircraft should offer meaningful gameplay reasons to be selected.
Otherwise, dedicated strike aircraft become redundant because multirole fighters can simply accomplish the same tasks with fewer compromises.
Existing Examples
War Thunder already demonstrates this design philosophy in several aircraft families.
The F-15C and F-15E are good examples.
Although they share the same basic platform, each aircraft has a distinct gameplay role.
The F-15C primarily excels in air superiority, while the F-15E focuses much more heavily on strike missions.
Because each aircraft has different strengths and trade-offs, both remain valuable choices depending on the player’s mission.
This creates healthier gameplay and encourages vehicle diversity.
Suggested Design Philosophy
Rather than allowing one aircraft to perform every role equally well, I believe War Thunder should continue to emphasize role differentiation whenever both multirole fighters and dedicated strike aircraft exist within the same nation.
Possible implementation:
- Air superiority fighters should primarily excel in air combat.
- Multirole fighters should remain flexible but should not completely replace dedicated strike aircraft.
- Dedicated strike aircraft should provide the strongest ground attack capability, the broadest selection of strike weapons, or other meaningful gameplay advantages that justify choosing them.
This approach does not require every nation to have separate fighter and strike aircraft.
However, when both types already exist in a nation’s lineup, each should retain a unique gameplay purpose.
Expected Benefits
Adopting this philosophy would:
- Preserve the identity of dedicated strike aircraft.
- Encourage meaningful aircraft selection based on mission requirements.
- Improve lineup diversity.
- Reduce situations where one aircraft completely replaces another.
- Create a healthier foundation for future top-tier aircraft additions.
Conclusion
Using the Su-34 as an example, I believe it currently lacks a meaningful gameplay niche because the Su-30SM can perform nearly all of its intended missions while also being a much stronger air superiority fighter.
Again, this is not a request based on real-world military capability, nor is it intended to single out Soviet aircraft.
Instead, I hope War Thunder continues to improve vehicle identity by ensuring that dedicated strike aircraft have meaningful gameplay advantages whenever they coexist with multirole fighters.
Doing so would make aircraft selection more interesting, improve long-term balance, and give every aircraft a genuine purpose within the game.