[Would you like more SPAA to be given scouting capabilities?]
Yes
Maybe/Maybe Not
No
0voters
Greetings, this is an interesting idea that has been floating around my head for a while now, and i would like to see what the WT community & Gajin think about it.
Since some SPAA at higher ranks are provided scouting abilities, I would like to suggest the possibility of expanding it so that more SPAA vehicles are provided the scouting ability. Obvious exceptions would be the Flak trucks (8.8 cm Flak 37 Sf. auf s. Zgkw. 18t & 29K) and Rank I SPAA. But other exceptions could be determined by Gajin.
One major positive to this suggestion would be that weaker SPAA vehicles could now opt to play much more supportively, getting back into the fray supporting their allies instead of hiding in spawn, likely to the dismay of CAS users.
This idea would also make sense from a realism standpoint, as it was common practice to provide anti-aircraft teams with binoculars for identifying aircraft.
I was thinking that all top tier SPAA should get scout drones for improved team support (handy when there is no air targets as well, like early match) but also giving them scouting at all BRs, especially the special ability to “scout” aircraft, could be really interesting. Again, would give people a reason to play them more, especially in early game to pre-empt CAS spawning
I think any AA without an “effective” direct fire main armament should qualify. For instance many AA using the 20mm that can only pen around 40mm or so isn’t really effective and should get scouting. But for those AA who use the 20mm but also get APDS/APFSDS then they shouldn’t.
Things like the Sd.Kfz 222 (which shouldn’t even BE an SPAA) for sure deserve scouting. The 222 literally is a scout car after all. Other vehicles could get it as well, particularly trucks and such.
Might even be nice if there was some kind of maximum up tier handicap for medium tanks. Say for example if your line up was dragged into a 1.0 uptier your medium tanks also got free spotting mechanics.
Sounds like an unnecessary complication as it would be confusing if some SPAAs had it and some not.
Giving it to all SPAAs would also make the scouting way more common which would likely change the dynamic of the game in a major way and bring it closer to WoT spotting mechanic, where you often get shot just because you were spotted even if you didn’t know that (they later countered it by giving “sixth sense” lightbulb ability to everyone).
It is more likely for Gaijin to reclassify some vehicles to light tanks in order to give them this capability. Which probably already happened with M18 Hellcat and possibly other vehicles.
But I doubt they would give it to many other vehicles just to avoid scout spam.
Don’t get me wrong, I would love the american 4.0 SPAA to have the spotting ability:D
Adding scouting to SPAA platforms that historically were not used for reconnaissance is a step in the wrong direction.
Scouting needs reform, there are many reconnaissance vehicles which should have scouting that do not, and several vehicles classed as SPAA that should be Light Tank class.
I wonder if with upcoming update there could be shift in approach to research penalties for Rank differences.
Lights tanks seem to be quite affected by this, when BR and consequently Rank is usually determined by firepower, so unless specific light tank has enough firepower for specific rank, it is put to lower one, which results in many light tanks concentrated in lower BRs even though in reality they could and would be used as recoinassance and other kind of support in coop with higher rank vehicles.
I can imagine many players would want to use these vehicles (and some do) in higher ranks, but are penalised by research penalties, so it is often not viable to use them, not due to lack of utility potential but by arbitrary penalty.
While there are good reasons for Rank restrictions, it also hurts other aspects of the game, such as vehicle variability in matches and variability of potential strategies and tactics employed during the match.
Instead of giving SPAA the same scouting ability as Light Tanks, better give them the ability to scout AIR targets. That way they are useful to the team in the role of anti air and are still differentiated from Light Tanks
The biggest issue I see with this honestly is that the speed and manoeuvrability of many SPAAs which would make them comically easy to kill from anywhere they could actually scout from. Which will make the ability largely redundant for a lot of them.
We need this for all SPAAG, really. Anything to encourage people to move their AA outside their own spawns to where they can help their team is badly overdue.
