Yeah…Heli PvE needs a MAJOR works on it. I would love to play helicopters and gridn them, but i will not spend almost 2hr in a game mode for at best 12k RP. Im sorry but that is just not only weist of time but also SL. Still remember when i tried to grind Japan helis. The starting one, every time i died to SPAA snipe at 3km, i lost 20k SL …for a stock helicopter that only has rockets…yeah, no thanks
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yeah the grind is abysmally slow even with a heli that gets rocket pods like the mi24A so you can kill the ground targets before anyone else, id imagine with my KA-50 itd only be an extra 20k rp so it would still take at best 6hrs of grinding to get a heli that is unusable stock becuase rocket rushing at the start of a GRB game is borderline worthless you might kill a light tank but thats only 800 rp or so, pretty sure the easiest way to grind out helis mods would be to rush to the enemies helipad and camp there the whole game killing anyone that spawns instantly
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Played a few matches yesterday and they looked like this for most of the match…
Nothing to do for 90% of the game. It got so bad that everyone just left the match.
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Big maps without a lot of objectives is very lame. Sometimes tank spawns get bugged and stop spawning until like 10-25 minutes has passed, leaving only the bases if there’s even any left to begin with, or planes, which might not be ideal if you don’t have AAMs/hard hitting guns or want to maximize your RP earnings (killing planes in PvE bleeds a lot of tickets and thus ends the game sooner)
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The biggest problem with Heli PVE is that info about its mechanics is fragmentary and scattered all over the internet, and very few people care enough to learn.
For example greed ruins nearly every single heli PVE match. Rewards don’t work like in other modes, 250 score every 10 minutes of being alive gives you most of the rewards (like 90%) that you can possibly earn, and 300 score gets you deep into diminishing return territory (something like 96% of max). Going above that is nearly always just taking potential score, and thus rewards, away from others.
So often some stupid Ka-50 (or Hind A/D in lower bracket) or other premium heli just doesn’t care about anything, doesn’t read chat, just clears every objective on his own racking up 1k score every 10 minutes, bugs out the base objective by killing them too fast, drains most of the tickets, and then just leaves when his booster expires. Very common occurence, and screws everyone over for almost no gain for himself.
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The sweatier players J out whenever a new convoy/frontline spawns, respawns on the helipad closest to said objectives, and hoard all the kills before others could even manage to turn their choppers around.
Grinding the Hueys and BO-105s I was forced to adapt the same strategy, as otherwise I won’t be able to get any kills before they’re erased off the map. Especially on the BO105s since they’re slow and gets matched with top tier helicopters for some reason. I have to admit I’m also guilty of it myself while grinding the USSR helicopters with the Ka-50. (I hated the 4AV)
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Thing is that’s just stupid, screwing over both others and also yourself (even if you don’t care about bleeding SL by doing this). Your rewards are tied to time alive as well as score gained, so by just J’ing out like this you throw most of what you’ve already earned but haven’t been paid yet into the aether. If only Gaijin gave even the slightest shit and explained stuff like this to people before they’re allowed to join the queue, or at least while you are sitting in the queue - after all you can’t do anything else, might as well have a screen explaining gamemode-specific tips and mechanics explained?
It really isn’t that hard if Gaijin gave even the slightest shit about QoL, instead of the endless flood of (mostly useless) new vehicles.
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Unfortunately it has been years since the mode got any sort of attention. No mention of it whatsoever in any recent patch note, big or small.
As for SL bleeding, well it didn’t really matter since it was a premium heli. You could easily break even playing like that, especially with some SL boosters on. Either that or you just had an abundance of SL to begin with and simply didn’t care. It is what it is, sadly. I hadn’t even figured out that there’s a hard limit on earnings.
A wiki page explaining the game mode in detail would definitely be a good idea. Shouldn’t be that hard since there’s simply not a whole lot to actually detail…
They actual did one thing for the game mode in the last update… they disabled wagers for it.
The small amount of attention they put into it was dedicated to making it even worse for players.
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Y’know, I’ve been simmering on it for a while but it’s finally come to head grinding out the AH-64DJP in PvE…
Frakk Rocky Canyon. That map needs to be removed from the queue ASAP, it adds nothing other than aimbot AI, horrid map traversal, and terribly stupid patrol spawns that would make Bourbon Island blush.
Edit: Oh yeah, and nearly forgot, due to high altitude the map also makes your Heli maneuver like a boat when you’re up on either side of the canyon. Who OK’d this?
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That map also seems to screw the tracking of stuff like the PARS 3. Got it very recently and the missiles seem to either miss or randomly explode for no discernible reason. And this was against stationary Gepards and AT guns.
I got Afghanistan afterwards and suddenly the missiles work again. Weird.
Also yeah, on Rocky Canyon my UHT struggled to get above 88-90% RPM even at lower collectives lmfao. I also remember it being particularly bad for the Alouette, that thing simply refuses to gain altitude no matter what you do.
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Apparently the Rolands that are usually guarding bases are gone now. Not sure if it’s intentional, or when exactly that happened (seems to be very recent) but honestly it’s a VERY good change. I’m quite close to getting the YAH-64 (~80k squadron RP) and that’s going to make the stock grind a heckuva lot easier.
Also I’ve played some more Rocky Canyon in my UHT…
… and the PARS 3 seem to track normally now. Am I being gaslit the last time?
Holy crap you’re right! Same for the lower BR but those weren’t much of an issue. I doubt it was intentional though. Still got the aimbot Gepards in the convoys.
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Thats a lot of utility capability we got there, Devs. Be pretty cool if we could utilize that for something…
Spoiler
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I just hope it stays lol
I wish, but I’m not holding my breath. That actually gives utility helicopters some, oh I don’t know, utility?
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i wish theyd bring PVP back, sure its horrid , but i had fun slinging Stingers at KA50s
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Dies in sweden Helis
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Probably wouldn’t be as horrid if they retained the BR brackets we have now on PvE. Especially now that we have more helicopters with FnF missiles ingame (HAD Block 2, AH-129D and AH-60). Undoubtedly Vikhrs will still be dominant, but at least they won’t have to be matched against starter helicopters.
I’d honestly just want it back so I can spam PARS 3 LRs willy nilly at people lol
I always wonder how much more fun and engaging helicopters could be in the game. Unfortunately, I don’t think helicopters will reach their full potential any time soon. The AH-1W was passed to developers in 2018 and just recently got added in 2024. I’ll probably be in my mid 30s by the time helicopter gameplay is even touched again. One can only imagine.
Feelsbadman
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Yeah it’s frustrating. There’s some genuine potential here that’s being wasted. Helicopters as it stands now doesn’t really have a comfortable place in any of the available game modes, you either get intensely paranoid in GRB/GSB of SAMs, SPAAs and fighters or spend copious amounts of time in PvE being either bored as hell or cursing at the Kamovs hoarding all the points.
Absolutely not a fun experience, not to mention you also have to deal with the soul-crushing RP grinds on top of all that, while it is alleviated somewhat by the ability to grind with ground vehicles, is rather impractical since it’s mutually exclusive with grinding ground vehicles. (unless you happen to have most of the ground tree already researched)
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