Helicopter [PvE] mode issues

[Blogaugis]

Playing helicopter PvE mode, I’ve noticed several oddities.

Many players tend to forget/otherwise do not try to land to any point after ‘capturing’ an area (I suppose it is agent extraction from behind enemy lines, reconnaissance as well).
Have to admit, I once damaged my helicopter too badly upon landing - and since repairs are not possible there, or with helicopters in general, I had to abandon it. It probably also contributed to the bugged up ‘land on any pad’ objective state.
So, it might be a good idea to improve this objective format.

Another is the overall combat - game often generates foes, that the lowly allouette II can hardly deal with. Planes in this case, mostly - the meager 4 machine-guns, while giving a possibility to engage the planes, are in no way enough to engage them effectively. A-26s and AD-2s simply move too fast to be reliably shot down.

Ground battles also tend to be generated rather suddenly - now I know the pattern, that, once a hostile convoy reaches at least half of the square, neighboring the friendly front-line, it generates a front-line battle of enemy attack.
It’s a bit hard to see the impact of attacking the convoy, however - like, even if a single vehicle made it to their ‘destination’, it basically generates a front-line battle. And the front-line battle is equipped with all the military hardware, that wasn’t even present in the convoy in the first place (not even counting the hypothetical situation of most of it being destroyed)…
Another weird issue I noticed with them, in one of the battles, was that the convoy actually made it to the friendly front-line, but it just got deleted, single unit each, but the objective to destroy the convoy remained, even if all units basically disappeared from the game.

Also, front-line battles in general tend to appear suddenly, and possibly a bit too close to the player. A front-line battle appeared just within 2 km distance from me in a few battles. In other words, SPAAs could already fire.
Perhaps incorporating ‘find the enemy’ (locate a convoy/bomb point) from enduring confrontations could help.

Ideally, It would be best to see the actual convoy, after reaching the area, proceed with the attack on the front-line, rather than be generated anew.

So, I think the mode needs improvements.

[Thatz]

@Blogaugis

Many players tend to forget/otherwise do not try to land to any point after ‘capturing’ an area

The points are given to the player on the capture of the point but not on landing on a friendly Heli pad.

[Blogaugis]

Huh.
In that case, what’s the point of that ‘land on any pad’ part? Considering it tends to bug out, especially in longer matches.

[ATomiXツ]

What heli pve needs the most is an extra bracket for mid tier helis between 9.0 and 10.0 so that you have 3 clear seperations of helicopter groups: Starter helis (7.7-8.7) with <= 4km range ATGM, Mid tier helis (9.0-10.0) with 5km+ range ATGM and Modern Helis (10.3+) with 8km+ range ATGMs that can fight rolands safely.
And adjust the ground units according to what bracket is participating in the game. (which is already being done I know)
The desync on moving ground units is also something that needs work since you can only kill them if your heli can lock ground units due to desync between view model and actual serversided position and creates frustration for no reason.

Other than that I think heli pve is quite alright.

[L3pp]

upon landing on a friendly base the enemy will lose tickets but you will not gain score, because of this no one bothers with landing on a pad

[Eggy_Breath_1_1]

I really like your opinion on improvements need for the PvE mode, especially the landing pad cap obj. I feel like this would be a good way for war thunder to introduce utility helicopters that could be turned into gunships like the huey and black hawk. This can also be used in normal ground battle where you can land on a point deploy your ai troops and then pick them up when they are done capping the point. This would bring in the world of mobilized infantry to war thunder and can also be used in vehicles such as the Bradley.

[Blogaugis]

@Eggy_Breath_1_1

This can also be used in normal ground battle where you can land on a point deploy your ai troops and then pick them up when they are done capping the point. This would bring in the world of mobilized infantry to war thunder and can also be used in vehicles such as the Bradley.

I doubt WT will bother implementing more than pure bare-bones infantry into the game.
I think it is more likely that capture points will stay, and the hypothetical simulation of infantry capturing points can be shown in abstract ways like:
Making utility helicopters capture zones faster and easier (maybe more rewarding for example, as that’s what they are intended to do).
A more extreme option would be to make only utility helicopters be able to capture points, but I wouldn’t really want to see this.

There is a… cousin game of WT, of sorts - it is enlisted. Infantry is present there, and perhaps we can see the infantry coming out and capturing points, but it will take a while until proper transports are implemented, and the cold war era equipment is properly in that game. Some folks would prefer going to WW1 instead, and I would prefer too. I play it too.

But anyway, back to WT.
Mode needs improvements.

[Blogaugis]

I’d like to show a few screenshots that I made in helicopter PvE mode recently:

A few oddities with convoys. Like, I know that convoys tend to, upon reaching half a map’s square, disappear and start an attack into the friendly square. So, in this case, it seems pointless to try to fight them, as they almost reached their destination.

The objective is failed, but, funnily enough, it seems objectives got bugged - the convoy just stops, but does not disappear. So I figured to take it out.

The allouette 2, “German” starting helicopter, at least has 4 rifle-caliber MGs allowing you to engage some soft targets, including planes. However, it’s pretty cumbersome to do that. A-26 planes have quite the defensive armament.

Not many folks are left in the team, and a few minutes later…

I am alone. Single player experience. Just me and the jet plane soundtrack to keep me company.

I also figured to try attacking the base…

It took a while, with ATGM missiles - About 25 minutes. If the base was full health, I assume it would take 27:30 - 30 minutes, but maybe much less, if one fires multiple missiles to speed it up.

Fast forward about 30 minutes later, the game soon started saying these sorts of messages:

There are several objectives, game. They take a while to get there, not to mention that for some of these objectives this helicopter is pretty ill-suited for (like base bombing or attacking planes).

5 minutes later, I’m “taking too long”…
With these messages, I can’t even appreciate the jet soundtrack. Well, to be fair, some of it is lost due to helicopter emitted noise.

Yeah, yeah…
It’s kind of complicated to attack the targets at long range with them moving sideways - the actual position of a vehicle can be different from the visual, not to mention that the missiles also at times seemed in weird places or moving in strange ways.

We’re going to need depth charges some day… I didn’t manage to try taking it out with a missile, I think later that vehicle respawned on the surface road:

Teleportation, no clip or mountain climbing? Who knows what the A.I. is capable of…

Later the helicopter was shot down by AAA, and I figured to… not bother staying for longer, since I grew annoyed by these messages.

The score…

And the final score.

Yeah. Basically, I think helicopter battles do need some… improvements.

[Duster71]

Some friends and myself have recently picked up on playing the heli’s event mode. It’s a way better setup than a similar type of game on steam only better. The whole current setup is great map size ect, the only issue that was discussed was a two fold problem. In a large room peeps that are grinding get left behind by top stat players that end up with 70 some odd grd kills and 30 or 40 air kills ect (exaggeration before you jump all over me). The discussion revolved around empty spaces between spawned groups that get annihilated before others can even reach them and then all they did was waste time trying to get there lol, so it was either lower room size or more objectives possibly group objectives rather than single reward , or more spawns of or larger ground assault groups not easily handled by one guy with with way to much skill or time on their hands lol. Big maps deserve bigger threats that could require team play for a more positive experience in the game ? Please don’t let this mode fade away it’s a fun way to experience helicopter combat outside the RB playing field it just needs some love.

[Miragen]

They dumped the heli grind on ground forces so now they can neglect the mode and pretend it doesn’t exist.

[HayaKatana]

Yes, the necessity to “LAND ON ANY PAD” should be removed. It gets the mission stuck too many times preventing other objectives from spawning. Also it is a pain to discuss it with the players that do not understand that they have to land after capturing.

[RifleNuggets]

The easiest thing they can do is just add convoys of light vehicles or more battles with light targets so guns could actually do something. Also nerf the hell out of the SPAA in lower BRs. The more difficult option (which I highly doubt would ever happen) would be a complete overhaul of the game mode. Adding things like new maps, new objective types and a more target-rich environment. All the assets they need are in the game already. They wouldn’t even have to change the rewards if players actually enjoyed the gameplay.

[Setouchi_Queens]

I’d also propose some changes to the BR bracket system, namely regarding stuff like the BO105 or Hinds. The Mi-24A for example is ridiculous at its current bracket, it’s got 128 rockets, CCIP, and 4km Falanga missiles. Not to mention it’s also very fast. Meanwhile the BO105 has to compete with literally top tier helicopters with only 6 HOTs at best. Assigning brackets purely by BR is dumb. I’d instead rather have the 24A be lumped into a “mid-tier” bracket along with the AH-1F/1E/1S, and the BO105 can be moved into this same bracket.

Ergo :
Low tier bracket : helicopters with <4km ATGMs or no ATGMs at all
Mid tier bracket : helicopters with <5km ATGMs, including Tiger HAP, BO105, and the Mi-24A
High tier bracket : the rest, starting with the later Mi-24V and better

[RifleNuggets]

I use the Mi-24A a lot myself and I have to agree with you. It’s way more capable than the other helis in the same bracket. It should either be moved up to the next bracket or have its CCIP removed. I may be wrong, but I couldn’t find any documentation of the A variant having CCIP IRL. If they do move it up, they could fill the current spot with the Soviet Mi-2. The only known armed versions were built for export but there’s no reason they can’t just slap a red star on it and give it soviet weapons.

[Setouchi_Queens]

Could work to at least bridge the capabilities of the borderline useless Mi-4AV and the ridiculously good Mi-24A