Helicopter PVE

Game Discussion Arcade Battle
7

It’s Heli EC. Large map size is exactly what I love about it, and it would be incredibly boring if the maps were smaller. Spending a few more minutes flying isn’t boring, it offers more complexity and uniqueness.

This is unnecessary; they should be accurate as possible. Evading SPAA fire is a skill; high tier Heli EC is less fun because there isn’t any challenge. It is correct that SPAA is very powerful in Heli EC, but this is something that is an inherent feature of the mode.

I agree that the spawn frequency of enemy vehicles needs fixing. When it works correctly, it is fine, but I think the long periods without any AI targets spawning is a bug. Secondly, convoys are a central part of Heli EC and spawning should favor them. You need to destroy them to have battles spawn.

This is something that needs to be done slightly for helicopters without any guided weaponry. For most other helicopters, earning SL with cautious play is absolutely possible. You also mentioned opening up possibility for J-out to spawn somewhere else. I disagree heavily with that, this is unrealistic and should be heavily disincentivised by the game.

I agree with this, it should be a few minutes longer, especially with cap points very far away from spawn.

This is one of the best aspects of the mode; the long match time is exactly what makes battles interesting. It allows for a solo player to complete a match given the circumstances. There is no harm in having a long match time; if you need to leave midway, you absolutely can.

Overall, I disagree with most of your points for various reasons. For many Heli EC players, what is needed is more unique objectives and gameplay. A smaller, shorter, and easier Helicopter EC would be bland.

8

Just remove the whole “Fly back to Base” from the objective. The last thing i want after landing, waiting and starting again is to fly back to another point and land again.

The whole capture the helipad was just a cope-out from gaijin about complains for stock choppers haveing no viable targets, anyway.

3 Likes
9

The SPAA have a range of about 3km, when trying to play low BR helicopters many of which either dont have guided munitions and the ones that do often dont have more than 3km of range so I think they do need to decrease the range but only below like 9.7 heli battles

1 Like
10

I agree that RP reward in Helicopter PVE game mode is bad, but not that bad.

Last weekend I played a battle with probably the worst helicopter in the game. The battle, where most players left at the beginning (they didn’t like the map, personally I don’t care about maps, but I have to admit that this one was huge with a lot of flying), so I didn’t have problems focusing on objectives. My result from this battle:

Spoiler


I agree that 41,869 RP for modifications and 54,417 RP for next helicopter research is not a good result, considering this battle lasted almost 2 hours and I have a talisman on this helicopter plus a premium account. But this helicopter is very, very bad, it would be much easier to get a better result with something else.

At the same time, you have to remember that rewards in Helicopter PVE are limited for every 10 min period. So you don’t really want to do “too much”. The only good thing about this is that you have time, you don’t have to rush. I didn’t do any detailed analysis, but from my observations, you should aim for about 300-350 score every 10 minutes.

We are still talking about 2-3k RP max (without a talisman, but with a premium account) every 10 minutes. It’s definitely not good RP, but honestly, all PVE game modes in War Thunder have poor rewards.

PS. I’m a relatively new Helicopter PVE player, with only 55 battles played so far, so I’m still learning this game mode. I don’t play Ground Realistic, so I can’t use helicopters there.

1 Like
11

A resounding yes, but the first suggestion isn’t a good idea at all.

Instead of making the map smaller, define and intensify the main spawn areas, and the mission areas, to force and encourage players to actually be in those areas directly.

The current mission, selecting the entirity of the map, checking if it’s a frontline and then spawning a ground battle, or a convoy, ‘’‘anywhere’‘’ is a cause of some troubles.

This should’ve been done so early in the implementation of this that it’s sad to see still an issue.

1 Like
12

you have talisman and premium now imagine those who dont have that

13

I don’t have to imagine it. Talisman doubles your RP gains, just like a premium account (not counting RP boosters). So you can divide my RP reward by 4 to see the base RP without them.

Like I said before, imo the RP reward is very bad in all PVE modes. If it was up to me, I would probably double the RP gains. The funny thing is, it would still be pretty bad, but a lot more playable.

Even with a premium account and a good helicopter (but not a premium helicopter and no talisman, of course no RP boosters as well), you can currently get about 3k RP per 10 minutes max. So if you want to research all modifications to a helicopter that requires 300k RP in total (top tier), it will take you 17 hours of constant playing Helicopter PVE game mode! And that’s assuming you do everything perfectly and get maximum RP available in every 10 min period (which is pretty much impossible, because usually people fight for the same global objectives and take score from each other). That’s also why I would really love to see personal objectives, based on your helicopter capabilities.

But yeah, the RP in Helicopter PvE mode is basically a joke, even if you have a premium account.

14
1 Like
15

But this is the key! You are in a mode that utilizes booster time to the fullest. You are in a mode that you hardly ever lose a game in. Where you can adjust to the maps perfectly from your lineup.
I am utilizing all larger SL &RP boosters in Heli PVE. I hardly play the mode without boosters.

16

Wow, what an amazing quote!

I can do the same:

Okay, so why are you writing here?

But on a serious note, my whole sentence was:

This sentence is about maximum RP per 10 minutes with a premium account in Helicopter PVE mode. With boosters it will obviously be different. With a premium helicopter or a talisman it will obviously be different. But I have to establish some rules, otherwise this value wouldn’t make any sense.

17

I was quoting the exact point I meant to reply to.
My point is: it is pretty pointless to play the mode without boosters! The income is low but very stable. So using boosters involves no risks! The missions utilise boosters to the full 30 min. All the things that are known as “booster curse” don’t exist. You don’t need backups either.

So yes, the income is low without boost, and yes, basic rule is 1k RP on average 10 mins with the entry choppers. But I never play choppers without boosters, because the income is low and boosters are fail safe and extensive. And boosters count for the 30% vehicle boost and the “end of tree” boost. So you can pump up vehicle research rather nicely.

(And it seems the designers realized this too, which created the stale regular research values)

18

It really depends from the helicopter you use.

An example of the battle I just had with HKP2:

Spoiler

There are basically no objectives active, because many of my teammates had good helicopters. In such battles, I barely can do anything at all. After 30 minutes I only had 200 score (120 for landing and 80 for destroying a few ground units at the very beginning of the battle).

My helicopter is too slow to complete global objectives with 10 players inside the same battle. I need to be lucky, so e.g. landing area appears right next to my helicopter (that’s how I got +120 score).

Any big RP booster used in this battle would be wasted, because I don’t have objectives for me. This is the main problem of Helicopter PVE. Most players in this battle were just flying around doing nothing, waiting for luck until objectives appeared near them.

This is why this game mode really needs personal objectives. Something I can do when I can’t complete global objectives.

Currently, using big RP boosters with starting helicopters is actually a huge risk. Sometimes it works, but often it doesn’t. It all depends from the helicopter you use, the number of players in the battle and luck. If the battle refuse to spawn global objectives, you are basically useless.

I assume this can be a bug. I don’t think this game mode was designed to put 10 players into 1 battle and sometimes pretty much no global objectives are active (if your teammates with good helicopters know what they are doing).

I often have better results when I wait about 45-60 minutes in Helicopter PVE battle. Then most players usually leave and I can finally have some objectives for myself. But is this how Helicopter PVE game mode should work?

In my opinion, this game mode has a lot of problems, but unfortunately it’s no longer being developed.

19

There is hardly a worse chopper start than Sweden & Italy. Keeping more than one chopper in the lineup gives some map flexibility. Bomb with one, then hunt ground with another. Most nations have very good choppers in the tree, even starting ones.

That is why I currently run 4 stacked smaller boosters, to grind some modules on the Hueys and Alouettes. I have them all present, so I can just pick what suits the current situation best.

What I wonder: Caps might require delivery to trigger stuff.

these lesser choppers. It can take long, they have several charges. The boosters all expire soon anyway.

1 Like
20

I don’t think so, but maybe there is some connection somewhere.

I had a bugged battle where sector attacks and defenses stopped appearing about 1h 20 minutes before the end. I was the last player, and I couldn’t kill convoys or planes or destroy bases with my helicopter, so the only thing left for me to do in this battle was to complete landing missions (pick up agent and move him back to the base). I did it many times and it didn’t trigger anything, it was just repeating whole the time.

The interesting thing about this bugged mission is that convoys were also bugged (they were moving in circles), planes were bugged (they were flying in circles), two sector attack missions were also bugged and didn’t want to finish properly.

Screenshot I took 48 minutes before the end:

Spoiler

Screenshot I took 18 minutes before the end. You can see same convoys and planes moving in circles:

Spoiler

Screenshot I took 10 minutes before the end. You can see bugged sector attack mission at D3. All enemy ground units are cleared there, the objective disappeared from the list, but nothing happened. The game server probably still thinks this attack is in progress, but it doesn’t want to complete it or fail it:

Spoiler

Screenshot I took right before the end. The interesting thing about this screenshot is that there are no enemy attackers at B7 (look at the list of objectives), but B6 looks bugged (there were allied land units there all the time, but no enemies):

Spoiler

The last over an hour I was just landing (about 1 landing in every 10 minutes). This HKP2 helicopter is awful for this task (it’s very slow), but I was still able to complete this task over and over again (which is always additional RP).

After 3 hours I only got 33k RP (for modifications):

Spoiler

You can see it’s only about half the RP required for just one Engine modification, after 3 hours! I have a premium account, but this helicopter is really awful and I don’t have a talisman on it (with a talisman the RP would look much better).

But to be honest, the biggest problem for me were bugged sector attacks. The fact that I was only doing Landing objectives for almost half the battle (other objectives I could do were bugged) cost me a lot of possible RP in this battle. But I didn’t want to change the battle, because Landings are relatively easy, so I talked to my family on the phone and later, between landings, watched some YouTube videos, while “playing”. I also like Helicopter PVE battles, where I’m alone, so no one disturbs me. I’m a bit surprised that this game mode can have even 10 players in one battle. I can win this on my own, even with a bad helicopter, so sometimes having 10 players in one battle is way too many.

21

Unless you run a high booster, you can always quit when the rewards are handed out.

22

My theory is that landing at base after capping is the thing that allows more bases to spawn. Friendly spawn points, that is. That’s just a theory backed by my confirmation bias, though.

23

I wrote a suggestion about adding personal objectives to Helicopter PvE game mode:

Personally, I don’t believe in War Thunder’s suggestion system, so I doubt this idea will be implemented. I think the devs don’t care about players suggestions, and I’m quite sure that the Helicopter PvE game mode will stay pretty much how it is now (we will see in 2-3 years time if I’m correct about that). But in the worst case scenario I just wasted a few hours to write this suggestion, so it’s not a big deal.

If you want, you can vote for or against it, you can comment it, you can add your ideas. Just please remember to stay on topic. I understand helicopter PvE has a lot of problems, but my suggestion is specifically about personal objectives. I believe that personal objectives would solve many problems at once, but of course not all of them. Other problems would require a separate set of suggestions.

BTW: You may also want to look at other players suggestions:

2 Likes
24

I just had a battle where all the bases were bugged, but landing objectives weren’t, so it was a good opportunity to test your theory. The match was full of bugs: only convoys, landing objectives, and bombers were working properly. All bases, sector attacks, sector defenses, and strike aircraft objectives were bugged - they stopped appearing completely.

Unfortunately, capturing the zone and returning to base (fully completing this mission) didn’t cause any new bases to appear. I tested this several times.

I also tried killing the bombers, but still no new bases appeared.

Destroying the convoys also didn’t trigger new bases.

So I don’t think bases are linked to other objectives. They just bug themselves sometimes - just like other objectives can.

Even landing objectives sometimes bug out. Here’s an example:

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np11Jr9LeR8

The game’s code is in bad shape, and sadly, the devs don’t seem to care about fixing bugs in Helicopter PvE anymore.

25

Helicopter pvp mode needs to come back

26

The game mode would actually be useful if they just made it so you’re not forced to be in a min 4 player session, made it so the AI AA aren’t ungodly powerful, and smaller maps. Allowing single player sessions would make it SO much less painful to try and play as you spend more time waiting for a battle than actually being in one. The AI AA are way too powerful and will just instantly shred any heli that’s even anywhere close to them, making all lower BR helis basically useless since they can’t get close enough for weapons. And smaller maps so that you’re not flying for 5 min just to be shredded by broken AI.

This mode has been in desperate need of an overhaul and I have a strong feeling the reason a lot of people don’t play it is because of how horribly it works and unfair it is. If they fixed it and made it actually worth playing and less painful then it would naturally draw players back into it. Gaijin’s refusal to fix it is the reason its failing and because its failing no one plays so they feel like they don’t need to work on it. An endless feedback loop of suffering for the player

1 Like