Helicopter PVE

Game Discussion Arcade Battle
2

Helicopter PVE game mode is now abandoned, so don’t expect any changes. Even some critical bugs (like enemy convoys moving underground or sometimes bases and landing zones stop respawning) are still not fixed, after many reports. Unfortunately, not enough players play this game mode, so working on it is basically a waste of time for the devs.

This is a terrible solution. Just increase the number of active objectives. Especially we can even have 10 players inside one battle, so only 5 objectives active at the same time is just not enough. Very often I see situation, where players literally fight for objectives.

A few days ago I saw a player, who started crashing into other players, trying to force them to leave this battle, so he can get objectives for himself. I eventually left this battle, because he also crashed into my helicopter a few times and it was just a very frustrating experience since I couldn’t focus on objectives (and trying to constantly avoid his helicopter was just a waste of time). When I asked other players to report him for killing teammates, he laughed, saying that he had done it many times in the past and had never been banned for it.

You are not supposed to fly into SPAA area, just keep outside of it. But the devs need to stop units to suddenly appear without any warning on the map. It would be enough to have some sort of indicator of where the next enemies will appear before this happens.

They are probably bugged the same way like bases and landing zones. And yes, this is a big problem, considering there are helicopters that can’t destroy planes and convoys. So in this situation, they have nothing to do. This is another serious issue that needs to be addressed.

There is a problem with this objective. Landing on the pad doesn’t give you any additional score and rewards. So it doesn’t make sense to go back to your base and land there, it’s definitely just a waste of time. They should give you another 120 score for landing at the pad (it takes a lot of time) and this problem would be fixed.

This game mode really requires to add personal objectives, based on your helicopter capabilities. Objectives that only you see, e.g. marked on the map with orange color (instead of the standard red for global objectives). They could add for example 2 personal objectives at the same time (so you can choose which one you want to go for), and when you complete one of them another one appears.

Personal objectives could be slightly less rewarding than global objectives, but they should be based on your helicopter loadout. So for example:

  • if you have rockets or bombs, your personal objective could be to destroy smaller bases or some e.g. rebel camp with tents and easier to destroy targets.
  • if you have anti-air missiles, your personal objective could be to destroy planes or other helicopters.
  • if you have short-ranged ATGM missiles, your personal objective could be to destroy light convoys (without SPAA) or fuel trucks.
  • if you have long-ranged ATGM missiles, your personal objectives could be to destroy heavy convoys with SPAA.
  • all helicopters could have additional personal landing objectives (how cool it would be if the game asked you to land on e.g. Aircraft Carrier on the edge of the map?).

There are so many things they could add here and it wouldn’t even require that much effort, because we already have models in the game.

The problem is, helicopter PVE game mode is not developed anymore, so nothing will change, like you wrote in your last sentence. This is another topic that will be forgotten very quickly. Most players don’t play this game mode and have no interest in it.

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Being able to grind helis with ground units killed the mode. Id wager most players just grind helis with tanks and spend 3k or so GE to get crucial mods and call it a day.

Anything else is pure CBT.

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True, who wants to spend 3 hours playing a mostly boring game mode instead of grinding out the best helicopters with their favourite tanks ?

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Yes, that would probably work better, but my point was that if you want to get to an objective on the other side of the map, the sheer size of the map makes it pure torture to get there and back. Sure, you can just not go for that objective, but sometimes you don’t have a choice.

Yes, that’s correct, but SPAAs shouldn’t be unstoppable laser turrets either.

Yes, that would be a great solution.

Your idea of personal objectives is also great. Sadly, as we both know, Gaijin won’t waste time fixing a game mode that’s played by so few.

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The elephant in the room is the rewards you get after 3 hours 4K RP is just pain and its worse when 1 module has the same price as researching an M4A1 Sherman

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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.

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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.

2 Likes
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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
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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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
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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.

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