I’m an Air Sim-only player, and I’ve got a deep passion for modern jets, especially those around BR 10 and up. The simulator mode in War Thunder is stunning in terms of immersion and detail, but I feel that, beyond BR 12, the experience changes drastically—for the worse.
At these higher BRs, the gameplay often feels more like an arcade mode rather than a true simulation. The pace is incredibly high, chaos dominates the air, and it often seems more like a non-stop cycle of respawns than a real battle experience. The action moves so fast that it doesn’t feel strategic or immersive; instead, it becomes almost a ‘reskill’ grind.
It would be amazing if there were ways to balance high-BR Air Sim a bit better. Slowing down the gameplay, adding more structured objectives, or creating a system to manage the chaos could go a long way toward making high-BR matches feel like true air combat.
What do you all think? Has anyone else noticed this shift in gameplay at higher BRs, and do you have ideas on how to bring more balance and immersion to high-BR Air Sim?
I’d quite like a hybrid system where you get half the reward instantly and half the reward via the current activity time. I think it would deal with a lot of the issues with the current system whilst maintaining the essence of it
Action 1 depletes Y number of tickets, action 2 depletes Z number.
Both sides have impetus to complete more objectives quicker as that is how you win.
What part of that is flawed?
You can say the implementation is flawed, since maps spawn objectives unbalanced, or bases closer to airfields, etc. But the core is certainly not flawed.
It would be good if you could influence the match more dierctly with dynamic misisons
So for example.
SEAD in an AO (this could include disabling ground based radars that will reveal your position to the enemy team)
Once AA are down, waves of AI bombers will spawn to attack AI only targets, but also various targets will spawn for players to attack as well.
Once that is done, you need to protect a flight of heli transports or ground forces and take out a number of key targets to enable them to attack a ground objective.
Once the zone/base is captured, it gives some bonus like radar coverage or SPAA coverage of that area or something.
this could replace the “bomb a dozen ai tanks fighting in an open battlefield” we have currently
The way it’s held together. Maybe I’m expecting a more realistic scenario where team A has to attack and team B has to defend certain assets. In our case, both teams just keep on grinding each other endlessly till tickets run out. Tickets aside, only losing your carrier or airfield has an effect on you as a player really
Yeah, thats the last bracket where the current map sizes work. Between radar performance and sheer aircraft speeds, the maps are too small. You can locate and track an aircraft cross map wtih ease and intercept them within minutes.
as an added benefit, PvE is viable. I tried, once, to drop some bombs in the Gripen, immediately found myself dogfighting, with the GBU-39s, I might do a bit of that in a quiet lobby, but never in anyting even remotely busy
My final opinion on this game mode: it’s worse than ever! Never before in War Thunder have the rewards in this mode been so low. To earn decent RP and Lions in 3 hours, you have to bomb a base, return to your airfield, and wait a grueling 15 minutes to receive “USEFUL ACTIONS” that reward you with anything significant every 15 minutes. And if you manage to hit more bases within that time and return to the airfield, even better. This mode has been severely impacted by the actions of certain cheaters from other regions. Mentioning these regions will get your comments hidden. Why? Because these players used this mode to boost accounts and sell them on external markets across multiple sites.
As a result, not only do we face a 50% reduction in real RP gain that’s siphoned off into “MARKS OF DISTINCTION” for unlocking decals across 2 to 4 slots, but we’re also earning fewer Lions than before—in an exhausting 3-hour session. My honest opinion now? I’d rather see this mode further destroyed. If they need to break it down because of account-trading cheaters, I’m fine with having one less game mode. I even support implementing a single-account system to stop these players from flooding servers on important event days, like during the IS-7 event, and overloading each match, only to stay connected and have a field day. This mode is dying, and the more I see discussions about it, the more I want it to keep declining, even if that means the extinction of a mode I actually enjoy playing.
So, aircraft designed for missile combat such as the tornado, or aircraft that have a battle rating purely decided by missiles, such as the sea harrier or aircraft without guns like the sea vixen
Have no skill because they use missiles?
Also, isn’t defending against a missile a skill as well?
I like SB alot more now than RB.
What I like is the gameplay at my own pace and drop in / drop out lobby system. Only your skill matters, no handholding. Match usually takes 1 - 2 hours so that´s just perfect for one or two games after work.
Here is what I dislike and what should be improved upon:
We need bigger maps for BR +11.0. Even the biggest maps feel claustrophobic at top tier. Though I love FOX3 jousting.
Objectives need an update. Convoy overhaul objective HAS to happen yesterday! We need bigger variety and consistency.
My biggest gripe is the useful action mechanic which doesn´t reward adequatly for my actions. I usually earn pitiful amount of SL despite having like 2 deaths and 25 kills. I get like 250k SL for 2 hours of playing. That´s just absurd. Remove useful action now.
Need weather and time of day settings when creating lobbies.
Urgent cockpit overhaul in majority of the planes. Currenty cockpits are plagued with alot of game breaking issues. Some cockpits have a reflection problem, making it almost impossible to look trough HUD (F-15 comes to mind). Alot of cockpits have head position too low. This results in poor outside visibility as well as problems with looking trough the sights and making accurate gunnery.
Cockpit mirrors need manual adjusting feature.
Head should not be turning on a virtual pole, instead when we turn our head, we should tilt towards the cockpit glass making it easier to look behind. Maybe it´s possible to configure it somehow, but I have not figured how.
Maybe have the frontline actually do something other than being a useless line on the map. Like sporadic AAA placement around inside your own territory. I would also like to have AWACS above 12.0 bracket.
Lastly, people should absolutely not be allowed to fly around in open cockpits. And if you want to keep this “feature” then the pilot should recieve damage above 600kmh and completely melt when crossing the sound barrier.
Not only that, but your rewards have a hard cap in each 15m cycle, so it is entirely possible to be rewarded the same for 6 kills, as you would for a kill and a point capture.
+1, also include it in the lobby join menu. Nothing sucks more to end up in a dusk+heavy clouds map in props.
You can even stick your head outside of them in some aircraft when using the move head options.
It happened in some props, don’t make arbitrary restrictions. Flying with one open is nearly useless now that you can’t hear anything around you.
