For a while I thought it might be paranoia but since there are only one (Sinai) or two (other maps) bot planes per wave, I definitely get blown up more than others. At Mozdok I have had up to three Fw 190s honing their gun skills on me, always one after the other. Makes aiming a bit tricky because I don’t see much while getting pummeled with that shit.
It’s somewhat obvious in Japan (my preferred spot is right underneath the path of incoming planes) or Ardennes (behind the southeast bulwark, again right in the path) but aside from that I wonder about the how and why.
Discarding the obvious: current kill ranking doesn’t matter. They’re coming after me when I’m in a top 3 place, they’re also doing it when I’m last. Movement also doesn’t matter, it happens whether I’m taking cover or going somewhere at full speed.
Sometimes the bots are even playing tag, which makes it all the more annoying. Japan again, I get blown up, respawn, head towards a good spot, one plane shoots off my tracks and while my tank is stopping, a second aircraft blows it up again. (That plays a big part in why I leave groups which ignore the bot planes. Not worth the time.) I have spent whole waves in Kursk dousing fires and repairing damage plus the occasional replacing of a crew member after the bloody planes shot me up with rockets or cannons. It’s not exactly why I’m playing this game.
They look for my username and attack.
I often die more to air attacks than to the bot tanks - it is so frustrating.
It’s almost like they have priorities…
weaker tanks like spaa, light tanks and SPGs with low armor
anyone smart enough to leave base for good camping/flanking position. Then, as you are about to run off a nice string of kills on bot flank, they bomb you, and you end up in a suicide spawn in no-mans-land.
I did notice that shooting at a plane and scoring hits will in most cases have this one fixate on me. Also, when multiple planes are up and I shoot one down, again in most cases one of the others will start shooting me.
So far the only methods to avoid that are dumb luck, not very reliable, or the other players shoot them down before ramming their own planes into the ground. Unfortunately my favourite preset (Tiger H/E, Panther D/A/G/F) doesn’t have a free slot for an SPAA, and I’m not interested in or good at flying…
They attack me even if I don’t fire one shot at them.
I’m finding the 2 points I mentioned above to be the most common factor in me being bombed and strafed.
It’s like the bot tanks - when they ignore 5 other CLOSER players to target you as soon as your back is turned. Apparently the bots like the easy kill…
One of my personal best so far are 16 hits in a Gepard without blowing up, on the Fulda map. I have no idea how a bunch of Leclercs can hit a tin can on Leopard 1 base so often without it going boom.
The second is 19 or 20 hits (I lost count because every bot tank on the Sinai map shot at me) in five or six seconds on a Panther G. The crew count goes down, the repair count resets and goes up…fuuuun. I absolutely hate when the game makes me stand there for upwards of 90 seconds without the chance to do anything before the kill shot hits.
I can’t confirm your two points from my own observations, mostly because I don’t play light tanks - I think I bought an M41 because I had to, but never crewed it. I get hit by the flying pests no matter what I use.
After they changed it in 2017/18 they got new priorities
1 Anti Air
2 Open top TD’s
3 Other TD’s
4 everything on control point/base
5 everything else
If you spawn plane that is faster then them they will make head on pass on you then leave you alone ,if your plane is slower they will swarm you till they kill you