(NOT A FORMAL SUGGESTION (yet) )
Script:
A proposal fix to war thunder’s battle ratings system:
Hello and welcome back to the ELX987 gaming channel, today I have a very important discussion I want to have related to a core mechanic of war thunder: Battle Ratings, or simply BRs for short. This mechanic has been controversial at best when it comes to balance and player satisfaction, and I want to take some time to think about it and see how they really work, what’s wrong with it to the players majority view, and what my proposal for a solution would be from a personal standpoint, be sure to leave your thoughts on this in the comments, and if you enjoy the video, like and subscribe for more!
Now first let’s talk about what are battle ratings and how they work:
Battle ratings in my view are used to define the technological power of your vehicle, this can be related to a number of factors, the main ones being:
- Year developed/tested/commissioned to service
- Amount of Weapons available to the vehicle
- Advancement of the capabilities the vehicle has/can use, these can tie in a number of technologies including engine type(I.E turboprop, rocket engine, turbojet engine, or afterburner for air), weapon systems (guidance type, autoloaders, missiles, ammo advancements, etc…), electronics (Radars, Lasers, Countermeasures, RWR, IFF, Thermal/Night vision imaging, etc…), and many others
- Period of time/Era of which the vehicle fought In combat(if applicable)
- Applicable counterparts/rivals/side of BLUEFOR/REDFOR
- In ground or naval, size/armor/speed of vehicle
- In air, speed/maneuverability of vehicle
All the above factors tie in very heavily to a vehicles battle rating, as do others I probably forgot to list. When you enter a realistic match, your matchs BR is determined by the system considering your lineups set BR and a roll of the dice, +1 to -1 of that number, players say some factors get you more “downtiers” or “uptiers”, but for the mostpart in my experience it’s pretty random.
Now all this seems pretty straightforward, if gaijin can balance it right, but have they?
Many players think not, as for a recent example, a Reddit thread was posted comparing the new JF-17 in the China tree under Pakistan, and the F4F KWS LV “ICE” Phantom in the German tree; both in the same BR, and very similar, apparently, let’s compare both in short:
the F4F ICE is one of the latest and last designs of the F4 Phantom II, it holds a max of 8 anti air Missiles(4 AMRAAMs and 4 AIM9s), 90 countermeasures (including 30 large ones), a 20mm cannon, and an assortment of ground strike equipment; its max speed is 2015KM/H in realistic mode, has a turn time of 28.3 seconds, and a rate of climb of 153m/s
the JF-17 is designed as a fourth gen strike aircraft replacement for the Pakistan air forces third gen A-5C and a few other aircraft, it holds a max of 6 anti air missiles (4 SD-10(A)s (PL-12 Renames) and 2 PL-5EIIs), 64 large countermeasures, a 23mm cannon and a better ground package including GPS guided LS-6 250kg/500kg bombs; its max speed is 1710KM/H, ~251m/s climb speed and 20 seconds turn time.
Now comparing the 2 we see the JF-17, while being a tad slower, is not officially a fighter jet, and has 2 less missiles than the F4F ICE, would most likely beat it in a close range dog fight due to the faster climb speed and turn speed of the JF-17, both prime characteristics in dogfight supremacy, the JF-17 also has more advanced strike capabilities considering the GPS guided LS-6 bombs, lastly keep in mind both planes have no HMD, but they have TWS, ARH missiles, and IRCCM heatseeker missiles.
Now it’s up to you to decide, but I personally think the phantom should be down-tiered, but what if there was another way, that’s where I introduce my concept: Tech gating.
Simply put, the concept of tech gating is this: gate matchmaking for vehicles based on the era/advancement of technology the vehicle has, I.E no plane with missiles should match up against a plane with none, or no tank with a laser rangefinder should match up against a tank without one, the concept is pretty simple, but would require testing upon testing to anywhere near perfect.
I.E the biggest flaw I could see with a system like this would be certain vehicles being much more dominant in battles over other vehicles, I.E the Maus being way too tanky for anything withought early APFSDS, or a P-59A being crushed by other vehicles with jet engines even while it had one itself.
This is why I ask Gaijin to toy around with this idea and consider every angle possible that this idea can/can’t work, I think something like this would be very possible and even easily implementable via the already existing rank system.
Anyways, just thought I’d drop an idea here, sorry for not making videos like this for a while, and I hope you enjoyed the new microphone I got, it’s a Rode Podmic, I love it!
Thank you for watching as always, like comment and sub for more, and I’ll see you next time!