(This topic is strictly talking about lower BR 3.0 to 7.0 as I have no experience or care for the higher ranks)
I dont agree with the logic Gaijin uses when balancing planes like there is a intentional design where the big 3 nations(US, Germany, USSR) outperform the other nations in almost all aspects with weaknesses that dont really become a issue in normal matches.
making me feel like the minor nations are balanced just right on the edge of being somewhat competitive to the big 3. possibly because the Gaijin “statistic” numbers for the minor nations are smaller resulting in bloated metrics.
Another possible(most likely) reason is money, as the big 3 are more popular meaning the premiums and tech tree vehicles are given the edge to retain the larger player base to spend more money.
or maybe the player base of the big 3 are on average worst at the game. and finally maybe its because since the big 3 are so popular the matchmaking makes me face at least 1 of them at all times so i think they are overpowered when they kill me and its almost always the same planes from each nation.
But idk these are just my theories on the discontent i have and some others have on the performance and BR scaling.
1 reason. Minor nation players are better than major nation players, and so Gaijin’s balancing system causes minor nations to “suffer”.
Example:
F-100D (USA): 4x 9E
F-100D (France): 4x 9B They’re the same BR :facepalm:
Then you have the F8U which is criminal at 10.3-
4x 9D’s
Supersonic
Very manueverable, dogfights almost anything below it
Great guns
And to top it off, countermeasures…
Soviets do not outperform other tech trees in any way; they’re on-par in many ways though.
Japan has the best air tree in the game both in time to grind as well as AMRAMM carrier, with a competitive ground tree that has great lineups throughout the BR range.
Sweden and China are the only tech trees missing heavy fighters for the top end, and even then their air trees are full of amazing vehicles outside that one critique.
Then you have ground, which all 10 tech trees of War Thunder have good to amazing 9.3 lineups, with USA and USSR having the “weakest” 9.3 lineups [they’re still good].
And all have great lineups throughout the ranks.
i hope you read the lines about how i dont care or have experience with higher tier and this is a discussion about planes in air rb and preferably the lower BR area, not how good japans ground line up is as i do agree with that or how good 9.3 line ups are for the minor nations i am talking about or the fact there is no line up in air rb as u seem to not understand what i am trying to give thought about.
I wanted to both address your topic of aircraft and address the trees as a whole just in case.
Either way Japan was mostly under-BR’d aircraft like USA until the drop of axis vs allies matchmaker and both are slowly being fixed.
The “worst” prop aircraft I’ve flown is the Mig-3, and even then it was usable.
Italy has weird engine settings for their aircraft that make overheating in automatic engine controls more likely, and with MEC they’re strong.
I never tried the mig 3 but i see they have a air spawn which makes me think they are sluggish at its br and a lot of the japanese planes the zeros above 4.3 are outperform in everyway except turning by the other nations, the raidens lock up at the speeds that are necessary to catch most of them and only outturn at very specific speeds that is lost very quickly, the J7w1 is outperformed by its peers in everyway except for top speed at very high altitudes which is hard to do when its on the lower end of climbing, the bombers are unpopular as some can barely destroy a base but the g8n1 is a monster at defence. but tbf the ki-44 and the ki-84 are very capable in there respective BRs.
and most of the italian in origin planes are either slow with a lot of guns or fast with inadequte guns
J7W1 got a massive gun buff a while back as well as being good enough in the climb.
I need to get around to playing mine cause I want to use those guns.
While 20 meters per second isn’t the 28 of Spitfire, it’s still adequate, and much like P-47 the engine gains power as you climb due to the supercharger setting.
the guns on the j7w1 are can knock out a plane in one burst but the low fire rate, average ballistics and low ammo count spread across 4 with no option to change which guns can be shot like many of the russian props have makes it more difficult to hit a small target than its peers and the climb is manageable but still not nearly as good as other planes at the altitudes than are you commonly fight at. the j7w1 can maintain 200+ mph at twenty degrees but most others at its br can too and with a lot more lift
And now i think about it many of the russian props lose a lot of there capabilities with altitude
From my perspective you are almost on target with almost all of your assumptions - the question is why you don’t follow your logical way of thinking and see the truth:
Balancing regarding fair fights and gameplay are not gaijin’s goal. The game is designed to create the artificial need for premium products; a fair & balanced game play reduces this need; quite simple.
Regarding BRs for aircraft:
US planes are usually not easy to use and the wt meta favors low to medium alt turnfighting - therefore their pilots need postwar aircraft (with artificially lowered BRs) in order to compete with better player skill nations (on average) in actual WW 2 aircraft.
Same with USSR - they have similar skill issues like the average US players whilst their cannons overperform since RS 2.0 - and, ofc, their aircraft excel at low to medium alt. So positioning their few actually good aircraft like the 4.0 Yak-3 vs a contemporary 5.7 Bf 109 G-10 or K-4 is following the same logic.
The problem is that players are stupid at times and it feeds the stupid BR balancing system. Gaijin also cave in to the cries of the playerbase when sometimes they really shouldn’t.
If the B.R’s were based on plane performance instead of player performance a lot of problems instantly go away. They also need to revert some hand holding flight models back to their earlier versions. Stop “updating” your FM’s so they no longer lock up at speed (109’s, LaGG/La’s) along with neutering the more dynamic FM’s like the older 190 flight model, yes it’d bite you (as it should) if you mistreated it but it was far more agile than this dull over-stable FM we have now.
The Mustangs are awful too. They should have a snappy stall and yet you need to force them to let go now. I could swear it’s because players kept turnfighting with them and stalling out against more agile aircraft and took to moaning online for daddy snail to “fix it” like they did the 109’s elevator.
Revert the FM’s and base B.R’s on aircraft performance like they should be and just like that the game is better for everyone.