Last stand of Air Realistic Battles

Game Discussion Realistic Battle
735

Air RB from December 2024 to the past week absolutely stood still, and this post was made within the time frame. To completely disregard the idea that the meta, and the entirety of air rb didnt stay almost identical for the whole year is dumb.

It was 12 months of rafale domination, with no new mechanics introduced, about 1 air map introduced with some gradually changed. The single largest change that happened in air rb was the introduction of air spawns, which really isn’t that significant ((was that even this year?? I cant remember because air rb never gets changed))

4 Likes
736

Maybe it’s worth understanding, in this case, that the game is changing, just not right away? If you are now saying that everything has changed, then it means that I was right - the game is changing and developing at its own pace, and this post is no longer completely relevant (and it was even at the time of writing the post).

Funny, time wasn’t good for the author, was it? :)

737

I know its not changing instantly, but you’ve also just disregarded my point which is that Air RB was completely stationary for a year, something that you say you will “not tolerate it when someone says the game stands still” (((it did btw)))

When the author made the original post, saying it was standing still is absolutely correct, and still held up for 2 months after

738

Of course, be patient, the game is slowly going its own way, changing, etc.

By the way, there is only one argument in favor of CS:The author’s GO completely shows his misunderstanding of the topic.

Let’s put it this way - this post is just the essence of reddit, which is not a positive sign. I have already described all my arguments, the fact that you translated everything into the fact that the game is not developing fast enough will not work, because this is not the author’s thesis, he had a thesis that the game is not developing

739

Does reading comprehension just not exist or something?
I’ve never stated that the game isnt developing fast enough, I was simply stating that the game WAS stationary for a year. I’m not expecting the developers to change ARB every update but to not change anything with it for a whole year is crazy and will absolutely invite discussion, especially when there was so obviously one plane dominating practically every match for that time period.

Can also look towards air sim to show that the game isnt developing with that gamemode having practically never been changed for years at this point and every time a question is asked on the state of it its just a copy paste response “No information for right now”

1 Like
740

What an out of touch statement. Are you saying that a better economy would lead to the game dying?

A subscription service should not be the only way to get acceptable rewards.

Even with premium the rewards aren’t stellar. The main culprit is Gaijin tying RP rewards to time spent in battle, and then deliberately shortening the match length with airspawns and 16v16.

A stagnant gamemodes and poor balance. The last meaningful changes to air RB was 16v16 (a truly awful change), the additions of airspawns (not a good change IMO), and the removal of automatic ticket bleed (an amazing change).

Top tier barely changed from when the Rafale was added until the latest update. There weren’t many BR changes, there weren’t new missiles (apart from the R-77-1 and MICA buffs), and there wasn’t any new gameplay features, or just gameplay in general.

The balance is also awful, with 16.3 being very easily achievable by just decompressing 13.0+. 7.0-8.0 is a mess because Gaijin pushed Korean War era jets down, which they did because 9.3/9.7 supersonics were being clubbed by 10.3/10.7 planes that Gaijin added at too low of a BR on release. Even now, Gaijin added objective upgrades of 14.3 planes at 14.3 rather than putting them at 14.7.

I’d expect more in depth combat with more focus on smaller amounts of vehicles, and not the hyper quick/overwhelming state of top tier air RB. It’s a bit ridiculous that your RWR can go off for 90% of an entire match. When a trailer shows 2 planes attacking a column of vehicles in radio contact with a base, I’d expect something similar to be possible in the game. However what we get is a 16v16 TDM match.

100%

The last time a map was added to air sim was 3 years ago, and the gamemode itself has stayed basically identical for the last few years. The biggest changes was the introduction of new AF AA, and the remastering of Sinai and neither of those are sim specific.

5 Likes
741

What an out of touch statement. Are you saying that a better economy would lead to the game dying?

No, don’t be so blatantly manipulative, you’re not talking to an ordinary player who believes in a twist. I said that if ALL the demands of the rioters had been met, not just the economic ones :)

A subscription service should not be the only way to get acceptable rewards.

You can get enough gold per year for free to stay in a premium account forever, while buying prem equipment. For free, just play the game (amazing, right?)

I’d expect more in depth combat with more focus on smaller amounts of vehicles, and not the hyper quick/overwhelming state of top tier air RB.

Yes, it’s all good, but specifically what to do? How do I change the mode? This is a huge risk, ask most players - they will tell you that they come into the session to shoot, and that’s it. No more.

And again, I’m criticizing the author’s suggestion, which is simple in general terms: change the mode. How can I change it? Why is it better? Are you sure it’s better? What exactly should I do, how, and where? Where are the specifics, the detailed idea? This is empty talk - everyone wants better and everyone sees it in their own way. Are you aware that a lot of players want to further reduce aerial battles and increase chaos? What if they listen to them, will you also say: well, at least they did as the players asked?)

And yes, I understand your ideas, but players play War Thunder precisely because it’s a session game and maybe someday people will grow up to realistic missions.

742

idk man to me it looks like most people race to the bases for rp

also holy cow what a yapwall, all for a dead thread

743

Speaking of Sim, last time I attempted playing that, all the small bombing targets were absolutely plastered with airbase-grade AAA in a half-baked slapdash attempt to combat the then-growing zomber problem - are those still like that to this day? I remember attempting to spade the B-26B by base bombing in Sim (for the longform EC matches on giant maps giving my bomber time and space to breathe, NOT to abuse turret guns for gunshipping fighters, FYI) and getting obliterated sometimes even 3km above the small bomb targets, and sometimes 5km above airfields.

1 Like
744

Quantity =/= Quality.

People play Air RB despite its shortcomings because 1) its easy to get into 2) they have nowhere better to unlock and spade aircraft for Ground/Naval game modes, and 3) because a few of the genuinely fun aspects that originally drew folk like myself to it are still present.

Right now the mode is functionally a “meta fighter playground” where everything else is generally just gunfood unless the opposing team is too stupid to take you out before you can accomplish something. All bombers are functionally irrelevant to match victory. Most attackers are functionally irrelevant save for the few which can abuse airspawns to hunt fighters with (“bomber” such as the Helldiver, Stuka, Ryusei, MB175T, and others are functionally attackers as their main job was to hit ground units or ships with bombs as their weapons of choice, very different from strategic bombers like B-17s). Dedicated bomber interceptors are relegated to being weird attackers or bad fighters.

In general, the mode is just boring, yet most people playing it have nowhere productive else to go, as attempting to spade planes in Ground RB for example is akin to removing one’s own eyes with a fork, even for the likes of tier 3 props, nevermind higher stuff.

The whole game IS just very “beta-ish” in terms of how well the stuff to do with the vehicular content currently is set up.

5 Likes
745

Where’s that Aerial Warfare mode the game director mentioned in the Q&A and what do you think it will look like?

746

I personally find top tier rb fun
Only problem is the skill sealing is higher than the Mount Everest and matches are way to big(16vs16)

About the meta planes ofc you have a much better time in a meta plane but most planes still work fine

But something like the f18c/e are Garbage given the airframe just Isnt good and They dont have anything else to show for it. In particular the f18e is just a more fat f15c ge

747

I’ve not played top tier due to combination of excessive grind, not enough time IRL to reach it in a useful time period, and plainly seeing the hot mess that half-assedly throwing in modern weapons into gameplay not built to handle them has resulted in.

When I think of ideal gameplay for anything approaching modern jets, I think of adapting the mission design from say, Ace Combat Zero with realistic usage of weaponry that you have to go land and rearm to get more of, not magical reloading in midair like both AC and WT AB do, paired with the time to go do that. And of course to enable that, we need gameplay objectives that do not auto-end the match the moment air superiority is secured, because the majority of what aircraft do even on modern battlefields in Ukraine or India/Pakistan or Thailand/Cambodia revolve around ground attack, not just air-to-air. War Thunder’s longstanding problem since frankly day one is and always has been air superiority being a be-all-end-all objective instead of being an enabler for CAS or bombing.

Like, we have all these amazing multirole-capable jets, but almost all their multirole capacity isn’t being used, with only select few loadouts seeing use in Combined Ground. The same is also true for a lot of WW2-era planes, such as for example all those heavy fighters repurposed into CAS planes, or famous repurposed fighters like the P-47.

1 Like
748

I think the air reload is fine for ab and particular ac
Its not realistic Sure but whit some planes only having 2 missiles it would be boring to reload each time

In particular wen most Arcade games just let you spam missiles for ever (cod, just cause, not sure about battlefield)

749

At certain BR the ARB matches should force smaller teams.

750

I am curious how small games like 6v6 or 4v4 would be

Would it be more balanced or would the winner be decided by who gets the Rafale player with more than 2 Brain cells

1 Like
751

WT Esport air battles are 4v4. I don’t understand why the normal game can’t have that.

752

The point I am trying to get at here is to adapt that sort of gameplay, focused on more objectives than JUST air-to-air PvP, to War Thunder’s more realistic weapon usage and modelling.

It’s beyond silly, really, to have a PS2 game from 20 years ago I grew up playing to death have better mission design than an MMO in the modern day. Also, damn I’m old…

753

I really wish we had 2v2, fly in with your wingman and duel it out.

1 Like
754

Good that you mention that a 4 man Squad of half decent Rafale players would be the end in a 6v6 or 4v4 game