I personally find the core mechanics of ARB fun as a fighter main, i honestly think that a whole separate gamemode focusing more on bombers would be great. Having the match end on tickets prematurely can be very annoying in logn matches already.
I fully agree with everything the OP said. I don’t know if my comment will mean much, but I still want to share my thoughts. I’ve been playing since 2015, back when the game had something magical that drew me in. Today that magic is gone, but I’m still tied to War Thunder because of the vehicles, their models, and the original idea behind it.
I started ARB in 2017 and since then I’ve spent thousands of matches in this mode, but I’ve become completely disillusioned with it. The changes last year gave me some hope, but in the end it was just a huge disappointment. The team size reduction switch is almost pointless — out of 20 matches maybe 2 are smaller games at top tier. Most of the time it feels like a 16v16 Call of Duty Shipment match. Just missile spam, no real objectives, no real air combat feeling — only survival and luck. Battles last 4 minutes, there’s no sense of purpose, just pure team deathmatch. And as OP said, that kills the desire to play, especially after all the trailers and advertising.
Then there’s the BR system, which I still can’t wrap my head around. Planes are forced to fight opponents they have no chance against. Like a Cold War MiG-23 facing aircraft with AIM-9Ms, or trying to fly against F-18s, F-16s, or MiG-29s at 12.3/12.7 BR. It’s simply not fun.
There used to be ARB EC, which made much more sense for air battles — but it disappeared, and we never got an explanation. That’s the kind of mode this game really needs.
2 Likes
The maps are good, but ALL ground targets are in the same spot, we have big maps but only use the center of each one.
Another unfair aspect of ARB is the number of attack-bombers planes per team: Team A has 4 bombers and 4 attack aircraft, Team B only has 2, and the rest are fighters.
Just mho. o7
3 Likes
Isn’t having good, fun battles also a reward?
Shouldn’t be only about SLs/RPs
Both should be made perfectly playable in a single mode.
2 Likes
I’m glad this thread exists and I do hope something comes out of it, but you can’t really fix ARB if gaijin themselves don’t know what this mode is supposed to be.
Is it a PvP mode? Then why do attackers, and ESPECIALLY bombers exist within it? These types of aircraft can’t compete vs fighters (tho there are exceptions), so why are they there? Why is hyper strong AF AAA there? If one team wins the PvP fight, then the other team should just lose, instead of being able to camp the AF forever.
Or maybe it’s a PvPvE mode? If so, then why do bombers have absolutely NOTHING to do except bomb useless bases that have no impact on the match?
If PvE is a factor in ARB, then why are there no objectives? Killing random AI units to drain tickets just BARELY qualifies as an objective, considering these units don’t do anything on their own and exist just to be shot.
Until gaijin figures out what ARB is supposed to be, there’s no fixing it. And I highly doubt they ever will, as it would take a considerable amount of effort to turn it into a real mode where every vehicle matters and real objectives exist.
5 Likes
I don’t want to see him anywhere near BR suggestions or changes. He was a massive supporter of ruining the A-10 and Su-25 under the logic of “it’s better to let one aircraft suffer than a whole rank under it”. But for him, it wasn’t just one plane he applied that logic to. The F-104 was also a victim. And more and more people starter applying that logic to anything they thought was unfair until it defeated the very point of said argument.
“Hey, your favourite aircraft deserves to be made terrible or put into a BR it will never be fun to fly again because the player base refuses to adopt a different combat approach to counter it. And Gaijin will make statements short of promises to make sure they aren’t completely ruined but will move goalposts on implementing them to the point they never happen.”
Defyn can respectfully kick rocks. No CC, regardless of long they’ve played or how good they are should be brought in to make gameplay changes. They can leave a suggestion or comment like everyone else.
2 Likes
The win condition of destroying 4 bases and last the airfield its very useful for bombers players, but I think we need more bases to make it more balanced and so more bombers players (especially at top tier) can get points. Maybe bigger map with more players??
Also I remember destroying all AI ground was a win condition, so the higher BR, they can add more and more AI ground units
give this man a medal
Loud, stop baiting for the love of god
are you fellow yellow like me?
My thoughts:
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BR decompression: absolutely yes. I don’t think planes before 9.0 really need it, but after this mark it’s simple “+1 you suffer, -1 you kill everyone”. Just let’s take a look at some planes from different BRs. 9.3 - MiG-19PT - can barely achieve mach 1, has 2 10G IR missiles, no flares. 10.3 - F-8U2 - can easily fly past mach 1, 4 20G IR missiles, flares. 11.3 F-4E - 8 missiles (4 20G IR, 4 25 SARH missiles with pulse radar), falres, can fly past mach 2. And so on… + or - BR after 9.0 transforms into completely different plane generations, not just slighltly better flight performance and weapon, like on lower BRs.
Though, I don’t think it should be like 20.0, maybe not even 16.0. But from 15.0 to 16.0. -
I think that top tier ARB is a pretty dynamic gamemode (except the part when you need to fly to the enemy. That’s why I’m against big maps. I want to notch missiles and kill enemies, not just flying for a few minutes. I also support more roles for strikers/bombers, but I’m against the “making necessary part”.
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Multiple respawns are absolutely necessary if we want to go away from simple deathmatch. Even now we technically can win by destroying all ground units (or airfield at lower BR) and this even happens sometimes. But usually it’s just faster to kill everyone. Even if we add many more types of activities for different roles, without mulptiple spawns killing everyone still gonna be the fastest way to win. I’m not sure how exactly they should be implemented, but they definitely needed if we want to turn ARB into actually playable gamemode, rather than just grinding one.
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I think we have enough good maps in the game now. I’m also * highly against* maps with huge height difference. Some planes simply can’t play from altitude. F-16A OCU, for example. You basically have 30 chaff, which is very limited. So, you must stay low. And the last thing you want is to catch random missiles because of height difference. Also, don’t forget that multipathing is the only cover that stock planes have.
2 Likes
I think that yes, CCs should be employed in helping with fixing ARB. I think that a good one would be Aoeilaeiepae. Alternatively, I think that many maps from AAB could be implemented in ARB, but perhaps expanded. In many of those maps, terrain is an actual feature instead of just a nice looking thing to crash into. I know at higher BRs there are more varied terrain maps but for most prop matches it’s almost a barren flat map and it sucks
I personally believe we need to stop adding new vehicles every single update. Yes new toys are nice but not so much when the role they are supposed to fill doesn’t exist. Gaijin NEEDS to stop “adding new vehicles” that have already been in the game for years.
Alternate updates with 1 being vehicles and maybe changes to current vehicles as well, and then the next update being solely focused on QoL and rework. I feel top tier matches are just full of skull dragging for 3 minutes just to die anyway because the map is tiny and it doesn’t matter anyway.
Another point is the various bomber problems but one of them being bombers base rushing and then skirting to the edge of the map or hovering the airfield and dragging matches out.
Bomber cockpits please. You have aircraft that have been in the game since the beta and also probably older than some of the player base that still have a cockpit place holder.
If there are any problems with my reply please do let me know, I’m always open to learning and don’t want this to be a rant.
3 Likes
Let me start by saying I am very happy the with all us getting together. because im sick and tire of this. it like i wont even wan to play air arb anymore after 8000 hour and all usa planes spade and i have play country all them same br compression because it way to compress Right now isn’t playable multi-path it way to low(why?) because you have like 300 missile lunch at you soon you get off the ground way to many player way to much so you cant have any way to do good i don’t if this was intentional, so players cannot do good, but this needs to change. They BR needs to go up to at least 15.3 so that way anything 13.7 can go up to (14.7 and you don’t see yourself in a phantom fighting (fox 3) a sample wild while they look at you and you still have to hold the lock on them? Do you guys think that’s fair? The br needs to be the decompress 12.0 it’s almost unplayable because there’s a lot of 13.0 even 13.3 who has very powerful missile there’s almost impossible to magic 2 Nerf again impossible defeat some times. And this tip and this is just the tip of the iceberg. Instead of this update bringing more decompression. He got way more compressed why because they decided to give Fox trees to the f16 and that kick in the head and then leave and then after 13 3BR why we don’t need more powerful meal we need balance. Like I say everything is starting three or anything that has fox three needs to go up to (14.7 br) and the rest (15.3) and i think plane who have fox 3 only have 2 of them take fox 3 out of them move them down on br i dont care but this compression come all the way frome 8.0 with mig 15 bis ish at that br who have no business been there in top tier 9.3 it is the sad BR to play beleveme im not only one. I am done with game doing this developer put no effort when come old player base. this is my suggestion.
(1.)
Put the fox tree in their own br BR I’m playing who only have like two fox three take them off of them and them 13.0 and rest who fox 3 14.7 even f14 i really don’t care I don’t want to see fakur my lobby wile i fly anything who sent have fox 3.
(2.) Make chaff work lil better even fox one meta if giys goin 32vs32 it give chance to survive or make smaller lobys like before, this time do it for real.
(3.) Take clouds out of the lobby or low flying. It makes it impossible to see that is not good for gameplay. six and fix the spotting system or rework it.
(4.)move up plane they at 10.0 br with aim j even if they dont have flare they carry at least 4 of them give them flare i don’t give fuch if realistic or not balance it better move the 104a and c up in br so i don’t have to fight them in my8.3 or 8 jets give then flare i don’t care.
(5.) Anything that has magic one a lower BR move them up. A5c wass good grinder at 10.3 it was great at it but i sad plane but balance better
(6.) Anything that does have magic 1 needs to go up on br so I come free you up than 9.3. Ye sim talking fbu2 need to go up br it have it haves flare good flight model 10.7 decent br for it mig 21 mf smt need go back up in br 10.7 j35xs 10.7 even give more flare be more efficiency. Ayit 10.7 i relly dont care because it have flare deal with it.
(6. )Give more flares in the highest tear I don’t care if it’s realistic or not, but it’ll be a nice addition for balance gameplay
(7.) make my multipath higher again 85 i find it be good balance but make workoble
(8.) Makes maps easy to multy path meaning don’t put a bunch of trees in the middle of map or uneven terrain so we end up kissing a tree every time we try to multi path or even putting clouds so close to the ground that we ended up kissing the mountain.
(9.) Air fuel camping if it’s only one guy left after he
Re arm it should be disable if only 2 of them give them time there airfield aa wont be working it the responsibility to do do well start of the game. But air field camping got even worst las update.
(10). My timer should be at least an hour for me. There will be no time at all. Make it if you want to save the game you can do it.
(11.) Make mig 23 able select mtti radar selection
(12.) Make phamtom lil lest hot.
13. Been able to carry missiles air to air with flare pods
(14.) The game mode for the bombers.
(15.) Been able to ban any man that we want not only restricted to three maps.
(16.) One of the most important one no more mid battle plase I don’t care if take longer to match i prefer to know what fighting and fight same plane I’m flaying it annoying. all of these are quality changes for improved gameplay and balance and I hope you know I don’t know everybody’s not gonna agree with me for being so serious and I’ve been playing this game for 2014. I want this to get better because I am not going to quitting because this is not this is not what I want is going to be on is going to be better and this is why I continue to support and that’s my opinion on this case.
(17.)Make make crew training cheaper, especially in premium vehicle. I already paid for a premium vehicle and in top of that house to spend 1 million and 800,000 to expert I think that’s a kick in the face and keep getting more expensive every update. I’ll put a picture…
(18.)mig 15 bis ish 8.7 br and saber (f86-5) (f86-f35)the same way 7.0 it way to compress . Hunter take iut sraamm out them down like 9.0 it be fine there isnt that good of plane dont forget fbu2 need go up 10.7
18. J8f take out the pl12 from it and out it down br give aspide put it down like 12.7 it be fine there
(19) . Last. one promise j7d please go back up to 11.0 or 11.3 way to op at 10.7 that plane run that br bracket from 9.7 all way up to 10.7 br move up br gaijin please 11.3 11.0.
(20.)If I’m paying for crew training, I should be able to see people far away. I’m not 2 km when they’re close to me.
2 Likes
Funny thing is they didn’t add that many vehicles this year. And what they did add they made sure to copy paste as much as they could. This year has been pretty dry so far except the first update somewhat.
I actually have no idea what they are actually doing. I imagined when they said they would be spending this year focusing on sub trees that they would actually take more time on QoL things since sub trees are mostly copy paste stuff. But here we are. No changes to existing mechanics, very little new vehicles, one small QoL improvement (radar on the screen thing) and just more and more bugs and issues.
If they really don’t want to do an update with no vehicles just alternate between
- updates with all copy paste premiums (which they do already) and quality of life stuff like bug fixes, gamemode tweaks
- updates with actual new vehicles but no copy paste slop and no changes to other stuff
2 Likes
CCs supporters when this guy enters the room
5 Likes
Doing my part in saying that WT Air RB has felt fine to me and the people thinking it’s over for ARB are being over dramatic and weird.
4 Likes
Absolutely valid opinion. Just one question. How do you feel about strike aircraft and bombers? In their intended role of course. I am just curious.
I really don’t care if they don’t have anything else I want them just to focus on balancing the game. I make quality improvement quality changes for gameplay balancing and that’s what really I want to see because the state of the game right now is just pure chaos-it’s I’m 32 players versus 32 Players Way too many-missiles and way too little flares or counter measure the other day we end up screw, so yeah it needs to be a balance and needs to be fixed on that. That’s the update that I want to see.