Teams have way to many people going for bases in fighters or attackers that can be played as fighters.
Ground ordenance should be limited heavily at the start of matches for all vehicles not considered bombers.
This is especially noticeable in prop and early jet BRs. US teams have about 60-80% of people in attackers and fighters with bombs, resulting in heavily onesided fighter matchups because trees like germany and the USSR have very few attackers and even less fighters that can take heavy bombloads.
In the past few weeks I’ve seen matches with 3 people actually playing their fighters as fighters, with the rest bombing a base. This results in me (fighter) having to do a 180° turn and then essentially baiting my teammates so I have a remote chance at doing fighter stuff and not get 8 vs 1’d.
Please limit the ground ordenace for fighters and attackers to only 500kg worth of bombs for the first five minutes of the match. This would be good for multiple reasons:
Strategic bombers actually get to their bases to do their thing and don’t have to mindlessly straightline for targets in order to get to a base.
Fighter matchups for teams with lots of fighters and teams with fewer fighters would be more balanced. this would give the se cond kind of team a serious boost to win rates, overall reducing the "xy nation op cuz 80% winrate).
Players can still do their thing and bomb bases/ground targets, but they aren’t essentially a high value AI target for other players.
Or let players play vehicles how they want to. Strike aircraft not being able to carry bombs would limit ground strike capabilities, defeating the point ofbground attackers. It’s bad enough finding games with bombers because of the bomber limits, and doing the same to strikers would be terrible, especially at top tier when strike aircraft are bombers.
While I would love to do that, this is the same reason why mechanics such as spawn protection are a thing.
At higher tiers it is not rare to see planes like the Mig-21 BIS with bombs. The plane carries basicaly no ordenance whatsoever, but players refuse to actually learn how use their vehicles effective, simple because the game lets them go the easy route. People in fighter aircraft should do the plane’s designated role and not be just another addition to the congaline towards the closest base.
Planes like the SU17, A7D etc can be used as a fighter and can contribute to the team’s effort of killing all enemy players. I am not asking for all bombs to be removed, but rather make it so that players don’t throw their lives away in order to maybe get to that base in time before the guy 200m behind them shoots them down.
Spawn protection does not follow the same reasoning as this. This game has known spawn areas, in which you cannot change or escape from successfully if the enemy gains an advantage over you in those areas. See the new changes for Ground RB’s aircraft spawns.
While I somewhat agree with the intented role thing, which I have made a suggestion thread for changing rewards to be more role specific, players don’t HAVE to do anything they don’t want to. I’ll use myself for an example. I have the Su-25 and MIG-23ML. The Su-25 is not suited well for Air RB, and usually is not worth the effort to attack bases. The Mig-23ML with the incendiary pylon changes, can now strike a full base. The speed of the Mig-23ML makes it a MUCH better base striker than the Su-25. Why do I bring this up? Because I am at the point in the USSR tree where I have NO planes that I am interested in using and wish to get to something I’d like to play as fast as possible. I am also a base strike enjoyer, and I don’t mean a base striker like you think all base attackers are. I try my hardest every game to strike as many bases as possible WITHOUT being spotted and attacked by the enemy, quite the feat in Air RB with radars and spotting mechanics. I simply enjoy slipping in, destroying a base, and getting out undetected, it is quote thrilling to do so.
The A7s are awful in Air RB. Why do I say this? Because they are the last 2 planes I need to spade in rank 7 or 8 in the US tree. Slow, horrible acceleration, one of the few 10.3+ non-afterburning airframes, payload for it’s intended purpose turns it into a defenseless brick, the list goes on. The SU-17/22 is another horrible plane in Air RB right now. It has almost nothing going for it, and is below average when compared to other planes at it’s br. Any plane can get kills, but these attackers are not going to be consistent or effective.
I am asking to be able to play the game in a way I enjoy. What players decide to do in their planes is not for you to dictate. This game is for entertainment, not competition. If a player wants to bomb bases, that is their decision. You have no clue why they want to do that. They could enjoy that aspect of the game, just want to progress as quickly as possible to get past the black hole of 8.0-9.7 in the air trees, or are spading vehicles. Some people (like me) care more about efficiency of their time for progression than kill stats. Go ahead check my stats (Laserdestroy, not @live), I can almost guarantee that almost noone has the amount of RP in the small amount of battles like my F-105D.
This comes down to dictating what players are allowed to enjoy. It isn’t fair for people, especially ones who don’t share the playstyle, to dictate how a player wants to enjoy the game because they view it as bad. You can control what you do, not what other players can do. Contrary to some popular belief, Air modes ARE NOT strictly PVP modes. They have PVE ground stike elements and are the ONLY game mode in which you can do so. Ground RB doesn’t count because you first have to grind the ground tree AND earn your plane use.