Intro
Hello all, over the past few months, with FOX3s right around the corner, I have been deliberating on some ideas for a few of the older, yet still new aircraft in the game. As they come off of the bleeding edge of War Thunder’s era progress, it opens the opportunity to flesh out and add nuance to the meta that these jets create. This is true because there exists a larger diversity of airframe types that fill in most all capability gaps that are essential to creating a fun and nuanced game. This is in contrast to the bleeding edge at top BR where not all aircraft have been added yet, and thus capability gaps exist. Given this, however, there are still some changes that need to be made to the loadouts of these aircraft, some changes that need to be made to game mechanics, some changes that need to be made to the game modes, and lastly, a few aircraft that we are still missing.
Game Mechanics
Firstly, to make this whole idea work, I believe there are some changes that need to happen to a few game mechanics to improve the experience of Air Battles. First and foremost, multipathing needs to be made much less of a factor in air RB. The mechanic is over exaggerated and detracts from the whole use case of SARH missiles. I will explain it more in the next section of this post, but in essence if multipathing is massively toned back, it will allow for a missile meta to be established wherein each nation has their own advantages and disadvantages which pertain to the doctrines that they historically followed.
On top of this, the system in which chaff and flares are dispensed needs to be improved. Take the F-16A for example. It can carry 60 chaff/flares. However, these are always deployed in sets of two. That means if you have flares only selected as your countermeasure setting, then you are already down to 30 dispenses of flares. This further decreases to 15 dispenses when the chaff/flare setting is selected. Because of this, the aircraft is severely inhibited in its ability to decoy missiles, especially IRCCM ones, such as the R-73, where pre-flaring is essential to survival. The solution I propose for this is twofold. Firstly, there needs to be a system added wherein players can deploy chaff and flares seperately from each other. This would make it so you do not need to waste flares decoying a radar missile, for example. While this would be complicated to manage manually, semi-auto dispense systems could be implemented where the aircraft decides whether to deploy chaff or flares based on if the plane is getting locked or not. Secondly, Gaijin needs to make it so that aircraft deploy flares one at a time. It is wasteful for a plane with an already limited amount of flares to deploy those flares two at a time, and only a few planes deployed their flares in salvos historically.
Aircraft changes
For this topic, I have created a little diagram to help explain my idea.
My idea behind this aircraft bracket was to create simultaneous parity and difference between US and Russian aircraft. I have used these two nations as an example of how this will work, but it can also be extended to other NATO and Pact nations. The core of this balance exists in putting Radar missile supremacy in the hands of NATO, while putting IR missile supremacy in the hands of the pact. This would make for an interesting dynamic; America does well at range but if Pact players can play smart and make it to the merge the advantage shifts squarely to them. This translates to taking the AIM-9M away from all US aircraft, while taking the R-27ER away from all Russian aircraft and adding the R-73. This would leave a matchup of AIM-9L and AIM-7M versus R-27R/T and R-73. This would make for a balanced environment where each nation has playstyles that they need to adhere to, advantages they need to maximize, and disadvantages they need to minimize.
Some aircraft would not have direct counterparts on the other side. This is not a bad thing, however, as long as the average capability of these aircraft fits in with their peers on the other side of the ring. For example, the MIG31, a hypersonic interceptor which has no American counterpart, will provide a unique high altitude fast moving ability to the Russian side that the Americans would not have. Vice Versa, the F-18 Hornet would give the US the ability to deploy smart munitions from a naval platform that the Russians cannot match. The importance of this will be explained in the next section.
Game Modes
With new balance, there needs to be some new gamemodes. I have two proposals for new modes (and one new map, that would fit well into this 1980s NATO vs Pact setting. Firstly, is a SEAD mode. I have set it on the mountainous Pyrenees map in this example, but it could be translated to many other maps.
The core objective of this mode would be to destroy/defend all airfields and long range SAM sites. (Indicated by the red lines under their icons). This would be accomplished with either AI or Player SEAD aircraft equipped with Anti-Radiation missiles (AGM-88 or Kh-31P). Defending long range systems would be either early MIM-104 Patriot missile sites, or S-300 missile sites. Close range sytems would be either Tunguska, Tor, Strela, Igla, Roland, or Stinger air defence systems, depending on the side and scenario. These systems would also be posted at the attacking team’s home airfields to prevent spawncamping. The addition of two airfields on opposite sides of the map would further help in preventing spawncamping as well as spreading players out across the map. The defending side would win after holding off the attacking side for a certain amount of time.
Another mode I created is a mode predicated on escorting bombers to destroy specific targets. This would incorporate elements of SEAD and fighter combat, but with the objective of punching the way for larger AI bombers (B-52, B1, TU22, etc.) to destroy bases that are too large for player aircraft to fully destroy. These AI bombers can also be equipped with nuclear weapons depending on the scenario. These scenarios would be a bit more grounded in reality than our current scenarios, where modern fighters are fighting over World War II battlefields. Instead, modern fighters would assault modern objectives, like submarine pens and airbases. This would make the game overall more immersive and fun, giving realistic backstory to missions that players undertake.
Additionally, Naval aircraft would be able to spawn closer to the battlefield, since their bases or ships would be positioned closer. This would give an advantage to spawning in naval aircraft over land based aircraft, as you would be closer to the fight, and may be able to accomplish some objectives speedily before the more specialized, more heavily armed land based aircraft arrive.
These modes would also introduce AEW and Aerial Refueling aircraft, which will bring new dimensions to the game such as being able to refuel mid-air (possibly for a point reward depending on the amount of fuel taken on), as well as providing a semi-realistic battle space awareness for players and the ability to be directed to enemies on larger maps by AEW aircraft.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I believe that we have an opportunity to create a fun mid-1980s bracket where players can enjoy early 4th generation fighters in an environment that is balanced around them. Please let me know your ideas.
Addendum
It has come to my attention that the F-14B Tomcat is a late 1990s aircraft. Because of this, I propose the addition of an “F-14A Late” which would utilize the same weapon set as the F-14B does now. With the addition of this aircraft, the F-14B could be moved up and given the AIM-9M.