Is that after a couple of minutes into a match you are either alone vs 8 or the other way around, rarely in-between. And with the new missiles, it’s much harder to fight more than 1 at once
This issue was already present before, but it was made orders of magnitude worse in this update.
I propose to spread out objectives and considerably reduce team sizes. 10v10 at most. Around 8v8 would be great.
Or maintain team sizes and have multiple location spawns and objectives similar to sim EC
This issue was already present before, but it was made orders of magnitude worse in this update.
Exactly, it was always there BUT, if you played your own way it would be no time at all before you were in a 2v2, 4v4 or something along those lines. My favourite time in game was always the last alive players, now in 16v16 the chance of getting to those endgames is almost completely gone. You will have as you said 8 or more enemies on your last remaining team within minutes and one team will absolutely wolf pack the remaining players. There is 0 room for BVR and last remainders to get in their and win it for their team.
Even just a lobby the size of 10v10 removing 12 players removes up to 72 missiles that will hunt down any 1 remaining player, not one of us is good enough to avoid that, nor do many jets have the flares to deal with that assuming you’re just copping a IR missiles. It’s crazy to think about though, I love top tier and I’ve always had a blast and been quite good not great, but enough to get in their and win 2v2s, 1v2s or greater disadvantages due to the smaller player pool reducing how many factors remove individuals from the game. It feels like winning the lottery these days to end up in a 2v2 when before the change it was definitely more skill focused.
But here we are in todays point and click adventures where most players just aren’t having the same fun we used to.
Kind of hit home to me yesterday when I dropped into a 3v4 in a EC map, they cleaned out my allies and I cleaned out 3 of them, just as I fly off checking my 6 and surroundings every 10 seconds I start gaining speed and check again, boom 4 more enemy fighters booked it to my location. I couldn’t help but imagine the difference in that situation if the lobby was 10v10. I feel like I get shafted no matter how I perform in every game.
The 16 vs 16 addition mid-update earlier this year was mind-boggling. It really ruined top tier altogether for me. They added the larger maps that players were asking for and then within 2 weeks of the update increased player count to 16 vs 16 which completely destroyed the mode and turned it into a knock-off Air AB.
Im really not sure what to make of Air RB anymore. The mode seems to be tailored purely for grinders who can quickly yeet missiles into the furball, get 1 or 2 kills out of luck, die and then do it all again.
Gaijin seems completely uninterested in the mode. Problems in Air tend to persist far longer than problems in Ground.
Problems with Air gamemodes have been brought up during the few developer interviews we’ve gotten in the past few years, and its one of the only topics that truly seems to annoy the developers. Especially BVVD.
Criticizing Air even annoys some of the Content Creators that work close with the developers, like TEC. As soon as criticism is made of Air game modes, these Content Creators tend to get really annoyed and brush off the criticism or ignore it altogether.
There’s something deeper going on in the background when it comes to Aviation-focused gamemodes in Warthunder and its issues. Maybe its just as simple as the developers have no idea what to do since any change they make gets criticism. Maybe its that the developers are just sick and tired of Aviation. Maybe, if we’re lucky, its that something is actually being worked on in the background. Maybe its something else entirely…
Either way, from the current perspective of Aviation players in War Thunder, Air just seems to be turning into a Support Mode for Ground. Ground RB seems to be where the developers are focused and Air RB has taken a back seat.
It’s a shame because Warthunder’s aviation has so much potential. Small changes like team size reduction could really improve the current Air RB mode and a proper RB EC mode could really expand the Aviation experience for players into the distant future.
But at the moment, Air RB is in an aweful state and suggestions seem to be largely ignored.
Ground RB is very good though and if you play Ground RB then play Air RB, you can really tell what the development team is focused on.
Gaijin’s passion lies with Ground.