Nuclear Escalation, when it came out, gave us hope of change and freedom of game modes, and i am sincerely grateful the snail has stepped forward here. However i do feel a couple improvements and points of discussion are to be brought up:
not enough people understand the mechanics, i having now 7000 hours in war thunder total went in for the first time in a while and didnt understand essentials, that the fuel/ammo depots respawned SPAA and other things, that EWRs are easy targets that impact the function of long range SAMs, that killing carriers is an easy way to deplete enemy tickets, etc etc… if there hasnt already been a guide, a CC should make one, and i hope to make one for my own channel soon after more time playing.
the respawning of SPAA is too fast/not turned to the specific speed most games go, it feels like the SPAA is never ending and is hard to get nukes off even if its just the SPAA. i feel faster depletion of ammo depots and other respawn mechanics would be a welcome change.
map size: ive heard multiple people say the maps are still to small for the capabilities of our jets in these modes, especially in higher tiers. i get the point and feel the need for bigger maps, but im not sure gaijin will agree, what are we thinking here?
overall im impressed with NE as is, i hope gaijin comes up with more for this mode as i do feel it has long lasting potential!
They should definitely make a guide. Another thing that I feel that the mode is lacking is the ability to spawn in other aircraft that you don’t have for silver lions (other than the nuclear carriers). The original event mode handled this perfectly as it retained player count (which is helpful due to the length of nuclear escalation). Many ‘premium’ BRs such as around 11.7 have particularly been struggling as many player simply don’t have full line-ups- leading to many players leaving after a single death.
I think the mistake Gaijin made was that they canceled the Grand Prize. Originally, after getting kill points, you could use a big bomber like the B-52 or Tu-95 to finish the match. I thought the original stage unlock system for nuclear-equivalent weapons was really good. It’s a pity Gaijin got rid of it. Also, Nuclear Thunder, being a mode that takes much longer than a normal match, should give higher rewards. Plus, this mode could serve as a testing ground for electronic jamming, stealth fighters, and AWACS, to prepare for the launch of fifth-generation fighters.
If SHORAD spawns were more dynamic and not a literal iron dome outlining both team’s territories then I think more people would enjoy the mode, venture above MP height on the enemy side of the map and 3 very closely placed ITO or 2S6s will fire at the same time, and unless you have a full payload of ARMs (of which interception rates got increased, meaning its not always a guaranteed kill anymore) and it dissuades people from doing deep strike or anything beyond slinging ARMs and Stealth bombs from across the map to kill enemy SAMs, which takes away from some of the untapped intensity of a NE match.
So I think if spawn rates were reduced or changed to feel less like a wall of hard to dodge SHORADs and more like strategically placed mix with some MANPADs too