Hello! Ahead of the next Nuclear Escalation launch, I wanted to share what we’ve been up to over the last two weeks, what issues we’ve encountered, and what changes we’ve made to the mode so you can test these out for yourselves.
First, I’d like to briefly explain the complexities of implementing various systems and features into this mode and why it differs from other locations and modes within the game already. The location itself is truly large on an epic scale. With nearly a thousand objects and a large number of simultaneously active munitions. All of this places a much higher load on the server than standard air battles, so any of our technical solutions or changes had to operate with acceptable performance, factoring in the scale of the location and mission. Therefore for optimization, we initially disabled all constantly active search radars on small air defense units (convoys, factory cover), as even with special radars simplified for AI units, they imposed an excessively high load. This was a necessary decision, but ultimately it ruined the gameplay dynamics of the “player in the plane” versus “air defense on the battlefield” confrontation. The SAMs opened fire immediately after the aircraft entered the engagement radius, significantly complicating the use of anti-radiation missiles and countering such air defense systems. Of course, a skilled player could still win in situations like this too. However they needed to understand the approximate location of the air defense system, detect a missile launch at themselves, and instead of evading, calmly use an anti-radiation missile, after which the air defense system would usually stop guiding the first missile and move on to destroy the anti-radiation missile itself.
To address this issue, we’ve made it so that the battlefield air defenses activate their search radars when the player approaches within a certain distance. Currently that’s approximately 1.5 times the missile’s flight range. This way, we don’t burden the server with all the search radars running simultaneously, while also giving the player a larger window to make a decision and deploy their anti-radiation missiles. We’ve also further optimized the search radars used by the AI.
The same algorithm was applied to the medium-range air defense systems (HQ11/Spyder) covering airfields. Previously, their radars were constantly on, which attracted a large number of anti-aircraft missiles launched from a distance at which the air defense systems themselves could not pose a threat to the carriers. This led to their rapid destruction and a significant reduction in airfield coverage too early in the mission.
Another important improvement: short-range air defenses no longer fire at full speed. To guide missiles, vehicles such as the Tunguska, Ito, and similar vehicles slow to 3-5 km/h, making their behavior much more realistic.
The next significant issue, which also significantly disrupted the balance between sides, was the operation of the long-range air defense and the weapon capabilities of the “blue” and “red” sides (the Kh-31 issue). Even after all the adjustments to the long-range SAM system composition, the balance was still far from ideal, and only a change in the team sizes ultimately improved the balance. However, we considered this solution a last resort, as it was ill-suited for a continuous ongoing mode.
So, we implemented self-defense algorithms for the SAM system against anti-radiation missiles, which equalize the effectiveness of slower and faster anti-radar missiles during long-range launches. It works like this: if the SAM system’s AI detects a target with certain characteristics (speed, altitude, heading) within a certain range, it can decide to disable the radar for a period of time, which will result in the missile missing. The range simulates the system’s response time to the threat; i.e., a long-range launch leaves the SAM system enough time to assess the threat and disable the radar, while short-range launches (as the “blue” team had to do to suppress the “red” team’s air defenses) remain effective. Furthermore, during a long-range launch, even a brief radar shutdown is enough for the missile to accumulate a critical guidance error, and reactivating the radar will not result in the missile re-acquiring the SAM system.
All this should force both sides to close in on the enemy and take a risk destroying such a valuable asset as long-range air defense, rather than simply launching missiles immediately after takeoff. This works well in our localised tests, but live tests with full team rosters will reveal how successful this solution is.
The imbalance in air-to-surface weaponry between the two sides was also justifiably criticized. The “Reds” use faster missiles with powerful warheads, which were much more likely to penetrate small air defenses and destroy ground targets. “Blues’” aircraft have larger warheads, but their guided weapons are slower and easily intercepted by the air defense AI. While the air defense capabilities of both sides are roughly equivalent, the Blues found it more difficult to hit ground targets, which impacted the mission balance. In reality, modern small-caliber air-to-ground missiles, especially those that employ stealth measures, are a very difficult target for air defense systems, so we decided to implement this aspect of aerial warfare as well. Whilst, this isn’t a full implementation of RCS for munitions yet, the effect will be similar for the AI air defense systems. They will now “detect” and engage small-caliber munitions (GBU39/GBU53, etc.) from much shorter ranges, and for stealth munitions (currently only JSOW), the range will be even shorter. So these bombs will now make much more practical sense in Nuclear Escalation. As I already said, this is more of a “pseudo-RCS” for Escalation. Full implementation of RCS for munitions will take some time, but it’s in our plans for this year.
Another significant aspect that you’ve frequently mentioned is the marker system. Minor but important improvements have been made. A system similar to that used in tank arcade battles has been implemented for AI vehicles: A unit’s shot increases the marker’s display range several times, making it easier to attack air defenses engaged with your allies. The marker “cooldown” has also been increased; the marker now remains visible for several seconds after visual contact between allied forces and the enemy has been lost. This primarily simplifies combat against small air defenses, makes vehicle configurations on the frontline clearer, and sometimes allows for more effective reconnaissance of important targets deep within enemy defenses.
The naval component hasn’t been overlooked either. We’ve improved the ships’ air defenses, activating inoperative weapon systems, implementing new missiles where they were lacking and changed the lists of ship modules targetable by anti-ship missile seekers. Previously, anti-ship missiles were hitting gun turrets too often and were not sinking ships effectively. However, this work is still ongoing, and some improvements and adjustments will be made. It’s also clear that the current ship compositions are not very balanced, so they will be adjusted. We’ve also added new ships to the development plans that will be better balanced for escalation, but their development will take some time.
The mode’s economy is another area of criticism for the latest Escalation update. I’d like to explain why this is happening. An asymmetrical mode is more difficult to balance, and until we achieve the necessary balance, we can’t fine-tune the mode’s economy. The most effective “Red” side aircraft earned, on average, three times more than the most effective “Blue” side aircraft. Simply increasing the rewards for all actions several times would have meant receiving excess earnings from the other side, which would then have to be cut as well, which would be very negatively received by the community. Therefore, our main efforts were focused on improving the balance on the battlefield without economic changes, after which we could fine-tune the economy. This doesn’t mean there won’t be any economic changes. We’ve rebalanced the rewards based on the types of destroyed targets, favoring ground targets, which also increased the overall reward (see update notes), but these are not final figures. We ask for your understanding and patience on this; the mode is in active development.
Naturally, I might have forgotten something, but this post is already quite long. All important technical changes will be listed in the update notes, so please take the time to read it. Thanks again everyone, and we look forward to your feedback after Escalation launches with these improvements.