I mean :
16vs16, close airfields most of the time, ground objectives almost ignored, and icons making the use of radar quite useless.
So everyone run (almost) straight ahead, full AB and it’s all about fox2 dogfight. It’s a complete mess, with missiles and aircrafts flying everywhere. Just fly around, pop flares, wait for an opportunity, and pray.
IMO : the combination of the small maps and 16vs16 is the main problem. Because even if you have your brain working at 200% to build up your SA, you just can’t see everything all the time, or there are too much informations/aircrafts to manage in the same time (so you never know if you will survive or not, even when you decided to make everything you can to survive).
Anyway, it’s like this, and I try to get used to it. I don’t know if the majority of the players enjoy it, or not (that’s why I make a poll). But I really think those changes would make top tier ARB way more enjoyable, because they would give much more importance to dogfights tactics and skills, instead of this arcade flying in the middle of a mess, popping flares and shooting fox2s.
Do you like the current state of top tier ARB
- Yes
- No, I would prefer 8vs8
- No, I would prefer large maps
- No, I would prefer 8vs8 and/or large maps
- No, I would prefer … ?
3 Likes
Prefer 8 vs 8. Gives a chance for a real 1 v 1 dog fight while 16v16 is not doable due to too many players and too much interference and too many missile spam which also ruins the 1 v 1 fight. 16 v 16 works better on low tiers as they are slower to get to fights and there is no long range missiles to interfere on some dog fights.
If it werent for the snail throwing balance out the window,i wouldnt have found Sim battles.
Ever since 16V16 became a thing, ive been playing sim battles for top tier, they are much more fun and you actually get to dogfight (as long as you deny that cheeky Aim9M launch). Current AirRB is not great, at all
Could also use a update for ground units in Air RB, so the pilots playing ground-attack can use some fancy toys (cluster munitions / anti-radar / anti-ship). Currently if you’re playing ground attack, you just watch your target indicator and drop a 500lb on a tank and thats it, but I think it would be interesting if they had some defences for the convoys, like maybe a properly function gepard or something. (also maybe scale the rewards better for ground attack??)
I also think air rb enduring confrontation should be back too on a permanent rotation, kinda similar to how sim EC is.
What small maps? Afghanistan and City are the only small maps; and Afghan was re-introduced, and is one of the best maps in rotation.
Furball management however is something people should’ve learned from props. Props should always be easier than jets after all.
I can’t say for top tier (highest BR), but I can confidently say that air RB past 8.7 is unbalanced, boring, and not well designed. 16v16 was a mistake, it kinda sucks for props, and it just gets worse the higher you go. EC maps would be good if players used tactics, but currently they have nearly identical gameplay to non EC maps except you fly for a longer period of time.
3 Likes
I am talking about some variants where airfields of both team are further, and with ground objectives (not only the bases) more spread out on the map.
Even if, as it’s been said, most people doesn’t change their gameplay on those large maps, you still increase the chances to avoid that annoying furball of 20 aircrafts and 40 missiles flying in every direction.
Yeah, it’s absolutely horrendous.
Too many people tightly packed into a small boxing ring.
Even on the EC maps, there’s not enough for folks to do. Lots of empty space.
Rewards for hitting GTs and bases are paltry, not to mention bases have no impact on match outcome and have long respawn(iirc).
Not to mention that for top tier the AF AA is absolutely worthless and can be bypassed so you can get strafed easily. It’s so ineffective it’s like there’s nothing at all protecting you.
1 Like
Less player, but they should increase the rewards by double if they half the player count, since it’s less potential kills.
And definitely want larger maps for ARH BVR fights
I dont think they should increase the rewards. It would be ridiculous if they did as Grinding would be too easy. RP wise ARB isnt bad maybe SL could be buffed a bit
The current setup for Air RB really could work if we had 8 vs 8 or 10 vs 10. However, this still leaves out a bunch of playstyles.
Air RB really should have an additional mode - Air RB EC. The mode could use RB mechanics, maintain 16 vs 16, include multiple airfields and multiple objectives, respawns and longer times - similar to Sim EC.
There would need to be some development time spent on this mode since Sim EC does have its issues but this is DESPERATELY needed.
Air RB is a mess right now especially at tiers 6-8.
1 Like
EC maps in ARB solved nothing
The majority of fighting still takes place at the center of map with few stragglers going off to side.
Only things that changed was map size and flight time to fight. The rest is about the same as standard sized maps.
IMO, EC maps have lot of wasted space.
Yes, I know there could be objectives spawned more frequently and on more varied places but I still don’t think it would solve anything.
Best option to me is to separate the ARB into two modes, current ARB (left as is without EC maps and reduced player number, 8v8 or 10v10) and EC with longer time limit, more players, more objectives etc etc.
Just my two cents
2 Likes
Half the team, double the rewards, it only makes sense.
If there’s less potential rewards than rewards should be increased. Why wouldn’t that make sense? It wouldn’t make grinding any more efficient when you’re getting the same amount of RP. (Although yeah SL could indeed use a slight buff, sure it’s fine when using a premium plane and premium time, but it’s very lackluster in non premium planes.)
At the end of the day, at least it isn’t as bad as ground RB RP gains, which is just ludicrously abysmal…
1 Like
More EC maps and multiple airbases to spawn at would help a lot I think. Or just straight up EC but I get that that isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
I think that RB EC would be cool. With missions and everything.
1 Like