I make this thread because I want to refine this little idea with opinions from other players before suggesting it, real suggestion will try to look a little more pretty and less like a wall of text. Any text that looks like this are thin about this rework that I want for you to vote in how it should be added
Bombers, those things that you see fly over your airfield at the start of the match, later you see 3 red markers below them and it’s gone.
That’s how bombers exist in WT, a free SL piñata that only has a slim chance of even draining a single ticket and even if they reach the objective it’s impossible for a bomber to win a game. Why? Easy, after a bomber manages to destroy a base even 2 if lucky they face a problem. descending +4km down just to land and then takeoff, somehow not get intercepted whilst being slow, low and if the enemy is smart they could even be camping those last bases. How does the bomber deal with this?
Option 1: it dies :(
Option 2: escapes to space and drags the game out for everyone, allies and enemies alike by delaying rewards
Option 3: J-out, easiest one all around
So I came to propose a change to bombers, this change came influenced when I played ground arcades battles, in said gamemode CAS has a special midair mission called “safe exit zones”, after one depletes all of their payload one can fly into said zone and will automatically leave their vehicle. (Don’t worry the thing doesn’t actually spin out of control)
Here is more info about said zones:
How could this be added to ARB and what it would help in?
The safe exit zone will act as a reload and repair zone located way behind the the bomber’s airfield, this is to avoid just seeing a bomber pop up above an airfield when it’s the last one being hunted down and to somewhat avoid the bomber just nuking the enemy’s tickets on small maps. Once a bomber drops all of their payload the safe exit zone will spawn at their current altitude at the aforementioned aproximate location, this is to reward those who make 2 electrons move and decide so slowly climb.
Once a bomber reaches said point they will J-out the same way one would at their runway, this would allow for loadout changes or a little bit of planning, however the bomber cannot stay in this state forever it will have a set amount of time before being forced to spawn again and make another run, or leave the server. This should be obvious, no one wants for a bomber to drag out the game by staring the at the loadout screen.
Firstly: It would prolong the life of a bomber after managing to get behind enemy lines and dropping it’s payload, increasing their value to the team because they would stop being a one time use ticket “drainer” (tickler really, and actually as bait) due to lose their precious altitude.
Secondly: No more space climbing. A bomber will no longer have a reason to climb to 6km and to the border of the map and hide there. A safe exit zone only activates if the distance to it is less than 0.1km, meaning you can fly over it and not get reloaded.
Thirdly-ish: this could simulate, in the case of a “long range bomber”, taking off from a far away airfield and leaving to get back to set airfield only for another one to replace it.
- only reload
- reload and repair
- only if the bomber isn’t severely damaged
- I don’t want this mechaninc
Should the safe zone spawn at the current altitude of the bomber?
In case you want fixed altitudes these are the altitudes of each type of spawn tested on Mozdok(light vehicles)
Spoiler
Long Range Bomber
~4500m (Long Range Bomber Spawn)
Frontline Bombers,Torpedo Bombers, Dive Bombers, Light Bombers
~3500m (Bomber Spawn) (it is shared by all the classes above)
Air Defense Fighters
~2000m (Air defense Fighter)
Strike
~1000m (Strike)
Interceptors
~1000m (Interceptor)
Fighters
runway or ~1000 (Air point) (Some maps like “battle of Britain” have airspawns)
- Yes
- No, only fixed altitudes
- I don’t want this mechanic
How much time should the bomber be allowed to change loadout or leaver before being forcibly spawned again?
- -5 Seconds
- ~5 Seconds
- ~10 Seconds
- +10 Seconds
- I don’t want this
- Yes
- No