TLDR:
(From a pure GRB rocket helicopter player)
- RAH-66 is phenomenal and a fantastic step in the right direction for the future of war thunder’s helicopters
-Default ripple mode setting should fire one rocket out of one pod for each trigger pull for every helicopter in the game, like it is currently on the RAH-66 (HUGE)
-Continue updating helicopter damage models (RAH-66 feels really good, survivable but not OP)
-Allow scout and utility helicopters to scout ground targets like a drone, only within 1.0-1.5 miles of the heli
-Reduce requirements for unguided rocket heli second spawn within reason. NOT second heli spawn with ATGMS, it’s good where it is right now.
-Allow helis to rearm at objectives they’ve captured
-Buff Hydras and FS70s to allow them to scale into top tier effectively like the Russian and French/German rocket pods.
Hi, just to preface this, at this point in the game I mainly only play helicopters in GRB using a full HOTAS + Rudder set up and unguided rockets only. War Thunder is in my opinion the only game that has a wide variety of vehicle selection coupled with extremely challenging but very rewarding helicopter sim-lite gameplay. I can only shoot AI targets so many times in DCS. As an avid aviation and helicopter enthusiast, War Thunder is one of the only games where I can use some of my favorite helicopter airframes while simultaneously expressing my mechanical skill with a HOTAS setup in a PVP environment.
With that being said, I want to give flowers where they’re due to gaijin. Thank you so much for finally addressing the scout drone v heli crew lockout situation. It has taken away a great deal of frustration when flying helicopters CQB in GRB. Also, I want to give some praise to the RAH-66. While it’s still lacking a detailed interior, it addresses some issues found in nearly every other top tier helicopter:
The RAH-66 finally allows us to shoot a single rocket per trigger pull, compared to the minimum two for literally every single other helicopter. While this may seem negligible at first, in a helicopter like the AH-64 with 64 rockets for instance, as it is currently, you’re allowed a max of 32 trigger pulls. This coupled with the lateral distance between each rocket pod means in practice, half of those 64 rockets will miss your intended impact point. With the RAH-66 allowing a single rocket release with every trigger pull, you’re able to, in a perfect world, utilize each of the 54 rockets available. In practice, when I’m in a situation where I do not need to release a salvo, I’m able to “bounce” my pedals left and right between trigger pulls to ensure that each rocket I release isn’t being wasted due to offset. This is arguably the biggest boon for the RAH-66 over any other helicopter in the US TT, as it allows you to stay in the fight longer by reducing the amount of times you need to head back to the pad and rearm due to simply wasted rockets.
As it currently stands, even equipping a single rocket pod on any helicopter beside the RAH-66 (and the gazelle cannon surprisingly) will release two rockets at a minimum–turning a 7 shot Hydra pod into effectively 3.5 shots. This feature of the RAH-66 should be the standard across every single helicopter in the game. The default ripple select quantity should always allow you to release only a single rocket with each trigger pull.
Helicopters like the OH-58D Kiowa, or the Chinese Z-10 are in desperate need of this feature. With the Kiowa only having 14 rockets available, being able to single fire rockets would turn its current effective 7 trigger pulls into the 14 as it should be.
On a similar note with the Z-10 when using FS70s, each pod only carries 7 rockets. With all pylons equipped with FS70s, you have a max of 28 rockets, but only 14 trigger pulls. This coupled with the spacing of the pods relative to the centerline of the Z-10, effectively means you only really have 7 trigger pulls, and it’s a near guarantee in most situations the only one of the pylons will hit its mark. Coupled with the only 300mm of penetration, and projectile impact angle due to its slow velocity, the Z-10 really struggles the most out of any top tier helicopter in terms of unguided rocket heli gameplay and is hopefully addressed.
Secondly, while I’m sure it’s slowly being worked on, the damage model for the RAH-66 feels really solid. I’m not dying to 7.62mm instantly anymore, while still being susceptible to autocannons and spaa (as it should be). I can feel confident that pushing a position or objective with a helicopter won’t be an instant death sentence anymore. When I’m able to utilize nap of the earth and terrain/buildings for cover and close the distance on targets while minimizing damage received, I’m rewarded for it, and it feels really good to be able to play like this with helicopters again.
Just going to conclude with a few wish list gameplay features for helicopters:
-Allow scout and utility helicopters (OH-58D, UH-60, Mi-8, Ka-29, AH-6) to spot targets akin to a scout drone. This however would be with the limitation that the marker is only allowed to be placed within 1.0-1.5 mi (about 1.6km) of the helicopter. This limitation would ensure that players aren’t able to sit 10 miles away with 28x optics and spot, but force them to still be engagable by tanks, apcs, light vehicle scout drones, and AA.
-With this mechanic in mind, it’d be nice if the requirements to get a second spawn for a unguided rocket heli only were adjusted and reduced within reason. Obviously you don’t want to make it easier/common place for a w key helo rusher to instantly get another heli after they get a kill and die, but I’m often times faced with situations where I’ll get perhaps a kill or two, a few assist, or an objective cap and multiple assists, and still not be able to bring out a second heli after I die. Not even a heli with ATGMS, just unguided rockets. As it is currently (remember I only play helicopters in GRB, I have helis in nations where I have 0 top tier tanks for them), I’m just forced to go back to the menu and find a new game, which is unfortunate. Maybe if the requirements for getting a respawn was a function of time spent in the battle and proximity to objectives, that could allow legitimate heli players to still get a respawn, but also curb the people who would abuse the 2nd respawn to continue w key helo rocket rushing. Also, the ceiling for a first spawn helicopter player to get ATGMS should remain high, pretty much where it is right now. I need to have a PHENOMENAL early game to be able to spawn in again with ATGMS and use them before the match is over. It should be like this.
-Allow us to rearm at objective points we’ve landed at and captured? Probably a longshot, but It’d be nice if I was rewarded with a rearm after clearing an objective then landing, surviving, and capturing the point.
-Also probably a long shot, but buffing Chinese and American unguided rockets, perhaps through a variant of the Hydra for instance only available at like 11.0 onwards. I can totally understand any opposition to this, but from a pure helicopter player’s perspective, American Hydras, and ESPECIALLY Chinese FS70s, scale really poorly into the higher tiers compared to Russian S-8Ks and French/German SNEB pods. But I also believe that their lack of effectiveness could be mitigated by the ability to single fire them.
The release of the RAH-66 is really giving me hope for the future of helis. Thanks for reading ya’ll <3
Unguided rockets > 10 km F&F ATGMS (gross)
