- Yes
- No
Hello everyone,
I am a fan of Aircraft Carriers and really want to see aircraft carriers in game. So I thought for a long time:
“How can War Thunder add Aircraft carriers without making them too weak, by for example, setting them close to the battlefield or too strong by being able to spam Airplanes and cover the whole air with them, ruining the Naval Gameplay.”And I maybe, just maybe have a solution to this.
First of all I know that there are many players opposing Aircraft Carriers in General. If you, dear reader, are one of them, please read my full suggestion and make a comment after that. Thank you in Advance.
Lets begin with Acquiring and researching an Aircraft Carrier:
The ACC´s should be are given an extra research tree, not necessarily starting from Tier I. So acquiring them requires the player to play the normal naval battles before being able to play an ACC.
The modification´s Tab for an ACC would be pretty simple. The most of the key elements of the modifications are kept, but instead of New sheels, Torpedos, Rangefinders etc. You would research new Aircraft models for your ACC, new loadouts for the planes aswell. Giving them access to better bombs, better guns and increasing their performance.
An image how it could look like:
Optional
If you acquired the ACC and looked at the modification, you´d maybe think to hop straight into a game, but you want to look at the composition of you Aircraft´s on your carrier first. That´s where I came up with an Idea of an Squadron Builder, being able to adjust your squadrons and loadouts for the planes.There are two kinds of planes per Aircraft Carriers:
Fighters - can be used as reconnisaince; support planes for Bomber squadrons, giving them protection; and Fighter Squadrons to attack other Squadrons
Bombers - can be used to bomb enemy ships. That´s it
So players can decide whether they want to have more Bombers or more Fighters on their Carriers. This would bring unique playstyles into the game. (There is obviously a limit towards certain planes, you cannot go full bomber or full fighter for example)
and for the people who want to take the customization to the top, you can also customize the loadout of each Squadron
My idea how it could look like: but due to it being so complicated, i don´t think this would be added exactly like that:
Gameplay
Now for the most important part. Gameplay. This is most likely the hardest part I thought about. So…
From the beginning on, you dont spawn with your team, you spawn far away on the NPC Aircraft Carrier Spawn. Giving you enough space to not be insta shot by Battleships and close enough to have some impact in the Game.
You spawn in like any other normal Ship. Behave like a normal ship. Your allies can land on your Deck and repair while you sail around.
But how are you going to command the Airplanes that are on your Deck? Well that was something I though about for a long time. Then I remembered how for the Anti-Aircraft vehicles, another radar tab has been added. So my Idea is to do the same:
All Features (& Key Gameplay Features) of the map explained
Big Map in the middle
The map shows you the complete battlefield, your current deployed planes aswell your allies. Additionally enemies (even in Realistic battles) will be marked on the map if spotted by Fighter Planes. Not as Marker or ! sign, but as their Ship class insignia, like if they are detected in an Arcade battle.
The marked enemies will be visible for you and whole team until the FIghter Aircrafts in that area either leave or are shut down. Giving ACC´s also an crucial role when it comes to information gathering.Top Right
Top right shows you the spotted enemies, their flag, distance, Grid position, Class and Name. It also shows you the X-Ray of the selected shipBottom
On the bottom are your current squadron´s which you brought into battle. Showing you which one are on Mission (light gray ones) or which ones are destroyed or in the Hanger (dark gray one). On the right of the hotbar are your planes which are in reserve/didn´t have an Squadron appointed in the Squadron Builder, those are in your Hangar and will replenish the Planes which have been lost in battle.
!VERY IMPORTANT!
If you lose a plane in battle, its lost. There is no way to get more aircrafts when you reserve is empty and all your squadrons destroyed. Gone = Gonebottom Left
The bottom left shows the Status of you ship. As usualmiddle left
On the middle left you get your reports from you planes. For example if planes spotted an enemy ship, shot down another airplane, hit a ship.Top Left
This is your control Panel, this is, next to the map, the most important part of the gameplay. On the top Left you have the information your non-eliminated squadrons displayed aswell as actions you can do with them. They go as followes:
→ Yellow Lightings: Attack Enemies in the Area, FIghters will attack any other Planes and Bombers will attack any ships in their proximity until all of their offensive armory is used. Then they return to the carrier
→ Blue Circle (Fighters only): Patroling the area for enemies. Patroling Fighters will not start an attack on other planes but will get active once they got shot at
→ Red Bomb (Bombers only): Compared to the Yellow Lightnings. The red bomb target one specific target, letting all Bombers attack one singular target and hen return to the carrier, even if Fighters are in the squadron.
→ Yellow arrow: Let´s a squadron being called back to the carrier early
→ White Eye: You can also watch the planes (Like in normal games your Bi-Plane) and also take control of the lead plane. Then your planes will follow you. You dive they dive, you shoot they shoot. You get shot down, they abbort the attempt and climb back to operational height :)
Now that we got the gameplay, how do we implement and proper way of Starting the planes. Because it is not realistic if a squadron of 7 planes start simultanious.
In the beginning, every ACC starts with their available planes on the deck. Making it around 1-3 Squadrons ready to start.When a squadron is given a task, each plane will start after another. Circling around/over the ACC until the whole squadron is ready to go. (I was thinking for a start you need like 10 seconds, so you can get 6 planes in 30 secs in the).
If Planes on the deck are missing, the crew of the ACC will grab planes from the Hangar and lift them through the elevator onto the Deck. (Maybe 30-60 seconds “reload” per plane). Which will “fill up” the other squadrons, making them ready to go.
If there is no space on the deck and the planes need to land, then they will circle the carrier and wait until either
A) another squadron started, making space. (Planes will be not brought up from the Hangar if planes are in queue to land)
B) the planes will land and be brought down per elevator into the carrier. Which takes pretty long, so you want to have your planes always up.
C) a button gets added where you can just stop the crew bringing planes out of the hangar so the Deck won´t get full
