PvE Mode for Bomber

For reasons beyond me the Bomber damage model has been nerfed into the ground and the AI gunners are deaf, blind and unable to shoot at enemies beyond 200m.

If you play Air RB, then your base, even though you mark it, is taken by an Attacker plane with sufficient bomb load while you’re being chased by Interceptors.

Should you make it towards a base, then uou can select if you want to fly evasive with your AI Gunners doing nothing or you can (try to) defend yourself and still die or you miss the base…

The state of Bombers in the game is one where trying to spade it becomes so frustrating that, even though you like them, you’re no longer touching them. It’s really, really sad.

So my thought was, why not give Bombers a PvE mode, like for Helicopters, and give players the chance to spade their vehicles with a chance of fun.

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IIRC it’s linked to a gunner skill?

(( Edit - And this sucks…

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))

PvE gamemodes have been historically pretty poor and off very dull gameplay and poor rewards.

The better option might be a PvPvE gamemode like RB EC that would give decent gameplay for ground attack aircraft outside of Air Sim.

But overall, bombers are in desperate need of an overhaul

Instead of waiting for AI overhauls, you could go into simulator where bombers are buffed and easy to fly.

Honestly, want an update focused on fixing the current bombers and bringing in stuff like the V bombers and Tupolevs. Even in Sim, bombers are just painful. Sure, you can see folk coming sooner, but still can’t really do jack.

Yeah… Heavy bombers are truly neglected

Only one that should really have any issues with defence is lancaster, but even then lancaster should be okay at fending things off. Just not “good” at fending things off. Also doesn’t help the missing mission loads, no incendiary bombs on lancaster.*

Which sucks, it is one of favourite planes.

*Obviously, still should have issues against anyone half intelligent to approach from poorly covered angles. It is still a bomber with blind spots.

Its also just over BRed. Would be much better about 4.0

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That goes for basically all of them, sadly. Kind of just left it unsaid.

Yeah, very few that I think have a BR close to what they should be

I think the tu4’s about .3-.7 too high, but that’s about the only one that’s close to where it ought to be. The 20mms are very effective when controlled.

It was always necessary to be smarter than the average fighter pilot to survive in a bomber, but i totally agree that even way more skill does not help you these days - either you meet Wyverns at 6 km or hordes of interceptor aircraft which denies most bombers even the chance to drop.

Imho this development is not new, but gaijin showes no interest in prop bomber game play. Technically seen you are useless as a pure base bomber as your ticket and game impact is (almost) non existent.

Imho there are just 2 prop bombers you can fly, drop and rtb with impunity: The Swedish B-18B and the B7A2. But this impunity is a matter of experience (like choosing the right route, optimal climb speeds, ability to avoid enemy contact, etc.) and especially in the B-18B gunner skills.

All other prop bombers have not the climb and speed performance; i don’t count the Brigand as bomber, it is just a strike aircraft with bomber spawn, but without a bomb sight.

I recommend for spading or in general a change of your strategy in Air RB.

Example Do 217 stock to spaded and 3 times 4 bases in one run.:
  • I used at the end of last year a Do 217 E-2 in Air RB in order to test the C 250 and C 500 Flamm bombs - and yes you can kill 4 bases with 4 C 500 or 8 C 250. But thx to the very low multiplier for incendiary bombs your mission score is rather disappointing (~1.300 score).

  • I always reverse climbed right at the start - doing a 180 turn and climbing away from the center of the map - either above and behind my main airfield or sideways, but in any case away from own bases and away from the approaching enemies.

  • The 217 climbs so poorly that it takes ages to get from spawn alt above contrail alt that i never got chased before i was at 6.5 - 7 km. Until then the game has developed and either your team got massacred, all guys are on the deck, or the enemy team got mostly killed.

  • In case my team was (almost) dead i spiraled down to my airfield, landed and left the match. In cases i was sure that nobody was at high alt i started a high alt and high speed run planning my route so that i was able to get all 4 bases and that i can keep up my speed and alt as long as possible.

  • The 217s can reach easy 700 kmph in a shallow dive and is even when spotted hard to catch before you get into into the safety of the af aaa bubble.

  • 24 matches - 15 wins and just 1 plane lost due to a slight overspeeding is not bad these days - i used just 1 time my gunner vs an enemy to keep a Spitfire at distance, not a single hit by an enemy fighter.

  • Overall: Extremely boring and time consuming, but i killed enough 217s to decide for me that this was the only possible way to avoid getting killed.

Regarding:

As written above: PvE modes are not known to be really profitable and from my pov gaijin sees bombers just as targets for fighters and lures a lot of players in flying them to the 3 times higher RP reward of a base kill vs a player kill.

In other words: The sad state of bombers is fully intended and i see not the slightest reason why gaijin would change their attitude.

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