Removing/tweaking randomness in Ground AB Air Events

The current system for Air Events in Ground AB can often feel unfair, both to those who started it and for those who choose to intercept.

Sometimes you grab a bomber only to have a plane with excellent cannons placed less than a kilometer away, completely perpendicular to your trajectory such that you are instantly shot down with no hope or counterplay. On the other hand, perhaps the intercepting player is given a slow plane and placed too far away to ever reasonably catch up the bomber.

The problem with this arises from the fact that interceptor type, distance and angle are random. Exactly how this can be remedied is what I’d like everyone to discuss in the replies, but my proposal is to have the distance and angle linked to how quickly players grab the interceptor after the Air Event is started.
For example, if a player grabs the interceptor just 2 seconds after the Air Event starts, they will spawn very close to the bomber/strike aircraft and on a favorable trajectory, but if they grab the interceptor with just a few seconds left until the Air Event starts, they’ll be more likely to be placed further away and directly behind.
This system would have two additional benefits, first that it will favor players who are already in cover and ready to grab an interceptor (such as SPAAs, who don’t have to worry about running to cover before the air event starts) and also punishes those who grab it at the last second in the hopes that the player who starts the air event will not notice them and thus fly carelessly.

What do you think? I think it’s quite a simple fix, although what counts as a “favorable” or “unfavorable” intercept spawn may be a little arbitrary. Let me know if you can think of anything better or any ideas to improve this.

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I think almost anything would be better than what we have now. The spawning system(s) have long been in need of an overhaul as a whole, and the few changes we see now and then generally only make things worse for the players(the recent Ground Strike maps having the spawns moved ridiculously far back is a prime example).
But the plane spawns in Ground Arcade were changed a while back to a state that makes it almost not worth flying planes in that mode anymore(which may have been the intent to start with I fear)and what we had before was not bad.
The whole issue with how well a plane sortie goes is generally, or was, based on how many planes were spawned, for each side. Now it is entirely based on just exactly where defending fighters & the escorts are spawned. The vast majority of time defending fighters are spawning ridiculously close to attacking bombers and attackers, making the whole effort rather pointless and a waste of time & resources. Spawning in an escort role almost always is so far back you can neither defend your bomber/attacker or do much else before the time limited sortie is over . . . also making the entire affair . . . pointless.

And the uninterrupted bombing will only significantly reduce the game time, which is obviously contrary to Gaijin’s idea. I don’t understand what they are thinking =(