Return the 30 second base respawn time to Air RB

Suggestions Gameplay
1
Should Gaijin return the 30 second respawn timer for bases?
  • Yes
  • No
0 voters

As of the update “Kings of Battle” a change seems to have been made, not noted in the change log, that in air realistic battles bases now take 5 minutes or more to respawn after destruction. i was hopeful upon encountering this, that it was a bug. But my fears have been confirmed that it is not as on the issues page, multiple reports of this have been marked as not a bug by employee’s of gaijin.

I want to make a plea to the developers to revert this change back to it’s pre-update state, provide some arguments for why it should be rolled back, and offer some solutions to possible concerns the developers might have had which caused this to go through.

It is obvious from multiple different forum posts, and the sub-reddit, that this is not a welcome change. Some examples here, and here.

Why return it to it’s pre-patch state?

As of this patch, “Kings of Battle” it is now significantly harder and less rewarding to play a dedicated attacker/bomber. For example, at the 10.0 br range, A-10’s, Thunderchiefs, SU-25’s and I am sure many other slower attackers/bombers I am less familiar with stand little to no chance of reaching the base before F-111’s, thus making them virtually useless in that role.

The long respawn timers have encouraged these aircraft to play a much more idle, detrimental playstyle that i have witnessed myself. That is, instead of flying straight to the bases to be in the midst of the combat WITH the fighters, now slower aircraft such as A-10’s and SU-25’s are incentivized to fly the edges of the map in hopes that the match will last long enough for the bases to respawn so they may get their bombs off. Often the match ends before this happens.

Not only does this make the gameplay more boring for the attacker/bomber, it is actively more detrimental to the team who’s attackers/bombers are doing this. Pre-patch, A-10’s, Su-25’s, etc would be in the midst of the combat and able to help their fellow fighters with missiles, guns, and acting as bait.

Others on the forum have noted that, due to this change, they have seen an uptick in teamkilling over base targets, and other similar unsportsmanlike behaviour that wasn’t seen nearly as often before this change.

Pre-patch, dedicated fighters were already capable of reaching bases before attackers/bombers and destroying them. The only saving grace was that, by the time the attackers/bombers arrived, the bases had already respawned. Now, bases take so long to respawn, that the majority of my matches I have played they simply don’t before the match ends.

This change has had an overwhelmingly negative impact on gameplay, both for those of us who enjoy attacker and bomber aircraft, and for those more interested in direct PvP with fighters as a result of encouraging even more idle behaviour from attackers/bombers.

Possible Concerns and Considerations

I realize, that this change likely comes hand in hand with the fact that the F-111 has such an absurd payload, capable of destroying some 6-7 bases if I understand correctly. If bases respawned at their previous rate of 30 seconds give or take, I could see how this aircraft could be an insanely effective SL and RP farmer.

However, I do not think a single plane being capable of this is just cause to gimp EVERY single attacker and bomber. We already had heavy bombers (albeit at lower BR’s) that if they survived the match, had very similar payloads (The B-29 or TU-4 with 40x500lbs vs the F-111’s 50x500lbs).

If indeed SL and RP rewards with the F-111 were the concern that enabled this change to come, wouldn’t it make more sense to simply lower the RP/SL multiplyer for it? This of course does present other issues - I am not sure if the developers are able to reduce SL/RP multipliers for base bombing and base destroyed rewards separately from, for instance, air kills. Which if they aren’t would greatly disincentivize using this aircraft for air to air combat which wouldn’t be fair either.

In Closing

I really hope this change gets rolled back. I love this game, I really do. I have been a part of this community since 2013, I’ve seen many highs and lows. Please don’t make this one of the many lows. Attackers and bombers have their place in the game, and shouldn’t be relegated to only being useful in ground rb for those of us here to enjoy aircraft.

Thank you for your time.

23 Likes
2

I voted “no”, because it destroys the entire mode.

2 Likes
3

Would you be able to elaborate? In what way does making bombers have a role to play in air rb “destroy” the game mode? As far as I can tell, this change has “destroyed” the viability of many of the slower dedicated bomber aircraft, and not just top tier.

If it’s a matter of “bombing bases doesn’t contribute to winning the match” then, maybe instead of gimping bomber viability entirely, we could make it so that bombing bases actually contributes to ticket bleed and winning like other actions…? I definitely don’t want to return to the old days of bombers getting an insta win from bombing the airfield, but surely there is a better middle ground than this.

8 Likes
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The question is not appropriate. Bombers don’t have a role in RB at the moment. And having bases return faster does not give them one either. If you would want a role for bombers, then AB is more of a setting that works for them, as their actions can win the game. There was a time when RB had similar rules. But the base respawn does not give them an option to win.

Well, you can still climb and wait for bases to return. Which is much better for your income then rushing and dying.

Afaik, bases do contribute to ticket bleed. And killing an airfield seems better than no role.

But bases also draw all other bomb carriers, not just bombers. Fighter bombers and strike aircraft have no incentive to actually strike anything but bases, because the reward is so low for ground.

If you look at AB, there you find a better scenario balance, albeit slightly off to the other end.

Whatever RB might need to improve, returning bases faster is not the answer.

5

Did you forget that bombing all the bases makes there airstrip open for bombing? Meaning a instant win?.

2 Likes
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It doesn’t at certain battle ratings. That is only a thing in the lower BR brackets. Definitely not a thing at top tier.

2 Likes
7

At the top tier, you are a missile carrier. Just like the F-4C. Damn someone really didn’t like this comment.

8

And you have avoided mine. In what way does having a 30 second base respawn “destroy” the game mode? How does a 5 minute respawn improve it?

This is often not viable at top tier, as per my post if you even read it. Matches end before bases have a chance to respawn a vast majority of the time. You are also asking players to be even more idle, by climbing, or waiting at the wayside. This improves the game mode how? I absolutely agree with climbing at lower tiers, with props. Top tier is a different animal.

6 Likes
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Not when bases respawn! If it is as you describe, we need no change in respawn time anyway, as a new target appears.

Your choice, base is dead either way if you carry enough.

A 30 second respawn will lead to the gameplay we had when we had a 30 second respawn. Everyone and his dog is bombing bases and will then likely be shot down. That is not how any conflict would go but mindless instead. It is nice for grinding but if you want that, arcade is your friend for bombers and attackers. A 5 minute respawn will reduce this effect, because the number of initial bases will simply not be enough for all bombs. So players will have to consider other options if they can. Possibly before takeoff. They also have more options when they refuel.

I have been playing top tier today (not top BR) and did not observe this. In one case did the game end seconds after I destroyed a respawning base, but otherwise it just ended later. Top BR is always a messy clusterf*** which should not be the yardstick for the game mechanics.

Bombers? Sure! Attackers and Fighters have a choice. From a certain BR upward, climbing will be replaced by ground hugging.

1 Like
10

Just want to make clear that bomb base respawn was bugged on the last update making so they were respawning 10 times faster than intended.

This was fixed in Kings of Battle, now we have the base respawn we always had.

11

Make it take 5 minutes again!!!1!!!1 😡😡😡😡😡😡

12

Yep! I am aware of that. Though unintended and a bug, it was a great quality of life change. It is not unheard of for game developers to implement things that at first, were bugs. I realize that 30 seconds is absurdly fast, however I would like to put to the developers that (at least in the case of top tier, where battles can end very quickly.) 5 minutes is far to long. Perhaps a good middle ground might be 2 minutes.

7 Likes
13

4-5 minutes is what we have now after the update fix as I said

14

Missile not rocket. But i get your point.

15

They can always just add more bases so everyome in the beginging gets a chance to bomb. Sorry if someone made came up with idea already i didnt read the entire thread.

7 Likes
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@Zaelis Well written! I do think that 30 seconds is far too fast but 2 minutes would be a great middle ground. That gives your slower aircraft - A-10, Su-25 - time to get there, the base respawns just as they get there and then they can contribute to the PvP battle with the missiles they carry and their guns. If the enemy has been beaten back they can attack the AI ground targets that contribute more to enemy ticket loss but do not give the RP rewards that bases do.

5 Likes
17

It is excellent short-term solution. I will solve most of the obvious problems and improve game satisfaction.

Ultimately the role of bombers and their impact in RB needs to be thoroughly reviewed followed by game mode and maps adjustment. But that is long-term project in my view.

6 Likes
18

Imho, the reward for ground targets is a problem. Don’t get me wrong, the targets any pea shooter can farm are not the ones I talk about. But for instance on “alternative spain”, there are “real” pillboxes, which you can’t farm easily, which require direct bomb hits or perhaps some other well aimed weapon. They return virtually nothing as reward. A base gives far more for far less efford. And I don’t think it is a good idea to require less and less skill for RPs. In top tier, there are so many precision weapons available, but there is nothing to use them on, in an RP rewarding way.

8 Likes
19

Absolutely agree. Though out of the scope of this particular suggestion thread, I do think air RB needs some serious attention and rework. There have been attempts in the past with RB EC, which imho I think was on the right track to making air RB more varied and interesting. More and varied tasks, discoverable objectives, capture points, dynamic spawning of ground units/battles, utilizing the whole map rather than cramming everything in the center, and reworking the rewards given for certain targets (AAA, Artillary, Howitzers, Light pillboxes, Pillboxes, Bases) to make them viable targets of the player would be amazing.

Air RB has gone virtually unchanged since 2013 when I started playing. I won’t hold my breath for change, but it would be welcome to say the least.

5 Likes
20

Absolutely agree it’s a short term solution. Ideally I would, as in my above comment, love to see air RB get some proper love and attention with more game modes and objectives, better map layouts and the like. If they ever brought back rotating Air RB EC events every weekend, I would play that and not touch regular air rb. Imho RB EC was a great solution to many of my woes with our current air RB.