Where do you want them to be? A plain BR 2.3 MiG 15 (or Yak-2 KABB) or a 2.7 P-39 or 3.0 Yak-1B or a 3.3 410 A-1 or a Rank II P-38 G at 3.2 or… etc is able to kill a Lanc without efforts.
This makes technically seen way more sense (for Air RB) but it won’t solve the issue of low chances to drop.
Imho your points are valid, but distract from the main reason why @Morvran created this thread.
I think most of players don’t realize that the reward for destroying the airfields, and due to some reason, if the Base couldn’t respawn over and over again, that means bombers will lose over 70% reward
Would they?
Last time I played a heavy bomber. I got 1x base kill in about 4 or 5 matches and then sat with the rest of my bomb load with nothing to drop on. 2 of those matches in which I got nothing wasnt because I had died, but because all the bases were already dead and there was nothing to drop on. Before they had respawned and I traveled to them, the match had either ended or I had been killed.
Most of the time in the weaker, jet bombers like the Buc S2, Jag even the 11.7 Tonka. Its not uncommon for much the same. Take X amount of bomb load, and then be left dropping them on ai tanks. High capacity bombers are entirely nerfed due to the lack of appropriate targets and diminishing returns mechanic.
A large, semi-permament target (heck even more than 1), on top of the current 4x respawning base system, would gurantee something that can always be bombed. Now that doesnt have to be the AF. There are other options like a base with 10x the health of a regular base or the new deep strike oil refinery or something. Just anything to drop bombs onto besides howitzers if all the bases are killed. Especially for aircraft that should have max bomb load as a strength, instead its almost treated like a weakness.
Buc S2, B-66, Lancaster, F-111 etc etc are all aircraft that would greatly benefit from having something, anything to carpet bomb and actually get half decent rewards. If they have made it to the target, in an environment designed to be bad for them. Then they should always get something. Sure, the old 3 bases then AF might not be the best option available. But it beats out the 4x bases that are taken by lighter faster aircraft.
How much impact on the match outcome said “heavy” target should have… Is a seperate debate to be had, with the current ARB implementation… Probably not much, beyond a good chunk of tickets. But could be far more dynamic in long haul gamemodes like EC.
We should probably not confuse the issues of “bombing in fighters” and “bombing in actual bombers”, they are separate issues, although the removal of win conditions for (actual) bombers is likely related to the influx of fighter-bombing, that would end matches far to quickly, especially at 9.0+.
The issue is “how to you let bombers be effective without having fighter-bombers abusing the mechanics to end matches too fast (and likely still before bombers can do anything)?”
I can only see 3 options short of a complete game mode redesign:
#1 hardened bases that actually require a full heavy bomber load outs to damage
#2 assigning targets to each bomber when it enters the match, and those targets are only marked for that bomber
#3 After base destruction, the airfield becomes a target, but rather then being destructible, damage causes ticket bleed, X tons of bombs causes Y ticket lose, that can be adjusted up or down to make it as easy or hard as Gaijin wants to make it to win that way.
I’m a fan of this one.
I think that the current airbases when bombed should open up a new objective with more HP behind it that is either immune or takes less incendiary damage. A bomber could take out the first tier objective and still have bombs to damage the 2nd tier.
Destroying tanks/troops should give more rewards too for strike fighters loaded with AT.
I don’t think I’ve ever really seen an ARB game end with ticket bleed. What’s even the point of tickets in ARB with 1 respawn?
Could lead to objectives for actual fighter bombers in higher BRs. E.g. su 34.
Would be nice to use the modern strike platforms for y’know, strikes.
I must completely destroy AF/Base will get additional rewards. I know it is hard to achieve, but still pretty important, considering that the more bombs we take, the reward will be less, it is another huge nerf for bombers because you need at least 10 ground targets, then equal to 1 bases reward, and it is much more risky. Basically, Gaijin just hope bombers and strikers to suicide to get a little reward, Air Conques is the evidence: not only less bases we can bomb, but also less bonus for destroying bases, and these bases respawn pretty slowly
Imho it is not a matter of confusion - and this whole thread exists because there is a fundamental connection between them - it is a matter of game impact of base bombing in general.
So the switch from becoming a valuable tool with the possibility to end a certain match to have little to zero ticket impact.
Subsequently just individual player benefits (SL/RP) play a role - whilst having no impact on the dominating win condition TDM puts a hell of (felt) pressure on PvP mains eager to win every match.
The connection is obvious if you look at the third word of the next sentence:
The first point “has been removed, as it is not used at later ranks” is technically seen a “Nothing-burger” as the reasons for this “non-usage” is mainly based on 2 factors:
The removal of the win condition “Enemy airfield destroyed” had nothing to do with bombing bases - it was clearly evidence enough that gaijins/was unable to introduce dynamic HPs for bases / airfields (in order to adapt to threats) and that they needed just a plain grinding tool.
There are no real “bombers” at high/top BRs -therefore the *maximum 4 bombers per team MM rule does not work with multi-role jets bombing bases in infinite loops.
Newbie battles
I mean i played on Malta a few weeks ago in a 5.0- 6.0 match - and Malta is also a 3 bases map with a destructible airfield.
So when these BRs are called now “newbie battles” it is imho more than obvious that the someone is not playing their own game.
There are now more bases to bomb (4 at the start instead of 3) and bases now respawn"
Very low tier BRs (up to BR 2.3) have already usually 3 or 4 bases and a destructible airfield. But there are also 4 bases maps with respawning bases at BR 1.7 - i know this because i flew there half a year ago with the 1.7 He 115 to check a claim by a fellow player.
If you see this thread and the announcements regarding changes as a whole there are 2 main conclusions to think about:
I see this as a compromise - which is basically nothing more than a dynamic airfield health combined with a slight increase of “usefulness”.
In order to have a significant role bombers/strike fighters/multi-role fighters across all BRs should have the possibility to temporarily disable the runway. This would have at least the effect that min fuel spamming fighters would have to rethink their strategy and would add immersion for highly specialized aircraft like the Tornado IDS.
Have a good one!