Hello everyone, I’d like to talk a bit about the issues I experience in top tier Air RB matches.
Small Maps
Some maps are way too small for top tier Air RB, especially when you pair them with my next issue that I will talk about shortly. Maps like City, small version of Spain etc. have no place in top tier matches. There’s way too many players and thus missiles for battles on these maps to be in any way fun and engaging. They are often over in under five minutes.
Too many players in a match
A few months ago, Gaijin gave us an option to take part in battles with a lower player count. I don’t know about you, but I rarely ever get such a match. Maybe one in a hundred battles is 10vs10 or lower. Other than that, it’s full 16vs16. Combine this with a small map and you have a recipe for anything but fun.
Gaijin should just hard-cap battles at 12.3+ BR to 10vs10, with an option to take part in battles with larger player count, not vice versa.
Enemy player markers
I know this has beem discussed many times before, but I feel like removal of enemy markers would actually be good. Air combat is actually much more enjoyable and engaging in ground RB where you need to be vigilant. This would probably be a disaster in the current 16vs16 match-ups, but if we got 8vs8 or 10vs10 on larger maps like Spain or Sinai, it could work.
Poor map rotation
It often happens that I am dropped five or even more times in a row into the same map. Usually Mysterious Valley or Golan Heights, but that could just be me. Some maps are just so rare now, I can hardly remember how something like large Spain or large Afghanistan look. Speaking of which, I haven’t played on Sinai in literally a month - did Gaijin remove it from the rotation and I just didn’t notice, or is the RNG so bad?
Yes, I know it’s not really a popular opinion. But I believe one of the reasons people are so against it is the small maps combined with too many players, making it basically impossible to keep track of enemies around you without markers. Hell, sometimes it’s almost impossible even with markers on some maps in 16vs16 battles.
Sim has completely different controls, cockpit view only and no markers whatsoever, not even teammates. It’s a completely different thing. Also almost unplayable without a VR set.
I’m talking about how I’d like to make peanut butter better and you’re telling me to spread my bread with Nutella instead.
It’s not about removing markers at all. The bugged day after November patch was the best day in WT for me for years. A partial removing would be great. We discussed this already.
I bet gaijin would make a lot more money if there would be a premium option to choose between map groups (small, normal, ec) and an option to play a single map only.
Main issues are the the small maps combined with too many players. Those, I feel like, need to be addressed by Gaijin.
Something like removing enemy markers is purely a matter of preference, but I’d still like if people were more open to the idea, especially if the issue above gets addressed. Yes, currently it’s unthinkable to remove those markers, no doubt about that, but once (and if) we get rid of those small maps and large lobbies, people might see that there’s some merit to the removal of enemy markers. By no means are enemy markers an issue, it’s just something I’d like more people to think about.
I’m not the best player, but I can get regular kills and do well if the weather/visibility isn’t terrible. I do wish to note - it took me over 24 hours of mindful flying and practice to reach the point where I could beat people in dogfights with no previous combat flight sim (but a decent bit of civillian flight sim) experience.
In my experience comparing ASB to ARB, the issue is less with absolute map size. This is in perspective of propeller aircraft, gunfighter jets and dogfight missile jets (up to F8U-2).
The issue is with OBJECTIVE DESIGN.
Demonstration:
Vietnam in ARB Map size: 128x128 km, 1 grid square is 16x16 km (rounded down).
Smolensk in ASB Map size: 128x128 km, 1 grid square is 16x16 km (rounded down):
Do you see the difference inherent in the objective design? (a few moments ago there was an air superiority objective where I was that spawned a ground battle. Over 50 kilometers away as we were engaging the objective, there was a bomber and people intercepting said bomber. Sometimes, you end up with A.I targets on the far end of the map as the objective RNG rolls them, or “arrows” likely spread wide apart.)
Smolensk is the same size as vietnam, except rather than concentrate every objective in a roughly 40 kilometer wide frontline (wasting 2/3 of the entire map), the objectives are spread widely across the entire battlefield with multiple airfields to spawn from.
This means we are actually using the full 128x128 battlefield rather than just a 40 kilometer wide column/row.
My solutions as thus:
Create at least THREE, ideally MORE objectives that are placed roughly equidistant from one parallel edge to the other. These Three or MORE objectives must NOT be able to be ignored, their completion MUST impact either the chance to win or the flow of battle. They MUST be equally important.
Spawn players FORCIBLY across 3 or MORE runways placed equidistant along the map’s edge, creating small squadrons of 5x5x5 players who will naturally fly towards their closest objective to score and find enemies, thus reducing player density without changing playercount or map size or time to fly.
From the wiki. Dunno if ARB Smolensk is the same size, but the comparison is more “128x128 EC map in ARB feels far smaller than 128x128 EC map in ASB.” Could’ve compared vietnam to vietnam, but don’t have a screenshot of that one on hand :v.
I’m against that, as i think that:
Spreading teams in 2 group of 8 people (no choice of airfield) - on Enlarged EC maps spawning from 2 different airfield (per team) would largely contribute in a upgraded gameplay:
Spreading players accross the map
Having the same potential amount of ennemy to kill
Also,… and i still regret this, Gaijin still didn’t made specifics Jet Era Tutorials for people to learn how to play/dodge missile - making 80% of every team to die within seconds.
I think you’re right: Checked it in Google maps, and from Smolensk to Rudnja it’s about 70km by car, and on the WT map a bit less than half the map width, so 128x128 seems correct.
I actually never tried Smolensk in Sim in High Tier, guess I’ll have to do that… = )
Haha, yeah, proper warm up and mobilisation of neck and shoulders is important in VR. Talking with fighter pilots about this they just grinned and nodded knowingly… ;-)
The small Afghanistan maps spawns both team at Aim120 range from each other. It’s hidden by the mountains, but you can climb vertically and toss an AMRAAM to the enemy spawn. It’s a ridiculous map for top tier, each side barely has the time to reach mach 1 before the missiles starts flying at pitbull range.
16v16 is not playable. It’s manageable if you’re a good enough because you can easily rack a few kills, as 90% of the playerbase is simply awful at piloting. It’s not fun however and doesn’t reward skill beyond basic positioning and knowing what each missiles can do.
We need Air RB EC. We needed it for five years or more.
