Spawn Point Overhaul for aircraft in Ground Realistic

Suggestions Gameplay
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1

As it currently stands, Spawn Points (SP) are a woefully under utilised mechanic for balancing aircraft and loadouts. They use the most basic possible implementation which is that the most expensive item in the loadout dictates the spawn cost. It doesn’t matter how many of that weapon you are running or what you might be running alongside it, that will be your total.

There is another issue that my proposed SP changes would fix. Limiting loadouts from aircraft so they are balanced in GRB and without having any impact in Air modes where said loadouts don’t matter. Most recently this is an aircraft like the Tornado GR1 being denied any ALARM or the F-15E being limited to 20x GBU-53 rather than its full 28.

The proposal.

Change SP cost from being the most expensive item in the loadout, to each individual item having an SP cost.

Let me explain further with an example

SP costs are entirely for demonstrative purposes, I have no idea what they are in-game at the moment for these weapons nor am I proposing these be the cost

Lets take the Tornado GR4

  • Aircraft costs = 500
  • Aim-9M = 50
  • Paveway IV = 150
  • PGM-500/2000 = 250
  • Brimstone = 200
  • ALARM costs = 300

With the current system, this means that if I take 1x ALARM or 9x ALARM the cost will always be 300 + Base cost. So 800. It doesn’t matter what else I might have in the loadout. It doesn’t matter how many ALARM I am actually taking. It will always cost 300.

So instead. What if it was each weapon. So:

  • 1x Aim-9M = 25
  • 1x Paveway = 30
  • 1x PGM-500/2000 = 75
  • 3x Brimstone = 75
  • 1x ALARM = 75

And now each Pylon adds to the cost.

So with a loadout of

  • 2x Aim-9M
  • 4x ALARM
  • 2x PGM-500

image

The total would be

(2x25)+(4x75)+(2x75)+500 = 1000.

The full loadout is considered into the total and each individual weapon can be balanced appropriately for the BR.

This then could even be taken even further and have a multiplier for certain weapons when you take a certain amount. For example ALARM, Spice-250, GBU-53, Brimstone, etc. Weapons with possible high counts, especially weapons which currently have artificially limited counts so far.

To keep using ALARM as the main example, this could be a 1.5x multiplier when taking more than 4 and maybe a 2x multiplier when taking more than 6.

So if the loadout was:

  • 6x ALARM
  • 2x PGM-500s

image

the cost would be:
1.5(6x75)+(2x75)+500 = 1325.

This very quickly balances out potentially too strong loadouts in GRB without having any impact in any mode where the loadouts are irrelevant. This system can be easily fine tuned, so if a weapon is too strong, its cost can be increased. It can even be balanced for each BR and I would propose for weapons to vary in cost from BR to BR. So to keep the same example. Have the ALARM on the Tornado GR1 cost more than they do on the Tornado GR4. Same weapon, different BR, different cost.

It also promotes taking much weaker loadouts, or weapon systems that are normally not worth takig, for example on the AH-64D, a loadout of:

  • 8x AGM-114K
  • 2x CVR7 Rocket Pods

Could maybe be worth it, as you may not have enough SP points to spawn in with 16x Hellfires, but can afford to take less.

The system could also address some overlooked aspects too, such as unguided bombs costing the exact same amount as a GBU, despite the obvious diferences. Or balancing SAL-Only GBUs vs SAL+GNSS GBUs, which again, promotes taking weaker loadouts at times.

It also allows stronger loadouts to co-exist at similar BRs without there being a blatant issue in balance. (Super Etendard being 11.0 because it has 6x GBUs for example, could instead be 10.3 alongside the Jaguar GR1A. but taking more than 2x GBUs on the SE starts to increase cost notably)

Whilst I am of the opinion A2A weapons shouldn’t have any SP cost (This suggestion covers this issue separately), this could be included into the system as well, as could other things that currently have no SP cost, such as Targeting pods. Ammo belts can also be factored in without issue, with each belt adding to the total cleanly.

So to conclude. This proposed system would:

  • Greatly improve the current balance for loadouts within GRB
  • Allows aircraft to be placed at more appropriate battle ratings
  • Promote taking a mix of weapons
  • Promote taking reduced weapon counts
  • Promote taking weaker weapons
  • Allow full loadouts to be added and usable in all modes, but balanced in ground modes when appropriate
Would you like to see this change to Spawn Points?
  • Yes
  • No
0 voters
2 Likes
2

How about unguided / glide bomb and guided / unguided rockets pods.

3

For this bit?

4

They should cost less dont you think ?
We know that a paveway and a glide variant are very different in term of capabilities.

5

Sure, i just gave a brief example.

Order of cost for bombs would probably be something like (cheapest to most expensive)

  • Unguided bomb
  • SAL GBU
  • GNSS Bomb
  • GNSS glide bomb
  • SAL+GNSS bomb
  • SAL+GNSS Glide bomb
  • TV Bomb
  • IR Bomb
  • IR Glide bomb

(though I probably wouldnt have that big of a difference betweeen some, and I would put maybe more value on size or quantity that pure guidance method for some, like Id take a 1000lb GNSS bomb over a single GBU-39)

The point is, each weapon (at the very least each weapon-type, but maybe even as far as each individual weapon) can have its own specific SP Cost associated to it, rather than going “bomb = bomb” or “20 bombs = 1 bomb”

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