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Howdy y’all!
Lately, despite the influx of new aircraft, Air RB has gotten stale. I’ve been thinking of some ways to mitigate that staleness, and have come up with a fairly simple “first step” that I’d like to present!
The first step is one that I thoroughly believe would improve gameplay at all BRs: Removing the default airfield spawn and modifying it into a “spawn zone” for players like this:
Essentially, rather than forcing a player to take an airfield spawn, players would be randomly spawned in groups of along this “spawn zone” within the first grid square of the map.
This would take into account aircraft type (fighter, interceptor, bomber) to determine altitudes and forward/rearward positioning in the grid square, as well as squad status to spawn you near you squadmates (if applicable). This enables a certain level of randomness in spawn location, unlike the current airfield spawns, meaning that teams can’t predict exactly where the enemy team is going to be right away, leading to a more entertaining battle experience.
Secondarily, this also balances out aircraft performance. All aircraft will start out at the same rough altitude and airspeeds, giving players a more even playing field to fight on. This gives fighters ample chances to find and intercept bombers while giving bomber players the advantage of spawning in a random location to sneak by unseen.
Third, both of these things become crucial at top tier as we move into the Fox 3 BVR fights that will likely come in 2024. Both the randomized locations and the equalized energy states give us a much more interesting and accurate representation of air combat in the modern age. Having these randomized locations will require a player to use their radar to search more vigilantly, and maybe even lead to a command/control implementation of AWACS or GCI in the future for target information!
Lastly, this also comes with the benefit of diversifying potential air battle map locations. Rather than having to have an airfield on a particular map, some open ocean maps or maps over terrain too difficult for airfields to exist in can be made and used, with a retreat beyond the spawn zone counting as an “RTB” with a timer for repair/rearming.
Feedback is appreciated, and thanks for your time!
-LDA