The State of Air RB

Game Discussion Realistic Battle
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So right now air rb is a joke, the maps are functionally 2 to 3 grid squares wide for all intensive gameplay purposes, carriers do not exist, bloated teams and highly compressed objective area lazily copy pasted to nearly the same areas on each map only differing where the roads are for vehicles.

The state air rb is and has been for years now is a damn joke, people wanted bigger maps so objectives are more spread out, gaijin then added 4 people extra per team for no good reason, added a bastardized (if there is a more polite synonym for the state do tell me) version of maps used in sim matches.

Gaijin has kept the horrible mixed matchmaker which was supposed to be temporary as stated in a multiple year old blog post which I am 60% sure they have now quietly deleted cause I could not find the damn thing anymore.

The maps gameplay wise are functionally flat due to the huge dominance of the R-27ER and to a lesser degree the AIM-7M, so why not just one up yourself gaijin and add a block of sea with carriers, it would play the same as the current maps.

Oh and just for those that thing I forget about lower tiers, where have the historical team lineups gone? where have the old small maps gone that were great for props, why did they lose the 3 base maps? why did they lose the matchmaker that took into account if a plane fought in the pacific or european/african theater?

We have lost so much of what made air rb fun that it just baffles me, all the maps with carriers are gone, at least from my experience when was the last time you were on a map set in the pacific and no I don’t mean the maps set in china I mean the ones set on islands.

It saddens me that newer players will most likely never play on these maps in realistic, they might be in arcade but I don’t play that, the fun of realistic for me was the variety and now it is just copy paste same boring objectives that have basically no meaning, and removed features such as bombing the airfield.

I do apologize for my rambling but do try to convince me that what we have now is better than the past in variety, we have 4 year old stale bread as a game mode that is crumbling away

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They are still there. Axis vs Allies and JP vs US&UK

Eiither in the Ju 288 bracket if u play a 5.0 German or Italian fighter (i even played on Norway in February 2 times) - or you play the B7A2 and select SA server: You find very small lobbies (6-8) playing on Saipan, Iwojima and Gualdalcanal. Tbh it gets annoying sometimes as most players have no clue on how to play on these maps.

As written above, play the B7A2 and depending on daytime and server 30 - 40% of your matches will be on pacific maps (with carriers) with small lobbies.

They are also there; they revised some maps and made them more or less into arcade maps like Mozdok; but i admit that they are much rarer than 4 bases maps, buy you see airfield kills from time to time.

From my pov your core message is correct.

Most annoying developments in the last 3 years at prop tiers ( i play rank III//IV props only) from my pov:

  1. Overall decrease in player experience, some years ago 4.0 - 6.0 was crowded with very good players, no it is the exception.
  2. Spamming of highly undertiered premiums like Wyverns and XP-50s
  3. Hordes of bot bombers (B-25s, T-18Bs and 3.7 A-20 Gs to name the most common) alter the outcome of matches.
  4. The Ju 288 “black hole”" is imho fully intended and no accident
  5. 16 vs 16 with props
  6. Real shatter until recently fixed
  7. Gaijins refusal to get rid of BR setting based on simple average
  8. Air RB in props looks for most players like a tool to get somewhere instead of enjoying the game right now.

Have a good one!

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thanks for making my point less off the rails rant

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4

Not be that guy, but:

  1. It’s “all intents and purposes”.
  2. RB EC maps are indeed a bastardized version of the sim maps because you still have a mere 25 minutes to traverse a massive amount of terrain
  3. The historical team lineups were taken away years and years ago because of the obvious problems of having US props, for example, always fighting the Germans, who basically hard counter many US props.
  4. 3 base maps are still there
  5. Because that’s a silly system.
  6. The maps with carriers are still there. Play 2.7-4.7 US or Japan. I have put in a suggestion to Gaijin to increase the BR ranges and nations that can see these maps.
    7.I have also put in a suggestion to Gaijin to rework arcade maps for air rb.
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I’d just like to throw this in the ring. The state of 8.7-10.3 Jet era. To me it’s a mess, Premium spam planes with missiles that turkey shoot the planes that don’t even have missiles/countermeasures yet more often than not.

As a player who started this year I enjoyed for the most part the ww2 era tanks and planes. I have dabbled in ground but air is more my preference, I’ve spent a considerable amount on the game because I like to pay for games I enjoy. I have to say though The 8.7-10.3 era of jets really turns me off the game completely. Gaijin really needs to figure out some kind of balance for that.

I’m not alone in this sentiment. I have three friends that have just started playing jets with me and we’ve all pretty much had enough already and gone back down where the fun is. Why? Because when you’re in a plane with no countermeasures and die a few 1000 times to a missile you can’t really dodge, that you really shouldn’t be facing anyway it’s not fun it’s the opposite of fun. and uptiers are WAY more common than a balanced game or downtier it seems. At least that’s the feeling but the truth is some of those planes probably need BR adjusting.

It’s not the early missiles that are a problem, they can be dodged and become just another part of a dogfight but certain planes within that BR in a downtier are just downright unfair and due to the popularity of that 9.7-11.3 range you often get dragged up into those battles if you’re in a lower tier plane. They have missiles that are REALLY hard to dodge without any form of countermeasure. They vulture hard in the downtiers and ruin any kind of fun engagement with an enemy plane because the second you engage and lose a bit of speed, kaboom back to hangar…

I’d love to see some sabre v mig action without having to worry about some op premium missiles ruining the fight over and over again with a simple mouse click. OR at the very least come up with some custom event matchups that could be FUN with custom loadouts for the SAKE of making it fun.

I have spent way more than I would like to admit already because I have genuinely enjoyed the game. but I don’t wish to spend more when the fun stops and after playing a few days in jets at this tier, I can say it hasn’t been all that fun for me. I may venture more into jets after a break or after I see some news about adjustments but I really for me personally do not see how people can enjoy being blown out of the air the second they get into an actual fight by missiles from guys who are literally sitting back waiting to point and click

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I believe this is a result of feedback from lazy players who can’t be bothered to actually put in flight time on their planes. They want instant action, before their ADHD is triggered.

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No, I don’t see it that way, instead I see the opposite. The maps would be smaller were it an attention problem. I think the 25 minute match timer is Gaijin’s way of slowing the grind (the longer a match lasts, the more RP boost you get per action)

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I don’t know… Over the years, I’ve seen a tremendous amount of players crying about having to fly for even 5 measly minutes to reach battle. When in reality it probably only took them 2 minutes.

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9

OK, but you fail to understand, the map is BIGGER than it was before. The flight to battle is LONGER in the EC maps, not shorter. This is a dev decision, not a player decision.

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Yea, and players bitch and moan about how big the current RBEC maps are. Then they ask for a separate EC anyways… There’s no pleasing them.

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There’s also no winter maps in the jet rotation and gaijin made everything look washed out with the graphical update, so you’re basically playing on a winter map without playing on a winter map. I wish they would have rolled out the graphics stuff on the dev server, as is it’s a total disaster.

Air RB needs 7v7 on the old-size maps we had when F-14 was introduced… you know the one where it’s about 35km from airfield to center. If we need the larger versions, we can have a few of those, but the larger maps make it so that it takes a long time to RTB.

We should be doing about 12v12 on the larger map sizes.

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They definitely have a lot to consider with this Gen4 missile carrier nonsense. I can see smaller match formats as an alternative to bigger maps. Gaijin better figure something out. Top tier looks likes a nightmare.

Somebody on Reddit posted an image with like 20 missiles in the air… 🤦‍♂️

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not really air rb and air rb ec would have different play styles and metas

Also can we all agree 16v16 was 100% a mistake

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That would be me. To be fair, you can completely avoid dying in the first missile barrage by keeping under 25 meters AGL and shutting off your radar. Enemies cannot easily lock you and hitting you in such an instance is nearly impossible.

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15

A-10, TRAM and every 9L carriers are the problem, specifically.

You can outrange R-60M very easily, just refuse to head-on any plane carrying them, and they suck on pursuit due to the miserable range.

An A10 on the other hand is a 5km black hole of certain death for any plane without countermeasure. They should never face 9.0-9.7 planes which have no countermeasure at all.

In general, 9.0-9.7 is in an okay state in term of balance… until they get uptiered to 10.0.

10.0-10.7 is also relatively in an acceptable state, but there are some outliers who really shouldn’t exists. The Mirage 3C being a 10.3 fighter without any countermeasure is a good example of an utterly outclassed plane that has no business fighting 9L carriers. J35D is another example.

Also 16v16 is stupid. And the higher tier you go, the worse it is. 11.0-12.3 BR should be 8v8.

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16

Top tier Air RB is really in an aweful state. It purely caters to those who just care about grinding and nothing else.

Making top tier ARB 16 vs 16 was probably the biggest mistake Ive ever seen Gaijin do. It not only negated the larger maps but it also made top tier gameplay completely brain-dead. I mean the new RWR mechanics are hysterical with 16 vs 16. My RWR looks like a letter from the Zodiac killer and is unreadable.

ARB at the upper tiers should be 10 vs 10 max for all of the non-EC maps. Possibly even 8 vs 8 on the smaller maps.

ARB EC really needs to be a separate game mode. I dont understand why this hasn’t been added yet. The current ARB mode is so compromised and really suits nobody. The player base is really split down the middle. Some want quick competitive matches and others want longer strategic matches. Why force everyone into one style of gameplay? Give players the choice. I mean for F’s sake, Sim gets the choice but ARB doesn’t!?

It just doesn’t make any sense.

Im convinced that Gaijin doesn’t know what to do with the mode. Ive researched every plane in the game and the grind just isn’t worth it at all. The current ARB game mode bores me and for the time being, im just done with it. If they start making serious game mode changes, maybe ill pick it back up but it just doesn’t seem like Gaijin is listening or playing their own game anymore.

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I agree with everybody in this thread, I’ve been playing since 2014 and the state of top tier jets is not fun anymore. Everyone is flying low and in groups making it virtually impossible to kill anyone because you will have 3 to 4 jets on your six. These new flare resistant missiles make it even harder to track and flare because there are just so many other jets in the vicinity, i practically live in the free look mode. It’s just too stressful and I’m not having much fun. Trying to single out an enemy and do a dogfight in ARB is impossible you will just get 3rd partied. A solution I think gaijin can implement is just do 10 x 10 on ec map and 8 x 8 on standard maps. Also increase flare amounts because 30 flare and 30 chaff is not enough in this current state of top tier 12 - 12.3

Also the rwr is great and all but it’s sensory overload at this point with 32 jets pinging my rwr including friendlies which is just so annoying.

I think I will just stick with playing tanks and just lower br jets because top tier is a mess gaijin please do something….

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I too am dissatisfied with the current top AirRB and will state the factors and reasons why.

  1. large group matches of 16 vs.16
    In competitive games, the more people that make up a match, the less influence an individual has on the match. While this may be an adjustment that allows for more casual play, AirRB’s no respawn rule is the opposite of casual.
    The combination of these two elements is a deadly dissonance, reducing the number of situations in which individual play determines who wins and who loses, and requiring the cooperation of the entire team in order to win.
    Game design, however, negates this.

  2. game design
    In AirRB, players are free to choose their play style, with some players engaged in air combat and others in ground attacks.
    This would be fine if the game allowed respawning, but since AirRB rules do not allow respawning, there is a strong possibility that one player will be wiped out before the ground attack contributes to victory.
    This is the same as being allowed to play regardless of whether the game is won or lost, and I have never seen any other game designed this way!

  3. What should we do?
    If you want a stoic game where respawning is impossible, then the game should consist of 8 vs. 8 to 10 vs. 10, with only the fighters participating.

If you want casual games, then allow respawning and have longer games like RBEC.
With a larger number of players, individual play styles would be more flexible and casual players would be more comfortable participating. Stealthy, high-value ground targets could be deployed, creating a kind of "ground attack ace. (However, this style of play would require some adjustments to the distance and conditions under which name tags are displayed, or chaos would ensue.)

But AirRB as it is now is a half-assed game that doesn’t belong to either of those categories.

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The real question is how do we get gaijin to seriously take a look at these issues as opposed to their current focus of pumping out new premium tanks/planes which are only going to compound the current power creep in this BR blackhole.

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I haven’t seen these teams for about a year minimum. 16v16 mixed is horrible and, combined with the endless af camping, is the reason I don’t play prop tier anymore.