1. Loadouts and weapon customization
This feels like the most urgent next step. A four-man squad all carrying M249s is… odd. I also never found a compelling use for the drone, and would happily trade it for a second M136 or an M240. Even modest customization—primary role selection, limited weapon swaps, utility tradeoffs—would go a long way in making squads feel intentional rather than arbitrary.
2. Transports
Granitograd is extremely well designed and doesn’t really need dedicated infantry transports. But many of War Thunder’s larger maps absolutely do, especially if infantry is expanded onto vehicle-centric terrain.
One simple and flexible approach would be to tie transports to squad spawns:
- Lowest spawn cost: spawn in a truck
- Slightly higher: M113 or BTR-80
- Higher still: an IFV
- Highest cost: a transport helicopter
Risk–reward is clean here. Better transports increase squad effectiveness and mobility, but if you lose them early, you’ve burned spawn points you might desperately need later. A nice touch would be allowing players to send a transport back to a depot for a partial spawn-point refund.
Another option would be to make IFVs act as mobile spawn points for the team. That would naturally incentivize players to take IFVs over pure MBTs, reward survival, and create more combined-arms interaction without forcing it.
3. Aircraft
This one is trickier. At first, attack helicopters felt borderline overpowered—but after a few hours, they actually felt kind of fragile. Once every squad has at least one MANPADS, killstreaks dry up fast.
My suspicion is that fixed-wing aircraft would land in a similar place most of the time. The big concern is large precision or high-yield munitions—JDAMs or FAB-3000 UMPKs—being able to erase entire squads through cover or inside buildings. That’s not necessarily a deal-breaker, but it would need careful tuning to avoid turning infantry play into “die to unseen ordnance from orbit.”
Overall, though, this CBT has massively exceeded my expectations. Infantry doesn’t feel bolted on—it feels like a real pillar that could meaningfully expand what War Thunder already does best.