What confuses me is aircraft gunnery in RB is miles easier than SPAA gunnery due to 2 simple facts:
You’re shooting from 400-600 meters and can make it happen. With SPAA, the only time a plane is under 1 km altitude is when it’s making an attack run and have dropped the bomb already.
You’re able to control the engagement (energy trap, out-turn to get on their six) to make your shot very easy.
Last I’ve checked, SPAA cannot force the plane to get within effective range nor can SPAA effectively control aircraft’s energy.
And the linking of SPAA manuals is rather amusing, given historically the role of mobile anti-air was more deterrence rather than actually shooting planes down. It worked in real life because people don’t respawn unscathed next round, while in GRB you have people happily flying into head-ons knowing they’ll die but their bomb will also get a kill as their plane burns to pieces around them.
You could get a similar effect in WT if planes were much more valuable than they currently are. Increasing SP cost by a considerable amount while buffing their rewards could achieve that.
you know, for someone so affirmative about this i would expect you to have played some SPAA, especially the dreaded “braindead” SAMs. I’m therefore surprised to find out that you haven’t, except for the M247 (stupidly easy to use compared to other radar AA because of the proxy round and the absence of tracers), and chapparal, which doesn’t seem to be a blast for you, considering your performance.
at 8.0-10.0, AA indeed gives CAS a run for its money, since air ordonnance doesn’t outrange SPAA.
Radar AA can literally be ignored and all you have to do is make a quick drop instead of “aiming” your bomb for 10 seconds, in which case the AA will indeed be able to easily get you out.
Manpads are stupidly easy to evade, all you have to do is hold 2 keys, evade, get closer until you’re too close for the missile to reajust and self detonate. Then strafe or bomb.
My point is : between 8.0 and 10.0 CAS has options, but doesn’t fly uncontested, unlike 10.0+, where KH38, AASMs and Mavericks reign supreme (even the once OP pantsir is now struggling)
as for lower BRs, i’d say it depends (1.0-3.0 seems fine, then it gets more difficult for SPAA)
And so what ? would you like to bomb in a straight line without worrying about AA maybe ?
i could see why you’d say that, except the skill required to play SPAA is less about “how” and more about “when”.
As you said, the weaponry is more autonomous (missile or radar lead) than the ususal CAS playstyle. This is a double edge sword however, because even if you play your AA the best way you can, you have no control over your weaponry (will it hit or miss)
Therefore, an AA player absolutely has to learn when to engage : too close and CAS already bombed your allies, too far and the missile trail / tracers give your position away, making you public enemy N°1. All in all, you have to find the window where a CAS player is distracted, and let me tell you, a competent one will always have an eye out.
So basically you are more “assisted”, but it doesn’t make you more efficient.
Finally, i’d like to point out that we are talking about 8.0-10.0 only, at lower br the chances of getting shot down by an AA are very low, unless you go head-on with it, as for higher BR it’s basically a point & click fest left and right. It’s getting so bad Gaijin admitted that new multi-vehicle SAM sites would be necessary, and they have to balance things out with clouds for the time being
Oh you, I almost forgot about you existed. No, I was talking about Sinister, always finds it funny that someone as incompetent as him still have the nerves to call other player dumb, still remember him going to arcade topic and belittle players who enjoyed arcade and putting them down so he could feel like he is in a better place because he played realistic, until he suddenly remembered that everyone can see the 0.6.
Problem with removing all CAS would be that already hated maps would get even worse.
I realized just last match I played that most maps do not feature any “hard counters” for “power positions” and then it clicked why people hate specific maps so much.
Say Finland. South spawn can counter east hill by going to E8 and whoever camps on hill can be shot from there. Meanwhile North spawn if hill is taken cant do anything about campers there other then spawn plane.
Similar Frozen Pass. South East spawn can overlook camper hill/route to B and approach from C by moving 100m from their spawn and being annoyingly hard to dig out.
Those are least offensive examples. To remove CAS you would end up in situations where half of the maps are just locked out because one person. True that you should reward map knowladge and power positions should give huge advantage. However at the same time said positions should have counters built into map. So yeah sure you get advantage but you must remeber to keep and eye on counter spot.
Notice all the fixed, predictable lines you are forced into taking. Attica is full of “you have 2 chokepoints to choose from”
Notice the objective design (sit in this bowl with minimal cover for a pretty long time - a bowl that’s small enough that a 1000-2000 lbs bomb will kill you even if dropped far from you and you’re trying to drive away at full pedal.)
Maps are designed to funnel and amass tanks for satisfying bomb kills. Having lots of options to maneuver and flank and outplay the enemy on the ground is bad for visual spotting of tanks.
The planes get small so quickly they are out of sight in seconds. Not much time to track, shoot and kill with guns.
And the planes MAKE NO NOISE until they are on you and it’s too late. Gaijin has made tweaks that give CAS way more of an advantage than they already had.
I made comment about noticing this and even mentioned to you that it could be a bug unrelated to the rendering.
Have you actually reported it as a bug or found any reports to add your piece to, or you’re just taking it around the forums to beat like a dead horse?
I just think ground battles outcome should be decided on the ground.
CAS should be an option IMO, and i can understand why some can enjoy it, but it shouldn’t be the deciding factor.
Even playing in OP CAS (say a Rafale with 6 IR AASM) doesn’t feel challenging. Or a Jaguar with AS-30L against a tungie even.
Same old thing all the time : plot a course to stay out of danger, search with pod, lock, fire, profit
That’s why the balancing between 8.0 and 10.0 between SPAA and CAS should be extended to all other BRs, as much as possible
I assume that’s sarcasm ? X) (sry if not, sometimes i can’t recognize it)
But to annswer seriously nope, I spawn at 15km, with a pantsir missile having at best 1km/s of average speed on that distance, it gives me plenty of time to do funky stuff, like hitting the deck, getting some distance, and spam the hell out of those bombs / missiles / AASM thingies