It has come to my realization that Ground Realistic Battles is much more popular than air realistic. I am curious as to why. In my opinion, Air is what War Thunder does best… but maybe it’s bias because I think air combat comes more naturally for me. Based on the amount of content online and the games played in each vehicle type on statshark, GRB is clearly more popular.
So I decided to set up a poll to satisfy my curiosity, if anyone wishes to answer.
I just like tanks more than planes
I can play tanks AND planes in GRB
Air RB has too high of a learning curve
Air RB is too difficult
Air RB is too slow paced and methodical
I like the GRB gamemodes more than the ARB ones
Ground RB is more balanced
Ground RB is more engaging and immersive
Tank gameplay comes more naturally than air to air for me
I like bullying tanks with CAS instead of fighting other planes
Playing CAS is much more fun then playing ARB, I don’t really like playing tanks anymore due to the repetitive maps and terrible teams but playing CAS is something else, it is like playing much calmer nuclear thunder but without the large map or that overpowered anti air (i would still like to see large maps for GRB)
*Note: this is mostly for high/top tier, not lower tiers.
[ ] GRB is more skill based than ARB
Just for example, in ARB Gaijin has reduced pilots vision distance significantly, if don’t have top of the line radar then you will get caught off guard constantly. Combine that with big maps that needs you to fly straight for like 3 minutes each map, it’s just way more boring to fly straight and die to a player that came out of nowhere.
[ ] GRB has less down time
Like already mentioned above, ARB makes you fly straight for 2-3 minutes, meanwhile in GRB that’s more like 1 minute, there’s less “down” time and time to combat is much shorter, so fun is more maximized. Even at end of the match, in ARB the enemy could be anywhere, climbed to stratosphere who knows, but in GRB it’s obvious where to go, to their spawns. There for again the combat is inevitable in very little time.
[ ] GRB maps and driving is more engaging than flying
When you’re driving a tank in War Thunder maps, there’s strategies to be made. Do you go behind that rock? try to pass from bridge where enemy might be aimed at? Or use a ditch/hill where enemies can’t see you to flank and hit them from behind/side? In ARB however, most of the maps are completely flat with very little enviromental strategies to be made. Very few maps actually have big mountains and one’s that do usually covered in clouds (the map they added last year I think) which makes hard to find enemies. It wasn’t always like this, in Arcade Air mode there’s still so many beautiful maps where you can use the environment to your advantage but Gaijin is refusing to give us actual good maps.
I much prefer air rb, especially early jets since sometimes in ground u come across stuff u physically can’t pen and it’s pretty annoying, whereas air feels more balanced. Not to mention I hate pretty much every ground map.
I would argue point 1 could be under “Ground RB is more balanced”
“Balanced” would imply that vehicles are matched more accurately based on their capabilities. That’s not what I’m arguing here. In GRB you could bring a rank 6 tank to top tier and still manage to get few kills if you’re good. Now try bringing a prop plane to early jet match, your life will be miserable, same for bringing rank 6 plane to fox 3 spam, it’s just not comparable in the slightest.
On top of these inherent unbalance in planes, Gaijin is putting more fuel to fire by making ARB less skill based by making all the maps flat, ground hugging useless and enemy detections with pilot skill almost useless at top tier.
ARB would be more skill based if Gaijin
Made maps a bit smaller but with more big mountains, cities to hide from radars
Increase enemy detection by pilot skill distance by 2-3 times in FOX 3 matches or maybe add AI controlled dedicated Radar planes that reveal enemy positions every few seconds within x range
Increase ground hugging altitude to 80m and reduce changes of missile still hitting you by 50-70% so it’s a rare occurance rather than almost every time
I’ll say, markers for enemies and missiles completely kills ARB.
So you support planes with better radars to be completely OP while bad radar planes to be trash? Because that’s what this change would lead to. If anything this would make ARB even more unbalanced and boring to play.
I prefer ARB because its actually skillful, GRB has too many external factors you can’t control which can determine why you died. It should be noted I pretty much exclusively play props, although I do have top tier I find it even worse than GRB
That is a very rare and specific occurance. CAS is spammed more on late game, not on your first tank spawn. And those that do spawn CAS get points by killing you and your teammates without dying, so it’s not exactly “outside your control”. If you got a bad teammates that feed the enemy, then yes that is the expected outcome, but that is also same for ARB. Once your teammates die early, you get FOX 3 spammed to death with no escape, no amount of ground hugging or notching saves you.
Yeah top-tier is going to be a horrifically unbalanced mess no matter what, who cares if the players get to experience a little bit of extra suffering.