As someone that has fought hundreds of battles on airfield, and some of those others with them, I can 100% assure you that these make a very noticeable difference to gameplay.
Nope. Only airfield. (Where it specifically states that this is a mechanic.)
The other maps they are there specifically to make it more difficult for divebombers to make effective attacks on those targets or from those directions.
As a frequent flyer, I believe that the balloons are effective.
So I support the suggestion. 
As a fan of serial aircraft attacks
I think this would be a good way to cover the tank’s view
And let them create smoke after destruction
This way I can’t mark those tanks early at a distance of around 2000 meters
When I dive from an altitude of 1000 meters, I will not be able to see the enemy position.
The barrage balloon would also make more difficult for paras since they would get stuck up there and unable to parachute back down
I believe 1 baloon per person is more than enough. 2-3 per person could potentially meant 8-12 baloons built just by one 4 stack. And that’s quite significant number.
We shouldn’t allow yet another feature which would make stacks even more toxic.
And it should costs at least 10 points to build.
They kinda are.
Have definitely crashed in too many of them throughout my Enlisted career ; )
Balloons are basically the big brother of houses on urban maps or trees on Ardenns which already make it much harder to find ground targets.
I think they’re a very effective Anti-Air defense, and they also improve the situation with plane cycling AND lack of engineer building options. These address so many things at once it’d be mad not to introduce them.
2-3 is needed in order to make one person using them effective.
Consider the fact that it doesn’t take much fire at all from an enemy aircraft to take them down.
Therefore the cost should not be as high as 10, rather perhaps 6-8 at most.
As far as stacks making use of them:
again, aircraft can bring them down with ease.
AA, tanks, HMGs, etc can all bring them down also.
The only time in which a stack using them would be completely overbearing is when there isn’t a single player on the enemy team with at least one braincelll trying to shoot them down with any of the methods that they have!
I can imagine how some people would protest on the forum on the day this feature came out.
But what they really need is IQ
Yeah me too.
And when there is a good enemy behind me, I will fly close to the balloons, hoping to shake him off or that he will crash into one.
Sometimes it works!
Just going to leave this!
i am rather neutral about this suggestion cause it would not really help against normal planes nor kamikaze planes.
A large portion of aircraft needs to pass directly over the area they are trying to hit. This means that balloons in that area could prove quite fatal.
planes like the JU188 and Sb-2m would be unable to shoot them down, correct. For all the other aircraft, that still means they need to line up and shoot them down. which leads me to my third point.
balloons would be relatively low cost, but the point is that they be used in ADDITION to AA. balloons could help to restrict flight paths, making it much easier to line up effective shots with AA.
Even if they are lining up to shoot down the balloons, that is still an additional opportunity to shoot down the aircraft more efficiently.
Also, do keep in mind that by setting them at different heights, they can be even more helpful. The cord they are attached to is just as lethal as the balloon itself.
As I always say with my suggestions, don’t think about how it works with just it alone, think about how it works alongside other elements.
only map where balloons are partially effective is on airfield and that effectiveness doesnt last long. reason for that is massive number of them alongside with their spread over wide area.
there are 2 scenarios for player built balloons:
like i said before this would basically only affect few planes that dont have controllable frontal guns and would make absolutely no effect on over 90% of the pilots unless they are brain dead (but then again if you take into account average skill level of enlisted player…)
player built balloons wont affect my gameplay unless other player builds balloon in front of me 2 seconds before i hit it (then we can discuss toxic gameplay).
You are skipping right over the point.
Right now, if a player hears incoming aircraft, they have to look around a bunch for where it is coming in.
By comparison, if players learn how to utilize the balloons to their advantage, it narrows down the flight paths by a fairly significant amount, even with just a few balloons.
IF the aircraft chooses to avoid the balloons, they fly in a path that is watched by an AA.
IF the aircraft chooses to ignore them, they run the risk of hitting them.
IF the aircraft chooses to shoot down the balloons, they spend time doing that instead of attacking the objective, AND put themselves in range and sight of an AA.
do you even play planes? if you did you would know how easy it is to shoot down balloons and bomb in same run.
How is that even supposed to stop suicide bombing when the only planes that do care about flying over your own site are those that already pull up as kamikaze pilots will stop existing befor that?
The big problems I see with this are
A) Balloon can only intercept planes after they passed the cap. (and with it tossed their bombs) but a kamikaze wouldnt even have reached them as he already crashed near the objective.
B) Useless if enemy has rockets so it doesnt even have to come that close
C) Construction of those balloon is just stupid
D) the only way they can stop an enemy pilot is when they are built on the enemy side of the map but how many times do you even get there and why not just cap?
E) Enemies will be able to shoot them down befor they crash so they are made useless
F) Friendly planes will be affected way worse by them as they count as friendly structures and they wont be able to shoot them paired by the fact that the balloons will be most commonly placed on your own side AKA your own pilots corridor toward the cap.
G) Enemies can built it to 95% and wait until you are directly ontop of them to finish the last 5%.
The moment it would pop into existance it would already be to late for the pilot to react and it is by not means the pilots fault. This would be a very cheap tactic that would be toxic af and immersion breaking the moment it happens because that 20m by 10mm balloon doesnt just come out of thin air IRL.
H) Seeing balloons pop up in the pacific or tunisia etc. would be very doubious at best and irritating for everyone else.
We totally need to be able to interact with the winch gear. Raise the balloon, lower the balloon and, of course - cut it loose!
As I have said elsewhere
Strengthen those balloon defenses
Or produce smoke after an explosion
Nothing is better protection than smoke
I’ve seen several tanks use smoke or buildings to hide after hearing planes
This hampered my Long Live Charge to a certain extent
But most tanks are in open or fixed positions
They won’t move when they hear the plane.
Even though the bomb was not close to him, he didn’t try to escape.
So I guess most of the tanks destroyed by planes were monkeys.
As for the infantry?
I can understand that they didn’t have time to dig themselves a hole or find cover.
But that doesn’t stop me from laughing at their ignorance and thinking ability
Because they didn’t send any planes to hunt me
I do play planes. Quite frequently in fact. Which is why I know that well placed balloons (or an inconvenient tree/building/etc.) can make a big difference on close air support.