Another method of nerfing bombing (particularly of the kamikaze variety)

No. Planes are fine in current status

Yes half of them have only unrealistic stats totally fine :+1:

Definitely like the idea of planes not automatically lined up for a bombing run from spawn.
Yet amazingly as infantry, you spawn facing a random direction that is never facing you towards the current objective. Go figure :smiley:


Make bombers a more attractive target for fighters by making the reward for taking them down equivalent to the number kills they have acquired from bombing??

Really like this idea as well. Would give bombers another target as well rather than just bombing cap points.

After a sleep my idea still seems to be a viable solution against bombing abuses, so if all else including OP idea of initial low flyover fails, I summarize it in details. :slight_smile:

In short: a player crashing his bomber plane could be punished by starting next bombing session of same squad with an empty loadout low above battlefield, 1) forcing an extra refill round that he would have cheated, and 2) making it possible for a fighter already in air to immediately intercept.
This would only be fair toward good bombers if there is a way to change back to other squads without suicide (e.g. at refill point a ā€œreturn to airbaseā€ ALT-command). Fighters could have different rules.

Three use cases:

Bombers:

  1. normal bombing: same as before, plane starts off fully equipped from usual plane spawn point, bombs deployed, return to refill, bomb again… as long as you don’t crash/suicide the plane or don’t return it to reserve, nothing changed. If you return it to reserve, next bombing run may go the same way with perhaps a repaired plane after cooldown (unsure about auto repair).
  2. kamikaze or otherwise crashed: after plane starts off fully equipped, and bombs deployed, plane crashed. Next round it starts off at low altitude on the opposite side of battlefield (compared to refill location) and must refill first. So no quick rotate-2-squads-bomb-again abuse, instead 2x the refill distance to be traveled. Fighters present in the air have plenty of time to track down the bomber. So better get rid of fighters before bombing again.

Fighters:
If fighters rule the sky, no bombers should be able to easily bomb without risking even the first round. If no bombers, after a while fighter pilot will get bored to hell and will return the plane, then there is a window of opportunity for the bomber to refill and bomb without immediate fighter retaliation, and for the fighter pilot to jump back and shoot down the bomber.

  1. If the fighter crashes, unlike bomber it should not start from battlefield as that would be a benefit for it instead of punishment. But then the question of bomb/rocket load arises - I guess it should start off from different location than refill point and must go to the refill location if it wishes to use something else than MG after a crash.

As I don’t fly planes, these ideas lack any experience behind.

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Adding weather restrictions removes plane use from random maps. As a novice I have used planes on quite a few maps, and it makes a HUGE difference when players mark targets.

Add to that a coordinated team and you have a recipe for a slaughter.

This is tough for me to put forth a solution. As much as I hate plane spam and suicide play it DOES add to the realism of the game. Playing LF you notice the lack of planes and tanks, and it is refreshing, but also the calmer battlefield feels…odd.

Right now there are no spawning restrictions. They could increase spawn times, move the rearm point farther out, introduce weather and use that to provide random restriction for plane use, etc.

Great summary of some of the community feedback about this topic.

I especially like the point about planes starting lower altitude as well as that at least gives the fighter a chance to stop him as he gains altitude or less accurate bombs if he decides to take a low pass.

Also this in conjunction with some of the other fixes you listed above would be a great improvement to the game.

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I really like the idea of a plane withdraw point especially if your in a fighter or you do a few runs and the map goes indoors. I would like an option to not crash and just dock my plane and get back to the ground action.

They really need to fix the damage models though as fighters sometimes just straight up don’t have the ammo to take out bombers at the moment. I would even say the IL 37 is actually better than most fighters because it will kill a plane reliably if you can land the 37 mm.

Another way could be limiting planes to 1 per player per match, if you kamikaze you don’t get to fly again that match. Refilling ammo could be done by landing at an airstrip off map.

Good in theory. But in practice, it would just result in everyone using up their planes at the beginning of the match. It would also give the upper hand to the team with more planes in their squad lineup.