My thoughts on "fixing suicide planes"

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1

So obviously this is a much discussed topic, while overall I wouldnt call “constant suicide diving” absolutely game breaking, however it is clearly annoying because of two things:

  1. the victim cant do anything from stopping the enemy to do so.
  2. it is extremely immersion breaking to see ppl ramming their airplanes constantly into hostile tanks and positions.

So I would speak for everyone if we could get rid of this “problem” once and for all.

Now to understand the problem, we first need to understand why players are actually doing these things to begin with, thus I would like to show you 4 observations that I have made, which would be the main cause of the problem:

    1. Its easier to hit your target -

While experienced players know pretty well when to drop your bombs, in order to land said bombs, so that they hit exactly where they are supposed to hit. However, If you “lock on” to your target by simply flying directly at it with full speed and then dropping your bombs right before the impact … that would guarantee that your bombs go where you aimed at - that way you dont have to “learn” in what angle you have to fly and “when” to drop said bombs.

    1. Suicide bombing is like having a quick “Call of Duty Predator missile killstreak”

Most players dont actively use planes, however being able to “quickly” take out a “hard to knock out target” like a good defensive position or a grey zone camping tank is something ppl usually appreciate, especially for new players who cant fight back enemy high lvl armored tanks, because low lvl tanks are cannon fodder for high lvl players, so most will eventually skip trying to “flank” the enemy, instead they do what is much more effective, which is just having a “predator missile” in your vehicles slot for these cases.

    1. revenge kills are a real thing -

Seriously, I stopped counting how often I was revenge killed after winning a tank fight.
This happens especially on Normandy because planes have very potent rockets.
80% of the time when I manage to destroy an enemy Jumbo tank, my tank will die regardless after short time, because the same tank driver WILL try to revenge kill me.

    1. when you die after dropping your bombs, you can be back into the fight faster -

This is in my opinion the biggest problem, so usually when you spawn in as a plane, you will (depending on the map) be usually about 2000-3000 meters away from your objective, while your “reload area” will also be 2000-3000 meters away from your objective, which will result that after you dropped your bombs:

you will need to make a turn around → fly 2500 meters back to your ammo reload position
→ regain some altitude → turn around again → and then get to the target area again.

This will result in it taking MUCH longer to reload your plane compared to just respawning your planes constantly. In theory, if you had 3 extra vehicles slots and you would use all 3 slots on planes with suicide dives, you could increase your bombing time ratio by at least 50%.
However most players will just want to die fast, in order to be back as a foot soldier as soon as possible, after destroying your target as I mentioned above.

Now if we keep all these things in mind we come to the conclusion that “if” we want to stop kamikaze bombings once and for all, we NEED to make it more “desirable” for ppl to return back to the ammo reload spot instead of respawning.

How we achieve THIS must be the focus of our discussions. Adding more mechanics to artificially punish suicide divers will be just adding a bandage to something that got hit with a 88 Flak.

6 Likes
2

^ my reason to suicide bombing. I only do them against enemy armor, tho. Those tank camping on the hill is getting on my nerve. and I got no reason to stay in plane when the job is done, cause someone gonna play the obj

6 Likes
3

one other solution is to make plane (or vehicle) need certain points to be spawned.
something like: you need to earn 500 point as foot soldier first before you can spawn vehicle

4

Just increase the spawn timer after suicide bombing to 1 min.
Playing 3 (suicide) plane squads will be fun. :slight_smile:

1 Like
5

My personal idea to fix this problem would be something like:

-drastically increase the spawn distance for planes.

-reduce the reload area distance in order to support active plane players.

-give planes something like “second magazine” of bombs, so that you after you do your first turn around - flying back to your ammo zone - you can make a second attack before reloading.

  • and last nerfing the planes survivability drastically so that ground forces and air superiority fighters can take out planes quickly enough, so that reckless and careless bomber gameplay will get punished with having a “long way back to the battlefield” because of the drastically increased respawn area distance…

all of that would make suicide gameplay not worth it compared to regular aircraft gameplay +planes become more powerful, however destroying said planes and actively trying to fight these bombers back would punish the enemy pilot with being away from the battlefield for a rather long time.

6

I think the reason most people suicide bomb is because it just isnt worth it to go for a second run when you can be way more productive/effective on the ground. Just punishing the act of suicide bombing and not adressing why people suicide bomb in the first place wont be effective or good for the game

4 Likes
7

I think the main reason is depression.
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8

It must be hard to kill a grey zone camper for normal infantry or a low level tank, I see this in Moscow, where t-50 gets bombed by stuka or Normandy, where panther gets Hvar’ed by p47. Like I said the reason why I suicide bomb is that there is no one on my team that would defend an objective, rearming is a risk for my the enemy to capture the point, since I’m not on the ground. It’s faster to defend and would kill armor that is camping. Unless they fix the lack of incentive to play an objective or gray zone camping, I ain’t gonna stop suicide bombing

2 Likes
9

How is that any different than a tank parked at a keypoint, where inf cant reach him, while he is mowing down infantry with his MG?

or Artillery strikes?

or Even Mortarts?

10

cant quite follow, what do you mean?

11

Tanks have more ammo (do not need to resupply all the time) and usually survive longer than a suicide plane. Also, suicide bombers are to some extent the counter to them, especially on Normandy.

You can call only one strike at one time (if your radio pleb lives long enough), cant attack spawns, people have it easier to avoid/ flank them and arty does WAY LESS damage than four or six 250kg bombs (very low chances to kill tanks).

Deals less damage (very low chances to kill tanks), dependent on markers and/ or luck to be effective, and way less common than a Ju or P-47.

1 Like
12

  1. So the tank are actually i bigger issue, as it have more ammo and dont need to ressuply much, and it survives longer.

  2. But if the arty guy is hiding, he can keep calling arty.
    -The plane is dead after the suicide bombing.
    -The plane or pilot could be wounded, and are making a final run.

  3. pretty much same argument as on 2

13

At the very least, give the kill to the closest player to the crash, and not just “(pilot) killed himself”.

1 Like
14
  1. Pretty much just on Normandy and Moscow Birch Assault. Tanks are usually all able to fron pen ech other on other campaigns. Normandy is alone here with Jumbo and Panther.
  2. After 4mins… Doubt most people would survive that long with their squad.
  3. Except that radio and mortarts do not work the same way
15

First they should fix the camping out of bounds for tanks. OOB tanks should not get to fire unless on the field of battle. I use to play tanks but not anymore. And when i did i never played from out of bounds. Now i dont play armor at all. I just fly now. I also believe that when a plane hits a tank the tank should be destroyed but the last couple of times I’ve BOUNCED OFF wtf. Thats BS. Now that we have parachutes. I think if you play tunisia as an allied plane when i do my first attack it automatically make me pull up so i can’t do a suicide attack even if i wanted to but when i reload and come back then I’m allowed to suicide dive to my target. So I would implement that you have to reload before you get to make a suicide attack. Like the map of tunisia makes me. Just my thoughts.

1 Like
16

man if ppl only knew how powerful Panzerfaust and Piat are, no 1 would complain about grey zone camping

17

Not a chance against a M4A3E2 that camps out of bounds.

18

quit camping grey area and i wont have to suicide bomb you and when they remove planes for Germany on Normandy cause of historical accuracy germans had no planes for dday Americans had total air superiority over the landings im still going to suicide bomb your ass for no reason they wont be able to stop it even with a timer slowing you down i will still suicide you just to piss you off

19

p47=
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if your wondering this is from top secret

20

Maybe they just need to add japanese pilots that scream banzai, when ever their altitude goes lower than 25m, that would fix your immersion

1 Like