The resupply point for airplanes is currently a box, approximately 100x100, and always appears in the same place for each map.
This leads to a distinct problem: Predictability.
When you can’t find the enemy plane, you KNOW which direction it’s coming from. Right from their resupply point.
When you see an enemy plane leaving the battlefield, you know exactly where it is flying: The resupply point. You can easily intercept it. Worse yet: You do not even need to see the plane. Players usually drop all their ordnance in one run, turn around and fly to their resupply point. So if you see any ordnance kills on the kill feed, just head towards the enemy resupply point.
This leads to some very imbalanced, and frankly, unfair A2A combat scenarios which are based purely on map knowledge and not skill.
My suggestion for fixing this: Turn the airplane resupply point into one ring for both teams that spans around the entire play area (most resupply points are currently about 2000-2500 away from the objective, so that’s about where the ring should start).
Allowing planes to resupply in any direction removes all the predictability and may also make resupplying more viable compared to crashing your plane and just spawning a new one.
Side note: This ring should also go as low as to ground level, up to the current altitude. Enabling resupply at low altitude makes it possible to resupply with a heavily damaged plane, for which you currently need to take a gigantic detour to reach the altitude of the existing resupply.
There was an airfield suggestion today that would solve this problem also. It wouldn’t remove the predicatability I guess, but it would have AA near the resupply point to stop you being farmed. Like the paicific carriers - I know they aren’t the exact same point, but they’re close enough to be used to deter being exploited - you can’t follow someone to the resupply point.
I saw the airfield suggestion and I agree with it through and through. It has a multitude of benefits that air play needs in the long run.
But it should be separate from this resupply ring.
Predictability is only fair when you have fly to the airfield in order to repair, so you cannot just do it mid-dogfight and to give your opponent a good chance at finishing you off if they already dealt a lot of damage to you.
Refilling your ammo is entirely different in that all planes have to do it constantly.
Therefore, being punished with predictability just for running out of ammo is unjustified as you do not have to have been losing a dogfight to get to that state. And yet the enemy pilot still profits from it, so I think this ring is just as crucial as the airfield. You need it to make spending your ordnance less punishable.
This would just incentivize faster planes to make a CAS run and fly straight to the closest part of the resupply ring before returning to the battlefield.
Planes with faster speeds can just ignore slower planes.
With predictable air resupply points, even a slower fighter plane can successfully harass and intercept a faster attacker plane.
Given the nature of air combat in Enlisted, and especially with a flight ceiling and forced 1st person perspective, it favors the tactic of turnfighting at low altitudes, to the detriment of heavier planes that only start gaining a keen advantage in speed and maneuverability at high altitudes.
For one thing, I see this as beneficial as BnZ or BnR tactics are inherently slower and methodical as it requires keen knowledge and patience to position your plane to have an advantage- Which isn’t quite suited for the relatively fast pace of Enlisted matches, which has planes play as air support- Which, for the sake of viability, demands a plane user perform enough to make up for the lack of ground presence in his absence.
What I’m saying is you wouldn’t be able to - you’d be shot down. In the pacific if you fly too close to the carriers its instant death without warning.
I think this would be a pretty huge buff to attacker planes, especially the fast ones since you could dive for the attack then straighten out and use that speed to rapidly reach the resupply point turn around and repeat regardless of the direction you did you attack run in. This would make uncontested attackers much more lethal. Also being able to resupply from the enemies side from any altitude seems exploitable.
You can already be quite effective in an attack plane since there is relatively little downtime on some maps. I think if there is a fighter in the air you should have to be careful when in an attacker and try to not be predictable like not flying directly to and from the resupply point. Yeah this will affect your effectiveness but that’s what a fighter should be able to do to a attacker.
I think that the airfields are a much better way of doing this since there will be protection in form of AA to prevent enemies hanging around the spawns and you could still decide to risk going directly to point and back in order to be more efficient or be safer and attempt a detour or using terrain if possible to reduce chance of being spotted. The spotted indicator for aircraft is already relatively short ranged. I think it a bad idea making it easier so you don’t have to think and just run back and forwards from resupply.
At the end of the day that fighter is a player too and if he’s flying around trying to find you while you take a detour it doesn’t matter too much that you are not in the fight for awhile since the fighter isn’t either. If you can successfully pull of attack runs without the fighter being able to intercept you then the enemy is a man down til the fighter respawns or shoots you down. It’s all about risk and reward.
I agree that, in theory, fighter planes should be able to exert pressure on attacker planes just through their presence.
In practice, there are 2 reasons why this does not happen:
Attacker planes often crash themselves right after dropping all their ordnance. It makes them more precise, makes it easier to see targets, and most importantly: it is more efficient to spawn a new plane or even to spawn in as infantry than it is to fly back and resupply.
When a fighter keeps attacking the enemy attacker plane, a portion of those who would usually fly to the resupply point will also swap to the strategy of crashing their plane on their first run.
This has the benefits of 1. not having to handle a damaged airplane, 2. escaping all the pressure from the attacker pilot when it comes to resupplying, 3. being able to drop your ordnance where you want to without having to care about fighting the enemy fighter and 4. denying the plane kill exp to the enemy fighter if you manage to crash before they can tag you, which may discourage them from using their fighter any further.
These two play into the many reasons why resupply points need to become stronger. I understand your concerns about planes becoming more efficient for it, but you must consider the currently dominating workaround for efficiency that I just outlined. It is so prevalent that increased resupply efficiency is to be seen as a positive that combats the degenerate cycling strats.
Suiciding planes is not efficient, it may be for the player but not the team. Planes cost tickets, if you do not take out more tickets than your plane costs (25 tickets) in that 1 run then your at a loss. A single bombing run has little impact on the team even if it knocks out a tank, experienced players that can perform multiple bombing runs in quick succession can have a huge impact on the game. So imo if me spawning my fighter forces the enemy attacker to only perform 1 run then suicide for the rest of the game i’d consider that a win.
Not only does it cost tickets there is significantly more downtime for aircraft if they suicide on each run since most people cannot spawn back to back planes plus the time it takes to spawn and fly back to battle. The exception is defenders since they have no tickets, but what you’re suggesting will not make suiciding less effective it would only make resupply much more effective. Which obviously will affect the balance.
If you are in the United States you will find
Except for the fighter born in the sky
Other aircraft were easily destroyed when they took off and approached the edge of the fire net.
But when you take off, you don’t have enough acceleration to avoid or fight against the US military aircraft rushing towards you at a speed of 400 kilometers per hour.
I’d prefer AA/Carrier support near resupply points rather than the proposed ring. Id also prefer that the aircraft would have to land to be resupplied.
Predictability is okay, as there are clear fronts in WWII. Yes, the aircraft will come from a particular area. That makes sense. A ring resupplying from behind enemy lines is too “arcade” for me.
But the issue of being farmed while resupplying is indeed a legit issue.
If a realistic mode is implemented, the landing/AAA cover would fit in nicely there. If an arcade mode is implemented, the ring would work too (id just never play it).
Japan’s carrier-based fighter jets are very vulnerable
When you leave the airport, the speed within 1000 meters is only less than 300
Any rotation at this time will be quite slow.
The U.S. military can completely destroy it at the edge of its range
