Thoughts on Bomber/Attack plane Balancing

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I hear a fair amount of comments complaining about the bombers at the moment, and I wanted to share my thoughts. I like the fact that they can do massive amounts of damage, it brings a unique dynamic to the game. Whenever I hear one I lie down or get in cover until it has passed, they’re a proper threat which needs to be dealt with, which you can easily enough when you know how. I have heard people complain in game although they didn’t build any AA guns or ask for any to be built or fighter support so its just sour grapes IMHO. I feel lying down helps somewhat when being bombed but I’m not sure. I usually keep my eyes on the kill log, if I see a lot of friendly deaths due to bombs I know I have to get my fighter out or build some AA, or it just keeps happening.

I have also learned that planes tent to approach from the same direction due to ammo supply points, something I have kept in mind when building an AA gun, (which are very effective if you can get hits on a plane), i would like to see the gun rotation speed increased slightly.

Please please please don’t just reduce plane ordanance damage to the point where it turns into an airborne pea shooter. So many games have been ruined by people complaining about imbalances when those imbalances are there for a reason. If you nerf everything equally there’s basically no point in playing anything different and we might as well all have the same rifle.

I would be more in favour in reducing the amount of attack runs you can do rather than reducing the damage, I really feel it is important that they have that massive blow potential, it has psychological as well as competitive bonuses. I would like to see airstrips trialed that you had to land at. This would be more difficult if you had damaged flying controls, landing gear etc, but I think it might bring rewarding gameplay. It would take longer to do a bombing run ofc, but the bomb damage should be left alone (or increased dmg/blast radius), to compensate, so bombing runs would be devestating, but they wouldn’t happen very often.

Well thats my two cents, you’ve probably had your ears chewed enough about the subject, but i wanted to share my thoughts presented in a mature way, instead of the usual rants you’re probably used to. :slight_smile:

Keep up the good work, it’s been a long time since i’ve enjoyed a game as much as this one.

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Airfields would badly hurt fighters’ ability to contest attack aircraft, which they’re already too weak at.

I feel like interception with fighters in general isn’t rewarded enough. Many times I see fighters ignoring enemy bombers altogether in favor of pulling CAS.

Maybe give fighters more points for killing planes.

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Nah, most attacker planes crash even before their bombs explode.
If I see an attacker heading straight to ground, I’d first drop my payload before turning around after him, if he is by any miracle still airborne. Exceptions for heavy bombers on normandy tho, I’d ramm them if I can prevent them from dropping bombs.

In this current meta, I don’t see much incentive for fighter pilots to go after enemy aircraft unless it’s about self preservation. The reward is too little and frustration too much.
Imagine after spending 5 minutes getting on the enemmy’s tail in a dogfight and before you deal enough damage to qualify for the kill, he rockets himself on the cap, killing a bunch of teammates (and you don’t get kill on either plane or pilot lol)

I agree that reward for shooting down planes and killing pilots should be increased. In addition to that, I think enemy suiciding or bailing shortly after his plane gets hit should grant a kill. This way, you get more rewards and the enemy should be more motivated to stay and try to fight.

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Personally I think the opposing team should get some warning that a bomber is spawning to give them a chance to spawn a fighter and intercept it before it can drop bombs.

As far as payload balance that is really map dependent. Some maps you can wipe the whole team with a poorly placed 250kg bomb and others you will struggle to land it between the right buildings, so I wouldn’t say that a nerf is really in order. Especially now that planes can’t be spawned instantly to spawn rush at the start of the match

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Ummm that sounds hard to implement. Plus, it’s very, very hard to stop a bomber from dropping his first payload even with heavy fighters (unless you happen to be on his tail when he spawns, and even in that case it’s not guaranteed to succed)

However as infantry, you hear the engines (and stuka siren) long before planes drop bombs. I think it’s enough of a warning for most.