2 years ago

Time to finally balance the EBAA Wildcat?

I've been trying out jets for a while now. while they can be fun if you get a lucky match, most of the time, their entire gameplay loop involves hanging around the edge of the map, spamming flares and waiting for your team to take out an enemy Wildcat, or die horribly before even getting into range with your AGMs. hell, the jets on their own are just way too slow and sluggish to have any chance against someone who isn't completely clueless

that vehicle is absolutely disgusting in the hands of any half decent driver, like single handedly grounding the entire enemy airforce kinda disgusting.

2x AA missiles that reload faster than flares can recharge, with a 700m range, and 30mm cannons that have more or less the same range with zero damage dropoff, and with a bullet speed so fast you barely have to lead your shot at all, its almost ridiculous how nothing has been changed about it. the only thing its balanced against are the transport choppers, and thats only because those vehicles are busted in their own way, every other aircraft is just helpless against them. yes even the Nightbird. i tried this vehicle myself and those things are barely a challenge, with a slight exception if they use AGMs. they can easily sit in spawn, where no ground units can get a shot at them, and render more than half of the map unusable for aircraft

here's an image of a range test i did on Spearhead. the red circle is the range of both their cannons and AA missiles. if the driver in this spot knows the basic concept of leading a shot, any aircraft inside the map are basically helpless. even more so if the driver has a friend playing as Irish, placing APS units around it

i like a challenge, but rendering an entire class of vehicles obsolete, where getting into one is borderline suicide, does not make for fun game balance.

discussion

11 Replies

Shibiwan
Rising Veteran
2 years ago
@Crispi_Muffin
That one spot on Spearhead makes that map completely unbalanced to the advantage of the RU side because it is easier to access it from that direction.

The Wildcat though needs to have damage dropoff for the 30mm. It has 100% damage up to the max 700m distance.

Its AA missiles have a max 600m lock range, that's double the 300m range required for an AGM to lock on the Wildcat. This is fair, IMO, but the fire rate of the two AA missiles should be more spaced out, but not as slow as it was previously.
Prof3ss0r_M1k3
2 years ago
@Crispi_Muffin there was quite some time that the wildcat was completely ineffective and had no counter to jets flying in, launching missile, popping flares, looping back and doing it all again until the wildcat was dead so....i think this staying like this for a while is fair
Crispi_Muffin
2 years ago
@Shibiwani thought they were 600m as well, but i spent 15 minutes quadruple checking, and from what i saw, they were 700m. now that wouldn't be THAT much of a problem, IF the 30mm didn't have such fast bullet speed and lack of damage falloff, along with it's missiles only taking 7-8 seconds to reload, about 0.5 seconds to lock on, plus the fact that the wildcat comes with thermal smoke

and lets consider the jets. their AGMs only do 35 damage per hit, they take 16 seconds to reload a single missile, and take up to 3 seconds to lock on. to say they are at a disadvantage is a gross understatement. they're borderline unusable against a half decent wildcat player
Shibiwan
Rising Veteran
2 years ago
@Crispi_Muffin wrote:

and lets consider the jets. their AGMs only do 35 damage per hit, they take 16 seconds to reload a single missile, and take up to 3 seconds to lock on. to say they are at a disadvantage is a gross understatement. they're borderline unusable against a half decent wildcat player
That's why the only reliable way to kill them in one pass is a stealth heli. Two AGMs, finish off with bombs. Only catch is you have to strike them when they are distracted or you get instantly killed as you approach them uncloaked to use the AGMs.
Padding_Ur_Stat
2 years ago
Nerf a Vehicle!
That's just crazy talk
YourLocalPIumber
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
@Shibiwan AAs have longer lock on range, something like 800m
Wargame_Enj0yer
2 years ago
Well, they should've made Spearhead alot bigger if you'd ask me. Just like Flashpoint. To you know, properly harbor 128 players and facilitate the ranges the vehicles are capable of.
Yet DICE chose the other path. And now here we are, basecamping Wildcats, basecamping TOR tank and redzoning helis that cant be downed because they go places where infantry cannot (redzone). Totally nonsense from a gaming POV. Ever played Squad? You dont have that there. Unless it's directly in the main enemy base or spawnpoint.
DICE made some terrible design choices with this game and previous BF games. It all started so good with BF2. But alas...
Crispi_Muffin
2 years ago
@Wargame_Enj0yeryeah, while the new maps are cool, the new ones from season 2-4 have been just too small. even for Battlefield's standards, and this game has twice the amount of players per match
i think Exposure got the map size down pretty well. big enough for vehicles to have wiggle room, but not so much you have to waddle around for 5 minutes to get to a flag
ATFGunr
Legend
2 years ago
@Crispi_Muffin Jets have it tough, I agree. The issue is that helicopters are still a real threat and can kill a wildcat in a single pass if they’re half decent. Any nerf to the wildcat, which has been largely ineffective for most of the game, will make it useless again. So if the wildcat can’t be nerfed then the answer is to buff the jet. Higher ceiling? Faster? Flares cool down reduced? Make the 35mm cannon not garbage? Overall the jet seems underpowered against other air vehicles so a buff makes sense.
UP_Hawxxeye
Legend
2 years ago
If the wildcat is not controlling the airspace from its a spawn sector, then it is your team's fault for not taking it out.
We all often feel that we would had linked to be self sufficient instead of requiring the cooperation of the blueberries in our team. But this is how a team game should work