BF6 Vehicle Spawns Feel Terrible

I realize that this is a heavy complaint to levy, so I am going to try to be as constructive as I can. I will begin with my issues, address the counter-arguments, and then offer a possible solution.

A little about me:  I enjoy using vehicles in games, and above all, I enjoy flying helis. I just started playing this season (Season 4) because I was waiting for the Little Bird and got wrapped up in other games (I also missed all of my Road to BF6 rewards from BF2042, EA... not sure why that needed a deadline). I like to think that I got pretty nasty with the helis in BF2042 after enjoying the BF6 beta. I also enjoyed the vehicle spawn mechanics of BF2042 a little more, but I'll address that below. Not sure if I can plug my Medal as proof; but I'd be happy to share it. I've posted a few clips.

The Main Issue:   It is very difficult to get a full game on your preferred vehicle; and this encourages an overly passive play style/"wasting".

Detail:

• Even the best pilots will sometimes die to falling debris, a well-placed RPG, another great pilot, etc. The same is true of other vehicles.
• Anecdotally, it seems that the least-skilled pilots are the best at spamming for vehicles because they die more often.
• On top of my last point, other factors that have nothing to do with vehicle skill play a role in who wins the spam for spawn. Peripheral input, ping, the age of someone's hardware, and whether or not someone is using macros, for example (which, while bannable and un-advisable, a quick Google search will show that people nonetheless do use macros).
• Again adding on to the above, the least-skilled pilots also tend to know that they are going to die quickly. This is where the current system encourages a passive play style.
• "Wasting," as I understand it, is when you take an important or limited asset to the team and do virtually nothing with it. Think someone taking Little Bird on Carrier Strike and hovering around their own carrier the whole game, even if no enemies are near it.
• The visual indicator for the vehicle spawn lowers the skill ceiling for actually getting the vehicle (which IS a thing, as a result of the current system). This is where I preferred BF2042's system, where you had to know the timer by heart.
• I think running for the vehicle at the start of the game speaks for itself against the background of the rest of my points. Don't get me wrong, it looks sick. I have to give props there. I'll address my solution for this below.
• This system encourages toxicity as well. I won't pretend that I've never yapped at someone for taking heli all game and doing nothing with it. It is frustrating. Furthermore, while I don't do it, there are those who ram with the Black Hawk to put other helis back on spawn timer as well.

Counter-arguments:

1. I understand the realism argument with respect to encouraging a passive play style. Without a doubt, some vehicles die to one RPG for a reason. Nonetheless, I would say that we are playing a game with respawns for a reason; and most of us are probably playing to have fun. If we really want to encourage a passive play style, a longer vehicle spawn would hurt a lot less if accompanied by a guarantee that we will get that vehicle when it is back.
2. I understand that there will be those who say that if you are good enough, you don't have to worry about dying. I've addressed this above. Go watch the best players, they still die.
3. I understand the casuals argument; and I will admit that my plan is half-baked on that front. Casual players DO deserve a chance to use the vehicles without sitting in a longer queue. Perhaps if there were at least two of a vehicle on any given map instead of one; then one of the vehicle spawns could remain on the current spawn system. I feel that this is a far better solution than the idea of simply "add more vehicles" that I have seen floated elsewhere.

My Solution: Add a vehicle-specific queue for modes with vehicles.

Detail:

• If the queue were simply to be a "vehicles queue," rather than a vehicle-specific queue, we will inevitably run into the same problem when three people who want the same vehicle get loaded in to the same game in a broad vehicles queue. It must be a vehicle-specific queue [i.e. a Little Bird queue, a Bradley queue, an AA queue].
• A vehicle-specific queue will also lower the incidence rate of players leaving at the start because the map that they load in to does not have the vehicle that they want.
• Many vehicles rely on teamwork. Thus, anyone should still be able to get into the passenger seats of the vehicles.
• With regard to running for the vehicles at the beginning of the game -- we sure don't want to lose that, do we?!  If the driver/pilot seat is locked to whoever queued for it, then that won't be an issue. Perhaps copilot/gunner seats should be limited to the driver or pilot's squad for the first 15-25 seconds.

Questions that I can think of:

What if the driver abandons their vehicle or is shot out?   My solution to this would be to give each vehicle driver/pilot control of their own squad, and to allow their squad mates to swap to the driver/pilot seat if it is abandoned. The queued driver/pilot could still be given priority to the pilot seat over other players, similar to how you can kick an AI out of a vehicle. This way, the queued driver/pilot can respawn on their vehicle if it is still alive.

What if the driver abandons their vehicle completely?   There should be a vehicle afk timer; i.e. if you spend too long away from the vehicle that you queued for (say a minute or two), you will lose priority to that vehicle and someone else who has queued for that vehicle will be loaded in. If there is room for another player, keep the initial driver/pilot in the game. If there is no room for the new driver/pilot, kick the initial driver/pilot who abandoned their vehicle.

What if the driver is absolutely terrible with their vehicle?   First and foremost: this already happens; as mentioned above. Perhaps a vote-kick could be trialed, but that feels like a slippery slope. I think that this would ultimately be a non-issue; and that we'll see as many good and bad drivers/pilots as we do already.

What if it makes the queues too long? What if it leads to more bot games?   Personally, I would rather play a few bot games per night than spend half of every game rooting against my teammate who beat me to the vehicle that I want. I also think that my idea with regard to making vehicles available to casuals (that is, to have two of every vehicle per team and leave one of each vehicle on the old spawn system) would help with queue times as well. Above all else, this franchise has always had a strong player base. The queue times in Overwatch only went up by a minute or two when they implemented role queue. I think it is at least worth trying.

Menu implementation: A small box in one of the corners of the mode queue boxes would be all you need. If custom servers choose to implement this (I assume you can give them the option), a small box in the server bar in Portal.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading. I will check back in to respond to any questions or comments that I can meaningfully contribute to. Here's hoping that somebody sees this!

Best,

ikuk