War Thunder - P-38L "Leaky! Leaky!" & A Rant About Airfield AA

[@skyflier8955]

I was hit and killed in a P-47 flying in excess of 400 MPH buzzing the airfield. The guns can't physically traverse that fast. I was at extremely low altitudes at extremely fast speeds. Proof that this AAA is op.

[@kevinneville5876]

AAA is not op it's just people shouldn't zoom over to the enemy airfield and kill everyone before they can even plane on what they will do

[@alexmitchell513]

+Kevin Neville Regardless of what players do they should not be killed by AI in a multi-PLAYER game

[@swiftdeath007]

I was in a b-17 at roughly 18K feet traveling 200mph one shot from a destroyer out of nowhere i exploded and had to watch the replay to see how I died. before, as in last year I could be right on top of the airfield and reasonably clear it out of the AA in an a 20 g with minimal damage, it worked about 50/50 and was perfect. now aa is op, even at very high altitudes and average speed aa is sniping players and is highly unrealistic

[@AHSValor]

+Alex Mitchell Yeah, AI AAA should be only enforcers for rapey players. Players who want to hunt down their kill should still be given a chance, like if you're in a fighter and you zoom on the enemy runway, you should be granted at least one pass before you're zeroed in (which is practical for AA crews to do when you fly in low and then away from them)

[@historicalwalrus589]

Lol I guess 3 Forests can't separate those guns from me and thats perfectly legit :/

[@xX_Skraith_Xx]

As a student pilot I can confirm that leaky leaky is in fact a viable aeronautical term.

[@AFriendlyTheo]

how's aeronautics going for you? You doing it for work or hobby?

[@saltdetected1756]

i think if they just have the AA go into reck your shit mode when an aircraft is repairing (specifically repairing, not reloading)
that way the airfield AA still protects those poor, injured 109s but cannot be abused by them in 1v9 situations

[@rodneybuckland4140]

this is a good idea. especially cus when your repaired, the AA will back off and let everybody at you so you can't abuse it

[@malex2077]

i like it

[@jeffmceachern456]

Dude, this makes WAY too much sense. There's no way Gayjin will implement it, lol.

[@rodneybuckland4140]

jeff mceachern so true

[@epion660]

Or, once you're repaired, it keeps going for a minute or something, so you can actually get in the air.

[@autochton]

Seeing this from the outside (not a WT player), and from a game design POV, a few thoughts present themselves. The AA effectiveness is probably intended to make landing and rearming a feasible tactic, rather than a death sentence. However, it has the side effect that players can just cruise around in their AA cover zone and be protected and win the match like that. Dropping AA effectiveness would make landing less feasible - going on suicide in the case where your team isn't currently winning - so that doesn't seem like such a good plan. However, you could make air supremacy a goal. If the battle area is not contested, you could have tickets go down for the absent team. So as long as both teams have planes in the fight, it's business as usual. If one team flees to AA cover, they leave the field to their enemies, and lose. The ticket drop rate shouldn't be enormous, but could perhaps accelerate, or in some other way make it so the winning team doesn't have to wait an hour.

[@botimegaming]

I have always wanted the AA to do a couple things. 50/50 chance if you attack the airfield... but I would really like to see more of a damage over time... shrapnel and flack doing damage to your radiator, aircraft skin, control surfaces, etc. Also making flying more difficult due to turbulent air... I have seen too many times planes either being exploded with little or no warning or in my case.... A fire breaks out in one of the most well built aircraft of World War II... The AA magical dropping people like a bug zapper just turns my stomach.

[@autochton]

Bo Time Gaming Yeah, my wife also suggested that taking down the degree of damage per hit would perhaps work to make it more of a discouragement than an insta-kill. (Overall War Thunder also appears to have some slightly 'creative' damage models that make certain hits far more likely to kill than in real life.)

[@matchesburn]

+Bo Time Gaming
+Gert Sønderby
Here's an idea: how about having both flak artillery *_and_* machine gun/autocannon AAA for airfield defense?
Flak could deal with high flying (e.g. bombers, vultures looking and waiting for people to land/rearm) targets and have the extreme range to deal with that. Have their effectiveness drop _drastically_ the closer you get to the deck/the airfield due to them not being designed to target low-flying and fast moving targets.
Have SHORT range autocannon (20s, 30s, 40mm Bofors - whatever) and larger caliber machine gun turrets that will provide defensive cover, but only within a kilometer or so of the airfield defense ring. That would be sufficient to allow some cover for people landing, but still provide an envelop to operate in if the last remaining enemy player is AFK or being an asshole trying to draw out the match. After all, if they're only defending the airspace of a couple square kilometers or so, one could easily try for a high speed dive attack if someone is just sitting on the runway. Staying and dogfighting directly over the enemy airfield would still be dangerous, but at least taking a direct hit from cannons or machine guns is survivable (assuming it doesn't start a FUCKING FIRE, THANKS GAIJIN!). Taking a hit from flak, which is going to happen due to flak being the primary (well, realistically, only) AAA defense is... not.

[@mites7]

I agree, the base camping has gotten ridiculously annoying lately. It always has been, but I've seen a huge uptick in it in the last few weeks.
And like you, I don't particularly blame the player it's more an issue of the game environment. I think a fix could be after 10 minutes into a match, if you stay flying around your base for longer than 4 minutes (not counting being landed and repairing), the AAA will turn off.

[@kevinneville5876]

Of if there is one guy left

[@Adam-zi5se]

+Kevin Neville yup

[@mites7]

Agree, though I've seen 2 people do it as well

[@Etruscots]

Have you ever seen a couple of B-29s sitting on the runway waiting for the tickets to go down?. I am glad I only saw it twice but even then, it's just horrible and no matter how fast and how many weird moves you try to pull off the AAA will cripple/destroy you and you have to add the bombers gunners into the mix.

[@ryanfreebody6881]

I blame the player, they choose to abuse the game mechanic for gains for selfish reasons.
At least be fair when you go into RB, it's worse then kill steals.
It's just weak, either land and press J if you find yourself to be the last one, or go out fighting, don't waste other players time and be a sore loser about it.
WT community is so toxic atm it doesn't surprise me we see such abuse in game.

[@TerminalSports45]

it's funny, the AAA never works for you but it always works for the enemy team

[@succulentravioli954]

That's why I play axis

[@x_atm_092]

Bro saaaaaaaame

[@ranaklindor8069]

Speaking of AAA... would you be able to do a side chat specifically on AA technology? Both land and sea based?

[@Super_Tristan1005]

that would be a good idea for bo. considering the magical proximity AA shells that exist in war thunder.

[@Savioursun]

they could have radar/good fire control systems

[@Super_Tristan1005]

no that does not work like that. aa shels have a fuse, they calculated how high a aircraft was and loaded the right shells. but in WT the shells are programmed to be proximity based, even if you are 10 meters of the ground. those kind of shells do not exist

[@BoZoiD57]

Tristan Woolthuis actually the US used a proximity AA shell in WW2.

[@mr.challenger2355]

I agree going 700mph in a F86 F2 and get pilot sniped by AAA like really.....

[@Ocrilat]

I find it strange that in GF, Gaijin thinks its acceptable to spawn-camp. In the air, spawn-camping is so unacceptable that they need to have these AAA guns.

[@tomsomerfield]

How about if AAA should only activate if someone is repairing on the airfield?

[@botimegaming]

I would be fine with that.

[@Fluxcapasiter85]

I dig it

[@TheProfessionalDrift]

Spread the message

[@brentmiller6414]

What about the people who use bombers and but on the airfield for the entire game who just wait for the tickets to go down?

[@brentmiller6414]

also all people would do then is destroy all the AAA around the airfield anyway.

[@silenceinwar2968]

UA-cam is in the LuftWaffe, just look bottom right corner when in fullscreen mode.

[@jameswest5470]

I've been thinking that to

[@CountArtha]

The reason the AAA is so OP is because of player bitching about getting killed on the runway. If teams would protect their runway while people are landing, or pair up and land one at a time while the wingman flies overhead, it wouldn't be a problem.

[@basedthunder]

Be careful Bo, they will copyright this video. They want the community silent.

[@Combatsmithen]

I made a post on the forums like 8 months ago about this. It was well detailed and thought out with descriptions of how it will work. In short. It was basically changing AA to make it more of damage over time instead of instant death.

[@survivalkiing]

The AAA is a game breaking feature. It seems like every game I play the last person is just circling their runway and letting the AAA do the job. Had a B17 a few weeks ago doing circles low and trying to bait me down so he can turn back to his AAA. Luckily I set him on fire and I had an IL-2 around or I'd have lost.
Norway is one of the worst because the A base has the good AAA and most fights take place there. I had 3 of us Allies get killed by the AAA above the island chasing a 109 a few km above.

[@survivalkiing]

Also want to add that once you get a yellow hit from AAA consider yourself dead. The laser guided shells locked their target and are just toying with it at that point.

[@runikwolf7755]

Alpha on Noway was hit with a giant nerf two updates ago.

[@yanzx01]

yea dude the A site AAA is practically useless for all but good screen shots now lol.

[@outboundproduct2820]

I agree with you Bo! Played not long ago and not 30 seconds from spawn I was shot down by AA and AAA, I was about 8000 feet up at that. I do not recall any time in history where AA or AAA was that accurate, unless of course you where right in their face. They really need to dial it back.

[@villagewingnut2920]

Bo, I'm totally with you man. I don't know how many times I have lost matches due to AA. It is something that needs to be addressed. I back you on this 100 percent.

[@bjrichardson4752]

The AA in the patch before last made it to where it focused on bombers(If they are any), and then they made it to focusing on whatever's closest, and now they just added more AA to airfields and buffed the splash damage.

[@ilikepienurma]

there was a fix for this. it was those vehicles that spawned in. now sometimes they spawned in too early and you could end a game that might not be in your favour and clutch a win which isn't always fair but it did stop runway camping.
Lost several games to some mig9s lately running away from meteors most notably a 5v1 . no one on the team had the ability to kill ground targets so he just bleed the tickets for 20 mins.
So many things in this game require just slight tweaks and the increase in enjoyment would be fantastic and i hope they bring back the group of vehicles again. perhaps spread them over a large area to make sure games don't just end instantly if you happen to have a sneaky bomber right beside them
keep up the good videos bo :)

[@mosquito271]

the funny thing is that to "solve" the AA problem in the long run, the best change would be to focus on altering the game flow so that these situations won't arise in the first place (i.e. to have the 'winning team' better options than this - actually viable attacks on the GF / launch a dedicated attack on airfield AA / changes to win conditons, time limits / etc.) rather than just another tweak to AA-AI

[@dangalis7406]

Every game that Cobey's in invariably ends up with him crashing or ramming somebody, i love it

[@codboroks97]

I think it should be a timed thing. Once you reach a certain distance, AA will start shooting at you, but they will be fairly weak. They will stay weak for maybe a minute, then slowly get more accurate. This will give you enough time to make a pass or two and get out of there while you are at low risk of being shot down. But if you linger too long, maybe 2 or 3 minutes, you will start taking more hits from AA. It wouldn't be super powerful. You would still have a chance to get out of there alive. But if you are still flying around their base at the 4 and a half minute mark, you are almost guaranteed to be shot down. Once you are out of the range of the AA, the timer would stop and eventually reset so you can go back. This way you have time to attack whatever you need to attack and then leave, and any planes that might be on the runway and you haven't killed on the first attack have time to takeoff before you return.

[@nicholasbrumage5356]

I just wish that Gaijin would make a procedure in order to not get shot down by AAA. such as exceed 400MPH or consistently change altitude.

[@rodneybuckland4140]

realism komrad? what is this realism you talk off

[@kristiankirov6783]

+Rodney Buckland well komrade AA must be Russian because even my mig-15 at 980 kph got deleted.

[@rodneybuckland4140]

I hate it even more when it's through clouds. I was flying my b-17 at 25k feet, above the cloud layer, and it just explodes. No wing falling off, no fire. Just BOOM FUCKER. radar guided AAA batteries

[@birthdwt8859]

gj you joined the 90 Percent of the community that rights things on UA-cam and expect gajiin to see it, nothing wrong with that, but if u want their attention write in the forums

[@lincon_logs3939]

But the you wouldn't be able to repair or rearm because anyone could strafe you with ease on the airfield

[@Reignlief]

dont forget the AAA on norway, right in the middle of the map, 20+ laser guided machine gun speed cannons, if you even try to protect the landing cratf you get blown out of the sky, reguardless of if you are flying at 20ft or 20000ft

[@stelios8610]

The AAA is nuts... I got shot down in my Ho-229 yesterday while at 3000m alt and at 650-700 speed and 6km away from the enemy base...I wasn't even flying towards the enemy base but going back to repair and stuff...
The funny part another Horton was strafing the airfield to get the final kill and no AAA shell even landed on him and the second he got out of sight of the AAA i got turned into a 4th of July firework.... AAA BIAS....

[@lhcwresslar5033]

Stelios Onisiforou at least you ha vent been shot down by a friendly destroyer who's 5 in flack shell exploded in the cockpit of your plane

[@mikelperks3004]

I agree with this statement as you challenge someone when you're remotely near the airfield you get bombarded with AAA or when your at like 3000m above the airfield it's ridiculous

[@rodneybuckland4140]

"disappointed at gaijin" well that's not news

[@juanrosac]

A good option for the aaa, could be the same as the rest of planes, the worth is "ammo" if they haven't infinite ammo you could save this kind of situations.
Regarding the tanks and to prevent the base camping, I propose the same, some pillbox with ammo, if some enemy tank stay near the base they will receive cannon fire.
Anyway, great Videos!

[@johnsanvictores6639]

Whenever people do that, I thank them for allowing me to attack ground targets

[@RightClickGamers]

This makes me feel useful about killing the AAA when in a heavy fighter

[@jimmyguerrero1572]

that i agree with RB AA always makes me reroute my course back to the airfield in my p38e

[@LoganKinney-sj2tb]

So sad 4 years later and still nothing has changed. :(

[@z3r0_35]

I can understand your rant, I really can, and I have to admit that I've both abused the AAA myself and been on the receiving end of such abuse myself, though I make a point in doing so in only a couple of cases:
1) I'm in a plane that's vastly inferior to what I know or suspect the enemy's aircraft are (i.e. I'm in an SB2C or a Firefly as the last guy alive against a team of Bf-109F-4s/G-2s and Fw-190A-4s), in which case it's really the only thing I can do to attempt to even the odds that doesn't involve running away and hiding.
2) I'm so heavily outnumbered that it's unlikely that AAA will be able to carry the match for me if the enemy team doesn't just attack one or two at a time (the only real counter to the AAA's effectiveness is to swarm in en masse, making it nigh impossible for the AAA to kill EVERYONE before the target goes down - alternatively you send in a couple of guys earlier to do 'Wild Weasel' strikes to destroy the AAA, though this is usually too risky). I have NEVER seen AAA kill 8 planes in ANY match I've ever flown, the most I've ever seen being four and only because they came in one or two at a time (there were a couple more planes that attempted to attack me over the airfield in that game but hilariously they managed to collide with each other).
In both cases I'll even TELL the enemy where I am, what my intent is, as well as suggesting that they just kill GTs to run down the ticket counter if they don't want to take the risk, but that if they want to fight, they'll have to do it on my terms. As for what I do AGAINST this? Usually I don't even bother, I go for ground targets, unless I'm in a plane that can't carry the right ordinance or ammo belts for the task, in which case I don't really have a choice.
As for the AAA in-game, the problem is that the AAA in War Thunder, especially in this game, has the hitting power of a heavy flak gun, the fire rate of an autocannon, and the traverse speed of a pintel-mounted machine gun. What needs to happen is for AAA to be properly split into multiple tiers:
Heavy: Flak guns. Slow-firing, has difficulty tracking fast-moving targets, but hits like a bus and has long range.
Medium: Autocannons. Middle of the road in most respects, with decent capabilities against most targets barring bombers at extreme altitudes.
Light: Heavy MGs. Fast-firing and able to track most targets with ease, but short-ranged and relatively weak on their own (with the main threat being from multiple batteries focusing on one target), primarilly intended as point-defense against strafing fighters and low-altitude attackers.

[@neonbudha7672]

Happened to me on Sicily, the whole team was at their airfield and literally sat there. after me and 3 other p47s got to like 26,000 ft. I killed 2 190's while the jugs baited for me then we all dove down. By all I mean the whole god damn team dove on the air field. I died, the 3 jugs died, our a20 died, a corsair died, even a pbj came in and died as well. the only plane left was a p400. Then they took off and came after the p400 as u could probably tell we lost. This was like 2 months ago, I still remember.

[@aeroangrymoose]

Leaky leaky lol. When I was on 737s they wouldn't make a work order to fix hydraulics unless it was a drip more than 1 per few seconds. :p Also on the flip side, Norway A point has been flipped... Your bang on though man.

[@tonyerspamer8742]

I play for the dogfight too but I still find it nice to be able to land without having to worry too much about being strafed on the ground

[@Dragonloverforever]

I was sniped at over 7000 meters , through thick cloud cover and 1km away from airfield in my He-111 H3 awhile back,.. in ARCADE where the AA isnt as bad but still nasty, and more recently like 5 days ago was being shot at By Airfield AA while flying over friendly ground units pursuing a ground pounder and my ailerons were taken out by the traction controls in an RB match in a 109 B1

[@loufalou2007]

group attacking the airfield seems to divert the firepower and acually give you a chance at killing the aaa.

[@Carstuff111]

The AAA at this time was so, so crazy. I got bopped by AAA more times than I can count. And that was just as I got within range, the guns should not have had me zeroed that quickly.

[@Kenten2]

I like it, as it apparently forces you into ground attacking, instead of just being fighter focused. However their should be an option to enter RB in a domination map, for the doghfight crazies.

[@Monopoly907]

I remember back in one game where a Russian p-63 literally sat on his airfield halfway through the game, every time we would dive on him he would just bail on the airfield, get back in, bail, over and over and with 4 vs 1 we lost cause he refused to fight.

[@USA0312]

I know I'm pretty fucking late but look at 13:37, Even his team mate agrees for him to just land and J out

[@theadorebob2026]

I fully agree fully Bo! I personally have had similar situations and they are frustrating!

[@fsttrdl]

Ok first: great video as usual. Second: the AA is a hard thing to decide. I mean, war thunder tries to be accurate is certain areas of WW2 era, and AA was like that. But for the game itself, considering the players feed off this and the game is made to be fun, it just is one of those things that you can't decide until you've really experienced it for yourself. I feel you Bo, War Thunder is a double-edged sword sometimes.

[@NastyHobits]

I've found that I'm getting shot down a lot more often by AAA that is placed away from the airfield now. Happened twice today on Sicily

[@tonyennis3008]

Even at best, it would take 7 or 8 planes to distract the AA so someone could get the kill. If what we saw is Gaijin's (?) intent, he should simply end the game when the odds are worse than 5:1 and the 1 is over an airfield.

[@killerspade]

It made perfect sense when they implemented it for EC, where airfield spawn camping could make a match one sided - but I have no idea why they felt the need to put it into random battles.

[@runikwolf7755]

Once they fully add a permanent RB EC, I would be fine with the seemingly SAM AAA.

[@rsookchand919]

love the forked tail devil! But I'm wishing for the P-38F and H, P-47B,C,and N, and the P-51B,C,H and K.

[@ScottRuggels]

Gaijin should subtract tickets of your plane is sitting onthe runway, which will stop the bomber squatting, but flying around one's base as a defensive tactic, that needs a different solution.

[@maxwellgallacher4190]

I understand the frustrations, i have experienced them myself. But for realistic battles i think the AAA help keep the game environment challenging. The AAA isn't invincible to kill or impossible to out maneuver, but if you don't use your head it will cost you. And i think that's pretty realistic.

[@Fireburnin21]

Of course Gaijin will never listen to the players, so this AAA will forever stay shit like this.

[@Blackflack52]

GJ listens to the players as long as they provide constructive critic.
most players cant do that and whine around.
thats why alot of players think GJ does not listen.
its basicly the fault of the community itself, because they like to bash and talk shit over gaijin.

[@Fireburnin21]

Drumead Josh
Are you implying they don't deserve the shit talk they get?

[@Hiro1oo1]

If most players (let's be reasonable and say 51% of players, for it to be most players) are complaining about something that's about (let's also go by the all time peak amount of players on Steam: 35,236) 17,970 players all having an issue with something patch after patch.
So if 17,970 people are "whining" about something, do you not think that there is something wrong? Or at the very least, there is something to be looked into?

[@Blackflack52]

Hiro1oo1
when thoose player are able to do a good citic then its ok
but a great part of the commuity does this:
Uh fuck that shit, I dont like it.
Gaijin totally screwed up and is a bad company (and so on) then it is not OK
Gaijin listened ALOT to the comunity in the past months.
*****
no really
in the past Gaijin did alot of stuff correct.
they listened to the comunity and removed things they did not like.
you still have to consider, that Warthunder is still a Beta
and in a Beta a company tests new stuff
and it is not OK when the developers get a massive shitstorm, because they are testing something.
alot of the players dont even know that WT is still in a Beta.
sure
they do sometimes something wrong
but most of the time they do a great job.

[@TehShinegami]

If Gaijin really listened t the community, BR system would have been gone a month after it was up. And so far they listened for one man stand and resurrecting medipacks on the past month.

[@thepaquetdechips]

Yeah, lost several match because of that too : Flying above the airfield at an altitude of 4 Km, boum, perfect shot in the coolant system ...

[@psycopt8770]

The problem with AAA in my opinion is not how effective they are, but how players like this one abuse it. I have a tendency to use it in my favor when im at a disadvantage (numerical or energy) as cover to climb up/disengage. Plus it have helped with the F-84 (and others) base rape on late spawn players in tier 5.
Besides, there are trucks that spawn after a certain time and drain a lot of tickets of the enemy team so, if they camp too much, they lose.

[@Orangefan77]

And yet, they refuse to do anything to stop the spawn camping that is just rampant across ground forces matches... in fact, they continue to encourage it as a tactic straight from the devs and even the CEO himself.

[@floh667]

going over 400mph IAS and still keeps rolling like a champ. I love it how Gaijin models control stiffening exclusively for just a few aircraft. Especially for 109s and 190s.As long as this company does not understand that treating all aircraft the same (in terms of flight model design) simultaniously is needed for balance, this OP and FOTM mentality shit will never leave this game. But since they refuse to learn they will lose more and more players. This game reached its peak quite a time ago.

[@lordwintertown8284]

it seems below rank V is OP but above in Rank V it's shit Canberra, F2H & me trying to land with Mig-15/17 &CL13 and the aa does shit all me in my poor 1st gen FAA jets taking all migs/cls while the AA crews are having a tea brake.

[@GHOSTOFONYX10]

This is my biggest problem Warthunder, so many times I'll be flying along at high altitude above the clouds near the enemy airfield when all of a sudden my plane just explodes and im told I was killed by AAA, it's VERY enraging.

[@joethompson549]

i have had games where people leave their airfeild and bait people to follow them only to go and land back

[@Vulcan-is8tw]

I once won a match in a dive bomber because the entire enemy team died trying to kill me in my allied airfield.

[@WortWortWortHog]

I agree. But you should have a video of people getting rekt on Norway by the AAA. That little airstrip the germans get is absurd now. If they defend it from the landing craft and just camp it the allies can't touch em. On the other hand, the AAA on the ally island with the bombing points makes it pretty much impossible to safely do anything other than high altitude bomb it.

[@wpieniacz4162]

RIP Ojciec Kazimierz Spoczywaj w pokoju

[@mrwalk6171]

I was thinking, what about a series (seems more fitting to be a stream) where you start the first video in a reserve plane and each round you change into the plane that killed you in the last one (survival means you move one plane down the tech tree)... for an idea that came to me for no reason i find it to be something that could be funny... even could have a competition on who can reach jets first?

[@ARBH587]

because of how aaa works this situation was able to happen.
Last player on american team was afk on the airfield the entire game. There were about 5 people left on my team. We all 5 went to dive on him and kill him, and we were all obliterated. You can literally win games now by not playing at all. Like holy shit gaijin.

[@ethanmitchell5563]

A on Norway has the most devastating AAA. I got sniped from 4km away.

[@EGB-hh8kd]

For some reason I've only been shot down once by AAA in RB even though I've flown over and strafed airfields many a time.

[@Leon-zs4pd]

I remember that I was killed by AA in my P-51D-30 when I was diving at 820km/h and that laser gun sniped me at 4km...

[@niknight99]

Arguably the worst map for this is Norway since the A airfield on the map is in the middle and has a full AAA compliment, creating an 8km diameter dead zone for the allies, and since by the time the landing craft reach the island, only 2 are left due to the island's defensive fire. Meaning the allies cannot escort the landing craft in past 4km safely, the germans have free reign to just wait patiently around the island and pick off the last two ships once they are about a km away from the island, watching all the pretty allied fighters burn down around them.

[@johnwanderin2524]

This happened to me today. First AA round fired at me obliterated the engine in my 190. I was pissed.
I also played against KerbalKitten today as well... go figure

[@Smertyuk]

On the subject of airfield AA... There always were two points of view on this and more often then not which one you take depends on how good or bad your team usually is.
There was a patch or two when Gaijin nerfed it quite a bit. I remember having a match where my whole brit\murican team was just slaughtered by germans, i was alone in my Spitfire... well... if i'm alowed to discout a PS4 player in P-51, who just climbed for the first half of the match toward the enemy airfield unnoticed for some reason and then just went on a head on with Fw 190 which went as expected - bad, i managed to get 3 kills, couple of crits and i was out of ammo. The only thing i could do was to land, but there were two germans waitng for just that, so i had no choise but to present myself as a target and dodge in the last second, to scare them with my maneuvers, trying to make them waste their energy and just hope that those AA would do anything... all they did is made those two guys "leaky" and then the third guy just blazed out of the cloud and there was no time for me to react. It was very frustrating.
As for the dogfights. I felt like Gaijin killed them in 1.53 with pilot blackouts. I tended to fly agile planes and use this quality as much as i reasonably could, i had crews with maxed g-tolerance but it wasn't enough for how i usually maneuvered with people. That's mostly why i rage quit this game about 8 months ago. Not regretting it just a bit sad for how Gaijin wasted all the potential this game had.
Still watching all your videos though because they're fun.

[@robertperry6048]

Return to base after all but one of the A.I. aircraft are down. Return with a squadron of loaded B-17G and Bomb that base from high altitude. Take out the AAA and force the A.I. to come up and attack your formation, or die with the base.

[@n1thecaptain965]

Also it's accuracy and lack of dispersion, IRl AAA would start to becom less and less accurate every kilometer up, so flying at high altitudes should keep you relatively safe, right? Wrong! I've had instances where I was flying aircraft like an SB2U, an already small target, at altitudes of up to 5 kilometers and still gotten hit and one shot. In one replay I saw an AAA shell not only fly up 4 kilometers, but fly up 4 kilometers directly into the center of a cockpit. Yes, that was a HE-111, with a pretty big cockpit, but it was going in a dive so fast that it's wings were nearly falling off, yet the shell hit dead center of the cockpit, at it's most maybe a centimeter off center, it should not be so insanely accurate

[@tomhun1]

Another annoying thing that should only be in AB; is when u take a specific amount of hits u automatically die, even if without tacking a critical hit . Cuz WHY? its in SB. RB. too.

[@WTCheatShaming]

Bo I have a video to send you of my friend who was travelling away from the airfield he was 3km up and 7km out from the field. He was in a hunter going 1200km/hr the AA killed his tail control. Which is another bs thing they modeled terribly in the last patch along with making it slightly harder to kill planes by upping plane armor values without announcing it. Worse thing is I probably make more RP in arcade matches that last 6 minutes than a 20 minute rb match. The 2x that you are supposed to get in rb seems a bit wrong at the moment. I have a lot of gripes about the game that all stem from like the last 5 major and minor patches.

[@Lead_Bacon]

you know its bad when your own team tells you to get away from the airfeild

[@cptflyingfort7147]

Agreed, when an AI feature can essentially win a match in a PvP game, there is a problem. Absolutely ridiculous in the historical accuracy sense as well, no gunner could traverse his gun fast enough to track a low flying aircraft moving above 250 mph, especially with the sighting equipment they had.

[@matchesburn]

While AAA is ridiculous, part of the reason I rarely play RB anymore is due to the god damn fuel fires. Considering how rare fuel fires actually were on aircraft with self-sealing tanks and post-war testing puts the nails in the coffin of Gaijin's horseshit mechanics; it's time to knock this shit off Gaijin.
I don't even attempt to put out fires anymore. I just resign myself to dying, because your chances of putting out fires anymore is about as good as winning large cash prizes from lotto scratch tickets. Worse yet, I'd wager about 50-70% of my deaths are from fires. I regret ever bitching about how prevalent pilot snipes were back in 2014. While they were annoying, at least it's something realistic other than this dumb shit of a combat aircraft with self-sealing fuel tanks that is made entirely of aluminum alloys and other metals catching fire and suffering structural failures in mere seconds. Seriously, fuck that shit.
Gaijin, fix your fucking game.

[@daviddenmeade2879]

Believe me matches it's not just RB. I play arcade as I'm still learning but whenever I get close to an enemy airfield it's lights out within 30 seconds. Amazing how they're that accurate around an airfield but the ones in the crucifix layout are less so.

[@theworldsthreat]

Hahaha you and I are playing a different game. Every time I set a bomber on fire, the fire always goes out. It seems to happen with American bombers the most. I have no idea if I am just really unlucky or if something has changed.

[@2shae475]

"Gaijin, fix your fucking game."
A phrase that has been repeated by the community for years.

[@rodneybuckland4140]

+2Shae sure komrad! *hands out buffs for Russian armor and better engines for yaks* good eneff? xaxaxaxaxaxa a))))))

[@2shae475]

Rodney Buckland Oopa comrade just got sekrit documints that say *F8F-1 never had WEP in rl* sekcrit documints never lie.

[@toastape5298]

@Bo I can totally see your point, and I hate to disagree with you on this one, I really do...BUT:
If powerfull AAA near the AFs isn't a thing, spawncamping, or Af camping in this case, becomes a thing. And while it might be OK for fighters to spend the entire match without rearming, the same cannot be said about attackers and bombers.
In the first case, you have a choice of not attacking a plane that's trying to abuse the system, and the abuser is the one who's subject to your actions. However, on the second case, you, or the attackers/bombers, don't get a choice, they can either land and get destroyed while grounded, or not land, and not rearm; because the same kind of player that hovers over their own AF to abuse the AAA system now, would abuse the lack of such system, and hover over your team's AF looking for easy kills. *_As was the case before the AAA difficulty/efficiency was buffed to the current state._*
I don't know about you, but my vote is on legit players getting the choice, and for abusers to spend the entire match hovering over their AF to still get a defeat at the end, if they want to, rather than farming easy kills against defenseless grounded airplanes. This is, of course, assuming legit players recognize the situation and switch to a ground-attack role at the end, and *_not_* play according to the abuser's intentions.
_To anyone else reading: If you agree with me, vote this up, so Bo will see it! Thank you in advance!_

[@TheTooProGamer]

also pro tip if the flames starting blue your most likely not going to get it out, if the flames are starting orange you can probably put it out

[@TheTooProGamer]

i dont know if that does do it now but it did count in the early days of warthunder

[@pierrebmd6884]

I beleive what would be great for war thunder is that each team gets multiple airfield with no or low accuracy AAA. That way, there would be no players camping their airfield neigther would there be players camping enemy airfield as it would be useless because enemies would land on the other airfield.

[@mikecross4725]

Ahhhh kinda refreshing to see you playing at my level for a change....Im used to buzzin the trees trailing flames and smoke....Usually its cuz the sun was in my eyes....no worries your still cool..in my eyes....ack that dam sun.....
;-)

[@Fluxcapasiter85]

Lets compromise, 50/50 AA when they're flying (but for only 3 - 4 minutes) then OP AA when they're repairing. But then 30 more seconds of OP AA for them to take off. But i just waisted my time because gaijin doesnt listen to its players. Thats why i quit until they fix it. And dont even get me started on the TU-4

[@HisCarlnessI]

When the last guy basecamps for a long time I just report them for inactive behavior.

[@NarcassiticGamer]

my fondest AA memory was being shot once, loosing all control, and nose diving all within the first 30 seconds of a match

[@blitzwave935]

My fondest memory was getting sniped by friendly AA

[@phteven7609]

or even better wait 10 minutes for a game. Then spend 10 to 15 minutes climbing getting your self into a good position then when you are about to ponce on the first plane poof you are dead. Oh the memories

[@redstar7017]

I was in an F2 sabre on Norway rushing in once. 20 seconds into the match I get within 4 miles of the airfield in the middle of the map at 8000 ft going over 500 mph and AAA clipped my wing. The chat exploded.

[@birthdwt8859]

+TheYugoslavGamer Guy I've done that 4 or 5 times, fighting an enemy and poof the AI decided to kill me

[@AchillesSpear22]

+TheYugoslavGamer Gay I had that happen to me after my greatest flight ever, getting 5 kills in a mosquito, going home to rearm with an enemy 4k behind, I can rearm in 8 seconds so landing taking off and killing was possible, but friendly aa said " you owe me money bitch, you no go home. "

[@AndyStClair-po3xg]

On that day, Bo died, Cobey were capture along with apple and loli.

[@ComradeThomas]

I had a game once in the Blenheim, where I landed on the airfield after a bombing run. Three Russians followed me and attempted to kill me, but base AA killed all three of them in just a few seconds. So yes, it's OP as fuck in my opinion.

[@ghostavenger0078]

I agree about the AA in the last realistic battle it was just me and friendly left and one enemy and all he did was stay at his airfield and let the AA protect him and picked us off when we tried to get near and we were going to win he just camped until our tickets were at zero, AA needs to be less over powered

[@josephmckay7176]

I was hunting down a pe2 and he was circling his airfield and I was above the thick cloud cover and it still sniped me

[@RyzawaVT]

Tbh I was kind of expecting a p-38 gameplay hah.
Edit: Also on the topic of Airfield AA, I totally agree with you, it really needs to be dumbed down.

[@simonburris9095]

The argument I make to myself to keep myself from getting salty over being killed by AAA is "well they don't call it anti-aircraft artillery because it misses."

[@piggperson]

Well, regarding the AA situation, it would make at least some ounce of sense, of coarse someone would heavily defend an airfield with heavy anti-aircraft guns so that fighter-bombers wouldn't bomb the place to ass. I noticed (maybe its not the case though) that realistic and arcade AA performs differently, but maybe yall were just unlucky.

[@edmundsdemonds8309]

I agree bo aa is op I was in my fw190 flying 600kmph at 10 000 ft first flak burst blows my plane to smitherines and I was just flying over the bases to look for the last running bases I was soooo pissed

[@georgepeterthony9011]

it's common now on the sa server for the surviving bombers on the losing team to all land on the airfield and taxi around in circles using their defensive armament to serve as extra aa untill the winning team is wiped out and if you damage them to the point where they can't move, they get their airspawn and land again. I was in a game where the it was 2 to 11 and the only two planes we're a squad tupolev-4's using this tactic they ended up winning and getting credited with 10 of the kills between them.
I completely agree with bo as these tactiics ruin the game for people who play to dog fight.

[@mcbeanstinyweaponsandtanks4933]

I get shot down by AA when trying to end a match... but heaven forbid I'm at my AF, those bastards can't hit a blimp if you gave them blimp guided missiles.

[@James-bp7uc]

If this was just used to stop people killing people repairing while most of there team is still alive it would be fine.
They should make it so anti air units stop working when the is only 3 players left on a team.

[@harleywalls6356]

we need to get the whole community to send a thing in to them about op aa defence

[@roofkorean7251]

i remember there were 3 of us in b-17 boombing the airfield only one made it back to airfield others were killed by the aa the b-17 number four got shoot by the fw 190 the aa shoot 2 of us down and hardly damege one from 4300m bellow the aa is youst to strong for 3 boombers

[@alip82]

1100 km/h 2 km away from airfield closing in fast and boom one shot dead

[@Flying_Mushroom]

8 months later, this issue (OP AAA etc.) is still a thing

[@hanro7430]

4 years later....

[@cq4538r]

generally when someone is camping the AF, I do a couple things.
1. farm ground kills for a bit
2. lemming into him cause I'm gonna lose anyway
3. land, repair, "J" out
no point in wasting my time waiting on pansy pilots to leave the safety of their airfields to potentially lose the match when the enemy team will come to them and oh, my bad. AAA killed you, oh well. i win
i had a match the other day in my P-61, shot down a Pe-8, then killed a Yak-9 and I-185 with my turret (lemming trained behind me, got lit up) and then while I was on the airfield repairing, another Yak tried strafing me on the runway. i was ready to gun him down, or try. but at 0.87km, AAA pilot sniped him.
that's the only time im ok with AAA being that good, when you're defenseless on the runway and people strafing you.

[@PyroShark_]

me and my friend in A6M2 mod.11s (it like the first zero been awhile since ive played the game so i forgot)
snuck around to the base and killed all of the AAA, its weird how good it is sometimes and how bad it is sometimes