War Thunder Combined Arms begins tomorrow (May 30)

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Can't wait to strafe some ground columns!

Mixed battles between aviation and Ground forces


Pilots and tankers!

Tomorrow, on May 30th, we will be turning on mixed battles between aviation and Ground forces in the Realistic and Simulator game modes for all maps and ranks. Co-operation between the two combat arms will make the tactical gameplay much more diverse. The teams will need to divide their forces to achieve both ground points control and also air superiority needed to cover the advancing tanks. CBT participants already tested these battles, but even they will see some changes.

The mixed battles allow you to use one air and one ground vehicle; some ground vehicles allow multiple respawns, the number of the respawns depends on the class of the vehicle (i.e. 1 respawn for heavy tanks, 2 respawns for medium etc.)

Another difference is that players may decide what vehicle they want to use after they enter a battle, not before, as a consequence, a balancing principle similar to the one used in the Arcade battles is used, i.e. only the vehicles in your crew slots with the highest Battle rating are taken into account. Be careful: if you are planning to use the StuG III Ausf.F and the Fw.190 A-1 (BR 3.3), do not leave the CL-13A (BR 8.7) in a crew slot, else you will find yourself in the highest level match.

To participate in mixed battles just click the "Tank battles" option and hit the "To battle!" button.

The War Thunder team

[Nefaro]

They had that enabled at the end of the beta test. 

Hopefully they put a limit on or balanced how many of either kind can join a match on each side.  It blew when your team would end up being six aircraft and three tank players versus six tanks and three aircraft.  Capturing the victory locations is what won the battles and if your ground forces were outnumbered by the other side's ground forces, you were likely screwed from the start. 

The aircraft just generally flew around shooting at each other and pestering the tank players to shoot the AI flak guns for them.  ::)  I had a few bomb and strafe me but most weren't any good at it and they usually had problems seeing us, which is just fine.

EDIT:  I definitely think it's cool but I hope the amount of tanks vs planes in each match is equalized.  Otherwise we'll still have the same problems we've already experienced.  I expect they delayed allowing this intermingling since closed beta in order to fix just that.  Hope so, because it was fun when it worked out well.

[Nefaro]

Another difference is that players may decide what vehicle they want to use after they enter a battle, not before, as a consequence, a balancing principle similar to the one used in the Arcade battles is used, i.e. only the vehicles in your crew slots with the highest Battle rating are taken into account. Be careful: if you are planning to use the StuG III Ausf.F and the Fw.190 A-1 (BR 3.3), do not leave the CL-13A (BR 8.7) in a crew slot, else you will find yourself in the highest level match.

Goddammit.

I have like eight crew slots in most nations and my aircraft Battle Ratings aren't in the same vicinity as my Ground Forces ones.  Now they're gonna make me have to shuffle a bunch of stuff into and out of my lineup.   >:( 

I'm also not sure how well this bodes for the aforementioned match-up balance.  Time will tell.  I'll surely be playing some this weekend to see.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Well shit...

I'd high hopes for combined arms maps but the plain fact is, they suck horribly.

In my opinion, combined arms simulation mode is terrible for the following reasons.

1) AI controlled AAA is ridiculously accurate.  They have an 80% kill rate after 2 seconds.

2) Disparity in map sizes between ground and air forces.  Because Gaijin doesn't want the tankers to get bored, they start almost within kissing distance of each other.  That means that for pilots, 90% of the map is now wasted space as all the action takes place over a postage stamp sized area in the middle of the map.

3) Poorly thought out victory conditions.  As it currently stands, victory conditions on the map are completely focused on the ground war.  Key capture points are all located in the same postage stamp sized area of the map and oftentimes battles end before ground attack aircraft even reach the area.

In light of this, I was less than thrilled to read this statement on the WT main page today.

Pilots and Tankers!

Soon, we plan to make some changes in Simulator Battle mode. After the release of Ground Forces, this mode has become much more popular, the majority of players preferring mixed plane and tank battles while "pure" air battles are less than 10%. Though the number of SB players has significantly increased, waiting time and Battle rating difference in one battle has also increased.

This is why air and tank battles in Simulator mode will be united in one mode soon. This will allow pilots to join the battles faster and will improve the in-game balance.

Those who prefer only air battles will be able to choose "Events" mode, where "Duels" will become available once again - fast 4 vs 4 Simulator Battles  without nation limits. Match-making will work in the same way as our usual battles in other modes. There will also be historical events for Simulator mode that will still be regularly available.

Finally, Squadron Battles - In Arcade and Realistic mode there are always dozens of Squadrons fighting each other, but the Simulator level of competition is pretty low - few Squadrons join this mode and play only a few battles daily! This is why we have decided to suspend Squadron Battles in Simulation mode beginning on the 16th of June, on this day we will summarize the results and the winners will get their rewards.. Virtual pilots can still fight each other creating a map with individual settings in Custom Battles.

Guess air-to-air sim players are SOL as far as the future of WT is concerned. 

[Nefaro]

Did you actually fly in 'Simulation' mode, in War Thunder?

I figured there are better full-on flight sims out there than WT has modelled, so if I'm going all the way I'd just do it with a real one.  'Realistic Battles' mode is fun, though.  Very sim lite.  I still think some of the flight & damage modelling is a bit suspect and many aircraft models just have placeholders .. so why bother using Full Sim Mode?

It's a fun game, but it's better as lighter fare when it comes to simming IMO.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Yup, I fly Sim mode.  I like flying with no icons enabled.  It allows for some stealth and stalking that you don't get with icons enabled in RB.  I also like having a bit more control over the plane in that I can adjust prop pitch, fuel mixture, radiators and the like.  I also like the fact that the mouse-aimers are absent from Sim mode.  Everyone's a little more wobbly and head-ons and edge-of-envelope fights are more fun.

I mostly fly Brit and Japanese planes so if they're in the Sim battles I'll play sims.  If not, I'll play RB. 

[ArizonaTank]

I have been playing the War Thunder tank sim for about a week now and love it.  Interestingly, I don't like World of Tanks much.