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The Weakness of British Air Power and Air Space Control (Possible Fixes)


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To put it simply the air space in Gauntlet is open. There is no contention or fight over it and the player faction is given automatic control, and what spawns in certain missions is not enough to provide a proper fight. This isn't a bad thing as a four man team who get on during the week days on off hours don't want to fight SU-25's and PAK 50's, but when the player number rises and more vortexes are online the airspace should not be a gift. I think it should be fought over. Not only would this create more team work with vortex team members as it would encourage co-pilots to get online to bring in heaver strike packages but the coordination between vortexes would increase as a helicopter inserts would be more difficult without armed escort. It would also help transition vortex players from a CAS and transport role over to a CAP role which to many may be much more fun. I think the best way to do this is to make a 'Contested Air Space' option in the CMD HQ on the white board that can be activated by the SL or CMD, or have an enemy airfield but this is only avaloble on some maps and didn't work well in the past.

 

Now for the British, and please don't think this is my American bias. The British's only advantage is their superior light CAS  bird with its 20mm and room for passengers, but that is where it ends. They don't have a single heavy lift bird in gauntlet even though they operate the Chinook in real life and their fixed wing support is not very good either. In my opinion the Wildcat fits the more little bird type role, the Merlin takes the spot of the Blackhawk as it has limited capacity for its size and is equally maneuverable, and that leaves the heavy role open. The Harrier is outdated and is not as good at CAS as the A10 as it lacks payload, gun, and strength that the A10 can provide. It also is not good at CAP as its design around VTOL leaves it fat and at low speeds unable to combat better equipped threats. In real life the British operate much more capable Eurofighter fourth gen fighter, and soon the fifth gen F35, and the Tornado interceptor/ CAS jet. We do not have these in our mod pack so they are unavailable, but could be added if the community wants them and understands this argument.  The links to the mods are below.

 

This also beings up the discussion how player numbers may be a little low and how we can rise them to make this work and how combined arms is maybe something we don't want, but anyways thanks for listening,

 

Ben

 

Tornado: http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=31541

Eurofighter: http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=30354

F35 (it is able to be separated from the mod): http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=25512

Weapons: http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=28646

 

P.S, Keep to the skies Tinkerbell

@duffyman

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I've just released Gauntlet 52, which will spawn enemy air assets through ambient AI, in response to some classes of player vehicles.

 

Generally though, I think the popular feeling has been to keep our missions at the infantry level, as the presence of CAS can swing the balance to heavily towards the favour of the players.

 

We'll see how the new ambient works, though. Could be a lot more emphasis on air assets.

 

- R

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35 minutes ago, Ryko said:

Generally though, I think the popular feeling has been to keep our missions at the infantry level, as the presence of CAS can swing the balance to heavily towards the favour of the players.

 But don't you think with a higher level of enemy air would balance that out and also provide combined arms gameplay, which is what Arms is arrigably all about, but the type of gameplay we want is definitely up to the players.

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I must say that while I do not agree with everything in your post, it is very well written in a way that isn't just demanding we do something. It's asking for discussion and opinions so thank you for that Ben. With regard to the Chinook; yes, I totally agree that the option could be there, perhaps even should, however I feel that it would detract from the sense with which most British operations are done. This is in the sense we tend to either walk there, drive there, or take a helo + walk a bit to get to where we are going. Yes this is not a milsim style server, however I feel by taking this essence we are offering a different type of gameplay.

 

With regard to the CAS options, we don't often have much in the way of support, other than the guy in a section with a GPMG. I feel that if there is such a need for heavy CAS within the scope of British Forces on Guantlet, we could perhaps look at using the A-10. Say there is a detachment from you stateside lads providing us the top cover, which quite frankly is often the case for fast air atm.

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2 hours ago, Copey said:

With regard to the Chinook; yes, I totally agree that the option could be there, perhaps even should, however I feel that it would detract from the sense with which most British operations are done. This is in the sense we tend to either walk there, drive there, or take a helo + walk a bit to get to where we are going. Yes this is not a milsim style server, however I feel by taking this essence we are offering a different type of gameplay.

 

With regard to the CAS options, we don't often have much in the way of support, other than the guy in a section with a GPMG. I feel that if there is such a need for heavy CAS within the scope of British Forces on Guantlet, we could perhaps look at using the A-10. Say there is a detachment from you stateside lads providing us the top cover, which quite frankly is often the case for fast air atm.

I do think that the Brits do have their own style of game play and it is important to keep it that way. They shouldn't be the same as the US at all and I think this is one of the reasons we add them, so that we could have that difference. However on large maps like Altis or maps where a lot of water is present their just isn't the option for light ground vehicles. Thus the British become more suited to maps like Fallujah where driving is usually the best option, and to this point it might make sense to balance the default factions this way. 

 

On the CAS thing I didn't really consider the fact that we have to save you guys with our planes most of the time anyways (Bias... Duh). So it would make sense that this could easily be part of the gauntlet mission. 

 

-Ben

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8 hours ago, Inzaindabridge said:

On the CAS thing I didn't really consider the fact that we have to save you guys with our planes most of the time anyways (Bias... Duh). So it would make sense that this could easily be part of the gauntlet mission. 

You guys dont    Most off the times you shoot the british people :) 

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personally on the chinook, the british use it more often that people realise and i do feel that there should be one or two available. 

On the point of cas, the british do have aircraft that are on station but i feel that the A10 is a ample replacement under the fact that it is a british unit out on deployment with American support. 

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Do we really need to worry About if the British use the equipment in real life? There are gaps in the BAF mod, so we should fill them in with RHS equipment. At the end of the day even if the British faction has been chosen American gear available within the arsenal, it's not like we are strict upon the nationality of weapons, just need to play your role!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Factions don't matter much as long as the roles are played, I love the freedom in that regard. Though, I do get annoyed with some of the Russian weapons and their incredibly low res optics (yes I run it on a potato, but the NATO optics are generally much more crisp even on low settings). BAF mod is a nice breather after a 3-4 month hiatus. I find myself selecting guns I've never used before.

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