China, A question Options

[XoGamer]

Due to the US redesign in 1.87 and GLA''s redesign in 1.85, is it safe to assume that China might be getting a redesign? For me, China feels the least changed and therefore it feels like it has the blandest gameplay out of all the factions due to it being too close to its original ZH gameplay.

However, it's completely acceptable if you want to keep all those features and redesigns etc. Until 2.0 and don't want to spoil anything.

Thanks.

[MARS]

I just want to point out that there is absolutely nothing inherently 'outdated' about the weapons associated with the term 'flak' in ROTR. It may not be a special fancy-tech kind of weapon, but virtually every dedicated anti-aircraft weapon today works the same way: A thing that people often forget, due to incorrect yet iconic depictions in media, is that anti-aircraft missiles and even the shells that came before them generally don't destroy a flying target via direct impact and explosive power but through fragmentation. The missile/shell is generally programmed to explode near the target and tear it apart with a hail of fragments. More sophisticated systems consist of an expanding rod, where the explosion rapidly expands a cylinder of connected metal rods into a ring shape that cuts through the target.

The Chinese flak weapons in-game work by the previous principle of airburst fragmentation, which isn't outdated by any means, and it could be argued that the missiles used to carry those fragmenting explosive warheads to their targets - like the ones fired by the MiG - possess modern, up-to-date guidance, navigation and engines, considering that they're just as reliable as the missiles used by Raptors and Berkuts. Based on their performance in-game, one could even speculate further that China has actually perfected the concept of programmed airbursting fragmentation warheads at least to the same level as the ECA (their canister shells utilise the same principle) because American and Russian air-to-air missiles, which presumably work the same way as they do in real life, do not have the splashy area effect that you see on a Chinese MiG or Tank Hunter/Twinfang shells.

Even the Tank Hunter's weapon could be considered more advanced than it seems on the level of abstraction seen in-game: It is a recoilless rifle that is somehow capable of reliably hitting helicopters and low-flying aircraft, which has to be made possible by some high-quality weapon sights and likely some kind of ballistic computer to properly track a fast-moving target and program the shell accordingly. The shells themselves are also powerful enough to reach and destroy these targets, which can be anything from a thinly armoured aircraft to a battle tank, though I personally imagine that they would be using some kind of HEAT or even kinetic shell when firing at ground vehicles, which the game would logically omit for the sake of abstraction.

Point is, there is nothing inherently outdated about the Chinese flak weapons, because the simple principle of 'hit target with an explosively formed shotgun blast of metal pieces' is in itself pretty timeless.

This post has been edited by MARS: 26 Mar 2017, 15:08