Rise of the Reds Update: Birds of Prey Options

[MARS]

Originally introduced in 1977, the A-10 Thunderbolt II, more commonly known as the Warthog, is among the oldest aircraft in service of the United States Air Force. After the turn of the millennium, the plane was originally meant to be phased out in favour of the more versatile F-35. However, perpetual design disputes, technical issues and overflowing costs resulted in a severe scaling down of the Joint Strike Fighter project in the late 2010s. While the F-35 only achieved a margin of success as an export plane for America's more prominent allies such as Canada, Turkey, Israel and Japan, the A-10 fleet was brought back from the boneyard and refurbished for service during the Global War on Terror. Now, two decades later, the 'Hog' will once again distinguish itself in the battle against Russian armour divisions in Europe.

Ever since the coordinated destruction of the major European air bases at the onset of the Russo-European War, Russia's Frontal Aviation had free reign over Europe. That was until the United States made their entry into the war in summer 2048. Since then, the skies above the continent became contested between Berkuts and Raptors while the European air forces resumed their operations from secured air fields in Scotland, Ireland, Spain and Portugal. As the fighting continued, the casualty rates of the Russian Air Force soared out of control. The toll was especially heavy on the venerable Su-25 ground attack plane, which stood no chance against the advanced Western fighter jets without escorts. In February 2049, the remaining planes were ordered back to the Motherland. In their stead, the Russian military ramped up the production of the Su-50 fighter-bomber. Originally reserved for only the most elite of fighter squadrons due to its high production costs, the 'Sokol' was now deployed in considerable numbers in order to provide close air support for missions that the Su-25 could no longer accomplish. It is armed with six powerful anti-tank missiles and its advanced stealth characteristics allow for covert intrusions into contested air space, making the Sokol the ideal plane for tank hunting and suppression of enemy air defences.

The Ka-68 was first sighted by a joint contingent of British and American forces in northern Germany in January 2049. Labled the 'Hellion' by the Western soldiers in a brief revival of the old NATO reporting name system, the new gunship appeared to be a successor to the Ka-50 'Hokum'. Chieftly fielded by the helicopter detachments of the Russian Air-Landing Forces, its function and combat performance appeared largely similar however unlike its predecessor, the Hellion can also be equipped with a new type of unguided 80mm rocket which contains a thermobaric charge. This allows the new helicopter to lay down a devastating barrage of incendiary rockets alongside its standard armament of Vikhr anti-tank missiles and two semi-rigid 30mm cannons.

[PiratesYarrr]

Nice, especially the new chopper. Will the A-10 Warthogs weapons remain the same but have an improved graphical effect?

[Knjaz.]

Now you know what happened to Frogfoot.

Before the "balance" discussion starts, few cents from me - As a fan of Russian faction and probably the "heaviest" Frogfoot user there was, I still fully supported that decision, because it opened a path for Russia to be rebalanced into what it is in 1.85. (speaking of crowd control here).

This post has been edited by Knjaz.: 5 Nov 2013, 11:44

[flyingpancake]

So if this means that everyone will get a SU 50, will Alexander still get his own fighter?

[Dangerman]

When I read the title from the main page, I guessed the update was called "Birds of Prety". Anyways those aircraft look nice espeically the Hellion, will the SU-50 only be Air-to-Ground and will there be a SU-50 variant for Aleksand or will he get something else as his main AA fighter? Also will Russia get other stuff that is good at crowd control?

This post has been edited by dangerman1337: 5 Nov 2013, 11:46

[Knjaz.]

When I read the title from the main page, I guessed the update was called "Birds of Prety". Anyways those aircraft look nice espeically the Hellion, will the SU-50 only be Air-to-Ground and be a variant of Aleksandr's SU-50 or will he get something else? Also will Russia get other stuff that is good at crowd control?

Now you know what happened to Frogfoot.

Before the "balance" discussion starts, few cents from me - As a fan of Russian faction and probably the "heaviest" Frogfoot user there was, I still fully supported that decision, because it opened a path for Russia to be rebalanced into what it is in 1.85. (speaking of crowd control here).

This post has been edited by Knjaz.: 5 Nov 2013, 11:43

[MARS]

Now that you've all seen the renders, here's what we did.

We removed the Su-25 for two reasons:
1. There was no feasible option for us to change it in such a way that it is no longer -essential- to the Russian game whilst at the same time useful enough to warrant the unlock
2. It was actually a legacy model from the old pre-SWR RotR, so we didn't see a point in making a new model of a plane that was gonna be removed anyway

So instead, we decided to make the Su-50/PAKFA available to ALL Russian Generals as a fast and stealthy tank killer. Not only does this add some nice flavour to Russia - which was so far quite lacking in the stealth department - but it also helped us find a distinct purpose for a plane that kinda had an identity crisis so far. According to the old plan, it would have just been a stealthy pseudo-Raptor for Aleksandr. Now, it is one of the most distinct ground attack planes in the game for all Russian Generals. This also allowed us to avoid another problem: If any Russian General would have gotten an exclusive plane, we would have had the exact same railroading situation as we had with the PAKFA; whenever you played that General, you would WANT to get the VVS lest you miss out on exclusive content. Now, all Russians get the same two badass planes in addition to helicopters that'll benefit from a major survivability upgrade. As a result, Russia can now legitimately win with a pure ground/gunship strategy while the VVS is arguably more useful in a situational sense, but optional. Now it is a nice, useful thing to have rather than an essential nobrainer that you absolutely need.

[flyingpancake]

Now that you've all seen the renders, here's what we did.

We removed the Su-25 for two reasons:
1. There was no feasible option for us to change it in such a way that it is no longer -essential- to the Russian game whilst at the same time useful enough to warrant the unlock
2. It was actually a legacy model from the old pre-SWR RotR, so we didn't see a point in making a new model of a plane that was gonna be removed anyway

So instead, we decided to make the Su-50/PAKFA available to ALL Russian Generals as a fast and stealthy tank killer. Not only does this add some nice flavour to Russia - which was so far quite lacking in the stealth department - but it also helped us find a distinct purpose for a plane that kinda had an identity crisis so far. According to the old plan, it would have just been a stealthy pseudo-Raptor for Aleksandr. Now, it is one of the most distinct ground attack planes in the game for all Russian Generals. This also allowed us to avoid another problem: If any Russian General would have gotten an exclusive plane, we would have had the exact same railroading situation as we had with the PAKFA; whenever you played that General, you would WANT to get the VVS lest you miss out on exclusive content. Now, all Russians get the same two badass planes in addition to helicopters that'll benefit from a major survivability upgrade. As a result, Russia can now legitimately with a pure ground/gunship strategy while the VVS is arguably more useful in a situational sense, but optional. Now it is a nice, useful thing to have rather than a cheap essential thing that you absolutely need.

Is the same thing gonna be the case for the genral exclusive Chinese fighter?

[MARS]

^ No, because a.) China doesn't have to spend a General Point to unlock its planes and b.) China is designed to make greater use of aircraft to support its ground assaults than Russia. As such, it is entirely acceptable for one of their Generals to have exclusive aircraft because it doesn't fundamentally change the way you play them.

[Nemanja]

Will at the end of day Alexandr get some sort of unique plane ?
I really love what you guys did to Hokum and that it is going to be another unit with fuel air based weapon.
Hate me for this,but this Su-50 skin doesn't give it a feel like it is part of regular Russian arsenal,it worked
for me when I had on my mind that it is Alexandr's unit and I know that it is stealth but it still somehow jumps out.

[MARS]

Aleksandr - or any other Russian General - will NOT get a unique aircraft because that would take us right back to the situation where people would unlock the VVS to pre-empt a possible disadvantage, not because they actually -want- to use it. Personally, I wouldn't mind a texture update on the Sokol (maybe make it look more like the splinter paintjob we've seen on the actual T-50) but I can verify that it looks quite good in game next to the other Russian units. It's one of those cases where the render doesn't do it justice.

[flyingpancake]

Aleksandr - or any other Russian General - will NOT get a unique aircraft because that would take us right back to the situation where people would unlock the VVS to pre-empt a possible disadvantage, not because they actually -want- to use it. Personally, I wouldn't mind a texture update on the Sokol (maybe make it look more like the splinter paintjob we've seen on the actual T-50) but I can verify that it looks quite good in game next to the other Russian units. It's one of those cases where the render doesn't do it justice.

How about a black paint job to match with the berkut and give more the idea of a stealth plane?

[Nemanja]

Aleksandr - or any other Russian General - will NOT get a unique aircraft because that would take us right back to the situation where people would unlock the VVS to pre-empt a possible disadvantage, not because they actually -want- to use it. Personally, I wouldn't mind a texture update on the Sokol (maybe make it look more like the splinter paintjob we've seen on the actual T-50) but I can verify that it looks quite good in game next to the other Russian units. It's one of those cases where the render doesn't do it justice.

Thanks for clearing that out,but did you mean airplane by aircraft ?
Any chance of Alexandr getting some crazy helicopter ?

[MARS]

Black looks great on the Berkut (because it's only ever been seen in black) but different paintjobs make planes more distinct, which is why we differentiated them. Besides, if black somehow denotes a stealth plane, we'd have to change the Berkut to a different colour to avoid confusing colour symbolism. That said, the exclusive MiG replacement of Mau might as well be black to set it apart from the regular planes.

@ Simeone
By aircraft, I meant fixed-wing, runway based jets. Aleksandr is entirely eligible for an exclusive helicopter, as is Zhukov for that matter.

[TheSneakyGLA]

So the Hellion works like a flying buratino with AT missiles and 30 mm cannons?

[Nemanja]

Black looks great on the Berkut (because it's only ever been seen in black) but different paintjobs make planes more distinct, which is why we differentiated them. Besides, if black somehow denotes a stealth plane, we'd have to change the Berkut to a different colour to avoid confusing colour symbolism. That said, the exclusive MiG replacement of Mau might as well be black to set it apart from the regular planes.

Well they would probably opt for different paint job if Berkut went into serial production IRL,but meh...Game.

@ Simeone
By aircraft, I meant fixed-wing, runway based jets. Aleksandr is entirely eligible for an exclusive helicopter, as is Zhukov for that matter.

I like sound of that.

[Rohan]

I personally agree with MARS as the airport general point unlock for me was a must have as I saw the frogfoots to be a vital requirement of the Russia army. The tesla and emergency recovery unlocks kind of became a second glance thing.

And as far as the update goes, The Sokol looks very cool. I like the white snowy color of the aircraft which gives it a nice russian theme.

This post has been edited by EIGHTYTWO: 5 Nov 2013, 12:41

[MARS]

So the Hellion works like a flying buratino with AT missiles and 30 mm cannons?

It works exactly like the current Ka-50 Hokum + a new manual ability that allows it to fire a quick barrage of Buratino-style thermobaric rockets.

[Svea Rike]

Now that is one, badass helicopter. Not that I am an avid user of the VVS power, I still have to agree on the decision because constant attacks from those bloody Frogfoots pissed me off!

[TheSneakyGLA]

It works exactly like the current Ka-50 Hokum + a new manual ability that allows it to fire a quick barrage of Buratino-style thermobaric rockets.

Will they be able to clear buildings?

[MARS]

Probably not, but they do pack some neat splash damage against exposed ground units. The thermobaric rockets will require an upgrade which will be merged with the one that currently enables the thermobaric bombs on Hunchbacks.

[X1Destroy]

While I do love the new Hellion and A10, but when I read the cmts here......

NO!!!!!!!!!!!! MY SU-25!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The biggest shock ever!

I didn't like it because it was strong, but because of its iconic look....



This post has been edited by X1Destroy: 5 Nov 2013, 15:07

[__CrUsHeR]

First I would like to say that the new models were incredibly beautiful bringing a freshness to the game.

I like the name Sokol for tactical bomber, his proposal also seems interesting contradicting the extreme brutal Frogfoot logic to something more technical/technological, in a way Russia exchanged a 'Aurora style' by a 'Nighthawk style' bomber right? The positive side of this change is that the Aurora became a bomber increasingly exclusive to the USA, however takes some of the braightness that had the Nighthawk - although it is not a big problem. Perhaps the Frogfoot could become a replacement for the Boris generic MiGs since it is an iconic aircraft and indeed appropriate to structures obliteration.

The new K-68 Hellion follows the same vibe of a increasingly modern Russia, I loved the idea of ​​an exclusive hability based on barrage however it would not be something redundant already that the Hind has similar capabilities with their rocketpods?

This post has been edited by __CrUsHeR: 5 Nov 2013, 15:20

[Basilisx]

These are some good looking aircraft, wow.
Too bad to see the frogfoot go, it was fun while it lasted...at least if I wasn't at the receiving end

How strong is the SU-50 going to be against ground AA units ?
I'm asking, because it sounds to me that Russias new doctrine will be something like going in with Stealthplanes to take the AA out and rain hell with the Hinds and the new Hellions. All while steamrolling with a tankforce.

Does the A10 strike stay the same with an updated model or can we expect some eyecandy, too ?

Looking forward for the things the ECA and GLA will receive and for Futureweapons 2

[Comr4de]

Does the A10 strike stay the same with an updated model or can we expect some eyecandy, too ?

Yes you can expect the roaring sound of A10's as well as some graphical updates to boom time.

Also in regards of the Hellion. It's basically going to be your splash damage dealer. What we're trying to do is basically buff up some of the Russians helicopter arsenal to stand out from the other factions and especially since they'll be using them as a standard tactic.