IronMike

Thank you for your feedback. I will see if I can make the hinds a bit dumber, take away their flares, etc.

On top of that TWS was not really used as an attack mode. RL is vastly different from DCS. First of all you have an entire flight section, your flight, AWACS and all kinds of integrated support, so the scenario "me alone against 6" is highly unlikely. Secondly, anyone ran from an F14 nail or spike, most of the time. The deterrent from the F14 was so high that just being there was usually enough, and lastly, PDSTT was a much more reliable mode to attack, with your wingmen sorting targets and the entire flight group backing you up, you would not need to launch a phoenix in TWS. Your opponent also cares much more about his life, and getting spiked/launched at would usually result in bugging out, which IRL is as good as shooting down. And also also, the US would rather destroy an enemy's air force on the ground than in the air, so even during large scale conflicts like Desert Storm or Iraqui Freedom, etc, skirmishes in the air would be the rare exception, most of the enemy's air capability got destroyed nicely parked on their airfields, before even taking off.

Seeker head information is rather scarce, but in general it would go active, or if you will, start actively looking for its target at the predefined range, as appropriately selected for the target size. So for example, if you shoot at a fighter and have it set to large, it might not go active at all, because it would not be in the correct range from the target to pick it up, but also if set too small, it may not pick it up. The crew would have to judge which mode to use for the target at hand appropriately to increase its chances to go active. To my understanding this is even more involved, with different things to consider, but as mentioned, such seeker head modelling depth is not present in DCS. What it definitely was not, is an "I decide when I want to surprise my target" mode, like some use it in DCS.

Hotfix is now live. Thank you all for your kind patience!

We are always open for synergies. The rest would be for an interested 3rd party developer to contact us and we'd sit down and talk it through - in private ofc.

Thank you, Sindar, the same to you! We wish you all the best in the New Year!

Thank you for the report! Can anyone else confirm this please? @Silhou please be so kind and keep an eye on this and track it. Thank you!

Dear all, we would like to take the opportunity and thank you for your kind and tremendous support! You are simply the best community there is and we could not feel more blessed with all the enthusiasm you showed us and the very kind patience you give us - we do not take it for granted, and we take the responsibility it puts on us very seriously. 2023 has been an overall great year, despite some shortcomings and delays, we had hoped to have the early F-14A out by now, for example, but our promises to you of course remain and we will not stop working hard and doing our best until we fulfilled all of them. With the F-4 on the horizon - and many great things cooking in the background - we hope that we can up our game even more during 2024 and to finally also make good on the still remaining items for all our modules. What remains to say is that we wish you all a Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year 2024. We wish you, your families and loved ones peace, health, prosperity and success in whatever you do, and thank you for being a part of this journey - a journey that we feel has many new and great stops ahead for all of us in the future. Thank you all from the entire Heatblur Team. Onwards and upwards! (screenshot: Yae Sakura, from last year's christmas screenshot competition.)

Hey, a steam pre-order will come, but closer to release. This is because steam has a few requirements like setting a release date, which we cannot do just yet. But it will come. Please give our very best regards to your father, we're looking very much forward for him to experience the F-4 in DCS. If you want PM me, and you could give your father if you like some kind of gift voucher, for which I would be happy to write you a personal message from us if you like.

Wait, I thought it was out already... My apologies, pre-Christmas stress is getting the better of me. But yes, a hotfix is incoming. I adjusted the thread title to avoid confusion.

Only in the A, not in the C. The AI will however cheat, as they start defending the missile before it goes active, when set to small. Additionally target size is a DCS-ism - irl it is different, as it would have to be set correctly to "where the missile is most likely to see the target itself", and if set wrongly could lead to the missile not going active on the target, missing it (as in not seeing it) etc. However this depth of seeker modelling is not present in DCS.

Dear all, our apologies the changes only make it in now as they did not get pulled for the original patch by accident. The major addition of course is the TARPS pod - which for now is only a visual model. Later we plan on implementing some very basic/ rudimentary gameplay for it. With this we would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, and of course, as always, would like to thank you for your continued support and kind feedback. Your Heatblur Team DCS F-14 Tomcat by Heatblur Simulations NEW: Added TARPS pod for both F-14A and F-14B (visual model only) - gameplay features to follow NEW: Added boarding ladder to static and AI aircraft. Added TARPS loadouts. Adjusted loadout restrictions for TARPS pod. Fixed broken normals on both -A and -B

Even if the track is lost, it still gets commands from the launching platform as long as the track is still extrapolated. It likely should stop lofting - though I am not sure on this one - but barring malfunctions it should not just head out into space.

It's the time to impact counter, from shot to impact. Pitbull is when the timer starts blinking, which in DCS due to how active missiles are modeled will be at 10nm range from the target.

Well, actually... One of our SMEs shared this story with us: Now, of course I must add that this particular behavior in DCS is a bug, and not modelled on purpose, but funnily enough still is realistic. That said, having it as a bug vs having it as a particulary modelled behavior is not acceptable ofc, and we will continue to hunt the bug. But the point remains: the phoenix is an older missile that even when given all the love and care in the world and being handheld as much as you can, will still display quirks one has to simply content with. This will remain even when all the bugs have been squished.

Well, checklists are considered part of the manual, ofc, but sometimes taking with a NATOPS etc if needed would also happen, or other reading materials - remember the famous pic from BIO reading the Tailhook Association Magazine, etc. Additionally the checklists were far more than just a few cards you could clip on the kneeboard. Gabby for example tells how during training he was iirc at George, where they would be scheduled to fly 40hrs in an F-4C, 40 in a D and 40 in an E. But the C could be taken, the D had an issue and the E was the replacement jet, so they had to carry the checklists for all 3 jets every time not knowing which they would get, and it was a pack as thick as the Gutenberg bible in the end. And I am not sure if this applies for fighters, too, but in civil aviation for example it is FAA regulation that the AFM is on board during operation, etc. So overall, not an uncommon practice.

Real pilots do though.

The pilot wasn't killable before, which we fixed. ATM he is a bit too killable if you get hit in the front area of the aircraft. For example, you shouldn't die from taking an r60 to the rear, etc. We will improve the pilot's hitboxes in the future. But yes, you can now die and get incapacitated much more easily.

Pitbull is based on range, hence the time depends on the range you fired from.

Yes, they will be improved. But some disconnect will remain if a player maneuvers erratically or too fast during a call start, that can displace the bandit by any amount of degrees and aspect while the call is still happening. That all happens in half a second. A human would recognize that, pause, and then update his call. Whether this level of intelligence will be possible for 2.0, or rather 3.0, we'll have to see.

Very likely, this trigger has been confirmed to work by several folks.

Roger, but seeing how hard it was to acquire the necessary info for the aim54, I doubt it was easier for the r33. In other words, I would have no idea how accurate or inaccurate they are, ofc leaning towards being accurate to give ED the benefit of doubt, naturally. But at the same time, they cannot be compared really, except "similar size, purpose and distance."

Your losing lock in STT all the time? Just for clarification, there is no lock in TWS. Do you mean you keep losing TWS tracks, or PDSTT or PSTT locks?

Thank you for your kind words, and thank you for not treating it like an AMRAAM. Who would have thought? It works if you treat it like a phoenix.

Those missiles cannot be compared, for one, for the other R-33 is an older missile from times before in DCS, (unless I missed ED updating it).