stuart666

Yeah, get the Nevada map. Its an outstanding piece of work. Credit to the author of this campaign, its brilliant. It really got the best out of the Harrier and made it shine. Thank you for your effort.

Only tried the first mission, but its clear already this is a great piece of work. It really gave a vibe of playing that old Fleet Defender game from the 90's. Keep up the good work.

Its certainly draggier at low altitude. Before I could keep it in 15AOA and go around without burner. You cant do it now, in fact, even in burner you sometimes have to slacken off. I dont mind. It making me a better pilot for when it gets fixed. Then there will be death and mayhem on the servers.:pilotfly:

I was playing with OR without a restart, which may have accounted for it. It was certainly after the OR update, not any F14 one.

There was an update on Oculus Rift, which I figured was the source of the trouble. Its not awful, but it lost something.

Thanks for this great server, I rarely go anywhere else when I want a dust up now. Its a first rate place to practice ACM. Is there any possibility you might do another server dedicated to WW2 combat? Many has been the time I was flying my Spitfire, wishing we had a similar server to this one just to pull some G's and let off some lead.

Altogether now, 'WATCH THE MOUNTAINS!' :D

I tend to agree. I killed an F15 online, despite the F14 currently suffering the ball and chain from excessive drag. Im not a great pilot, but the other one was complete pants. :) I think the A model was probably underclassed compared to the F15. But you can hear numerous accounts online (Not least from Okie and others) that the USAF was shocked when they started going up against B models. That doesn't necessarily mean that it was suddenly superior to the F15, but it does suggest that any advantage the F15 had was suddenly great reduced. Suddenly they had to really work for a living.

The Irony is, that 13 years on, the environment the Tomcat was designed to fight in, is back, with the increased focus on Chinese Long Range Bombers. The only difference is they are now trying to figure out how to make the Hornet fulfill the Tomcat role, and I dont think its going to work. They were even exploring hanging SM2 missiles on a Superhornet to try and create an ersatz Tomcat/Phoenix capability. THAT is going to be fun to watch.

Much easier for Heatblur to develop thought. I couldnt blame them if they did that.

Thats an interesting idea, thank you, ill try it.

Oh I do, in TWS mode. And not one of them has yet scored a hit, largely because halfway to the target the player either wittingly or unwittingly notches and I lose lock. PDSTT is one option, but as best I can tell if you do it at any range, they will certainly pick up on it and most definately WILL notch you. Cant say for sure ive tried Phoenix in ACM mode or not. I THINK I did, against a maneuvering F15. And it still took an Aim9 to finish him. I get a lot of kills with Phoenix against AI. Against multiplayer with guys in F18's? Not so much. Ive got more kills with Sparrow, which is really saying something.

Oh I dont doubt you are right. I guess im prepared for a step down from a porche to a Volkswagen now, as one guy put it.

I look at it from the point of view, the relative lack of power (because its either power or drag) is going to be a good primer for the A model when we get it. I dont fly high so much, in multiplayer dominated by Aim9X and Aim120 there is no point. But I did manage to get it in the slot and stick the nose above the horizon, put it in 15AOA and burner, and brought it around to surprise an f15 that was all over me. I would agree that going vertical makes no sense at the moment. But in truth, im not sure it really makes sense against F18s armed with Aim9X anyway. Even a Mig29 got me that way. I have to admit, ive not been flying it of late, simply because its such hard work. But it can be done, certainly against unimaginative pilots.

I dont think its that bad. Ive killed multiple F15's and F18's in multiplayer with it. That said its lost something at the bottom end. You used to be able to put it in mill power and 15 AOA and go around like a merry go round all day. Now, you really have to stick it in burner, and it bleeds energy fairly easy. Thinking about it, when you stuck your wings back, it was pretty reluctant to accelerate as well as it once did. Still done the best with this one than any other play in multiplayer. I think the radar and the RIO still helps.

Incidentally, is there any chance of getting the Hawk missile for the Iranian F14? I accept it would be a lot of work, but if the following is any guide, they actually seem to have used it, and it wasnt 'for show' as many critics believe. Rest of the video is well worth watching too. Thats 2 pilots who scored 2 kills in the USN/Libyan engagements, and an Iranian who shot down 2 migs with one Phoenix missile.....

If they model the IR pod as unserviceable, Id be happy with that. After all, even the Iranians dont seem to have used it, and they somehow managed to reverse engineer damn near everything else. Interesting thing, Im working on the Tamiya 1-32 scale model, and that only had the IR pod modelled. I guess they must have done the moulds a LONG time ago.

If you wind it back to about 220knots, the B is pretty good on fuel consumption. If only guzzles it when you want to go anywhere fast, which is fair enough. Thats what tankers are for. :) It would be nice to have more multiplayer servers for period aircraft. I tend to find it a bit irritating ot have to fight against F18's all the time. When its just sidewinders, its no problem, but Aim120's just change the whole picture. I dont find the Phoenix a match for it.

Im probably very strange, but im looking forward to the iranian A model. I like the livery for one thing, and who doesnt want to be the bad boys in multiplayer? :D

Ive personally not felt this problem myself, the only times ive pulled the wings off have been gratuitous over g (often when im about to go into a hillside). But if it keeps happening, it makes me wonder if they have made the wings rolling too sensitive in g loading, ie, a fairly trivial amount is being interpreted as a full roll. Just as a matter of interest, are all you who keep having this happen adjusted the axis at all? Ive got them set at default. Might be worth trying to see if the problem goes away.

From what I read in the F14A manual, the G limit on the wings in roll was 5.3G with SAS off. Its 6.5 in pitch. Which supports the idea, if you introduce roll into a pitch, you are going to have issues.

Its not a less important task, I just find it a less interesting task than air combat. Which is after all, what they built the aircraft for. If I want to bomb something, I go crank up the Harrier. Which if nothing else, has a far wider ordnance selection than the Tomcat ever had. Its down to personal taste. I want a cold war warbird so I can go to toe with Mig 21's and Mig23's. I cant see as easy a matchup with a D. Well, unless its the mythical Mig28.....

Its fairly clear (if the Osprey book is any guide) the F14A's contribution to Iran fending off Iraq was far more significant than we believed at the time. Its presumably part of the reason for the reluctance in getting rid of aircraft that must be an absolute nightmare to maintain. As far as the USN A model, I like the cold war. If you want a cold war maritime fighter, you really are down to the F14A. The B arrived pretty much when the cold war was winding to a close. So if you want to model the 1970's or the majority of the 1980's, you need the A. And I dont think its going to be that much of a step down from the B. At low altitude (whcih is the majority of what we are going to be doing on multiplayer) it accelerated faster than the B. And if you are any kind of skilled pilot, the relative lack of power isnt going to make that much difference. From the last patch we are down to using burner to maintain turns in the B anyway. If you listen to Okie on the podcast, he actually thought the new engines were a waste of money. If you flew it right, maintained the energy, it wasnt a problem. id like to be as a good a virtual pilot as I can to fly it like that. A D, yes, it would be nice to model for all tastes. But does it offer anything a hornet doesnt other than twice the fuel? Not really. I gave up on flying the Hornet because I found digital flight models boring. The F14 is not that. Why would I want to step up to a D and throw away what is probably the most interesting thing about the F14? Just my opinion and respecting yours by the way. If only there was enough time to cater for all our tastes.

I want the F14A. Partly for the challenge of flying it, mainly because you can wear classy schemes like this and be historically authentic. I dont get the fixation on the D. They didnt make that many, they didnt stay in service that long, and they didnt do anything significant but drop bombs. Yes, in an ideal world, it would be nice. Would I pay money for something that doesnt really do anything more significant than a B? No.

I guess part of the problem here is that the late model Phoenix had technology borrowed from it for the development the Aim120. I would imagine that would make things like command guidance very problematic to acquire.