Swordsman422

Agreed. Survival should be incentivized at some level, but at the same time I'm wary of it becoming an EVE Online situation where a player can end the day behind where they started it. That's going to be a tightrope walk.

Since I only have FC3 at the moment and no other maps yet, I'll probably drop the F/A-18 into my pattern flying mission at Krasnodar to learn the flight characteristics of this jet and enjoy some touch-and-goes before anything else.

Nah, don't teach them bad habits. Better that they have to fight hard to get you and learn from every loss and win. That's how they'll get more competitive as you also get more competitive. Make them work for their victories as you are working for yours. That's how they'll know the Tomcat can be beat in MP. They earned it. At the end of a lot of MP scenarios, there should be a LOT of guys that go home because they used the tactics right even if it didn't resort in them getting a kill. At least they got to fly home having been smart than walk home because they were dumb. That may not be the most exciting thing, not seeing explosions everywhere and watching your kill count rack up on the scoreboard, but these kinds of scenarios aren't and shouldn't be about that. A turkey shoot on a zerg rush stops being fun after a while. It should be about your package getting in smart, hitting their assigned target, and getting back out without the fan blades becoming totally covered in fecal matter, or sneaking down low in the weeds, blowing by the escorting fighters, disrupting the mission effectiveness of a strike package, and vanishing before the escorts can respond.

Exactly. Why in the world would someone try to take on a long-range, all weather, BVR missile truck like the F-14 in a short-legged, day-only, WVR dogfighter out in the open on the Tomcat's terms? Why complain when you've handed the guy every advantage you possibly can? Keep in the weeds, use the terrain, and wait until he gets impatient and saunters over to your turf to try to fight by your rules, then pounce him and put him in the bag. Getting impatient is gonna get you killed. Fighting another jet on that jet's terms is gonna get you killed. Fly smart and wait until he makes a mistake. If he never comes to get you, then tough noogies, it's gonna have to be a draw. Survive the engagement and shoot something another day. This isn't Air Quake. Educate yourself on some tactics and use them. "But I want a turn-and-burn dogfight." Go to a guns-only server if that's what really calls. Well planned and executed engagements in a missile environment are gonna last seconds with the other guy not ever knowing what hit him. A MiG-21 climbing out of a valley and knocking down a passing F-14 that was too impatient stick to his own turf and use his own strengths is exactly such a trap. If done right, it's not gonna devolve into a turning engagement. You'll be at his 6 O'clock low in the blind spot putting an R60 up the tail pipe of your choice and it'll be over that quick. And you're gonna feel really good about yourself for taking down the guy that thought his 100-mile AWG-9 was the battlespace king. I grew up around Tomcats, so this module is a day one purchase for me. I've been waiting for it since Fleet Defender stopped being current. And if I get bagged by a guy in a WVR fighter because I gave all my jet's advantages away, I'll virtually shake the guy's hand for a fight well played.

Thanks for the attempt, Racefuel. No, that really doesn't help. Lol. But I appreciate it.

That's unfortunate, Atooyi. The F-14 fan in me hurts to hear it. But at least these birds can keep flying. I really wish the US and Iran were on friendlier terms. It sickens me to think that the soda can I'm drinking from might have been a Tomcat once and got shredded because we were worried about where the parts might have ended up. As to the issue of how balanced this would be, the only way I can think that banning the Phoenix would work out and still even be kinda fair is to just nix all the ARH missiles. It won't be at all realistic, but it's an option. I'd have the same complaints going up against an Su-33 with an R-77 while I only get Sparrows as he might have going up against my F-14 armed with an AIM-54. Before we really know the effects, it's gonna take the release of this module. We'll know how things shake out once that happens. I'm not surprised an MP ban is being tossed about by some, but I am disappointed.

Cool as it would be to have them, Iranian Tomcats were F-14A-90-GRs manufactured in the late 1970s. The F-14A release will probably be an F-14A-125-GR to start with. The difference in capability would be notable. But yeah, I'd support having them eventually.

I don't know for sure, but I suspect that after lofting the missile sets up on a best glide profile to extend range with minimal required steering, then performs its harder maneuvers when in terminal flight.

A Tornado would rock! I'd be quite happy with an IDS or a GR1.

It's not about the capabilities of the weapon system. It's how you employ it or prepare for it that matters. The MiG-29 is by all accounts one of the best ACM aircraft in the world, but it's been shown in training fights between A-model F-14s and German MiG-29Gs that the F-14 can actually beat the Fulcrum in a duel if the pilot flies it smart. Are we gonna see MiG-29 players that only rely on the capabilities of their machine to carry the day come and complain when a skilled and talented Tomcat player bags them in a gunzo duel because he flew his jet well and took advantage of the MiG's weaknesses while playing to the Tomcat's strengths? We can't all beg for realism and then whine when that realism doesn't always benefit us. The F-14 with a player that lacks the understanding to properly employ his weapons is gonna mean bang-all on an MP server against other players who know how to fly their jets well and understand the weaknesses of the F-14/AIM-54 combo and how to take advantage of them. If me in my Su-27 gets bagged by a smart player in an F-14 that knows how to use his weapons, I won't feel bad at all, because I'll understand how hard that guy worked to shoot me down. Banning is only going to create bitterness and resentment when the end point of DCS is to have fun.

That's unfortunate. Probably without the -54, not many F-14 flyers will show up there. The F-14's other weapons options are rather limited, and the -54 is its only Fox 3 weapon. The Sparrow and Sidewinder missiles are SARH and IR respectively, so instead of an F-14 having some advantage over Su-33, MiG-29S, and other jets with an ARH missile, it will instead be a generation behind in weaponeering for the sake of "balance" and "fairness." So the F-14 guys will probably avoid these servers because they'd be at the same disadvantage other aircraft would be against them on the servers where the -54 isn't banned. I can understand no one likes to lose. And no one likes to be faced with an enemy weapon system that is so powerful. How do you think the Soviets felt? Or the Iraqis? The more mature reaction here is not to ban a weapon or airplane as if you are banning a cheater, but to do what the F-14's real world opponents did and develop tactics to defeat it.

I don't really care which between these two modules comes out first. I just hope they are staggered so that I'm not overwhelmed and my heart explodes or something.

Ugh, that's right. F-14Bs got them integrated earlier. It was the Ds that didn't get them until '03 because of test issues with the D04. VF-11 made the first combat drop of a JDAM from an F-14 in March of 2002. Regardless, JDAM integration stands outside the original release timeframe for Heatblur's Tomcats, but we'll probably get it eventually.

I hope there is some level of training missions, especially for LGMs and LGBs against moving targets. As it is with the A-10A, I practice hitting moving targets with AGM-65Ds and Hs by trolling along hardballs popping buses and trains, which are always nice and hot against the background. In combat though, it's hard to tell tanks from the environment even in thermal. Just as often I put a missile into a house or parked car as I do an enemy vehicle.

Tweaked properly, the AIM-54 will just be one more threat to consider and defend against, just like every other missile. There will probably be a few folks who whine that either the F-14/Phoenix combo is too OP and others who will complain that their AIM-54s aren't as effective as they'd hoped, so they can't kill literally everything from 100 miles out. Some MP sessions will probably ban either the missile or the jet for some reason or another, but after the dust settles it'll just be one more threat system to plan against or asset to integrate into the battle order.

JDAM was added to the F-14B and F-14D fleet in 2003 just prior to the OIF kickoff. The stores computer had to be updated with a data tape. The tapes were limited and were in a beta state upon release, kinda rushed out but it was deemed urgent if the F-14s were going to have a major role in OIF. A year earlier a VF-103 jet nearly severed an oil pipeline with a misguided LGB and demand for the F-14 over the Iraqi SNFZ just about vanished for a while. Only the F-14B and D got JDAM. F-14As soldiered on without it until retired.

I think what they mean with "mid-90's F-14B" is the post-Bombcat LTS capable jet but pre-Upgrade with the DFCS, and definitely pre-40K LTS. For the simmer, I don't think any of us will notice the difference in flight between a DFCS and non-DFCS F-14B, unless you have a force-feedback flight stick that is strong enough to need you to pump iron to fly it. The depot upgrades took a while, with VF-102 getting the first batch in 1998. VF-41 and VF-14's A-model jets didn't get DFCS until 1999, with the last one finished literally days before they left for deployment. The LTS laser was initially limited to 25K feet AGL or it would arc and short out. Right before OIF kicked off, a lot of the F-14 fleet got upgraded with a 40K feet LTS. Bs and Ds also got the JDAM data tape to carry GPS weapons. For an ever-evolving platform, 1988-1996 isn't a bad target period. It was a good time to be a Tomcat guy, with the jet getting a new lease on life, and it was pretty busy performing not just the fleet defense/air superiority and recon roles, but taking over the precision strike and CAS role from the retiring A-6 Intruder. For Heatblur, it seems like a good target zone for the F-14B, with the coding and development done on an LTS-capable F-14B without having to push into the post-Upgrade before release. They can grow from here with the Sparrowhawk HUD, 40K LTS, and JDAM more quickly than it they'd planned to release an early F-14B covering 1988-1994. If they continue development, then we should have the final configuration F-14Bs in a few months to a year, with our appetites whetted by flying what we've already gotten.

Wrong type of Hornet and a terrible movie, but maybe I'll play this one.

Considering the Jester AI and the Forrestal-class carrier being developed with this module, I've got fingers crossed for the Navy/USMC F-4 Phantom phamily, the F-4B/J/N/S. I'm also hoping for the A-6 Intruder, A, B, E, and TRAM, with an AI KA-6D to plug into. And maybe a new terrain to fly these jets over. Somewhere hot, green, and rainy.

Now that we are looking at LTS capability out of the gate, I'm seriously excited. I was gonna buy it anyway, but I was going to hope for precision strike at some point. The LTS-capable F-14B-150-GR is pretty much my favorite Tomcat variant. I hope eventually we'll get LTS-capable F-14As as well. Being able to recreate VF-41's work developing the SCAR and FAC-A missions for the Tomcat or VF-154's detachment to Al Udeid AB would be a truly cool sim experience. I also wonder if we'll eventually be able to buddy lase for other units, guiding LGBs and LGMs fired by allied aircraft. In OEF and OIF, sometimes F-14s filling the FAC-A role didn't expend all their own bombs because they were so busy lasing targets for allied jets.

There really aren't many Tomcat liveries that look bad, but I'll limit my choices to the time period and aircraft we are supposedly going to get on release. Assuming the F-14A is a 125-GR, I'd have to start with VF-213 right around the Desert Storm period. All Light Ghost Grey with the lion and stars on the rudder. VF-41, VF-142, VF-114, VF-32, and VF-211 all from that same period are excellent schemes. Liveries that work for a living. VF-103 from the '86 cruise looks good, too. For the mid 90's F-14B, VF-143's 1994 livery is outstanding. So is VF-103's clubleaf, VF-142's final years, and VF-32's Operation Desert Fox. Outside this period, pretty much all the 2000's Last Cruise liveries are on my favorites list. VF-143 never had a livery I disliked. Nor did -213 or -211. I'm not terribly picky with F-14s though. I like just about anything except black tails and bones.

Just stopped? And left it at that? Ouch... Oh, well. Y'know, the F-14 was a hell of a fighter and interceptor, and later in life an excellent CAS, precision strike, and FAC(A) aircraft. She can kill the enemy's airplanes and move his mud with the best of them. Who decided that she wasn't worthy of a new flight sim of her own?

Hey, guys. A while back, I saw a thread on Gys' F-14D model, and it looked really good. However, I haven't heard of any updates in 2 months or so and haven't seen any further news of it. Did I miss something? I know asking for a MOD update is bad form, but I did a search of the forums and came up with two threads about it ending in June. Is there no further news? Thanks, and sorry for breaking form, but I just gotta know.