Banzaiib

As a designer of user interfaces and back end systems... providing an option for a user that breaks the functionality of the product will result in users immediately selecting that option and breaking the entire program, plagues of frogs, and women turning into pillars of salt as they flee the carnage, dogs and cats living in harmony, it's chaos out there... and fighter pilots are no exception to this rule... this is why i suspect that depending on the weapon type, the appropriate fuze options should be displayed or not displayed, instead of all of them... but I could be wrong. I don't make weapons software :)

I've killed a fighter at 100nm with the 54Amk60, btw. :) Both of us supersonic and at 35k ft+ I've also killed fighters at 30+ miles with the AIM-7M... same deal. If they don't maneuver, they're toast. (it really helps if you turn on your RWR in a multiplayer server, btw) Also, I'm very interested in your data regarding notch performance and if you find any difference between the tracking ability of the 54A vs the 54C. I figure about 15 - 30 shots is a significant (statistically speaking) number, but 3000 is a lot man! Can't wait to see your report and see how things evolve.

and the documents will remain classified as long as Iran flies 14's.

says who? Wags said it should be ready in June... that's the beginning of summer... now you're saying it's 3 months behind?

he means he yanked on the stick too hard and it broke apart...

Then why is it an option?

100% this... it's like at work when someone reads the first line of an email and then responds without looking at the whole thing or the attachments...

I heard that too... not too sure about the accuracy of that though.

Aspect matters so much... and you didn't mention that at all. Not only that, but aspect typically changes mid flight... and the missiles have different flight / intercept profiles depending on range and aspect... so there's no simple answer. If you want to directly compare the performance missiles, you might look at drag, thrust, weight, and burn time (ISP) of the motors in the R-27ER, AIM-7, AIM-120C, AIM-54Amk60 and AIM-54C. What you'll see is, the AIM-54Amk60 has a 30 second burn time, which means it gains waaaay more energy than all of the above, so naturally, it has longer range. But comparing ranges requires you to declare more of the firing situation than just "max range". I've hit SU-27's at more than 80 miles with the AIM-54Amk60... i've also completely missed them at less than 10 miles because they maneuvered.

You don't play multiplayer, do you? (there's no way to do that in MP).

I have noticed a huge change in missile guidance since the last patch prior to the big F-14 update... and quite frankly, missile guidance is a joke right now... it's insanely easy to notch all missiles, even 120's at less than 5 miles. I was following (slightly below) some some AI SU-25T's last night and fired 54's at them at 5 miles... they just pulled into a tight turn / dive, and the missile instantly went stupid. I never lost lock, by the way... did this several more times and tried AIM-7's with the same result...

I thought ED was re-working the entire FLIR visualization...

lol keep believin' this...

time = distance / velocity (assuming no acceleration) figure out the average flight speed of your JSOW and the distance you want to release them, then you can figure out when you should fire the HARMs.

I'll pass.

If HB can come that close to hitting the NATOPS numbers, then the F-14 FM is light years ahead of the F-18 FM. The F-18 FM is a mess in comparison... especially on take off and recovery around the boat. Back on topic, what else do you need to know to make the decision?

:(

The F-14 is a crazy hot chick you met while skydiving on your 21st birthday. The F-18 is that girl next door you've always had a crush on. Or insert your favorite gender wherever you want... it is 2019 after all... but that's my analogy.

I don't think you get it. Having an AI do the RIO job is less realistic, in its current implementation, than having a human do it. Jester is just a pass through for commands from the pilot, lets be honest... and if I have to control jester to get him to do his job, then I'd rather just do his job. The net outcome of his performance is less realistic than having a pilot just manipulate the pod and radar. It just is. Jester neglects to perform the basic RIO functions, which is not realistic, and prevents the pilot from doing his job. If i could tell Jester to raise the radar up about 10 degrees, instead of 30 at a time, via a jester command would this really be any different than just slewing the radar directly from a button on my hotas? How is this any different? To be clear, this is not a negative toward HB. I know they are working on Jester and I look forward to the improvements int the future.

I'm saying that controlling the LANTIRN from the front seat is not realistic. BUT, controlling the LANTIRN (and radar for that matter) from the front seat is MORE realistic than having Jester do it. Since this is a simulation, not real life, we can only get closer and closer to realism, which means the more realistic solution is generally better. By your standard, QuiGon, there should be no singleplayer F-14 flying at all because it's not realistic to fly the 14 without a human RIO. And since that's not the case, having some, direct control over RIO functionality in the pilot's seat is a more realistic solution than having an AI fumble around and not do the very basic job of slewing the POD and radar.

Thanks for this! Love it when real pilots post about their experience!

I broke down and got the mod for the 14. It's amazeballs, but the LITENING pod is not 100% complete either. Area track and point track break a lot of the time... just straight up refuse to track ground points... but i have so few controls mapped to my HOTAS as a 14 pilot, that I welcomed the extra POD controls. 100% worth getting... be warned, thought, they may take it away, and that'll be devastating... it's that good. I buddy laze for 18's ALL the time now.

1. What is SP? (i prefer bandits with brains) 2. This is the point of the OP, that you shouldn't have to do this. 3. Wut? My ask of HB is simple... just reduce the amount of elevation Jester inputs so the volumes overlap... until Jester gets better at being a RIO.