backspace340

Definitely beta first, everything always goes to beta first.

Beamscanner was saying elsewhere that LTWS isn't good enough for a firing solution (as it doesn't update quickly enough) - assume shots will need to be taken in TWS or STT. Assuming you've soft locked a target in LTWS (designated as L&S, which hopefully we'll get on the 13th), it should switch into those modes automatically when you pull the trigger. Normally I think it'd switch to STT for the AIM-7 and TWS for the 120, but if we don't have TWS when we get LTWS I imagine we'll switch to STT for the 120.

So much wrong here - pre-purchase opened on October 8th, 5 months to the day so not quite 'almost a year'. Heatblur aren't making the F-16, so it's nothing to do with them when it gets teased.

Usually it's afternoon UTC - 1200-1600 or so.

Wags has mentioned JHMCS with regards to DL before, so there's definitely something to come. Not sure what exact form it'll take but an F-15E pilot was talking about using DL to see the position of wingmen and their distance from you in JHMCS - hopefully we'll get something similar.

Then it's probably the first - doesn't rely on you doing anything, if he turns so he's facing 90 degrees away from you, your radar will drop lock.

Great, thanks for answering - and you too KlarSnow. Looking forward to getting that JHMCS functionality in the Hornet, sounds incredible!

You normally lose lock when the target either beams you (that means they fly directly perpendicular to you, and so your radar can't pick them up as it filters out returns that aren't flying towards/away from you with some speed), or the target puts terrain in between you and it.

Out of interest, how does that work in practice? Are people just eyeballing the distances from the SA screen or is there a different function that allows you to see more precisely your distance from other donors/wingmen? I imagine if your SA radius is 160nm, it's going to be quite difficult to gauge when you're 10nm laterally spaced from your flight, obviously easier if it's only 20nm/40nm, then you can just make sure they're halfway/quarter of the way to the edge.

Yeah that's missing the other function of SS Right - which is if the TDC isn't over a target it will lock up the closest enemy target (though incidentally this isn't working very well in the Open Beta). I'm not saying you can't put the radar on the left, just that the default is right for a reason - it'll work perfectly fine if you have a page on the right that doesn't need TDC priority (like the stores page or FPAS or whatever), it's just there's obviously a conflict between AACQ on the left DDI and changing TDC priority to the right as one control can't do both things. It's possible AACQ is meant to switch to SS Left if the radar is on the left DDI - but I don't know if that's how it works in the real thing or not.

It's probably going to be explained by the TACAN channel conflict Wags mentioned in the mini updates. Set any TACAN equipped units to channels 37-46 for now (after the next update you can use anything other than 68/69)

AACQ isn't an ACM mode, it works in the normal radar mode, it just locks up the first target in front of you on your radar. It's Sensor Select Right - that's why the radar's default position is on the right DDI, because you can't switch priority to the right DDI when the radar is on the left DDI.

This is the latest:

Yep it's part of LTWS.

Yep you should be able to. Maybe see the suggestion from here: See if you have that 'use hand controllers' option ticked and untick it (you'll obviously have to do that in 2D).

You can carry more 83s (9) than 84s (5) - also I think the 83 has been a bit more accurate in CCIP than the 84.

The F-5 doesn't have a lot of content to go with it - really doesn't have much in the way of campaigns or missions. I would suggest either going with the Mirage (the included campaign is excellent, and I've heard great things about the Red Flag campaign) or if you want to explore more of the AG side of the Hornet, you could pick up the A-10C which has some epic campaigns (Enemy Within 3.0 is a real highlight) and will help familiarise you with using a targeting pod and a vast array of weapons.

Worth pointing out that wiki link is incorrect for Navy birds using the ALR-67 (i.e. Hornet, Tomcat) - it's not been updated since the Hornet got RWR. For example, the caret means hostile emitter, not just airborne emitter. Until the manual is updated we're a bit restricted on guides, this is the HAFU symbology on the SA page: You'll also see donors (green circles with a dot on the left of the circle), C2 aircraft (like a donor but with a dot in the middle), and wingmen (like donors but with A, B, C, D in the middle). If you lock a target on your SA page (that isn't a donor, C2 or wingman) you'll see a star in the middle to show what target you've locked.

Wags is just saying that in the next update the DL frequency is going to change - that way it'll only conflict with two TACAN channels rather than the dozens it does now. Nothing will change till the 13th. So the answer to the OP's question is yes.

We won't - the Navy never bought it.

It looks more like dis-embodied bearing indicators from DL tracks - only without the HAFU or anything else. Might be related to the ghost tracks or something. I did see it in MP earlier, but that track would be enormous.

Are you putting the SA screen on the AMPCD first, before trying to assign TDC priority to it? You can't assign TDC priority to the HSI currently, so if you don't change the screen, it won't work. The last bit on switching screens isn't implemented.

It didn't work for Wags because he didn't lock the target - he needed to be in STT for it to work. It might work later on with the soft-locks we'll get later.

Non Cooperative Target Recognition

Yep, just still to be developed. When we have LTWS finished, we'll be able to soft lock two of the bricks on the RWS radar screen and show tracks (i.e. IFF status, contact's bearing, elevation, speed) for them. When we have MSI finished (it's a button on the data sub-page of the radar), we should be able to see the data link tracks we can currently see on the SA page on the RWS radar screen. And once we have TWS, that'll automatically display tracks for the top 8 targets the radar sees (and we'll also have the two things above as well).