Jester2138

Well said. I've always been a little uncomfortable with the constant explicit trim advice given to newbies trying to learn to land. "You gotta do two clicks of trim, then one more after the turn" etc. like no, just learn to fly the plane, forget trim for now. Obsessing over small details like that when you're still learning is counterproductive IMO

Yes. The Tomcat has both adverse and proverse yaw depending on your AoA. As a rule of thumb, at higher speeds it has proverse yaw and lower speeds adverse. Yes, because you're not coordinated. It's easier to explain in video, as Jabbers does here (the explained theory is essentially correct, although his demonstration is backwards - he's trying to counter adverse yaw (left bank with left rudder) while experiencing proverse yaw, which is why he's totally uncoordinated the whole time if you watch his ball lol) To explain what he should have been doing: at low AoA such as in his video, when you roll left, you put in a little right rudder. At high AoA (11+) such as when dogfighting, when you roll left, you put in a little left rudder (like a Cessna/warbird). Something worth noting is that being perfectly coordinated 100% of the time is not necessary. It's a mark of good airmanship, sure, but you're not going to crash just because you've got a bit of a slip going on in a standard turn. When you're dogfighting, though, you should be worried about it a lot more. I find my feet moving all over the place in a dogfight. At really high AoA you're banking primarily with rudder, not aileron!

Yes, you absolutely should be worrying about your slip. However, that doesn't necessarily mean looking at the indicator. Eventually, you should get a feel for how the nose moves during a bank, where the centerline of the aircraft is pointing out in the distance in front of you, and instinctively move your feet to counter oncoming slip. The indicator is nice, but really all you need is your eye and looking at the terrain/clouds out front for a reference relative to where you know the nose is pointing. e.g. if you know your nose is pointed at the mountain top, then as you roll you just watch the mountaintop for slip and move your feet to make sure it rotates exactly about that axis and no other.

That was your first mistake...

It's important to military fighters because it:

Sounds like you just want something easier. No shame in that. The extra work and skill that flying the Tomcat well takes is exactly why I enjoy it.

Excellent!

Whoa, hold up there. The Phoenix suffers from the exact same problems as the AMRAAM and other active missiles. It is not Heatblur's code that is the problem. F-14 players could easily turn your statement around and go complain to ED about how they need to nerf the AMRAAM because it's unrealistic and therefore makes their F-14 unrealistic, too, when it gets shot down via AMRAAM. And it would be equally as ridiculous an argument to make. FWIW, the Phoenix is as much nerfed by it's lack of realism as it is boosted... If you got a more realistic missile, I bet you'd be back here in a week complaining again about being shot down by missiles made "OP" in range and speed by the latest updates... :lol:

Jester AI elevates the radar to extreme angles even on e.g. "middle low" setting which results in -16° (way too much to be useful). Is there a fix for this on the horizon? I would suggest +/- 3 and +/- 7 degrees.

Eagle Dynamics and Heatblur should waste exactly zero time worrying about "OP" and "balance" and other e-sports issues and instead focus on making a flight simulator. The issue you're complaining about is not unique to the Phoenix and I don't know why you're complaining here.

The reason it still has a WSO is that... it's kind of necessary for the mission.

If you expect every missile hit to insta-explode airplanes, your expectations are in the wrong place. Try out IL-2 for a better-than-DCS demonstration of how airplanes can take damage. DCS damage modelling is extremely simplistic in comparison, even in the Tomcat which is undoubtedly as good as it can get in DCS.

They no workie

Wow! Please link the article here :)

So if I'm understanding the conversation correctly, does this mean the missile actually is active off the rails and the target gets a RWR launch warning from shots in TWS and STT? That's a big bummer. ED needs to fix this ASAP or stop calling it a sim.

Read up on adverse and proverse yaw (the F-14 has both at different AoAs). Look at the slip indicator that's at the center-bottom of the ACM panel and watch what the ball does when you bank - especially in BFM. Then read about "coordinated turns." The rudders are required for coordinated flight and are also how you control bank at high AoAs (esp. BFM!). Most other jets in DCS do this automatically or don't need it much and so people haven't learned this flying 101 lesson.

I might have imagined it, but I'm pretty sure I heard Jester say: "12 o'clock, 2 miles, [snickers] Hornet."

Doesn't fix; see second comment above

Even when I load an old mission that used USAF Aggressors, it won't work. Initially upon selection of the unit, it shows country as "USAF Aggressors," but if I actually click the drop-down to try and change it, the option disappears and it reverts to "USA" and I can no longer set it to "USAF Aggressors."

When placing a unit, I can no longer choose "USAF Aggressors" under the "Country" drop-down menu - the option is missing. I was able to do this just fine a few months ago. Anyone know what's going on?

Agreed. HUDs and MFDs are boring to me. Makes me feel like I'm playing a computer on my computer.

If Heatblur was making and selling a level D type F-14B simulator that would be fully-crewed by two humans at all times then completely restricting player access to RIO-functions and requiring a human backseater to do anything at all would make sense. But they're not. They're making a consumer video game that they want actual consumers to buy. That is why there's a Jester AI and that is why pilots can control the radar, navigation, datalink, all radios, LANTIRN, etc.

I 110% agree. But it seems you're not keeping up with the thread: My initial comment that's gotten you so worked up was addressing his attitude, not you, so I don't know why you're arguing with me about subjectivity. We agree on that. I disagree when the topic is realism. If you haven't been there & done that, how do you know if it's realistic? Reading internet debates? For the record, I have never flown a Tomcat. Which is why I'm not sitting here making unilateral declarations of what's realistic and what's not for specifically the Tomcat, and telling everyone that if they disagree with me, they are simply wrong and don't care about The Right Way to play a video game.

I'm not demeaning their lack of experience. I'm pointing out that certain people's (not referring to the whole community) unilateral and uncompromising declarations of what's "realistic" and what's not to the point of even stating that translating reality to a desktop video game has no room for subjectivity is senseless and useless especially when they have no real-world experience themselves to know what's realistic and what's not. If you find that demeaning, that's your problem and says more about you than me.

See, this is what I'm talking about. You have no idea what is or isn't realistic, and what you ask for is arbitrary and ultimately only about what you find fun, not realism. Maybe Heatblur should put Jester AI in command of the aircraft from time to time, just like the backseater often is in real life. He'll tell you where to go, how to fly, who to shoot, when to RTB. I'd love to see whether you're still up for realism then. And ED should probably account-ban any pilot who takes off without a package, because that's realistic. Heatblur should also have every aircraft spawn with a ~60% chance of major systems not functioning, because that's realistic. Also, if you go over your G-limit, you don't get to fly for a few days at least. Because that's also realistic. Finally, we could require a minimum 4-hour briefing in-game going over maps, weather, ATOs, threats, airspace, friendlies, targets, etc. before you're able to spawn in any aircraft, because that would be realistic. This is maybe 1% of the changes we could very easily do to make it more realistic, and also infinitely less fun.