losing lock very easily

[nleber]

I've experienced the same many times: The bandit is 10nm off my nose in STT, I fire the 530 and lose lock a few seconds later.:doh:

 

yes, this is extremely annoying and hurts your pride when you get shot down because of stupid radar loosing lock, even though you straight up had the drop on em'

[nomdeplume]

The manual says you need STT for weapons guidance. What is to prevent the target from breaking lock again after you switch to HFR to launch the 530?

There's nothing to prevent them breaking the lock after the missile is on its way, that's why standard practice if you're fired at (or think you're fired at) is to put the radar on your beam and dive. If a missile is on the way, your #1 and only priority is to defeat it. If you're super anxious to have 1 missile = 1 kill, then you can always wait until you're in a more favourable position where the radar will be less prone to being notched, e.g. look-up (no ground clutter to filter out means no need for the doppler notch) or being too close for the enemy to go defensive before they go boom. Of course, you'll probably have eaten one or two of their missiles in the face before you get that close, but at least you won't have "wasted" one of your own missiles. :thumbup:

 

At least half the point of firing a missile at someone is to put them on the defensive -- so they can't effectively attack you, and you're able to close for a better shot. Also, in real life at least, team tactics is an important aspect of aerial warfare - if your wingman splits off and engages from a slightly different bearing, any maneuvers your target does to defeat your missiles just make them an easy target for your wingman. (Of course, your target probably has their own wingman...)

 

This is why modern jets with their fancy active radar homing, fly-to-the-moon-and-back missiles still carry short-range heatseeking missiles and even shorter range nothing-seeking cannons. If all your longer range missiles achieve is to allow you to close with the enemy and shoot them down with your guns, they've still done their job.

[Whisper]

yes, this is extremely annoying and hurts your pride when you get shot down because of stupid radar loosing lock, even though you straight up had the drop on em'

 

If the lock break is actually because of ennemy beaming, it may hurt your pride, but it has nothing to do with radar being "stupid", rather, it's working as intended ;)

 

If you need the kill, shoot from a position which prevents break of lock (notably, from below)

If you need the ennemy to evade, just shoot. Actually, it probably depends on your opponent and his missile warning capabilities. AFAIK if you are versus a current incarnation of mirage, or mig21, you just need to lock in PIC, the opponent will get a lock warning but no launch warning, so launching doesn't do much in terms of making him react. If he seems to wait for eyeball on missile, then shoot. Other FC3 aircrafts may have better missile launching capabilities and get a different warning for launch, I don't know.

 

As for switching to ENT, currently I don't have enough attempts for me to be sure it really helps with keeping lock on beaming targets. I know the pair of times I tried (when being above target), I didn't lose lock. That's not enough of a test sampling to draw definitive conclusions, but it seems to be working.

[gavagai]

If you're super anxious to have 1 missile = 1 kill, then you can always wait until you're in a more favourable position where the radar will be less prone to being notched, e.g. look-up (no ground clutter to filter out means no need for the doppler notch) or being too close for the enemy to go defensive before they go boom.

 

No, I usually fire two 530s for one kill attempt and they both miss when the bandit breaks lock.:smilewink:

[unknown]

...I should make a video soon to show you...

Or you could download Tacview to watch every second of your mission with many data to analyse the mission/dogfight. This is a good tool to learn what happend during the fight and how to improve your tactics. It is free and you can use the "Pro functions" within a 21 day trial and you don't have to bother about corrupted replays.

 

Sorry for OT but i think this tool is very useful to figure out if there is a bug which causes the loss of the radar lock or if the enemy is simply notching you.

 

http://tacview.strasoftware.com/download/latest/en/

[blast]

Or you could download Tacview to watch every second of your mission with many data to analyse the mission/dogfight. This is a good tool to learn what happend during the fight and how to improve your tactics. It is free and you can use the "Pro functions" within a 21 day trial and you don't have to bother about corrupted replays.

 

Sorry for OT but i think this tool is very useful to figure out if there is a bug which causes the loss of the radar lock or if the enemy is simply notching you.

 

http://tacview.strasoftware.com/download/latest/en/

 

I already use this tool but only for single mission. You can't use it during online server.

[PiedDroit]

I already use this tool but only for single mission. You can't use it during online server.

I think you can replay the track of the online session, it would then record the tacview.

[Svend_Dellepude]

I think you can replay the track of the online session, it would then record the tacview.

 

yup!

[gavagai]

Some good suggestions and knowledge were shared in this thread. I'm still having trouble with losing lock. Today I lost lock on a Su-27 that was 6nmi off my nose and we were both at 40,000ft. All he had to do was slightly dip below the horizon and my two S530s were lost. Later, during the same session, I again launched two S530s at a Su-27 that was below my nose at about 37,000ft. I pointed straight at him and he broke lock at about 4nmi.

 

I have had better success when the target is above the horizon, but I hoped that at higher altitudes the S530 would not be so easy to defeat, but the radar just isn't good enough to keep lock. Even the Mig-21 doesn't lose lock as easily as the 2000C. Shouldn't the radar be less susceptible to notching when the target is at high altitude?

[TheJay15]

Hasn't RAZBAM confirmed that many of these problems were fixed internally

[Jugdriver]

I think they are still working on it, though there has been improvement from a couple of patches ago. That being said I still see situations where the target has not notched but the radar loses lock (usually while in TWS/PID mode) for no apparent reason.

 

JD

AKA_MattE

[Azrayen]

That being said I still see situations where the target has not notched but the radar loses lock (usually while in TWS/PID mode) for no apparent reason.

 

Here it is:

There is a remaining bug with PID/TWS. This one is known, but fix doesn't seem easy.

[Jugdriver]

Here it is:

 

RGR, With the lack of updates from ED I have started to lose track of what has been fixed internally, updated or not.

 

Thanks

 

JD

AKA_MattE

Edited June 20, 2016 by Jugdriver

[npole]

When I talked about the radar (losing) lock issues, they said that the radar is working as expected and there's no patch coming.

Can we have a official clarification of what's is being worked on?

[Azrayen]

I have no such recollection, npole.