Loadout choices

[Dragon1-1]

I've almost finished the campaign, and while I haven't ran into any bugs, I did run into several design decisions that I do not quite comprehend. This seems to be a very gamey, "casual" campaign, yet the loadout choices seem to usually be the least efficient possible for a given mission. This makes the campaign needlessly frustrating, and in many cases, stretches missions out unnecessarily.

1. Besides TGPs (which in 2011 really shouldn't have been on backorder for the whole campaign), the Stennis seems to have forgotten its stock of bags. Seriously, they could have seriously cut down on the completely unnecessary "land at an airbase and refuel" segments. In one mission, the segment was (rightly) optional, in latter missions it was not. Particularly the boat hunt mission, give me three wing bags and two Mavs, like a real carrier would on a maritime patrol mission, and chuck the whole "land at Batumi" segment, since it adds nothing but length and tedium to the mission. Three bags will make it easy even for those who haven't yet mastered the magic art of using the FPAS page (BTW, if Viper really was low on gas, Stennis should have told you to keep 315KTS, not 450, that's best range at that altitude). In fact, if you fly with FPAS page like a real Hornet jock and want to respect your max trap weight, those refueling stops are downright counterproductive. I dumped all the extra gas and then some on that mission.

2. The bloody Mavericks. You don't want to give the player the TGP? OK. But do give him weapons that are not frustrating to use without it. Getting a lock with Mavs alone is not particularly comfortable, especially against moving targets. There's only one mission where Mavs are really nice to have, and in that one, you can use the SEA radar mode to cue them. For the other missions, just hang some dumb bombs under the wings, and get rid of one under the belly (replace with a centerline bag, see above). With two bombs per station, it'd be more forgiving, and the whole loadout would actually look like something you might see IRL.

3. HARMs miss, and there's nothing you can do about it. It'd be far better to have two HARMs per SAM. One HARM per SAM is a recipe for frustration. If one of them messes up, your only recourse is dodging the SAMs until the launcher runs out, then gunning the damn thing. That, or restarting the mission. The Maverick is actually a pretty good answer to a SA-8, but not without a TGP.

4. 4xJSOW under the wings... then a fight with MiGs? This might have seemed like a good idea back when the campaign was made, but the AI now has something resembling a brain, and is not completely incompetent in BVR, so once again, one missile per target is not enough. IRL, the escort would have the sole responsibility for persecuting the MiGs, and those fat pigs would be off the jet the moment RWR started beeping. 

5. Speaking of pigs, giving the coordinates in the kneeboard for using them in PP mode would have made rippling them all outside 40NM that much simpler, and would again be realistic. I had no problem there, but then, I had no problem getting to 40kft with four pigs under the wings, so maybe I'm just good at flying that thing.

Edited November 26, 2022 by Dragon1-1