F14 A (early) Jester AI not performing autonomous radar actions

[Q3ark]

Problem: In BVR situation Jester AI not performing autonomous actions.

This only seems to affect the early A model Tomcat, I have not observed this on the other two variants. 

 

Jester does not:

 

1. Jester does not switch radar into TWS auto.
2. Jester does not IFF or classify targets with the HAFU symbol.
3. Jester does not call out range to target after being commanded to STT.

 

Jester does:

 

1. Jester does switch to TWS auto when commanded using the jester wheel.
2. Jester does STT a target when commanded by the jester wheel.

 

Attached track shows a BVR intercept starting at 200 nm on the Syria map. No mods installed.

If it helps I uploaded a video to youtube I captured at the same time 

 

f14_a_early.trk

Edited October 24 by Q3ark
Added more information

[Wizard_03]

Can confirm this is happening for me as well. 

[JupiterJoe]

I wonder if Jester 2.0 is still planned for the F-14 and whether they will focus on that transition, rather than working to repair 1.0 

[Zabuzard]

12 minutes ago, JupiterJoe said:

I wonder if Jester 2.0 is still planned for the F-14

That was never planned or promised. You might have mixed it up. What we are generally planning is to port selected features of the new experience over. This is more focused on the technical aspects, especially HB UI. It is not a goal to re-code Tomcats Jester. That would be massive work, considering that "Jester 1" and "Jester 2" dont even share the same programming language with each other, they are completely different and separate products.

Some selected features that might be coming (not a promise) could be:

• the new Jester Wheel, at least tech-wise. that enables mouse click, direct binds to all actions, 8-way binds, 4-way binds, axis binds, the new improved head controls, modding support for the UI, and more... whether the visuals will be changed then or not is another story
• Jester Context Action
• Grease Pencil
• in-game manual with clickable "explain-me" feature
• Virtual Browser

Edited yesterday at 11:32 AM by Zabuzard

[JupiterJoe]

12 hours ago, Zabuzard said:

That was never planned or promised. You might have mixed it up. What we are generally planning is to port selected features of the new experience over. This is more focused on the technical aspects, especially HB UI. It is not a goal to re-code Tomcats Jester. That would be massive work, considering that "Jester 1" and "Jester 2" dont even share the same programming language with each other, they are completely different and separate products.

Some selected features that might be coming (not a promise) could be:

• the new Jester Wheel, at least tech-wise. that enables mouse click, direct binds to all actions, 8-way binds, 4-way binds, axis binds, the new improved head controls, modding support for the UI, and more... whether the visuals will be changed then or not is another story
• Jester Context Action
• Grease Pencil
• in-game manual with clickable "explain-me" feature
• Virtual Browser

Yes, I misunderstood.  Thanks for clarifying.

Edited 16 hours ago by JupiterJoe

[Tomcatter87]

On 10/24/2025 at 9:38 PM, Q3ark said:

Problem: In BVR situation Jester AI not performing autonomous actions.

This only seems to affect the early A model Tomcat, I have not observed this on the other two variants. 

 

Jester does not:

 

1. Jester does not switch radar into TWS auto.
2. Jester does not IFF or classify targets with the HAFU symbol.
3. Jester does not call out range to target after being commanded to STT.

 

Jester does:

 

1. Jester does switch to TWS auto when commanded using the jester wheel.
2. Jester does STT a target when commanded by the jester wheel.

 

Attached track shows a BVR intercept starting at 200 nm on the Syria map. No mods installed.

If it helps I uploaded a video to youtube I captured at the same time 

 

f14_a_early.trk 3.65 MB · 8 downloads

I can confirm this. Jester kinda ignores radar contacts, I think he IFFs them only after you lock them up in one of the pilot locking modes. 

3 hours ago, Zabuzard said:

That was never planned or promised. You might have mixed it up. What we are generally planning is to port selected features of the new experience over. This is more focused on the technical aspects, especially HB UI. It is not a goal to re-code Tomcats Jester. That would be massive work, considering that "Jester 1" and "Jester 2" dont even share the same programming language with each other, they are completely different and separate products.

Some selected features that might be coming (not a promise) could be:

• the new Jester Wheel, at least tech-wise. that enables mouse click, direct binds to all actions, 8-way binds, 4-way binds, axis binds, the new improved head controls, modding support for the UI, and more... whether the visuals will be changed then or not is another story
• Jester Context Action
• Grease Pencil
• in-game manual with clickable "explain-me" feature
• Virtual Browser

Iron Mike literally wrote so in 2023. You can read it here: 

 

[Zabuzard]

Iron Mike literally wrote so in 2023. You can read it here: 
 

Yes, it is a misunderstanding as everyone understands something different under the umbrella term "Jester 2". Ask a user and they think its Jesters logic. Ask a dev and its the underlying technology, the new Lua based framework and the HB UI tech.
Or another example, when I say "we might bring Jester 2 Jester Wheel to the Tomcat" then users would think about the visuals first and foremost, while a dev like me thinks about the underlying codebase/tech its built on, which could still keep and display the old visuals while adding all the other benefits on top just because it is the new framework.

So take my post above as clarification, I suppose.