Usage of air-ground missiles in various weather conditions

[aimmaverick]

First let me say that feedback from others users and ED team is very appreciated. This thread is intended for comparing realistic weapons usage (ATGM) in different weather conditions vs.that in Lockon 1.1

Lockon has very detailed weather moddeling which is without any true function other than graphics immersion. I will point out Mavericks as example.

You have two models: K and D. The K model is suitable for day usage in good visibility conditions. The D model is good at all conditions but extremely useful in cold weather and at night. Thats how it is IRL.

 

But in Lockon its completely different story. At night and in cold weather the D model has reduced performance compared to day, you hardly see targets on TV display despite the hot engine and exaust temparatures are much more visible to campare them against cool enviroment than day conditions. You should detect ( on TV screen) targets at much bigger distances in such case and also lock on sooner. The fact is, there is no weather influence on detection and lock-on ranges. This is scripted. It doesnt matter if its fog or hot temparatures or rain you will always get it at 8 NM. Every weapon should be used accordingly for type of weather. If its hot take K model since IR would have decreased performance comparing hot surface with vehicles.

At night use D Maverick. And so on...

As for laser guided weapons, they dont function if its rain or claudy. Thats how it is IRL. But lockon doesnt give a shit for it.

 

I want to point out that weapons behaviour in Lockon is completely scripted. The same goes also for IR air-air missiles. You cannot always use all weapons avaible. You should choose weapons that are suitable for given conditions. This is how it is in reality. But in Lockon it doesnt matter.

 

PS: I dont know why they didnt implement laser maverick into game. F-18 can carry it. It is even presented in encyclopedia.

[504 Wolverine]

See previous post about missile behaviour/scripts. ED hope to have advanced missile behaviour for 1.2

 

Laser mavericks are already in game. They are on one of the default loads for the viper.

[britgliderpilot]

Sigh . . . . we must have become spoiled at some point.

 

How dare ED not implement advanced, on-the-fly computing for every parameter in-game, including LERX vapour clouds, shockwave vapour clouds, waves, clouds, thermals, weapons, radar . . . . ..

 

;)

[GGTharos]

I'd like you to show me a sim where this is modelled accurately, and when you fail to find ay good exmaples, I'd like you to tell me why that is so.

 

I's not impossible, it's just rather plainly difficult.

 

It's easy to say 'it shoudl be this way' and 'it should be that way' when you haven't written a single line of code in an attempt to simulate such things.

[Shaman]

Someone once said before that LockOn is already very close to be a perfect sim, and because of that it dissapoints it's still not. To all who think that way: Cheer up, Eagle Dynamics is on the right path to achieve this perfection.

[coldcrew]

ED can do it, but then your game would run at 2fps and you wouldn't want that either.

[Shaman]

ED can do it, but then your game would run at 2fps and you wouldn't want that either.

That's wrong. IR and TV guidance don't need realistically simulated model, because LockOn is not real life simulator. That's still pure SF. Missiles just need upgrade to their scripted behaviour which takes into account some additional variables. I'm sure that will not eat FPS down to 2.

[GGTharos]

Well, it depends on what you want to do.

 

You could just implement a very simple formula to have the lock on range depend on the fog and weather settings, but then that doesn't take other environmental factors into account.

 

Remember that the appropriate graphical representation of the effect is also required on the TVM for the maverick for example.

[tflash]

The basic philosophy followed by Ed is parametric modelling. This is the originality of the game and makes for instance missile behaviour very complex.

 

Truly modelling what you are asking for, like a cloud that breaks an IR lock or degraded laser tracking in hot conditions is extremely difficult to model.

 

Of course, you could have scripts like "IF season=winter THEN ..." but then we would have an arcade game.

 

Modelling the heat signature of an aircraft flying through cloudy wheather seems to me a daunting task: it would require you to model an anisotropic space where wind currents, humidity, sunlight, reflection of the surface, speed of the aircraft, friction, ... all are relevant parameters.