Noob questions/feedback

[I2obiN]

Hey there,

 

Having some minor issues with the game and I thought I'd give some feedback and just try to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

 

My usual tactics are failing me in FC3. I have played through the A10/F15 campaign in Lock-On and in FC2 for both aircraft. I was pretty happy to see the F15 get a new campaign in FC3. The new missile dynamics look great etc.

 

However, I have been having some issues.

 

The first might be a sensitive subject here and thats the AIM-120C/B missiles. My experience of missiles before was that AMRAAM missiles typically had a good chance to kill at 20-40 nm or so. My only previous flight sim to Lock On is F22 by DiD which is really more a game than a sim lool ;)

 

This generally crossed over to Lock On in that I engaged enemies from a decent altitude with about a 5000 feet advantage, and I was in with a good chance of a kill at 20-40nm (40nm max it was probably less than that looking back, but easily BVR)

 

This seems to have disappeared completely, yet other missiles seem effective.

 

Playing online on the 104th's server I found my only two kills were an AIM-120B at about 15-20nm when the target was at much greater altitude, and then an AIM-7 Sparrow at about the same, however the sparrow did a far better job at staying on target.

 

Loading up instant action, I enabled infinite missiles and out of the hundreds or so that I shot, very very few hit at 20nm. Beyond that I don't think I got one hit.

 

In practice I have found using them in the role of AIM-7s as medium range missiles seems to be far more effective. At this stage, and correct me if I'm wrong, but they seem to be almost completely ineffective at ranges greater than 10nm

 

If that's the way they're supposed to be, okay cool. If I'm missing out on something that I should be doing other than locking the target on radar, waiting for the star on the HUD and firing the missile, let me know.

 

Anyway,

 

My next issue is with the AI. You probably already know what I'm going to say.

 

They're chickenshits.

 

I was stuck for a long time on a bombing mission where you escort the F16s and F15E in to bomb a runway. There were times when I had destroyed the fleet of migs and su27s except for maybe 2 planes, which I had managed to drag half way across the map after me.

 

I watched as an F15E jettisoned his bombs, tanks, everything about 4 meters before the runway as he broke away to engage the su27. Why... why not just continue your bombing run, you're not going to save the aircraft anyway.

 

Really I can understand if they got cornered miles away from their target, ditching their weight and taking out the enemy, then rtb.

 

This is absolutely absurd though when you are no more than 1nm away from the runway, just program them to stay the course if they are within certain range.

 

This happened so often where the AI just does not use his head. It's not just bombers either.. your wingmen drop like the insects they are.

 

In the mission where you go up against a ton of SU25s and an SU30 I instantly lost 2 of my wingmen seemingly out of nowhere. Despite taking down the SU30 with an aim9, the rest of my missiles combined with my remaining wingman's only scored us both 5 kills.

 

Honestly, with most of these campaigns I feel they're not realistic if this is the performance of an F15 on average. Realistically NATO would surely send two flights of 4 F15s

 

Landing on the runway, my wheels broke out from underneath me at 150 knots as the wind seemingly lunged me to the left. I ejected and watched the F15 skid to a halt. This has happened twice now, while I'm on a fairly reasonable glide path.

 

edit ; Found the reason, bombed out runways don't make for great landings.

 

This brings me to my next point. Landing/take off

 

Why does my plane drag to the left/right all the time? It's not aircraft trim, so I'm assuming it's wind? These aircraft weigh in at 60,000 lbs. My 300lb - 400lb bike doesn't drift this much in wind. Am I doing something wrong? Everytime I'm on the runway I'm constantly tapping z to straighten it, when I take off my HUD is horribly aligned, but once I gain some altitude and it straightens up, everythings fine.

 

I'm assuming this is wind, if so it seems absurd. In an aircraft that weighs in at 2,000 lbs I would expect strong winds might have this affect on it, on my bike that weighs in at 300lbs I can go 80 knots and not have the wind blow me into another lane of traffic, even with 15 km/h winds. A 60,000 lb jet should not really be affected this much by 5 meter winds.

 

Perhaps I have done something wrong, I did try to set the aircraft trim to counteract it but to no avail really.

 

Anyway those are my initial impressions, if someone can help me out with any of them, or give me advice to remedy my noob faillings :joystick: please do.

 

Have a good day, peace

 

edit ;

 

PS I have found a bug and a remedy so for anyone out there who's airplanes are dropping out of the sky, unplug any controllers you have plugged in and turn off motion joy.

 

To my detriment I found that with my PS3 controller plugged in the aircraft would randomly power off engines and send me into an uncontrolled spiral. It was quite funny at first, but when you're flying a mission that requires low level flying and you suddenly lose your engines, while doing an aileron roll at speeds previously thought impossible, all while grabbing at your ps3 to just remove the damn USB cord, your likelihood of survival is nil lol.

Edited March 1, 2013 by I2obiN

[GGTharos]

Missiles are still being tuned.

 

The landing gear issue is known.

 

Planes being blown aside by the wind is an SFM problem that may or may not go away, who knows.

[I2obiN]

It's a great game really, it's provided countless hours of entertainment already.

 

These are just really observations, I'm sure most of which can be explained.

 

Please keep up the good work :thumbup: because it is very good work.

[Cali]

The 120 is a medium ranged missile, it's in the name. Anything over 20 miles is nice, but I wouldn't expect to get them a lot. Back in FC2, yes over 30 miles happened a lot, only because of missiles being over modeled. Like GG said, they are a WIP and we'll see what happens in the future. Just because it says it's range is 30-40 miles, doesn't mean you will get kills at that range.

[FanBoy2006.01]

@ I2obiN

 

In regard to drifting...

 

"I'm assuming this is wind, if so it seems absurd. In an aircraft that weighs in at 2,000 lbs I would expect strong winds might have this affect on it, on my bike that weighs in at 300lbs I can go 80 knots and not have the wind blow me into another lane of traffic, even with 15 km/h winds. A 60,000 lb jet should not really be affected this much by 5 meter winds."

 

I do not have FC3 and will not for a long time. So I might be totally off on my remarks.

But you must remember that that aircraft shapes is much different than a guy on a bike. The faster an aircraft goes the more lift it's body provides. You have much better down force on a bike.

 

Also, your center of gravity is much lower, than that of an F15 rolling down a runway.

 

And the grip of your bike's tires are much bigger in relation to total weight than that of an F15's. The grip will also diminish as down force decrease.

 

Lastly the big vertical surfaces (Especially the vertical stabilizers of an aircraft make a great "sail" to capture kinetic energy from the cross wind.

Of course (With their rudders.), they are the main control surfaces to counter airflow from the side.