Even though I strongly appreciate the makeover of the way air to ground guided weaponry works with the Alpha Strike update (with the exception of the A-4E Early gimbal symbology with the walleye is still broken and wont track properly), I propose the more intensive task of a complete make-over of how air to ground guided weaponry works following real life displays and controls.
Instead of having the guided munition be its own view mode that you control with the mouse, I propose the more realistic way of having the view for, say, the AGM-65 maverick appear as a PiP display on the side just like the air radar does, not unlike how it already works in the cockpit mode:
In case that its a plane with a single radar display, like with the case of the F-4E, the radar display in the cockpit and maybe in the third person HUD would also change. After all, real aircrafts, or at least single seaters, cant control the air radar and the guided munition seeker at the same time.
From this point the crosshair for the weapon, again, inspired by real life handling, has to be done with extra buttons. This potentially can be duplicated with the manual missile guidance for keyboard-controlled missiles.
In the case of the walleye, there seemingly is no need to press a button for the weapon to lock. It will automatically lock to any unit based on the contrast it sees, as long as the crosshair was placed in the right position it will be able to track the moving target too.
(Im terribly sorry for having to use a DCS video as a reference but I dont know any other good source of realistic Walleye usage from real life or more trust-worthy games)
Do you think the game should strive go to this far just for realism?
No. At least not for realism alone. However i believe this will help not just in the sake of realism, but more importantly, in the sake of immersion and accesibility. Having to use your mouse and an entirely different view mode to aim missiles or bombs, specially in simulation difficulty, is quite weird and takes both control of the aircraft away and situational awareness since you cant see anything around you while you search for the target. Not to mention the plane HUD should clearly display the target point of the maverick of the walleye in case it is within the HUD display, which is not the case in the game. I believe it would make rapid target acquisition a lot easier and quicker if we could:
1- See the spot where the seeker is aiming at in the HUD
2- Steer the seeker of the munition with keys instead of the mouse and without having to change views
3- Keep the ability to steer the plane and look around while being able to aim the guided munition
- I agree, the guided munitions should not take over the entire screen and controls to be used
- I disagree, but the plane HUD should clearly tell you where the missile is looking at just like in real life
- I disagree, the game is fine as it is