Derby/R-Darter the forgotten fox3 needs a buff

Game Discussion General Discussion
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Gaijin said they would rework them next, but after the major update, we saw nothing of the sort.

When all the other medium range fox3 missiles got a buff, the Derby/R-Darter remained the same for whatever reason, while the other missiles got dubious buffs that in some cases, are plain unrealistic (e.g. “thrust vectoring like” R-77).

The derby was already mid before the buffs, and now it gets massivelly out-turned by every other modern Fox3.

It pulls worse than even the AIM-120C

Derby:


AIM-120C:

Shoutout to the AAM-4 which was also barely buffed in comparison with the others. It’s now the 2nd worst maneuvering missile after the Derby.

Before the buffs, and before the tracking issues on the PL-12 and Derby/R-Darter, every missile was a sidegrade of sorts for the most part. Now these are not as balanced as before, the AAM-4 and Derby get out ranged and out pulled by the AIM-120 for example, so they don’t have any advantage.

Note: I am talking exclusively about amraam missiles, the phoenix and fakour are outside of this context.

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Here we can see that the R-Darter can’t usually pull more than 20G’s.

These missiles can pull a peak of around 28-30G for a little bit and then drop back to around 20G to 22G sustained in the best conditions possible.

I think this is the best scenario I could replicate to give these missiles as much energy as possible at low altitude into an almost impossible-to-hit target where they should reach their maximum turn possible trying to intercept, only the first missile hit, the others could not pull enough in time.

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They did say the derby was on the list of missiles slated remodeling (which they said they hope manage to do until the end of the year)

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They said it’d get a rework hopefully before the end of the year.

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In fact you already made a post with this exact premise during the dev server, where you got told the same thing.

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It is interesting how they do random changes to all the other missiles, making them sometimes behave more unrealistically than before, and for some reason the Derby/R-Darter got left out.

They could just do a temporary change to keep it balanced with the others, but no… lets keep the derby pull almost as bad as an AIM-7F

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So, you are complaining about unrealistic changes but then ask for an unrealistic change?

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Yes, so we don’t get double standards. The game is not realistic anyway.

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So some missiles get to be unrealistic, while others have to be lesser options, namely the derby and AAM-4?

If Gaijin decides to go down the unrealistic route, at least they should keep it balanced.

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10

??? Have you ever seen a Fox-3 missile curve?

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I present you, the thrust vectoring R-77!

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The R-77 does not have thrust vectoring.
and it is perfectly possible for the R-77 to actually do that

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That’s the joke

Generate immense lift at almost no speed? The R-77 should make very sharp turns, but it needs some airflow on those grid fins

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No speed ? It reaches Mach 0.8 in 0.5 seconds, and obviously it’ll get there if it has a continuous boost.

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But what about the insane AoA it pulls off the rail while I am helicoptering with the Su-30?

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I know it’s complicated, but it’s just as the gaijin says rocket science is insane

Now just imagine how poorly modelled the Fox-2s are compared to the Fox-3s

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The R-77 starts pulling very strongly after it gets to like 500kph, I guess it might be possible

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