In the game, the multipath clutter mechanism is unconditionally effective within 50 meters. Except for vertical angles, it can almost completely jam the radar seeker. In the game, for area air defense systems using radar seekers, aircraft can essentially avoid being shot down as long as they maintain a low-altitude flight path. Especially in maps where most of the terrain is flat plains outside the combat zones (like in certain small towns or deserts), these air defense systems are virtually powerless against such aircraft. You might even see the aircraft heading straight toward you, yet all the missiles you launch end up crashing into the ground right next to the aircraft. If anti-radiation weapons are introduced in the future, this situation will only become even more severe.
Why doesn’t Gaijin try to improve this mechanic? In DCS, the multipath clutter effect is minimal and only increases during maneuvers like the “39” maneuver. Perhaps Gaijin could improve their system based on this concept—for instance, making multipath clutter nearly ineffective from the front, but gradually increasing during turns. This design would encourage pilots to act more cautiously after their RWR alerts, rather than mindlessly flying low-altitude—since they’d know it isn’t completely foolproof. Moreover, with such adjustments, distinctions can be made in the anti-clutter performance of different radar seekers. For instance, missiles with poorer performance could be designed to be less susceptible to clutter interference.
Of course, for balance, area air defense systems should also be adjusted accordingly. For example, after respawning, they could require a certain amount of time before the launcher vehicle is deployed, or the time for stowing and deploying the launcher could be extended, making each movement come at a certain cost. Players would need to deploy their air defense systems early to achieve the best suppressive effect, rather than having a system instantly respawn, deploy within seconds, and shoot down an aircraft right after being destroyed.
If MP can’t be relied on irl, then what is does irl? If Gajin could better mirror irl evasive manuevrers, then I doubt losing MP would destroy air battles.
nah, at subtop tier there’re still lots of aircraft have no decent rwr (4-directions, lets say), and have difficult notching, like very common mirage f1c-200. MP provides a way to counter pulse doppler SARH msl carriers.
My take is that however realistic BVR meta might actually be - it’s extremely boring and heavily depends on your carrier plane capabilities.
IR meta was the most fun I had in this game and no, I wasn’t playing grippen. Multipathing is fine as is, because it accouts for a “strange” map design. However what should happen in my opinion is that all missiles should lose their ability to explode upon hitting earth.
Perhaps we don’t necessarily need to implement a fully realistic air combat mode. Instead, we could enhance area defense systems to prevent them from appearing as nothing more than dangerous fireworks in plain terrain maps.
still doesnt really make sense when this is entireley dependant on radar capability. there will be instances where a Fox 3 will be worse off because of the radar strength
In fact, we don’t need to adhere rigidly to a design like the “50m safe zone.” Why not find a compromise where multipath effects are weakest when aircraft are flying toward each other, and gradually strengthen during maneuvers such as a 39 turn? The anti-multipath capability of missiles would only slow down the rate at which these effects intensify, meaning missiles with better anti-multipath performance would require a sharper off-angle movement to generate sufficient multipath clutter.