I mean, unfortunately in WT, TCS is pretty mid/useless. For sim it can kinda help ID planes like a TGP without affecting flight performance, but thats about it. Its still lacking some very crucial abilities which were literally bug reported the day of the first dev server for the F-14B and passed to devs with great primary source documentation.
The lack of radar slaving and independent search function is brutal, and has effectively gutted the F-14B of one of its sensors, which would tylically be unacceptable (imagine the shitshow the russian mains would make if their jets didnt have IRST in-game), but since its the F-14, probably the jet the community loves to hate the most, nobody really bats an eye.
Also, the “early” and “late” designation are just a cop out by gaijin to get you to stop asking about certain munitions and sensors on certain jets, or to justify terribly questionable loadout decisions that make no real sense.
But it still makes sense, especially with the F-14A, since the Vietnam War era F-14A and the 2003 Iraq War era F-14A are completely different from each other in terms of avionics.
Would be awesome if we gets both variants but if they implement the 1980’s F-14A, even if it is the F-14A from the actual TOP GUN movie I may riot. It doesn’t have huge difference from F-14A we currently have except TCS.
The problem is, we dont “get” late variants if we have an early. There are some rare exceptions to the rule, and both are terrible as well (A-10A and F-4F’s)
The A-10A only got split into an “Early” and "Late variant so gaijin could make money off the A-10 hype despite the fact it should never have been a premium.
The F-4F “Early” was an event vehicle despite being late to the german tree by literally over 1 year (the F-4E was added an entire year before it, and all other F-4’s at the time were added even earlier than the E), and did not ACTUALLY represent an F-4F “early”, since it ran AIM-9J’s it never actually used in service because gaijin KNEW it was DOA with no CM’s and AIM-9F’s at that point (it should have been added along with the british phantoms over a year beforehand, maybe even alongside the F-4C)
The F-4F “Late” on the other hand, ALSO extremely late, and actually DOA for the BR it was placed at originally, never got its historical AIM-9L’s and STILL doesnt have them to this day, making it an extremely lackluster plane at 10.7.
If gaijin wants to do “Late” mods, they should make them modifications for the aircraft, like russian tank mods. This actually makes more sense for aircrafts since, unlike tanks, in the most common gamemode for aircrafts (air RB) you only get 1 respawn, so extra aircrafts that are just modifications of the base aircrafts cannot be brought as spares, meaning extra aircrafts are literally only there to make the grind longer.
As far as I know, early one couldn’t carry and launch x4 AIM-9Ls irl.
That’s just balancing issues.
If Gaijin fixed current BR compression, F-4F may gets AIM-9Ls but, with the current meta, that would be impossible. 10.7BR x4 AIM-9L carriers would be insane and, 11.0BR F-4F is still questionable because there are no ways for dodge AIM-9Ls if you are on flareless supersonics.
I assume that they will have to split the same aircraft as “Early” and “Late” because there are fewer variants that can be implemented for the third generation and later jets compared to props and early jets.
It’s literally part of the actual designation, the only difference between the A-4E Early and Late is which INS they use(AN/ASN-19A as with earlier A-4s or the updated AN/ASN-41), they are otherwise functionally the exact same aircraft, it should be the exception to the rule since its not Gaijin making things up, not that it isn’t missing other things, like the outer wing station Sidewinders and AIM-9Ds, among others.
Hell no, unless they fix the phoenix (Aim-54C - 25G, lofting, smokeless) I’d rather keep the aim-9L and stay at 12.0 than facing teams of 13.0 aircrafts with 35-40G fox-3 missiles.
That’s one of the main things I was looking forward to with this update.
The proliferation of FOX-3s means the Phoenix is no longer unique or best in class, and can safely be buffed without raising balancing concerns. Provided it’s BR chances accordingly, of course.
It doesn’t seem like we’ll get the buffs this major update, unfortunately.
I dont think the F-14D will be particularly good at this point if gaijin doesnt fix the AIM-54C and the only improvement it offers weaponry-wise is an AIM-9M and AIM-7P tbh. The AIM-54C being modelled like utter garbage is really holding the platform back imo.
I am however excited about getting an F-14 with a good radar though.
Id much rather they just actually fix the AIM-54C’s finally so that it comes as a compeititve aircraft vs the other fox 3 slingers, instead of a cool collectors item nobody should play if they want to be competitive.
