54s are still pretty terrible even after the ARH tweaks, then again I cant say I’m really surprised given gaijin more or less just ignoring that they exist even to now.
Beyond hitting afk people I still dont really see a use for the F-14s in general in game beyond rank fodder.
I don’t think the Phoenix has had any tweak whatsoever during the gazillion of dev server changes this update got. At least those new fox-3 are at 13.0, so a full uptier. (minus stuff like f-4f ICE and av8b+).
Which is why I’d rather not get aim-9M and get bumped to 12.3 at least. Not worth it if the phoenix are gonna stay the same (shit).
I agree, maybe it could be worthwhile if it got the AIM-7P or MH with the 9Ms but frankly I cant see gaijin making those missiles better even though they are.
Heck I’d rather the above two AIM-7s and just leave the B where it is so it can have useful radar AAMs.
idk I just scored a player kill with all six in my first match with the F-14A
4th generation fighter aircraft from USN & USMC armed AIM-7P
For USAF 4th generation fighter aircraft
F-15E and F/A-18A/B Hornet mounted AIM-7MH ?
The suggestion for such missile outright states that the B and D can employ the 7P, after all, F-14Bs were serving alongside Ds until the F-14 exited service in 2006.
Think it got overridden, but basically just got lucky with enemy positioning so could TWS guide all the way into target for each
Also has anyone else experienced an issue where after you fire your missiles off, if you turn away while still in TWS mode all of your missiles in flight will turn the same way you turned away?
I had the same issue before the patch dropped
I think I did too but I never really noticed it since only the F-14 had it and I wasn’t really playing.
I bet it has something to do with the gimbal edge memory the radar’s have, it thinks the target is moving faster than it should because the radar is trying to aquire the target at the edge of the gimbal but the target is no longer there and it transmits the data wrong
Yeah its a known issue with TWS ingame. If you turn passed your gimbal limit the radar will create a false TWS lock along its edge for a bit afterwards, and the midcourse nav will pull all thr missiles that way. The more you turn away, the worse it gets for your missiles, sending them all to a “target” that never existed and is far away from what you actually fired on. Always turn TWS off before your target leaves the gimbal limit if you were cranking/going cold
It’s a shame this wasn’t fixed with all the ARH/radar changes they made
Has it been bug reported?
Not that i know of. I dont make bug reports anymore, though a few ppl recently seem to have also “discovered” the issue so maybe one of them did.
It only effected the F-14 until now, and most of the community hates the F-14, so nobody really bothers bug reporting it unless its to get it nerfed.
Maybe now that theres more fox 3’s ingame someone will do something about it, but i doubt that as well since most of the fox 3’s are better used at ranges where their seekers lock off the rail anyways.
It’s actually kind of nice now that the newest top-tier jets with AMRAAMs are around 13.0 which specifically lets the F-14A have some breathing room and some fun to play again with the AIM-54As, especially with the multipath changes.
Have you determined what are the best parameters in game to achieve max Pk ? I mean with the current shitty code
Imo, anything under an impact velocity of M2.0 in-game might as well be considered a dead missile vs a semi competent target due to the amount of warning they get and how poorly the missile maneuvers. An adjustment to the guidance code/loft profile could vastly improve that higher pK% zone without significant impact to TTI and no other changes to the missile.
Heres a few more charts to get a rough idea of IV and TTI for the AIM-54C at different alts:
You have put a great deal of work into this, im honestly surprised that the devs have ignored this… In any case, thank you vm, I 'll apply what you suggest and see how it goes.
In all honesty, when people were calling the 54 useless and all that a couple of patches ago, I had no issues with scoring 2-3 kills per match with 4 phoenixes. Then something changed and I dropped to 1kill per game on average and havent improved that since. The TWS jumping all over the place and chacing ghost signals doesnt help either…
No problem, its pretty unfortunate the devs have chosen to implement the AIM-54C the way they have, not much we can do about it though unfortunately.
Regarding the “useless” comment; the AIM-54 was objectively useless in the context of “meta”. Skilled players almost never die to them. I myself, as well as many player I play with can literally count our deaths to one on one hand. That does not mean its impossible to get kills with though, as the AIM-54 is a great tool for killing ppl who dont know what theyre doing. Effectiveness of a missile such as the AIM-54 tends to drop as people learn and adapt to its existence. In the past, this was with the proliferation of multipath as a common evasion tactic in-game.
Its also important to say that, like you’ve noticed, there are still ways to improve the pK% of an AIM-54, and therefore there are objectively players that are “better” at using them, general due to having a better understanding of the missiles in-game characteristics and doing a better job at target selection.
