As a Russian/German player I got my first real taste of what an HMD is after the su27sm finally got one that is all encompassing with our kit (for the most part) like the Americans have as low as 12.0 with the F4S. Not even sure if we will keep the 20km HMD on the su27 as I’m sure without looking there are a dozen bug reports about it being ahistorical from those fanatics over there (what happened to the mig23 is a travesty).
And after learning for quite some time how to deal with radars, modes etc, I find that because of the spotting mechanic (name tags above planes up to what 30-40km away) that the HMD takes all of that knowledge and skill and just tosses it out the window to a simple point and click adventure 80% of the time. I play a little sim, and playing the SM there the HMD goes from my main way to target things, to essentially a gimmick, so its really just in ARB that it feels cheesy.
It also seems like balance wise HMD is hardly considered, it BLOWS MY MIND the F4S is 12.0 with a 20km HMD and 6 sparrows, while I’ve been fighting it in something that gets no HMD, and a basic search radar and a maximum of 2 SARH missiles every single match outside of sim where I can hide from it. The difference between having an HMD and not having one has to be on par if not worse than going up against a tank without thermals when they have gen 3, yet we see thermals clearly being factored into GRB ratings.
PS: Is there a way to switch to HMD easily while in a radar search mode? The amount of times im in say TWS HDN looking for people only for 3 guys to pop up with name tags within 10km and I’m frantically pressing my key bind for ACQ>HMD only for nothing to happen spilling my spaghetti turning my radar completely off back on again then going into HMD I don’t even want to think about. Not sure why it gets hung up, its to the point I just camp HMD after taking off almost so it doesn’t happen. Also its REALLY fun having to cycle through ACQ mode only for it to lock onto a missile or some random junk and fumbling with that to get to HMD.
thanks I’ll give that a go tonight. I did notice looking back on some replays that I’d be locking onto missles, and even going as far as firing at them like they are planes when trying to actually BVR. Aside from closure rates which I’m not great at discerning (seems most planes are like 600m/s and missles are obviously higher, but even then I’m still confused sometimes. Maybe its just the Russian radars being dogwater, seems better on the F4F ICE.
Was about to say. The missile you are most likely to ever lock is the Phoenix due to its size. The closure rate you stated are right, anything above 600m/s is usually a missile
Finally got around to trying out what you were talking about, definetely start using it more often.
But IDK if its just russian radars, but sometimes ill see someone’s name tag like 5/10/15km away and the TWS just takes a fucking eternity to pick them up, and using HMD just seems like it would be faster. Also TWS and especially HMD just love locking onto missles, even against an SU27 firing R77’s i repeatedly locked the missiles he was shooting over and over again instead of his plane.
I feel like a big thing stopping me from getting better or at least more kills in a match right now is simply target aquisition. I feel like im constantly fighting the radar to get a lock on something, absolutely spilling spaghetti everywhere half the time for whatever reason, be it the radar wont pick something up and then fumbling over to HMD or ACQ catching something I didn’t want on the way to HMD, the TWS cyclic targeting being goofy, locking onto missles all the time etc.
That is just russian radar, especially their TWS is slow to pick up things then its prone to lose them for any reason or no reason.
Mig-29SMT is much needed upgrade yet it still feels mid compared to F-16 radars besides having 170 degrees gimbal for near notching while still guiding stuff.
Ya I also notice the TWS will fail to hardlock the current target about half the time whereas the F18 radar on the only other “top tier” jet I fly RN the ICE almost never happens.
I also notice the TWS soft lock will give a green or single red circle lock a lot more than a hardlock on the 27sm
Keep in mind radar contacts information is stored relative to the aircraft ie this and that elevation, distance and bearing. Thus if you obtain radar contact using classic Search modes or Russian “non sticking” TWS like on Mig29/Su27, then you pull nose up/down/sideways, then you try to obtain solid radar lock, radar will scan empty sky based on stored radar contact elevation/bearing, ignoring fact your aircraft changed course.