I just bought the F4S without looking in this forum and now I deeply regret it

Game Discussion Simulator Battle
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I’ve been playing this game for over 12 years now and am a big enjoyer of the SIM air battle mode. I played mostly all prop planes until now aside from dabbling with the Mig 21 and F-5. I wanted an aircraft that coulld engage in BVR and grind to top tier. So I test flew the F4S in Realistic and was happy with it. I should have checked it out in sim mode but I didn’t and that was a big mistake. The HUD doesn’t work correctly with locked targets and thats a big hindrance when trying to figure out what direction to engage the enemy. If you have anything obstructing the vision of trying to see the enemy its a guessing game trying to aim using your radar lock indicator.

Aside from that problem is the BR that the F4S sits at. if you watch Top Gun: Maverick then you know the lines Mav said about fighting 5th gen fighters is suicide well it translates to the BR you sit at in SIM. You are the lowest on the totem pole of fighters with finicky radar and BVR missiles that aren’t exactly BVR. I can only get the Sparrows to reliably work inside of 10 to 15 miles and by then whatever you’re tracking will out turn you, lock you up even stronger, send a more accurate missile… and its back to the drawing board.

In this case, its absolutely the plane and the pilot is lucky if he makes it out alive in any engagement. Your best hope for anything is to bomb bases like crazy and hope like heck you can make it back to your own side of the map and airfield before the enemy, which already knows your general direction based on the base you just killed erased from the map. They can then point their nose in your general direction while you get low, fly like heck and hope the enemy doesn’t acquire you on your way out of town. If they track you down… you can try and fight like I have tried… but you die.

I can’t close the distance without dying, If by some chance I DO get close, every fighter I come across does everything better than me. I’ve gotten 1 solitary kill in the F-4S against oddly enough a Mig-29 who I just happened to get lucky enough to see before he fired on me. I sent 3 sparrows and 1 finally got him by proxy. I looked at the hit feed on the replay and it barely got him. I’m talking max proximity away and a few fragments hit him and he died later on.

I believe the F4S should be reduced in battle ratings. I got the Mig-23ML also recently and it out performs the F4S at least for me in every way except for obviously bombing. The Mig-23 at a lower battle rating absolutely outperforms the F4S in every way in fighting air to air.

How is this possible? Am I just too much of a noob and its a skill issue? I clean house in the Mig-23 but I can’t manage hardly any air to air victories in the Phantom. Help!

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A common problem, but it may or may not have been reported, and if it has, it could be a long time till its fixed or may actually be correct. I dont know either way.

Play it in the 11.0-12.0 bracket and it will do well. You will only face Mig-23ML/MLDs and whilst they are very potent, you should be a clear match for them.

10-15km is more than enough to outrange R-24Rs on the Mig-23MLD, especially if you force them off the deck. Even in the Tornado F3, I rarely fire the Skyflash SuperTEMPS much past 15-20km. On most aircraft I fire within the LSZ, b ut I have no idea if that is modeled on the F-4S. In the Phantom FGR2, I rarely fire past 10km.

This is no different to any interdictor or bomber but unlike those, the F-4S is faster and can defend itself. With smart routing and proper use of terrain masking, this shouldnt be an issue (take this from someone who played the massively nerfed Tornado Gr1 vs Mig-29s and F-16s for nearly a year)

There is not much to say in this regard other than practice more. Though if you are struggling to use a 12.0 aircraft against strong 12.7 aircraft like the Mig-29 then this is too be expected. You SHOULD be weaker than those by quite a margin and if you were not, then you should be a higher BR>

Imo the Mig-23s are under-BRed by quite a margin and I wont comment either way whether the F-4S is over-BRed or not, but when compared to the FGR2/FG1, it has a lot of clear strengths over them.

Mig-23s have some crazy strong advantages that few others have until 12.0+

They are very fast, they have all-aspect IR missiles, they have some of the best short range SARH in game and they turn well. They also have LCMs so defending is easy. If they are under BRed as well, then its no surprise you will do well in them.

But as I said before. F-4S vs Mig-23MLD should be a reasonably fair fight, with you likely having the advantage in the F-4S. But F-4S vs Mig-29, well, now the Mig-29 holds every advantage and you should be much weaker. Instead you should be in the F-16A

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Iron Eagle fan i see

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F-4S is most braindead premium plane in the game

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Just need to wait for it to be a 12.0 top and you’ll do well!

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That.

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Love that movie. I wore many VHS tapes of that movie out as a kid. I even watched Iron Eagle 2 in the theaters when I was a young kid. Great movies

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You were not wrong at all. This time around it was 11.0 to 12.0 and I walked away with 7 kills without even getting a chance to drop bombs because I was hammering the enemy so hard in the air. Even without the hud cue I was able to devise some tactics to improve situational awareness. It all worked out brilliantly.

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