Most educational.
I guess it is also down to Harriers unique heat signature due to having a very odd nozzle set up compared to more traditional jets.
I guess BOL pods could be reviewed on an individual basis, rather than blanket buff them.
What is the total capacity of Harrier BOL pods?
However it wouldnt solve a problem without creating more problems.
I have been playing the Lazur for a while now, and I can easily say that at 11.0 it is too easy to fool a missile already. Rear aspect, visibily afterburning, below 1km and I still see R-60MKs being fooled by a flare, while opponent is flying straight.
Bring the BOL pods to the equivalence of Large Countermeasures, and Gaijin created a problem similar to what we had with Multipathing. That it takes way more skill to get a kill, than to avoid being killed. The Gripen back in the days was basically untouchable, while it could kill you with relative ease.
It would not necessarily reinforce the dogfighting meta as people would all just use BOL pods (or similar), set it to autorelease, and basically remove one aspect of the game completely. People will from then on do everything to avoid IR missile gameplay, given how bad it is, instead of jamming WEZ, or avoiding being in IR missile range.
At 11.0 with the Lazur… Im not saying its a bad aircraft. But the gameplay is awful. Its basically playing stealth IR ambush, without a stealth aircraft (but yeah we also have markers).
So yeah bring the BOL pods to the level of large countermeasures, and the game will even be worse for lower tiers where BOL is already a thing and relies mostly on non-top-tier IR missiles, and top-tier stock grinds.
Its not just BOL that needs a rework. And as you have seen, I am not against “buffing” the BOL pods - my NO is in favour of it; but it cannot just happen on its own without changes to other aspects that are involved with the BOL-pods. High/Top-Tier IR missile warfare should not downgrade to what it is like now at 11.0.
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Yes - if decompression happens along with a rework of how heat and IR seekers are handled. Rear aspect afterburner straight should at least be a 50-50 for the missile, and here I am talking about like below 1km. Currently its 0% for the missile, its too easy. Ive seen a post somewhere, where it says that the 9L could reject flares within 1 km, with like 62-80% chance depending on launch distance. I understand one shouldnt compare the 9L and the 60M… my 60MKs at times reject flares within 800 meters, at times they go for flares even at 600 meters…
Top-tier stock grind would have to be changed/buffed again then, cause with the limited missile loadouts TT jets get as stock, it will be just worse off for them, essentially having to gun-grind, because BOL pods will simply nullify the threat of missiles ever hitting your jet.
Eventually we will get IR missiles with imaging seekers which will nullify BOL pods - I guess.