We are talking about the first tier 8 fighters to join the game: MiG-29A 9.12/9.13, F16A/ADF/MLU, Yak-141. As we all know, when these aircraft were added to the game, due to the game environment and balance at that time, some missiles that were supposed to be carried were deleted. This includes the R-73 and R-27ET for MiG-29s; the AIM-9M for F-16s and the R-73 and R-77 for Yak-141s.
It’s been a long time now, and the environment for top air battles has changed a lot. The weapons of these fighters are largely obsolete. For the MiG-29, this problem is especially obvious. The relatively poor radar and poor mobility make its available tactics in the game very limited. After it finished using its own R-27ERs (only two), the stretched performance of the R-60s made it difficult for it to win in close combat. This problem is even more pronounced in Air SB. Due to poor sensor performance, the MiG-29 often has difficulty locking on to targets and shooting missiles before its enemies; even though the R-27ER has a huge performance advantage over the AIM-7M, the enemy can still easily pass through by 3/9 turns and chaff to neutralize the attack at a distance of more than 15 km, not to mention that the R-27ER has now lost its iconic mid-course silent attack capability.
For the current RB and SB BR of the MiG-29 and F-16A, we will find that even after the BR expansion, among the aircraft with only 0.3 BR higher, there have been some aircraft with better missiles, better sensors and better flight performance. Examples include the Su-27 and F-15A - not only do they have a larger bomb load, they also have lower BR weapons that were deleted from early tier 8 fighters. Now, these weapons-deleted aircraft must frequently compete against their larger, more capable cousins with intact weapons systems.
Of course, one might say that some of these aircraft received their more modern and improved versions, and some of them received missiles that had been deleted. Yes, such as the MiG-29G (which was actually the Germans’ own MiG-29 9.12), which received the R-73; and the F-16AM, which received the AIM-9M and AMRAAMs, etc. But it should be noted that in the game, they are not essentially the same aircraft we are discussing. For countries that lack these improved aircraft (the US F-16As are still unable to shoot AIM-9Ms in the game, and the Soviet MiG-29A cannot use its iconic R-73 in the game), the capabilities of these aircraft The problem remains unresolved. Players who fly these aircraft will also have an unpleasant experience in the game: they must use weapons that lag behind the current BR level to engage the enemy.
If I remember correctly, a long time ago our dear game production team promised us that it would only be a matter of time before the missing weapons were added to these aircraft (at least the MiG-29). Today, we have ushered in the phased array era of fourth-generation fighters, and these latest fighters are using much more advanced sensors and weapons to engage these prehistoric warriors in the same BR. If in the automatic match mode in the game, the performance may be affected by the player’s level, then I hope that the production team can - at least try - to conduct several RB and SB gladiator games, which will expose different aircraft Biggest weakness.
Yak-141 has R-27Ts, it doesn’t need R-73s.
Mig-29SMT and Mig-29G exist, the oldest Mig-29s don’t need R-73s.
F-16s with AIM-9Ms already exist, the older ones don’t need 9Ms. In-fact F-16A Block 1/5 should be added with maximum AIM-9Js.
And if your point is to complain about 13.0s - 13.7s the solution is to move most 13.0s - 13.7s up rather than harm great aircraft by increasing their BRs.
Personally, i would take the r27et with the outer pylons having the r27r.
All I’m hearing in your post is that we should be at 14.7 by now.
I like the current state more than what you want to add to those planes. Why does every thing need to be top tier. Cant we atleast have some planes that are a bit more modern than probs at a BR where we play an IR meta? I just enjoy it more but when they get such weapons they’ll need ti fight top tier everytime.
I need to point out that we are already facing the situation after the BR extension. Extending the BR further will only lead to the chaos of tier 8: only a few aircraft in each BR.
Yes, the higher-tier improved fighters have these missing weapons. But you will not have them at the beginning. Players will first get access to ordinary MiG-29s and F-16As, and some users (such as Chinese F-16As and American F-16As) will not be able to experience F-16As equipped with AIM-9M in the tech tree they are playing.
From the current combat, it is hard to think that these fighters do not need these missiles that have been removed. Even the MiG-21BISON with R-73 and HMD is in the lower BR… and the MiG-29 has almost no ability to fight back after firing two SARHs, and the most reliable weapon of the F-16As is its 20mm cannon (although it can beat almost any fighter in pure gunfight, but it needs to merge with its enemies alive)!
Even if they don’t get these weapons, they’re still fighting the top tier.
As I said, further BR extensions to tier 8 will only cause more chaos. At least not yet; we need to wait for tier 8 to have enough fighters to fill each BR after the extension, which will take a long time, and during this time we will be forced to use old-fashioned weapons to fight the top fighters.
I’d go all IR in SB, at least for a long time, and in RB a better SARH would be more valuable. The R-27ET is better for fighting those who are completely unaware of your presence, or never look over their shoulder.
Especially Yak-141, its all 4 pylons has same weight limit and R73/R77 is still out of its arsenal, which is weird for a VTOL jet (Think about Sea Harrier FA.2). I’d also agree with AIM9M for early F-16.