If I knew why, I would tell you.
Personally I prefer the Tornado, but I can still do well with the FG.1
Getting AIM-9Ls, a boatload of CMs and a better radar is probably why people choose the F.3 over the Phantoms.
Looking at the match difference between the FG.1 and the FGR.2, it seems to me that people are more willing to give the FGR.2 a chance because it is on the way to the EF2K, people are more interested in that than the Hornets
… actually, thinking about it, it probably just boils down to the Tornado having stock AIM-9Ls AND Skyflashes
The FG.1 and FGR.2 start with 2 AIM-9Ds and nothing else
I would assume that they know. But Gaijin’s balancing, as we’ve seen, isn’t based on what a vehicle needs to be more competitive. It’s purely down to statistics. Hell if I know what the spreadsheets say, but since the UK Phantoms are what they are, safe to say their downgraded abilities don’t factor in too much.
It really is a shame that they don’t care about proper balance. It doesn’t really matter to them, if one vehicle has way better specifications than another, all that matters is how many rewards they earn on average.
The FG.1 and FGR.2 earn slightly more rewards on average per match than the F-4J, so they don’t want to touch them at all, so they don’t have to adjust them further.
An airspawn does not last you the entire battle. Anytime you maneuver, the better Spey engines are keeping you faster than any F-4J.
It’s not about dogfighting. If you have to turn hard to dodge a missile or get your nose pointing at someone to launch your own, you will be going faster and still accelerating faster.
But above all, it IS a significant UPGRADE over F-4J and S, unlike what morvran claimed.
Not that you should be maneuvering much in a hard wing phantom tbh, even the F-4E can reliably hold near mach 1 as long as you don’t enter a dogfight.
I’m pretty sure there’s almost no missiles you can defeat kinematically at this BR other than barrel rolling sparrows or outrunning IRs. As for having to point your nose, It’s another reason why the 4S/J is better, because it doesn’t have to turn to use its missiles with its HMD.
Is it an upgrade fm wise? Sure. Is it enough to stand alongside F-4S/Js? Imho no. The “better performance” doesn’t make up for your missiles having half the range as 7Fs.
These would be the “Devil in the Details”, something that we know Gaijin may have some trouble seeing. They tend to go by hard numbers rather. Which is why I harked on the “average game” so much. No matter what we think or what a vehicle can/can’t/should be able to do, the stats will tell the story.
It’s unfortunate, but par for course development wise.
Once you drop something in game, other than changing hard stats, all you can go on is player performance. Which, while I disagree with somewhat, does at least provide some mind bogling consistency.
Player do good: Thing go up.
Player do bad: Thing go down.
Everything equal (for the most part): Leave and do not touch.
I do wish that vehicle capability was factored in more, but over the years I’ve also learned that the average player experience is sometimes lost on us. I know it’s lost on me sometimes.
I always think that I am a bad player, especially in GRB, but it’s always surprising to see how bad players can actually be.
I really want to see the game become more balanced, but all we can do is complain and hope that more people will start asking for BR decompression.
Until then, I guess I should join the rest and exploit under-BR’d vehicles more. Sadly the vehicles that I enjoy playing never end up having their BRs lowered… RiP Churchill Crocodile :(
