Recently, Smin commented regarding the change for F-14B/D:
Due to the upcoming changes to the F-14B and F-14D, there would be little to no reason to use the AIM-9L (excluding when you are on stock grind) when the AIM-9M is available. Therefore, I propose adding the AIM-9L to the F-14A while keeping it at its current BR of 12.7.
At 12.7, the F-14A regularly faces peer aircraft that already have access to all-aspect air-to-air missiles, such as the F-15A with AIM-9Ms, the Yak-141 with R-73s, the F/A-18A/C with AIM-9Ls, the F-16AJ with AIM-9Ls, and the MiG-29 with R-60Ms (yes, I know the R-60M is generally considered the weakest of these all-aspect missiles, don’t @ me).
As it stands, out of sixteen 12.7 jet fighters, the F-14A is the only fighter at 12.7 without access to an all-aspect infrared-guided missile. Giving it AIM-9Ls as its most advanced heat-seeking missile would be a fairer change that doesn’t significantly affect overall balance.
wholeheartedly agree. however with improved missiles they do need to move up a little bit. We cant afford another IRAF event situation where it was nothing but tomcat vs tomcat for months
I don’t think it would hurt to give it Ls and leave it at 12.7, I’m pretty sure there is nothing at 11.7+ that has no CM’s to deal with it and it’s not like they cant shoot you in the face in a head on with a sparrow anyway, what’s it matter if they can do it with a sidewinder too?
I think they should remodel A and remove “Early” and give it a TCS and AIM-9L. It will be same specifications as armament that F-14A use in 80s. and also Top gun correctly.
If it moves up in BR, sure. The F-14A is also the only 12.7 with ARH missiles. It’s a lot better than, say, the 12.7 MiGs. Adding AIM-9L without any BR change would just be powercreep to double down on compression instead of addressing the core issue of most other 12.3-13.3s being undertiered.
i’d not say 9L is something surprising at 12.3 already. yes, good missile, but not superior to [fixed] r-73. i’d rather drop down mig-29s in BR because 12.7-13.3 already has monster jets at both sides
So not only doubling down on compression but tripling down. Do you not see the problem that constant performance buffs and BR decreases causes? Do you really wish for 11.3s to fight MiG-29s?
It’s not like 9L would make it so strong it would push up the BR, I mean look at the F-4E in Nuclear Thunder, the MiG-23MLD and even ML is still way stronger after it has used up it’s R-24s.
I dont think an all aspect IR missile is worth uptiering it to SU30 hell considering even AIM-9Ms, magic 2s and R73s are so insanely common at that br already, that a standard all aspect missile isnt gonna change too much aside from making fighting said SU30s less one sided
i don’t see any major efforts for decompression, much more to add unnecessary armor to one of best tanks in game. we already have 11.3 and 11.7 fighting horenets and f-14a/yaks, when pig-29 just sits there. while RB can be arguable topic, in sim 9-12 was already been lowered which doesn’t make much problem to digital hornets, and 9-13 deserves same treatment
