I dont play a lot of air so I dont have many controls for top tier air battles but I recently got the Iranian F-14 and have no idea how to set up the controls for the F-14 or the radars in general for top tier. I have tried watching YouTube videos on how to set up the controls but none of them work in using the F-14s radar to lock planes. The only thing ive been able to get to work is the ACM radar but that doesnt work long range and that is what the F-14 is known for, Phoenix’s. I came on here looking for some tips to setting up the controls and figuring out how to work the radar, I understand the different radar types and how they work I just dont know how to set a key bind to lock targets at far range, every time I do what the video tells me to it turns on the lock for a brief second, doesnt lock, then I get blown out of the sky by someone who does know how to use the radar.
Hey man! It’s indeed a bit complicated but once you get going you’ll know how to use it.
I recommend the tutorial from Tim’s Variety over on YouTube, excellent content creator whose guides on planes helped my in the past, and I’m sure his radar video is no different. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Weghk_2DpfA
Glad to see you figured out ACM tho, as that’s going to be crucial in locking targets within visual range! However, if you are indeed new here there’s a few things you’ll need to learn to be able to compete against the other players who are more familiar with this landscape:
1: Pulse Doppler (PD radar mode): I’m the simplest terms, a Pulse Doppler radar gets radar returns from targets heading towards or away from the aircraft/radar. The means no more radar getting return from the ground and only being able to lock people high in the sky. However that means that if a target is heading in a direction perpendicular from your aircraft/radar, you won’t be able to lock it, or you may lose a lock on a aircraft that turns away from you (see tip #3, notching for more info on this)
2: Multipathing: multipathing is an effect older radars and radar guided missiles experienced back in the day. In the simplest terms I can put it, flying between 0-60 meters above the ground will cause any radar missile fired (or you firing a radar missile at an enemy whose also between 0-60 meters above the ground) will cause the radar lock to appear below your plane, and the missile will either fly under you or slam into the ground in front of you. It’s a lot more complicated in real life, but this is the simplest way to explain it.
3: Notching: notching is when you turn the direction of the plane to be at an exact or near 90 degree angle to the plane that is locking/firing a radar missile at you, and use your keybind to deploy Chaff. This will (most of the time) cause the enemy radars to lock into the chaff instead of your aircraft.
4: Going cold: This tactic is best used against ARH missiles (if you don’t know what ARH is then that’s quite the problem…). Simply put just turning your aircraft around and heading away from the missile, and preferably while dropping chaff. It makes it harder for enemy aircraft’s radars to maintain a lock, and missiles to be more likely to be fooled by chaff.
If you have any other questions, or just a “hey why did this happen” kind of question, feel free to ask :D
Yeah I understand the different radar types and how they work, I just dont know how to set up the controls and how to key bind everything or how to work the keybinds, it is weird when I keybind everything and the ACM radar works just the main radar that the Tomcat is known for, locking stuff at like 30 kilometers or fire and forget Phoenix’s the keybinds just wont work for and I am stuck to using Phoenix’s at a max range of 9 km which just isnt how the jet is supposed to be played. Thanks for the info though ill take into note all of that I just need to know how to set up the key binds.
Did you watch the video from Tim? It should have gone into that section and explained it a bit better.
If it still didn’t make sense I can try to explain it myself for ya