oh, i was looking through it seemed they used an Indian export model, your probably right though.
nvm I remebered further that was for the 8 hard point micas not hmd
The reason is just blatant pandering. Gaijin figured out a way to make ppl buy french premium jets (making the Rafale wildly overpowered then buffing it ever patch since it was added). It has nothing to do with “balance”, the Rafale would still likely be the best jet in-game without the HMD, it would just make it more reasonable to deal with pending actual competitors.
Yes, the french never used an HMD on the Rafale F3R in service, it was apparently tested, and gaijin plays fast an loose with “tested” equipment, adding tested equipment to some jwts they like or can make money off of, and refusing to do so for other jets.
Most obvious/recent case of this dichotomy being the Rarale getting an HMD it tested, but the german EFT not getting PIRATE, which it tested, and is a literal drop in module anytime the germans decide they wanna add it.
Imo, jets should only ever get “tested” equipment when absolutely necessary to buff an aircraft that is underperforming or to fill a capability gap, neither of which the Rafales HMD and German EFT PIRATE fall into.
Yes, it is the easiest, most reasonable, and most historically accurate way to tone down the Rafale, but the Rafale mains cry bloody murder anytime its raised as a point, and the devs are never gonna do it in the first place, since they’re making tons of money by destroying air battles as a whole, and gaijin is all about that short term gain for long term pain.
Pretty sure that isnt the case, seeing as the person that made the Rafale thread in the first place and is generally the person Id trust the most on the forums about Rafale info was actively trying to stop it from getting the 2 extra MICA’s and last I checked still states it not to be a configuration of the French Rafale F3R.
Pretty sure the Rafale fanboys just spammed the devs with enough lies about the 8x missile load that they managed to get one through. The bug reporting situation around the Rafale in general in-game has been just filled with various lies from the bug reporters which gaijin seems to have been keen on letting slip through more often than not.
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iirc the thing with the dual R-77 racks theyre giving to every russian plane under the sun is even dumber than that.
Gaijin saw a pic at a weird angle of a plane and mistook the nacel R-77 for dual rack R-77, and when they were corrected by flanker fans (cuz unlike Rafale fans, they seem to actually be interested in accurate portrayals and balance) they just started ignoring the issue as a whole.
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I’ll trade 2 R-77/-1s on my Russian planes for Rafs being at a reasonable BR right here right now.
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I will also selflessly trade this mans missiles for a Rafale nerf
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Some people are really building themselves a narrative and not telling the full truth so I’ll do that here.
Yes, it’s true that in-service French Rafale F3R did not have HMDs. Why was it given? It’s because Gaijin had a standing policy LONG before the introduction of the Rafale that any aircraft that tested HMD, gets it. It has nothing to do with balance but a policy that applied to aircraft before the existence of the Rafale such as Yak-141, Mirage 2000-5F, Gripen A, and etc. This policy was without regard for balance for any aircraft in the game today or in the future without regard for balance.
Gaijin similarly did not have the same policy/rule for tested radar or IRST equipment. But people like to conflate a long-standing policy which is not subject to balance with the decision not to give the German Eurofighter its PIRATE. Tested radar/IRST did not have the same policy. The two are not the same, and there’s no “bias” towards the Rafale specifically no matter how much one may try to paint it.
This was probably an unforeseen problem on Gaijin’s end, they have to abide by their long-standing policy at the end of the day.
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There was even some sort of confirmation that dual rails on something like the Su30 would make the missile impact the airframe on launch lol. I can understand the su27sm receiving them as a balancing tool, but with the su30 they got no excuse…
It also should be reiterated that if there’s enough outcry about the Rafale F3R having HMD and 8 MICAs, Gaijin could easily just rename the aircraft to Rafale F4.1, and it would be historical and there would be no justification to complain about its feature. So there’s atleast a pathway here to its capabilities.
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Ok why does it have 8 MICAs?
- Because it is compatible
- Because loadouts are subject to more consideration than something like IRST/Radar, loadouts are regularly given more capabilities when the situation calls for it, but the same can’t be said for IRST/Radar as that is a rare occurrence and I’m not even sure of any aircraft that have been given more advanced radars/IRST besides prototypes (Mirage 4000 is one case, maybe Yak-141).
- Because export F3R Indian aircraft had them even though some may object to it being called the F3R standard
- Because it was given the 8 MICA and HMD long before all the other buffs that it got, so the decision to give it 8 MICA was out of balance consideration. Since then the Rafale had gotten ~24 buffs after being given the HMD and 8 MICAs, 14 buffs in the March patch alone.
So other than the HMD the 8 MICAs are not even proven to be on a French F3R Rafale?
French Rafales have been shown with the SP3 pylons having MICA missiles attached at airshows long before the F4.1 introduction. But nothing indicates in-service Rafales (F3R or prior) having these pylons fielded.
Ill take that as a yes
Policy that doesn’t take balance as a factor is a bad one and should be rethought.
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Gaijin jumped the gun in listening to french whining, another month or two of performance monitoring would have shown the Rafale to be dominant, even with 6 MICAs, having 8 means absolutely no thought goes into target prioritisation like with the Mirages
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But again, even if it was a policy that took balance into consideration, it would have still been given evidenced by the subsequent 24 or so buffs that it had gotten after it was given a buff.
And policy with double standard at that, as Eurofighter and now F-15GE have been denied their double racks for ARH Missiles, limiting combat capability where Rafale is not
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I think you haven’t been reading. He was talking about the HMD policy.
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HMD gets handed around to anything Gaijin feels like, and I agree with motorola, balance often isn’t considered, as seen with JAS-39A release
In fact if it was left with 6 MICAs and no HMD it would be kind of balanced, against 14.0 mirage at least.
So you could have either absolutely cracked FM and radar
OR
worse both, but with HMD which for a missile with exceptional HOBS capability is a big thing.
Not both.
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