The devs recently stopped the F-14B from carrying both AIM-7 and AIM-54 missiles at the same time. They said it was because of “technical reasons.” The F14B suffers enough already, and it just makes the F-14B much worse in the game and isn’t how the real aircraft performed. While the game devs gave a “reason”, I think this makes F-14B weaker and less useful in the game.
More and more planes have “Fox 3” missiles, and the F-14B is now limited in what missiles it can carry. Because it can’t carry both long-range and medium-range missiles at the same time, players have to choose before the battle, which can really limit what they can do. If they pick mostly AIM-54s, they might have trouble with closer, mid-range, faster planes that can dodge the long-range missiles. If they pick AIM-7s, they lose their advantage in shooting down planes from far away and can be attacked by enemies from a safer distance. And some also say that the AIM-54 Phoenix in the game isn’t as good as it was in real life, it’s “slower” and doesn’t turn as well (though that is a separate issue that can be addressed at a later date). So, if the F-14B can only use AIM-54s, it’s even harder to fight against newer, more agile planes. The F-14B, in its current state, is finding it hard to compete at its rank of 13.0. Not being able to use the historical mix of missiles means the F-14B is not as good at dealing with different threats and is generally less effective in the game now.
I don’t think the “technical reasons” are a good enough excuse to remove this ability that the real plane had. Taking away the F-14B Tomcat’s ability to carry both types of missiles in War Thunder has definitely made it less effective. It can’t adapt to different situations as well and struggles against newer enemy planes. This change, even if there are technical reasons, goes against how the real F-14B was designed to carry both AIM-7 and AIM-54 missiles. Because of the strong historical evidence and how much this has hurt the plane’s performance in the game, the devs should really think about letting the F-14B carry both missiles again. If there are real technical problems stopping them from doing this, they need to find other ways to make the F-14B balanced at its current br. Also, if the developers actually explained the exact technical issues that caused this change, it would help us actually understand and maybe find a solution. The main goal should be to make sure the F-14B Tomcat is both somewhat historically accurate and a good plane to fly in War Thunder’s high-level battles.
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First off, you can still run AIM-7s with AIM-54s:
Secondly, it is a real thing that the AIM-54 rails require the cooling system.
The F-14B is currently historical accurate in War Thunder in this regard.
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Is that a fresh made loadout or an “illegal” loadout?
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holy crap wait did they fix it?
testing in game as of right now, will update if it is true.
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It does seem to be possible that you can carry AIM-7s on the wing, with AIM-54s on the tennis court. However, if you reverse it and put AIM-7s on the tennis court with aim54s on the wings the game does not allow it. It’s still weird thought and I feel like both combinations SHOULD logically be allowed.
Hmm… It’s possible, but I would have no idea. Would need to find a source(s) that it was possible I reckon.
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Correct, as of right now Alvis does seem to be correct. I’ll just dig through the flight Manuel since I’m stubborn.
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It might, it might not exist. I’d have to check for panel gaps on photographs.
Outside that the front part of the rails house the base cooling.
Historically ccurate or not. This is INCREDIBLY stupid. Gainin would rather nerf an already bad vehicle than fix it. Why not give the 9ls, and 9m people have been asking for months? That is also an historically accurate fix?
Weapon additions are balance reasons, not fixes.
Due to the br increase and this fix, i would not be surprised to see it get the aim9l during the next br balance.
It exists :)
What you currently cannot do is bring 54s on the underwing pylons without bringing the front fuselage 54 pylons (with or without missiles), which is super weird because it doesn’t seem like those would share cooling, but idk.
Also pls gib 9M gaijin pls thx u
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This is very cool info, thanks!
Thanks! just found out how to do it, been playing some games and well F14B is still underperforming. Always getting matched up against aircraft that outmatch me in every way, downtiers are fun tho.
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Seeing this info, I wish we could have the F14D, As well as some sort of fix for the F14’s poor performance. Such amazing aircraft, sucks to see them performing so poorly.
well then why is it just publicly available? I doubt the US government would let this slip, even then it’s all outdated hardware.
I’ve found that F-14B is a lot more bearable (and even enjoyable) in air sim mode, where it can even afford to bring some bombs if the match allows it. Finding lobbies can be challenging sometimes tho lol
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Pretty nice thread so far, no arguing or nothing lol.
Though if the f14 does get it’s 9l’s with the next br bump. When do you think that’ll be?
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