Should the F-5E FCU Be Balanced in Simulation Mode? A Review of User Experience

Machinery of War Discussion Aircraft
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Hello friends,

The F-5E FCU in simulation mode isn’t performing as well as I expected, and it’s really disappointing for me. This imbalance is making me concerned about my overall experience.

To improve game balance, I believe it would be more appropriate to adjust the plane’s battle rating to 11.3. This is just my personal opinion, though, and I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please let me know in the comments whether this suggestion makes sense or not. The goal here is balance, and I don’t want to unintentionally cause more issues by making the plane too powerful or too weak.

Now, let’s break down the F-5E’s weaknesses:

1-Lack of IFF: This severely hampers situational awareness and target identification.
2-Weak engine power and flight performance: While it has decent energy retention and maneuverability, the aircraft struggles to keep up in higher-tier battles (11.7-12.7), where planes like the F-14 and MiG variants dominate with their long-range missiles. The F-5 ends up being a target that’s easier to track and shoot down.
3-Radar performance: The radar is not effective for search capabilities, mainly just alerting enemies to your presence without offering much advantage in return.
4-Limited countermeasures: The F-5 lacks sufficient chaff and flares, making it highly vulnerable in dogfights or against missile threats.
5-Limited ammunition capacity: The F-5 can’t carry as much ordnance as some of its higher-tier counterparts, putting it at a disadvantage in sustained engagements.

On the positive side, the F-5E has two main strengths:

1-Python missiles: These give it some air-to-air capability (Please, don’t mention the AIM-9P4 because while it’s an all-aspect missile, it’s still just a variation of the AIM-9P and doesn’t change its overall role).
2-Modern HUD: It helps in managing situational awareness and providing useful flight data, even though it’s not enough to compensate for its other shortcomings.
If anyone has additional thoughts, data, or ideas for improving the F-5E’s performance, I’d be interested to hear. I’m aiming for a well-rounded and fair solution, and your feedback would be valuable to that discussion.

Lastly, please remember that despite the small embellishments, the F-5E FCU is still an F-5E :)

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As a player who has faced a lot of F5E-FCU, I think I can give you an opinion on the plane and its Br from an outside point of view.

For me the plane is in a complicated position, as you said it has its faults and its qualities but to make it go down to 11.3 would be to say that it is equivalent to an F-5E, which is an aberration. You say the F-5E FCU is “just” an F-5E but it’s not, having four missiles all aspect compared to 0 is not a change to neglect

For the moment I think that the plane is in the right place, indeed it suffers in the games 11.7-12.7 but as soon as the Br is more to its advantage it can completely dominate the other players.

The only real solution to this solution would be a decompression of the Br, that would allow it to face planes that are really equal to it.

EDIT: I just test drove it and noticed that it has a good HUD, that’s a real advantage in simulation + you can slave your missiles to the radar, witch the F-5E can’t

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Thank you for your thoughts

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The F-5E FCU is my most preferred fighter, actually

Yes, it is in a tricky spot: bad radar, no IFF, limited countermeasures, BUT good flight performance, a very good RWR, and four all aspect IR missiles.

I have a kill/death ration of over 10:1 in this thing, and had a streak with about 30 kills without getting shot down once, sadly now broken. Yes, my stats don’t reflect that ratio, because the majority of deaths there are teamkills, which I personally don’t count into the ratio.

Tip: Turn off your radar - it helps your enemy more than it helps you!

Only use the radar in ACM mode against targets that already know you’re there.

All other times, keep it silent to not alert them of you being there, using RWR and your Mk.1 Eyeball to find targets, the terrain to hide and sneak up to them.

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Yes, you’re right about what you said. Since I’m not a very skilled player, the 11.7 battle rating felt very challenging for me.

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Haha well my pulse is also rarely higher than when I fly the Thaiger!

It’s a challenge, but rewarding…