Lately I have been observing some strange behaviour in some players. This has happened multiple times and I am not writing after 1 or 2 examples. Even in one single Air RB, this happened twice in 30 seconds with two different F-5s. The example is that I am diving 80-90 degrees for a stealth IR Missile shot from high, they are busy with turning with 1 or 2 of my teammates but no one else than me is in a place to strike them, they are safe. As soon as I get an IR lock from above, and not one milisecond before or after, they drop flares, without even me launching the missile, just the IR lock. Now you may say they may have dropped flares because they were in a dogfight and just to be sure but this has happened many times and the moment I get an IR lock from their blind spot when they are busy with someone else. Seemed so suspicious, with the addition of MAW mechanic to aircraft(F-111) maybe a new kind of cheat program became available(I know MAW was in the game before with Helis but maybe codes are different for aircrafts). I just opened this topic because I wonder if others experience the same thing.
Do bear in mind that many players (myself included) will often just whack out the odd flare randomly even if no ‘obvious’ threat is visible. Particularly in matches where you have MiG-23s and their long-range thermal seekers like the 24T - the number of times the odd random flare has saved me is not inconsiderable. Even more so the case with some of the aircraft with plenty of flares to spare (Harrier GR7 says hi) - I’ll pump out a flare or two virtually every couple of seconds if I get even the slightest suspicion that I’m in danger.
Alas, you have no way of knowing that your intended target didn’t see you legitimately. They might be aware of someone above them and be pre-flaring to pre-empt precisely the shot you are trying to pull off. Would you not do the same? They might have been taken out a few times before by a stealthy IR shot from above and be particularly alert to it happening again. You just don’t know…
None of the above dodges the issue that some players might be using some dodgy skullduggery. I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t exist in some form. However in many cases it might just be that you’re dealing with someone who is being vigilant to their surroundings (a useful skill at top-tier RB where it is a complete cluster-fudge / air-quake) and/or lucky in that instance.
i agree that there may be some cheat with MAW, but i may use some flare when there’s even no enemy is close to me, i use flare with no reason or when they just appeared in my minimap or just seen them, ive seen many times that about 0.1s later they shoot missile to me when i just use some flares, so the best way to know if they are cheater or not is watch the server’s record but not determine by your own experience
I pop a flare when I feel like I may be in danger also. And being in high situational awareness mood does happen to me also. I know the situations you have both described and I agree they are legit but the moment the acq circle turning from grey to red was the same moment they popped flares and not even a milisecond seperation and in all cases the target had no other threat than me and since I was high and directly above them and without any enemy that can spot me, contesting high altitude area with me, it seemed very odd at every example, even with ace crew you can’t spot an aircraft in that position and since I was diving +1 mach they could not hear me either. The thing that flares were popped not one milisecond before or after and that exact moment of ir lock and this happened multiple games multiple times multiple people made me feel like there is a new cheat program that has been spread among a certain group of players. Also one of the reasons it feels suspicious to me is that the moment of ir lock is an instance in game codes, there are code lines turning grey circle to red and making the missile available for launch etc. so feels like a cheat program can draw this info from the server.