I personally think that they should’ve just held off on these three, as they would be somewhat advanced for initial AMRAAM/R-77.
As far as I know, the Japanese planes capable of using AAM-4 (namely the F-15J Kai or whatever it’s called now) are also capable of using the AMRAAM, and that’s in game.
The PL-12 capable planes, in general, are also capable of using the R-77 and could’ve gotten that instead - the PL-12 normal has a max range way too high for the current initial ARH missiles. Alternatively, they could’ve added a PL-12/E (PL-12/Early) that’s just an SD-10, which I think has reduced maximum range and in theory could be used by anything that could use a PL-12. Maybe then they wouldn’t have had to nerf it so hard.
MICA on the other hand is a bit hard, because iirc none of the MICA planes are capable of using the AMRAAM. In theory they could’ve done a similar thing to the PL-12/E (SD-10) and made a MICA RF/E that’s just a MICA but pre-production (and with lower range) so that they could add the real MICA later. Or they could make the MICA RF and MICA EM two different missiles even though I’m pretty sure they’re the same.
Also, this update seems very hasty. I think it might’ve been better if the ARHs were left to cook for like another year (at least a few more updates) because right now they feel like they were thrown in for the shock value/desire factor and not because the game actually needed it.
PL-12 ingame is already SD-10. That’s why it loses to AMRAAM. Also on the model it says SD-10. If it would have been PL-12 from the start, there would be more crying because it would be better than AMRAAM and at 12.3.
Can tell in game through the radar display, in long range shots the missile will go active and if the target manages to notch or go cold quick enough the seeker goes back to IOG until its abit closer and gets a MPRF lock.
In code is just a seeker with specific values, not two different for 2 signals. And we know how MPRF is modeled ingame(nothing different just lower notch speeds which isn’t a thing irl and max velocities) so don’t expect much of it. Mprf/hprf on amraams issue is probably just a balancing thing, you know how below room temp players can be + many middle schoolers.
Another goofy ahh AMRAAM deciding to change targets randomly.
Launch, Goes active.
Tracks MiG no issues. AMRAAM seeker has solid lock on MiG.
AMRAAM decides to switch target to a dissipated cloud of chaff, 90 degrees off the seeker head.
Now if it locked a just dispersed cloud right behind the MiG, i wouldn’t have too much of an issue, but the fact it swapped targets so a chaff plume that had been deployed a few seconds BEFORE the missile seeker locked the MiG…thats some goofy stuff.
What gives?
Am i missing something?
This isn’t the first time I’ve had my AMRAAM go goofy.
just a thought on my part, but it MIGHT be that the aspect was relatively close to the notch and the missile bit off on chaff?
Also, I think the sensor view shows the missiles main beam, but its possible the seeker still picked something up in its sidelobes? The ARH’s are all pretty bad with the notch from what I’ve seen, so thats my best guess at what happened with the info provided.
I think with the fox 3’s particularly, its harder to figure out if a plane is notching or not since the missile has its own onboard radar, so the relative angle and velocity of the target you get from your radar arent necessarily accurate to what the missile see’s.
That being said, the ARH’s all have REALLY large angleHalfSensitity (presumably to make the missile more reliable at finding the target when going pitbull?) but dont seem to compensate much in the sidelobe sensitivity aspect.
angleHalf/sidelobeSens:
7M: 10/-30
7M(F-14): 2.8/-35
7M(F-15): 3.0/-35
7M(F-16): 4.0/-32
R-27R/ER: 3.5/-35
SuperTemp: 2.6/-35
120A/R-77/MICA: 15/-30
54A/C: 9/-19
probs explains why the fox 3’s are so easy to decoy, and why the 7F/M (particularly on the F-4’s) tend to wander off to hit random targets sometimes
My current understanding is based on the idea that:
angleHalfSens → smaller = harder to decoy
sidelobeSensitivity → smaller (larger negative number) = harder to decoy
This would likely mean the SuperTemp is the hardest missile to decoy in-game, followed by the F-14’s AIM-7M (this doesnt account for the fact SARH’s require the planes radar to hold the lock tho. The AWG-9 is terrible at holding a lock so in practice the F-14’s 7M’s are likely on the easier end to decoy, but dont wander as much if it does hold its lock)
