I’ve recently finished spading the Belgian F-104G and it was an awful experience. Even after unlocking all flight mods. Compared to other 11.0s, it has nothing other than acceleration. If you want to win, there is no reason to play the F-104Gs.
This is of course a result of the F-104 blanket flight model nerf to reduce the effectiveness of the 9.3 F-104s, and the already mediocre late F-104s became next to useless, and have yet to receive any kind of compensation.
What I think should happen:
- German and Belgian ones get moved down to 10.7 with not changes
- Chinese one gets moved down to 10.3. 10.3 is already an insanely high BR for no countermeasures.
- Italian one gets moved down to 9.7 with countermeasures and AIM-9J removed, fills the early supersonic gap for Italy. F-104S fills the late F-104 niche already.
As for the F-104S and .ASA, they at least get radar missiles, which are a game-changer especially after the buffs
Has anyone found a way to make the F-104G work in Air RB? I would like to know
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F104s beyond 9.3 is essentially not worth flying
almost everything can catch you with decent missiles but everything can also outmaneuver you
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Yes, that’s exactly my point. For an aircraft family in 6 tech tress, this shouldn’t be acceptable
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That’s not all—not only is their BR way too high, but unfortunately, the F-104s have been waiting for three years for the EEGS and IRST—which they also had in real life—to be implemented in the game; I’m afraid these aircraft have been written off by Gijin, first, because their BR is far too high relative to their combat capabilities, and second, because they lack some of the features they had in real life. For example, the F-8E Crusader has both EEGS and IRST at a BR of 10.7, but the “pencils” don’t.
Community Bug Reporting System (IRST accepted report - 3 years ago)
Community Bug Reporting System (EEGS accepted report - 3 years ago)
And now for the best part: in the latest major update, pencils finally got detailed internal module models. It was the perfect moment to add the missing features—so what did the devs do? NOTHING.
PS:
The iconic auxiliary fuel tanks on the wingtips aren’t in this game either, and they’d be really useful in SB mode. Plus, they look awesome.
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The crusader lost its EEGS recently
The 104 (at least 104J) has the rangefinder in the cockpit
And how would wingtip tanks help in ASB? You can’t drop them, can you?
I found 2/3 fuel load sufficient, using the burner beyond first stage is often pointless anyway
That’s right, the F-8E did indeed lose its EEGS in the last major update because, according to Gaijin, there were indications that it didn’t actually have one—but I don’t know what difference that makes for the F-104, which already had EEGS in IRL?.. There’s still no shortage of aircraft in the BR range of ~11.3–11.7 that still have their EEGS (JA37C, MiG-23ML/D, etc.).
I’ve played a bit of the F-104S TAF simulation battles, and on some maps I could give up two AIM-9s in favor of those fuel tanks—I often had to abort missions and return to base due to running out of fuel, even if I’d been conserving it beforehand. Besides, these tanks are an iconic feature of this aircraft; their absence is like an F-14 without folding wings… A major oversight on the part of the Gaijin devs.
Besides the ones on the wingtips, it also had the option to mount underwing tanks—those are missing as well… The starfighters have no additional fuel tanks at all.
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The F-104G+ are among the very, very few aircraft that are just legitimately overtiered and not compressed.
F-104G (China) → 10.3 or add countermeasures (if they actually did have them I don’t recall what the conclusion was in that discussion)
F-104G (Germany, France) → 10.7
F-104G (Italy) → 10.3 or 10.7 and add 2x AIM-9Js (if they actually did have them again I don’t remember)
F-104S/S TAF → 11.0
F-104S.ASA → 11.3
Then add the F-104S.ASA/M at 12.0 with AIM-9L(I), the “early” German F-104G at 9.7 with AIM-9B/FGW2, and there’s probably a similar early configuration possible also for Italy and Belgium.
Also, the F-104C should receive AIM-9E.
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The BR change proposals have nothing for the F-104s. I guess gaijin really are fine with their performance… somehow
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