OK - did that - 5 games, 4 wins and a loss - managed player 1 kill in 4 games ,3 in the other, a few AI assault a/c and a few ground units. Didn’t get killed, only had to dodge 1 missile and was lucky to survive a head on vs a Mig 15.
Certainly the RB xp bonus is good, but I was never the player who broke the other side!!
Just the top tier needs go up. 12.0 is too low for actual topdogs. Raise to 14.0 and decompressed everything below !
Wrong topic, and you need to prove that ground is able to be decompressed to that level mathematically.
At least your 14.0 is actually within provable range.
Now you know how easy it is to fly the F-104A/F-104C.
I usually bring ROCAF one because of matchmakers but, It is not difficult to get ace game in the 10.3BR maches as long as you take care of your positioning. Yes… the AIM-9Gs are indeed horrible, but when most of the aircraft launching them are AV-8As, they are not that hard to deal. Also, If they fire AIM-9L/R-60M from the front, you can disable their missiles by using your AIM-9B as a decoy.
It was a total PITA - taking the area of Texas to make a 180 - there were bot planes doing circles that out-manoeuvred the Sidewinders ffs… even if you get a semi-decent lock it takes very little to avoid them.
No - it’s not any easier to fly than anything else - probably it’s only saving grace is that with no ground ordnance you are pretty much forced to fly high and try to pick off whatever you can - hence my abysmal kill counts!
Bruh what.
All the F-104A/F-104C needs to do is keep up speed and proper positioning to prevent aircraft with more advanced missiles from coming up behind them. In your case, I can’t blame you for feeling the pain of flying F-104A/F-104C since you are not ARB main to begin with, but even me, who is not that good a player in Jet RB, can get 2 KPF without farming the AI as long as I can do what I need to do when I fly 104s.
And in 9.3BR, the only counterpart to the current F-104A/F-104C is literally the F-104A (ROCAF).
I can myself confirm, as I did play them with both combined adding up to 130 matches, that the F-104A and F-104C is absolutely disgusting at 9.3 and here is my rather long reasoning/personal experience with it.
General flight characteristics:
It has very good acceleration/climb rate, very good top speed, very decent roll rate, a very decent gun if you know how to aim it; along some basic missiles which are also decent as you get a high launch speed with them when flying fast.
Sure it has miserable lower speed maneuverability, hence if you try to turnfight enemies at a lower speed with a F-104 you are as good as dead. Hence you actually never try to get into such situations in first case, play in a strict Boom and Zoom style and fairly enough if you just keep your speed high (1100kph at least) you are pretty much untouchable from lower BR enemy planes. Even if they have basic missiles you can outrun them easily when roughly 2km away from them at point of launch when flying supersonic !
BR bracket problem:
As mentioned just now, lower BR planes will struggle massively trying to kill a F-104A and C. Take the Mig-15Bis for example when it gets uptiered. A smart F-104A/C player will turn literal circles around the Mig-15 and keep diving on it; the Mig-15 barely has any chances to retailate and it ends up being a fish in the barrel situation as the Mig-15 cannot engage or disengage from the F-104 as it is too slow and has generally speaking insufficient armaments to deal with it effectively.
On the flip side getting uptiered in the F-104A/C is also a massive struggle for it now as missiles like the Aim-9Gs,Magics and R-60(M) make very quick work of the Starfighter as they are fast enough to deal with it even when supersonic. A smart player will try to position themselves to either avoid such planes or attack them from such angles when they cannot make use of their missiles and destroy them (like do not head-on a Su-25 without any flares please, except you really know what are you doing).
Point is though:
In a Uptier: F-104A/C still can make a decent contribution to the team, but has to be extremely mindful of missiles.
In a Downtier: Utterly wrecks the entire match if well played and becomes in simple terms “unfun” to fight.
Suggestion:
F-104A/C should go back to 9.7 or even 10.0 but as mentioned, its BR bracket is a very messed up one.
For now 9.3 is the best BR for it. They can move it up to 9.7 when 12.3 or 12.7 is introduced.It cant really do much against 10.0 targets.
So right away it has a counterpart in several nations… want to uptier that too??
It’s disgusting at 9.3, 10.0 would be the right BR for it. It should never be facing the 8.3/8.7s. Just because it is less favorable in uptier isn’t enough reason to just let is go ham in downtiers with no equal. It’s exactly this train of thought that gets us the BR compression where there are too powerful planes sitting at too low a BR across about the entire BR range, but it is especially prevalent in jets due to the advancement of missiles. F104 isn’t the only guilty thing here, but it is one of the top offenders at 9.3.
Because yes, F100A/D with 9Es at 9.3 is dumb, Mig19S/PT is too, A4N Ayit is completely stupid, FGA9 should also really not be seeing the 8.3s, Yak38 with 4 R60s, there’s a whole bunch of jets at 9.3 that shouldn’t be 9.3 and they only sit there because people can’t make them work at 9.7. And while for some it may be a struggle to work at 9.7, the F104 holds up fairly well even without CMs due to its sheer speed and acceleration
Yes.
F-104A/F-104C, EEL, MiG-21F-13/J-7II, MiG-19PT/MiG-19S/J-6A should move up to higher BR.
Nobody wanted these aircraft to be changed from 9.7BR to 9.3BR.
BTW, American F-104A and ROCAF F-104A historically could carry better missiles so, it is possible to move up to 10.0BR or 10.3BR.
Which missile are those? AIM-9J?
American one has Sidewinder-1C that is prototype of AIM-9Ds.
ROCAF one has AIM-9P-3.
same as aim 9c?
so ROCAF one would be better than the US one?
AIM-9C prototype must have had a different name iirc, so it is not.
AIM-9D has longer ranges from AIM-9J/P so, ye
Those ROCAF F-104A’s are the ones equipped with J79-GE-19 engines (same as F-104S). Given to them after their original F-104A’s were given to Jordan in the mid 1960’s.
The missile in the picture is probably an AIM-9P4 based on the seeker head color and year the picture was taken in 1998.
you obviously dont know those planes are also carrying enough missiles to blow half the enemy team out of the air and are able to turn within seconds
I definitely suck