Honestly if they have IRST it’s not surprising, especially at top tier.
Though you’re right, if they do somehow find you every time without even alerting you once it’s sus…
Cause even when I’m IRST ratting, I still need to turn radar on for a second to iff at the very least.
Anyway, let’s not get sidetracked, mostly because Gaijin doesn’t like people talking about these things. You know, acknowledging it might make the problem feel even more real than it already is.
Alternative solution: A year or so ago gaijin artificially increased the RCS of all launched weapons so ground AA’s would have an easier time detecting them. Remove this for air to air missiles or airborne radars.
“This doesn’t really show up or is an issue on RB which makes sense since you gain no advantage unless its down to the last few players and the fights are isolated.”
Wrong. But the issue’s severity largely depends on your playstyle in RB, I guess.
My preferred playstyle is to get some altitude and then fly towards enemies going in my direction while keeping TWS lock at the edge of my radar gimbal limit. Then I’ll fire as close to them as possible (even as low as single-digit kilometres but at least in pitbull range) and then start immediately and preemtively notching.
This of course catches a lot of people off-guard and it’s almost always impossible for them to notch (which is the whole point of my playstyle, to try to guarantee a kill for every missile launched), even if they’re playing perfectly.
But if they shoot down my missile I’ll get screwed over in a really unfair way.
This is because my target will be 90 degrees to my side and actively attacking me while I’m too close to counterfire = them getting an incredibly free shot me and the chance for them to start dogfighting me on their terms.
And this has happened to me in every phase of a match, including at the start.
Radar/RWR performance isn’t an excuse for enemies to be blind either, because I do this all the time in planes with infamously bad radars and avionics in general (Su-27SM, J-11A, etc.) and come out on top against planes with superior tech.
So compared to SB where it’s more about who has more missiles in RB it mostly punishes people who know how to notch effectively and have situational awareness. The inverse is true for those who can’t read their RWR or use their radar well.
And as for missile RCS I believe they show up unrealistically large in-game, as I’ve counterfired at many enemies the moment they launch at me and my radar often decides to just lock the incoming missile when I’ve put my HMD box on the enemy plane.
“So without the support of the much much larger RB community i really have my doubts we will see any change…”
We have your full support. By “we” I mean I. But it only has to happen to someone once in order to leave a sour aftertaste. I don’t think I’m lone as an RB main who’s having this issue.
If we try to get as many players as possible to do this (which I’ve seen many present as a solution) instead of only a few to degrade the gameplay enough to force Gaijin’s hand we may just ending up Cobra Effecting ourselves if Gaijin doesn’t do anything/the abuse of this mechanic doesn’t become rampant enough and end up worse than the status quo.
This sound like you made a very poor tactical choice, not that you got unfairly screwed.
No. I’m just preemptively notching and giving myself the best defence if they fire a missile at me.
And people don’t shoot down my missiles often enough to justify switching over to another playstyle, but it is frustrating when it happens.
…which you wouldn’t need to do if you didn’t put yourself into the NEZ of the enemy voluntarily
“…which you wouldn’t need to do if you didn’t put yourself into the NEZ of the enemy voluntarily”
I don’t know what your point is…?
refer to the previous message
“This sound like you made a very poor tactical choice, not that you got unfairly screwed.”
Your argument is very vague and you’ll have to elaborate why you think it’s a “very poor tactical choice” before I can rebut it.
And we’re very much going off on a tangent here as I only wanted to use it as an example of this tactic making its way into RB too and how it also takes away any kind skill there as well.
The problem is that many players think Simulator Battles is a true aircraft simulation, when in reality it’s at best a mix of arcade and realistic elements.
For example, the F-16 flight model in WT is very far from reality: in real life the fly-by-wire system manages the trim automatically 40 times per second and the aircraft is intentionally unstable for better maneuverability. In War Thunder you still have to manually trim like in a WWII piston fighter. That’s why it feels more like an arcade game with realistic graphics than a proper simulator.
Just my 2 cents.
Uhhhhh
What does this have to do with the iron dome meta
What he means is that you should never get within a range of where an enemy missile can hit you. So what this means is you should fly out of your airfield, shoot your missiles, and then immediately run back to it and use SAM bubble to protect yourself.
Actually, it does relate to the Iron Dome meta.
Without the ability to intercept incoming Fox-3 missiles, Simulator mode would be much less enjoyable on most maps. The current meta is heavily spawn-kill oriented. When your aircraft is still taking off or in the early climb phase, you have almost no energy or speed, making it almost impossible to dodge a Fox-3 fired from a good position.
The “Iron Dome” technique gives players a necessary defensive tool against this kind of spawn camping. Intercepting a missile isn’t really a big problem in general — it only becomes frustrating when people spam Fox-3s from extremely long range (50+ km). In closer fights it’s much less effective and adds interesting counterplay.
And let’s not forget : we shouldn’t expect real realism in Simulator mode. War Thunder’s “Simulator” is in a galaxy far, far away from reality.
Just my 2 cents.
Is this supposed nerf just for fox 3 vs fox 3? Removing being able to shoot incoming with IR missiles needs to stay as many vics have a handful of CMs , no fox 3 but have to fight full radar slinging lobbies.
Shooting incoming is all thats available for many jets…
Ah okay, you’re one of those.
Did you even read what “you” just sent?
Exhibit A:
“If I can’t shoot down missiles, it will be less enjoyable”
Notching:
Multipathing:
Literally anything:
…Moving on.
Exhibit B (although, this mostly screams you don’t play Sim that often and are basing it off of the very few times you’ve played):
Since the introduction of the ItO 90M, people rushing airfields rarely happen unless you’re heavily outnumbered. You would know this… if you know, you played Sim regularly.
Yes, people can still sneak up on you and kill you when you’re a ways away from your airfield, that’s to be expected. Just keep your wits about you and it won’t happen.
Exhibit C:
Necessary??? DEFENSIVE TOO- Okay. You’ve succeeded in rage baiting me.
First off, shooting down enemy missiles doesn’t only happen in that scenario, it’s in every engagement. If you decide to shoot at a missile that far away then that’s on you because what are you actually doing? Just notch bro
When you are closer that’s when it’s most prevalent because there’s little to no time to notch or multipath if you are high. C’mon man this is simple stuff.
And this one’s my favourite, because what 😂:
Alright… ok.
You can check my profile too — I play Simulator Battles a lot. In almost every single game there are spawn killers. Many times I get shot down before I even reach 400 km/h because I’m still climbing with almost no energy and speed.
That’s exactly why the ability to intercept Fox-3s is useful as a defensive tool. It’s not about perfect realism at this point — it’s about not dying 30 seconds after spawning every game.
You’re right, but I’m not the only one complaining. Spawn killing in high-BR Simulator is a very common issue right now. There are multiple recent threads on the forum and Reddit (2025-2026) where players say the same thing: you often get deleted before even reaching 400 km/h while climbing with no energy.
It’s a real problem for a lot of people at this BR.
Just my 2 cents.
So, how do you expect to counter an Su-30 MCM-ing your missiles launched from an F-16.
I wonder how you would do this
