They absolutely would. Not going to deny that at all. But I know I am not alone in being more than fed up with the Pantsir’s absolute dominance. Anything that challenge that, either in capability as another SPAA or as a deterrent, like HARMs, is a welcome addition in my book.
1 Like
Guys, here’s my take and recommendation on the new SEAD event.
Overall, I think this event is bad, not well-thought. Take this with a grain of salt please.
You ask me why it’s bad? Let’s start with the Soviet part since it’s simpler
Tatics: Rush enemy spawn and that’s it
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Fly low and spots the black dots (mostly enemy jet, rarely helis)
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Get pass them and then go to their 6, if you’re low enough they won’t see you, why? because finding SAM is already overwhelming for them (discuss later)
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Missile them down, or continue to follow until you get into guns dogfight (you win the 1v1 fight 9/10, discuss later)
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From 2., get pass them and rush their spawn, camp in the vincinity
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Pick and kill unaware targets, if your whole team do this as a pack, don’t pick target just rush in and Turkey shoot
US side:
Tatics: Rush in to the known places of SAM and try rocket run, try not to die because it’s almost your only chance
1.Heli are useless since you need to get some alt (500 m?) to get eyes on SAM sites, where you will get locked by S-75 even though you are slow, and worse, gunned down by ZSU if not careful enough about your positioning
1.1 If you take your time in your heli, sooner or later the migs will spot your black dot when you are aiming at SAM; or they hunt you down since all your team died when you are slowly flying
1.2 Don’t get me started on people who only unlocks FFAR on their heli, you won’t get close to SAM site and get in the range of the FFARs
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Fly low, hug the ground
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open map, click on map to set target point (middle mouse button by default, to let you know where the general direction to fly to)
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Occasionally pitch up to where the SAM sites are locking you, use RWR as direction to look, let them fire at you and you will spot the big white smoke of the S-75
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Use your keybind of “Activate target point”, on your screen look at the launch smoke and lock that ground
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Open map and you should see the target point (red square), please Left click that location to use radio channel to tell your teammate about the site’s location, i.e. “Attention to the designated grid square!”
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Select rockets (Zuni or FFAR, your choice), climb up to see if your CCIP seems in range
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Launch without a doubt because you will get shot at by the S-75, try spread the rockets a bit to ensure best coverage
Until Step 8. it should be the first few minutes from match start, now prepare to die, cough, prevent death
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RTB, try hunt down another site, or go hunt migs, at this point it doesn’t matter, anything else done is just cherry on top (sadly)
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Be aware of low flying migs (black dots), they should be here at this point, do whatever you can to kill them
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Die
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Try again but this time the enemies are already near your spawn, 10 times harder to perfrom these steps
IMPORTANT: I found that SAM site locations are not randomly generated
Just remember the location from one match, go to the next match and begin doing US tatic Step 2. to 8. except Step 4.
Q: Wait. You say you can’t even get to Step 8.?
Oh because when you try to do all this (dodging SAM and ZSU, finding sites, looking for enemy jets…) the Soviets just need to stare at the screen and find your moving black dots (+ smoke trail if they have good graphics)
Q: Bro what about flying high?
Not a chance, you get killed by S-75 in no time, or your black dot or radar signiture get spotted by every mig looking in the sky, you’ll get swarmed
Don’t even mention how easy it is to kill you when you are in contrail altitude
Q: What about other factors affecting the US?
You mean Allied teams always crash into ground for no reason? Yea it affects but in a bad way
Q: Bro, skill issue, just fly fast and go straight into the SAM site…
ZSU: Here’s my aimbot death ray
You: lucky enough to kill something but you died, losing precious chance (yes, stay alive is important. Though you get 3 spawns, the next spawns will be way harder)
Q: Just pure AA loadout and fly at the boarder of the map, go past SAM area to the other half of the map to spawn camp migs
Not a chance. You need to pitch up for your primitive radar to lock on spawned migs. See what’s happening? You get shot at by S-75.
Even if you shoot 1 down, either other Migs swarm you down, or that enemy just spawn right back, go low, and hunt you down. You won’t be able to use AIM-7 since he’s low.
He’ll just flare + beat your heavy airframe in 1v1. Winning that dogfight in F4 will be a wet dream.
Q: Is that all of the rant?
No, in Golan Heights, Gaijin actually placed TWO SAM sites at the left-most SAM area and ONE OF THEM IS OUTSIDE THE MAP BOARDER
And where’s the HARM ???
If you decided to do what I recommended, pick below 20 min of fuel
No, I changed my mind, I recommend you NOT TO PLAY THIS EVENT
Edits: Even though I don’t like how SEAD is implemented now, it doesn’t mean I don’t support adding SEAD. Gotta give the DEVS some credits for expanding the possibility of this game. Good try, keep on going.
15 Likes
The logic is so dumb because the same argument can be made about A2A missiles in the same era, yet those are in the game and work fine mostly.
11 Likes
I beg to differ. My first run, i eliminated 3 SAM sites just with TOWs. If you know what to do and are used to fight against Pantsirs its really effective since the migs cant find you fast enough.
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I thought the event would be asymmetrical in terms of objectives, but unfortunately, it’s also asymmetrical in terms of balance.
The attackers don’t really stand a chance, they have to deal both with defenders (that have equal number of superior jets) and with AA (that can track and shoot them through trees). There’s also no way to properly share AA positions with friendlies. Won 0/10 games as US so far.
Won 3/3 of the games as attackers, not playing any more because I don’t enjoy kicking puppies.
10 Likes
I can confirm your complaint about Golan Heights having a SAM outside of the map border. I physically saw the launch trail and smoke and when I approached it I got a “Return To Battlefield” and got teleported back.
I’m not sure if that’s a required SAM to complete the mission (it seemed to not have a ring on the map like the SAM sites you have to kill) but I don’t like that you can be shot at from off-map.
4 Likes
Ok so F4E eith MK1 eyeball and dumb rockets vs ai shilkas and sams on steroids that snipe you before you even spot them.
During another event that you can’t grind playing this, and this also lasts only 2 days in the middle of a work week.
Seems fun…
8 Likes
Yup, there is a SAM site placed outside the map, Gaijin please…
3 Likes
Nice one! I still need to grind that TOWs to be effective though… Anyways, maybe helis SEAD could be fun in a challenging way but I think the balance of difficulties between the US and Soviets event gameplay is way off, which is the biggest issue
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I want to say that this game mode has potential, but I realize I just want a PVE game mode where I just attack ground targets in an aircraft with the challenge being that I have to avoid air to air missiles from AI SAM’s.
2 Likes
Bro hits all the point of how bad this mode rn
The issue lies in the fact that there are too many SAM sites.
If it were only 5 or 4 with fewer players it would be fine, also PvE only, you are already busy looking and dodging missiles, you don’t need another player rolling up on you and killing you when you are having a sensory overload with your RWR.
And a bigger map as well… SAMs are too crowded (and placed outside the map too 🤦♂️), too many Shilkas with 100% accuracy that insta lock and kill you if you dare to fly low.
6 Likes
To be honest, it would probably be better to bring a SEAD test mode where the corresponding (at least in higher ranks irreplaceable) at least early ARM missiles are also brought.
This has a few advantages for everyone;
- ARM mechanic can be tested wide fielded
- Players can test it themselves without having the necessary vehicles
- Better feedback can be gathered, which can also include things that affect the control and launch mechanics of it ( → improvements can be done prior release)
- Specialized players can contribute new (important) information on ARM features that the devs either didn’t know about (including corrections)
I can understand that some might be disappointed, but early ARMs are a nice-to-have and not necessarily useless. In the end, small changes can be made to adjust the usability, balance and usability of the game, just like with previous games in the game.
Regardless of how the current mode works;
I really hope that we will get more such possible attack / defense targets for future and existing big scale modes - especially the simulator mode can benefit a lot from this and bring the long awaited variety and also influence the whole happening on a map; e.g. these SAM sites can protect airfields or convoys in the back rows, while “small” sites can be placed more in the middle of their own (team) region.
19 Likes
mode is already flooded with esp users. no bueno.
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Tried one game in a Cobra. Did not like.
Fly high enough to see the ZSUs, get swatted down by a SAM or MiG.
Fly low enough for the above to not happen, and you get shot thru the trees by a ZSU as you grope around for them.
The RWR is pretty much useless for finding them. They need to be visible at least on the map so you can maneuver for a missile shot.
2 Likes
enable anticheat on this mode, catch some of them
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What a shit event: Cheating AI which locks you through terrain/hills. Invisible Shilkas which kill you before they even rendered. And when you finally find a MIG21 to dogfight you get killed by SAM which ignores your Chaff… And of course lobbies full of chinese and russian ESP hackers.
6 Likes
I honestly just gave up on trying to do SEAD, dropped all the stupid ordinance and focused on air-to-air combat only. Hunting MiGs without markers is way more fun 😁
3 Likes
My opinion on the event as an attacker:
1-Attack is too hard and defend is too easy
2-You cant really focus on ground targets until there are planes flying in the sky
My opinion on the event as a defender:
1-Defending is easier because you only have to focus on air to air
2- you can see where your sams are shooting to help locate the enemier
Probably lobbies are too big for the mode, a reduced number of players would be better. Also, because attacking is harder than defending, something should be done to make it more fair. At first I imagined that defending team was actually playing as AAA, instead they are playing as planes. I think that was a mistake. it would have been better if planes were AI bots, and SAM and AAA guns were the actual defending players.
However, I LOVE the idea at the base of this gamemode and I’m sure it can be explored and improved to make it into a viable and fun game.
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I just came to the same conclusion, playing without markers around terrain to outsmart enemies is some awesome fun I haven’t had in a long time, making great use of the F4’s great missile kit.
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