How to play "Red side" without being obliterated?

[MAF1247]

Hello!

I decided to play some "red side" campaigns (Soviets/Russian). But i found out quickly that the difficulty is extremely higher compared to NATO/US. Ofc i understand that Russian have a tech disadvantage compared to NATO, but still it's incredibly frustrating and i get shot down even at the lowest difficulty like nothing. Sometimes i cannot even reach the enemy on my radar and i get hit by a long range missile. Moreover in Russian campaigns i always get intercepted by like 3/4 SAMs at the same time, compared to NATO were is more difficult to be intercepted by AA. For reference i tried the red side campaigns of NATO FIGHTERS 5 and Black Sea Crisis. 

Considering that i probably have to completely change tactics compared to when i play with "blue" forces, can someone give me some tips or guidance on how to proper play Red side without being destroyed every time? Otherwise it becomes more frustrating than fun.

Thank you

[Flanker562]

Unfortunately it's like that with Single Missions (I played as an Su-33, and next thing you know i have four F-15s barreling towards me with while the game was loading, firing Sparrows). I mean there has to be a reason, and I don't know what TK was thinking, as it looks like he favored the NATO/BLUFOR side more than the Russians, and other "Enemy". I mean I don't know what has to be done, maybe Eagle114th found something (even though he's been radio silent for a while) in the Dlls and the Illuminati got him, or what, but there's no solution other than create a single mission and fly without enemy.

[MAF1247]

4 minutes ago, Flanker562 said:

Unfortunately it's like that with Single Missions (I played as an Su-33, and next thing you know i have four F-15s barreling towards me with while the game was loading, firing Sparrows). I mean there has to be a reason, and I don't know what TK was thinking, as it looks like he favored the NATO/BLUFOR side more than the Russians, and other "Enemy". I mean I don't know what has to be done, maybe Eagle114th found something (even though he's been radio silent for a while) in the Dlls and the Illuminati got him, or what, but there's no solution other than create a single mission and fly without enemy.

I usually do single mission to train myself before campaigns. In single mission however you can reduce the amount of enemy aircraft and decide the positioning, by using the wrench icon down to the right and then edit the mission. 

I don't want completely blame TK, because in vanilla Strike Fighters 2 you cannot play as Red side in campaigns nor piloting red aircrafts, so the game is not naturally balanced. However, whoever made the mods were you can play as Russian air force, has forgot to nerf the blue side. Even if it's not "accurate", because in reality NATO will completely obliterate VVS due to their long range missiles, from a gameplay perspective is frustrating, especially if you play by starting on the ground.

[Flanker562]

4 minutes ago, MAF1247 said:

I usually do single mission to train myself before campaigns. In single mission however you can reduce the amount of enemy aircraft and decide the positioning, by using the wrench icon down to the right and then edit the mission. 

I don't want completely blame TK, because in vanilla Strike Fighters 2 you cannot play as Red side in campaigns nor piloting red aircrafts, so the game is not naturally balanced. However, whoever made the mods were you can play as Russian air force, has forgot to nerf the blue side. Even if it's not "accurate", because in reality NATO will completely obliterate VVS due to their long range missiles, from a gameplay perspective is frustrating, especially if you play by starting on the ground.

Yeah I don't play Red unless it's an edited single mission, like where there's no enemy and just enjoy the scenery as much as possible and just fly around. But that experience and other people commenting on this subject kept me from flying Red jets, even though it would be nice to do something different. Oh well, it is what it is I suppose.

[ravenclaw_007]

i dont know if this will solve the problem but if you open the NATIONS.ini you most likley will find this

[Nation002]
Name=USAF
DisplayName=United States Air Force
Alignment=FRIENDLY
PilotNameList=NamesUSAF.lst
RankList=RanksUSAF.lst
CallsignList=CallsignsUS.lst
Formation.Fighter=USFighter
Formation.Attack=USFighter
Formation.Bomber=USBomber
Formation.Transport=USBomber
Formation.Tank=USTank
Formation.MobileAD=USAD
PilotTrainingStandard=EXCELLENT
GenderRatio=0
DebriefSuccessMusic=DebriefSuccess.wav
DebriefFailMusic=DebriefFail.wav
DebriefKilledMusic=DebriefKilled.wav
SpeechFile=SpeechUSEnglish
SpeechTextFile=USAFSpeechText.cat
Medals=MedalsUSAF.ini
UseFAC=TRUE
ActiveDate=1948
AlternateDecal=USAF_OLD

[Nation215]
Name=Soviet
DisplayName=Russian Air Force
Alignment=ENEMY
PilotNameList=NamesRussian.lst
RankList=RanksRussian.lst
CallsignList=CallsignsUS.lst
Formation.Fighter=SovietFighter
Formation.Attack=SovietFighter
Formation.Bomber=SovietBomber
Formation.Transport=SovietBomber
Formation.Tank=SovietTank
Formation.MobileAD=SovietAD
PilotTrainingStandard=NORMAL
GenderRatio=0
DebriefSuccessMusic=DebriefSuccess.wav
DebriefFailMusic=DebriefFail.wav
DebriefKilledMusic=DebriefKilled.wav
SpeechFile=SpeechUSEnglish
SpeechTextFile=USAFSpeechText.str
ActiveDate=2010
Medals=MedalsRUS_10.ini
AlternateDecal=Soviet_OLD92

 

PilotTrainingStandard=EXCELLENT vs  PilotTrainingStandard=NORMAL , dont know if it helps to set everything to normal so everybody is on the same skill level but maybe worth trying

[Gepard]

One problem is, that western weapons are overpowered, while eastern weapons are underpowered in game. Even when it are basically the same weapons, the western is more accurate and capable. For example AA-2 Atoll and AIM-9B. Its the same weapon. But in game the AA-2 has an accuracy setting of 60, the Sidewinder has 65. The Sidewinder has a bigger launch reliability and a bigger seeker FOV and so on. In game it is the better weapon.

[Wrench]

That's been a a problem with the series since it was first released. It's EXCEPTIONALLY biased to The West. OTH, Eastern forces SAMs and AAA seem a LOT better than their Western counterparts, especially when the ability to network them to search/track/fire control radars appeared.

One of the major points is that we were NEVER supposed to be able to play Eastern/WarPac aircraft. That's why have inferior charastaristics (sp?)

There's been many an attempt over the last 20 years to fix this, with varying results.

[streakeagle]

Aside from any bias in the weapons data, TK's way to make missions more "fun" is to have AI focus on engaging the player. It is one thing if the AIM-7 and AIM-9 perform better than they should relative to Soviet missiles, it is another thing if every aircraft with overpowered weapons aims them all at you. While TK did quite a bit to make a rivet counter like me happy over the years, he still made a lot of decisions that favored gameplay and fun over realism. Early on he decided to make the game only playable from the blue NATO/Western/US side and complaints about player missile reliability were addressed in patches, particularly after the release of SF2 North Atlantic.

If you install SFP1 SP2a (the last major release before Wings Over Vietnam, which marked a major turn in AI dogfighting ability and flight modeling), you will find a given scenario such as 4 x F-4D vs 4 x MiG-21MF plays very differently. The AIM-7s and AIM-9s are far more likely to fail and if you don't have a gun, the MiG-21s have a decent chance. Having played online multiplayer with SFP1/WoX for years, I can say in a 1 vs 1 with player flown F-4s vs player flown MiGs, the F-4 has a hard time winning. The MiG-19 was the best PvP aircraft in the game, having the maneuverability of the MiG-17 and the power of the F-4. The MiG-17 wasn't easy to beat. The MiG-21 was for the most part a fair fight. The deviation between blue and red weapons parameters are but one small piece of the puzzle: it is the AI that really determines the difficulty of a given mission.