Active Radar Homing missile question

[UllyB 1,204]

If an R-37 or R-33 has a max range over 100Km why don't A.I. wingmen fired them earlier ? I noticed they fired when they were at aprox 28km of target. Is there a hardcoded limitation to that ? (A.I. pilots had high ranking values)

[Sheriff 87]

I don't use long range missiles that much but the A.I. may be looking at range and target aspect to determine BEST time to launch missile.

[UllyB 1,204]

I see, but even so, there is a very big gap between 28 km and 120km, plus I noticed that , when told  to engage, the wingman (A.I.) accelerates so it has even enough speed which would help launching it earlier because of a more favorable momentum of the missile. And finally, I tested it, firing it myself and the missile (1 in 4) makes a kill from 50-60km or so.

Another aspect I remembered: when the AI wingman is head-on with the enemy AI, the enemy fires always first and sometimes, kills my wingman before it even got a chance to fire. I thought that maybe these things are moderated by AI skill etc but my AI wingman had "excellent" skill and the enemy AI was put on "NORMAL" so the bottom line, the situation is very cloudy for me.

Edited October 14, 2017 by UllyB