Caesar

Took advantage of the F-1 Beta FMs, specifically the F-1C-200. I took the bird up against a MiG-21F-13 "Fishbed C" and an F-100D Super Sabre. I also checked out an F-14A against it, just to see how it flies against a familiar airframe. Generally found the bird to be pretty good against the Super Sabre, and I never felt uncomfortable against the Fishbed C, though it took me a lot longer to get on its tail than the -100. Here's the videos of the various combats flown: F-1C-200 vs F-100D (68) F-1C-200 vs MiG-21F-13 F-14A vs F-1C-200

On the last page, Saisran did a 1v1 against the F-22 in an F-14D and could not get the aircraft's radar to track. I think this was discussed a few years back, but there is a BaseRCSModifier= and HeatSignature= line you can use in the aircraft's data.ini. I decided to take a look at that before doing the same fight, and found the number for the F-22 to be a negative number. I think this means the aircraft cannot be tracked at all. I went ahead and deleted the negative before the number and did not otherwise change it. Hazzah! The radar will track! However, as you'd expect, not until the aircraft is about 10NM away. This is with the APG-71, for which I believe we have a search and track strength of 200. The AWG-9, APG-63 and others will likely have an even shorter track range. This is a bit more realistic; Low Observable doesn't mean "invisible" to radar, but it does mean the target requires much closer range to detect/track. I'll have to experiment with it more; the radar was able to spot the F-22 a ways away, but it couldn't get a track, and the plane jumped from what appeared to be 25NM or so to just shy of 10 once the radar finally got to track range. That might be why it was a negative number (to completely deny detection), not sure, but if you wanted to to test it out, remove the "-" in front of the .0001, and you will be able to track the F-22 at very close range with a very powerful radar. EDIT: So, after a bit more experimenting, I found that the APG-71 will "see" the F-22 at 148km/79.9NM, but will not track until 8NM, however, TWS kind of breaks this, since it will allow you to fire at a "seen" target, regardless of if the radar can truly track it or not; as such, I was actually able to shoot an AIM-54 at the F-22 from around this range. It missed, but it tracked all the way to the -22. STT is still useless at this point. Will take up the -22 against some adversaries and see what happens. EDIT 2: Flying the F-22 with the positive RCS modifier; I flew against an F-15C_85 and an F-14A_IR. The F-15 carried 4 AIM-7P and 4 AIM-9M, the F-14 carred 4 AIM-54A, 2 AIM-7F, and 2 AIM-9P. Neither aircraft began maneuvering against me at the ranges where I as a player could spot "something" on my radar. The F-15, I locked and shot at to provoke into action at about 30NM. By the time the missile reached it, the F-15 still hadn't converted on me. For the F-14, I was experiencing the same, but I waited to shoot, because I realized, I needed to see when the AI would naturally engage. Knowing the F-14A had TWS like I had as a player, I wanted to see if it'd be able to shoot me even without radar feedback. It did not. At 12.5NM, the F-14A finally spotted me and went to "RHM_ATTACK" on the debug. I put a pair of AIM-120's its way, it launched an AIM-54A my way. As is the case with TWS, my warning was only "missile inbound!" One of the two AMRAAMs connected, and I dumped chaff to fool the Phoenix. Takeaways: LO helps to dominate the battlefield. I believe that you should be able to remove the "-" in the RCS modifier and the F-22 will still paint the room with you 99 times out of 100 if missiles are involved, and you'll finally be able to track the F-22 at extremely close range. Bear in mind that TWS kind of breaks the rules a bit, but for AI, this isn't a problem based on my experimentation.

Stand aside! SLASH!

Back! Been a while, so I took up a Turkey against an F-16 Blk 50 - not pretty. Took about 6 minutes to gun him, so I'm gonna need to get some sorties in before I post anything. Also, I saw while I was away that we were pretty F-14 heavy, so I plan to try some other airframes to post. Good job on the experimental stuff, Saisran, might take them on at a later date. Also, nice to see Crusader add to the fun!

Cougar, VSL stands for "Vertical Scan Lockon," rather than VSL-Low or VSL-High (Vertical Scan Lockon-Low, Vertical Scan Lockon-High). Most Tomcat pilots and RIOs I've spoken to almost always indicate they used VSL-High in a maneuvering environment. The way we have the beam set up in VSL is to better mimic VSL-High; I don't remember what the minimum elevation is in game, in reality VSL-High used +15 to +55, Lo used -15 to +25. I know we have it at a 40-degree scan. Problem is, I'm away for another week or so, so I can't look at the avionics for a little bit.

I fly "hard" FM typically, but that largely has to do with the fact that I fly the F-14 a lot, and I find that I can fling the aircraft around better using hard FM. It's kind of difficult to explain, more of a feel thing - the plane feels more natural in hard mode to me, and seems to respond better especially at low speed/high AoA to my inputs.

Saisran, usually when the controls suddenly lock, or go uncommanded nose-down (typically what I find happens), it means the cord connecting my stick to my throttle has jarred loose. I then push it back in and everything works again. I don't think there's any coding in the game to cause the control surfaces to lock up, so I'm thinking it was probably the stick. Good fight, though. I usually find the TW F-14A a little more difficult to handle against modern opponents myself, but the difference isn't super significant; little slower to roll, little less acceleration.

Lots of Gripen fights, I see! Think the last time I took the Gripen on in a guns-only fight it took about 10 minutes (was a few months back in an F-14D), though I'm pretty sure the AI was actually out of fuel well before then. One of the more difficult aspects I remember is that the thing was small. I had several shots on it and they just weren't connecting. Haven't faced it with missiles, but then, I don't really like to; I get tempted to go max-g at the merge and splash the bandit in 25 seconds for fear that he might put a missile in my direction...not really fun IMO. Either way, good to see the reports rollin' in!

First vid is the TW F-14A, second vid is TMF F-14D.

Eric, That's pretty damn impressive. If you "Alt+N"d to the fight, your plane weighed over 66,000 pounds with that loadout (2,4,tanks). Even with the GE engines, that's a heavy bird to be flinging around against a Rafale.

Beautiful flying, guys!

Nice flying, folks! I have to say I hate flying with all modern missiles; they're basically death rays. Eric, I took on the Rafale in an F-14B about three years ago - that one was still in beta test if memory serves; very low drag, ridiculously high sustainable "g" (~14 if memory serves - very UFO at the time). It kept fast and very high "g," I kept slower to curl inside of him. He got a shot on me with a MICA, but so close that even that exceptional piece of machinery couldn't track in time. I got four shots against him, the first three missing due to flares (think I had AIM-9M's or L's), with the fourth finally hitting. HOWEVER! I did not do a video for that one. I'm also out of pocket for a bit, though I have high confidence that Saisran or Cougar could do a good video of it!

I did a few fights this morning; something I've noticed is that in multi-bandit environments, I rarely run into the situation of having the bandit sink below my nose; probably because they're maneuvering relative to someone else, are trying to get into firing parameters for a missile against one of my wingmen, or are low on energy from fighting another member of my flight, making the gun kill a lot easier. In one-v-one, it depends heavily on how well I've beat the bandit down on energy, and how well I've worked my position relative to the bandit. If I'm in a flaps-down tail-chase, I've screwed up, because in spite of my better position, the plane's got 24+ degrees of true AoA on it, and the gunsight is well below the HUD.

Nice flying, Saisran!

The map shows any plane that your flight has either radar contact or visual contact of; I'm not sure there's a way to shut that off. As for not seeing your or your enemy's info on the screen, I believe you have to set HUD Display to Hard.

I'll have to run some tests, but you might be right; at military power I don't usually get shot at as quickly. I do seem to have more success with flares if I pull the engines out of afterburner as well.

Well, if you mean Frensel Lens Optical Landing System/Meatball, no, carriers in SF2 (including NA) don't have this. I recall someone (maybe FastCargo?) had toyed with one that worked based on visible lights and aircraft/player angle to the setup, but I don't think it made it very far. If you mean "does the aircraft's ILS work with carriers," yes, it does, until you're just about on the deck. You kind of have to spot the deck just as you're getting to the fantail.

For the F-14 (and probably F/A-18), put the HUD in NAV mode, and it should kick over to ILS automatically after you pass Waypoint 8.

CK, The Super Bug is compatible with carriers in the SF2 series, along with the Legacy Bug, Turkey, Scooter, etc. Carrier ops are most in-depth in SF2:NA, which also gives you the avionics for multi-bandit engagement with active homing missiles (AvionicsF14A.dll). SF2:V is much more historically immersive. I'd grab them both if you can afford it.

Got a bit of time and did a fighter sweep over Yen Bai. I'm thinking about adjusting some of the missile values for launch reliability and whatnot, since in the current patch, they do seem too effective... Didn't get a gun kill this time. I tried on the last MiG-21, but then I saw the ground getting real big, real fast and broke off the attack. Had to go up and around and ended the fight with an AIM-9.

"Sexy" doesn't even begin to describe that 'pit! Looks like an absolute masterpiece.

Nice flying, Cougar. I'd concur that the F-8 was good for its time in terms of slow-speed maneuverability, but it doesn't do as well as fourth-gen fighters. Generally, I'm better at the slow fight in the F-8 than the F-4.

Gorgeous!

Eric, ShadowPlay didn't recognize my install either, but I noticed the manual "begin recording" buttons (Alt+F9) will force the program to record whatever. Give it a shot, it might work for you, too.

A few days ago I had posted I wished I recorded that 4 v 12. Well, I just found out that I've had ShadowPlay on my computer since I upgraded the video card, I just never realized it. So, last night, I took up the 4 v 12 fight again. This time, every missile worked, which is pretty rare for the missiles of the era, but I still wound up with three gun kills. One Fishbed got away; I had considered chasing him down, but that would have dragged everything on for a while. Here's the vid: