I agree with what you have said, but the whole tactical advantage of stealth is undermined when units have a 100% chance to spot enemy objects - back to my point of WHEN over IF.SeaQueen wrote: ↑Tue Jan 31, 2023 2:17 pmSuggestion: If the F-22 is detected at 21NM, then it would be stupid for an F-22 to give up its stealth advantage by getting any closer than that. You want to shoot before the no escape zone at say 25-30NM. Will you miss more shots? Maybe, but if he can't shoot you then it's a good trade off.SchDerGrosse wrote: ↑Sun Jan 29, 2023 5:08 pm (caveat: if I have no other radar/ELINT assets on the map, although the F-22 is detected at 21 nm, the Mig is unable to determine what aircraft it is, therefore the target though "certain", will remain yellow on the radar and I had to manually turn it to hostile for the Mig to engage it.)
It's a mistake to think of the tactical problem as "missile v. missile." It's more like, "missile, radar, and aircraft versus missile, radar and aircraft." Good tactics is a matter of understanding the whole family of systems in play and their interactions. The F-22, in the above example, has the potential to dominate the fight not so much because of the missile, but by denying its oppponent the opportunity for a shot. Your bad tactics (closing within 21NM) undermined that advantage, allowing the MiG to defeat the F-22. There's a tendency in the community to resolve warfare into purely system v. system duels. This is an incorrect understanding of warfare.
You're right, though, scenarios will in general require much more tweaking than just setting the AI to shoot at the no escape zone. Generally speaking, shooting at the no escape zone, is both overly conservative and unwise. It will force scenario designers to consider the threat, set the AI to behave reasonably according to that threat. A blanket, "no escape zone is the answer," is not the correct solution.
A2A missiles are *extremely* hard to spot. Even the massive SAM missiles are very hard to spot unless you’re watching the contrails.
If a stealth plane like a F-22 fires an AMRAAM and guides it using someone else’s radar, the target shouldn’t even know until the active seeker engages, and by then it’s FAR too late for even the most skilled pilot.
Pilots I have spoken too who fought in Vietnam even with older A2A missiles have said there’s nearly no time to react when combat is WVR, about the range an AMRAAM seeker will switch on.
F-16 drivers from Red Flag that I have spoken to basically claim of you sneak up on the enemy, it’s basically impossible for them to avoid being killed with modern missiles.
In CMO shooting at 21nm basically guarantees the enemy plane will see and take evasive action, giving you a very low PK. Even novice pilots seem to have super super OODA loops and reaction times in this game.
In my experience using the F-22 and F-35 in game, you can keep them alive, but only with a heck of a lot of micro (this game is meant to be strategic right? Not a 2D flight sim?). They also burn through a lot of missiles, and completely sneaking up on the enemy and taking them by surprise simply doesn’t exist.
Getting kill ratios that we have seen come out of Red Flag between stealth and non stealth simply doesn’t happen in game. Inevitably your F-22 or F-35 will run out of missiles or end up in visual range and get shot down. Not unless you intensively micro every fighter you have. I don’t want to do that, I want the engine to be a bit better.