[POLL] Realistic aerial weapons

[[frl]myke 14]

Hi folks,

i'm working on a replacement mod which will change aerial weapons engagement distances to realistic values. Aerial weapons means weaponry used by or against choppers and planes. Mainly all rockets and missiles will be adjusted. As example, the russian R-73 AA missile is meant to have a engagement distance up to 30km, the AIM-9 up to 18km.

For sure this will have a major impact on gameplay since enemy vehicles can be locked from far bigger distance. Also unlike it is now, it will be unlinked to your actual set viewdistance.

So you can get a quick & dirty overview, here the ranges of a few ingame missiles Real data, not ingame):

AIM-9: 18km

R-73: 30km

AGM-65: 28km

Ch-29L: 28km (laser lock)

Ch-29D: 12km (IR lock)

AGM-114: 8km

Besides the engagement ranges, also other settings will be tweaked, partially to fit real life behaviour, partially to get some kind of balancing.

As example, for testing i've made the R-73 warhead a little weaker than the AIM-9 and also reduced maneuvrability. Also i had a simple missile warning active (no countermeasures, missiles flight remained untouched). Once i got an enemy missile heading towards me, i was able to outturn it at least as much so that 2 missiles exploded near enough to damage my plane (AV-8B) but only to approx 50%. Was still able to re-engage the enemy and bring him down (SU-34).

What are the plans?

- Setting missiles and rockets to realistic values

- Increasing radar detection distance of all air vehicles

- Including a Missile warning indicator (no countermeasures, there are enough around)

What i would like to know from you all, what would you prefer?

Option 1: leave it as is.

Option 2: screw balancing, make it real

Option 3: Use real data as base but scale it down to average island sizes.

Option 4: Other, please specify

Keep in mind, this includes air-to-air, air-to-surface and surface-to-air. weapons.

Edited June 12, 2010 by [FRL]Myke

[celery 8]

Those kinds of distances are a bit of an overkill in a game where the practical maximum view distance is 3-5 km and aircraft start appearing at around 800 meters. The best solution might be scaling it down.

[ezechiel 0]

you just spawn on an airplane and you get kill by a Su at the otherside of the map... what is the point ?

[[frl]myke 14]

@ezechiel

the point is, most people don't just "spawn on an airplane" but board it on a airfield.

It is a mod/addon that can be used or not. Those who play "spawn on an airplane" will probably not use it.

[whisper 0]

imho this would need proper simulation of modern sensors on top of it to make it any fun. + scale it to actual map size

[Inkompetent 0]

Definite no. Sure, BVR-fighting is nice, but to have a missile that reaches across the entire map, practically one-shotting enemy planes even before they get off the air strip from the other edge of the map? Nah.

Realistic ranges are for games/simulators with realistic distances. ArmA is anything but that and very, very, very much noticably so when it comes to vehicles, and 100x more noticable when we specifically get to jets.

Should be scaled down, not only to accomodate to avarage island sizes, but more spefically to avarage view distances: I.e. heat-seakers can't be used for BVR fighting (although if using realistic ranges it'd be like 5x peoples' view distance in-game). Radar guided and anti-radiation missiles for BVR, heat-seakers, video, and laser guided for visual range combat.

Edited June 12, 2010 by Inkompetent

[NoRailgunner 0]

What if you make one variant for 100% "realism" and one with 50% of "realism"?

Imho the best air combat in BIS games is fighting with WW2 planes - even the AI is better with such planes. I would not suggest anyone to play default A2 as modern flight sim. ;)

[rksl-rock 1300]

I've been looking at weapon engagement ranges for a while now and for 90% of game play purposes a scaled down range is probably for the best. Even with the large maps that are coming 20-30km engagement ranges are a bit too much.

Even on Ilha Marrom (40.9km x 40.9km) anything over 10-12k just seems excessive to me. It takes away part of the fun of flying in my opinion.

And with Arrowheads smaller islands and countermeasures upgrade coming soon I'm not sure it would be practical for most people's MP gaming.

[Jelliz 10]

Yeah, they should be scaled down. With realistic values, one wouldnt have to take off from Vybor Airport to shoot down bogeys in an invasion scenario.

Or you could team up with some island maker to make a very low detailed, huuuuuge map that(maybe just sea) is suited for dogfighting with your addon, where you can use realistic values, and keep playability.

[HyperU2 11]

In the future I'd love to see it. Not now. Ideally I'd like to be playing a combination of Lock On and ARMA.