Report 019: Long Range Missiles news

This report contains the 0.192 and 0.193 updates.

This first update was mostly intended to tackle some issues found by the players after the release.
The second update, beside fixing some issues, adds more weapons and some changes in the game play.

With the exception to the R-27T that was already present in the first release, medium and long range air-to-air missiles were completely absent in the game. In order to to address that void...


Currently used by: F-16C Block 30

The AIM-120A is a high performance medium range missile; it can lock up to 6 targets.

Currently used by: F-15C

The AIM-120C-5 is improvement over the A version, with longer operational range, however it deals less damage due to the smaller warhead.

Currently used by: Su-27SM

The R-77 is another medium range missile with somewhat similar performance to the AIM-120C-5. It can lock up to 6 targets.

Currently used by: None

Until some years ago, the R-37 was the only missile with extremely long range. The only Air-to-Air missile comparable to some extent is AIM-54 Phoenix used only by the F-14. This missile can lock up to 4 targets

Currently used by: None

The KS-172 is a prototype long range missile, intended to surpass the R-37. Can lock up to 2 targets

Currently used by: Su-47

The KS-172S-1 is the newest iteration of the KS-172 project. At the moment, this is the air-to-air missile with the longest range in the game.

An in game shot of the KS-172S-1:

(Notice the size difference between the R-73E and KS-172S-1)
In the game, the Su-47 due to its specs, can’t use this weapon to its fullest potential; (the same applies to other aircrafts that use weapons with bigger operational range than their own radars)

With these additions, BVR tactics can now be fully reproduced.

Up until now, in the missile guidance system there was distinction between the Active and Semi-Active homing systems. Yet, the active and passive guidance act pretty much the same

This is the usual guidance system for medium/long range missiles
Autonomous after being fired
They tend to be bigger, thus aircrafts will likely carry less ammo

In this kind of missiles the pilot must keep the enemy locked in order to the missile aim to the target.
More resistant to countermeasures
The pilot is vulnerable when guiding the missile

In the passive guidance system, the missile that detect and home on an enemy radio emission source.
(This only applies to anti-radiation missiles)
They don’t trigger radar warning receivers (this is not yet in the game)
Longer range (in comparison to the active radar)
They can only lock to units equipped with a radar

Now with the addition of passive guidance, SEAD missions can be reproduced.
With this update, the AGM-88 and KH-31P now can only lock to ground units with active radar.

(Note, heat seekers and Contrast seekers belong to the passive homing guidance, but for them there wasn’t any change in the gameplay department)

Other improvement in this update was the HUD:

This is not yet the final version, this is a temporary layout. The possibility to fully customize the HUD it not available yet.

About the HUD, several players mentioned that they would like to have bigger HUD elements (especially the radar), so in the next updates ,we will try to add an option to adjust the size of the elements.

Something that was missing up till now in the flight model was the variance in the brake speed depending if the aircraft was climbing or descending.

This image tries to depict the distance required for and aircraft to reach the same speed while braking at different angles. (Although this difference varies depending of the aircraft)

Now when dogfighting, the pilots must be careful as braking while climbing the aircraft will lose speed very quickly, this may result in a stall. In other hand, braking while descending will be slower and conserve more energy.
This will add another layer of strategy in managing the changes of speed in a dogfight.

This mission consists in facing other 15 opponents with the same plane as you.
It is a battle royal, there are no teams, is everyone for himself so there will be always someone aiming at you.

The goal is to score 10 000 points.

This mission is a result of partial implementation of the skirmish mode, and can be considered a “preview” of the deathmatch mode.
Like deathmatches in other games, in this mission if you are shot down, you will respawn again after a few seconds, and the same applies to the AI.
This is the perfect mission, for now, to test the aircrafts, as in this mission you always be facing enemies with equal aircraft and being shot down down doesn’t mean mission failure

In final note for those who already started modding the game, beware if you edit the original files they may be overwritten in an update.

Like always, feel free to share your opinion about the game, suggestions and what you like and don’t like about the game.

• Added the variance in performance in braking climbing and descending
• Adding visual cue when you have a conflict in the command in control option
• Fixed some issues in control option
• Changed the color the lock elements, now neutral targets are now color coded as yellow
• Fixed missing texture in gun muzzle
• Fixed some issues at buying/selling weapons in the shop
• Changed LOD calculation, now takes into account, model size and detail
• Fixed the bug of replaying mission 2 in campaign mode
• Added more Actions and Triggers
• Fixed issue in spawning at random position

• Added AIM-120A Missile
• Added AIM-120C-5 Missile
• Added R-77 (RVV-AE) Missile
• Added R-37 Missile
• Added KS-172 Missile
• Added KS-172S-1 Missile
• Added “Doppelganger Battle” mission
• Added French language (Thanks “Wheaton_Adams” for the French translation)
• Added weapons information in the hangar
• Changed F-15E model, now Tgt and Navpod are optional
• Fixed CBU-87 not unfolding properly

Stay tuned, more reports will follow