tankninja1 wrote:Never had a problem with AA. Trick is to start locking before they pop flares. If you can do that AA seems to be 80-90% effective. Honestly I think that most aircraft are a little underpowered as missiles seem to kill in one hit if they do hit.
This is not a receivable argument, AA is not JUST an RNG. It depends on the targets direction relative to you, their speed, their time to flare from lock, the lead you give the target, distance to target, and more. The weapon type is important too.
If a helicopter is close to you, flying right at you, slowly with no flares the AA has a 100% hit rate. A jet that dumps flares as soon as a tone is heard, while ascending and banking away from you at 1100m distance will almost NEVER get hit by AA. A near 0% hit rate.
A pilot's ability to deal with Anti Air missiles is the understanding of this idea. Because EVERY PILOT has NO trouble deploying flares as soon as a lock tone is heard, it is assumed that every AA missile launch has to compete with at least a pair of flares. This is reasonable, because this is the case about 99% of the time, a flareless pilot is returning to base as soon as possible, and a pilot that doesnt deploy flares instantly is brand new. Once we establish, reasonably, that the AA has to fight flares, simplified, there are two factors Firstly is all the target's factors relative to where and how the missile is fired. The flares are the RNG whether a missile tracks a flare right behind you, one far off your flank or you yourself IS a matter of chance, but the chance is too high for flares now. Simply flying straight, at a slow pace, with an altitude of 200m or so with flares out renders you safe from MANPADS now. On a map like Beirut that's small and lacks any air defense vehicles the attack helicopter can decide the game.
Arab wrote:Nope. that's removed in 1.0
it really isn't. The issue is that AA missiles have to be coded such that they explode when they get near an aircraft, regardless of their lock or not. So, the issue is that if you fire a stinger or what have you, unlocked, the pilot can not hear any warning, but if it simply gets close enough he is toast. Here is where the fun starts. Doing this works well when firing the AA sighted, and the devs cant do much about it. Unsighted has deviation so large that the missile will come out at a 90 degree angle when fired and be useless, but sighted, the deviation has to be reasonable so if youre using the weapon legitimately. If you were to lock and fire and have the missile come out at a 90 degree angle, well, that would make the weapon useless. So, if you're clever you can fire the weapon unlocked, sighted, have the missile fly straight and score a kill. This takes some skill because its basically an RPG that doesnt have to hit, just get close.
This works on all AA. As an AA operator you can do this, but it;s hard to abuse becuase you do have to get the missile close. A tip, if your target is flying RIGHT AT YOU, do not wait for a lock, SHOOT and youll get a kill everytime.
The mitigation of the "hipfiring" is that the AA weapons have a zoom now so theyre wonky to free fire, but the smartest AA operators on kokan will wait for the kiowa to fly right at him and then pull the trigger, for a guaranteed kill. Further still, the sight in time prevents you from getting a bird that flies right over you, being able to fire unsighted with some accuracy would mean if a heli went right over your head and you just pulled the trigger you would get him, not so anymore because youd have to sight and thats a pain.
True effective unlocked AA fire can never be removed but it's easy to avoid as a pilot. I will say its impossible for an unlocked missile to EVER track, EVER. Firing before a lock without a perfect lead on the target is a truly worthless shot.