I am going to sound like
a broken record but after tonight's experience I must say it again. Tell
me, those of you who feel the Archers are just too damn effective, how
would you feel if their pK was less than 25%??? Well let me tell you,
that is their pK in my world -- consistently. Last night, I approached
two MiG29's at ACE level - dispatched one, and dodgeed an ARCHER that
was sent straight down my snot locker.
Today - I have dodges 3 out of 4 Archer launches.
Me vs 1 MiG29s (ARcher DODGE)
Me vs 2 MiG23's (Archer DODGE)
Me vs 2 Mig29's (Archer hit me)
Me vs 2 MiG21's (dodges 2 ARCHERS IN A ROW!)
Sorry, but the clarion calls to reduce Archer effectiveness are just not
cutting it for me at all. How do you achieve the above success? Simply
put.., CUT THE ENGINE, DIVE TOWARD THE GROUND AT MAX G, AND PUMP OUT ABOUT
10 FLARES IN LESS THEN 2 SECONDS. AND THEN KEEP DOING IT BECAUSE THE SECOND
ONE IS COMING.
I apologize for being a broken record, but once again I am reading murmers
about how the Archers should be toned down. Well I will be one unhappy
camper if this happens because they are already very effectively dealt
with using this technique. If it becomes easier it will be B-O-R-I-N-G.
All is ask is that you learn avoidance techniques before asking Microprose
to make a unilateral decision to drag us all down into some "easier" level
that many of us do not want. Honestly, between a very effective way of
defeating the ARCHERS and the AMRAAM advantage that prevents most DPRK
pilots form even launching at us in the first place, I just cannot fathom
how someone could want this toned down. PLease, learn the techniques,
turn enemy AI to Rookie if you have to, and have fun.
Editing
Dat Files
There are files in the F4 "sim" directory that can be edited that seem to dramatically affect the
pK of different weapons. I have experimented with 2 files that, either
alone or in combination, make enemy IR missiles much less effective. This
is nothing I personally want for my F4 experience, but for those who want
to rule the skies with impunity, here it is:
First, got to the "Zips" directory and unzip the "simdata" files. Afterwards,
locate the AA10, AA11 and AA9 files in Zips/sim/missdata directeory. Open
them with a text editor. When you open the file, locate the line that
reads as follows:
# Pk (0.0-1.0)
1.000000
Change the pK to something very low like 0.1000. Ironically, this does
not seem to reduce the missiles pK to 10% alone. You should also go to
another directory called Zips/sim/sensdata/irst and find the files called
aim9l.irs and aim9p.irs. When you open them, you will see a file like
this:
Change the flare chance to a very high value like 9.0. I know, I know,
you'd think 1.0 would be the highest but 1.0 does not give a flare a 100%
chance of defeating the missile. It seem there are MORE factors than just
the "pK range 0.0-1.00" and "flare chance" factors. The reason you should
change these sidewinder files is that it seems (to me) that the enemy
missiles are actually using THESE data files bacuse none exits for the
russian equivalents. Oddly, I have found this seems to have LITTLE effect
on my own pK with sidewinders (I guess they don't drop enough flares).
I have not done the exhaustive experimentation to determine the relative
contributions of both. However, when performing both in combination, I
set up an experiement where I went up against a MiG29 at ACE AI in Dogfight.
We both had 8 Rear Aspect and 8 All-aspect (yes you can have that many
in dogfight). I simply flew around at FULL BURNER (to make me a hot target)
and dropped flares and jinked out of plane when the missiles came at me.
Here are the results from 12 matches in each condition:
WITH MODIFY............WITHOUT MODIFY
AA11 miss .............AA11 Miss
AA11 *hit* ............AA11 *hit*
AA11 miss .............AA11 *hit*
AA11 miss .............AA11 miss
AA11 miss .............AA11 miss
AA11 miss .............AA11 *hit*
AA11 miss .............AA11 miss
AA11 miss .............AA11 *hit*
AA11 miss .............AA11 miss
AA11 miss .............AA11 miss
AA11 miss .............AA11 *hit*
AA11 miss .............AA11 *hit*
Hit rate: 8% ..........Hit rate 50%
I encourage you to test yourself because these results need to be replicated
by someone else. There is always that chance I am "subconciously biased"
and am throwing off the results by flying differently in the different
conditions. Please try it, I am fairly confident this manipulation works.
If it does, this may satisfy those of you that think the IR missiles are
too tough.
