v1.1 F-15E Feedback

[FlapincQom]

Hey there guys, posting a quick thread regarding the new F-15E on Khamisiyah.

In my brief 15 minutes of test flying the only major issue I found so far is the F-15 still has the same yaw rate as its vanilla BF2 counterpart. Roll rate is noticeably quicker than on some of the other jets in game which gives the F-15 some serious maneuverability at almost any speed.

I'm going to be playing around with the weapons next, although at a glance I'm a little disappointed in the loadout. I'd rather see the 500 lb. variants of the Paveway IIs, because I think that more, smaller munitions might adequately display the amount of firepower and loiter time a fully burdened F-15 might have. Besides, considering it has a two person crew requirement, it should have a little more dominance on the battlefield if you can correctly coordinate your crew and spotters.

I love the Eagle to death, but at the current moment I don't think it really has enough to compensate for the crew requirements and, assuming the yaw and roll rates are to be changed, has no benefits over the F-16 in air superiority. I'm not sure I really appreciate the F-15 on a map like Khamisiyah without some changes to its weapons loadout.

Again, I haven't flown it yet in a live match, so all of these comments are just first thoughts having played a good bit of Khamisiyah on the ground as well as in the air. If anyone HAS flown in a live round, please post your thoughts as well, I would really like to see this asset getting the proper welcome it deserves.

[Jafar Ironclad]

Keeping my eyes on this thread, by the way; will address feedback in bulk once we've collected more. Thanks!

[Rhino]

Originally Posted by FlapincQom

I'm going to be playing around with the weapons next, although at a glance I'm a little disappointed in the loadout. I'd rather see the 500 lb. variants of the Paveway IIs, because I think that more, smaller munitions might adequately display the amount of firepower and loiter time a fully burdened F-15 might have. Besides, considering it has a two person crew requirement, it should have a little more dominance on the battlefield if you can correctly coordinate your crew and spotters.

The reason why we haven't gone with the 500lb bombs is we currently don't have any 500lb LGB models ingame. BTW if anyone is willing to model us a GBU-12 Paveway II your more than welcome to as we also need them for the Harrier too

Originally Posted by FlapincQom

I love the Eagle to death, but at the current moment I don't think it really has enough to compensate for the crew requirements and, assuming the yaw and roll rates are to be changed, has no benefits over the F-16 in air superiority. I'm not sure I really appreciate the F-15 on a map like Khamisiyah without some changes to its weapons loadout.

Well the F-15E isn't meant to be better than a F-16 in air combat. Its primarily designed to be a ground pounder with the ability to defend itself, where the F-16 is really the other way around, designed to be an Air Superiority Fighter with the ability to attack ground targets, although both of them are very good at each job, the ingame loadout of each is focused towards these roles.

The biggest advantage the F-15E has over the F-16 in its ground attack role, other than having twice the payload, is that the co-pilot can manually guide bombs down onto the target without the requirement of a laze, as well as being able to spot lazed targets far more clearly etc. If you get a good crew working together that second seat is really worth it

[chrisweb89]

Anyone know what it's RL reticle looks like for the backseater's bombs? Right now its using the W reticle from the tornado, which just sucks for aiming with, at least from my gunner's view.

[FlapincQom]

Originally Posted by [R-DEV]Rhino

The biggest advantage the F-15E has over the F-16 in its ground attack role, other than having twice the payload, is that the co-pilot can manually guide bombs down onto the target without the requirement of a laze, as well as being able to spot lazed targets far more clearly etc. If you get a good crew working together that second seat is really worth it

I couldn't agree with you more, manual guided bombs are one of the strongest payloads on the battlefield with a competent gunner. The only real downside and the biggest point I want to get across is that without the same kind of loadout as the tornado, the F-15 will have to rearm regularly if your miss a mark or can't get accurate lazes.

Not saying a huge buff is in order, just maybe a bump from 4-6 bombs to improve loiter for the asset and make it a much more reliable asset for the team.


Aside from that, any look at the yaw of the aircraft? Seems I was wrong about the roll rate, seems normal, maybe a bit too tight at high speeds. Oh, and the flare counter is broken at the moment.


EDIT: Should hopefully be able to use it in game later today or tomorrow, will post thoughts afterward.

[dysin]

took the f-15 up last night for the first time on khamisiyah. we kept it up for the first hour and change until the flare bug caught up to us, but apparently that's already addressed and just waiting on a patch. i didn't notice any lack of performance. it actually performs very well against both the fitters and mig in a dogfight, especially with a copilot that can call them out on the hud rapidly. the armament is workable, with the quick reload and long runway- you can just coast into the hangars- by the time you taxi around, everything's good to go. good ground crew. 90 second land and t/o schedule.

the real limit here is the a-10. it's a heavy liability, with 4 enemy jets (all effective fighters) to account for. it needs to be very defensive, loitering off the map or operating with ground AA. it actually cost us the game last night, in terms of ticket loss vs enemy killed. this leaves you at a 2 to 4 disadvantage by default, and i have the feeling that it's going to be reflected in the skies over time.

[=MeRk= Morbo5131]

I'm not sure if this has been called out yet, but on Khamisiyah AAS Large, the co-pilot cannot enter with a pilot kit, however they can use any other standard kit. Lead to a funny situation where I had the medic kit, we got shot down, we both bailed out and the pilot revived me with the medic kit I had on me once he landed. We spent the remainder of the round defending a bunker.

[K4on]

in 1.1.4.0?

[=MeRk= Morbo5131]

No, this was the preceding version. Haven't yet had the chance to check it out since the update.

[Rhino]

BTW guys would be good to hear some feedback on its weapon changes as per this blog here, the F-15E now has eight GBU-12 500lb LGBs instead of 4, 1000lbs and it also has two x AIM-9 and two x AIM-120 where before it just had 4 x AIM-9.

Although to start with pretty much all of the jets will still be using the 1000lb bombs, The F-15E Strike Eagle has been loaded with eight GBU-12 500lb LGBs, replacing four 1000lb LGBs which is its more realistic loadout and means that while it still carriers the same amount of bang overall, it can strike at a lot more targets in one sortie.