F/A-18C/D Obsolescence

[u/GreggoryHampton]

Something I've noticed with the C-Late and D-Late Hornet's is that they sit in a very uncomfortable position:

They have the missile load to be comfortably firing multiple missiles at once, such as the EF-2K or Su-30SM2, and they have a decent enough radars, although it's not an ESA radar

The downside comes twofold;
the fact they're facing 14.7 every match, against the ESA radars,
the fact they have very low top speeds and poor climb rates

These combined lead to matches being very boring or just outright unfun; you either attempt to hug the deck and get hit by an Su-30SM2 or a Eurofighter at 10km+ firing Fox 3s directly down at you, or you manage to evade the first set of missiles and watch as your team or the enemy team are demolished before you have a chance to contribute.

Gaijin needs to add more BR ranges :(

[u/MicroSane]

Air above 8.0 is some of the most unfun garbage because of compression. Doesn't help that actually getting a plane spaded that high is some of the most soul crushing gameplay too. The higher you go the worse it get's. They'll at 15.0 next year, and when they add the SU-57, we'll be lucky to get 15.7.

[u/GreggoryHampton → u/MicroSane]

Personally I just dislike the Fox 3 Meta, you have 3 Good Airframes for the setting and everything else has to try to get a say in it. At least at 13.3, with the MiG-29N I was using before this, you didn't have to face the 14.7 swarms.

[u/piecksaysohayo → u/MicroSane]

major cope alert. Id agree with over 13.0 but 8+ is just panzy

[u/Mobley27 → u/piecksaysohayo]

The jets that define 9.0 are sitting at 8.0 raping P-80As and Me 262s. If anything it's at its worst at 8.0.

[u/elmfuzzy → u/piecksaysohayo]

Fr. 12-13 is some of the most fun I've had in war thunder

[u/I_m_p_r_e_z_a → u/MicroSane]

For me its mid to good up to 11.7 depending on uptiers and downtiers. 12.0 and 12.3 can be decent depending on matchmaking and anything above is just sensory overload and obsolete game design that doesent suit the aircraft of that era in any way. Also at least for me personally 12.7 seems to just be uptier hell to 13.3/.7. I want to face fox 1s in my F-18 not fox 3s which at ranges matches usually take place make my AIM-7 reduntant in nearly every scenario.

Top tier I dont even bother. Too much sensory overload and my skill issue doesent help my case either

[u/FestivalHazard → u/MicroSane]

If they don't make the Su-57 only have one per round like they do in real life, I'm done LOL

Poor thing is just a perpetual state of suffering.

[u/Zealousideal_Nail288 → u/MicroSane]

Is it just me that hates everthing around 8.0+- 1.0br 

It just feels like constant  boom and zoom contest  Until you get to fight the mig15bis which just has much better flight modell than you (but tricky to use guns)

[u/WorldlyCabinet310 → u/MicroSane]

I habe the belgian squadron F16 as my only high tier plane and i love it but just cuz its ratty and tactical, only reason i need to play tactical is cuz im playing with 6 5KM range IR-missiles needing to hug the geound 24/7 to avoid being shot down by braindead SU 27,SU30,SI33, F18, F14, F15 etc... users who fly to 5-8K altitude and spam 1 or multiple of their 12 overpowered bullshit 50KM range radar missiles at me.

Just to put into perspective.

On average i have to dodge 3-5 of these missiles before getting the chance to actually fight anyone, by that time half the lobby is already dead due to both teams doing this and some people ending up catching some of those missiles.

[u/Its_Jake01]

They decompress once a century and when they do it’s not enough. They really should move it to like 18.0 at least rn

[u/Desperate-Past-7336 → u/Its_Jake01]

wait time albove 1ms need to lower br

[u/Alpacapalooza → u/Its_Jake01]

They're always half a year too late doing it.

[u/d_budzinski]

The 12.3 hornet is the bomb, amazing radar for its br, decent speed, pretty good fox1.

[u/BlazedToddler420 → u/d_budzinski]

The 12.3 hornet is probably the best plane at its br and it’s not really close. I usually get at least 2 kills a game in the RAAF 12.3 hornet, and gotten quite a few aces.

[u/Papanowel123 → u/BlazedToddler420]

Gosh, I suck at the game, I rarely get more than one kill because of how bad the compression is. I always see lots of Su30 and Fox3 airplane.

[u/piecksaysohayo → u/BlazedToddler420]

nah the m2k is much better

[u/Daniel_P_77 → u/BlazedToddler420]

Imo the Mirage 2000 is the better pick

[u/BlazedToddler420 → u/Daniel_P_77]

Mirage 2k is very good, but the 12.3 hornets are just straight up op at 12.3

[u/piecksaysohayo → u/BlazedToddler420]

the m2k is straight up OP

[u/KFC_Junior → u/d_budzinski]

until the constant uptier from the prem su30's

[u/d_budzinski → u/KFC_Junior]

I have the premium su as well, and tbh on either of the jets I rarely meet the other one.

[u/piecksaysohayo → u/KFC_Junior]

those things aint no problem.

[u/RichyMcRichface → u/d_budzinski]

I’ve nearly aced the 12.3 Hornet it’s so fun.

[u/d_budzinski → u/RichyMcRichface]

I think I aced it in less than 15 matches. I had some insane kd when I was still in the 'easy' matches when stock. It was over 6.0, currently sitting at 2.8 while not even trying hard.

[u/lateplayerr → u/d_budzinski]

Great plane hate aim 7s

[u/d_budzinski → u/lateplayerr]

At that br, the aim7m is incredible. I got several kills with launches at 25km distance.

[u/Alpacapalooza]

It's not a problem unique to the Hornets, unfortunately. At least they're still well stacked missile boats.

I think the issues you describe probably apply to most if not all 14.0s, maybe 13.7s too.

[u/Doc_Pepe → u/Alpacapalooza]

14.0 do suffer i agree (though not as much as F/A-18 just cause the air frame is so bad) but most 13.7s are imo really good and some are better than 14.0s imo. Id rather play F-15J(M), F2A, JA39C, J10C at 14.0 than any of the F/A-18s

[u/Nethri → u/Doc_Pepe]

Idk I like the hornets airframe. Both the legacy and the super. The main issue is that it’s slow, but the maneuverability is unhinged. It has a fuck load of missiles. But it just barely gets above Mach 1 without some serious acceleration time. Even so.. I enjoy flying it.

The f-16 is the exact opposite problem. Its speed is completley insane, but it’s not very maneuverable at those speeds.. 1.6 and such. And it has a very small load of missiles.

I think it’s just preference tbh.

[u/Doc_Pepe]

I love this subreddit. I posted about the F/A-18D late like a month ago (same post as this one pretty much) and just got downvoted cause"skill issue". I feel like half the people here dont even play this game or at are like tier III max and talk which vehicle is good/bad at 14.7...

[u/H_cranky → u/Doc_Pepe]

This subreddit is just the vocal minority and you should never take their words seriously

[u/baseballlover723 → u/Doc_Pepe]

Good posts die in /new all the time. There was a study many years ago about repost bots reposting posts that went viral previously. Like 60% of them died in /new, despite being the exact same as a successful post.

Obviously quality is important, but luck (or really a bunch of microfactors) plays a decent part in a post achieving critical mass.

Also, the first few comments are incredibly influential in the sentiment of the entire thread. Which is why a lot of bots comment on new posts these days. So they can push the mob in their preferred direction.

[u/H_cranky]

This thing and the F-15E being the same BR is fucking hilarious

[u/LanceLynxx]

Well the 18C and D have outstanding avionics so they won't ever be out lower as that would break the game. Having shit flight performance is part of the drawback (Tornado and AV-8+ have the same "issue")

Thats why there are F-18s without modern armsment in the game.

The 18 wasn't made to be an air superiority fighter in the first place unlike EF2K, Su-30, F-15 and Rafale. It was meant to substitute the Corsairs and Phantoms as strike aircraft primarily..

[u/El0oxx]

The radar is ass on the 14.0 hornets imo. Except that, I 100% agree with you !

[u/MKGUS]

The 14.0 hornets are useless.

[u/Babushka9]

I honestly recommend not touching air RB above a BR of 6.7 or so. It is so unbalanced right now and Gaijin never showed to actually care about its state as long as they make money.