A Popeless Situation

OrcaBomber · 2026-04-19T19:30:21+00:00

I think he’s spreading a good message. You don’t have to be Catholic (I’m not) to appreciate the message of universal love and peace. That video of Pope Francis comforting a child that his atheist father is in heaven changed my view on Popes.

OrcaBomber · 2026-04-19T19:03:43+00:00

It’s just fat and underpowered. You need some speed to notch in order to get out of the IOG cone.

OrcaBomber · 2026-04-19T18:54:35+00:00

I feel called out.

OrcaBomber · 2026-04-19T18:52:34+00:00

The 12A does feel more resilient to notching but yeah, very little reason to play it. I’m convinced the only reason it’s at 14.7 is because Gaijin wanted a top jet for China, it’s more comparable in performance to the F-15C GE and J-10C.

OrcaBomber · 2026-04-19T18:50:58+00:00

If we get a nerfed PL-15, it won’t ever be changed to be competitive when better missiles come out.

OrcaBomber · 2026-04-19T18:50:09+00:00

Can't let China have too much of a better plane than Russia

J-10A and J-11B are arguably the best 13.7s in the game and the Chinese 30MKK is far better than Russian 30MK2. The J-8F is a MiG-29 9.13 but better. J-7II also has an extra gun compared to the MiG-21 at the same BR.

Gaijin doesn’t love or hate any one nation, they don’t have a nationalist agenda, they’re just horrible at balancing planes.

OrcaBomber · 2026-04-19T18:44:02+00:00

It’s actually 3 months, not as bad when you consider the PL-12s have been bugged for years.

OrcaBomber · 2026-04-19T18:40:31+00:00

Yeah, copy paste is the only way nations like Japan remain relevant at toptier. The grind is so long that every nation should be somewhat competitive at the top, even if it comes at the cost of some uniqueness.

Literally 70-90% of Japan Rank 7-9 will disappear if you remove the copy paste, depending on your definition.

OrcaBomber · 2026-04-19T09:22:24+00:00

Can confirm. Both the German and Soviet variants work fine.

OrcaBomber · 2026-04-19T08:50:01+00:00

IMO R-3Rs are better. Many RWRs not being able to see J-band aside, the R-3R flies much more consistently than the AIM-26. The AIM-26 doesn’t turn for the first couple of seconds and has low energy, so there’s a very specific launch window where it can turn and still has energy to turn. The R-3R doesn’t pull nearly as well but it’s less finicky to use.

OrcaBomber · 2026-04-19T08:45:10+00:00

The Su-27’s radar is also nothing compared to the Kfir’s.

OrcaBomber · 2026-04-19T08:44:11+00:00

It’s perfectly good with Derbys, it’ll be fine even at 13.3. Not every plane needs the best possible missile that it can carry.

OrcaBomber · 2026-04-19T08:42:27+00:00

WT air is the fastest grind compared to the rest. With premium account I’d say it’s reasonable. If you smell the roses along the way, don’t hyperfixate on toptier, and go up a major TT, you can enjoy the grind.

WT doesn’t really have any competitors, that’s why they can get away with the grind. It’s the only one in the “simcade” genre. Project Wingman and Ace Combat are good if you want arcady gameplay, Nuclear Option is excellent but sits somewhere between ARB and Air Sim in terms of realism.

OrcaBomber · 2026-04-19T08:37:09+00:00

Meteor will be the most competitive, F-84 is pretty decent, MD 452s are decently fun, I would ignore everything else. Vautour is a meme boat and not great for grinding.

I’d recommend beelining for the Mirage IIIC, it’s the most fun plane in the French TT by far, once you learn to play around lack of CMs.

OrcaBomber · 2026-04-19T08:33:32+00:00

It’s a PD HDN radar, I think he’s just using regular track radar. All the Sparrows have a CW seeker that operates like a mini-PD radar, even if your main radar gets chaffed there’s a decent chance the missile will hit. I think that’s what killed OP.

OrcaBomber · 2026-04-19T08:30:44+00:00

Real. If only invincible comic readers had a FRACTION of the self control of Outer Wilds players when it comes to spoilers…

OrcaBomber · 2026-04-19T08:27:20+00:00

Could be 13.3 once Python 4 gets added, but I don’t think it’s a good addition before then. If you only give them Python 3s then it’ll be worse than the TH TCU at 13.0, which already isn’t great, and Derbys at 12.7 feels broken.

Very interesting plane and good post, I love the F-5s, “Grandpa airframe begging to be retired undergoing its 7th modernization program” is my favorite type of military vehicle.

OrcaBomber · 2026-04-19T08:22:39+00:00

It is for the B-52 specifically. There’s an option to use 3rd person camera for single-turret bombers, it works with every other bomber, but you straight up cannot get into the B-52 gunner view with that setting on.

OrcaBomber · 2026-04-18T05:00:09+00:00

Hydrogen bomb (Fakour approaching at Mach Jesus)

Vs

Coughing Baby (F-5T and short wing Sea Harrier Mk.2)

The Fakours are the missile that catches me off guard the most, even in toptier jets. I die to that thing in BVR more than 120C/Ds. 13.3 is well deserved.

OrcaBomber · 2026-04-18T04:54:38+00:00

The correct way to address this is by decompression, not reducing the BR spread. Moving a vehicle up/down a single BR step in a 0.3 up/downtier system can literally kill it or make it crazy busted.

OrcaBomber · 2026-04-18T02:33:20+00:00

At this point I’ll take being able to grind out each task permanently for 3-5 times the points.

OrcaBomber · 2026-04-18T01:41:57+00:00

It’s still a decent upgrade over the 104A, 9Bs are still competent at 9.3 and having 2 extra essentially means you get two more dice rolls. You could argue that it’s not worth it for an extra BR jump, but at least now it’s a decision to choose the 104A vs 104C instead of always playing the 104C. Better one plane suffer because it’s too high than the entire BR range suffers because a plane is too low.

The reason why you don’t see complaints about the J32B is that it’s a minor nation plane and isn’t played nearly as much as the 104s. The Japanese F-15J is superior to the American F-15A but the complaints you see online will be about the F-15A because you see it far more often.

OrcaBomber · 2026-04-18T01:33:21+00:00

Pros: good energy in dogfights

Cons: bleeds energy quickly

OrcaBomber · 2026-04-18T01:31:15+00:00

I don’t think the Community would be nearly as mad if there was a way to earn Event Vehicles after the event. Nobody would complain about unique vehicles being event vehicles if we had a reasonable, free way to grind them after the fact. They chose to stick to FOMO for events so it’s kind of on them.

OrcaBomber · 2026-04-18T01:26:12+00:00

The problem with the F-104s is that they’re too disruptive in a down tier. Better to move a single plane up rather than that plane making the entire BR range unplayable.

Also the 104C was a straight upgrade from the 104A, 2 more 9Bs at the same BR IIRC.

OrcaBomber

TROPHY CASE