Gunpods for the wings of T/A-30

[crimson nest]

Simple as. Instead of missles, let us put more gunpods. More gunpods=more dakka

[violet citrus]

We can already do that though

[crimson nest]

only for the inner wing tho, middle and outer wing might use some more love edit: looking now, I wish I was much more descriptive, sry 😦

[halcyon estuary]

being able to carry 4 20mms would be awesome lol

[native ivy]

Cricket with 8 50 cals but with a compass

[cursive raven]

better cricket although idk abt the balancing issues this thing would bring

[halcyon estuary]

theres nothing unbalanced about 4 20mm gun pods on a compass

[grizzled plover]

The 20mm gunpods on the cricket are near-useless because there are way better options for those inner pylons

[halcyon estuary]

yeah ig so, but theyre fun for a2a so im not gonna complain

[grizzled plover]

Having the gunpods also be available for the middle pylons would make them a somewhat viable choice

Compass also loosely having the same capabilities as Su-25 means that it could belivably have the same 4 wing-mounted gunpod loadout

[blissful coyote]

on the subject of the t/a-30 i'm a little surprised we can't carry at least triple pablos if not triple 250s on the middle pylons as well, is that a balance thing?

[grizzled plover]

likely, it would be nice to have at least doubles on those pylons tho, since they can carry AGM-68 and GPO-500 anyway

[gilded grail]

this is dumb and i support it

[proper cairn]

more lynchpins for cricket. joke. But for Compas could be not bad?

[hot tree]

I like this idea

[halcyon estuary]

lol

[blissful coyote]

on that note i'm also surprised there isn't a triple rack or larger pod for lynchpins

[novel gorge]

id really like either 4 20mm gunpods on the cricket, or make the internal .50 cals swappable with internal 20mm's. cricket needs love too

[tight junco]

The chicane has one, but other planes don't. Apparently in testing, giving too many rockets to other planes made the Chicane less appealing. One of the Chicane's big advantage is the amount of ammo it carries, 16x AGM-48s or 42x Lynchpins and 8x AGM-48s.

[hazy bay]

Same with the cricket

[gilded grail]

cricket has same amount of rockets as chicane

[hazy bay]

Although no AGMs on that loadout

[halcyon estuary]

nah 50s are fine... but... slow firing 20s actually wouldnt be terrible. like 600 rpm
giving it another 20mm gupod is pointless though

[halcyon estuary]

too OP, compass lynchpins already get a big speed boost because the aircraft is high subsonic

[tight junco]

I think Fin is right about the speed boost issue. But I also think the problem with allowing more rockets is two-fold. The first problem is the risk of overshadowing the Chicane if any aircraft can carry a similar amount of rockets AND any amount of other A2G ordinance. Having an aircraft that can carry as many rockets as the Chicane isn't a problem, if it can't carry much else at the same time. The cricket being able to carry 42 lynchpins, the built in 12.7mm MGs, and nothing else is not a problem.

The Compass carrying 42 lynchpins, while also carrying 2 S3s and the 25mm gunpod, would probably be ok. At least until people started cheesing using high subsonic speeds to hurl rockets faster and get them through defenses that the Chicane wouldn't be able to. I am not certain if being able to carry 42 lynchpins, 2 S3s, and a nuke together would be a problem. But I think that would be pushing it.

However, in this scenario, one set of pylons on the Compass carries double lynchpin pods. Now the Compass could have 28 lynchpins while also carrying 4 agm-48s on the middle pylons, 2 s3s, and the gunpod. So even ignoring the issues with lynchpins being speed boosted by the Compass, you have a high subsonic plane that is carrying at least 58%, if not 67% or 2/3rds, of the Chicane loadout while being cheaper and significantly faster.

The second problem, how many other options for that slot can compete against 28 lynchpins? I don't think many. Lynchpins are pretty expensive, but they are really good. They are not the end all, be all currently, but that is partially because most aircraft don't get that many of them. 2 rockets kills everything but a tank, and each pod carries 7. So you have 14 rockets, they fire in bursts of 2/3, and perfect accuracy gives 4-7 kills with them. 4 AGM48s in that slot get 4 kills at best. Pablos get 6 at best. Both are generally intercepted easier than rockets. Pablos have a niche vs SAMs and tanks as cheaper & more effective once SPAAGs are gone.

Maybe AGM68s would also be viable as a cheap and low stress option to pop tanks once everything else is dead. But I think giving double or triple rocket pods to a Compass pylon would overpower almost any other A2G weapon choice. Maybe PvP is different, but SP & Coop, I survive maybe 1/3 of sorties at best and still do fine monetarily.

[halcyon estuary]

specifically with the nuke example, lynchpins are VERY good at overwhelming AA, and would make nuke rushing with a compass stupidly easy.

besides that, this is all on point

[tight junco]

Yeah, that was exactly my concern with the nuke. Seems like probably enough lynchpins to overwhelm any air defenses between you and a base.

[halcyon estuary]

plus a2a to kill interceptors

[gilded grail]

this thread is about gunpods

this got derailed badly

[proper cairn]

you absolutely right! I like your ideas. need some tests. Maybe not give lynchpyns, but give double agm 68 pylons? maybe not bad?

[tight junco]

Thank you. Allowing the inner pylons to carry double AGM 68s might not be bad. However, Ryu has a point. This thread was started as a narrow thread focused on allowing more gunpods because the OP would like that option. On a more broad thread focused on solving a problem with an aircraft, counter proposals and other options would be more on topic. Maybe we should make another more general Compass loadout improvement thread to avoid derailing this one?

[halcyon estuary]

more gunpods should totally fit weight wise on the middle pylons

[proper cairn]

do you have some additional ideas?) If yes, It could be good idea for new topic where will be some new ideas

[tight junco]

Had at least one or two