Jamming an aircraft should disable the its notching guidance

[inner jackal]

The Medusa’s jamming ability is only really useful against ground units. When an aircraft is jammed, units can still be selected and locked on to, because the sensors are optical and the aircraft’s datalink connection is apparently not affected by the jamming. I think that when being jammed:
1. An aircraft’s datalink connection should be disabled. It should retain full use of its optical sensors, but shouldn’t be able to receive information from or transmit information to the team datalink. This includes unit detection, unit destruction, and nuclear exclusion zones. This should only work when the Medusa is <20 km from the aircraft it is jamming. If possible, a reliability mechanic should be implemented so that these effects are unpredictable, for instance an aircraft’s connection could fail intermittently before failing completely. There should be a visible warning to indicate datalink disconnection.
2. A jammed aircraft’s radar should stop working when the jamming Medusa is <10 km from the aircraft. This too should be intermittent at first, with momentary failures and gradual range reduction, and also “hallucinations” of units and radar pings, then fail completely when the jamming Medusa is <5km away. This would prevent the detection of enemy radar acquisitions, and therefore the missile launch warnings and evasion assistance systems. This would also prevent tracking of aircraft beyond the range of the aircraft’s optical sensors.

Optional long-range camera pods could be equipped to deal with some of these effects. Obviously none of these effects should apply to ARAD missiles as they have their own radar. The radar should only lose function if the Medusa is at an appropriate angle: if there is a metal plane between the radar receiver and the source the jammer, radar function should be maintained. This aims to increase the utility of an otherwise useless aircraft in air-to-air combat. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk!

[rapid holly]

https://youtu.be/4j0vd0qvrdM?si=27B5qaWBeKBiBNwg

Dusa jamming is very much not pointless against aircraft, unfortunately.

[shell sage]

Not like its really affecting enemy players/ai
Its only disturbing your visual and thats all
You still have your lock on targets, you can fire on them normally, you still can lock new targets, you still can spot new targets
There is really not a lot of point in doing that, other than being a little nuisance to the enemies and get those free points

[rose arrow]

access to datalink is very important for situational awareness and staying alive. if you're jammed, you also don't get warning for incoming missiles until much closer. There's plenty of utility to it, and if the Medusa has a teammate in a fighter fire on you, they have better odds at getting a kill with jamming than without

[rocky compass]

I don’t think this is a good idea. The Medusa is already a very strong support aircraft that is difficult to kill. Your proposed suggestions would make killing a Medusa at high altitude a suicidal task, when it’s currently already very difficult. Plus radar jamming doesn’t affect RWRs as far as I’m aware IRL- your aircraft should be able to pick up the radar of an ARH missile and calculate a notch angle even when its own radar is blinded, those are two separate systems.

Also jamming won’t disable your aircraft’s controls IRL, those are a closed system. And that’s a horrible balance idea.

The Medusa is in a good place right now. Low RCS, 6 ARADs and jamming and defensive laser and AWAC dome radar, lots of flares, able to operate off of helipads and ships, etc. it’s the perfect flexible defensive/support asset and its role in offensive actions as one of the best SEAD/DEAD platforms in the game shouldn’t be ignored.

[shell sage]

Problem is, you still getting data from your allies datalink
And you still have sensors that can detect those missiles
While yes, you dont get warning for incoming missiles, If your are alone without any allied unit, either ground or air

[shell sage]

btw, radar already is disabled by jamming
I have radar turned on, but cant spot enemy medusas that are actively jamming me
but I still freerly receive info by datalink, of those AA below, even their missiles

[rose arrow]

you still get datalink?

[shell sage]

well as you can see
down bellow is 2 HLT trucks that can spot enemy AA's

And without them
so yeah, jamming is pretty much blinds you, but you still able to receive info

[rocky compass]

Which is fine, it shouldn't disable your datalink, just obfuscate it. Your datalink (and RWR) don't use your radar to operate, all jamming is is pumping a ton of energy into the wavelengths used for combat systems to "blind" them, which is mainly effective against radar. Datalink is mainly based on radar, lasers, and radio, and has frequency hopping and other mechanisms to fortify it against jamming. Jamming it's very very complicated IRL and missiles like the AMRAAM have built in home-on-jamming that automatically switches on when they start to get jammed, so NO's depiction of jamming is far from realistic. But that's okay, NO definitely values some sacrificing realism for quality gameplay, but I definitely don't think the Dusa needs any buffs at the moment outside of quality of life ones.

Toggle jamming would be nice, for example. Having to hold down the key is just annoying. But completely disabling datalink, removing the notch angle, messing with the flight controls, all would make the Dusa blatantly overpowered and even more not fun to fight.

[frank kiln]

jamming enemy planes is mostly used to jumpscare them with 50km scythes

[shell sage]

I just find it lacking VS enemy planes
thats all, Medusa itself is good

[rocky compass]

which is fine, because the way NO models the Scythe makes it always go pitbull, whereas IRL you can guide in AMRAAMs purely with TWS (so the bogey never gets a hard RWR tone because the AMRAAM's onboard radar never went pitbull)

[rocky compass]

It 100% should be lacking against enemy aircraft. The Dusa is a support aircraft through and through, I'd rather give it a pair of Scythes instead of buff jamming even more.

[shell sage]

And you cant support your team in dogfight that much Xd

[sharp ivy]

pretty sure you can't receive datalink while jammed

[unborn abyss]

gameplay wise this would be incredibly annoying

[rocky compass]

yes you can? you can carry 4 IR missiles, can jam enemy aircraft so they have trouble locking new targets and keeping track of current ones AND can't get accurate info on incoming missiles, can laser multiple enemy missiles, have an onboard radar that highlights enemies across the map, and can land at literally any runway/ship/helipad to rearm and fight on

That's a pretty nuanced and capable support kit, theres no IRL equivilant to that. The closest would probably be an E/A-18 Growler, which is limited to 2-4 missiles, jamming, and its onboard radar, it lacks a laser, AWAC-tier radar, harrier-like-STOVL-capabilities, and the low RCS of a stealthy aircraft. For a game thats all about arcade realism, the Dusa is already pushing the boundary. I don't think it needs any more buffs, it's already a pretty insane aircraft that does its job very, very well.

[rapid holly]

All I’ll say is that anybody who wants Medusa A2A jamming buffed should play a match with Kia on the other team.

[rocky compass]

You can still lock targets on the datalink if you click on them in the map, but you stop seeing their icons when jammed AFAIK. Seems pretty fair to me.

[rocky compass]

It sucks reading suggestions like this because they usually come from players either

-using the aircraft wrong and/or misunderstanding the purpose of the aircraft

-unironic skill issue

And every time we get a complaint like this it muddies the waters for actually relatively good suggestions about existing aircraft, such as this Dusa suggestion posted within the same hour.

[shell sage]

Then how did I had info about incoming missiles and enemy units while I was jammed ?

[shell sage]

Yet again, those 4 IR missiles is up to close-medium range
and if you also have jamming pod and that close to the enemy trying to shot them donw, you probably playing medusa not as intended

Jamming probably can make things worse with locking targets up a far, but close by you can just hover your cursor over them and lock it and you dont need track your target that much if you already know where he is, you dont lose your tracking if he is in friendly sight or your sensor range
and as i have shown before, you still get accurate info on incoming missiles, if your allies have their visuals on it

[sharp ivy]

i was told that

[shell sage]

jamming of enemy aircraft imo fell quite lacking, not properly thought of because only one time when you can jam enemy aircraft at full potential if:
he is alone
there is no allied to him ground/air units
there is no radar coverage

Otherwise, you just blind his radar (with is already quite good but not effective because of datalink), make it a little bit uncomfortable to seek targets on map and ingame (with some practice can be dealt with) and thats all

I dont see much purpose of using medusa to jam enemy planes, while there are other ground radars
If not for lulz or point farm

[inner jackal]

yes but dealing with a medusa is 90% of the time just getting within 5km in a compass and chucking a couple MMRs at them.

[inner jackal]

It's not difficult to kill UNLESS it is properly supported. It can't carry Scythes, its laser is lackluster at best and requires the aircraft to be facing the missile, and it has the RCS of an MBT. It has MMRs which are only effective in large quantities or to inhibit notching of AAMs, and ARADs which can easily be evaded by turning off radar. For most of the playerbase (and all of the AI) it's not worth it.

[rapid holly]

If they’re consistently dying to a Compass, I’m very concerned about the Medusa players you’ve facing; it’s essentially immune to radar missiles thanks to the jammer pod, has an extremely low IR signature and plenty of flares, and is even fast enough to run away from anything else without an afterburner.

That isn’t even getting into the fact that a Medusa barely loses any of its effectiveness at any of its three roles (SEAD, spotting, and jamming aircraft) if it simply flies back and forth over friendly airfields and never takes a meaningful risk, with the only skill required being knowledge about the strategy, possession of a mouse to use the map with, and a reaction time under five seconds.

The biggest buff a Medusa could get would be a solid tutorial mission.

[amber nacelle]

Yeah this could really have some ugly repercussions if added

I'd be cool with a Medusa to jam and disable ARH missiles beyond their pitbull ranges though

[rapid holly]

That could be cool. It’d really only matter selfishly when somebody chucks ten Scythes at once at you from across the map, and jamming missiles off of teammates currently is annoying if they aren’t in a call to tell you when it goes pitbull.

[amber nacelle]

Yeah but as of now the with things as they are my squad has come up with ways to decrease the pitbull range basically jamming a friendly ARH before pitbull range and then letting it go pitbull at 6km with great effect and most people can't understand why it won't go away lol

[rapid holly]

Jamming friendly Scythes to make them go pitbull late? That’s absolutely diabolical.

[amber nacelle]

If jamming worked beyond the pitbull range it would really reduce the bs ARH spam and tactics like I said before

[amber nacelle]

That's why people don't like TT, because we figure out fun things like this

With the power of friendship anything is possible

[cold aspen]

(plug for my EW effect change ideas: https://discord.com/channels/909034158205059082/1326275344545873940 )

[inner jackal]

while the medusa is clearly effective when used by a skilled player, the vast majority of players, and, more importantly, the game's AI, cannot use the medusa effectively.

[amber nacelle]

There are some intricate parts to learning it but honestly a true tutorial for it to show the it's and out's of it would be more beneficial

[frank kiln]

I think the tutorial should also show what it's like to be on the receiving end of a jam

[rocky compass]

that's on the players, legit skill issue. It's not that hard to learn how to use it effectively. Buffing the Medusa into OP territory won't fix the problem of crappy Dusa pilots.

[rocky compass]

You're crazy off the mark with this comment, both in intent- the Dusa shouldn't be able to self escort in a significant capacity, it's a support platform and super hard to kill already, giving it more A2A capability would make it broken- and also wrong about the playerbase, literally any skilled team always runs at least one Medusa in a support role and it has a game-changing-impact pretty much every single time

I love how one of the first comments links actually skilled players using the Medusa to great effect. This entire post reeks of a skill issue.

[native path]

A. It's not, like any support aircraft, meant to do most things solo
B. Agreed that the laser needs some love
C. MMRs don't need quantity to be effective; they just need a good launch
D. The jamming is extremely effective in assisting any attacks from friendlies
E. The Medusa AWACS radar has no radar floor
F. Its clean RCS is the lowest in the game at 0.05 (as opposed to 0.08 on Ifrit, Chicane, and DR)
G. Seriously, it's a support airframe meant to be used with teamwork; the inability to work as a team to use the Medusa is very much a skill issue