F16 Viper vs f18 Hornet

[Proskill]

What's the pros and cons of them if i wanted to get into the game?
What are their characteristics?

[Gunfreak]

F18 can take off and land on a boat. Has anti ship capabilities. Can carry lots
Missiles, slightly better radar.
Cons is that it's slow. So damn slow, can't carry the good cluster bombs.
Neutral. You need to go into a lot of menus and sub menus on the screen to do stuff.(personally find that annoying and needlessly slow, most probably don't care)

F16 is a super car, it's the fastest accelerating aircraft in DCS. It can climb with fuel tanks and 6 missiles and still accelerate past Mach 1. It is the nr 1 aircraft when it comes to SEAD/DEAD. Sometime soon it will get the sniper pod, that will be the best targeting pod in the game. It also has a special pod for use of the HARM Missiles that makes it super easy to use.

Fantastic canopy with nothing in the way to block your view. 9+ Gs. Less need for going into submenus within submenus. As you have physical switches in the cockpit. Insanely effective cluster bombs.
Cons, can't use a boat. Can't really attack boats. Can only carry 6 air to air missiles.

Both aircraft will run out of fuel quickly (about 5 minutes on max power for the F16) both require a lot of buttons to effectively use it's system.

[King Flippy Nips]

on a side note, if you play on the standalone DCS launcher you can test both aircraft out for 2 weeks each, i wont say much about the aircraft but id watch videos, i have all the planes and yes the f16 as stated above is the super car i agree, i somhow keep ending up in the good ol FA-18

[FlameDaKing]

I've only recently brought the F16 (yesterday) so this might not be extremely accurate
F18 - Has more missiles than the F16, is very good at multirole
F16 - Faster than F18, is very good at multirole

[Proskill]

Originally posted by King Flippy Nips:

on a side note, if you play on the standalone DCS launcher you can test both aircraft out for 2 weeks each, i wont say much about the aircraft but id watch videos, i have all the planes and yes the f16 as stated above is the super car i agree, i somhow keep ending up in the good ol FA-18

Can u elaborate? Im using DCS world steam edition. Can i test them here too?

[King Flippy Nips]

Originally posted by Proskill:

Originally posted by King Flippy Nips:

on a side note, if you play on the standalone DCS launcher you can test both aircraft out for 2 weeks each, i wont say much about the aircraft but id watch videos, i have all the planes and yes the f16 as stated above is the super car i agree, i somhow keep ending up in the good ol FA-18

Can u elaborate? Im using DCS world steam edition. Can i test them here too?

no sadly steam does not have a trial thing for planes, but DCS makes it easy to transfer steam bought modules over to SA (Standalone)

P.S i sent you a friend request so i can help you further for any questions, or i can show you the planes and provide demonstrations, examples, and information based on documentation though DCS World and not my own opinion

[startrekmike]

Originally posted by Proskill:

What's the pros and cons of them if i wanted to get into the game?
What are their characteristics?

Since you are starting from the beginning, the finer differences probably don't matter as much. The biggest difference is that the F/A-18 can do carrier operations and the F-16 cannot. Since landing on the carrier is a somewhat advanced skill in DCS, I am not sure how much that will impact your initial experience.

Beyond that. The F/A-18 can carry anti-ship missiles and some long-range air to ground missiles that the F-16 cannot. This isn't a big deal since the F-16 has its own benefits with the better cluster munition options and the HTS pod (a pod that works with the HARM missile to make the aircraft MUCH better at SEAD/DEAD mission roles).

Another major difference is the method of refueling. The F/A-18 uses the "probe and drogue" setup where you fly the refueling probe into the "basket". In contrast, the F-16 uses the boom where you have to maintain a specific position in relation to the tanker while attached to a boom. Both are pretty advanced skills (that many DCS players sadly don't bother with) so this might not impact you at this stage at all.

In terms of performance, they are obviously quite different. The Hornet can handle high angle of attack maneuvering better than the F-16 but it accelerates slower. The F-16 in contrast needs to be handled with a bit more care but is equally as capable if one puts thought into what they are doing.

To be bluntly honest. The differences will only really come out if you start to meaningfully dig into the learning experience.

[King Flippy Nips]

Originally posted by startrekmike:

Originally posted by Proskill:

What's the pros and cons of them if i wanted to get into the game?
What are their characteristics?

Since you are starting from the beginning, the finer differences probably don't matter as much. The biggest difference is that the F/A-18 can do carrier operations and the F-16 cannot. Since landing on the carrier is a somewhat advanced skill in DCS, I am not sure how much that will impact your initial experience.

Beyond that. The F/A-18 can carry anti-ship missiles and some long-range air to ground missiles that the F-16 cannot. This isn't a big deal since the F-16 has its own benefits with the better cluster munition options and the HTS pod (a pod that works with the HARM missile to make the aircraft MUCH better at SEAD/DEAD mission roles).

Another major difference is the method of refueling. The F/A-18 uses the "probe and drogue" setup where you fly the refueling probe into the "basket". In contrast, the F-16 uses the boom where you have to maintain a specific position in relation to the tanker while attached to a boom. Both are pretty advanced skills (that many DCS players sadly don't bother with) so this might not impact you at this stage at all.

In terms of performance, they are obviously quite different. The Hornet can handle high angle of attack maneuvering better than the F-16 but it accelerates slower. The F-16 in contrast needs to be handled with a bit more care but is equally as capable if one puts thought into what they are doing.

To be bluntly honest. The differences will only really come out if you start to meaningfully dig into the learning experience.

i agree with this mans, how i went about it with friends is what looks cooler to you and go with it lol

[Arashenstein]

F/A-18C is jack of all trades. If you learn this you will learn F-15E and A-10C and Apache faster. They pretty much share a lot when it comes to weapon system and startup procedures.

F-16C is a thing of it's own, it is really fast as others mentioned but it has nothing in common with other jets. It is very limited in weapons but it does the job for short missions.

I advise you take the Hornet, that thing is truly the jack of all trades.

[Proskill]

thanks all. i decided to go with f-16