Okay, so I shoot down ships with guns. Missiles don't seem to be that useful. They get dodged, and they rarely actually kill anything. Basically all the UFOs I've shot down have been with guns.
So...that brings me to the main point. Why are the payloads for the interceptors so small? Two AIM-54s?
The F-14 Tomcat, F-15 Eagle, and F-18 Hornet were all introduced in the 1970s. The F-18 would have been in combat trials and such in the beginning of the game, 1979.
All of which have far greater payloads than depicted in the game, even with drop tanks or FAST packs installed.
In the original X-COM game, Avalanche launchers have three shots. Stingray launchers have six.
Why do my planes suck so bad?