I have an idea to make a realistic IRCCM Aim-9M.
IRCCM is a missile that is flare resistant.
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Making a flare proof missile in Simple Planes can be done relatively easily by using a guardian missile, and setting the lock timer to zero. However, this does not imitate a IR missile like the Aim9-m, because if the guardian missile is not fire and forget.
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The obvious solution is to increase the lock radius to 360 degrees, so that the target is always locked. In this way, the missile will continue to track, even if you make maneuvers.
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However, the Aim9-M could not be fired at high off-boresight, and most missiles cannot be fired at a target behind them, so it is necessary to limit the missiles lock radius before firing.
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My first idea was to use two missiles, the first would be the actual missile, with a low lock angle, and the next would not be able to be fired, simply serving as a 360 lock maintainer. Unfortunately, the last missile in a firing sequence gives the lock properties to all of the missiles under the same name. I made three discoveries that might solve this issue.
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First I discovered that missile firing order is based off a pattern, alternating left right (or right left) starting from the Inside, and working its way out. Second, I discovered you could alter the pattern, by setting the activation group of a missile to ammo(WeaponName)<x or possibly a FireWeapons input with a timer set to infinity.
This also allows the lock-sustaining missile to not interfere with the first missile, until it is needed
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The third was that you can set the ammoCount on a cannon to a negative number. If you name the cannon the same as your missile, you can hide the fact that there are 2 missiles.
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I applied these principles, however I ran into the issue of the second missile deactivating itself, because it counts as ammo when activated. I used the negative ammo cannon to try to overcome this.
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My idea was to activate the negative cannon at the same time as the second missile, which would set the ammo to zero. This did not work and made the weapon jitter between 1 and zero ammo (not desirable), so I decided to try the FireWeapons method to work.
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I could not get the infinite timer that kept it activated to work. I probably could have made this method work, but I realized things where getting pretty convoluted, and that, this would be difficult to scale to having multiple missiles with the whole firing order and negative cannon ammo deal. I think there is an easier way to do this.
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So my current idea involves setting the activation group of the missile to when the target is within where the missile lock reticle would usually be. So something like (TargetHeading*TargetElevation)<x. An abs function is nessary and probably some more math stuff idk. Also I can’t remember if you are supposed to subtract TargetHeading from Heading or not, but I think it’s relative to your heading.
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Now the glaring issue with this method is that the user cannot see what the maximum launch angle is, since there is no reticle. This can be fixed by making a hud that follows the player’s camera around like this warthunder hud https://www.simpleplanes.com/a/nBxCKT/WarThunder-HUD
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It’s worth noting that there is still the issue of the user just switching targets after launch, which I have no idea how to solve. Anyways, let me know in the comments if you have any ideas

Edit: figured it out (see pinned comment for missile) basically you need to have 2 missiles, one guardian, and one non-guardian, (for example an inferno missile), both with the same name value. The guardian needs to be set to fire first. Next, set the guardian activationGroup to be -1 always off) so it can’t be fired.
Then make the inferno into a custom missile like this and the guardian attached to the fuselage, or the non detaching, side of the detacher
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This works by giving the inferno the ability to re-lock targets like a guardian.
Interestingly if you switch around the inferno and guardian you get a missile that cannot re-lock, but is not fire and forget either, so the missile instantly losses its lock.