Falcon 4 Allied Force

[SteamWake]

I just loaded this title again after a loooong break from it.

All I can say is while the graphics are not up to todays standard it is still the best I have seen at 'placing you in the theater'.

Theres a big dang war out there and its right before your eyes and ears.

I like the way the AI will assemble strike packages complete with escort, strike and BDA follow ups.

I finally (more or less) have a handle on the radar modes and package delivery aspects. But the SAMS are still kickin my butt. :haha:

Anyhow anyone out there still playing this title?

[Skybird]

Here. Started again last year. Still the best of it's kind. Only two sims I know that play in this league: F4, and SBP.

[SteamWake]

Well no wonder I couldent find the F4 stuff... heh dident even know this section existed. Thanks for the move mods.

I'm not up to playin mp fore I will have my ass handed to me.

The learning curve on this title is up there with eve online.

But still the coolest thing i think is being the second wave in a planned strike and seeing the first waves bombs going off as you approach the target.

Seeing a flight of 4 Migs any praying you aint on there menu for toady ;)

[Skybird]

The battle immersion only is surpassed by SBP, imo, but the system complexity of avioncis is second to none.

If you use a widescreen, note that replacement cockpits for widescreen are (commercially) available. They are very, very good, and much more detailed.

Be careful that you pick the right versions.

http://www.cockpits.nl/

Since there are three versions of the Viper in Allied Force, you need a different pit for each of them. It costed me money - but I did not regret it.

the Hi Tiles also are recommended.

http://www.hitiles.com/indexF4AF.htm

[SteamWake]

I'm not so sure I want to spring on disposable income on these enhancements.

I am trying to enjoy the game as is. Though right now I suck at it.

On a funny side note my home airstrip got bombed out and had to wait a day to see any action.

I choose an A to A mission to 'pay them back'. Found a few pidgeons 120's lockon just need to close .... Kabooom... ~warning warning~

flak got me :haha:

I was able to punch out but lets just say my diet changed.

[Skybird]

Learn how to tune the campaign, and plan your missions and that of the AI yourself (also for other squadrons). It makes your life easier, and costs you much fewer planes. The campaign AI is far from optimal. If you see on campaign map AI flights having no more ammo, manually send them home. Also send them home when they have only Sidewinders left. Arm all AI flights manually that are under AI control. the AI often fails miserably in weapons loadouts.

In the above, I mean you should arm and plan ALL AI lfights yourself - not just those belonging to your package, or flights of your squadron. Check all flights of all squadrons.

In air battles, keep your distance. In ground battles and campaign planning, use the same reason you would use in reality. SAM's and radars first, factories and civilian structures last. Early in the campaign, just CAPs in your territory, and close to the front. Some hours later in the first day, careful first strikes around the front. After 18 hours or so, start medium range strikes. Hitting depots has no effect in the game, save your flight for something more useful.

Be careful about taking out all air bases in the beginning. Not only is that often a costly enterprise, but the AI keeps on producing aircraft, which then get stpockpiled while being grounded. If you miss to revisit hit airbases frequently, all those stockpiled aircraft suddenly scramble in one swing into the air when an airbase is repaired (3-6 hours or so), and you face the often mentioned, much feared "Wall of Migs". In the beginning it is better to kill his airplanes in the air than hitting the airbases on the ground. This detail works different than in reality. the reduction in his air capacity is more lasting. that is why in campaign in the first 5-6 hours or so you should give 100% priority to CAP over your own airfileds and near the front, and do no other kind of missions. the first hours are mig-hunting exclusively. After that, go on Mih-hunts inside his territory, coupled with SAM-hunts. After SAMS and major radar installtions taken out, go for the airbases. and then, for the remainder of the campaign, it is constantly hitting airbases and economic targets. Protection from Migs then is almost no more needed, do not waste too much ressources on CAP then.

Always keep a CAP over your airbases. The AI does not do that, you must do it manually. Place their patrol zone 30-50 miles ahead of the airbase, along the expected enemy approach route. Give CAPS AMRAAMs, not Sidewinders.

Use those campaign sliders and zone priorities and readjust them every couple of hours. I do it in 4-6 hours intervals.

[Fincuan]

Wall of Migs, now that's a classic. It was much much more evil back in the SP1-4 days, makes the present worst case scenarios look almost enjoyable :D

To be honest the dynamic campaign in this one is next to none, and something from which from example the Silent Hunter-series could take note. More often than not even a small impression on that your actions might have an effect on the end result is much more interesting than being dropped in the middle of a "war on rails" a-la SHs, and generally most other games.

[SteamWake]

Wow thats a ton of micromanagement.

But it makes sense because in most cases when left to handeling things in general AI does not do a very good job.

[Steel_Tomb]

Graphically the old girl's past it, but as you say... nothing else can immerse you quite the same.

Black Shark trumps F4 in terms of switchology I suppose, but for immersion it sucks terribly. In F4 you can hear other packages in the fight "Cowboy 12 defensive..." etc and the occasional "bollocks!" which always gets a giggle.

The way SAM's talk to each other and pop up right in front of you like PEEK-A-BOO IM HERE! *que missile launch tone*

I remember the first time I got engaged by a missile I nearly jumped out of my seat! BWABOOBWABOO BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!!! "OH F**K!":ping:

Good time's indeed... I just hope when DCS:Warthog comes out they've brought the environmental immersion in a bit more otherwise it will just be another case of lots of buttons and an awesome aircraft to fly but the outside world is pretty much dead.

[SteamWake]

In F4 you can hear other packages in the fight "Cowboy 12 defensive..." etc and the occasional "bollocks!" which always gets a giggle.

Im fond of the "Foxtrot Uniform" and "I have become death" calls :03:

Oh and "Oh shoot !" followed by "No chute" :oops:

[XabbaRus]

I have just bought F4 Allied Force today through Subsim.

[SteamWake]

I have just bought F4 Allied Force today through Subsim.

Cool hope you enjoy it and the 172 page manual (on pdf). Be prepared for an extremely steep learning curve. Downright frustrating at times.

Oh and its 'C' ;)

an inside joke you will soon get.

[Skybird]

I have just bought F4 Allied Force today through Subsim.
"Patch as patch can!" ;)

http://www.lead-pursuit.com/downloads.htm

[Oberon]

Really must reinstall F4AF sometime and take another crack at it. I could start up from cold and take off alright and attack a defenceless aircraft, but the second something with teeth come along I was toast.
I still break out in a cold sweat sometimes thinking of the noise the RWR makes when a MiG-29 shows up. :o

[SteamWake]

Okay so I set the sliders to prioritize aircraft, Sams and radar.

Thing is it keeps throwing up a bunch of BDA's even though uhhh theres nothing to asses. :doh:

I assume their doing assesment of sorties from other bases.

I just fitted them out with 120's and let em go maybe they can pick one or two Migs off while there out taking pictures.

Then I flew one and sure enough the enemy was kind enough to oblige. I got a M29 locked but dident like the solution and unlocked. Thats when the radar went blank... :o I checked and TWS was selected, was not in dogfight, and radar was not in stdby. I tried and tried but could not get the gd AA radar to work again.

So I chased em around a bit and tried to get him with guns but my wingy burned em. But yea frustrating to fly all that way have ripe targets and the gd radar got turned off somehow :damn:

But I dident see the other group migs comming up from below and they pasted me seconds later.

[Skybird]

You have to tune the priority of combat zones, too. In the begining set all enemy territory to zero, and your own bordert territories to maximum. Have only aircraft sliders maxed, everything else on zero.

some hours later include the sectors where the front is, and include SAMs so that bthese could be targetted inside these sectors.

Next step is when these sectors are SAM-free - then you are deeper in the enemy'y territory, you still have Migs on priprity, and SAMs quite high, but you add the next chain of sectors to the active combat operaiton zones, and start to have airports included.

The trick is to prioritize the combat zones cleverly. what costs you many planes is deep strikes at the early stage of the war, when they still have to pass through plenty of Mig- and SAM-infested airspace.

I usually coordinate airport strikes with staritng to hit aircraft production. Until then, I first focus on defence: killing as many migs as I can, in the air, and second: preparation of the later offensive: taking out the SAMs. Not before Migs are taken out (especially the odern models) and all SAM batteries outside the airports have been deleted, I make all enemy country a hunting ground and start go for industry and airports.

the first day therefore is almost cp0mpletely dogfighting for all my units. After air superiroity has been totally established, it is almost completely mud moving only.

To ground battles you have to react depedniong on the situation. Take out artillery first, especially if it is in range to friendly units. They do the most damage, helicopter gunships also can be devastating. Next dangerous is armoured units.

Take note that there are two kinds of engineer units. Their presence close to a place can increase the repair of airfields and bridges.

In the Korean campaign I only destroy the bridges close to and directly north of Seoul, else the city get overun too easily. On the Balkans, I never bomb bridges. It hinders my own advance only, and there is no prressure by the enemy that forces me to do so in order to prevent a threatening ground developement.

In the early stage, focus on attacking ground units only if they are about to enter combat range to your own ground units. Do not let your ground units attack, the losses are needless. Pave them a way by air attacks, and let them just seize and hold ground. Destroying enemy units on the ground is the airforce's job, at least in this sim.

P.S. Move the sliders in quarters of the scale, to see some noticable difference between the settings. If you make finer tunings, chances are you won't note the effect. Don't be shy to give 0% and 100%. Combat zones where you want something getting achieved you should hit not with divided resources, but with everything you have. I use many sliders for switching between maximums and minimums. And CAPs I almost always locate manually where I want them. Line them up, regarding their timing, so that the relief force is already approaching a critical area when the current patrol is getting out. Else your airports can be hit, and when you have to live without AWACS for the coming 8 hours, it is a completely new ballgame.

[Skybird]

I still break out in a cold sweat sometimes thinking of the noise the RWR makes when a MiG-29 shows up. :o

You never have done a tank battle in SBP, with you lacking situational awareness but starting to take hits... In some aspects, F4 is better and more immersive, in others, SBP takes the lead. Both can become incredibly tensed and exciting, and both can give you real big battles with dozens of participants in one place.

[XabbaRus]

Installed and patched and crashed.

Looks like I will have to wait to the weekend to fully learn how to even get off the ground.

This is soooo cool.

GFX might not be that great but still it is smooth as anything...That counts more to me than a plane detailed down to the last rivet.

[Skybird]

There is a video, I think at their homepage, showing you through the full engine ignition process. Nothing better to launch a mission from a D&C cockpit.

Expect frames to suffer in campaign a bit, not so much in the Balkans, but Korea on first day, over the FLOT at Seoul. It gets better once you have eaten up his first massive blow.

[JamesT73J]

Been playing again recently - it's still the best, much as I love the feel of the DCS / Lomac games. Nothing beats the huge scale of immersion one feels in Falcon.

I'd say in terms of difficulty, F4AF is 'perfect'. You can fly it like LOMAC if you want to, i.e. if you wish to take off with engines started, you can do so - all you need to learn is weapons delivery & sensor management which really is quite intuitive once you understand the commonality among all the MFD pages. The Viper as depicted in F4AF has an excellent human interface.

Likewise, surviveability takes a lot of practice. The training mission 'missile avoidance' is very good; it places a variety of threats in just the right quantity to keep you busy, without being overwhelming, and it's a mission I return to regularly if I get a bit rusty.

Missile and AAA performance in F4 (any version) has always been a little more fallible than the DCS products, for my money - since the days of Flanker 1.5 threat radar has always been difficult to spoof, and ZSU's & SAMS are extremely hard work; generally if they can lock-and-launch, there's a good chance you'll perish. I always felt weapons in those games perform 'ideally', i.e. extremely well. In F4, sound avoidance technique (beaming the launch platform, tallying the smoke trails - EXCELLENTLY modelled, by the way - and trying to increase the bearing rate does work very well, apart from against the latest threats, which is as it should be.

Falcon 4, (like Falcon 3) has some superb situational awareness tools - don't be afraid to use them. These were designed to overcome the limitations of working with a 2D monitor, and they are really well thought-out; enhanced padlock is a great aid (I have track IR but don't especially get along with it, though I do use that for the DCS titles as I never like the view system) and pressing shift-F3 will open up a useful situational-awareness tool. There is a lot going-on in the F4 world and until you get used to it, don't hesitate to use these things to help develop 'a picture' of what the F4 world looks like.

Little touches set F4 apart for me. I love how the AI will be unpredictable. It will run away, it will sometimes engage very aggressively (who hasn't been caught out by MiG-21's intercepting high-speed at very short range from a GAI scramble? Exactly as they are designed to do!) and sometimes it will not even notice you're there - just like real people.

[CCIP]

Funny, I dusted it off just last night and feel much the same! :up:
Hopefully I can play through a campaign or two in the next while. Nothing sums up F4 better than "There's a war going on. Someone put you in an F-16." The game world is very 'alive' and it's hard not to get sucked in when you learn to appreciate what that F-16 can do.