More Enhancements

The second thing one notices is that detail has INCREASED in sim, affecting terrain and objects both, though the terrain is the most noticeable. An ECM indicator now appears in the HUD. Frame rate is roughly the same in the unaccelerated version despite these improvements (!), and load times have been reduced. The cockpit has also changed, with small letters on all the warning lights to aid memory.

Moreover, the JTIDs repeater has gone from red lines to blue, making it easier to see the tails indicating vector of bandits. Bandits can still be hard to see, however, and maybe a lighter red color to represent enemy aircraft might be better for ease of sight.

The auto leveller, that key you hit when you are out of control, also doubles as a single key AutoPilot to input present altitude and heading. It works very nicely so long as you do not engage it below 390k. If engaged below this speed your afterburner will also engage and will not shut down til you disengage with another "L" press.

Next you will notice that when the controller gives you takeoff clearance, the "Wind 0 knots, 0 degrees" message has been enhanced! Yes, Virginia, you will now hear a randomly generated message as though there were real weather to contend with! Unfortunately, this isn't the case, but it does beat hearing the same old message every time! (DiD reports that the frame rate hit with a weather generator was simply too great to justify the feature).

Next, the APS system has been enhanced to download the altitude set by the mission director. No more universal setting to 7000 feet and 499 knots! The other change on this MFD is in the DASS system. DASS range now extends to the MAP ON maximum of 40/80 miles. Nice improvement, especially when you fly with no AWACS or lose your link due to damage.

The flight model has been adjusted slightly to increase the effect of a full loadout. Some of the springiness is also gone. (By the way, the weight of individual shells is modelled, and since these things are quite heavy, your overload of 1500 shells could kill you in a knifefight. The real EF2 does NOT carry this many shells. Fire off half of them before you get up close and personal).

Enhanced SA

Every pilot values situational awareness: in fact, good SA is the difference between life and death. Three more SA features have been improved for V.2.0: the wingman padlock, the floating X indicating direction to locked target, and more SAM warnings...

Every pilot values situational awareness: in fact, good SA is the difference between success and death. Three more SA features have been improved for V.2.0: the wingman padlock and the floating X in HUD indicating direction to the locked target, and more SAM warnings. Finally we can toggle the wingman padlock between different wingmen, Up to now once wing 2 was out of action you could not easily locate three or four. Poor devils: they could call out HELP all day and all you could do was guess at their vector, or if you had a lot of patience, pause the sim and play with the browse plane view til you hit player-wingman and then make an effort to get heading in the right direction. No longer! SHF C now toggles the F11 wingman padlock view to different wingmen. You can also view Wingman Threat, since a second press of F11 toggles from current wingman to his current threat.

And in addition to this, we now have the typical floating X in HUD indicator of direction to the locked bandit. This alone is a major SA improvement, and should increase survivability for many pilots in the knife-fight. Combined with the Custom A2A generator, we should be able to improve our skills in close in combat considerably.

V.2.0 has increased SAM launch warnings. In fact, audio feedback has been beefed up considerably, and when you have a "Radar Lock" voice warning plus another bandit launching an IR missile at you (with THAT claxon ringing in your ears), plus voice comms coming from AWACS or a wingman, you will feel like you ARE in the middle of a large and complicated battle system. As the Marines are fond of pointing out, no matter how much you have prepared and no matter how awesome your plans, in the middle of the battle the best you can count on is confusion!

Weapons and Radar

Refuel and Rearm in the Campaign! That’s right! Touch down at an allied base, come to a complete stop on the runway, shut down engines, engage and lock your wheelbrakes (W) and you will be re-armed and refueled with the same loadout you had at takeoff! So if there are more bandits in range and no one else to do the job, or you like that John Wayne Lone Ranger image, go for it! See how long you can play the role in the dynamic environment of the campaign. See the box below for a play by play on this new feature...

A Rearm and Refuel Mission in Campaign

I set up a strike mission on a choke point in the campaign with three wingmen in EFAs, a second strike force consisting of 4 EFAs, an escort of F22s, and weasel mission with 4 F15s. Targets consisted of a rail bridge and a road bridge: I took out the rail and wing two took out the other. The weasel boys had done a nice job, which I observed using Smartview as I ingressed.

By the time I was pickling my GBU, I had bandits scrambling forty miles out. My escort was engaging before I regrouped. They took out the three bandits and lost two aircraft in the effort. I then regrouped just as the second strike force was arriving with nothing to do...

I noted on the JTIDS link that another NATO force was approaching a target about eighty miles NE, and enemy aircraft were vectoring to intercept, so I made a hole in the clouds with my three wings in tow. We took out the bandits and I lost wings two and three. I had two AMR and one ASR left, and my wing had two ASR and three AMR. Decided to head for NATO turf to rearm and refuel. I had also jettisoned my center tank in this last encounter.

Instead of having to return to home in the deep south (Rygge), I touched down at Trondheim. I came to a complete stop on the strip, locked my brakes, shut down my engines, and a minute later was airborn with a full load: 2 GBUs, six AMR, two S225, 2 ASR and a full center tank! Awesome! My surviving wing came along for the ride, though his fuel and weapons were not replenished. (Note: I did not switch my waypoint when I headed south, which meant that my remaining escort remained in place to guard the second strike force... They managed to take out two more bandits while I was "AWOL" refueling; my remaining escorts both died nobly...)

I switched JTIDs out to 160 miles and spotted an enemy strike force. We climbed to 35,000 and proceeded for the intercept at full throttle. Ten minutes later my wing was dead and I had added another five kills to my score, not to mention a control tower left in a heap! I headed south to try another round but when I was near to Trondheim I received comms on STUD 3 from the First Lady requesting my immediate return home ...ie. the wife wanted me to come to bed!)

Next I set up an Escort for a Strike mission in the deep south from my single remaining NATO base. Why wait for the Strike mission to get airborn when I can rearm and refuel later? I took the battle to the Russian base, engaging a Russian CAP about halfway to the enemy base. My wings and I took out eight bandits before I returned home with my remaining wingman in tow.

Before arriving at home plate I heard a MAYDAY call from my outgoing Strike force. Time of the essence, I went in hot onto the strip, dropping like a stone from 30,000 feet. I came onto the CPFD about half a mile off the runway. Air brakes and gear down ASAP, I landed, hit the chute, full stop, locked brakes and engine off. I was rearmed a few seconds later, engine on, dump the external tank, hit the burners, head for the sky!

A half minute later I locked up the first bandit who was engaging the remainder of my assigned Strike force about twenty miles from base. I took him out then headed high, locked up a second bandit and ordered my wing to engage. I locked up a second pair vectored 60 degrees from the first. I lost my wing too quickly, but the four were down. I noticed another pair another twenty miles out, shot off my remaining S225 and then my remaining ASRAAM, and headed back to base.

Rearmed and fueled up a couple of minutes later, I headed high again. Just as I reached 30,000 feet two incoming strike groups appeared on my JTIDs display. One group appeared to be a four ship formation, and the second possibly larger. The smaller group appeared to have the attention of a two ship CAP, so I vectored toward the larger group. When they appeared on my radar at about 60 miles, I still thought there were four. Shortly the resolution improved and I engaged six bandits.

I used Smartview to check their loadouts... armed to the teeth with Cruise missiles! Just as I unleashed the first of my four S225s, they turned toward the near NATO base. At my altitude I was soon in range for AMRAAMs, and quickly unleased all six. I had four kills by the time I was in range for ASR (at mach two it doesn't take long)... I took out one of the remaining SU35s with an ASR and the second with guns.

This left me one ASR for one of the two survivors from the smaller group, and guns for the second. The two EFAs that had engaged the smaller group took out two but went down in the effort. Thanks to refuel and rearm, I saved a NATO base... Its a bit of me against the world, but a lot of fun!

Many pilots have commented on the Maverick lock in the patched version of EF2.... instead of "fire and forget" the Maverick has acted like a laser guided weapon: break contact with the target and lose lock! DiD have addressed this problem, and the Maverick is now working properly! But even more important, the radar and weapon association has been corrected.

Yep, that's right! Now you can use radar as it was intended to be used. You can lock a bandit at forty miles even if the only weapon you have left is a chunk of chewing gum. This increases strategic possibilities, (Yes, Russian pilots are deathly afraid of chewing gum.) since this means that a bandit will take you seriously as a threat when you have NO WEAPONS left... hmm, maybe it wasn't so bad before after all ?

No, this is the way it was intended to be. You want to distract an incoming strike package but they are fifty miles away and you are Winchester.... lock em up! You want info on that incoming bogie at forty miles but only have ASRAAMs... lock em up! You want to lock a bandit and order your wing to engage, cause he has some long range missiles and you don't -- go for it! You have a bandit vectoring toward you, but he has not used his radar and so your escorts have not yet decided that he is a threat? Lock him up; he’ll return the favor pronto and your escorts will take him on. This fix takes care of a lot of territory...!!

Another fix is that the large + no longer appears in the bandit track boxes as soon as you order "Engage." Now when you have that indicator you can be sure that there is already a missile allocated and you can concentrate your fire elsewhere.

Wing loadout will now mirror LEAD! This is a fantastic improvement, since it means that you can ditch the unnecessary dual tanks for a single center tank or no tanks, and add two more A2A weapons! (In 2.0 you will find that you are assigned dual tanks only rarely, another improvement over the original EF2). This will sometimes mean the difference between a successful mission, and a premature abort. It also means that if you don’t need external tanks, you can switch two GBUs for a single center line mounted weapon, and gain additional A2A weapons for your wingmen. This can mean EIGHT more A2A weapons for a flight of Lead plus three wings.

Finally, ALARMs may now be staggered and fired in Direct mode at different targets. Previously, one had to wait for the first ALARM to hit prior to locking a second target in Direct mode.

Go to Part IV

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Last Updated August 30th, 1997