(This article may be found at http://www.combatsim.com/htm/2000/07/f4plus_part3)

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Page 4

iBeta's Realism Patch 3, Merlin's B-1B Cockpit.
By Bob "Groucho" Marks

While the radar fix is arguably the biggest tweak of RP3, there are quite a few others:


  • The large caliber AAA, while still lethal when not given the respect it deserves, has been toned-down a bit. The reduced blast values help make flights over flak batteries less akin to being fed through a wood chipper.
  • Investigations into how F4 handles ground units have revealed that US (and the similarly structured ROK) ground units (known to Frogfoot drivers as “targets”) have been given the short shrift. Mods have been implemented to help balance the ratio of combat to support vehicles. Check out the ReadMe on this, and careful how you move that force ratio slider!
  • Aircraft tasking is much more in line with reality. No more Deep Strike missions for A-10s, for example. This is great (I always wondered what the REMFs [Rear Echelon, um, MFs] responsible for that little piece of military genius were smoking).
  • Allowable loadouts for the Warthog have been reduced, greatly enhancing performance. Two hard points have been eliminated---after the reduction in max takeoff weight the AI loader was often loading the airplane over gross. iBeta plans to concentrate on tweaking the flight model, possibly for the next release of RP.
  • Speaking of flight models, each aircraft now has it’s own individual flight model, much like each one has it’s own radar suite. This kicks down the door for some serious FM editing!
  • A new version of F4Patch (v2.0 beta) is included, complete with the latest version of the Flyanyplane patch among others. This is the enhanced version of Flyanyplane that allows Red v. Blue multiplayer in campaigns. Cool. Still needs work, however (I get a large percentage of my CTDs while exiting from the 3D world at the end of a mission).

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(This article may be found at http://www.combatsim.com/htm/2000/07/f4plus_part3)