Setting Waypoints

Setting waypoints is simple, a point-click affair. Once again, this is vastly better than the chore of seting waypoints in Jane's USAF. Actions for these waypoints are set in the Airgroup planning window, with time over waypoint (ETO) obviously a factor of launch time and whatever speed you've set. Once again, make sure that your Mission Time is set correctly in the Briefing screen. I still have knots on my forehead from beating my skull against the desk over that little jewel.

Altitude is always AGL, and I have yet to see an AI aircraft pull a Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT) a'la Jane's USAF AI pilots. Unless, of course, they are on fire. The manual tries to make this point clear, but let me reiterate it from personal experience: be sure and set your "Attack" waypoint far back enough to allow the AI to set up for the "Attack a Target" waypoint. If you don't give 'em enough room, they are instant flak bait as the AI switches into Stupid mode. Trust me.

My tactic is to cut my wingman loose with the, "Do your thing then regroup" command almost immediately after passing through the attack waypoint together as the AI is really quite good, almost no "babysitting" is required. The AI skill level set for the various units really comes into play here, and there is a substantial difference in both the AI ability and aggressiveness depending on the level set. This applies to SAM and AAA units as well as aircraft.

Throwing Wrenches in the Works

Here's some of the extra "spice" that F2 throws into its mission planner that is missing in other combat sims: the Met Report and the Failures options. The Met Report is a powerful weather generator, with the ability to set cloud cover, fog, wind, and even turbulence variables into your mission. These factors can and will obviously affect everything from attacks to landings. There is nothing quite like an unguided rocket attack through the fog to hold your attention for a spell.

Clouds are also just rendered so well in this sim (in my opinion, only the clouds in Fly! are better) that they can just make nice eye candy, in addition to being a tactical challenge for close-in knife fighting.

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The Failures option is also a trick thing. In addition to being a handy "what if" tool to practice such emergencies as avionics failures and perforated engines, it can also be used on SAMs and radar installations of either side. The list of possible things that can break is quite extensive, and is a fun and challenging addition that can change the flavor of even a milk-run mission very quickly.

Go Kill Something

Well, that's about it for basic mission building, comrade. The manual is a pretty good guide, and hopefully this article helps motivate and/or help a bit. The mission I've included with this article, The Hell Outta Dodge, is Classified as a Pilot Mission. This means you are locked out- you cannot change anything. You are simply the grunt pilot who must fly as ordered. Enemy units are hidden as is intended.

If you want to get under the hood and see how all of this works, however, go to Edit and hit Declassify. When prompted, the password is "groucho." Hit Ctrl+H and select all, then hit Hide again. All of the units are there, ready for inspection and/or modification as you see fit.

That's it for now, but The Hell Outta Dodge is intended to be the first part of a Campaign. Stay tuned for Part 2 for a walkthrough in the wonderful world of if/then branching campaigns and Mission Conditions. Until then, dos vedanya, and pass the avionics coolant.

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