By Thomas "AV8R" Spann

  Friendly AI and Tactical

Another AI application is in wingman behavior and commands, and this is where F2 is undeniably lean. With a very basic set of wingman commands, you are limited to sending your wingmen out to attack your target and controlling them to get back into formation. Just the basics- nothing fancy. The obvious cost is a lack of control in your environment. What you do get, however, is wingmen who do just that, and do it well.

Here F2 could be improved a lot. My understanding is that Soviet fighter tactics are such that they are very much controlled by Ground Controllers (GC). As such, it would be much more immersive if you had more GC chatter and direction. There should also be commands to interact with the GC.

If current Soviet doctrine is more akin to the West, then it would be appropriate to have more commands for the flight leader to control their package. I find the appropriate use of AI wingmen is to get them to deal with interceptors or to provide CAP. You don't have to write letters to AI mothers in the case of their untimely demise. In F2, they deliver the goods in spite of their limited control.

Weapon Modeling

The last AI item I will focus on is the weapon behavior. I am not an expert in the Soviet missiles and targeting systems, so I will be brief on my input here. What I have done is to employ as many varieties of the A2A and A2G ordnance as I could.

Remember that the Flanker is an all purpose fighter/bomber, so making cooperative missions with fighters and bombers makes F2 even more versatile. As for A2A missiles I had to rely on the specs in the manual (page 162 - with its funny editor's notes still there). Playing solo and not online, I found the ranges to be reliable.

In fact the F-Pole concept must be employed to have better PK (probability of kill). This means that basically your ship's speed and aspect works in conjunction with the missile's to get to the target before theirs gets to you. You also have to be aware of whether or not your missile needs your ship's radar locked on the target for its entire flight or not. Semi-active missile systems are more work. Many people think the SARAH missiles are fire and forget and as a result, they miss their target.

Click to continue

  As for SAMs, I have found them to be very formidable and that you have to learn to use the vertical along with beaming techniques if you plan to survive long. Making use of countermeasures, chaff and flares, and Sorbita ECM jammer is a must. Where F2 needs to improve is in missile padlocking, notching (or beaming), and the appropriate flight behavior of some A2G and SAMs. It was also found that A2A missiles become ineffective over time during online multiplayer sessions.

The good news is that SSI has assured me that they know of these issues and plan to deal with them in a series of patches. To sum it up, F2 has very challenging AI aircraft, limited but responsive wingman behavior, and believable weapon envelopes with some remaining anomalies to be ironed out. I recommend the training missions as a way to familiarize yourself with the nature of these Soviet weapons deployment systems.

COCKPIT, PADLOCK AND SITUATIONAL AWARENESS - CP, PLCK & SA

The next three core aspects of a simulator have to do with the fighter pilot's environment. The huge challenge to both the sim developer and virtual pilot is how to take a 3D real world environment, visual, tactile, and audible senses, and present an immersive and realistic 2D representation. The fighter's cockpit, the ability to track moving targets and the viewing system all combine to give us Situational Awareness (SA). The TopGun fighter's axiom: "Lose sight, lose the fight" is at issue here.

The cockpit in F2 is implemented in a 3D fashion only. That means while you don't get a flat 2D cockpit like F4 and F15E with all the mouse clickable gadgets, you do get a very good looking cockpit that provides a low frame rate hit. Furthermore, the avionics are all active and very readable.

The work load of keeping your head down in the cockpit is minimized and the burden is placed upon the button commands. This is probably why F2 does such a good job of joystick button mapping to sim functions in the setup options menu. Note that I said button mapping (game function to button), and not keyboard command mapping (keystroke to game function).

Go to Page Three: Cockpit, Padlock and SA