A New Breed

USAF is a new breed of simulation. It isn't a Novalogic sim, where all systems are pared down to their functions for quick reference, and the emphasis is on action. Neither is it a Falcon 4.0 or a Flanker 2.0, where each system is replicated in such detail that a huge manual and many hours of practice are required.

USAF stands firmly in the middle, and manages to please many in the hardcore crowd without alienating the novice. The emphasis is on game play and immersion, two strong suits which are helped greatly by a very good graphics engine and some well designed missions. "Groucho" and I have cooperated to bring you an in-depth look at JANE'S latest.

USAF: Mid Core Heaven

The net is thrown broadly by allowing the player to fly some of the most famous aircraft ever built, in some very diverse places. Check it out: Vietnam, Iraq, and and a campaign set in the future as well. Fly the F4, F105, F15 (C and E), F16, F117, F22, MiG 29 and A10. A nice whack of single missions, a powerful mission editor, good multiplayer features, a mission recorder, comprehensive pilot records... have I missed anything?

How about ability to command your wingman or the flight, jump into the action in another aircraft, IFR (in-flight refueling) or use built in voice command? How about a thick spiral bound manual? Dang, this is as good as MiG Alley. USAF isn't quite as serious in its flight modeling, but the addition of modern avionics adds an additional level of challenge for the novice.

For some of you, this is "the other guy's" simulation. But for the weekend jet jockey, this is pretty close to heaven. Wanna fly the Thud in Vietnam? It's all yours. Got an itch to try the Phantom? Check it out. Still pining for an A10? It's in here (a "turbo" version, I think!) You've always loved the F15, but you're not into ground pounding? Climb into the C model here. You've been admiring Falcon 4 but the weight of the manual gives you weak knees? Yep, the F16C and even the F22 are here for you.

The action starts on the tarmac. You aren't alone out there!

Gentlemen, Install Your Jet

Remember when Longbow II arrived on the scene, with a maximum install of some 600 MB? In those days the average hard drive was around 1.5 GB. We've come some distance since then, and USAF arrives on two CDs, REQUIRING 415 MB as a minimal installation. Go for the full meal deal and allocate a full 1145 MB of your drive.

I chose the CUSTOM route, leaving out the Vietnam campaign as a way of testing CD access. This means actually SWAPPING in CD number two when loading the campaign, and that is the only time you will notice any access. Leaving out a campaign saves around 250 MB of your hard drive.

Test system was a PII 450 with TNT2. At 800x600 frame rate has not been an issue with all details to the max. Once loaded up you'll get the usual JANE's multimedia intro, followed by the USAF specific video footage. It's worth watching.

Entering the sim, the interface is a cross between the IAF style and WW2 Fighters. Overall it's relatively clean and intuitive. Your first stop will likely be the PREFERENCES.

My system defaulted to 1024x768 but not all the options were turned on. I made that correction, and then turned off the training aids (Easy Aiming and Easy Targetting were turned ON by default.)

When Tim "Flyboy" Henderson installed USAF, it failed to detect his AMD Athlon 600, instead deciding he was running a K6-3 400. It looks like Jane's have optimized for the Pentium III but have not optimized for the Athlon. Too bad, but maybe this will be rectified in a patch. I've been running under DX7 on WIN98 OSR 2.

Learning the Ropes:
Training and Single Missions

Next up, some flight training. This is the narrated, instructor provided style training that we're getting accustomed to. It's nicely done and I didn't find a single flaw in the taxi and takeoff missions I flew in both the F16C and the F22A.

Training Missions

Landings are too forgiving, even on high realism settings. But for most weekend simulation pilots, this isn't a bad design choice. You may argue that they could simply select Easy Landing. I tend to agree. Oddly, you'll have to keep your speed close to 200 knots for a safe landing.

Groucho: USAF is a blast! Part of the reason for this is the eye candy, no doubt. USAF is a gorgeous sim, funny colors on the F-16 aside. But I think the main appeal to those of us who like a jigger of reality in our fun and games (shaken not stirred) are the generally well thought out mission structures.

All of the missions you can fly are at any of four "destinations"- Iraq (of course- I think it's the law), Vietnam, Germany, and the strangest, most exotic, not to mention highly hostile (especially to your paycheck) of all- Las Vegas. The Quick Missions, Training, Single Missions, and Multiplayer structures are great- annoying quirks aside- but the Campaigns and rough yet latently powerful User Mission Editor or UME are where the real entertainment lies. In my opinion, the UME is one of the most promising things about USAF, especially for those of us with a decidedly more technical bent. A God complex is also helpful.

Keep in mind before flaming in the Forum that my comments are based on (1) Yes, I have tweaked the flight control gains in the joystick utility and (2) All of the realism settings cranked to eleven…making this a challenging simulation- even for you self proclaimed F4 aces.

The Quick Mission Editor is an intuitive way of setting up fairly simple scenarios. With a max of two flights per side and restricted target choices, the QME is of the McDonald's school of mission building- limited; fairly bland choices, fast service, and you want fries with that? The QME is a great way to get familiar with the individual airplanes and terrain, and a great way to tangle in implausible "what if" scenarios (F-105 v. F-22?) when you don't want your hard won pilot profile besmirched by abject failure.

Single Missions are a smattering of prefab scenarios, and are pretty challenging. One of the more imaginative missions involves saving a French 707 airliner from being abducted by those now generic bad guys, the Iraqis (boo, hiss). There are enough surprises going on here to keep even those with a stunted attention span involved. In this package you also have the choice of flying missions that have been completed in the semi-dynamic "Future" Campaigns (I'm getting to that) and ones created in the Quick and User Mission Editors.

Briefing

The pre-mission briefing contains all the information you need. A description of the mission is presented, along with the flight tasking and objectives, and even mission tips! USAF takes full advantage of html content, and hyperlinks are used so that you can click on a subject to bring up a window with 3D models and vital statistics courtesty of Jane's Information Group. Clicking on a target name will bring up a satellite photo of the target area where you can also access a 3D view of the target in its setting.

Multiplayer works pretty much as advertised, although my hosting experience is limited by my sim buddy having an internet connection that is one step removed from a taught string between two soup cans. Once a stable connection is accomplished, however, co-op missions are a true blast. The screens for accomplishing an internet mission are well thought out and idiot resistant, and clearing the skies of the Sukhoi menace with a friend is much more satisfying than going solo.

USAF has been pushed as the "beta" for Next Big Thing- Jane's World War-, which does sound VERY promising. At this point, however, JWW is just so much vaporware. Logging on to the Jane's Combat Net you get the same old aerial fragfest- fine if that is your cup of espresso. Can't get into it, myself…but a lack of anything better to do sometimes draws me there. Lock on to Groucho_01 if you disagree with my views on that.

Tactical Display

Viking1: After the training missions I went straight to Desert Storm and chose the second mission. This mission involves taking out a COMMS center if you choose to fly the F-117A. I took out the center on my first try (!), but neglected to watch my fuel status. By the time I was getting the warning message I had 1000 pounds left and thought I might be able to limp home. Wrong. I had to bail.

After explaining the loss of a few million dollars worth of military hardware, I reflew the mission. I didn't want to deal with the time consuming process of finding and hooking up to a tanker, so I was careful to monitor my throttle and managed to make it all the way back to base on the single tank.

Mission Recorder

How Do You Want It? Flexible Gameplay

It's at this point that USAF builds on its strong suit. I chose to fly the mission in the F-117, but after I had hit my target and was out of SAM range, I decided to visit some other action.

Hitting ESC brings up the Tactical Display. From here you can click on any of the aircraft listed along the bottom of the screen, and either VISIT (you can observe but have no control) or FLY (jump in the pilot's seat and get in the action.) If you choose to VISIT, be sure you selected AP NAV mode when you left your assigned aircraft.

In fact you don’t have to go back to the Tactical Display/Map view to switch planes, you can do it in-flight via a shortcut (SHF 1-4). You can also VISIT other aircraft via the Tactical Display if you have a long ingress to target. I visited an F111 which was about fifteen miles from the target area when I was still fifty miles out. The action over Baghdad was intense.

  I also recorded my second flight in the 117. The entire record was just under 6 meg, a large file but with the hard drives today, not enough to worry about. Playing back the mission, you get every sound and action and can even edit camera views and save the changes. Events that occurred during the mission are tracked, allowing you to jump directly to a particular part of the mission.

There are two limitations: the inability to jump in to refly and inability to access Night Vision. Unfortunately, going to an outside view on a night mission isn't very interesting when you can only see clearance lights.

Modified Tactical Display

Ah well. Hitting ESC while running the playback brings you to a modified Tactical Display. From here you can look over the battlefied and choose other aircraft to visit, so you can see other action that occurred during the mission you flew. It's at this point that you may notice some limitations: you can't access other views for other aircraft, only for your own.

This brings up a few other limitations of USAF. Currently you cannot access other views when the simulation is paused. A strange limitation that many have found annoying. Many have also noticed some serious texture tearing. These graphical glitches were quite serious in my installation until I downloaded the latest 3.53 Detonator drivers for my TNT2 board.

Another annoyance relates to control configuration. The USAF demo showed us that there was some extreme sensitivity in the joystick routines. The solution is to enter the PREFERENCES Control setup and edit the joystick settings.

This will take care of one issue, but leave you with another. It's still difficult to maintain level flight apart from engaging the Autopilot. The trim settings (PGUP and PGDN) adjust the trim in strokes that are too broad, and don't have the sensitivity needed. Solution? Simply find the course and heading you desire and engage the AP LVL mode. The second press of the "A" key engages the AP NAV mode and you no longer have control of direction or throttle (other than through the waypoint setting).

Built in voice comms is a first for a JANE's sim. I use Game Commander so I haven't tested the voice comms for USAF. If you use Roger Wilco you may have discovered there is a problem, but the fix is simple. Open your \Resounding Folder (usually under Program Files) and add the following line to the games.txt file: "Jane's USAF" "Jane's USAF" 1 3000. Save the changes and you're ready to rock and roll.

As for AI, yes there are a few glitches here too. I've seen friendly aircraft discover that the mountains are too high (G), and I've had wingmen not respond to commands (only once.) I've also seen wingmen apparently stuck in taxi mode on the ground. On the whole, however, wingman AI is reliable in the single missions, but weaker in the campaign (more on this later.)

Flight Modeling and Physics

Physics in USAF is pretty much state of the art. You'll see primary and secondary explosions, damage can bleed from one system to another, and your aircraft struts will compress when you hit the brakes. Granted, landings are simply too easy in general.

If there are complaints to be made, they have to do with flight behavior. Aside from the surprising similarity between dissimilar aircraft, low speed behavior is greatly over done. If you fly the training missions, the instructor will tell you to get your speed down to about 150 knots on final. Don't do it. At that speed these aircraft wallow around like a stuffed pig and you will drop like a stone. At 150 knots you won't be able to maintain a proper glide slope.

Full Screen FLIR mode.

Secondly, inertia is modeled in the extreme. Aileron rolls don't stop when the ailerons are neutralized. Finally, the A10 appears to have the power of four engines pushing it. Top level speed is somewhere around 500 knots, and it is possible to maintain a climb rate rivaling a much more powerful and streamlined aircraft. Trying to shake a hog off the tail of an F15 is quite a challenge.

Is this a big deal? Not really, though it would have been nice to see the higher realism settings offer more accurate modeling.

  USAF Campaign Mode

Groucho: Now into the true meat- Campaigns and UME. The Campaigns in USAF are broken down into two types- Historical and Future. The Historical Campaigns consist of scripted missions that are loosely- most of the time VERY loosely- based on actual happenings over Vietnam and Iraq. These missions are not related in any way other than era and theatre and can be attempted or completed in any order.

The two Future Campaigns are a Red Flag war game over the Nellis AFB Complex near Lost Wages and a (very) hypothetical battle against those pesky Russian Nationalists over Germany. The Future Campaigns are especially challenging, as they are semi-dynamic, or resource-driven. This is a fancy way of saying that you start out with a set quantity of pilots, aircraft, and armaments and any assets that are lost or used have to be escorted in during a logistical mission that you must escort.

In the course of these missions, if you lose cargo aircraft, you lose supplies. These missions are limited to two per campaign, so your timing is critical. A quick word from He Who Has Been There- don't let your AMRAAMs run out before you have to get more stuff. Trust me. It is this added dimension of supply chain management that adds to the immersion and makes me enjoy the Future Campaigns a bit more than the historical ones.

What the scripted campaigns lack in the logistic planning challenge, they make up for in flavor. Even the "bumper music" is period specific, with hendrixian acid rock for Vietnam and synth-heavy tunes for Desert Storm. The aircraft are right for the era also- Rhinos and Thuds for 'Nam, Vipers and Eagles for Iraq. The strange mix of aircraft in the Vietnam theatre makes for some interesting problems- flying the Thud against a MiG-19 comes to mind. Let the rather impressive enemy AI suck you into a knife fight and you tour of duty will be shortened a bit.

The missions in all Campaigns and Single Missions consist of multiple packages with specific tasks (i.e. CAP, SEAD, strike, etc)- each of which must successfully carry out their assignments. You can jump easily between aircraft in the individual flights. I fact, to complete most missions I have flown, you have to.

Friendly vs Enemy AI

If the enemy AI is so good- and it is- why does friendly AI suck so badly? I have witnessed a flight of four strike package fly to its target, one aircraft drop a single bomb (that misses), an element leader fly into terrain, and the remaining flight of three initiate a RTB. That made me have to drop out of my incomplete CAP, turn the strike flight around, shack the target, and return to my now depleted CAP flight (friendly air to air skills also lacking).

IFR with an F15

In having these horribly inept squadron mates, Jane's has taken something which could be seen as a cool feature and transformed it into a liability. At the risk of sounding like a spoiled child, sometimes I don't WANT to fly air to mud! Don't wanna don't wanna!

USAF Mission Editor

Which brings me to the very cool User Mission Editor, or UME. I don't know why, but Jane's printed documentation is very quiet about this powerful tool. For those of you who have USAF and don't know what I'm talking about, it is buried deep in your USAF folder (default path is C:\Program Files\Jane's Combat Simulations\USAF\Resource\Missions) provided you bit the hard drive bullet and did a full install. It can be put in through a custom install also.

The UME allows you to create some highly complex missions in any of the four available theatres, including the ability to script intricate "If- Then" causal events and triggers. All of the objects in the USAF world, be it user flyable aircraft, AI controlled weapons systems, or even static buildings from skyscrapers and grass huts, are available for the creation of a playground to blow stuff up in. Up to four User controlled flights can be generated, along with as many AI aircraft as you have the time to set up.

While presented in a fairly intuitive GUI interface, the capabilities of the UME can be pretty intimidating. The "Wizard" tutorial is a great help in getting ones arms around this beast. Still stuck? Excellent HTML documentation is available online. The SPOT satellite imagery is gorgeous to behold. Such info as terrain elevation is right at your fingertips, allowing you to route packages through valleys and the like. Of course, the ability of your AI flight to successfully fly your mission is problematic.

What is the truly cool thing about building your own large-scale a mission- as in the canned Campaign missions, all mission goals must be met…but you set that goal! Want to create a huge tank-plinking mission, leading a herd of Warthogs through the Fulda gap? Go ahead and build it, omitting the bothersome opposing air force. This allows you open T-80's like tuna cans and without worrying about the lobotomized friendly AI stumbling around 20k' above you flying CAP like the Three Stooges on heroin.

UME Limits and Needs

While the UME is definitely a huge "plus" that adds to the appeal of this diversion to the hardcore simmer, it is not without some very frustrating problems. I don't consider my system a slouch, but for some reason navigation on the map is a tedious affair. I'm not sure if it the graphics intensive SPOT imagery or what (though I doubt it, it still chugs in Map mode), but trying to drag your view around the theatre is an exercise in patience that would make a Zen Buddhist reach for the Jack Daniels- straight up.

Setting waypoints is similarly annoying…do I have hold of the point I want to move, or not? Must be one of the "if-then" triggers- "IF I could set my waypoint over the target THEN I might actually be able to fly this damn mission tonight". Annoying.

In accordance with the old adage about leading a horse to water, as far as I can tell there is no way to get your flight to actually take on fuel from a tanker, even when an actual hookup is performed. This is a big deal in the Vietnam theatre as there are no friendly airfields either! Note to Jane's- let's see some blue bases in the south, OK? Or, even better, the ability to place airfields anywhere a structure can.

Another problem I have with planning a mission using the UME- well, actually all missions in USAF…stealth does not appear to be modeled very well. While, as recent experience in Kosovo can attest to, there is no deterrent against the Mark 1 Eyeball, low-observable radar shapes such as in the case of the F-117 do not appear to work much better than F-15Es. Just a random thing I noticed while trying to emulate a Kosovo-esque runway denial / SEAD mission.

This may come across as "piling on" the UME, but I enjoy mission building almost- I repeat, almost- as much as flying them. The USAF UME has the potential of being one of the most powerful mission editors for a sim- period- and it's painful to grow old trying to design some really Uber-strike on the Luxor in Vegas. The ability to build a scenario in four different terrains and then try and make it happen is a powerful thing- it would be a pity to let some easily resolvable problems cripple it.

  News and Views

Viking1: USAF has a flexible view system, and you can fly with fixed cockpit, virtual cockpit, and no cockpit view with HUD. You can also fly using an outside view with HUD (F8), an arcade style option for those atmospheric but less dangerous moments.

F117 Outside HUD

F15 Outside HUD

The padlock view works well, and you also have options to padlock your target or your wingman. Again, these are fairly standard features but sometimes are missed in the rush to get a product to market. The virtual cockpit slews very nicely, and the reflections are in full color!

USAF also includes player to target views and the ubiquitous player to threat view. The latter allows you to look across your aircraft to an incoming missile. I hope that at some point in the future JANE'S sims will also include a switching internal/external padlock option such as that used in MiG Alley. But the essentials are all here.

More Screens

USAF lends itself to screen shots. I've taken a few from other missions to give you a sample. The terrain in Vietnam is VERY different from the terrain in Iraq!

F4 Phantom Cockpit

The F4 in Vietnam

F22 after landing.

Graphics is a strong suit in USAF and greatly adds to the sense of immersion. Virtually everyone who flys this simulation remarks on the incredible detail in the terrain, and the generally impressive objects and aircraft. Clouds are also quite awe-inspiring, and dawn or dusk is literally beautiful.

Pilot Records

JANE's has taken the requests of virtual pilots very seriously, and has gone the next mile in making it possible for pilots to compare their abilities and experiences. The ability of USAF to record your mission statistics is simply unsurpassed, and you can even share them with other pilots via the web. Check out the image below.. you can even graph your performance!

Aside from the sense of community that this kind of feature creates, it also helps the player care about his success. That's good, because it generates involvement in the game which in turn translates into more fun. And if USAF is anything, it is FUN.

  Multiplayer

Finally, it's terribly unfortunate that USAF doesn't allow LAN play with a single CD. Not many people have a local area network in their homes, but those who do would love to be able to run a local game without having to purchase two copies of the game.

JANE'S Combat.net is a busy place with the release of USAF. I tried a single mission and was AMAZED at the warpless connection. However, I had no luck trying to establish a co-op mission when I attempted it two weeks ago. The good news is that you can also establish a TCP/IP connection and fly co-op missions, even in campaign mode!

Multiplayer features are quite rich, and you can type and send chat messages or send preset radio messages using the function keys (F1-F12).

Manual and Documentation

USAF comes with a fat spiral bound manual and a short (27 pages) installation guide. The manual includes a section on combat tactics, an entire chapter combining the History of the USAF with campaign backgrounds, and a chapter on aircraft specs.

The manual is nicely done, a vast improvement over that for WWII Fighters, but of course there is also more to talk about! The command card is nicely laid out, with four folding sections giving five pages of information and a keyboard reference chart.

USAF Reference

But of course USAF also includes the JANE'S reference section accessed via the main menu. The separate access almost becomes redundant since you can access information on virtually any threat you will encounter in a given mission from the links offered in the mission briefing.

For those who haven't yet discovered it, a file in the Cockpit sub folder called "Cockpits.ibx" that has a line like "AddFrMessage=0". If that 0 is changed to a 1, then the screen displays the frame rate.

Conclusion and Ratings

The Eagle Hunting

"You can please some of the people all of the time...." Perhaps one of the most difficult challenges faced by simulation designers is to throw the net broadly enough to attract the serious players as well as the weekend jet jockeys. USAF has succeeded, boldly going where angels fear to tread.

The Thud in Vietnam

The Thud in Vietnam

USAF is immersive, accessible and challenging all at the same time. It's gorgeous to look at, fun to fly, and flexible. It allows flight in many of the most famous aircraft ever built in diverse settings. It includes a powerful mission editor, good multiplayer features, a mission recorder, and comprehensive pilot records.

USAF can be played on your own, or head to head, or in co-op mode with your friends. You can take on in flight refueling, and you can issue orders to your wingmen via voice commands. With some tweaking in the UME and flight modeling, USAF may yet appeal to even more of the hardcore crowd, accomplishing what many thought impossible.

For some of you, this is "the other guy's" simulation. But for the weekend jet jockey, this is pretty close to heaven. Fly the Thud in Vietnam or check out the F4. Go tank plinking in an A10 or go stealthy in an F22 or F117. Jane's Combat Simulations tends to set the pace with each simulation they release, and USAF redefines the mid-core market with flare. Highly recommended!

Ratings

Core Rating: 70

The core rating is a scale to give the player some idea of what kind of gameplay experience to expect. In general, the "core" rating reveals how "hardcore" of a player the game will appeal to. Factors may include maximum challenge, perceived realism, control-use difficulty, complexity of AI and the depth of gameplay in determining the rating.

Learning Curve. What will an "average" sim fan have to invest in this simulation in order to be able to survive (not necessarily excell) in the simulated environment with cheats off and a moderate difficulty level? The "average" sim fan is someone who has been participating in military simming for two years or more, and who has invested in some good equipment: a joystick and throttle, and a decent computer system (PII 300 with 64 MB or better and a GOOD hardware accelerator).

• Gameplay: 90
• Graphics: 100
• Sound: 90
• Intelligence/AI: 80
• User Interface/Mission Planner: 85
• Fun Factor: 90
• Learning Curve (in hours): 4
• Overall Rating: 90