After all the confusion earlier this week regarding the 1.08 patch, the patch relesae was overshadowed with the status of the development team that produced it. Hasbro made an announcement on the same day that the F4 developerment team were given pink slips. How sad. Anyone who has had a glimpse at any official F4 forums knows that the customer base is now unhappy and confused.

1.08 New Cockpit

As far as the patch itself goes...WOW. It was a laborious process to do the uninstall, defrag, reinstall and patch. But the results are obvious and the simulation is now fulfilling years of simmers dreams.

So what's been fixed? Lots. I have spent most of Wednesday running through a Tiger Spirit campaign, and it's like flying in a completely different simulation.

Out With the Old...

Firstly, the radar warning receiver now works as advertised. Most pilots will actually want to turn it off while in friendly territory because 20 odd F-16s will make one hell of a lot of noise. The RWR will now detect radar scans as well as radar locks. This is extremely useful because you will hear the MiGs coming before you can see them. Just don't forget to turn the set back on in enemy territory.

1.08 New Cockpit

The wingman artificial intelligence is greatly improved. Ground targets are engaged promptly and accurately as long as you make a solid designate with the radar or targeting pod. The wingman will drop ( in my eyes ) an appropriate amount of ordnance on target per attack run. In the 8 missions I have run so far, I have not lost a single wingman to SAMs and ground fire. This is very good.

Air to air intercepts by AI wingmen are much improved. Wingmen, when asked to attack an air threat, will fire a single AMRAAM and press the attack if the MiG is not destroyed. Wingmen assigned to clear my six or clear their own will do it quickly and efficiently. In one mission a harmless IL-28 and a MiG-29 were on my six, flying in opposite directions. Wingman number 2 shot down the MiG-29 with a single AMRAAM. I was impressed. In addition the chainsaw command is now a preferred method for killing MiGs on your 3-9 line.

1.08 New Cockpit

Enemy ground forces are now more realistic. SA-7 squads aren't running around on steroids now. I was hit by a single SA-7 on a BAI mission, but the damage was minimal and I could continue to fly. A useful method to completely nullify the SAM threat is to set the Altitude Allow Level on the ICP to 9 or 10 thousand feet.

The SA-7 squads are not completely useless but certainly fire at realistic intervals now. In addition the lethality of the SA-7 missile has been reduced. Before a hit would most likely trash your jet and one would be forced to eject. Now a hit will trash your jet enough to take you out of the fight, but not out of the sky. A hit is a good signal to dump any remaining ordnance and calmly fly home before anything else happens.

1.08 New Cockpit

Furthermore the major campaign bugs have been cured. The infamous "wall of Migs in the sky," is gone. The force levels are now appropriate. The DPRK Air Force is now outnumbered and will not be resupplied at the levels it used to be. If a squadron of MiG-29s loses X aircraft in a mission, those X aircraft will stay dead for the remainder of the campaign. Resupplies seem to work more as they do for the Allies: in trickles. Since a four-ship of F-16s can theoretically carry 16-24 AMRAAMs, that equates to a huge number of kills and damage to the enemy BARCAPS.

The result of this is that the skies are not so crowded with aircraft whirring about on random paths. The other major bug was that enemy airfields, once captured by Allied ground forces, would still launch enemy aircraft. This has been fixed. Bombed out airfields will stay bombed and once captured will be completely inactive. Also aircraft taxiing can now be destroyed by bombs. In previous version, only 20mm gunfire would destroy aircraft on the apron (though it needs to be said that these minor issues did not affect everybody.)

  The overall impression I got from flying in the campaign is that it is now FUN. Not necessarily easier, but more realistic and far more logical as far as AI and ATC goes. The ATC at Seoul Air Base did not scold me for landing without permission, even though I sent the inbound call and then the request landing call as I turned on final. The ATC is solid if you get a message letting one know if they are number 1 or 2 or 3 to land.

Tactical Engagement

After experiencing the new and improved campaign, it was time to try out the Tactical Engagement module. The statement in the 1.08 readme about terrain masking certainly peaked my interest (wasn't really working prior to 1.08.) A test was needed. A simple SEAD Strike was set up to see how the SAM crews would treat masked aircraft. Takeoff from Kimpo International and a short 20 mile run to the border. To further test the RWR and AI, the first run through the mission was at medium altitude. Ten thousand feet level inbound to the SA-5 site.

Almost immediately as the 2-ship crested over 5 grand the SA-5 radar appeared on the RWR. Powered up the HTS and locked the target. By the time this was done the SAM crews had launched the first missile. Call it 5-7 seconds from detection.

From the trajectory, this shot went ballistic and seemed to be a "decoy." As the missile detonated high up the SA-5 radar locked onto my jet and fired a second round. This one guided, coming right at me.

I called "Weapons Free" to the wingman, waited for the confirmation and then gave the "Attack Target" call. My wingman fired a single HARM and made some nice evasive manoeuvres. The HARM struck the radar set and the RWR went silent. The missile that was guiding on myself was decoyed by chaff and a few hard turns. Both F-16s maintained level altitude at ~10k.

We continued inbound. In addition to the HARMs the 2-ship each carried 4 CBU canisters. I locked the remaining missiles on radar, gave the weps free call, waited for confirmation, commanded my wingman to go trail, and then gave the "attack target" command. From an outside view the wingman put his nose on the horizon, flew in towards the assigned target and dropped 2 CBU cans right on target. He then rejoined on my wing as I circled around.

The point of this description is to show that wingmen need proper instructions in order to get desired results. If a planned static target has an IP such as an OCA Strike or Factory Strike, the wingman will attack without a radar or pod lock. On soft targets or mobile columns, a good radar lock and timely radio commands will make the flight hit exactly what you want them to.

1.08 New Cockpit

On the second run through the same TE, a different tactic was used. The 2-ship flew directly to the SA-5 site at extremely low level. Lead flew at 100-200 feet while wingman flew trail at 250 feet. The SA-5 radar did not show up on the RWR until 9 miles out.

Again a spoiler shot was fired ballistically. But there was no second shot. 2 HARMs fired at low level. Site destroyed. The 2-ship continued in at high speed, the remaining infantry did not get a good shot even though a BMP-2 fired its AAA gun. No damage suffered. I think this was a sufficient test of the terrain masking feature, and a successful one at that!

The Future?

The future is almost limitless. Hardcore virtual pilots will now be able to challenge themselves to the Iron Fortress campaign and be able to fight on more even terms. The force level sliders will now be a factor in how difficult or easy a campaign is going to be. It seems that the Tiger Spirit scenario with the sliders in favour of the Allies will provide new-comers with enough challenge to make it worthwhile, but still keep the fun factor high.

On the other hand the Iron Fortress campaign could now possibly be won with the sliders in favour of the Allies. The point is that the campaigns will give Falcon 4.0 enough replayability to last a few years more, and players at all levels will experience how deep and involving Falcon 4.0 really is.

Falcon 4.0 is a complex piece of software and it's understandable why many people get frustrated with it. On the other hand, F4 provides us with a medium to become a "fighter pilot" for a few moments at a time. Personally I like the idea of being in a virtual world where the most sophisticated aircraft are one's playthings.