What has shown up more recently is improved lighting
effects. Missiles fall freely before igniting, but when
they do they have a ringed glow when seen from the rear
quarter. These shots have the gamma cranked about 30% for a
better view.
In EF2000 night never really seemed dark enough. In F22
you'll find a moonless night is pitch black. On the other
hand, this particular night had a moon....By the way, in
any of the training missions you can adjust time to fly
day, night, dawn or dusk. This ability is a nice touch! If
you really love to fly at night, or want to see how the
same mission will play at night, its up to you!
As mentioned earlier, attention to detail includes
different voices for different wingmen. At times this
catches me off guard, on a recent mission I found my
wingman wasn't a wingman at all, but a wing woman...
(shades of Batman!)
The structure of F22: ADF is such that the Single Missions
are set up as training for the Tours of Duty. As a result
the training section of the sim has about forty missions in
total, allowing you plenty of opportunity to familiarize
yourself with the avionics systems, tactics, and comms.
Each mission has its own briefing and map and you can also
access a picture of the target (similar to EF2000 but more
detailed). When you complete the mission you will get a
debriefing that will summarize your performance, and you
can also access an ongoing personal log which also records
any medals you've been awarded and the number of times you
have ejected or been killed. For each mission you can also
adjust the time of day you are flying.
Unfortunately, while the briefing itself is great, the map
is a very weak feature. All it really shows you is your
waypoints overlaid on a low res contour graphic. You can
zoom in or out but why bother? You can't overlay threats
and radar envelopes, you can't do a thing with it. I know
that TAW will expand greatly on this component, but for the
moment this feature is rather empty, even though on exit
the map will show you locations for various in-mission
events
In the training missions you can access the missions in any
order you choose, but in the Tours you must successfully
complete one mission in order to move on to the next.
Training is divided into six sections:
Flight Training
Weapons Training
Air to Air Tactics
Free Flight
Wingmen Training
AWACS
In the first section, flight training, there are six
missions as follows:
Take off Practice
Landing Practice
Refuelling Practice
Engine Failure: Emergency Take Off Practice
Hydraulic Failure: Emergency Landing Practice
Electrical Failure: Emergency Landing Practice
Weapons training comprises twelve missions:
BVR AMRAAM
Dogfight Sidewinder
Maverick Mobile Attack
Cannon CAS
Harpoon Ship Kill
Rocket Attack
Bomb BAI
Bomb CAS
Cluster CAS
HARM SEAD
JDAM Interdiction
Cluster Airfield
The BVR AMRAAM mission begins with thirty fighters crossing
the Yemeni border. You are tasked with your wingman to
deter as many as possible. You will have support from other
F22 flights. Obviously you will need to utilize stealth as
well as guerilla tactics here. If you enter this hornets
nest you won't survive the mission!
Its in the weapons training missions that some of the less
pleasant aspects of the simulation in its first incarnation
begin to surface. Obviously, there is a LOT here. Maybe too
much. Digital Image Design has a great deal of creative
talent and some lofty design goals. Their reason for
splitting this simulation into two pieces, ADF and TAW was
because they KNEW that they were setting their sights very
high. Inevitably, some things have been pushed too quickly
or have slipped through the nets of "realism" or
"practicability."
Some of the frustrating items I'm referring to are these:
Time between lock and launch of a SAM: 2 seconds
Blast radius of heavy ordinance: 0 feet
Shoot list generation: 360 degrees
IRST detection ability: 360 degrees
Separate radar and IRST detection ability: none
Ability to query wingman status: none
Ability to edit weapons loadout: none
Obviously, there are some weaknesses in the simulation. On
the plus side, DiD has never been hesitant to patch their
releases and my GOLD version has not crashed once. We've
come a long way from EF2 in its first release!
But these are bothersome details. In order to destroy a
target with cluster bombs you need to score a direct hit.
But this weapons was designed so you wouldn't HAVE to! And
when your shoot list places priority on a bandit ten miles
to the rear rather than the one coming straight at you...
its time to get nasty.
Meanwhile, on the ground attack missions, having no
realistic distinction between lock and launch of a surface
to air missile means your reaction/response time is lost.
As an example I was flying in the first Red Sea Tour
mission last night and was near the final waypoint in enemy
territory. A SAM locked me up as I pulled too sharp a turn
past the waypoint. I relaxed the stick but the SAM launched
a second later. In reality he probably should have lost
lock over the next ten seconds or so, but this doesn't
happen in the present version.
Inability to edit my own or my wingmans loadout is another
tip of the hat to the coming TAW. This component is
intricately wedded to TAW and did not find its way into
ADF. Unfortunately, this means we have a stealth fighter
which is sometimes not very stealthy. You can jettison
external weapons and tanks if you like but your wingman may
still give you away. And this also carries over into the
AWACS component. You just don't have all the control you
would like to have. If this ability could find its way to
the coming Tours expansion disk it would add a great deal
to the sim until we have TAW.
As for the radar and IRST connection not much needs to be
said. There is no reason that we should lose IRST ability
when radar goes down or vice versa. Hopefully this will be
remedied in the first patch.
Inability to query wingman status is a bit of a mystery.
Why this wasn't designed into ADF from the ground up is
inexcusable. JSF actually allows FIVE separate queries to
wingmen (and either collectively or individually!)
including fuel, action, ammo, damage or FULL (which brings
a report on all four areas). Trust a newbie to the field to
show the way!
The next section of training missions involves A2A and
instructs you with regard to targeting systems and tactics.
Air to Air Tactics training has nine missions:
Using EMCON
Using IRST
Eyeball and Shooter
Drag Left
Offensive Split
Sd Left
Defensive Split
The Grinder
Stealth Attack
EMCON ONE
I think it is safe to say that this is the most
advanced trainer ever designed for a jet combat
sim. The only thing lacking is diagrams and voice
instruction (as in FA18 Korea), though you can find
some diagrams in the online help in WIN95. In these
training missions you have opportunity to
thoroughly interact with weapons and wingmen in a
large variety of situations. The odds in some of
the missions are a bit overwhelming, but even in
those you still have options..
I worked my way through the first series of
training missions, bypassing only the odd mission
prior to tackling the EMCON mission. This is a
report based on that experience. Any details
included in the report represent actual experience
in the sim...
I found myself at around 18,000 feet cruising just
below mach one. My three wingmen were in an arrow
formation. Two was close enough on my nine oclock
that I could hear the rumble of his engines.
I was gazing out the cockpit at the scenery, which
from this altitude seemed singularly beautiful. The
sky was fairly clear although we were high enough
to be into some light cloud. I noticed a road
following a ridge line down below, heading more or
less south, which was also our direction. This
mission was a CAP.
About the time I was starting to relax and enjoy
the ride we had two bandits at eleven oclock at
sixty miles, and bogies at 2 oclock also. As I was
deciding to split my force to investigate I got the
AWACS call to identify the bogies at 2 oclock. I
immediately ordered wing three to engage the
bandits who were now at fifty miles and wing four
remained in formation for our identification of
assumed hostiles at 2 oclock.
We descended to 16,000 feet, which was four
thousand feet lower than the incoming bogies in an
effort to take advantage of and deficiency in the
look down capabilities of their radar. This was
probably an unnecessary precaution since we were
not carrying any external armament and were
therefore almost invisible to most radars. We
maintained our speed below mach one to ensure a
minimal IR signature.
At thirty miles we had an ID of MiG 21s, a four
ship formation that we would now engage. I called a
wide sweep formation and then a moment later
ordered my wing to drag right. He complied by
turning on his radar (becoming a nice large beacon)
and pulling off to my three oclock, increasing his
speed to mach 1.2 or therabouts.
The MiGs took careful note and began to vector on
his six. I armed my AMRAAMs and prepared to launch,
but at this lower altitude I would not be in range
for another few seconds. No matter, the MiGs were
not carrying any very sophisticated hardware and it
was unlikely that they would detect me.
Meanwhile in the background I was also listening to
the progress of Two and Three. They had launched on
the bandits a few moments after calling out the IDs
(fog of war, I can't recall if MiGs or Su 27s...)
Two had just dodged a missile when Three called
"Splash One." A moment later Two called "Splash
Two" but then, "I'm hit!" Damn, I thought, not a
thing I could do about it but hope he could limp
home....
I was now in range and switched to EMCON 3,
launching four missiles at four bandits. I saw one
of the missiles ignite down to my left and flash
out in front of me, billowing its misty trail.
Following good form the four startled MiGs swiftly
split into groups of two while my wing turned to
engage any remaining bandits. I went to EMCON ONE
and prepared to engage with AIM9x if necessary.
Two launched on one MiG just as two others were
hit. I could see the distant explosions at roughly
fifteen miles. I chose to climb to 25,000 feet to
engage the remaining two bandits who coincidentally
were in one group.
I armed my AIMs and when I had a lock launched on
both bandits. One of the MiGs took Twos missile and
went spirally earthward out of control. The AIM9x
found its mark and I saw a parachute erupt moments
before impact. However, I was busy with the second
MiG who was beginning to dance around me after my
missile passed him by.
With Two waiting for an opening we began the dance.
He was a good pilot in a manouverable aircraft. At
one moment he had radar lock and I was twisting and
turning through the sky. I broke lock and regained
sight of him at my three oclock high. Now the off
boresight technology of the AIM9x came into play as
I received lock via my HMD and launched. The bandit
dodged and dropped flares and escaped again!
Out of short range missiles I was considering
calling for help when the MiG made a poor choice
and I was able to get a snap shot. I took a piece
out of him and saw flames erupt from his left
wingtank. Amazingly, he still had good control and
we made one more turn before my cannon tore into
his airframe again. I saw the chute pop open and
the aircraft shattered into pieces.
It wasn't a completely lucky day for me, however. I
was less than half a mile from the MiG when it
broke up and took a couple of hits from shrapnel,
losing radar AND my nose gear! Furthermore, my
right MFD was flickering on and off. I double
checked my SYS MFD to be sure I hadn't also taken
damage to hydraulics. It turned out my luck held in
that area, and I limped back to base and landed on
main gear only, finally scraping to a stop with a
mangled nose....
FreeFlight has simple goals like take off at Abu
something-or-other and land at Hafi something-else.
However, you can also join an in progress CAP on some of
these flights if you would like to do so... In fact, most
of the single missions feature ongoing environments and if
you are in good shape you can land and rearm and refuel and
take to the air again and take on some more work or get a
vector to another intercept.
Next on the list is Wingmen Training which comprises four
missions:
Pickle
Engage My Target
Engage Bandits
Engage Hostiles
Following the wingmen training missions you will be well
prepared for the Tours of Duty.
Tours of Duty
The heart of ADF is the
Tours and the AWACS interface. The Tours are progressively
more difficult and missions must be flown in sequence; you
will not have access to the next mission until you
successfully complete the first. This allows for a sense of
progression since the flow of political and military will
is pre-configured in the tours.
Red Sea Tour
There are three Tours: Red Sea Tour, Eritrea Tour, and
Arabian Tour. The Red Sea Tour is composed of ten missions.
The first mission in the Red Sea Tour is "Prelude," and
here is the description:
After long negotiations, Egypt has bought military
equipment from the USA. In 2007 they bought a small number
of F22s, and three years later the Egyptian army seized
power and has begun to threaten Sudan to the South.
Your mission is to fly an Egyptian F22 on a dry run for
planned strikes, probing Sudanese defenses for weak points.
Note: your alter ego is Egyptian and you will notice the
accents!
Eritrea Tour
The Eritrea tour is composed of ten missions. The first is
"Deny Flight." Here is the briefing:
Ethiopian troops have invaded Eritrea, who have called on
the UN for help. Both Somalia dn Sudan have claimed
neutrality and have threatened to shoot down any foriegn
aircraft who violate their airspace. The UN has pledged
French forces in neighboring Djiborah, US forces in Saudi
Arabia and British forces to be placed in northern Eritrea.
You will fly a CAP with wingman, preventing any Ethiopian
aircraft from violating Eritrean air space.
Saudi Arabia Tour
Like the other Tours there are ten missions in this tour.
The major difference in this final tour is that you will
have to be a Class One Black Belt Top Gun to complete it!
The first mission is "Border Patrol" and here is the
briefing:
The border between Saudi Arabia and Yemen has long been in
dispute. Recent discoveries of oil reserves has split the
Saudi government into two factions. One faction has used
force to gain control of the far south west of the country,
claiming independence and forging close ties to arch-rival
Yemen.
The Saudi government retains control of the rest of the
country and is now set, with UN help, to retake this
independent area by force and at the same time deal with
the increasing border incursions by the three Yemeni armed
servies. The US will use this opportunity to reduce Yemen's
strike capability.
You will fly a CAP. Rules of Engagement are strict: ALL
contacts must be VIS-IDENT and you are not to fire until
fired upon. You are not permitted to engage ANY ground
targets.
Support arrives from Allied A10s
In keeping with increased difficulty the first mission in
this tour must end by your landing at the airbase to the
north. The second mission both begins and ends on the
ground.
Gameplay in the Tours is challenging. However, its not
necessary for you PERSONALLY to accomplish all goals. If
your wingmen can take a few and a few are taken by other
allied sources (air or ground) they still count as
completed goals. However, you have to also SURVIVE long
enough for this to happen!
The point of the tours is to give the player a greater
sense of immersion in an ongoing effort to gain or maintain
a hold on territory. Is this accomplished?
I would answer that question with a qualified yes. The
first couple of times through a mission or the first time
you complete a tour you may feel that you have participated
in a dynamic and immersive virtual battlefield, but
obviously scripted missions have limitations in this
regard. Still, ADFs ability in the area of comms
contributes a great deal, as does the graphic detailing of
the sim. For more discussion of comms see the Wingmen and Comms section below.
The lack of a dynamic campaign does leave a gap. Replaying
some missions more than a couple of times gives one that
deja vu feeling. The same bandits generally show up in the
same positions at the same relative times. (The AWACS
interface is almost an exception since the interaction of
so many aircraft over a longer period of time creates more
possibilities).
On the positive side, you can replay a mission trying
different tactics and do some serious learning. In fact,
once the mission goals are accomplished you can choose to
end the mission or keep playing. If you keep playing you
will get AWACS calls for new mission goals, even though you
have already done enough for the mission to be rated a
SUCCESS on debrief.
ATC and Avionics
Click for a larger image..
Any simulation which lays claim to being of the "serious"
variety has to pay close attention to avionics modelling.
ADF does very well in this area, surpassing even iF22 in
this regard. iF22 did what it did very well, and gave us
great wingman control, but left too many things undone,
lacking a variety of autopilot modes, a moving map display,
ability to change waypoints in flight, and not addressing
LANTIRN capabilities (although this last point is up for
grabs in terms of F22 future abilities). Lets look first at
the MFDs and related systems.
The Attack display is one of the most critical tactical
displays. It has four modes: 1. Display sensor information
with the emphasis on ranges and heights, 2. Display LANTIRN
TV image from the under-fuselage 'eyes' for targeting laser
guided weapons, 3. Display interactive Auto-pilot, 4.
Display images sent back by a camera equipped weapon (such
as a Maverick Air-to-Ground missile). Pull up the LANTIRN
display to see this:
As I mentioned, the autopilot is actually even MORE
advanced than that in EF2000. In the F22 there are some
additional control modes added to the ap system: landing,
refueling, and takeoff. Here is the display itself:
Click for a larger image..
If you pull up the larger image you will see the new
functions on the mfd. Not only is the AP this
sophisticated, the system can be controlled from any one of
three mfds in case of damage to others. And at 800x600, the
display looks like the real thing!
Next lets peek at the general Systems mfd. On the default
display you get a quick glance view of your weapons and
engine status. From here you can move to the fuel systems
display for a graphical picture of your situation and can
manage the flow accordingly. You can also access the
Startup mfd which is like a pilots checklist. The status
screen gives you a summary of operation systems and will
tell you when a system is down. This mfd also allows access
to the autopilot.
Click for a larger image..
The Situation Display allows access to the MFD map. The
display is extremely detailed, and you can access the EMCON
system, increase or decrease sensor range, display the
artificial horizon (handy when you are head down for too
long), and filter air and ground targets or even your own
sensors. You can also display the AP system and display
waypoints and place names.
The heart of ADF is the
Tours and the AWACS interface. The Tours are progressively
more difficult and missions must be flown in sequence; you
will not have access to the next mission until you
successfully complete the first. This allows for a sense of
progression since the flow of political and military will
is pre-configured in the tours.
