The briefing had called for 500 feet at 600
knots to IP from our last steer point. My wing leader,
RHINO, called it lower and we streaked across the Korean
terrain at 100 feet.
Business was good. I had plenty of work: keep my wing
leader in sight, keep my plane out of the dirt, watch for
bandits, watch for SAMs, watch for ground attacks, stay on
course … Task Saturation was eminent.
I called AWACS for threat warnings, calculated their call
and figured I have bandits at about 20 miles at my 10
o'clock … but not heading for us yet. RHINO pulled
up hard at IP and called "Running In" as he rolled toward
the target.
Suddenly a puff of smoke from the ground
about 1 mile ahead … where RHINO was, then another.
"SAM SAM" I called over the radio. RHINO pulled up hard and
left … popping CHAFF all the way. They missed him,
but he was out of his attack pattern. I would be the first
one in. As I reach IP, I hear (AI) pilots attacking the
bandits AWACS warned me about, "Thank you" I think to
myself … one less problem to worry about.
I rolled into the approach and called "Running In." I
didn't want to be over the target long, so I was planning a
high-speed pass, in line with the runway we were supposed
to bomb. I lined up, this was gonna be easy.
I pickled all 6 of my bombs right over the
runway and shoved the throttle into full burner. It was
like my pickle switch was the AAA switch as well. They lit
me up immediately. I took a couple of hits and my burners
dropped to a max of 112%. Damn … this was a bad
sign. I pulled the throttle back to just under full mil
thrust and jinked hard to the right. I was out of the AAA
spray as I heard RHINO call "Running In" again.
RHINO made it through without taking any hits … all
bombs on target. As we egressed he radioed that I was
smoking pretty bad and I reported my damage.
We nursed it to our diversion base and
requested Emergency Landing, which was granted. I will
blame the damaged aircraft, but I didn't get the call sign
CRASH for be highly skilled at landing. The landing gear
collapsed on landing from a bit too harsh of a touch down,
but I slid off the runway and was safe. BDA showed that the
airfield had been shut down. All 12 of our weapons were on
target.
Welcome to the Campaign World of FALCON 4! The latest beta
has shown an amazing amount of progress. Jeff "RHINO"
Babineau and I spent most of a weekend putting FALCON 4's
campaign engine through its paces in LAN co-operative mode.
As you can see from the intro, we were pretty impressed.
FALCON 4 will come with three campaign variants based in
Korea, each one differing in the amount of territory and
resources each side begins with.
Once in the campaign, you get the feeling
that a massive war is going on. Many simulations give you
an air war, but vaguely elude to a ground war. You
occasionally may get CAS missions in these sims, but rarely
will you just happen across a ground unit, much less a
battle. In FALCON 4, you will catch glimpses of tracers on
the ground in the distance. Hunt down the source and you
will regularly come across artillery and armor battles.
With object density and full details turned all the way up,
I have seen many battles of well over 100 units. But be
careful how close you fly, the enemy may think you are CAS
and fire on you as well.
Ground War Images. Click for Larger View.
Also, supply lines are rarely implemented in simulations.
FALCON 4 will not only use supply lines, but they will have
effects upon the troops. Cut off the supplies to that enemy
force that has been harassing your front line, and they
will start to diminish in effectiveness. I have been unable
to completely cut off an area in solo play yet (I usually
leave all that Mud Moving stuff to the guys that are good
at in when we LAN play), so I have not yet seen a marked
difference. I expect out next full LAN test to give us the
opportunity to work on this.
The campaign is real time. You can pause it, or speed it
up, but as you play, the world goes on. And I mean a lot of
stuff goes on. Just as you can watch ground battles you can
see air battles. F-4's and MIG-29s are easy to pick out
thanks to the realistic tattle tale smoke these aircraft
are known for. I have flown campaign missions as a Strike
Package and seen my escort of F-15C's and F-4 Wild Weasel
flights enroute.
F4 smoke trail. Click for larger image.
This brings up mission selection. Missions
are displayed based on a variety of variables you have the
ability to select. Each squadron has a specialty, A2A, A2G,
general etc., so your mission selection will be dependant
on what unit you choose to fly in. You can also pick your
PAK, which will tell the mission generator what area you
would like to emphasize your talents. It is also used to
tell the mission generation system what sort of missions
you would like to see in that area and it will build
accordingly.
Strategy Selection Option Screens. Click for Larger Image.
Now you get a mission selection screen that
you can view the area, briefing, Take Off time, load out
etc, and decide if this is the mission for you. The
missions are well described and "briefed". You must also
make sure you pay attention to your flights call sign for
the mission since all radio information will be broadcast
to this call sign. You will hear many bits of information,
but if you do not know you are "VIPER1", you may not pay
attention to the information intended for you.
You should also note the names for your Escort and Wild
Weasel flights so you can keep tabs on your entire package.
What if you forget? Don't worry, the working knee board
will give you the vital essentials for your mission as
well. Missions include every thing from RECON, BDA
assessment, STRIKE, ESCORT, SWEEP, BARCAP, etc. If an F-16
can be tasked for it in real life … you can do it
here.
After you pick a mission, you can change your loadout and
steer points. There is no campaign mission generator, which
is realistic, but you have some latitude in what you take
and how you get in and out, which is realistic as well (at
least from the squadron mission creation level).
Once you are good to go, you click on the
FLY icon and the time clicks down. You have the option for
Taxi out or Take Off position for starting. Pay attention,
time will click off faster than real time as you approach
mission take off time. You may get a SCRAMBLE prompt if
your airfield is in jeopardy. You can accept or decline
this mission.
Briefing Screens. Click for larger image. Once in the mission, the immersion is incredible. Get
clearance from the TOWER and take off. Radio calls from
AWACS, other flights, the command structure for requesting
data from AWACS, the command structure for Wingman,
Element, and Flight: all of these are very comprehensive
and complete.
One thing that has lacked in most sims for quite a while is
the importance of managing your TOT (Time On Target). You
need to pay attention to your TOT and steer point times.
Your data link has all of the essential information
programmed in for arriving at steer points and on target at
the correct time. Show up to one of these points too soon
and Wild Weasel may not have already assured the path is
clean … and SAM hits have a way of ruining your
whole day. Show up too late and your Escort may be too far
ahead of you to protect you from bandits.
Full Map View. Click for larger image.
Once you have run a few missions, you can
start seeing the results of your performance on the INTEL
screen. While there is no true AWACS mode, there is an
easy way to simulate AWACS and watch what is going on
… a boon for multi-play, particularly in a LAN
environment.
Just click on the ENLARGE icon for the mission map without
actually going into a mission. Then a Right Click on the
map gives you options for what you want to see …
AIR, GROUND, INDUSTRIAL, etc. Once these icons show up, you
can right click on each one and get details. You can bring
up a wide variety of different levels of detail. This can
been mis-used for getting too much information …
almost. FALCON 4 also simulates the "FOG of WAR", so recon
information and AWACS information may not be totally
accurate.
Intel Interface. Click for larger image.
During a campaign, you will be able to watch
your forces advance or be pushed back, dependent upon the
over all performance of your forces. You can watch as you
push your way north into North Korea. If you start doing
exceptionally well, you may end up with the Chinese,
Russians or both entering the war against you as well.
On the "Big Map" you can see ground forces advance and take
ground, or lose ground. You can use this information to
readjust your strategic options screens in an effort to get
into the thick of the mostly hotly contested part of the
war. Assign CAS missions in the PAK that have the heaviest
concentration of ground battles going on, or Air
Interdiction in the areas that are being most attacked by
bombers. This will give you more of these types of missions
to choose from.
Supply lines will play an important roll.
Those forward ground forces that can not advance because of
the supplies and reinforcements coming up from the rear
could use some help. Take out the bridges and cut off the
flow and watch the enemy forces start to weaken and fall.
If your squadron is not getting the type of
missions you want, or you decide you want to practice
another form of mission, "transfer" to another squadron.
Even move to another air field and see what sort of
missions you can get that better suit your preference.
I have yet to finish a camapign, and I do
not think any of the other testers have either. The amount
of effort required to win a war is not trivial, and FALCON
4 has captured the difficulty and essence very well.
It can not be emphasized enough that FALCON 4 is a complete
War Generation Module and we are fortunate enough to
be able to interact with it and fly missions. The current
level of the AI is pretty impressive, and MicroProse
intends to tweak it some more.
You have never seen a campaign engine like this before. The
realism, level of flexibility, detail, and features are the
most encompassing package ever seen in a flight sim. When
you consider that future add-ons for FALCON 4 are already
planned (HORNET and MIG-29 to start with) with additional
campaigns included also, the longevity of a flight sim has
never been so promising.
And not only that, but you can also create your own custom
campaigns in Korea, and these will also be fully dynamic.
Add to this full featured ACMI, and what more could one ask
for?
Falcon 4 is slated for release in December. For more
interface screens see F4 Campaign
Interface Screens. System requirements are these (note
that F4 will run faster under DX6):
The briefing had called for 500 feet at 600
knots to IP from our last steer point. My wing leader,
RHINO, called it lower and we streaked across the Korean
terrain at 100 feet.
Now you get a mission selection screen that
you can view the area, briefing, Take Off time, load out
etc, and decide if this is the mission for you. The
missions are well described and "briefed". You must also
make sure you pay attention to your flights call sign for
the mission since all radio information will be broadcast
to this call sign. You will hear many bits of information,
but if you do not know you are "VIPER1", you may not pay
attention to the information intended for you.
