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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
