Page 3
2. Distance. You need to consider the distance between targets. Since everything runs in real time while online, if you make the objectives far from the airfields you may have one mission take twenty minutes just to get to the target. It doesn't always pay to fly long stretches in the sim since being in the sim means you are not back making more missions to counter what the enemy might be doing. I have often adjusted the scenario by using the team "painting" tool to paint the map so bases are not too far from objectives (see 11-37 in the manual). This distance factor plays in as well for ground troop movements. Ground forces move slowly! And if they get engaged in battle, you can forget a one-hour time limit. If you make a victory condition the occupation of a city or airfield, you better be prepared to put the troops close to the target and to extend the time limit to three hours. Some of you may want to make scenarios that require you to save the mission and then play it later to completion. Saving missions works perfectly for scenarios flown offline, but online missions will suffer from the same problems that affect the mission schedule. The save feature for missions played online is another area that you use at your own risk.
Strategy for mission making3. Realistic Objectives. The temptation might be to make a mission that has 100 victory conditions and 10,000 points to win the scenario. I urge you to consider this carefully. A good 4-10 objectives per team are attainable and give enough variety to make playing fun. You might also consider how many objectives need to be accomplished to win the scenario. In one scenario I had four objectives each worth 100 points. I then made the points for victory 300 out of 400 possible. Think realistically when making your objectives and you will make playing the scenario a rewarding experience. I would caution you on setting just one objective since that could make for a very quick or ridiculously busy game. If there is just one objective, then guess where all the DCA's and OCA's will be? Spread it out some and you will make it a much better game.
Since with Force on Force type play you are responsible for the air war and sometimes the ground war, there is the question of strategy. Because scenarios will all be different based on victory conditions, there is no one set strategy, but some things are important for you to consider. Force on Force missions are normally made at the beginning of the scenario for the time period you plan to fly. It is up to you to plan out your strategy to cover the time period you will be in the sim. Consider as well the limitations of squadron tasking. You only have so many flights per squadron, so you need to plan with time in mind. Here are my suggestions for strategy:
1. Get DCA and BARCAP's up immediately. You can't assume that the DPRK or an online friend will wait twenty minutes to launch a strike. Cover yourself and remember that aircraft may not be using the default waypoints.
2. Do not use default waypoints. Plan your strike missions to come at a target from different angles. It takes some time to adjust waypoints, so make sure you give yourself a few minutes by adjusting the time of takeoff for about ten minutes after the current time clock time. Giving yourself enough time is also helpful because if the flight is within two minutes of launching, you cannot change the loadouts.
3. Make "Dummy" flights for various times throughout the scenario time limit. A dummy flight can be a simple BDA mission here and there. Give yourself some flights that will allow you jump in and handle emergencies.
4. Fly your important missions. There is no substitute for the human player. Get in there and wreak havoc. A good "Dummy" flight that is loaded out with wide array of weapons will give the human player an ability to jump in and win the war.
5. Think non-conventionally. Don't expect prescripted or human players to play like you! I've learned this lesson a few times. I played once where an opponent launched practically his whole squadron at the same time on strikes against my targets. What to do if that happens? If you are in the sim and you see a massive strike bearing down, jump out of the cockpit and back to the UI. Try to make intercept missions even though they may not show up in the mission scheduler for you to fly. They should still be in the sim world and this might be the difference between winning and losing.
6. Watch the Abort bug! Until someone fixes this, you have to watch your AI flights carefully. Many times AI flights will abort when they detect a DCA, BARCAP, or SWEEP flight in the area they are tasked to strike. I've found that one way to stop this is by making sure your flight has an escort in the package. It's not enough to have your own DCA flights in the area, you need to make a package that has an escort flight and that seems to reduce the aborts dramatically.
7. Watch for ground force cowardice. Here is another frustrating area that requires your micro-management. If your scenario requires you to give your ground forces waypoints to accomplish "occupy" objectives, be aware that ground forces will often retreat when they encounter opposition. This means that they will redirect their waypoint from the target in the opposite direction. It is good to keep a constant eye on ground forces while you are in the UI watching the war and thinking of strategy. This is another reason it is good to not stay in the sim too long. The longer you are in the sim, the less opportunity you have to micro-manage to overcome annoying bugs.
If you are interested in seeing how this all comes together, please visit my website and take a look at what I'm doing here.
What I've been doing there is making Force on Force Prescripted missions for others to download and play. I'm prescripting the DPRK, so when you play these missions you are flying against a human mind. My hope is that this type of playing will catch on and that more and more people will begin to script missions and play them out offline and online.
Here is an example mission from the latest release over at Force on Force Headquarters for you to fly. Note please that this mission will require you to have the I-beta realism patch installed. In this mission the USA team has four F-16, one A-10, one F-15C, one F-15E and one B-1B squadron to task flights from. Your job is to accomplish the victory condition objectives within the two hour time limit. You can download it here.
As you can see, Falcon 4.0 is an amazing simulation that allows the player many different options for play. If you have any further questions or comments please contact me and let me know. I'm also looking to form a Force on Force squadron for any who are interested. Give this type of play a try because I'm sure you're going to love it.
Tom "Saint" Launder
ICQ 7644658
[email protected]Click to join a discussion about this article.
© 1997 - 2000 COMBATSIM.COM, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
