From: masten@beta.lanl.gov (David A. Masten)
Subject: Re: Flight sim news from CGW
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Distribution: na
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 16:46:40 GMT

In article <16il84INNc3@agate.berkeley.edu> dbr@ocf.berkeley.edu (Daniel Rosler) writes:

General discliamer.  Yes F3 is the best.  Yes, we are getting nit-picky.
Yes, we want it all!  Yes, I sent my list to SH.

The fact that we can seriously discuss all this shows how far the genre
has come in the last couple of years.

Someone mentioned the bugs topic has been beaten to death.  Yet Dan's
list here has some I hadn't seen or thought of.  Also has some
interesting suggestions.

Can I live with it the way it is?  Sure.  But I'm not playing it that
much anymore.  Make the campaigns more realistic (less bogies) and I'll
pick it up again.  Then again, Robin saying he has won may be enough
incentive to get me back in the game.

Re Phat's comments on the flight model.  OK, I'd be full of it if I
said I could really evaluate a flight model, though I can pick out clear
errors.  The "complex" model seems to be no better than most other games,
I won't go through another list.  Yep, the Hifi is a good deal better,
but I just can't get into using it with the twitchy stick.
Any true pilots out there want to commenton the model?  Heck, it's only a
$45 game, can't expect it to do a great job of this.    Re, the comments
comparing the F16 flight model to other planes in the game:  I'm not
sure I'd rather have an excellent (is it?)  model for the F16 flying against
planes that are inaccurately too good (current F3 state), vs a lesser
model where the other plane's capabilities are accurately compared.
Tough call.  I'll let you know when BoP comes out!


>> Has anyone ever gotten the "bracket" or "drag" commands to work?  All I
>> get is "unable".  Yes I'm following the manual's procedures.
>
>I have used this often now.  It requires you giving the command when the
>enemy is atleast 10-15 miles away but no more, b/c then they don't know 
>about them.

I've made sure of this but it never worked.  I'll try some of the other
suggestions posted.
 
>Here are some other bugs and suggestions I have.
>
>4.  Ground strafe never works for me... 500 rounds into a truck, and it just 
>    keeps on going at 400kts.

Ditto here.  I set up a "turkey shoot" with about 50 ground vehicles
clumped together with me having 4 rocket pods.  Not one hit.
 
>11. AWAC's should do what AWAC's REALLY do and provide threat information.  For
>example, they could warn about various threats (to ground installations, yours
>and other flights) and provide intercept vectors.  Most importantly, with this
>feature, one wouldn't have to broadcast their location by doing 360 degree radarsweeps to asses the threat environment.  In war, pilots don't do these circles
>to find targets, the AWAC's tell them.

Forgot this one.  I've almost jumped out of my chair when they broadcast
"enemy activity detected".  No sh*t!  What do they think my radar is
locked on?  Your suggestions would be wonderful additions.  Makes gaoing
after an IL76, or protecting an E3, an important component of the game.

>12. One should be able to tell the wing-men to TURN OFF their radars to run
>silent.  This works well with the AWAC's possibilities.  Currently, even though
>you're trying to sneak up on someone, your wingman is squaking "target, target,"

Hmm, I wondered about this.  Seems if I turn my radar off, they don't
report sightings.  Turn mine on, andd they quickly tell me that they
spotted a plane.  Does this mean that their radar state is the same as
mine?  Even if true, I can't control other flights flying in tandem.

>13. Edit Waypoints should have a copy waypoints option to coordinate ESCORT 
>flights or multiple bombing flights w/o having to create each one.

Yep, they added "copy ordnance".  Copy waypoints would be even nicer.

DAM
masten@beta.lanl.gov