Ven

Congrats on a fine campaign! I only had 10 missions however... a bonus round?

Hmm... just noticed another thing in that debriefing. In General Debriefing Data column, it says Georgia and USA are Red and Russia is Blue?

Oh, I used to use a software called Game Commander. It looks similar app? I agree with the immersion but key press seems faster. But the issue with comm right now is the delay. AWACS giving the bandit coordinates for 6 seconds and then subtitle stays on for another 7 seconds. If I gave an order just before AWACS chimed in, it takes effect AFTER the AWACS message clears off the screen.

One missile was launched at me again so I did another evasive maneuver and turned back in it to see how we're doing. Still 3 that I can see. AWACS not giving me the exact number of SU-24's and MIG-29's in the beginning has me guessing throughout the engagement. Fox 3! Duh... I forgot all about wing 2. Didn't even know he was still on my wing. Well... makes for great screenshot at least. Splashed another 3 bandits and then the remaining bandits are bugging out. That'll teach them. Gorgeous F15 model by Gys. And the new environment in FC2.0 are stunning as well. Great job! I know I was tasked with 2 and a half hours of CAP but I've been cleared RTB so I assume it's okay to head home. Really didn't want to make circles for 2 hours after all that action! Mission complete and more importantly, I didn't lose anyone on my wing. Debriefing shows we lost one of Enfield flight and 3 ground units. But took out 12 of theirs so I'd say we won. Good thing I stopped counting. One of the reasons I'm doing these AAR's is so that if someone new is having issues with the campaign, they may use it for reference but more importantly, I am also seeking advice from more experienced fighter jockeys out there because I'm practically a rookie... so any input will be appreciated. Mission 3 AAR Mission 4 AAR Mission 5 AAR Mission 6 AAR Mission 7 AAR Mission 8 AAR Mission 9 AAR Mission 10 AAR

Before I begin, I should mention that I've had some problem with this campaign before mostly because I couldn't figure out how to control my wingmen. They usually go for same target or low priority target and die if you just tell them to engage bandits. And unlike A10 campaign, making use of your wingmen is critical in this campaign because I just can't fight 4 Flankers by myself. So after couple tries, the best strategy I came up with is to use myself as bait. Let the bandits engage me, I run, and let my wingmen finish the job. After the routine relocation mission and a babysitting escort mission, my flight is tasked with a CAP mission. Take off at 10:05 and Landing scheduled at 12:45... whew... CAP for 2 and a half hours. Make sure I empty my bladder first! Taking off... I wonder if there's a way to take off in formation. I always take off first and forced to slow down for the rest of my wing to catch up. Just as I report in, I get an update from AWACS. SU-24 and MIG-29 strike-escort package sounds suspicious. And AWACS didn't bother to tell me how many MIGs. Group 2 as mentioned in the briefing is their Flanker CAP. Group 3 I don't think is a threat. On my way to waypoint 3. The strike-escort package is creeping down that coast line I'm told. They haven't cleared me to engage yet so I gotta stick to my CAP duty. Just as I turn back towards waypoint 2, it starts to get interesting. Standing by... Fight's on! I've been ordered to intercept the SU-24 and MIG-29 package. According to the AWACS, they were already pretty close to my position and down low so I'm gonna light up my afterburner and turn back as I descend to their altitude. This should give me some room to work with. The Flanker CAP is on their way as well. Banking right. As I turn towards the bandit, I see couple jamming signals and one bogey. I know Fulcrums don't carry jammers but did SU-24's carry ECM? Should've done some more homework beforehand. And even if they do equip ECM, I should be within burn through range. That could also be coming from the Flankers but I don't think that's the correct heading for Flanker group. Strange. Another possibility is that those are from Enfield flight who we just relieved of their CAP mission. Lots of guessing and not enough time. And I can't even get a clear lock on that bandit but I get a launch warning from the MIG. Not good. Not good at all... Ordered 3 to engage on that jamming signal and told me "unable" so I'm pretty sure those are from Enfield flight. Since I don't have a lock, I can't order my wing to engage my target so instead, I order 3 and 4 to cover me while I break for cover. Cover me command will make them go after enemy bandits that locked me up. Running for my life... I did mention this on another thread but radio communications are executed in linear order so when I get lots of information from AWACS like in this mission, it takes quite a while for your order to take effect. Here, the order I gave to wing 4 taking effect some 20 seconds later. Something ED should look into. I put my nose back into the fight and I'm counting 3 bandits. 3 took care of one. I give them a hand. Fox 3! And more kills start pouring in. Two. Three. Four. Five. And I'm gonna stop counting because it's just raining bandits at this point. Cont...

I was going to post an AAR on it tonight. It's a CAP mission so you're supposed to patrol between waypoint 2 and 3 until AWACS give you an update. If you just follow the NAV points, the mission automatically points you back to waypoint 1 when you arrive at waypoint 3. Ignore that and go back to waypoint 2. And while you're on your way to WP2, AWACS will tell you something important so make sure you pause and read carefully. Also, waypoint switching doesn't work in any other mode but in NAV mode. And default key for switching waypoints is ctrl+`. Just FYI.

I don't use labels anymore but this is label setting I used to use when starting up. It only puts small faint dot over the units and doesn't give any name or distance information on ground units. It still gives distance for aircrafts and missiles however. And I set it to use same color for both side. Yea it's cheating but can be considered training. And it's better than using Game mode I think.

That's a great work Aero and could you put all the links to your textures in one place? I did search all the posts in here but I'm not sure if I got all of them.

Someone suggested using curvature in the trimmer rotary axis but I found this to be unacceptable because trim depends on speed and it gets too sensitive when I try to trim it while I get too close to max and min speed. Instead I leave it linear then set the Saturation Y to very low value like 10. This works well but as I've said, you still have to retrim it every time your speed changes. If you're trying to dig your head into the MFD and scan for targets, try using H key for altitude hold autopilot instead.

Anisotropic filtering will actually help in that regard and you need to turn it on in your graphic driver setting. And to my knowledge it doesn't take away too much fps. I set it at 8x.

Setting the res of cockpit displays in the options to 1024 actually helps identifying targets. I used 256 at first to save frame rate but couldn't identify anything until I got too close. And frame rate hit actually wasn't even noticeable. At least for me. Don't rely on default way points. Default ingress point in many of the missions put you too close. Start scanning for targets earlier and take out any SAM's and AAA's in the primary target area first. Again, higher cockpit display resolution helps and it does take some time before you can clearly identify IR signatures but once you do, you should be able to identify air defense targets from 5nm out at least. You can change the ingress point in the mission editor if you want. This may be considered cheating but I never was able to get much use out of my wingman. So I enabled cockpit jumping in the options and fired Mav's from his cockpit myself. Study the briefing and and use RWR to keep track of the air defense targets.

Not so fast... crap... Uzi's got creamed. Let's look at the damage... I'm counting 3 remaining at least. Disappointed at Uzi flight. Same strategy... lock them up as many as I can and fire. Order 3 and 4 to engage my target. Don't use engage bandit command. Breaking... Would you look at that... low percentage shot does make a kill some times. These belong to my fine wingmen. Another one for number 3. Man he's a super hero. Well... those 4 were just the Flankers... 3 SU-24's are still kicking too. My mistake for not spotting them earlier. Trusted the Uzi flight too much. They only scored one Fencer kill and got annihilated? Who trained those rookies? There goes my last 120C. Now all I got are sidewinders so I gotta go visual... and they prove to be quite reliable. Just as I finish off the last SU-24, I dodge a close one. Must've been an IR as there was no warning and I should've known when I saw him coming straight at me but stupid me. Whew... at least my IR worked better than his. Made in USA baby!!! Again... that was a lot of work and at some point in the second engagement, I lost number 4. Hope he ejected but I'm happy with the kill ratio. Debriefing shows that 4 exchanged blows with a Flanker. It says dead and then eject... not sure what that means actually... hope he's okay. This one was a bit long because it was a long engagement. Mission 3 AAR Mission 4 AAR Mission 5 AAR Mission 6 AAR Mission 7 AAR Mission 8 AAR Mission 9 AAR Mission 10 AAR

Mission 6 turned out to be quite a thriller. Just from the briefing, I can tell it is going to be a handful. 16 bogeys total. My task will be the Group 1 consist of 4 ship MIG-29 and 4 ship SU-25. Looks like Uzi's got tougher task. Once airborn and at WP2, I get the picture from the AWACS. Just as the briefing but seems we have a bit of problem. MIG's have split in altitude. 2 of them at medium altitude and the other 2 in the dirt with SU-25's. Gonna have to deal with the top 2 and then dig low. AWACS giving me the heads up. Top one I believe is the two MIG's and the low is the MIG's and SU-25's. I like Fulcrums as they don't have jammers. Same strategy. Lock up as many as I can, launch missiles to make them go defensive and tell my wingmen to engage while I evade. Fox 3 This time, I dive as I turn away to setup for the group in the dirt. Casualty list so far... one unfortunately is my wing 2. I turn back to see what's going on out there. Two bogeys still mixing up with 3 and 4. Just as I'm about to give them a hand, 3 reports a kill. There should still be 2 more out there but I only see one. Not good. I finish him up anyway with 120C. That SU-25 didn't stand a chance. Hmm... AWACS telling me it's clean... wonder what happened to the 8th bogey. Cont....

Haze seems to mess with other stuff too. Makes the ground very blurry. But does increase FPS quite a bit. I went back to original however.

It's a beautiful evening and there's nothing better than an escorting a few A10's on SEAD duty. Hope they blast that SA-11 for us. Okay, there goes the Warthogs. Approaching WP3. That river will be important to keep track of as I will be in range of SA-11 across that river. My wingmen usually don't survive the encounter and even if they do, they usually dump all their ordnance making themselves useless. There's that "SD" symbol for SA-11 and a Fulcrum is saying hello too. It seems like the Flankers have their jammers on. I lock onto the jamming signal and tell number 3 to "engage my target". Just as I give the order, they sent a present my way. I launch too. It's low percentage shot and it wont make the kill but the purpose is to put them in defensive position at least so my wing have better chance of survival. I turn while my 3 and 4 move in. I keep number 2 on my wing for now. Just about when I made a complete 360 turn, my wing started to report in the kills. One Two Three Four None of the kills belong to me but at least we got them all and all 3 of my wings still in tact. Now AWACS telling me there are two more Fulcrums coming for me. Alrighty. Because I don't want to get in range of that SA-11, I fall back behind that river to give me some more room to engage the MIG-29's. Did they say 5 minutes? A10's are doing their jobs I see. Just two Fulcrums? I think I can deal with them myself. Couple of brand new AIM-120C's on their way. Just basic tactics. Beaming. There's one And two Rejoin formation. Glad to have everyone safe. RTB Mission Complete I have lost only one wingman since I started using this tactic. But then again, I'm just a rookie and I'd take any advice. Thanks for reading. Mission 3 AAR Mission 4 AAR Mission 5 AAR Mission 6 AAR Mission 7 AAR Mission 8 AAR Mission 9 AAR Mission 10 AAR

While flying F15 campaign missions, I noticed that all radio communications are executed in order with delay for subtitles. Just before I give an order to my wingman 2 to "engage my target", I get a message from AWACS saying "Springfield, Olympus, bandits bearing......" That message lasts about 6 seconds, then the message subtitle stays on for another 7 seconds, then my voice says "Two, engage my target" lasts about 3 seconds, subtitle for 3 seconds, then finally, wingman says "Roger" and executes the command. So if I get interrupted by AWACS, it takes almost 20 seconds for the wingman to execute the command. Trying to give separate commands to 3 different wingmen takes even longer. Even if I concede that in real life the talking does take time, the delay for subtitle seems unreasonable. I guess I can turn off subtitles but I do read them from time to time.

Difference is the resolution and frame rate???

I'll have to say... that rule only must apply to AI F15's. Because whenever I fly, mine doesn't move but my wingman's do. We're flying same altitude, same speed, same AOA, same temp... Not a big issue but can't agree that it is working as intended.

One thing that really helps in identifying targets is to increase the Res of Cockpit Displays in the option. At first, I used 256 to save frame rate but couldn't identify anything in the Maverick's display until I get in too close. I upped the resolution to 1024 and now I can definitely identify SAM and AAA units from 5~6nm out. And to my surprise, frame rate hit wasn't even noticeable. You still have to zoom into the MFD all the way however to correctly identify targets. And I also use cockpit jumping to utilize my wingman. Could be considered a cheat but seems like it's the only way to get some use out of him. Also, don't try to be a hero and try to annihilate every enemy units. Some times few well placed Mavericks on primary targets only is all you need to do.

4th mission in the campaign, I take off, head for waypoint 2 and switch to BVR to see what's out there. While scanning, I noticed that I passed waypoint 2 but it didn't automatically switch to waypoint 3. It's just stuck at waypoint 2 and the distance and ETA numbers are just counting up. And next waypoint command obviously isn't working in BVR mode. So I switch to Nav mode to select the next waypoint but it resets my radar and all the target information. Next mission, instead of switching to BVR, I stay in Nav mode and just turn the radar on to scan the area. This way, waypoint selection works and also switches automatically when I arrive. But obviously, I can't fire any missiles in Nav mode. I have to switch to BVR which also resets all the target information and have to scan for targets again. I'm not sure if this is bug or it's just the way it is. And if it is a bug, I'm not sure which part is the bug. But basically, I can't seem to keep track of the waypoint and the targets at the same time.

Ironhand's tutorial on taking out ZSU-23 works on BMP's as well. Fire for about 1 second burst at 1.0km range and break off at 0.9km range. Works everytime for me.

They're just very good shot I guess.

Thanks for figuring that out Snako! I indeed have the eHome receiver and I will have to try that solution later tonight. Like you, LockOn was the only software that had the problem and it wasn't too much work remapping those keys but it certainly will be better to fix it the right way. Although this may be hardware related issue, ED may want to include this information in the FAQ because I found quite a few people reporting that certain keys don't work. Good find. As for the cockpit jumping, I did try it last night and it worked. You just gotta enable cockpit jumping in the options. I used it to jump into my wingman's cockpit and fired the Mav's myself. Works beautifully. One thing to be careful though if you use cockpit jumping for this purpose is that if you jump into your wingman's cockpit while your plane is still in working order, it just keeps flying straight. Make sure you point it to neutral zone first and then jump into your wingman then fire the mavericks quick and then get back to your plane before it plummets into a mountain. I wish the AI and wing management can be improved so I wont have to do this. I also would like to know what Power Up/Down do. Was dinking around with it last night but seems to have no effect.

You don't need flaming cliffs installed. You only need original Lock On.

Thanks for that information. Does engage my target command work on jamming signal? And by the way, I didtinctively identified at least 3 jamming signals. Do the Tu's also use jammers? But that is good to know that only one will carry ECM.