Markdude

Would love a focused study sim on the F/A-18.

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Well, looking at prices and knowing that LO is more CPU-intensive, I think I'm going to be better off upgrading the processor instead of the video card right now. Perhaps I should edit my thread title, lol. Anyone have experience with that processor? The reviews seem to indicate it's great bang-for-the-buck.

Ah, sounds good. I think I might just go ahead and replace the processor. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103773 AMD 6000+ (3 Ghz) for $150. Would that work well for FC and other games? Also, any chance you could direct me to an online tutorial of sorts that goes over replacing a processor? I don't wanna screw anything up. :P

I'm very excited about this news. I think it will be very cool to have a line of focused, study sims.

I've never bought and installed a processor before. Is it hard? If it's not, any suggestions on processors? I forgot to mention that I'm looking for PCI Express vid cards. I looked up the 8800 GTS on E-bay and some stores are selling them for $300 new. That might be doable for me.

Hello everyone. I've currently got a pretty mediocre system all around and I'd like to upgrade my video card. My system is as follows: AMD 3800+ 2.0 Ghz Dual Core Processor 1.5 GB RAM NVidia GeForce 7600 GT To obtain smooth frame rates in Flaming Cliffs, I have to run all of the settings pretty low. I'd like to buy a new video card that will allow me to bump the settings up a little bit and still run smoothly, particularly being able to change haze to advanced and have some AA and not have slowdown. My budget for the card is about $200. Any suggestions?:pilotfly: EDIT: No longer looking for vid card, see posts below.

Haven't browsed the forums in a long time and just saw this. Incredible. It's a pity that I have to run LockOn at really low settings to keep a good framerate, but I still want to try this out when it's released.

Am I the only person that thinks the F-15E's cockpit looks a hundred times cooler than the F-15C's?

It will also remove the bass, snare drum mic, and kick drum mic (these are almost always panned to the center). So you may successfully remove the vocals, but you'll have a pretty funky sounding song.

Found this on the related videos tab:

Where can I find some of these addons?

*bump* Anyone?

Sometimes when I am flying, my engine noise will suddenly go completely silent for a few seconds (I can still hear the cockpit systems wav I have from the zzzsoundspack with the radio chatter and everything) and start again in a few seconds. Is it supposed to do that? If not, is there a way to fix it? By the way, the engine sound would still do that before I installed the sound pack. Sometimes my .wav files for missile launches and cannonfire don't play either. But sometimes they do. I have not spotted any correlations between when they do and don't play. Any way to fix that? And one last question, is there a way to make it so that when the same sound is played in succession that they overlap, and the new sound doesn't cut off the other one? For instance, I've swapped the flare dispensing sound with the one in Archer's sound pack, and if I dispense one flare and dispense another one a second later, instead of the sounds both playing at the same time, the original sound stops as the new one is triggered. Is there any way to change that? Thanks. :music_whistling:

Well, had a go at the mission earlier today and successfully beat it and landed. The Migs obviously landed before I got too close to them and didn't present any problems. Accidentally got a little off track and flew over land on the way to the A-50 and had to dodge a few SAM launches. I was able to detect the Su-27's early enough to not get completely tore apart by them. I think it may have had something to do with the way I've changed my controls. On my Saitek X-52, I used to have it set like this: Stick top hat switch: Up and down zoom the view in and out (I don't have TrackIR yet), left and right increase and decrease radar range. Stick bottom hat switch: POV And using the throttle hat to move the target designator box. but now I've realized that I've been an idiot for neglecting the pinkie shift button (and essentially doubling the number of possible commands), so now I have it set as before, but when the pinkie shift is on, I have the top hat set so that up and down increase and decrease the elevation scan and left and right toggle between 30 and 60 degree azimuth scans. I used to never use the elevation scan controls but now I see the importance of it. So now I've been using those to search higher for those Su-27's. I still didn't detect them too early, but early enough that I could track them for a second before they started going missile-happy. There is one thing I'm still a little confused about though. I used TWS mode so I could hopefully get a shot off at both of them, but they're so close together on the radar screen that I find it hard to effectively designate both of them. Is there any way to zoom in (and not change range), or do I have to wait until they're close enough that I can decrease the radar range? Anyway, I locked one of them up, and when they got close enough that I could decrease the radar range and see two separate targets, I tried to designate the second one but I wasn't able to for some reason (why does that happen?), so I ordered my wingman to engage bandits. I kicked on the burners and tried to get as much altitude as I could while anticipating his shot. He fired a missile at me just a few seconds before I was in launch range. I dispensed a bit of chaff and flares, launched 2 Aim-120's at him, and then took an evasive right turn and dive while dispensing some more chaff and flares. One of my missiles hit him and luckily my wingman got the other 27. However, he also got taken out by SAMs in the process. Relieved, I headed towards the A-50 and took it out with an AIM-7. I flew back home a few miles off shore at low altitude just to be safe and landed back at base. I'm glad that I was finally able to complete it successfully, but I'm still curious about locking up multiple bandits in TWS; why does a target sometimes not lock when you put the designator on it, and is there a way to zoom in without changing range, or do you just have to wait until they're close enough that you can decrease range? Thanks for all your help everyone, I think I'm getting better already. Also, I downloaded Walmis' F-15 model and I love it. Maybe that's giving me magical pilot powers. :P

Awesome, I'm going to try to dig out an old mic and try Shoot pretty soon. I would try VoiceBuddy, but I'm pretty broke right now. :P Thanks for the links.

Unfortunately I do not have Flaming Cliffs yet, I am getting it soon though, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to view the track (I'll try to watch it after work tonight). My problem usually doesn't lie within killing the AWACS, I'm usually able to do that okay. And I could quit right then and complete the mission, but I'm a bit nitpicky and I just feel cheap for quitting right there. For me, it's not over until I've landed safely back at base. :P But the main reason I don't want to quit right as soon as that happens is because I want to get more practice out of flying and I would like to use it as a learning experience. But anyway, my problem is the Flankers sneaking up on me right after I kill the AWACS. Any tips on engaging them? Thanks for your help so far, btw. :)

Would flying higher help me detect the Su-27's soon enough to have a fair chance at them? I still want to figure out how to get them to stop sneaking up on me. :P

I think it would be pretty cool to do the radio commands by voice recognition. My desk doesn't have enough room for my keyboard with the HOTAS on it, so I either have it on the floor or on my lap, and it can be a hassle to have to take one hand off and fiddle through radio menu. It would be pretty convenient to be able to just say something like "Flight, engage bandits" instead of having to grow an extra hand. :P Would something like that be possible and feasible with voice recognition software?

That sounds pretty interesting. Could you tell more about the voice-input program? Or is it the voice recognition software that comes with Windows?

Sorry if it's getting annoying, but I'm still having a bit of trouble. My last two attempts: First attempt: After takeoff, I climb to about 25k ft and head towards waypoint 3 and the AWACS. I've been getting pretty paranoid about finding those Su-27's, so occasionally I'll radio our E3 and ask for bandit vectors to see if any new ones pop up. One of the times I did it, I accidentally hit Enter instead of backslash (keyboard is on the floor as the HOTAS and mouse take up the desk space) and wasted an AIM 120, heh. Anyway, I lock up the A-50 and get in range and fire. I turned towards the A-50 a bit too soon because the SAMs started locking me up and firing at me, so I dispensed lots of flare and shaff, hit the burners, dived and turned away. Luckily, I was able to evade all of their missiles. A bit shaken, I started heading towards home, praying my AIM 120 would hit the A-50. About this time, my radar detected a pair of Su-27's (so I guess there's two flights), in front of us. My wingman and I engaged them and shot them down and I used my second AIM 120 on that. After the engagement was over, I checked and the A-50 is still on my RWR, so it looks like I missed. I was assuming that those Su-27's were the ones that were giving me trouble, so I wasn't too bothered by going back and having another shot at the AWACS. I turned around, started heading off shore a few miles to get out of SAM range and climbed again and headed toward the A-50. Once again, out of nowhere, a pair of Su-27's pop up on my RWR. I switch to boresight mode and select the AIM 9 and I'm actually able to get one shot off on one, but it misses and they proceed to rip me and my wingman to shreds. Second attempt: Like before, I've been getting up to about 25k feet and heading out to waypoint 3 towards the AWACS. I have been flying a few miles off shore (so the AWACS is really around my 10 oclock for most of the time) to try to avoid the SAMS getting an early shot on me. My radar usually picks up a Mig 29 in the same general area as the AWACS. In past attempts I've tried telling my wingman to engage him, but then my wingman usually ends up getting taken out by the SAMs. Anyway, the Mig hasn't given me any trouble. When I get close enough (about 30 miles from the AWACS), I turn towards it and get ready to fire on him. Out of nowhere, the Su-27's pop up on my RWR right in front of me and start engaging. This time, I started tracking one, told my wingman to engage, and might have had a fighting chance, but about 10 seconds after that, my damn computer locked up. Needless to say, I wasn't very happy. Where are these Su-27's coming from and how are they staying hidden from my radar? Are they being dispatched from a nearby airbase when I start approaching the A-50? Is there any hope for a n00b like myself to not get completely owned by them? :P

Alright, sounds like a good plan. I'll hopefully get to refly the mission tomorrow. Thanks for the help. :)

I've already got an X-52, guess you missed that bit in the start of my post, lol. I'm very happy with it. My only complaint is that I wish the information button on the throttle (the one you can hold to see what command a button is assigned to without actually engaging that button) could be switched to use as a normal button. Next on my list to get is TrackIR. Thanks for the tips, guys. And yeah, it's Mig 23's, not Su 27's, my bad. Spad, are you saying it would be best to engage the A-50 (while ordering my wingman to engage the Migs), and after getting a shot off it, heading for the deck and finding some terrain cover? Or should I try to stay low to begin with, and then climb and engage the A-50 after the last waypoint?

Hello there. I've lurked the boards for a while after getting Lock On a few months ago (and really holding off on actually playing it until I got myself a nice Saitek X-52 because I want to get "the full experience" [planning on getting TrackIR soon to complete it]) a few weeks ago. I used to play flight sims when I was younger but I don't think I was ever really too good. But anyway, I'm still basically a n00b to serious flight tactics, so try to be gentle! So anyway, first post, sorry it's an annoying one! :P My bird of choice is the F-15 and I've been trying to learn it the best I can. I've spent time configuring my own profile for my X-52 from scratch and it seems to be working pretty conveniently. Anyway, right now I'm a bit stuck on the mission "AWACS Kill", in which you are tasked with shooting down the Russian A-50 AWACS aircraft. I've been flying my assigned waypoints at around 25-30k feet, keeping radar off until a little after waypoint 3 (I think) when I'm heading towards the A-50. I locked it up in TWS mode and selected my AIM-120 (correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe I have read that in TWS mode, your target will not be notified of a missile launch until after the missile goes active. I know that wouldn't really make much difference when engaging a defenseless AWACS aircraft, but I was expecting to run into some fighters before I had a shot at the AWACS). At about 20 miles range, I launched an AIM 120 and successfully destroyed it. I figured that was too easy for its own good and I quickly turned around and started to get the hell out of there (especially since I was being spiked by SAM sites that I presume were probably right under the A-50's location). As soon as I was able to turn away, my TEWS indicates I've been spiked by a Su-27 on my 6 oclock. The Su-27 fires missiles at me in no time and my evasive maneuvers fail miserably and I'm shot down very quickly. Of course, the debriefing says the mission was a success since I did manage to shoot down the A-50, but I can't let myself consider it a success when I'm dead, lol, so I don't save because I want to complete the mission right. Can anyone offer me some insights and tips/tactics on how I should fly this mission differently? I think first and foremost, my biggest mistake was tracking the A-50 so long (I started tracking it when it was at about 40 miles range and stopped when I shot it down at about 15), when that whole time I could have picked up the incoming fighters and acted accordingly instead of tracking a sitting duck AWACS and allowing the fighters to sneak up on me (which I presume they did by leaving their radars off [so they wouldn't spike me] and getting their coordinates from the AWACS that I'm flying straight at, lol). I did obviously hear my AWACS giving me coordinates previously to enemy bandits, but I didn't really react since I hadn't come into contact with them [until it was too late]). I also figure that I should have at least commanded my wingman to turn on his radar so he could have detected and engaged the enemy bandits, if no more than serving as a distraction to them while I shoot down the A-50. Anyway, I think I helped myself a bit already by analyzing my own mistakes (even though I'm sure there are countless more I haven't realized; but you guys can help me with that), but any advice regarding this mission or really any F-15 tactics in general would help me greatly. But remember to try to go easy on me, I'm just a n00b! :D