Newbie Questions!

[timbob67]

Hey guys, I'm Tim, been playing Lock On a few days now, having not played any flight sims for years! I've been reacquainting myself with basic flight, following wapoints, approaches, landings - all that jazz. Also been running through the F15 tutorial missions (y plane of choice for the moment), and am gradually working out all the radar modes, different A2A missiles, and becoming more confident with them.

 

Now, I'm fine when it comes to shooting down transports, I can find them on the radar, lock a couple up, dispatch some weapons, they go down no problems, but I'm having difficulty in engaging enemy fighters. I usually can't find them, and have them sneak up behind me. I don't want to get drawn into using the overhead map view, and I'm not using labels, so how on earth does one go about finding an enemy fighter?

 

I often see an enemy fighter in my top right radar warning display, but when I turn to put his bearing directly ahead, my radar screen to the left will display nothing at all. I usually end up trying in vain to find the enemy fighter for about 30 seconds, before seeing tracer flash past my window, shoot me up, and force me to make a gear-less emergency landing on a nearby road....

 

Any top tips for finding and getting into good positions on enemy fighters?

[S77th-GOYA]

You're probably not adjusting your radar scan vertically. You must point the scan up and down to get a good view of what is in front of you.

 

If you have a spare rotary/slider on your stick, this function is very useful to have there.

[GGTharos]

Your radar has a limited elevation to scan in, so if the enemy is close, he can be flying above/below your scan zone.

 

The short of it is ... if they're that close, used your eyes, and auto-modes. Forget the radar bvr modes at that point.

 

Any top tips for finding and getting into good positions on enemy fighters?

[timbob67]

I think I am adjusting my radar scan vertically, I've mapped Ctrl and hat up/down to move the two altitude scan markers on the left of the screen up and down, and Alt and hat to use the target designation cursor.

 

I'll have to have a play, it's hard to spot them - I just got shot down a second ago, but got myself a MiG25 first!

[S77th-GOYA]

The F-15 radar is not modelled to be very strong at picking up aircraft in certain aspects and/or elevations. To test how well it is working, turn on labels, get a good fix on the bandit, and adjust range and elevation so that it should be showing up. Of course, realize that if the bandit is beaming and lower than you, you shouldn't see them.

[timbob67]

The F-15 radar is not modelled to be very strong at picking up aircraft in certain aspects and/or elevations. To test how well it is working, turn on labels, get a good fix on the bandit, and adjust range and elevation so that it should be showing up. Of course, realize that if the bandit is beaming and lower than you, you shouldn't see them.

 

Beaming = flying perpendicular to my flight path?

 

I've just discovered the vertical scan [3] radar mode, and the boresight [4] mode, which makes things easier once the enemy gets in close range.

 

I hadn't really realised that the main Long Range Search mode was supplemented by a few different auto lock modes for closer range stuff. Never flown modern jets in a sim before, all my experience has been old propeller driven stuff!

[5thduke]

use awacs if there is one up there :P

[sp0nge]

Yep AWACS are GREAT. Must learn their language though ;)

[zaelu]

Heh, first time I had the same frustration as I didn't noticed that my radar was set for the minimum range by default :D . Now I have a rotary to encrease/decrease the range but, the X52 rotaries are a bit spikey and sometimes I get very realistc flickering of the screen just when I want to bug targets in TWS mode :megalol: . Then I go: "Oh no... no you don't... you little bugger!" (it fits perfectly :D ).