F-15 TWS (efficient use of) & a few other personal performance evaluations

[coolts]

Having temporarily given up on the FC2.0 F-15 campaign at about stage four because of repeated, annoying deaths, I have been, (on good advice), setting up 1v1, 2v1 & 3v1 engagements in the mission editor to hone my tactics. Finding a whole lot of fun setting up my own missions, I have been happily creating more and more complex setups, and have eventually succeeded in defeating myself just as the ED campaign did!

 

Once I analysed a few .trk files I have come to a few conclusions about the cause of my repeated angry parachute rides;

 

1.

I have a tendency to charge in without proper support

2.

I spend too much time fannying around with my radar cursors

3.

Their missiles get me!

The first is basic impatience. If I can take off in full afterburner, perform an Immelman turn, gain height and be on track for the bad guys, why are my wingmen all bumbling around 12 miles behind me? This leaves me as TARGET #1 by a mile once the shooting starts. I will now wait for the old ladies to finish their tea and knitting and catch me up before engaging. That takes care of number 1.

 

Having tried VENS’ tactics, (http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=52688&highlight=aar), many times, (once at ECM burn through, assign each bogey to your wingmen, draw a few missiles, launch a few, then run for the hills spewing CM’s and hope that your decoy has bought your wingmen enough of an advantage), I simply cannot assign bogeys fast enough in TWS / STT. At 30nm or so, bogey flights are tightly packed and appear almost as one blip. I have the Microstick on my Cougar set to move the radar cursor and it’s pretty good, but just not precise enough. “Use the mouse”, some will say. That is much more precise, but hardly realistic. I can’t imagine real F-15 pilots calling out;

 

“Olympus, Enfield 11 – Mission abort, mouse mat fallen between my knees, over”

There is a ”lock nearest”, or “lock next” command somewhere I recall, but always thought that was for “game mode”, and it’s not on the FC2.0 key docs anyway.

 

Are we supposes to be hunkered down, shuffling a tiny cursor about trying to bug a target, only to keep hitting the wrong one. The one you have already launched and assigned a wingman to attack. The one that’s just launched at you. AAAAAAAAAAAAAA BOOM.

 

I am intrigued by =RvE=Yoda’s ERI radar MOD, but don’t think that will help here. There should be a “bug first priority threat, bug first 2 threats, bug first 3……” etc., etc. At least to my mind.

 

Am i doing it wrong guys?

 

As for the third failing, well, having practiced notching, beaming, etc, I now treat my CM’s less like Faberge eggs and spew them all over the place. I spew flares just in case of an IR missile. I try to fly “heads out” of the cockpit and less “fangs out” as much as possible and paying attention to my TEWS, am more aware of when an ARH or SARH has lost/found me.

 

Overall, I feel that if I can be a little more patient / tactical and figure out a better radar procedure, I may be hitting the silk less, as in the BVR world,( like the wild west ), the quick draw has a distinct advantage.

Any and all advice welcomed!

 

Cheers

 

Coolts

 

Ps. <VEN> Any chance of you posting a .trk of your FC2.0 F-15 campaign AAR’s? (Specifically 3 & 4). Sometimes watching someone do It properly, (i.e. Without getting shot down), makes more sense than reading it.

 

Pps. Just seen a post by A.S. with a dogfight .trk (“F-15 Tango”), which I will watch later. Looks like its generating some F-15 radar procedural debate.

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=54122

Edited May 17, 2010 by coolts

[Udat]

Download Tactview and use it to build your SA.. If you constantly go defensive 5 seconds too late, all the CM's, notches and extending in the world won't help you!

Edited May 17, 2010 by Udat

[Pilotasso]

Coolts, maybe you should try multiplayer. Regarding frustrations it could agree with you. AI spoofs missiles better but are predictable and boring versus unpredictable behaviour of human players, as well as more rewarding for each success.

 

I have long discovered that regarding furstration its the same on the 2 fronts when unefective, and quiclky chose multiplayer for the sake of better pilot behaviour reflected on other units on the map.

 

try it and see you you have same issues with the radar.

 

Cheers.

[coolts]

The radar fiddles are my current main failing as thats what is taking the time when I should be maintaining my SA. In the mean time, I have taken the temporary step of enabling labels in order to match up what my radar is telling me vs. whats actually out there.

 

Ah well, maybe a 27" monitor would help ;)

[RvEFuSiOn]

Use Yoda's ERI mod, it helps tremendously, try to keep target on gimbals, and know when to go cold and always have an exit strategy before entering a fight, and most important of all... fight more human players.

 

 

Edit: There is nothing like fighting a 1v1 with a better opponent online and doing a debrief on what you could have done better... you will not get better flying offline since the AI cant tell you what you did wrong.

Peace

Edited May 17, 2010 by =RvE=FuSiOn

[EtherealN]

Well, technically a smart person can see what they did wrong if they have a tacview of their singleplay flight, and if they fail they can pass the tacview along to a friend for analysis.

[coolts]

Heh. I can see where I am going wrong. Its the radar fiddling. Trying to bug a target partially overlapping another target, (which already has a missile heading towards it), sitting ontop of a ECM beam.....which always takes the lock.....

 

Downloading Tacview. should be a laugh, ("look ma, thats where i started playing the keyboard with my feet").

 

Seriously though. I am way too crap to go online yet. Once i have nailed the campaign......

Edited May 17, 2010 by coolts

[Ven]

Heh. I can see where I am going wrong. Its the radar fiddling. Trying to bug a target partially overlapping another target, (which already has a missile heading towards it), sitting ontop of a ECM beam.....which always takes the lock.....

 

Downloading Tacview. should be a laugh, ("look ma, thats where i started playing the keyboard with my feet").

 

Seriously though. I am way too crap to go online yet. Once i have nailed the campaign......

 

Well, I learned a few tricks on how to bug multiple overlapping targets by watching Ironhand's videos. I'm sure you already know that the target you want to bug doesn't have to be completely inside the two vertical lines. It bugs the closest one when you hit designate button so if I want to bug the lead, I move the cursor below so only the top of the cursor is touching the target dot. Then to bug the overlapping trail, I move the cursor up so only the bottom of the cursor is touching the dots. Sometimes moving it to side when there are more than 2. Wish I can illustrate this with screenshot but I'm at work right now. Basically, when there are 4 targets bunched up in large dot, bugging targets with your cursor closely placed at 6, 9, 12, and 3 O'clock positions should get all 4 of them... most of the time.

 

Also, I don't give engage my target command to all of my wingmen while bugging targets in TWS. Because as far as I know, you can't cycle primary in TWS and that will make all 3 of my wingmen go after same target.

 

I'll also go home and check to see if I kept my trk file. I did a re-install and can't remember if I backed up the track files or not.

[coolts]

Cheers Ven.

 

What wastes time, (and contributes to my deaths), is when trying to get a 2nd or third TWS target bugged, you accidentally bug the same target and the radar goes into STT mode. I then have to cancel lock and start over.

 

I had noticed that the cursor can sometimes pick out overlapping targets, sometimes not. I will try your 12, 3, 6, 9 o'clock theory later.

 

I installed the ERI mod last night but havent yet sat down to see what it does properly. apparantly you can go from STT back into TWS.