Questions from a FC2.0 multiplayer n00b

[coolts]

Guys

 

 

I made my first tentative foray online last night on the 104th server, and once I got used to having no external views (of my lovely, lovely plane), I taxied, (on the left), and was airborne and on my way to the FLOT in no time. I am however having a few first day issues.

 

 

In a fit of housecleaning I somehow deleted my FC2.0 multiplayer icon from my desktop and start folder so have to launch multiplayer from MODMAN. Can someone tell me how to get this back without re-installing as it seems to be just a command line altered shortcut of the main “.exe”

 

 

Once multiplayer launched it was using what seemed to be 800x600 or something with massive text, (certainly not the 1920x1200 on my main game settings. There are no settings I could find on the Spartan GUI so this may be related to my first issue.

 

 

The server browser. Is that it? To say it is rudimentary is like saying that circles don’t have many corners. I have been out of the multiplayer arena since the days of “RCW enemy territory” back in the day, but that had a much better system with filters, etc. Is there a 3rd party server browser that most people use? (Back in the day we used “all seeing eye”, or it’s like as it was much better for filtering).

 

 

Apart from these teething issues and it was late so the server was half full, I had a fun 20 mins and managed a kill before being shot down, but there were 2 of them against me!

 

 

I did notice a couple of things in my brief parachute ride to terra firma that seem unique to multiplayer that certainly change the ROE;

 

1.

People fly low. Very low. I felt positively isolated and conspicuous tooling along at 20,000. I guess with the KA-50 / SU-25T / A-10 flights, etc., the action is in the weeds. Even the CAP flights were at around 7,000. It’s very hard to notch that low. I scraped some paint off my fuel tanks trying to get below thoseMig29’s!, (but I got one! Did I mention that?) :pilotfly:

 

2.

Humans turn off their radars! This baffled me at first then I realised that the best policy was, switch it on, sweep, locate, determine range and heading of bogies(s) with TWS, then turn off and manoeuvre. Very, very, very sneaky!!

I will hook up again later this evening after sorting some sort of comms out, (TeamSpeak I believe), and will visit a few servers to get the lie of the land.

 

Bee seein’ ya!

 

Coolts

Edited May 19, 2010 by coolts

[Grimes]

 

Once multiplayer launched it was using what seemed to be 800x60 or something with massive text, (certainly not the 1920x1200 on my main game settings. There are no settings I could find on the Spartan GUI so this may be related to my first issue.

 

 

The server browser. Is that it? To say it is rudimentary is like saying that circles don’t have many corners.

 

The MP interface is locked at 1024x768. If you have a different resolution, it stretches it. Although I do think it is possible to make a mod to fit your resolution. But the text and single briefing image would likely also be stretched.

 

And yeah, its pretty basic. Hopefully a 3rd party browser comes out soon.

[Distiler]

The FC2 multiplayer icon uses:

 

target -> "F:\DCS\LockOn Flaming Cliffs 2\bin\x86\stable\simulator.exe" --net gui

start in -> "F:\DCS\LockOn Flaming Cliffs 2"

 

Graphics options for multiplayer are the same as for single player.

 

(ovbiously, use your path)

[coolts]

Wow. locked at 1024x768! in 2010! i will get my MC Hammer pants out!

 

Its the chat text at that resolution that i find annoying. it takes up a quarter of my screen.

 

BTW, I may have sorted my lost MP shortcut. It points to

 

"C:\games\LockOn Flaming Cliffs 2\bin\x86\stable\simulator.exe" --net gui"

 

I can recreate that easily enough.

 

The FC2 multiplayer icon uses:

 

target -> "F:\DCS\LockOn Flaming Cliffs 2\bin\x86\stable\simulator.exe" --net gui

start in -> "F:\DCS\LockOn Flaming Cliffs 2"

 

Graphics options for multiplayer are the same as for single player.

 

(ovbiously, use your path)

 

Ah, you beat me to it! I reckon mines not pointing at the right path / settings then, (as i launched it through modman), although what you are saying contradicts what Grimes said about the resolution being locked, unless thats just for "simulator.exe" and not the GUI frontend.

Edited May 19, 2010 by coolts

[winz]

Wow. locked at 1024x768! in 2010! i will get my MC Hammer pants out!

The MP gui is just a 1024x768 picture stretched to your resolution. It will look ugly no matter what :)

MP has to use the simulator binary, and not the dedicated gui one, that's why it looks so spartan, but it does its job, and that's what matters :)

[coolts]

Ah, I'm not fussed about the GUI. but in-game, the chat box was massive so I assumed the game was running at low rez. I have seen some posts about the chatbox size since and think thats the issue.

 

The ingame rez was me being a spoon! It mirrors the singleplayer setting as you said, but my resolution settings were.....wrong.:music_whistling:

[Distiler]

Wow. locked at 1024x768! in 2010! i will get my MC Hammer pants out!

 

Its the chat text at that resolution that i find annoying. it takes up a quarter of my screen.

 

BTW, I may have sorted my lost MP shortcut. It points to

 

"C:\games\LockOn Flaming Cliffs 2\bin\x86\stable\simulator.exe" --net gui"

 

I can recreate that easily enough.

 

 

 

Ah, you beat me to it! I reckon mines not pointing at the right path / settings then, (as i launched it through modman), although what you are saying contradicts what Grimes said about the resolution being locked, unless thats just for "simulator.exe" and not the GUI frontend.

 

That is my path, you have to point to your path.

 

About resolution, I mean when you're into the cockpit. The UI (server list, etc) resolution is locked.

Edited May 19, 2010 by Distiler

[coolts]

Yeah, i guessed that. I just created a new shortcut and it works again. Resolution in game sorted. I can live with the basic browser. its like camping out :smilewink:

[SFJackBauer]

People fly low. Very low. I felt positively isolated and conspicuous tooling along at 20,000. I guess with the KA-50 / SU-25T / A-10 flights, etc., the action is in the weeds. Even the CAP flights were at around 7,000. It’s very hard to notch that low. I scraped some paint off my fuel tanks trying to get below thoseMig29’s!, (but I got one! Did I mention that?) :pilotfly:

 

Not necessarily. I regularly fly high, I know others do it too. Surely your tactics change as the situation dictates, but I prefer the advantages of being high - you can trade quickly altitude for speed, your missiles have more potential energy, you are able to scan a greater volume with radar and you can quickly dash to intercept someone flying low.

[EtherealN]

Wow, people turning off radars? I actually do do that too in some situations, but never noticed it being common. Quite the opposite - my greatest annoyance in FC2 online is that people refuse to realize that them keeping jammers on all the time completely destroys SA for their friends (and makes you easier to locate at all at range). I don't know how many times I've burnt fuel to intercept a "threat" that turns out to be a friendly plane that kept it's jammer on during RTB for some mysterious reason... :P

[coolts]

I underestimated the enhanced sneakiness of online players. I would see a radar spike, say at 3 o'clock, for a few seconds, and then it would go off. I would then turn toward it and start scanning, find nothing, then return to my previous course. It would then pop back up ay my 5-6 o'clock!

 

Very disturbing. Of course, the mind convinces you that you are caught in some web of conspiracies where everyone online is a grizzled cigar chomping moustachioed top gun / chess grand master. Very entertaining though. Once I complete the F-15 campaign convincingly, I will foray online more often.

 

One thing I noticed was that AWACS was constantly calling out bogeys, but when I dutifully went to investigate, there was nothing there most of the time. Does AWACS declare ghosts sometimes? Or as the calls are queued, could these be past messages?

[EtherealN]

I underestimated the enhanced sneakiness of online players. I would see a radar spike, say at 3 o'clock, for a few seconds, and then it would go off. I would then turn toward it and start scanning, find nothing, then return to my previous course. It would then pop back up ay my 5-6 o'clock!

 

Was there terrain there? On the 104th especially there is a lot of valleyhopping happening, and you'll obviously only get a contact on your RWR/TEWS when there is line-of-sight between you and the emitter. When they descend into the next valley they'll be shielded again and you will not see them on your radar unless you are high enough to look over the shoulders of the mountains.

 

 

One thing I noticed was that AWACS was constantly calling out bogeys, but when I dutifully went to investigate, there was nothing there most of the time. Does AWACS declare ghosts sometimes? Or as the calls are queued, could these be past messages?

 

What was the range to the bandits? If they are at 100+ your radar is very unlikely to see a fighter - quite often I don't pick up fighter-size targets until around 60-70. Obviously, also, there is ample time while you are transiting for others to kill them, or for them to just go somewhere else. If the contact is 100nm away and you move 50nm up there to get radar range on them they'll most likely also have moved 50nm in some direction. ;)

(EDIT: Additional note for general consumtion: note that 60-70nm thing? If you have your jammer on, I'll see you earlier - I may not have range straight away, but I have a very pretty beacon to lock onto and start working with. Jammers off please. ;) )

 

And of course, again, is line-of-sight maintained? Did they dip into a valley? Did they just plain grow tired and disconnect from the server? Etc.

 

Oh, and some formalia: they're not calling bogey. A bogey is an unknown - no successful IFF has been done. A hostile airplane is a "bandit".

Edited May 25, 2010 by EtherealN

[coolts]

The terrain was the most likely cause of my "ghosts". That relates to my earlier worry about motoring along at 30k when everyone else is skulking around in the valleys. The only option seems to be to get my boots muddy, although it seems rather unnatural for a F-15 to be bush flying.

 

My mistake about the "bogey" term, you are right, it was bandits. The terrain was probably the cause of half of my MIA AWACS calls, however, somethimes i will get a real close (30-40miles), call, over water, and, again, nothing there. This has happenned a few times in the campaign, but i am putting it down to my radar clumsiness as the scan zone gate is pretty narrow close up.

[SFJackBauer]

The terrain was probably the cause of half of my MIA AWACS calls, however, somethimes i will get a real close (30-40miles), call, over water, and, again, nothing there. This has happenned a few times in the campaign, but i am putting it down to my radar clumsiness as the scan zone gate is pretty narrow close up.

 

At 40 miles the scan zone volume covers 40k feet of altitude, so you would need just small elevation adjustments to cover the entire airspace. More probably you need to fiddle with PRF settings, depending on expected hostile aspect to you. Also he could be very low meaning you have to get much closer to see him on radar.

 

Also sometimes the AWACS can lose track of the bandit temporarily depending on the aspect between them - can happen when the AWACS is turning around its route.

 

Point is, the unpredictable nature of human players make it more enjoyable, at least for me, to learn the radar tricks - some scripted missions also have it, but in most of them the aircraft is in a predictable path.

[coolts]

More probably you need to fiddle with PRF settings, depending on expected hostile aspect to you.

 

 

Can you tell me what PRF settings refer to? Thats a new one on me. Azimuth & elevation are all i am used to messing with the radar.

 

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Ah, do you mean Long range scan mode? Do you know, i've never ever used it as i assumed that, as i dont usually even see bandits furthur than 40mn, there was no point in using it. I havent even assigned a HOTAS control.

 

I remember using the different bar scan modes in Falcon 4.0 but never LOMAC.... [back to the manual....]

Edited May 25, 2010 by coolts

[Frostie]

Can you tell me what PRF settings refer to? Thats a new one on me. Azimuth & elevation are all i am used to messing with the radar.

 

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Ah, do you mean Long range scan mode? Do you know, i've never ever used it as i assumed that, as i dont usually even see bandits furthur than 40mn, there was no point in using it. I havent even assigned a HOTAS control.

 

I remember using the different bar scan modes in Falcon 4.0 but never LOMAC.... [back to the manual....]

In the F-15C

LRS is the normal radar mode, when your scanning for targets you can switch this to TWS which relays more information.

 

In LRS mode you have 2 PRF settings, HI setting is for detecting head on targets and has a greater range than MED which is used to detect targets flying with less closure and at different aspects eg. beaming.

 

 

In the Rus birds you have 3 settings,

 

ППС (HI) for head on targets

ЗПС (MED) for chase targets with much reduced radar range

АВТ (ILV) interleaves HI and MED but gives a 25% reduction in range over HI