Hey I am new, I have questions :D

[kawi_ninja]

hi,

I used to play fighter sims between 98-2000. Then somehow I lost touch with it. I never heard of many combat flight sims (except the old kind like WW2 etc. :icon_roll ) in the last couple of years. After doing some reasearch I found that LOMAC is the latest good one out. It looks pretty good from what I can see.

 

And if there is internet gaming people pitted against each other, that is even more awesome. So I want to know all about this game. I am going to purchase it. Are there any addons?

 

I can't seem to find any BASIC basic faqs about this game/ online playing on these forums.

 

How is it fun with modern aircraft with longrange missles and no dog fighting? Or are there other scenarios? I am going to order the game anyway, but I want your opinions and facts about the game.

 

thanks,

A newb

 

EDIT: updated questions.. next page.

[Carnajo]

Well, v1.1 Flaming Cliffs itself is an add-on. So yeah, there are add-ons for it, and by the looks of it, quite a few mods and skins by the community as well.

 

See http://www.lomacfiles.com

 

As for the dogfighting question, well I'm very new to this myself, so I'd also like to hear what people say.

[GGTharos]

hi,

I used to play fighter sims between 98-2000. Then somehow I lost touch with it. I never heard of many combat flight sims (except the old kind like WW2 etc. :icon_roll ) in the last couple of years. After doing some reasearch I found that LOMAC is the latest good one out. It looks pretty good from what I can see.

 

And if there is internet gaming people pitted against each other, that is even more awesome. So I want to know all about this game. I am going to purchase it. Are there any addons?

 

I can't seem to find any BASIC basic faqs about this game/ online playing on these forums.

 

How is it fun with modern aircraft with longrange missles and no dog fighting? Or are there other scenarios? I am going to order the game anyway, but I want your opinions and facts about the game.

 

thanks,

A newb

 

 

 

That would be because a misconception exists: 'Fire missile, kill plane'. It doesn't work liek that ... you can evade it, and the longer the shot is, the less violent the maneuvers required (3-4g pulls are typical). The closer you get, the more important it becomes to do your evasions properly and employ your countermeasures, as well as amaking sure to keep the other guy on the defensive and knowing exactly HOW you need to employ your CM's to make them most effective.

 

Now if yo umanage to watse every BVR and WVR missile along with an opponent and devolve it to a guns fight, kudos ;)

[kawi_ninja]

Thanks for the quick responses... tells me the community is active! :D

 

ok, some more questions...

 

I am guessing multiplayers are more fun? And that you fly in groups (squadrons?).

Can team mates talk to each other during live flying (with a head set)?

And is hyperlobby the best place to fly in multiplayer?

 

I have a logitech joystick... should I consider investing in force feedback joysticks?

 

And finally, how about some useful beginner links? :)

[Cobra360]

Don't bother with a force feed back stick. Save your money for a good HOTAS settup.

 

As for your multiplayer questions, I think the link below covers everything.

http://forum.lockon.ru/showthread.php?t=7597

 

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/ubb.x/a/tpc/f/38610606/m/3811046082

 

Any more questions after all that. Just ask.

 

Also you can visit here. The other half of the Lockon community hang out here:

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/ubb.x?a=frm&s=400102&f=99610606

 

But we all plan to migrate to the .ru fourms eventually

[Jester_159th]

If you're looking for team tactics and a good level of comms, once you've mastered the basics to your own satisfaction, I would strongly suggest you join a squad.

 

Hyperlobby is definately the place to find some quick multiplayer action (and some good co-op missions as well). One word of warning about Hyperlobby though...especially the dogfight servers.....be prepared to get shot down...a lot!! There are a lot of extremely good flyers out there. Don't let this make you too frustrated though....Your day will come!

 

AFAIK quite a few squads have their own private (direct IP connection) servers. Personally I prefer this, working with and getting to know a group of individuals, perfecting tactics etc I find very satisfying.

 

So you have quite a few options open to you. The other thing you'll find is that within a squad there is always someone that can help you out with any problems you might have. It is also without a doubt the quickest way to learn the more intricate arts such as evasion and keeping a lock etc.

 

Also, this is a very helpful community. We were all new to this at some stage...And most of us remember that...most of the time!! ;)

[kawi_ninja]

Damn I am glad I found this place. Thanks for all the info... I will definately read all those, it'll be a couple weeks before I start playing as I have some stuff to take care of thats important.

 

I was a little enthusiastic after I found FS2004 and its online ability especially with VATSIM. But I was not too enthusiastic about flying buses in the sky. :p :D And most of those guys are actually pilots.

 

So I am completely excited about online Lock on encounters, hope to see you guys in the skies. thanks again.

 

newb

I'll ask if I have anymore questions... :D

[kawi_ninja]

ok, one important question about resolution, vid card, system etc.

 

I have 2.6 ghz, P4 dell with a Nvidia 5200 GX. Is this a good enough card? What is FPS and does having a good monitor matter in how well the game graphics are? Possible link explaining all the relations between these factors for games?

 

EDIT: I only have 512 mbs of ram and I bought this computer only last year lol. I guess it makes sense to build rather than buy factory made, if you're going with a high end gaming machine. ie cost wise.

[Jester_159th]

You'll have to reduce your graphics settings to get anything near decent frame rates. 1024MB of RAM is pretty standard round here, also you're probably going to find that you'll be wanting to upgrade your graphics card. I had performance problems with a 5600XT and eventually upgraded to an ATI 9800Pro. I'm personally running a P4 2.4gig CPU and don't have too many problems now, although LOMAC is a very CPU intensive sim.

 

I would like to upgrade my system at some stage though since I still find that when things get busy I suffer some very noticable slowdowns. I'm not up-to-date on PC hardware though, so can't really help you out too much there.

[Cobra360]

If you can, replace the FX5200 ASAP. A great card to buy now is the ATi 9800pro, they are really cheap now but the performance you get for the price is very good. It will almost double your fps in Lockon compared to the FX5200.

 

The 9800pro costs around E140 or £90. If you want to spend a bit more, the 6600GT is a good choice. No point in getting a faster card than that as your 2.6Ghz P4 will hold it back.

 

Another 512 RAM will help in a big way too.

 

FPS= frames per second. This is how many times per second your computer can generate the next image in the game. Very low FPS, like 5 or 10 FPS can look like a series of still screenshots of the game, not good for flying at all. You want to be getting 35-40FPS minimum to play well.

 

A good moniter able to handle a resolution of 1024x768 or higher is all you need. The game will look the same, moniters do not effect graphics at all. Only what resolution you can play the game at and that depends on your graphics card aswell.

 

Lockon is a bit of a system hog. It will use the all the power of the fastest PCs out there and still manage to suffer from a FPS drop at times.

 

A good way to benchmark your system and compare it to others is to go to.

http://www.futuremark.com and download 3D Mark 03 with the latest patch and run it to benchmark your system. You can then compare it to others online.

 

While you are waiting to buy the game you can download the demo of Lockon here

http://www.lo-mac.com/index.php

Click on the picture of the MiG-29 in the right of the screen with the flashing green writing saying download the Lockon demo now.

[kawi_ninja]

Ok, first of all, Cobra thanks for all that info.

 

I downloaded 3DMark03 from futuremark and ran the tests. I got a pathetic score of 892. On all games except one I had only 2-3 FPS lol (I guess these have very high details etc.). The first one (Wings of fury) I had a good 30 FPS consistently.

 

This program also gave me some additional system information that I earlier had wrong:

 

CPU:

Family Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 2.80GHz

Architecture 32-bit

Internal Clock 2.8 GHz

533.0 MHz

 

Memory: x2

Installed Enabled Size 256 MB

Form Factor DIMM

Frequency 333.0 MHz

 

Vid Card:

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200

 

Ok, so now both of you and others have recommended the ATI Radeon 128 MB Pro card and an addon of another 512 MB RAM stick.

 

1. Would you change your recommendation now that I know its 2.8 ghz and not 2.6 ghz?

 

2. I searched Newegg for this card, and it came up with atleast five or more Radeon 9800s but which one am i supposed to pick? what are the differences?

NewEgg Link

 

3. This is expensive for me (as my whole computer itself only cost $700), so I need to know if this will last me atleast another 1.5 years of gaming... keeping in mind that upgrades of Lock On and other games might be out.

 

Thanks to all those who are helping me out. :)

 

Kawasaki_Ninja

 

P.S. I am having fun destroying that mirage on the demo!... again and again

[VapoR]

P.S. I am having fun destroying that mirage on the demo!... again and again

 

You should download the demo of Flaming Cliffs from lockon.ru!! The demo with the MiG-29 in it is the first demo done for Lock-on, and it is VERY outdated. It is from beta code from before version 1.0 was released. The new demo features the Su-25 (with the AFM advanced flight model), the A-10, and a couple of really good voice-over training tracks done by Ironhand.

 

As for the video card questions go, maybe someone a bit more knowledgeable will help you out.

[51GRIZZLY]

Well Kawi ... Looking at your link all the cards showing there are more or less the same ( the passive cooled are partly more expensive then the fan cooled ones)

So if i were you i would take the cheapest.

 

Most of them are made by sapphire ( good card ) and the pricetag of around 120 - 130 is ok.

 

The card from Powercolor looks ok too its got many good reviews Though the mem clock is a little slower.

 

I don't have any experience with refurbished cards but if you are up to it you could give it a try and get a really good card for a song and a dance. :)

[Cobra360]

SAPPHIRE 100557-RD Radeon 9800PRO 256MB DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card - OEM

 

This one is the best of the bunch IMO. The extra texture RAM on the card will help with the big textures used in Lockon. I used to own the exact same make and model and it performed very well in my old system which had a XP-2600.

 

I would be cautious of refurbished cards. I can't say I've had experience with one myself but I'd feel better knowing my card was brand new.

 

Don't bother with the All in wonder cards. Too many extras that you don't need.

[kawi_ninja]

What memory card do you recommend? The cheapest I could find was a kingston... is there anything else thta is more value/cost effective?

 

Also another thing is, what kind of FPS did you get in Lock-On with that kind of Radeon card? I hope this setup lasts me another year atleast...

 

 

thanks

[Cobra360]

Your system uses DDR333/PC2700, yes? You posted it one the other fourm. Kingston is good and so is Corsair. Make sure the RAM you buy runs at the same speed as the RAM you already have.

 

It got 30-65FPS with my old settup. It depends on how busy the game got and if you are flying low over a city for example. Now with my new system I get 60-85fps, sometimes it can spike up to 120-150fps when I look at just sky. Thats with a 6800GT and A64 3200+, 1Gig RAM settup.

[kawi_ninja]

Your system uses DDR333/PC2700, yes? You posted it one the other fourm. Kingston is good and so is Corsair. Make sure the RAM you buy runs at the same speed as the RAM you already have.

yeah i think so, sorry I am the least knowlegable when it comes to computer hardware... but this is what it says on my system:

Memory Slot 1/4

Installed Enabled Size 256 MB

Form Factor DIMM

Frequency 333.0 MHz

Slot CHANNEL A DIMM 0

Manufacturer <unknown>

Type 3DRAM

Type Details

Enabled Size 256 MB

Total Bit Width 64 b

Data Bit Width 0 b

 

It got 30-65FPS with my old settup. It depends on how busy the game got and if you are flying low over a city for example. Now with my new system I get 60-85fps, sometimes it can spike up to 120-150fps when I look at just sky. Thats with a 6800GT and A64 3200+, 1Gig RAM settup.

 

30-65 FPS is not bad... :) What were your graphics settings at? medium or medium-high?

 

I'll most likely order this thing today.

thanks again

[Cobra360]

They were at medium-high settings at 1024x768 resolution 4xAA and 8xAF they are advanced features which you can adjust in your graphic card settings.

 

Your system appears to have two RAM sticks of 256MB giving you a total of 512MB. If your motherboard has an extra free RAM slot which it should you will have your 1Gig of RAM. When you order your RAM, make sure it says it runs at 333mhz. It will say either DDR333 or PC2700 or both. They are the same thing.

[Cobra360]

It's not an ideal way to have your RAM set up like that. Having 3 sticks of different sizes, but it doesn't really matter. It will work all the same.

 

The ideal way to set up DDR RAM is to have two sticks of the same size and speed for max perforance. You could always order 2 512 sticks and sell your 2 256 sticks. But it's more for hard core upgraders who want to get the most from their systems. But thats the way to do it if you want.

[kawi_ninja]

It's not an ideal way to have your RAM set up like that. Having 3 sticks of different sizes, but it doesn't really matter. It will work all the same.

 

The ideal way to set up DDR RAM is to have two sticks of the same size and speed for max perforance. You could always order 2 512 sticks and sell your 2 256 sticks. But it's more for hard core upgraders who want to get the most from their systems. But thats the way to do it if you want.

 

i see, well I have two more slots open on the mobo (I think). So would 2x 256 DDRs be better than 1 512 DDR ? So that way, I'll have 4x 256 RAM DDR Sticks.

 

EDIT: Also, an important question... I have installed some small equipment in my computer before... like the firewire card, sound card etc. I hope this is not much different from that... (including the vid card?).

[Cobra360]

DDR works best when dual channel can be used. As far as I know this can only be done with 2 sticks of identical RAM as mentioned above. I'm not sure how it would handle 4.

 

Is there a gap between the 2 RAM slots and the other 2. If this is the case, keep the 2 256s together. Put the 512 by itself and pair it up with another 512 when you can.

 

Thats why the mobo is layed out like that, if it is on yours. As for getting 2 256 sticks instead of 1 512 and ending up with 4 256 sticks, I don't know. Thats your call.

 

If I were you I'd get the 512 stick now and get another later. That way you would have 1.5Gigs of RAM in a 2 dual channel settup.

 

I'm not to familiar with P4 boards. I have had AMD processors in all my PCs. They all had 3 RAM slots and I always left the third empty. Just used 2 identical sticks in all my PCs.

 

Maybe an experienced P4 user can give you a deffinate answer.

[kawi_ninja]

thanks for your help Cobra360!