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Play Order, Getting Started and Getting In


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Hi guys,

 

Got LOMAC recently, and busy going through the training in the order they are presented. My questions is though, what comes after that?

 

Should I go straight into campaign, or should I do the individual missions first, or perhaps the battle planner? Also any recommendations of which campaigns to do first, i.e. easiest to toughest or are they all roughly equal? Ditto for the missions.

 

Basically I'm just asking for recommended play order, where do I start and where do I go. I don't want my first mission to throw me in the deep end before I've even practiced evading a missile.

 

So far the training tracks have been going ok, but I wish they were more hands-on rather than like watching a video. Would be nice if they were broken down into smaller parts or steps and we could jump back and forth.

 

Anyway, seems some stuff seem to be lacking in the training. Like no training for MiG or Su-33 (and carrier take-offs/landings) don't suppose anyone has created training tracks for these?

 

I'd also appreciate it if anyone could point me in the right direction to getting some extra tutorials and guides (not necessarily in-game).

 

Can someone also explain the Pilot Logbook for me as well, at the moment it is a mystery, what's it there for?

 

Sorry for the long post, I appreciate any help :icon_pidu

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Hi guys,

 

Got LOMAC recently, and busy going through the training in the order they are presented. My questions is though, what comes after that?

 

Should I go straight into campaign, or should I do the individual missions first, or perhaps the battle planner? Also any recommendations of which campaigns to do first, i.e. easiest to toughest or are they all roughly equal? Ditto for the missions.

 

Basically I'm just asking for recommended play order, where do I start and where do I go. I don't want my first mission to throw me in the deep end before I've even practiced evading a missile.

 

So far the training tracks have been going ok, but I wish they were more hands-on rather than like watching a video. Would be nice if they were broken down into smaller parts or steps and we could jump back and forth.

 

Anyway, seems some stuff seem to be lacking in the training. Like no training for MiG or Su-33 (and carrier take-offs/landings) don't suppose anyone has created training tracks for these?

 

I'd also appreciate it if anyone could point me in the right direction to getting some extra tutorials and guides (not necessarily in-game).

 

Can someone also explain the Pilot Logbook for me as well, at the moment it is a mystery, what's it there for?

 

Sorry for the long post, I appreciate any help :icon_pidu

 

I think I would advise you to get hyperlobby and split your time flying in multiplayer as well as offline. Depending on what's happening in the online mission you'll get some help there too. Some guys will open a mission with you right on the spot for training. Also, I understand that http://www.flankertraining.com has good tracks to watch/ use. Point being- you'll be able to find a wide variety of skills to train on, as well as real people to ask questions of. You might want to pick up TeamSpeak before getting online to fly. http://www.freewebs.com/konkussion/downloadsfeedback.htm

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Thanks so far.

 

Seems http://www.flankertraining.com is under construction, but I did come across

http://flankertraining.com/ironhand/news.html which works and I am assuming is the same site?

 

As for online, I live in South Africa, so my ping/lag to most non-local servers is terrible, but once I have some more experience with the game I'll join a local squadron and hopefully grow from there.

 

My main concern though is offline, basically should I jump into the campaigns or first do the single missions. Also, which campaigns should be done first or doesn't it matter.

 

BuzzU, thanks, didn't know that. Still have to get to Top Gun, thought that was general techniques for all the jets.

 

Thanks guys.

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What I did was focus on just one aircraft at first. After I went through the training, I chose the "FLY" mission from the main screen for that aircraft and practiced there until I got comfortable controlling everything. Once I did that, I started doing the campaigns. For me, I started off with the A-10 and it turned out to be an easy aircraft to learn and the flying is at a slower pace.

I didn't even bother with multiplayer until I had completed the campaigns.

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Depends what you want to do. I found the easiest to practise say targeting is to take control of the trainign missions. One of the main problems with those if though if you say fly the su-27 or f-16 in the trainign mission none of the other planes use chaff/flares so it makes it idiot proof to hit things. Then when you move onto the campaign its gonan get ugly.

 

Personally i liked the campaigns other then the fact that all stock campaigns where way to short (around 7 missions), just DO NOT play the Flaming cliff campaigns first i found all of them except the su-25t campaign very very unbalanced, Su-25t campaign rules though.

 

Dunno why would love to see someone beat all 30 missions in both the Su-27 and mig-29 campaign. Kinda doubt it was actually done or else i would of expected some sort of balancing to go into those.

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Hehe, few things I didn't know when trying to take control of the training. Autopilot and Altitude Hold. Didn't know about these, so tried to take control and things just didn't work. Wouldn't pitch up or down, then when I pushed up all the way the plane jerked around. Till I finally discovered what "H" does. The training mission had enabled altitude hold, but I didn't know about it and trying to control things just wouldn't work properly.

 

Gazehound, yeah, the Su-25 does look like a tough jet since it lacks most of the "refinements". Perhaps I'll leave it for later, thought it might be easier though than the fighters.

 

Cheers.

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Many folks (myself included) recommend starting with the A-10 and blowing some stuff up as it is a reasonably forgiving a/c to fly. Here is a cut&paste of an a2g advice i did ina post a while ago, hope it helps....

 

 

Air to Ground n00b advice.

 

Spotting / engaging ground targets, do it one step at a time. It is tough enough at the beginning just getting used to flying the aircraft and using its systems.

 

The first thing to realise is that in real life you would be given an approximate area in which the targets are located of a few square miles, with boundary lines to keep you away from other friendly forces (eg. keep West of the river, North of the railway,etc).

 

Use the Mission Editor to make one or two training missions of your own. I usually set a waypoint near the target,eg about 5nm away.

 

I suggest starting with labels on, get used to attacking stationary targets (eg. a BTR-70 or two, they'll shoot back and keep you interested).

Then try moving targets on a road. Try attacks along the road from behind, from in front, then at 90 degrees to the road. Don't use Mk20 cluster weapons (too easy), get the feel for how much to aim ahead with guns,rockets,Mk82's. For fun, try a jeep going absolute full speed down a windy road, not as easy as you think!

 

Before you try "labels off" on same targets, just stooge around the map for an hour or two, try following a railway or road and attacking a bridge or the stationary wagons at a train station. Develop the skill of finding the target and finding it again for a 2nd pass.

 

Look for distinguishing landmarks - a TV mast, smoking chimney, road junction, bridge, etc. Use your compass and figure out in your head a rough direction and distance of your target from the landmark (eg. 1km South of the chimney, or maybe the second wheatfield West of the railway bridge, etc). If the defenses permit, before you roll into the first pass, try to take a moment to build a picture in your head of what the target and its surroundings look like. This will help you find the targets for your 2nd pass, remember there are no prizes for doing the mission as fast as you can.

 

Take note of your compass heading as you attack, helps you figure out which heading you need to get back to the target for the 2nd pass. If you attack from an easy direction 90 degrees, 180 degrees, 270 degrees, etc, then it is easier to do the Math in your head to figure out your course to return to the target.

 

Instead of a horizontal turn, try reversing your course vertically - either climb to a safe altitude to be able to do a Split-S back toward the target, or gain enough speed and pull up into an Immelman. Turning vertically can help ensure you don't lose the target by ending up on a course parallel to the original that is a mile or two to the side.

 

 

Simulate special forces laser designator assistance.

Next try "ground labels off" (press SHIFT-F9) but with a vehicle group designated as a target in the mission so you get the diamond marker on your HUD.

 

Simulate FAC assistance.

Next again "labels off", try a stationary vehicle group not set as a target in the mission for your plane. Instead have an AI A-10 with one pod only of LAU-61WP smoke rockets. Give it an attack waypoint with the group as its target, designate the attack as rockets (else it will destroy them itself with its gun). Now it will mark the target for you with smoke, you'll have about 5 mins to find the smoke. This simulates a FAC marking a target for you with WP smoke and calling you in by radio for the attack. The smoke doesn't have to be dead accurate, you could have it aimed at a co-ord rather than the group. If it is eg. 100m North-East of target, then you have more figuring out to do in your head to line up your attack.

 

 

Next set a few vehicles going cross country (so they throw up some dust). Try and find them by looking for the dust.

 

 

Next set up a few SAU's firing at some target. Make the group consist of different types of gun(so they fire at differing times) Try to find them by spotting the puffs of smoke as they fire. Experiment with dusk/dawn, they can be a bit easier to see then. You could add in a Smersh or a Grad if you want They make much more smoke but only fire for 40sec / 20sec respectively and have a reload time of 15 mins or so. You'll need to switch weapon labels off (SHIFT-F6) or you'll see where the rockets are being fired from.

 

 

If that isn't hard enough, practise killing that one last truck with guns/rockets after you've taken damage and lost the HUD. Set 100% HUD failure. Try to guess a dive angle that looks about right, range that looks right and give it a go.

 

Repeat all above in poor conditions eg. first / last light, in thunderstorm / snowstorm or at night with illumination flares, etc, etc.....

 

 

A skill you should try to acquire is to recognise AA threats in your Mav TV screen. I suggest setting a snapview to make TV as big as possible to help. Look at outlines of threats like Shilka,Strela,Osa in the Encyclopedia. Put one in a mission and lock it up with both types of Mav. Learn to recognise the distinguishing features, eg Shilka - radar dish sticks up and is lighter colour,chassis looks lower and "fatter" than other vehicles. Now hide an AA threat in middle of a convoy. Lock a Mav on front of convoy, do a quick check of each vehicles outline, count down till you find the AA threat (eg. 3rd vehicle) break off (cos' you're probably getting danger close! ) circle and reengage the threat.

 

 

Automatic multiple bomb release or "ripple".

 

Why do ground attack aircraft like the A-10 have an automatic system to drop a ripple of bombs, why not just let the pilot press the weapon release several times? To answer this question, you need to think about a real life target attack.

 

A single dumb bomb dropped from an aircraft does not drop perfectly down onto the target every time. It may drift left or right of the track that the aircraft is flying and miss the target. If the bomb is dropped a little early or a little late then it will miss short or long. The likelyhood of missing short or long is more than missing left/right.

 

Imagine an aircraft flying at 500 kts = 6078ft * 500 = 3039000 ft/hr. Divide by 60*60 gives ft/sec = approx 850.

If the pilot initiates bomb release 0.5s early or late he will likely miss by over 400ft.

 

So lets make our bomb "longer" by dropping a ripple of (eg) five bombs. If we know the lethal radius of the bomb blast is eg. 50ft, then if we drop them 100 feet apart, we have now a "longer bomb" with a lethal area of 100ft wide by 500ft long.

If we aim to land the middle (3rd) bomb of the stick of 5 on the target, then we have 250ft of leeway short and long and still destroy the target.

This deals effectively with the short / long problem, but we still might miss left / right.

If we are attacking a small point target like a jeep, then nothing we can do, but if our target is of significant dimensions like a bridge, we can increase our hit chances.

 

Suppose our bridge is 500 feet long and 50 feet wide. If we attack along the length of the bridge we might be lucky and all 5 bombs hit, or we might be unlucky and all miss left or right.

If we attack at 90 degress to the bridge then our bomb to bomb gap is 100 ft and the bridge 50ft wide, 50/50 chance of a hit.

If we attack at an angle of 30 degrees, the bridge "appears" to be 100ft wide and we are certain one bomb will hit provided we can put the ripple on target regarding short/long.

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]

Sorry Death, you lose! It was Professor Plum....

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Hi,

 

Thanks for the post, quite informative.

I've tried searching for "advice" and "newbie" posts, but it is often difficult to know what to search for and to find them.

 

Thanks for the help, I'm sure it'll help plenty of us n00bs :)

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Fighting to Survive

 

Operating in the battlefield there are some things we can do as pilots to ensure our survival and fight to win. Heres a technique I employ to survive and effectively destroy ground threats first with standoff weaponry.

 

Phase 1 Identifying the threat

Ok, in this group of vehicles there is a SAM site. I intend to take it out first with Maverick and then move in and deal with the rest with CBU97s.

 

ScreenShot_328.jpg

 

This is my objective here, as you can see I'm flying safely away from the threat until I can pinpoint the SAM in this group of vehicles.

 

ScreenShot_331.jpg

 

So in particular this unit here(by using either the wheel on my mouse as a zoom or clicking on the + button and zooming into this picture manually). On taking a closer look hes on the bottom of this group on the left side. Ground reference points can also be seen here in particular the river and town. Right lets ingress and take em out!

 

ScreenShot_330.jpg

 

Phase 2 Visually locating the Target group

Here they are here, I can see the sun reflecting off the vehicles which is represented in lockon by that black dot flashing on and off. Thats what we are looking for, what cannot be seen in this picture is that the whole group of vehicles is doing this!

 

ScreenShot_333.jpg

 

Phase 3 Engaging the Target

Ok, I see them visually so I know exactly where to point the mavericks seeker to lockup the SAM. I look for the bottom row, left side IR signature. Zoom the display and lock him up. "RIFLE" Maverick away!

{note- in the hud the black dots can be seen more clearly to the right of the locked target}

 

ScreenShot_334.jpg

 

Phase 4 Flying Away from the Threat

Beacuse the Maverick is fire and forget I break away and head safely south until the impact of the Mav. Of course the missile hits the right target and I move in and use cannon/CBUs to finish that group saving the MAVs for SAMs and AAA. You can also after heading away from the target check the map and verify that SAM is destroyed.

[sIGPIC]2011subsRADM.jpg

[/sIGPIC]

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Well on some online missions they do allow the objects to be seen on the map. In real life you would get information like this from jstars. So it isn't too unrealistic, some servers hide all objects or some of the objects while allowing others to be seen. So your goal might be to attack a convoy but the SAMs in that area might be hidden so you have to find them. This would be most realistic because not all enemy units would show up on jstars and tactical recons+information from sf and ground units. There is a fog of war in real life so you don't know where all the bad guys are. The most annoying missions are the ones that provide too little information without realistic goals or a proper indication of what threats to expect but then its upto the creator of the mission and you can always make your own.

[sIGPIC]2011subsRADM.jpg

[/sIGPIC]

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