Dogfights: Season 1
If combat flight simulators are your thing, or you just like stories or movies about aerial combat, and you are a Netflix subscriber, and you have broadband and can watch "instant" streaming movies, may I recommend:

Dogfights: Season 1

Assuming that link works. If not, watch for it on the History Channel. I have seen three episodes so far, and they have all been a lot of fun. My only big beef with them so far is that the otherwise excellent CGI recreation of dogfights had a flaw that drove me nuts: The F-4 Phantoms didn't trail smoke from their engines. That's kind of an F-4 trademark. How'd they let that get through?

Another comment: Am I just turning into an old fart, finding shows on TLC, Discovery, and the History Channel to be far more interesting than 95% of the "entertainment" provided by network television?

Labels: Flight Sims

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 12:32 AM (Permalink) 6 comments links to this post

 
Where Have the Flight Sims Gone?
Last night, I watched the movie, "Flyboys," on DVD. It was a pretty typical war-movie, with a few twists on the otherwise usual formula. The air-combat scenes were pretty spectacular, taking advantage of modern CGI to create some pretty incredible fight scenes. And lots of them. I heartily recommend it to flight sim buffs.

The film centered around a group of pilots in the Lafayette Escadrille, a French air squadron composed of mainly American volunteers. The movie itself takes incredible liberties with history, having the characters fly planes (and fly against planes) that were not in combat at the time, and perform maneuvers those early fighters simply could not perform. But hey - it was very fun, and I enjoyed it (though my wife laughed at me as I groused audibly during the first combat scene about how the Fokker triplanes they were fighting didn't even EXIST at that time...)

Naturally, after seeing a movie like that, it made me want to hop into the virtual cockpit of a flight sim. And I immediately thought about how really dang scarce they are these days. Almost as rare as Fokker triplanes in 1916...

A few days ago, I re-discovered a more-than-a-decade-old copy of an issue of Computer Gaming World magazine, which had a dedicated flight simulation section, and a commentary on how Apache helicopter sims were popping up all over from various publishers at the time. My thought was, "Dang, I only wish that was still the case."

I miss flight sims. They were once a staple of computer gaming, and even drove hardware sales. They pushed the graphical and realism bar to new levels. Falcon 3 probably helped sell CPU's with math-coprocessors, as they allowed an even more realistic flight model based on a declassified version of an actual military sim project to be used. There was a thriving (but competitive) business for controllers that provided a more "realistic" throttle / stick / rudder experience for the flight sim crowd.

The hype surrounding the "stealth fighter" - once dubbed the F-19 by toymakers and later revealed as the Air Force's F-117 - translated to tremendous sales for a Microprose game of the same subject matter. Editors jokingly betted on how many flight sims covering a specific aircraft or subgenre would be published in a year. The next release of a particular flight sim franchise was an event.

And then, like the California Gold Rush, it all disappeared. Not quite overnight, but certainly quickly. By about 2002 or so, one of the most popular genres in computer gaming had almost entirely disappeared, fading from view alongside graphic adventure games and wargames and those really atrocious "FMV Games." Nowadays, aside from Microsoft Flight Simulator - a civilian aircraft simulator - what sims that to get released are more often of a trickle of releases from Eastern Europe that are as likely to be sold as direct downloads rather than ever appearing on store shelves.

Unfortunately, this is a genre where I really don't expect the indies to step in and fill the void like they have with adventure games and wargames. For one thing, there are technical and content requirements for a flight sim to even be competitive with anything done in the last decade which would be daunting for an "indie" team. But even more challenging is my personal viewpoint that there really isn't a whole lot further to take the genre.

I mean, really --- aside from improving the multiplayer experience and just getting better graphics --- where does the genre have left to go? I mean, even if I were given some incredible budget with a mandate to make the build the next World War II uber-sim that leaves IL2 Strmovik: 1946 in the dust, I'm really not sure what I could do with it.

Did flight sims hit their peak because they have have hit an evolutionary brick wall already? Would a lateral shift of some kind be enough to bring them off the back-burner of gaming?

Labels: Flight Sims

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 4:40 PM (Permalink) 16 comments links to this post

 
The "Cool Cam"
You may recall the story I posted many moons ago about the "Cool Cam" in European Air War, and how that presentation saved the project. It's now gotten the "Worse Than Failure" treatment.

The Cool Cam

It's cool that the whole "presentation is reality" could be used for a force for good instead of evil once in a while. On the other hand... boy it gets annoying sometimes that it's all about the shiny.

Labels: Flight Sims, productivity, retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:53 PM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Talk Like A Fighter Pilot!
I don't know why I have this fascination with the sub-cultures that evolve around specific games or genres, but that sort of thing really does intrigue me. I did a little post several months ago about the jargon that has evolved in City of Heroes (and MMOs in particular). I stumbled across a post a couple of days ago about the latest version of Falcon 4.0, and I was very amused that I actually understood almost all of it.

While City of Heroes jargon was partly derived from other MMOs and partly original, much of the jargon in Falcon 4.0 discussions is based on real-world terminology. Flight simmers are an interesting bunch - part of the fun for many of them is to preserve the illusion of reality, and to immerse themselves into the role. You'll find arguments over "realism" settings, not because of the challenge factor, but because one setting or another is closer to matching what pilots really go / went through. I wouldn't be surprised to find that most of these instructions are entirely applicable to real-world combat pilots.

This thread, started by Ghostrider117, is a discussion of how to best defeat the R-77 Medium-Range Missile (AKA AA-12 Adder).

1: ECM on to deny bandit an early lock
2: Get high and fast, 30,000 feet plus to extend AIM-120 Rmax 500+ Kts
3: If bandit is jamming (no radar brick) you have to burn through the jammer, use RWS with reduced barscans to 2 bars. If he's not jamming use TWS mode instead.
4: Achieve radar lock and fire just inside of Rmax
5: Crank right or left and put bandit at the edge of your radar gimbles
6: Reduce speed (Very important as this delays his launch Rmax)
7: Watch target aspect and your RWR spike and your WEZ circle
8: If bandit has turned away to defeat the AIM-120 long shot, turn back into him and push the fight. You know if he has turned away as the RWR will not show a spike, and your missile WEZ will shrink.
9: If bandit has fired you have two choices, but turn ECM off to deny HOJ

[a] (Aggressive) Keep him on the edge of radar gimbles untill your AIM-120 goes
pitbull, then slice back and run, full AB, put the RWR spike on your six. Go downhill full AB, but if the RWR continues to show the M symbol, prepare to climb and then
beam the R-77 as it runs out of energy.

[b] (Defensive) Slice back and run before pitbull, he might leave his ECM on and your slammer will go HOJ while you will outrun the R-77

I've had the AI do aggressive BVR tactics and defensive as well. Perhaps the most
challenging is the fight were the bandit turns away to defeat an AIM-120 long shot, and as you push the fight, and get a medium range AIM-120 shot, he turns into you and fires an R-77 at you. I found that a split S right at slammer pitbull with full AB dive can shake the R-77 as the Mig is often destroyed.

I tried playing the new version of Falcon 4.0 a couple of weeks ago. I was amazed at how much I'd forgotten. I was actually pretty good at the earlier version at one point. If you really want to take a crack at deciphering the the above instructions, here are a few hints:

Pitbull (A-Pole): The point at which your missile is no longer slaved to your plane's radar system, but instead uses its own radar system. Before your missile goes pitbull, if you make evasive maneuvers, your missile will "go ballistic" (unguided).

BVR: Beyond Visual Range. Where medium- and long-ranged missile combat takes place. If I were to make anything truly resembling "realistic" combat in a Void War sequel (and no, I won't), it'd be all BVR combat. You'd fire your missile, take evasive action... and then wait a few days to see if you hit and if you are going to be hit. (Of course, if you are hit, you won't know about if your opponent was ever hit due to the whole speed-of-light transport delay thing...)

ECM: Electronic Counter Measures. Jamming the enemy radar.

RWR: Radar Warning Receiver. A fun little device that shows you where and how strong you are being tracked by radar. It'll also show what kind of radar is tracking you (which you can also determine audibly, as the system will convert the radio signal to an audio waveform - just like a radio). A "spike" on the RWR is a visual indicator of something "painting" you. The trick with the RWR is that it can show strength, type, and direction, but it is incapable of determining the radar system's distance from you.

Split S: A maneuver where you dive, and then come out of your dive in a different direction than when you began the maneuver. The usefulness of this against missiles at closer range is that the missile will have exhausted its fuel, and is now gliding towards you. Aggressive maneuvering causes the missile to waste energy which it is incapable of getting back.


Okay - your turn. What favorite games do you have that have their own jargon? What sort of terms and expressions have emerged?


(Vaguely) related use of confusing terminology:
* City of Heroes Jargon
* Game Moments #2: Falcon 4.0
* Wanna Learn To be A Fighter Pilot?
* Game Moments #11: Falcon 4.0 (again)
* Guest Game Moments: Falcon 4.0
* How I Single-Handedly Lost the Pacific War


Comments On The Forums

Labels: Flight Sims, Mainstream Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:00 PM (Permalink) links to this post

 
How I Single-Handedly Lost the Pacific War
The big new game release that I had to direct order because local stores don't bother with PC games anymore was IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946. If the name is a little bit unwieldy, it is only because the game itself is pretty much a poster child for "Hardcore Gaming."

The IL-2 Sturmovik series (of which this latest edition is something of a "platinum pack") has been THE game for people who want to experience every nuance of being in the cockpit of a World War II military aircraft, short of feeling real G-forces or real bullets. Of Russian design, this game models over 300 aircraft with painstaking accuracy, including 229 player-flyable aircraft. With only a handful of exceptions (mainly because certain companies have decided that millions in taxpayer money wasn't enough - they want licensing fees for representation of 60-year-old aircraft), if it was a combat aircraft in World War II, it's in the game, and you can probably fly it.

Or try to.

Now, that's not necessarily 229 totally unique aircraft that you can fly. There's somewhere around 75 unique aircraft, plus tons of variants. Now, a variant might not seem like a big deal. But to WWII aviation enthusiasts (or an IL-2 Sturmovik player), there's a HUGE difference between a 1940-model Bf-109E/4 fighter, and a Bf-109G/14 that entered service four years later. It certainly seems huge when you are in a twisting, turning dogfight with a Spitfire, at least (to be exact... a Spitfire Mk VIII from 1943)...

Did I mention "Hardcore?" Things like engine temperature and fuel-oil mixtures, and whether or not your fuel is gravity-fed or has a fuel pump (so your engine doesn't conk out in a negative-G maneuver) are just as important as how much ammunition is left for your guns. Of course, you can simplify most of the realism settings in a menu down to arcade-game levels. But somehow I don't think the availability of simplified settings is really going to make this game appeal to a less-hardcore crowd.

A Method To The Madness?
As I understand it, the IL-2 series began life as a very detailed study of only one aircraft - the Ilyushin IL-2 Sturmovik. If you haven't heard of it, it's probably because you aren't a Russian military aviation buff. To its credit, it's the most heavily produced military aircraft in all of aviation history - and the second most-produced plane (civilian or military) of all time. Apparently, after the designers spent all this time making one of the most sophisticated combat flight simulators in history, they realized that:

(A) That it would be (relatively) easy to make other aircraft in the game flyable by players with just as much fidelity, and...

(B) They'd BETTER throw in some flyable planes that U.S. players had actually heard of if they wanted it to sell outside of eastern Europe.

The first game was a hit, and they followed up with two sequels (Forgotten Battles, and - catering to the American audience - Pacific Fighters), and two expansions (the Aces Expansion, and an online-distributed "single-plane" study of the PE-2... another plane we American flight sim buffs have often never heard of). Then they wrapped it all up with the new 1946 package, which includes everything heretofore released, plus an additional campaign in Asia (Sturmoviks Over Manchuria), and some aircraft that didn't make it into production before the end of hostilities (for a hypothetical continuation of the war into 1946).

Let's Play War!
And with stable network code that supports up to 64 players in a single dogfight... with virtually any aircraft in World War II (plus tanks, buildings, ships, AAA artillery, trucks, trains, and all those other good targets), I figured I was in for a real treat. You could jump online with 64 of your closest friends and simulate an entire battle! Well, kinda.

I'd dabbled in multiplayer many winters ago with Forgotten Battles, and thought I'd done okay. But I haven't played since, and I've only been playing the series off and on since then. I get hooked on it for a week or two, and then quit. But this weekend, after spending several weeks playing and learning how easy it is to get the P-39 Airacobra into a flat spin (which, apparently, was a problem it had in real life --- go figure!) and practicing with several planes against all kinds of AI (all set to "average" skill level), I thought I'd "kick the tires and light the fires" and see how hardcore World War II reenactment was going online.

There were around 200 players on several different servers, when I logged in to Hyperlobby to check things out. I found a server with a lot of players on it, and decided to see what World War II in the air was like. The battle was taking place somewhere over the Coral Sea. I was ready. I joined the "Red" team. I'd be facing the "Blue" team. You know, color coding is so much easier to keep track of than Axis vs. Allies. I spent some time reading over the rules of fair play. After all, this is simulated World War II, which should be much more fun than the real thing.

The battle was purely a case of attrition. Each side began with so many planes available for use. Every time a plane was destroyed, the total plane count would drop. Once you hit zero, your side lost, and the opposing team would win. And, I assume, it would start all over again. It seemed both sides had quite a few planes left, so the battle would last a while yet.

Or at least, it WOULD have lasted a while, had I not shown up!

Many aircraft were available to me to use to defend my beloved homeland of Red. There were planes of all kinds of nationalities, from an American B-25 bomber to a British Spitfire, to a Russian FW-190, some Russian aircraft, and... ah-hah! A late-model P-47 (one with the bubble canopy, for improved visibility). I chose it without a second thought. It's my favorite WWII fighter!

Soon I was up and flying! Well, no, that's not exactly right. Here's what really happened.

Losing The War In Eight Easy Steps
Plane #1: I was in the cockpit, and started my engine. I looked around to find out where the runway is. I catch a glimpse of several aircraft up in the sky. I should be safe - the official rule on the board was that you could not destroy a plane on the ground. Unless you were a bomber.

As my plane began moving, I saw the aircraft zoom overhead. Hey, was that a B-25 bomber? For the opposing team?

BOOM! I blow up, plus one other player unfortunate enough to get caught in the rain of explosives.

Plane #2: Okay. This time I'd move faster. I'd not wait around to take in the scenery. I immediately start the engine, throttle up, taxi around... right into the respawning aircraft of another player. BOOM! Both our aircraft have exploded. Okay, I've now hurt my beloved mother country of Red by THREE planes in only two tries.

Plane #3: This time, I turn and taxi to the LEFT instead of the right. Unfortunately, this time the other player respawns to my left. My wing hits his propeller and.... THWAP THWAP KAPOW *REND*. Another two planes wiped out and depleted from Red's score. I really suck.

Plane #4: I've had enough of this. These aircraft could take off on a level field if need be, so I try that. I'm gonna skip the runway entirely. I almost make it, too. Just before I reach a high enough speed to lift off, by wheels hit the edge of the lake. My plane sinks.

Plane #5: I make it to the runway this time. But seeing enemy planes back in the air above me, I'm a little too quick to throttle up. I overcompensate for the resulting torque, and I go off the runway and wreck. I should know better than this!

Plane #6: Coming onto the runway to take off, I accidentally clip some equipment on the side of the runway (why'd they put it so close to the runway anyway?) and the plane is unflyable. I don't know if it counted as a loss or not.

Plane #7: FINALLY! I got my crate up in the air. I'm low and slow, but slowly circling to gain altitude. Another player is doing the same. Out from the northwest come two racing enemy planes from Blue. I don't have much airspeed, but I manage to get a piece of one of the two attacking FW-190s. I don't do much damage to him, but it does force him to abandon his attack against a friendly plane (the same friendly plane I crashed into... twice... it looks like he managed to finally get off the ground, too). But then I'm engaged by the 190's wingman, who manages to take big chunks out of my aircraft. I lose much of my rudder, and one aileron. Still, the P-47 can take a pounding. I try to land my plane on only half my control surfaces. I don't quite make it. I cause a lot of wreckage to appear on the runway.

Plane #8: This time, the air is clear when I take off out of the runway. This time, if I'm gonna crash, I'm gonna crash on the ENEMY base! Off I go, into the wild blue yonder, getting some altitude advantage to mercilessly use to defeat my poor foes, low on altitude, airspeed, and ideas. I see the enemy airfield, and I spot two aircraft heading my way. Both FW-190s, by the looks of them. They are below me but climbing fast --- very fast. Did they put rockets on those things?

I roll my plane and begin a turning dive, turning altitude into airspeed. I barely see the tracers before one of my wings is shot off. I bail out of the spinning aircraft, and enjoy a very long look at the scenery as I parachute down from about 10,000 feet.

At this point, I've single-handedly dropped Red's score by ten points. Now, as an excuse, I think those guys in the FW-190s have been playing the game quite a bit for years. Maybe. And maybe that I REALLY need a lot more practice. Either way, I figure its time to quit the field in shame. I'll be back... and maybe then I'll play for Blue team and help them lose a few points!

Somehow, I don't think it was quite like this in 1944...

Labels: Flight Sims, Mainstream Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:10 AM (Permalink) 5 comments links to this post

 
Eight Meters of Documentation
It seems that the only thing keeping the modern combat flight-sim market alive these days is the possibility of military subsidy. Pilots love games, too, and the modern flight sims are so incredibly detailed they make excellent practice for the real thing.

But there is one problem a game company might not predict. And that is the staggering bureaucracy and extremely strange requirements of governments. Especially the government of a formerly communist country, which I guess was used to quotas on quantity rather than quality.

So you get a situation where you just have to produce:

Eight Meters of Documentation


(Hmm... I'm guessing the game company in question was Eagle Dynamics, the makers of Lock-On: Modern Air Combat. Maybe that's too obvious of a choice, but I believe they are in former Eastern Bloc territory and have one of the two most high-fidelity modern air combat sims out there.)

Man. I'm a fan of having good documentation, but YEESH!

Labels: Flight Sims

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 4:54 PM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Gone Flying
This morning, I got to take a short plane ride up and around my neighborhood with my daughters. It's been years since I have flown in a light plane, and I had forgotten how much fun it is. George McEwan (modeler for Void War and Apocalypse Cow) flew the plane, and handed control over to me a couple of times.

Now, I'm not terrible at flight sims, but I knew it was gonna be a problem. Maybe I was too psyched out. I wasn't sure how much control to give it. He had my go into a 10 degree bank, showed me the landmark to stay to the left of to remain outside of controlled airspace, and while I wouldn't say I did a "good" job of it, I didn't break the plane or make anyone airsick. And I did manage to complete the turn. It doesn't exactly sound like an accomplishment after getting into numerous simulated online dogfights and sending many living and AI-controlled virtual pilots to an early grave, but ah, well.

One thing I did notice was how much more stable the real aircraft was than the simulated planes. Probably because George knew what he was doing when he trimmed it out. And... well, I tend to pilot fighters in my simulated flying, which of necessity are less stable creatures.

After a little bit, George decided to demonstrate what a "bumpy ride" would feel like for my daughters. My youngest (age 8) was squealing with delight, and didn't want him to stop the "roller coaster." It was like Disneyland all over again for her. I was just pleased that I was able to share with my daughters a little bit of my love for aviation. (My wife won't let me take flying lessons until we can both afford it AND I have better life insurance... which unfortunately needs to be taken out well in advance of taking private pilots lessons... many policies actually stipulate that on the application).

Now I feel a strange, sudden desire to crack open Microsoft Flight Simulator again and tool around the same airfield I flew out of this morning and practice some touch and goes... Why is that? :)
.

Labels: Flight Sims

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 3:44 PM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post

 
What Are The Best Multiplayer Games of All Time?
GamaSutra asked the question, "What are the most important multiplayer games of all time (excluding MMOs)?" Unfortunately, there was apparently no good answer, so instead they simply posted some of the highlights from the reader survey. Most were predictable. The highlights include Bomberman, Quake III Arena, Quake I, Battlefield: 1942, Tribes, Wii Sports (I wonder how much of that is hype and newness... though having played it I agree it's a lot of fun), Goldeneye 007, Double Dragon II, Ikari Warriors (yay for the old school arcade games!), and Pokemon.

I would question some of the choices (I always thought Quake III Arena was eclipsed by both Unreal Tournament and Team Fortress), but that's a pretty solid list.

Now, as for *me*, what games would I put on the list? Well, I don't know if I'd call them the most important, but as to my favorite (and most significant in my life) non-MMO Multiplayer Games of all time, I'd say:

* Joust - This was perhaps the most brilliantly-designed multiplayer arcade game of its time. Some waves rewarded you for cooperating - some encouraged you to battle each other. The game is still amazingly fun, over two decades later.

* Gauntlet - This was the first real cooperative multiplayer videogame I ever played, and I remember the experience fondly. We dumped so many quarters into the machine one night at the pizzaria... and didn't regret one cent.

* Doom - The game that launched a thousand LAN parties. And it allowed cooperative play, which was even cooler. Ah, back in the day where you could get away with locking the framerate to the network update speed, and ignore standards to use port 666...

* Mechwarrior II - It was never intended to be played over the Internet, but we used Kali to do it. The game had a great following, and people invented meta-games to layer on top of it to keep it fresh. Such was the love the fans had for the game.

* Twisted Metal - Is it vain to me to say this? One of the coolest things working on Twisted Metal is that its creators were also its biggest fans. We had an awesome time playing this game, even if we were paid to do it (though sometimes I think we ended up playing it far beyond what we needed to in order to test changes...) It was Street Fighter in cars and 3D environments, and we just had a blast with it. Jet Moto was almost as much fun to play as we built it, too, but I'll leave it at only one SingleTrac game :)

* ATF Gold: Playable over the Internet, this game had a pretty large following for a while. A hack allowed people to fly every one of the 80 or so aircraft in the game. The game wasn't the most realistic sim of all time, but it captured the essence well enough, and unlike most other flight sims of the era, it was very stable online. We played it a ton at work. And, like Mechwarrior II, the fans were legion and created meta-games around it.

* Rainbow Six / Rogue Spear - The "Thinking Man's First-Person Shooter." We mostly played it as a LAN game... the first game had some real lag problems over the Internet. But both coop and competitive, we'd have an awesome time, every time. We'd rarely use hostages in our coop games - it was all us versus insta-death potential. Especially when George would use his SAW to shoot out all the windows on our approach... he says he just couldn't help it.

* Void War - More vanity. Like Twisted Metal, it's my baby. I suspect there have been very few online matches of 6 or more players at a time, but it is just phenominally fun. Asteroids in 3D multiplayer. My favorite trick (which works against the AI, too) is to fly the Nighthawk directly at an obstacle while my opponent is chasing me, and then hyperspace out at the last second. If I'm lucky, my opponent is still alive after crashing, but with depleted shields and armor so I can easily pick him off when I get back.

* Unreal Tournament 2004 - I'm not a big First-Person-Shooter fan. But UT2004 took everything that was awesome about the original and UT2003, fixed whatever it was they screwed up it UT2003, made it more awesome, and added more game types. And they brought back assault mode!

* Starcraft - I wasn't quite so fond of the game in single-player, but the fact of the matter is it's phenominal in multiplayer. And I mean "phenominal" - the thing is still selling nearly 10 years later, and it was a legitimate phenomina in Korea. That's not just a good game, there.

* The IL-2 Series - This includes IL-2 Sturmovik, Forgotten Battles, Pacific Fighters, and several expansions (I'm anxiously awaiting IL-2: 1946, which is supposedly going to be out in the U.S. any day now, but I think I may have to order an import from Canada or the UK). While ATF: Gold was impressive for having over 80 flyable aircraft with a hack, the IL-2 series (with all of the products joined together into one mega-pack) features over 220 flyable aircraft, and over 300 total aircraft, all modeled with painstaking realism. It's simply the ultimate World War II flight sim. And it's rock-solid in multiplayer. Granted, many of the flyable aircraft are variants of each other, but the game is so well modeled that the difference of a bubble canopy, more horsepower, and slightly bigger cannons makes a huge difference. If you are a hardcore flight sim enthusiast, you probably already have these games.

* Neverwinter Nights - We spent about 4 hours a week playing this game multiplayer for a couple of YEARS. That's the most time I've spent in a non-MMO multiplayer game EVER. While far from perfect, the ease in which you could create new modules, and the increadible "DM Mode" resulted in a game that allowed people to literally create the type of game they wanted to play. You had persistent worlds, role-playing oriented games, hack-and-slash action, and more. I haven't tried NWN2 out yet (I'm waiting for the patch situation to work itself out, and for people to give the thumbs-up on multiplayer), but I'm hoping it will offer even better.

* Guitar Hero II - particularly cooperative multiplayer. At the end of a difficult song, you can't help but want to high-five your partner for the both of you helping each other out to pull it off.

Okay, I *know* I've missed a few good ones. And while I loved Diablo and Diablo II, the multiplayer experience for me usually sucked unless I was playing ONLY with friends. So... what are the multiplayer games (non-MMO)


(Vaguely) Related Cheap Thoughts...
* Game Moments #16: Mechwarrior II
* Why Cooperative Multiplayer Is The Best
* Ah, a LAN Party
*
.

Labels: Flight Sims, Guitar Hero, Mainstream Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:35 AM (Permalink) 7 comments links to this post

 
Wanna Learn To Be A Fighter Pilot?
Do you remember in the movie "Top Gun," when Charlie is going over the ACMI logs in the briefing room with all the pilots? She rips on Maverick's split S maneuver, and says, "The encounter was a victory, but I think we've shown it as an example of what not to do." Then she moves on to another pilot (presumably Iceman), and remarks, "Now this is a perfect example of a textbook maneuver."

I always wondered, "What textbook? Do these fighter pilots have a textbook that they use to learn how to kill the other pilot most effectively?" I imagined college textbooks for chemistry, calculus, and dogfighting. As a long-time fan of flight sims, aviation, and of course air combat games, I really wanted to know.

As it turns out, they do have a textbook. It is called "Fighter Combat - Tactics and Maneuvering," by Robert L. Shaw. And it was pretty much used as the textbook in the U.S. Navy, and probably most other armed forces with an air combat mission in the world. I don't know if it still is or not - it was originally published in 1985, and while some of the information may be somewhat dated, the book covers all aspects of fighter combat, and is equally useful for modern jet aircraft as World War I era biplanes. Most of it hasn't gone out of date. Not until we develop anti-gravity aircraft that don't rely on lift and thrust, or weapons that can fire from any angle of the plane with equal chances to hit.

I had to special-order a copy many years ago. But now I've learned that you can get it as a FREE DOWNLOAD E-Book.

If you are into combat flight sims, grab a free copy of it HERE.

It uses the .RAR format to compress the PDF file. If you don't already have a program to decompress .rar files, I recommend the free utility 7-Zip, available HERE. It's also a bit more powerful at creating .ZIP files than the compression that comes with stock Windows. :)

Reading it won't make you an expert fighter pilot. But as a guy who got pretty competitive in online dogfights, I can say that it really helped me take my skills to the next level and kick some online tail in games like Falcon 4.0. Unfortunately for me, most of the top-ranked pilots had read the book also.

But the book contains a lot of information that becomes more valuable as the flight sim becomes more realistic. In it, you'll find the different means of defeating Doppler versus Continuous Wave radar systems, when and how best to begin your turn in a one-on-one engagement, turn performance effects on nose-to-nose turns, and the basic fighter maneuvers and how best to use them such as the high and low yo-yo, flat and rolling scissors, etc.

If you aren't a flight sim fan, then none of what I just said made any sense at all. But if you are (and we seem to be decreasing in number these days), check it out!

(Vaguely) related mumble transcripts:
* Game Moments #2: Falcon 4.0
* Game Moment #11: Falcon 4.0 (again)
* Guest Game Moment #1: Falcon 4.0
* Why Presentation Is Important
* Do Games Matter?

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Labels: Flight Sims, Mainstream Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 4:32 PM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
Why Presentation Is Important
I was in a discusion with coworkers recently about milestones, and about relative importance of tasks. Some opinions were voiced that certain tasks that were "just for show" were less important than the most critical ones needed to get the game done. I was reminded of a story I'd hear, which I'll share here.

The story is nearly a decade old, but the truth is timeless. Courtesy of Brand Gamblin, who was a junior coder on the project.

The game was Microprose's "European Air War," the sequel to their hit flight sim (remember when the words "hit" and "flight sim" actually went together?) "1942 - Pacific Air War." The game was enormously over budget and schedule, and nowhere near ready to ship, with embarassing bugs that just would not die. According to Gamblin, "If you fired your wing guns, the wings would fall off. It was not possible to take off or land, and if you touched the ground, you would be bounced miles up into space. Planes occasionally flew backward, and the AI would periodically (and unexplainably) shoot down its own teammates."

Every week, the studio execs were meeting with hard questions, and weren't liking the answers. It became clear that th project's days were numbered. Several team members, seeing the writing on the wall, jumped ship. By several, I mean, "The entire programming team."

Well, the execs for some reason decided not to axe the project then and there. Maybe they believed (rightfully, in retrospect) that there was a chance of salvaging the investment they'd already made in the game. So they hired a new programming team, and a new lead programmer (who Gamblin calls, "Tom.")

The new lead, realizing what dire straits the game was in, spent a whole bunch of time not fixing the bugs or doing what he could to fight the innumerable fires surrounding the game. Instead he implemented a really cool cinematic camera object. The "Cool Cam" would jump to wherever the most exciting action was in the game. All it did was show off what *was* working in the game.

The other team members were befuddled. Gamblin reports, "The cool cam was cool, yes, but I had to bite my lip to keep from saying, `That doesn't help us! We've got real issues, and you're screwing around with the camera!'"

Turns out, the new lead programmer knew exactly what he was doing. As Gamblin explains:

"Then I went to one of the meetings with the execs. It was another one of those, `Give us one good reason why we shouldn't can your project' meetings. Tom started up the game, and started flying around, trying to avoid the obvious issues (like shooting your own wings off, or the planes flying backward).

"One of the execs threw out a tough question, designed to show how far over budget we were. Tom put down the joystick, and hit the `cool cam' button. Then he turned around to answer the question. While he was answering the question, every eye in the room was on the screen as one amazing scene showed after another. I looked at the execs, and I swear, some of them were gaping. No one was listening to Tom as he answered the question, and when he finished, he picked up the joystick, and jumped back into the game. Every time they asked a question, he would switch to cool cam, and they would completely forget why they had asked.

"I swear, that camera saved the project."

(Check out the whole story HERE.)

And it worked. I don't know if the sales numbers ever made EAW worth the money invested in it, but was a very popular flight sim when released, won critical acclaim, and is still being enjoyed by die-hard fans today.

The moral of the story is something that marketing guys understand implicitly, but we engineering types often overlook as we desperately try to dig through tons of details:

Oftentimes presentation is every bit as important as the actual product itself.

After all, no matter what product you are making, it's ultimately for the benefit of people. So it makes sense that no matter what is actually going on under the hood, part of the function of your product is to make the right people (your users, customers, players, clients, management, whomever) happy, give them warm fuzzies. What exactly that entails is dependent on the audience.

In the case of European Air War, what management wanted was a very cool game to sell that customers would love. What the lead programmer did was present it to them so that they could see, clearly, that this was exactly what they had on their hands already. They, too, were having trouble digging through all those details and seeing the big picture.

And while I don't play it anymore, as a customer and fan of European Air War, I want to thank that lead programmer for realizing the importance of presentation. Oh, and I had fun watching the Cool Cam, too!


(Vaguely) related bits of poorly-presented fluff:
* Polish: Attention To Detail
* The Red-Line In Game Demos
* Red-Line Analysis of Mainstream Games
* Quality Ain't Easy

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Labels: Flight Sims, Game Design, Mainstream Games, productivity, retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:34 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Guest Gaming Moment #1: Falcon 4.0
I have only half-jokingly referred to Falcon 4.0 as one of my favorite Roleplaying Games of all time. People look at me weird when I say that. Don't I know the difference between an RPG and a flight sim?

Not when it's done like Falcon. The goal with Falcon 4.0 was, according to Gilman Louie, the producer, to provide the player with the experience of being a real fighter pilot, minus the boring parts. So not only was the simulation of the aircraft extremely authentic, but the dynamic simulation of the world was also very complex and interactive. Take out a bridge today, and the enemy forces (and friendly forces) couldn't use it for a day or two until it was repaired. And they WOULD send forces to repair it. You could see the impact of your handiwork on the world. That's something that too many RPGs don't really offer.

And it had multiplayer. Buggy, often crashing multiplayer, but it had multiplayer. Sharing the experience with friends made it all the more real... so much so that talking about the mission afterwards often took more time than the mission itself. For today's Gaming Moment, this is a GUEST article by Bryan Brown, who has been mentioned in previous Gaming Moment articles as my steadfast wingman and wiley Rainbow Six opponent. Enjoy!

Sometime You Just Gotta Take the Chance!

This is my all time favorite moment playing Falcon 4.0, a game Jay and I played a lot. The game had many flaws but it left some of my strongest game playing memories. The way the world worked and the battle field changed was something to behold. It was also stunningly gorgeous to look at. Nothing, at the time, even came close to how great it looked. I recall the first time I looked out through the reflections of my cockpit at the world spread out below me. I gasped it was so stunning.

I love the simulation aspect of many games and the more “real” I can make it the better I enjoy the game so I always played from inside the cockpit with a view of the instrumentation and the canopy. While the game engine supported switching to outside views I always felt that if I couldn’t check my own six from inside the cockpit I shouldn’t be flying a Falcon.

The hardest thing to learn in this game was the landings. I don’t even recall how may sets of landing gear I ripped off learning how to feather that plane down onto a runway. It was a point of pride to learn how to do it right with me and I spent a long time learning how to approach, line up, glide in and finally flare just right to squeal onto the tarmac without ruining a multi-million dollar (simulated) plane.

My weakest part of the game was air to air combat. Jay was great at that – his understanding of air to air tactics and resource (height, speed, weapons) management was unparalleled. I learned a ton just getting smoked out of the sky by him. Jay was always great to fly with – he has a great blend of aggressiveness and common sense. I tend to be more careful and Jay always pushed me to play just a bit harder. He may have briefly regretted that during this particular mission.

Anyway, Jay and I started up a new campaign one day and signed ourselves up for a mud moving mission. This particular mission had us hitting one of the games favorite first day targets a ship yard. We were loaded down with 500 lb bombs and wing-tip sidewinder missiles for air to air defense. We took off, formed up and headed to our first nav point. I loved listening to the chatter in this game as different flights called their positions and reports in.

Shortly after we passed over the FLOT we were passing to the west of an enemy air base. We were trying to stay out of trouble since we were loaded down with bombs and besides we had a CAP to take care of us right? As we were nearly abreast of the field we got a radar warning lock from a MiG-21. Looking over it was in visual range and had apparently just taken off from the strip. He was low and slow and probably shouldn’t have announced his presence. Jay locked him up and fired. Splash one. We looked around briefly but seeing no more immediate threats turned back towards our target. No sooner had we done so that another MiG-21 jumped us. Some how, this bandit had snuck up behind us. We were heavy and slow to turn or climb – the MiG-21 picked Jay as his first target and quickly maneuvered into gun range. Jay pulled right into a high yo-yo hoping to bring him around in front of me to get a shot. I tried a snap shot as he crossed in front but missed him.

At this point we were in trouble, Jay had a bad guy on his six and I missed the shot and was trying with everything I had to roll my plane onto him. Jay continued to climb and turn right, I was loosing ground on them trying to pull the same maneuver – Jay was always better at energy management than I was. I couldn’t even roll over far enough to get my radar to lock on the bogie since it was in a vertical sweep mode. Guns were out as I was loosing ground on them my only hope was to get a sidewinder off at him. I called out over the “radio” that I was un-caging my seeker head. The seeker heads of the sidewinder missiles were usually slaved to the planes radar to achieve their initial lock on. This makes it easier to pick a bad guy from a friendly. But with the bad guy out of the plain of my radar sweep that wasn’t going to help. Un-caging the seeker allowed it to roam the sky in its own independent pattern looking for a heat source to lock onto.

Jay called back – “Wait, don’t”. I replied “It’s the only way.” I was pretty familiar with the pattern that the seeker head would follow as it looked for a target and I was almost positive that it would acquire the MiG-21 before it found Jay. As I un-caged the seeker I quickly heard the growling tone that indicated it had a target and it was a loud, certain tone. I called out “I’ve got tone!” and then “Fox 2”, as I sent the missile on its way. I remember holding my breath as I watched the missile streak away towards Jay and the MiG. Who would it go after? The MiG broke off of Jay to try and turn away from the incoming missile but it was to late, it turns out that I did have a good lock and he had bled off to much energy trying to get Jay. BOOM! Splash one for me!

I don’t remember what we did next – I think we might have aborted the mission at that point, but we did live through it to drop bombs another day.

Bryan Brown
May 4, 2006


Got any more Guest Gaming Moments you'd like to contribute? Email 'em to me! You can contact me via "feedback" at rampantgames.com.

Have fun!

Labels: Flight Sims, Game Moments

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:48 AM (Permalink) 1 comments links to this post

 
Game Moments #11: Falcon 4.0 (Again)
"One Pass, then Haul ..." Well, you know what to haul.

That's the advice given to combat pilots. What that means is you make your strike with the advantage of surprise, drop your ordinance, and then get out of there and be halfway home before your bombs ever hit your target. The BDA guys (Bomb Damage Assessment) will figure out if you hit your target or not.

Being a macho flight sim game player not in fear for my life, I ignored this advice in every other flight sim I'd ever played. For one thing, the "advantage of surprise" rarely ever really applied - the AI was the same either way. And particularly with scripted missions, you had to fight your way through the worst defenses just to get to your target. By the time you dropped your bombs on your target, the worst was over. You may as well just make sure you've emptied everything off your wings and shot every round out of your cannon before going home, because THAT was how you earned the promotions in the game.

Then came Falcon 4.0. With the most complex, dynamic campaigns in history. And also one of the buggiest. But I digress...

In Falcon 4.0, you really could catch the enemy by surprise. And once they woke up, they'd get REALLY nasty. But on one particular mission, I was supposed to attack an airfield, and I did a DANG good job. It's defenses were shattered, and there were only a couple of planes defending the area. I was dominating. And I still had a couple of bombs. And there were a couple of planes on the ground I could straff. Oh, the mission report was going to look awesome!

So I loitered. I carefully dropped every one of my bombs, had my wingmen do the same, and we pretty much made sure the airfield was NOT going to be very usable for a while. There was nothing left on the ground when we were done (at least nothing that could shoot back at us, except for a couple of infantrymen with their rifles), and we'd already wiped out everything in the air for miles around. My wingmen almost all reported back that they were "winchester" (meaning they were down to nothing but guns). Satisfied, I decided it was time to bring us all home.

Now, with a scripted mission, if the enemy forces were going to route some planes to take us down, our length of time over the target would probably have meant that we were on a totally different time table, and the planes that were supposed to "accidentally" run into us on our way back would have already passed us by. I know this, because I had used this trick in other games (like one of my all-time favorites, Jane's ATF Gold). The scripted missions tend to break down pretty badly when the player does things he's not really supposed to. Not as in "buggy," but they usually end up being harder if the player plays "by the book." Just because it's so hard to script up all the possible exceptions and deviations the player may come up with.

Those deviations aren't necessarily bad in and of themselves. Except when they are absolutely stupid when the AI is actually "thinking" and reacting to the dynamic situation rather than just following a script that had been designed inside a game studio a year or two before. In this particular case, there were MANY MANY airfields full of enemy fighters all over Northern Korea. And there were several flights with plenty of fuel left that could be vectored towards the attack when our surprise came.

And they did.

Now, normally, if you are playing "by the book," these guys would be WAY too late to shut down the party. By the time they'd arrived on the scene, my wingmen and I would have been on final approach, getting ready to celebrate their victories at the officer's mess or whatever the little simulated fighter pilots do in the imaginary Falcon world. But instead, we were still making multiple passes over the demolished airfield, unwilling to quit until we'd pretty much stopped anything from moving.

We detected the incoming MiGs at long range, coming fast. NO BIG DEAL. I'd been waiting for this to happen. I gathered the flight together and we turned and ran back for the friendly part of town. We had a defensive screen of fighters and our own anti-aircraft missiles on our side, and our pursuers would not want to touch that. We were still doing fine on fuel, so I goosed the afterburners to get us up to speed and and heading for home. We'd never even get within their missile range (though I could hear the audible drawl of their radar constantly painting us).

Then we saw four more MiGS coming from the left. Okay. THAT could get things interesting. They'd been vectored from somewhere to the east to come cut us off. We couldn't afford to mix it up with them, because while we were fighting, the four MiGs behind us would catch us, and then it'd be pretty much history.

I vectored our flight a little bit to my right (the west). It would take us a little further to cross the boarder, and we'd be flying over terrain that had not yet been cleared of enemy anti-aircraft weaponry. But we'd have to take that chance. By angling our escape, we'd also let the first four MiGs catch up with us enough to fire their missiles at extreme range, but with a very low probability of success. Another risk, but acceptable.

But my little overkill on the airbase didn't seem like such a good idea now. I was starting to sweat.

THEN came the flight of two MiG-21s from the right and ahead of us. Sent to cut off our escape. NOW things were really starting to suck. Fortunately, the MiG-21's generally had fairly limited, shorter-range missiles. So if we were lucky, we could shoot at them at extreme range, causing them to break off their attack, and meanwhile we plow right through at full afterburners for safety. We'd be running on fumes by the time we got to base, but we could NOT afford to tangle with these guys AT ALL. Doing so would allow the eight planes behind us to catch up and blow us to pieces.

So I ordered the attack, and hoped my wingmen AI would be smart enough to just fire and stay in formation.

It wasn't a great plan. But it was the only option we had left.

It didn't work.

The enemy planes got their shots off. I think we managed to kill one of them. But I had a missile launched at me, and I had to evade it. By breaking formation to dodge the missile, the rest of the flight fell into disarray. One of my wingmen was destroyed within seconds. I dove to treetop level and ordered the rest of the flight to rejoin formation - follow me and we were going to race for home while the MiGs were making their turn. That didn't happen.

My two remaining wingmen were engaged, and the other fighters had caught up to us. Calls of missiles inbound were constant. I stuck with the plan, making a cowardly beeline for home and requesting that my wingmen do the same. This was gonna look TERRIBLE on the report.

The other two jets in my flight were destroyed. I think we'd taken out one of the enemy. I was down in the weeds, a really horrible place to be for speed. Up above and behind me, the enemy raced to catch up.

About thirty miles from the friendly border, I was destroyed by multiple missiles. I wasn't even able to eject.

On the mission report, it stated that the target had been moderately damaged, but that all four aircraft had been destroyed, and the pilots MIA / KIA.

Right. Next time... ONE PASS! THEN HAUL....

Labels: Flight Sims, Game Moments, retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 10:34 PM (Permalink) 3 comments links to this post

 
Game Moments #10 - Operation: Flashpoint
While everyone else was playing Battlefield:1942, I was off playing a different military combat game called Operation: Flashpoint. This was a gem of a title taking place in an alternate-history cold war conflict in 1985. Interestingly enough, it was created by a group of developers who were all on the other side of the "Iron Curtain" that year.

The game had reasonably decent graphics and amazingly expansive environments - four entire islands. All vehicles were able to be entered and driven, including the civilian aircraft, helicopters, boats, and tanks. Buildings would collapse when they took too much damage. Equipment was persistent, so you could kill an enemy and take his weaponry if you felt so inclined. The game featured tons of 1985-era weapons and vehicles. And on top of it all, it included a fairly full-featured scripting language and mission builder, and full multiplayer play.

I wasted many, many days of my life to that game, none of which I regret. Multiplayer with a nearly impossible cooperative mission with friends was absolute frantic joy. Our little custom-designed deathmatch arenas were also a lot of fun. We were addicted and having a blast playing it. George McEwan, who did some of the modeling for Void War, got so good that he was able to capture tanks with a silenced MP-5 in a popular mission. Normally, when you shoot the commander or gunner, the other one would immediately duck into the vehicle and "button up." George could shoot both of them before they had a chance to react, and the driver would panic and flee the tank. That made that particular mission pretty easy when he could pull it off.

The game's physics weren't stellar, but they worked well enough. On more than one occasion I'd managed to blow a helicopter out of the sky with a well-placed rocket or portable anti-aircraft missile (well, okay, it usually took multiple hits) only to have my smug glee replaced with desperation as the burning aircraft came crashing down to the ground right on top of me. There were all kinds of other "tricks" to the game - like flushing out snipers by simply bringing the building they *might* be in crashing down around them. In one free-for-all multiplayer match the single helicopter was always destroyed so early in the game that we just got used to using it kamikaze-style as a big bomb, usually ejecting and parachuting to safety as our would-be destroyer got a face-full of of falling metal. And few things were as satisfying as seeing that annoying and nearly-indestructable tank drive over the anti-tank mine you'd placed while it was chasing you. Except when the same thing happened but you managed to survive the encounter - that was even better (but rare)!

One of the coolest "moments" in the game wasn't recognized by me until a couple of weeks afterwards. Three of us at the office were playing through the campaign. In one part of the game, your "character" is captured and is being taken to be executed. You are flown in to a prison camp by helicopter, and dropped off. Then you'd be marched off to a pit and shot by a firing squad. Needless to say, that's not the satisfactory "conclusion" to the mission - your true goal is to escape and make it back halfway across the island to friendly territory.

Shortly after disembarking the helicopter, the guards got distracted. I took the opportunity to break ranks, and run behind a building. Lucky me, there was an AK leaning up against the back wall, and I snagged it. The guards were running around both sides of the building to get me, so I shot two of them, and then shot the pilot of the helicopter. I jumped into the helicopter, and with the popping sounds of small-arms fire hitting the vehicle, I took off. This whole sequence actually took me about a half-dozen tries - I'd usually get killed before entering the helicopter. But I eventually pulled it off.

The flight home wasn't bad, but as i mentioned, the islands were pretty huge. And mostly occupied by enemy forces. There was at least one other helicopter that gave chase, and there were several times I had to dodge anti-aircraft guns or missiles. I deliberately took a circuitous route, trying to defeat the 'scripted' enemies, but they seemed to be everywhere. But I got back to friendly territory pretty quickly. Mission complete.

So we were talking about the mission at work, and I commented on how short the mission was, but how cool it was that they scripted out all the enemy forces occupying the island so that I couldn't just avoid them by not making a beeline to safety.

George, on the other hand, had a completely different story to tell. He'd not stolen the helicopter, but had rather been marched out to where the execution was to take place, but found an unattended BMP (an armored personnel carrier) and had jumped in and escaped by roads. He said the mission was long and difficult, as he was being chased by no less than two tanks and encountered numerous enemy convoys and roadblocks all the way back to safety. It had not been a short mission at all!

One of the other guys at the office had a completely different story to tell. He'd escaped on foot, without weapons, and had been required to dodge patrols (and the aforementioned tanks and convoys) the whole mission, and it had taken forever! I think he was kicking himself for not taking the helicopter.

At that point, we were all pretty impress with how open-ended the mission was, in spite of the inherent limitations of scripting. Somehow, we'd come away from the same game, the same episode (or "level"), with three completely different stories to tell. And they were all exciting.

So when I think about Storytelling and Narrative in games, I think back to that one prison-break mission. While there were several little scripted elements to the mission (mostly to provide you with an opportunity to make a break for it), the real "story" was of the player's making, assisted by the game. Everyone felt they were taking the "obvious" option and following the mission's pre-designed chain of events, but the truth is that there were neither.

Labels: Flight Sims, Game Moments, Mainstream Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:42 AM (Permalink) 6 comments links to this post

 
Game Moments #2 - Falcon 4.0
Bryan Brown says he remembers this like it was yesterday. Me, not so much, so I hope I don't embellish too much. I get worried I may be combining two stories into one - but if I do get them mixed up, Bryan can step in and correct me.

The game was Falcon 4.0. This game was famous not only for its accuracy for simulating the F-16, but also for its bugs. It deserved the reputation on both counts --- though sometimes its adherance to reality was assumed to be a bug by people who were used much simpler flight simulators. Bryan Brown is a friend of mine who also worked at SingleTrac. We both shared a love for the really hyper-realistic modern air combat simulators. Unlike most fans of these kinds of games, however, what we enjoyed most wasn't duking it out in massive furballs (though those were fun too). Bryan and I liked to MOVE MUD. That is to say, causing all kinds of destruction to the things unlucky enough to be sitting on the ground.

In some sims, this was easy. ATF Gold (an earlier game that we also loved to play) would just have you magically lock onto a target, fly within launch parameters, and boom! Watch the guided missiles or smart bombs do their thing. You had to WORK FOR IT in Falcon 4.0. Our mission one afternoon had us blowing up a shipyard. It was the first day of the war, so it was pretty much insane air and ground activity across the board as North Korea began moving into South Korea. The shipyard was somewhere out on the southwestern part of North Korea. Bryan and I loaded up on iron bombs and had precious little space to spare for any air-to-air defenses.

I was flying lead, Bryan was my wingman. Bryan is pretty much the ultimate wingman. He was awesome to have in any flight sim (or in games like Rogue Spear) because he's cool, he's competent, and you know HE'S ALWAYS GOT YOUR BACK. Every time. Like it's a matter of honor for him. If you die before he dies, he takes it as a personal failure on his part. Even if you died because you were overconfident and stupid - which happens to me a lot. He actually preferred the role. We still swapped from time to time. But on this mission, I was flying lead. Bryan was flying behind me and to my right.

We weren't yet halfway to the target when we got bounced by MiG-21s. Not the most advanced aircraft in the sky, but they were nasty to tussel with in a close-range dogfight (a furball), and their missiles could kill you just as dead as the more modern versions. In our current condition - loaded for bear with bombs - we'd be incapable of taking them on in a real dogfight. We'd be forced to drop our weapons - conceding failure for the mission. Best to take them out at range.

We fired off our AIM-120's - I think we had two each. I don't remember if we killed anyone with those, but the enemy aircraft were forced to abandon their attack to evade our missiles. When all was said and done, there was ONE enemy plane left at close range. He engaged Bryan's plane. Bryan didn't want to drop his load yet, and the enemy plane hadn't quite gotten into a solid firing position. I was still loaded down like a pack-mule, too, but I went above and behind to try and help.

I saw the MiG right behind Bryan - he was at extremely close range, trying not to overshoot. Unlike the movie Top Gun, you don't hit the airbrakes to slow down in air combat. If you are in danger of overshooting, you typically pull your nose up on your turn - so you lose speed in the climb, but you gain an altitude advantage over your opponent. This maneuver is called a "high yo-yo." I expected this pilot to do the same thing, but my own range was pretty close - so I switched to guns and got ready to fire.

Sure enough, the pilot started pulling the high yo-yo and I shredded him with my guns. He exploded right in front of me into a thousand pieces of debris. I was too close, and flew right through the explosion, watching smoking chunks of the remains of his fighter fly by. Unfortunately, one of those chunks hit my aircraft, and my master alarm went off. The female voice in the cockpit (referred to as "Bitchin' Betty") repeated "Caution... Caution" as I checked my lights to see what was damaged.

The lights don't tell the whole story - they just report that a system was damaged, not the extent of the damage. If you see only one or two lights, it could be just superficial damage. Which is what I assessed. Everything was working, the smoke wasn't getting let out of my jet's engine, my HUD (Heads-Up Display) was still working - it looked like I was okay. So we continued the mission.

We met no more resistance on the way to the target. There was the shipyard, right in front of us. At the I.P. (Initial Point - where you begin your attack run), Bryan backed off and I switched to Air-to-Ground mode. The base was lightly defended, but the Anti-Aircraft guns could be nasty, so we needed to fly in as fast as possible and get back out again - just as fast. I lined up the target under my "Continuously Computed Impact Point" on the HUD (AKA the "Death Dot" - the point at which the in-flight computer calculates your bomb will hit), dove in for maximum accuracy, and LET THEM FLY!

Except they didn't. The bombs stayed right where they were. Apparently the "superficial" damage I took from the piece of MiG-21 debris flying through the explosion had knocked out my weapons release. Except for my guns, I was now unarmed. Unarmed but flying with several hundred pounds of now-useless weaponry under my wings.

I quickly told Bryan of my problem as I hit the afterburner and flew out. Bryan said, "Don't worry, I've got them." Trying to be helpful I loitered slightly overlong in the area to draw the fire from the guns on the ground as Bryan made his attack run. He rushed in, dove for the target, released his bombs, and immediately popped up to avoid being caught in the explosion from his own bombs.

BOOM! The shipyard went up, pieces of it flying over a thousand feet in the air. Mission successful. Now we just had to get home in one piece. Bryan had like one missile left - I had two wings full of useless weapons slowing me down. We didn't have enough fuel left to take the long way around (I'd decided - still properly, I believe - that the security of having extra fuel from a drop-tank was less important than the security of a couple of extra air-to-air missiles). Hopefully we could pass through the defensive screen of friendly fighters before the enemy jets which had no doubt been vectored our way reached us.

We almost made it. But we were bounced by more MiGs a few miles before we got to our protective screen. At this point, Bryan was now the Lead plane, and I was his wingman. We saw them incoming - Bryan and I would take turns turning to various angles to catch anything on radar. We pushed ahead as far and as fast as we could, but they eventually caught up to us. Bryan fired off his last missile to scatter the two planes and get them defensive. I was doing my best to support him, but I was still loaded with bombs and couldn't maneuver much. I was shot at, and had to drop chaff and flares and hope that he didn't get lucky. Bryan was all over the place - I was supposed to be covering him, but I couldn't keep up. Somehow, he maneuvered and once again the bandit that was attacking him was in my sites. He was too far for guns (and I was too slow to catch up to him), but I COULD get a missile lock on him.

Now, my missile wouldn't FIRE anymore because of the weapons jam. I knew that, but the little computer-controlled bandit didn't know that. He jinked hard and started dropping chaff and flares as I got the lock. By that point we were getting really close to our screen of friendly fighters, and I heard them call out over the radio that they had confirmed the enemy contacts.

Well, we were too close for the bandits' comfort at that point too, so they kicked in their burners and headed north, disengaging. We flew back to the base, and I managed to make a decent landing in spite of still having bombs slung on my wings.

Mission success, the debriefing told us.

No kidding. It was one of the best missions EVER!

Addendum: I should note here that I'm leaving lots of details out - not really adding any at all. This stuff (and much more) all really happened in the game. Falcon 4.0 had a ridiculously detailed, organic, dynamic world that puts even the most open-ended RPGs to shame. That was perhaps the bane of the game and the team - it was perhaps too big and detailed for its own good - thus the bugs. Some of us REALLY REALLY APPRECIATED that attention to detail, though.

Labels: Flight Sims, Game Moments, retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:00 PM (Permalink) 3 comments links to this post