How do you identify friend and foe?

[Hoggorm]

Hi,

 

Question 1:

 

As a newbie using Falcon 4.0 Allied Force I've started the campaign. When I encounter a problem I try to read the manual and fly the mission again. I've searched a lot after information on how I can identify enemy aircrafts at Beyond Visual Range. I've tried to ask AWACS to tell me the picture, and they do, but I do not know if there are friendlies among those that are enemies at the position given by AWACS.

 

Once I was tracking a target I told my wingman to engage it. Then "I" called out to him: "Attack SU-25 at bearing, altitude, distance". So it seems "I" knew what target I was tracking in the sim, but I did not know. Other times you might want to attack that MiG-29 and not the Antonov. But if they are in formation and you have only one missile left. What target do you shoot at?

 

How do I identify what target I am tracking?

 

Question 2:

 

I've been looking at various add-ons. As of now I have only found three that seems usable:

 

HiTilesAF

Icarus' F4AF sounds

Walmis's updated munitions

 

In addition I've seen something called Free Falcon 5.5, but I'm having trouble knowing exactly what it does, even at their FAQ pages... Also some users seem to complain that is very unstable and the cause of lots of CTD's...

 

Are there other add-ons I should consider? What is Free Falcon 5.5 in short terms?

 

Thank you for helping!

 

 

[MigBuster]

1. Have you run through the training missions? they are the most important things - you need to learn to use the radar and its modes, and how to move the antenna up and down so you get get bandits above or below your radar sweep.

 

Have only played with everything set to realistic - so would advise you to switch to realistic avionics to stop you wasting time with the easy stuff.

 

WHen you see a blip on the radar - put the cursor over it and get AWACs to "declare" it - make sure it IDs the target as hostile before firing.

 

Your radar in STT mode will ID a target when you have it locked (NCTR) - this may work at a certain range - but I hardly use it

 

IFF is not simulated in AF for whatever reason - I understand in RL you would need an IFF Electronic ID, and an AWACs declare before shooting

 

Some ways round this - 2. Lock the target up - if you hear "Buddy Spike" on the radio you have locked up a friendly. - 2. ask your wingy to attack a target - it will refuse if its friendly.

 

 

 

2. Hi Tiles is a must for AF http://www.hitiles.com/screenshots.htm

There are widescreen pits for the various versions at Aeyes site http://www.cockpits.nl/

There are skins you can change - some at thegamerstools.com others at www.JanHas.net -

 

 

 

Free Falcon and Open Falcon are two free large mods created by Falcon enthusiasts - they have never been that stable compared to AF but provide better graphics and more detailed avionics.

 

 

The Free Falcons were large add ons for the Original Falcon 4.0 - I think however FF5.5 is now a standalone install for what I have read. Dont think it works on Win 7 though.

 

 

Any way dont confuse your self with that go with one game install for now - because if you start another you need to re learn certain things.

[Hoggorm]

Migbuster,

 

Thank you. Yeah, I've run through the training missions, and know fairly well how to use the radar in various modes. I also concluded that I wanted to use the realistic modes, and that is why I had problems identifying what targets appeared on the radar. I tried your advice, to contact AWACS asking them to declare the target, and that worked pretty well! But what do you do when there are no AWACS airborne? Usually there is one, but two missions ago all fields relating to the AWACS was greyed out, and it was not possible to contact them at all...

 

Anyway, I guess usually they'll be there, so that solves my problem of identifying friend or foe :)

 

About the add-ons. I've visited thegamerstools.com but can't seem to find any files in their files list. The list sais for example that there are 13 files in Sounds, but I'm not able to see any... The www.JanHas.net page was very good! A good selection of files there, however I'm a bit unsure if I need another add-on to run them?

 

This is from the readme files:

 

REQUIREMENTS:

-------------

This patch requires that you run at least Falcon 4 with an add-on.

 

What add-on do they mean?

 

Thanks again.

 

 

Edited June 6, 2010 by Hoggorm

[MigBuster]

Without AWACs you are pretty much blind without some hard work on the radar - even a MiG-21 can sneak up on you if you dont use labels.

 

Sometimes AWACs dont get scheduled - this is where you need to take your first step at managing the campaign and making sure an awacs (E-3 or E-2) is not only airborne - but in range. What to do is in the AF manual - its right clicking on the map basically - and yes you can set up your own packages, fly to your own targets, set up other packages of jets, move ground units - but dont worry too much about that - you can still win by just flying and winning.

 

For example - if you think not enough CAPs are being put up you can set up available Jets to fly them.

 

For Janhas - you need to go to the AF section - most skins on there are for Open Falcon I think. Installing them requires a LOD editor. If you go this route I did include the editor with the F/A-18F skin in the AF download section on this site.

 

The Gamers tools - you need to create an account it sounds like - then you get a link to download all those skins you see on there - with those skins you will need to download and install the skinpack installer - easier than the LOD editor - but depends on your computing knowledge really.

 

The aeyes pits and hitiles are just simple double click .exe installers

Edited June 6, 2010 by MigBuster

[Hoggorm]

Great answer!

 

Thanks.

 

 

[viperBAT32]

hey Hoggorm! go to www.freefalcon.com to get links for add-ons for the Falcon series. FreeFalcon 5.5 is awesome and several downloads are available from veterans gaming site(link is on FreeFalcon site).

however,like Migbuster said, don't start something new without learning one of them in whole. you'll miss out on some very fun and challenging stuff if ya do!

[smasha]

Free Falcon doesn't work with windows 7 64 bit.

 

Still old.