Am I getting any support in my Vietnam campaigns?

[toonces 4]

Hello all.

 

I've been playing WoV/SF2:V for a while, but just recently am I making a serious study of it. Tonight I was flying the first mission of a Linebacker 1 campaign. This is with the Vietnam Air/Ground War expansion installed (which totally rocks).

 

I was flying as an F-4J bubba. Mission was to escort a flight on a bombing mission. It doesn't really matter though, because no matter what plane I fly I always seem to run into the same issues...

 

Namely, I am just getting absolutely clobbered by SAMs. Now, I know that it wasn't unusual for these guys to get shot at, but I feel totally and completely overwhelmed. I'm talking like 13, 17+ SAMs at my aircraft alone.

 

Does the campaign schedule AI SEAD missions? Am I getting jamming assistance from anyone?

 

I'm just curious how much support the computer schedules the AI to fly in these missions. I'm not really familiar with how the Strike Fighters series campaign engine works.

[+CrazyhorseB34 937]

Have your plane captain remove the SAM magnet.

[SayethWhaaaa 245]

I know for certain that my campaigns (ones I play) launch aircraft with SEAD loadouts, so they are, but their effectiveness on the other hand is a completely different story.

[+EricJ 4,248]

Hello all.

 

I've been playing WoV/SF2:V for a while, but just recently am I making a serious study of it. Tonight I was flying the first mission of a Linebacker 1 campaign. This is with the Vietnam Air/Ground War expansion installed (which totally rocks).

 

I was flying as an F-4J bubba. Mission was to escort a flight on a bombing mission. It doesn't really matter though, because no matter what plane I fly I always seem to run into the same issues...

 

Namely, I am just getting absolutely clobbered by SAMs. Now, I know that it wasn't unusual for these guys to get shot at, but I feel totally and completely overwhelmed. I'm talking like 13, 17+ SAMs at my aircraft alone.

 

Does the campaign schedule AI SEAD missions? Am I getting jamming assistance from anyone?

 

I'm just curious how much support the computer schedules the AI to fly in these missions. I'm not really familiar with how the Strike Fighters series campaign engine works.

 

Try carrying an ECM pod but in all honesty not sure if it's worth it...

[mppd 16]

Anyone ever try changing the carried ECM pod "JammerStrength=" value to extremely high values? Would this negate the SAM effectiveness? Of course the "pod formation" deal can't be simulated in the sim.

 

USAF Weasal F-105Fs/early F-105Gs were supposedly required to carry an ECM pod per regs in SEA by 1967-68, but never turned them on as it scrambled their RHAW scope returns. The later F-105G had built-in ECM pods in lower fuselage (to free up a pylon for AGM-45) but again rarely turned them on when working over NVN per crew stories that I have read.

 

Mike D.

[Bossco82 11]

I had this problem too, however the one that bothered me most is the fps drop when all the sams and aaa were firing. What I did was I went through the Vietnamsea_targets.ini and reduced the aaa and sams till I got to a level I was happy with.

 

I think the F-4J was fitted with an internal ecm, i'm sure the stock TW model is. I experimented with jammer strengths a while ago, Use deceptive jammer at a strength of 50-60, should be enough so they can lock onto you but they will probably miss you. However the odd one especially the later SA-2's still have a chance of hitting you.

[MigBuster 2,884]

Yes upping the jamming level of the pod does increase the protection - but you dont really need this SF2V - because the SAMs are far less effective than they were in WOV - which is a good compromise really - as jamming support flights and Chaff bombers etc are not available by default.

 

If you wait for packages - or other flights you can sometimes hide behind them :)

 

 

Yes some of the jamming pods are supposed to interfere with your own systems - I did a basic write up here:

http://combatace.com/topic/57249-ecm-jammers-in-sf2-for-sf2-kb/

 

The game is a bit to simplistic to create the many SAM operator tactics and modifications they went through to try and beat the many versions of jammer pods used (also not in the game by default).