SF2 Series Air To Ground Combat School

[+EricJ 4,246]

If you're attacking the "Main Target" then you don't need a pod, they'll self guide (and assume some Special Forces dude is lasing, etc) but a pod is better for targets of opportunity or extra targets. The Damocles should be able to be loaded on the dedicated pylon and the centerline pylon should be able to load a pod as well. Or what you may need to do is download a weapons pack from the downloads section and do it that way.

[Boresight 51]

If you're attacking the "Main Target" then you don't need a pod, they'll self guide (and assume some Special Forces dude is lasing, etc) but a pod is better for targets of opportunity or extra targets. The Damocles should be able to be loaded on the dedicated pylon and the centerline pylon should be able to load a pod as well. Or what you may need to do is download a weapons pack from the downloads section and do it that way.

 

That I didn't know, and in fact I was just trying to employ LGB's on some targets of opportunity, and not on main ones.

 

I've been searching a little more, and in fact some of the Rafales (naturally, not all versions) do have the "Damocles" pod, and there's another pod also, "Talio" I believe.

 

EDIT: Using the Damocles pod I've had good success.

 

In the EF-2000 however, after reading the read-me file and selecting the one version ( RAF ) as the one having air-to-ground role, I didn't find any kind of pod or LGB targeting device, but I'm somewhat noob on air-to-ground ops, so...

 

There's some "Litening III" folder in the Weapons folder, but I don't see it at EF-2000 armament list.

Edited October 27, 2015 by Boresight

[+EricJ 4,246]

What you should do is open the LiteningIII_Data.ini and replace the current line with this:

 

AttachmentType=USAF,UK,SWEDEN,ISRAEL

 

That should fix the issue.

[Spudknocker 241]

Is there a way in strike fighters 2 to assign multiple primary targets for strike missions?

[Boresight 51]

What you should do is open the LiteningIII_Data.ini and replace the current line with this:

 

AttachmentType=USAF,UK,SWEDEN,ISRAEL

 

That should fix the issue.

 

Thank you.

 

That and changing the weapon (in the LiteningIII_Data.ini ) start year and export year to an early date (year 2000), did the trick.

 

That's probably because the "Mission year" at the "Create Mission" menu of the EF-2000 only as the year 2000... which I don't understand.

[+Crusader 2,101]

The "auto-lased" main target is only valid for Strike missions . In all other mission types (CAS, Armed_Recce etc.) you need to load a laser designator pod on your aircraft.

[+EricJ 4,246]

Is there a way in strike fighters 2 to assign multiple primary targets for strike missions?

 

Nope, the game always has a "Main Target" and that's it. If TK gave people the ability to tweak the game code maybe, but.... I don't see it happening.

 

Thank you.

 

That and changing the weapon (in the LiteningIII_Data.ini ) start year and export year to an early date (year 2000), did the trick.

 

That's probably because the "Mission year" at the "Create Mission" menu of the EF-2000 only as the year 2000... which I don't understand.

 

If my mind serves me correctly (it's been a minute) go to the Options.ini and change the StartYear to whatever you feel like, and EndYear of course past the current year, and so on, and should fix that problem too.

[Boresight 51]

Nope, the game always has a "Main Target" and that's it. If TK gave people the ability to tweak the game code maybe, but.... I don't see it happening.

 

 

If my mind serves me correctly (it's been a minute) go to the Options.ini and change the StartYear to whatever you feel like, and EndYear of course past the current year, and so on, and should fix that problem too.

 

Ok I will give that a try, but I don't understand:

 

If the EF-2000_RAF_DATA.ini say's:

 

ServiceStartYear=2005

ServiceEndYear=2030

ExportStartYear=2000

 

Then why is the Mission Date (at Create Mission menu) locked at year 2000 ? Rather than like other aircraft wich present several different mission dates (years) option ?

[+EricJ 4,246]

The reason I mention the Options.ini is that is the Master date range, so that's why you're only stuck in 2000 in-game anyway. Make it like 2050 or so and you won't be as limited.

[Boresight 51]

The reason I mention the Options.ini is that is the Master date range, so that's why you're only stuck in 2000 in-game anyway. Make it like 2050 or so and you won't be as limited.

 

Ok will see how it works out.

[Wrench 9,850]

never, never EVER mess with the date range on an aircraft's data ini. 99.9% of the time, they ARE correct.

 

You have to correct the game's date range, just like EJ said, in the main options ini.  There's several (at least 3 posts) about that very subject in the SF2 Knowledge Base

[Boresight 51]

never, never EVER mess with the date range on an aircraft's data ini. 99.9% of the time, they ARE correct.

 

You have to correct the game's date range, just like EJ said, in the main options ini.  There's several (at least 3 posts) about that very subject in the SF2 Knowledge Base

 

 

Ooops... Some hours ago I've just put the EF-2000 (RAF) to enter service 5 years sooner.  

 

(However tweaking with the Litening Pod .INI like EricJ recommended, already got me what I wanted.)

[+EricJ 4,246]

Lol well hopefully you got everything else working good, but usually that's the culprit, along with nation assignments sometimes, as sometimes it works, and sometimes it's like.... huh?

[Mr_Tayto 140]

Hi all,

 

I don't know if this counts as resurrecting a dead thread (it being eight and a half years old and all), but I'm looking for some specific advice in dealing with Iron Hand missions in Vietnam. Specifically, Rolling Thunder as I've never had a pilot survive more than 5 missions, and it's almost always down to an Iron Hand mission.

 

At this point I'm pretty comfortable doing Thud and Intruder strike missions, and have a good hit rate with and without CCIP using pop-up profiles. Iron hand seems like anathema to me, being used to unloading and GingTFO; I have to loiter in some pretty awful flak environments, ususally low and slow having hit my first target, and I usually get bagged by a 57mm I can't evade. I usually suffer losses to the flight, too.

 

So I'm looking for advice, maybe even a successful mission video, to give me some tips for surviving. ARM employment, dumb bombing, ground fire evasion, flight orders, all that stuff.

 

Thanks in advance.

[+EricJ 4,246]

Devin Horner's videos are good examples of doing missions in SF2 Vietnam and he mainly flies the Thud in most of the videos, but does Iron Hand anyway in some videos. Since I fly modern I can't really help, but here's his YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@devinhorner2358

Using ARMs is simple, you point and shoot and hope it hits. It's easier in the more modern (post Vietnam) aircraft, but there are some tutorial videos to look at.

And this is a living thread, not so much "dead", because most player fly air-to-air missions and stuff.

Edited March 28 by EricJ

[Mr_Tayto 140]

5 hours ago, EricJ said:

Devin Horner's videos are good examples of doing missions in SF2 Vietnam and he mainly flies the Thud in most of the videos, but does Iron Hand anyway in some videos. Since I fly modern I can't really help, but here's his YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@devinhorner2358

Using ARMs is simple, you point and shoot and hope it hits. It's easier in the more modern (post Vietnam) aircraft, but there are some tutorial videos to look at.

And this is a living thread, not so much "dead", because most player fly air-to-air missions and stuff.

I have watched every Devin video related to Vietnam (and about half his VNAF videos), and I swear his luck with not pulling Iron Hand is better than mine!  Unless he edited his campaign data .ini!

 

I'll trawl through them again in case I missed some. Unfortunately his F-105 campaign seems to be on hold at the minute, which is a shame because I love those videos. 

[+EricJ 4,246]

Agreed, I binge-watched most of his videos (didn't want to watch the British stuff), but my takeaway was good videos, and if I really wanted to fly the Thud, it would be the go-to source for learning it. But anyway yeah I don't know any other YouTubers offhand (I saw one but didn't watch it) that I can suggest for any other takes, but that I figured that might help. I think the best thing to do is "cheat" by using the red box for enemy targets. Otherwise it's just a hit or miss philosophy with normal targeting.

[Mr_Tayto 140]

I looked back over Devin Horner's "The 100" and watch the first three videos again. Ep.3 covers three missions (3-6) and as it turns out, mission four is indeed an Iron Hand.

 

Unfortunately, it's a truncated mission as at this stage he was talking about squeezing 3-4 missions into one ~1hr video, so we don't get to see the "result"; he doesn't get a "Mission complete" from Red Crown, for example. However, I did get to see how how does it, and that will help.

 

The problem he (and I) had seems to be a lack of ordnance to compete the mission. Enough CBUs and rockets to account for 4-5 AAA sites, but when you're dry, you're dry - and you don't want to push your luck.

[+EricJ 4,246]

Agreed, and places like Hanoi are pretty bad. Try Hanoi in modern times (SA-10s and whatnot populate the area, not good unless you got a good jammer) and you'll still have issues, and the AAA is easy. However, that is the main problem with the mission, so I don't know what to say. Usually if you do "cheat" it'll say Primary Target, so that's a help. I think the median is about 50% of the AAA hit to get a mission success. Then again I mainly fly Strike missions so with modern jets (I've had one shoot up my Hornet one time in Iceland) so I don't have much of an issue with them, it's usually the SAMs I'm worried about.

[Mr_Tayto 140]

22 minutes ago, EricJ said:

Agreed, and places like Hanoi are pretty bad. Try Hanoi in modern times (SA-10s and whatnot populate the area, not good unless you got a good jammer) and you'll still have issues, and the AAA is easy. However, that is the main problem with the mission, so I don't know what to say. Usually if you do "cheat" it'll say Primary Target, so that's a help. I think the median is about 50% of the AAA hit to get a mission success. Then again I mainly fly Strike missions so with modern jets (I've had one shoot up my Hornet one time in Iceland) so I don't have much of an issue with them, it's usually the SAMs I'm worried about.

So, also in the mud-moving context... is speed life?

 

I mentioned liking the hi-lo-lo-hi mission profile of strike missions in the Thud because I think its speed affords a certain security at low level, and I've read that drivers (at least, WW drivers) preferred to stay above 400KIAS striking targets. In the A-6 I was undone by trying to turn and burn between 1-3kft and always catching a stray 57mm round, desperate to just hit my targets and leave at 300ft! Maybe I should just be doing long racetracks and maintaining speed? Obviously SA-2s muddy these waters, but I'm yet to be hit by one I guess.

[+EricJ 4,246]

Speed is a thing, but it's also altitude. The higher you go the less the ability for AAA to hit you. So that's why the "cheat" of the box is somewhat important because realistically (and more or less) you can't see your target, you have to rely on various views, but speed doesn't have anything to do with it, you can still get hit, but not as common as the older jets like Vietnam era if my mind serves me right.

But the problem is the concentration too, since nearly every square foot is covered by AAA in Hanoi so the density is what kills you, as you're out of one gun's firing solution but in another's. So if you can use early guided weapons such as Paveways (depends on the year of course) and Bullpups. But most of the time depending on the year you're dropping by TLAR theory (That Looks About Right) depending on the platform. GKABS's A-6A is nice that you have a CCIP to use, so it makes it easier to bomb targets, but if you can use guided weapons, at least that's what I recommend anyway.

Edited March 28 by EricJ

[Mr_Tayto 140]

48 minutes ago, EricJ said:

GKABS's A-6A is nice that you have a CCIP to use, so it makes it easier to bomb targets, but if you can use guided weapons, at least that's what I recommend anyway.

Yeah, agreed. And generally I have good results with CCIP equipped platforms like the A-6 (I should, I've been practicing since the 90's with Microprose sims!) The issue I have is with my own behaviour with the aircraft in high threat environments, not the mechanics of the bombing itself.

 

I guess I'm also trying to be good with TLAR aircraft. Dive/toss/level bombing without a bombing computer is more art than science in SF2, and it's all I have in the 105, but I can do it. Again, it's about how I approach targets (both psychologically and in physical terms) in SEAD environments, regardless of the method of bombing.

[+EricJ 4,246]

11 hours ago, Mr_Tayto said:

Yeah, agreed. And generally I have good results with CCIP equipped platforms like the A-6 (I should, I've been practicing since the 90's with Microprose sims!) The issue I have is with my own behaviour with the aircraft in high threat environments, not the mechanics of the bombing itself.

 

Yeah it's what it is, and frankly can't suggest anything to help the situation honestly, I just try and bomb from high altitude and hopefully get lucky.

[Mr_Tayto 140]

On 3/29/2024 at 12:42 AM, Mr_Tayto said:

Yeah, agreed. And generally I have good results with CCIP equipped platforms like the A-6 (I should, I've been practicing since the 90's with Microprose sims!) The issue I have is with my own behaviour with the aircraft in high threat environments, not the mechanics of the bombing itself.

 

I guess I'm also trying to be good with TLAR aircraft. Dive/toss/level bombing without a bombing computer is more art than science in SF2, and it's all I have in the 105, but I can do it. Again, it's about how I approach targets (both psychologically and in physical terms) in SEAD environments, regardless of the method of bombing.

Turns out I'm still rubbish 

 

In anything that's not a 105 doing Hi-lo-lo-hi profiles like my F-4C (1 mission with mk82s) and A-4C (2 with mk82s), I'm really struggling. I need to hit the range in those aircraft I think.

[+Crusader 2,101]

This F-105D (stock TW ac ) sight mod I made some years ago has revised sight settings for gun/bomb/rockets.
For dive bombing from 12k ft .. iirc.
Rocket settings -  I dont remember anymore.
Sight reticle has accurate shape