Top Gun Campaigns

[+allenjb42 4,234]

Looks like this will be awesome and worth a fresh SF2:DACM install!

 

Has anyone thought of maybe a Red Flag campaign for the USAF (and other participants)? Would love to see some '80s F-5E aggressors from the 64th & 65th as well as more modern types (F-15 & F16) if there are later campaigns.

I'm looking at the Michael Skinner/George Hall book on my shelf as well as remembering the Nellis scenes from Firefox and that pretty dire TV movie with Barry Bostwick & William Devane!

[Centurion-1 1,228]

About the F-5Es, would I be correct to assume that the early USN aggressors would wear ex-USAF liveries starting in '78, schemes like the "Old Ghost"`? On the Don Color site I found some nice USAF schemes, can anyone tell me if this would be correct?

http://www.jpsmodell.de/dc/usaf_e.htm#1970

I plan to do more or less all of them but it will take time for sure!

[Boresight 51]

Don't mean to derail this thread, but do you guys remember Topgun: Fire at Will from '96 by Spectrum Holobyte? I loved that game, my first air combat game for my first own PC that my dad bought for me in a fit of generosity. I really liked that and I have been toying with the idea to create a campaign series for SF2 that would follow the events of the campaigns there roughly, starting out with Topgun. Looks like I won't have to do the first bit really 

 

 

(IMHO, this game did a very good job of injecting story and characters into the otherwise very sterile air combat/sim genre. I'm a PC man so can't comment on the various Ace Combats tho, but they are quite arcade)

 

 

 If I do remember ??  

 

That was maybe one of the "sims" most responsible for my enthusiasm for combat flight simulations in the mid 90’s, here at Portugal.

 

And the very first culprit for my acquaintance with the mighty F-14 Tomcat.

Never again I got that feeling of immersion you mentioned on “ TOPGUN: Fire at Will ! “, with any other sim. One really felt as “being part of something”.

 

Surely it was by no means a “ BMS Falcon “ feature wise and all that, and it was indeed a bit arcade sometimes.

 

But it did had several strong points:

- plot immersion throughout the all game;

- F-14 Tomcat / RIO / AIM-54 missile, main features roughly depicted;

- Merlin (the RIO), really helped calling out for dangerous / important situations, etc;

- more than 40 missions (in 1 training series – TOPGUN school, and 3 combat campaigns – Cuba, N. Korea and Libya);

- diversity of scenarios and enemy aircraft – MiG-21, MiG-23, Mi-24 Hind, Su-27, Mirage 2000 C, MiG-29, (almost impossible to dogfight against this one);

- carrier landings (even at night).

 

 

The HUD symbols, were not as realistic as in “ Fleet Defender “, but still they were very reasonable in terms of reality and helped to keep some of the “simulator genre” feeling:

- missile and gun Rmin & Rmax scale for each weapon;

- pitch lader;

- velocity vector;

- missile boresight;

- gun aiming piper;

- target box, etc.

 

One could even "buzz the tower" at the last training mission, with the respective scene where guy get's the coffee spilled all over him.  

 

Your last sentence says it all.

 

Truly nostalgic. 

 

Edited April 21, 2014 by Boresight

[+Dave 2,322]

Bandits....

 

 

[CowboyTodd41 134]

I've been working up a new skin for RavenClaw_007's AIM-9L and using that model for the CAP-9, this is the late 70's/early 80's CAP-9, going to work up a more modern one for the AIM-9M and try to get CAP-7's and CAP-120's as well.

 

 

What do you think? I didn't do much beyond remove most of the markings, and change some colors around, though I think the nose section and forward fins need a darker texture. Big thanks to RC for the templates as well.

 

My reference http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/AIM-9L_DF-ST-82-10199.jpg

[+Dave 2,322]

Brian

 

Are you making this as a separate install or will this be OK to install over a current one? Also if this is for a stand alone install have you thought about menu screens etc?

[+JSF_Aggie 1,291]

It should be fine in a current install.

 

It includes a stock nations.INI file that just has the aggressors added, that might need to be merged. I'm going to call that out in the readme.

 

It has modified loadout.ini's for the F-4's, that remove the gun pods. Those could just be deleted if unwanted.

 

Other than that, its just campaign files, skins, and the F-4J_74 & A-4's.

[Boresight 51]

Hello JSF Aggie and everyone, 

 

A Top Gun Campaign seems fascinating!

One  can imagine himself taking off from NAS Miramar already...

 

Do you foresee any release date ?

Thank you.

Edited May 9, 2014 by Boresight

[Boresight 51]

Hello JSF Aggie and everyone, 

 

A Top Gun Campaign seems fascinating!

One  can imagine himself taking off from NAS Miramar already...

 

Do you foresee any release date ?

Thank you.

 

 

... So, in 5 days,.no one has a slightest idea or opinion ?

[Centurion-1 1,228]

JSF_Aggie is probably busy finishing the campaign, I wouldn't sweat it. Oh, and the standard answer in these cases is: "two weeks" 

[+JSF_Aggie 1,291]

Sorry.  Less than two weeks.  I'm just flying it and tweaking campaign settings.

[Boresight 51]

JSF_Aggie is probably busy finishing the campaign, I wouldn't sweat it. Oh, and the standard answer in these cases is: "two weeks" 

 

Thank you for your time Centurion. That, I didn't know.

 

By the way, what's your opinion on my comment about " TOPGUN: Fire at Will ! " ?

 

 

Sorry.  Less than two weeks.  I'm just flying it and tweaking campaign settings.

 

Hello JSF Aggie,

 

Thank you for your attention. Glad to know it!

 

I wish that everything goes well with your work.

Edited May 17, 2014 by Boresight

[+Dave 2,322]

Brian did you decrease the amount of enemy aircraft that show up each mission? I am getting jumped by 6 to 8 bandits at a time. (2v6, 2v8) It is actually rare that I am getting getting any 2 ship or 4 ship engagements. 

[Stratos 3,188]

Maybe an idea to avoid getting planes exploding is to diminish the damage of the weapons so when you hit a enemy plane is damaged and try to get back to base, but not enough damage to explode in mid air or crash into the ground. Just an idea.

[+JSF_Aggie 1,291]

Brian did you decrease the amount of enemy aircraft that show up each mission? I am getting jumped by 6 to 8 bandits at a time. (2v6, 2v8) It is actually rare that I am getting getting any 2 ship or 4 ship engagements. 

 

What "Campaign Difficulty" setting to you start your campaign on?

 

I've been testing with "NORMAL" and the worse I've seen is 2 v 4, but I've also tweaked some stuff since I sent you a beta.

[Stratos 3,188]

This campaign will be great to teach me how to dogfight in the Tomcat, I really suck at it!!

[Boresight 51]

This campaign will be great to teach me how to dogfight in the Tomcat, I really suck at it!!

 

I can hardly wait.

 

Which one ? Flying the Third Wire Tomcats, or the TMF ones ?

 

If i remember correctly, I find the AI aren't much difficult to dogfight against (depending on their aircraft, sure).

But even in a dogfight against a MiG-29 many time ago, I bellieve I managed to get on his " 6 " fairly easily with the TMF Tomcat...

[Stratos 3,188]

I'm using Thirdwire A only ATM.

[Boresight 51]

I'm using Thirdwire A only ATM.

 

Don't understand that, what's " A only ATM " ?

 

Anyway, have you tried to keep the F-14 airspeed above 380 kts (aprox.) when in a turning fight, and with a low payload ?

( For ex. without external fuel tanks and only 2 or 4 sidewinders - if in a dogfight merge. )

Edited May 26, 2014 by Boresight

[Stratos 3,188]

I'm talking about the Thirdwire A version Tomcat, and no, not tried that yet, but I will, any more tip I need to know??

[Wrench 9,846]

 

Don't understand that, what's " A only ATM " ?

 

 

as in F-14A

[Boresight 51]

I'm talking about the Thirdwire A version Tomcat, and no, not tried that yet, but I will, any more tip I need to know??

 

Essentially, one must adapt to each aircraft's flight profiles.

Let's say (in SF 2 series), if you're flying the F-14 A, the corner speed - where the aircraft turns best, would be (roughly) from the 380 to 450 kts i believe.

 

Certainly you can get temporarily bellow that speed (by pulling harder on the stick, NOT by reducing power), if you're very close to gaining an angle on the enemy, or going for a snapshot.

(See energy fight vs angles fight - though there are more people here, who can explain this better than me.)

 

If you intend to use mission editor, and create a mission purely to dogfight in the F-14, I believe only guns, 2 sidewinders and 50 % internal fuel (or even 25 %) will do, to get the absolute minimum weight you need, so the Tomcat performs best.

 

If you want to fly the regular "fighter sweep" missions, then, maybe you should add some Sparrow missiles.

 

 

as in F-14A

 

Thank you Wrench, but I was also not understanding the "ATM", which I recall now, must be "at the moment"...

Edited May 27, 2014 by Boresight

[Wrench 9,846]

yes, it is "at the moment"

[+JSF_Aggie 1,291]

[+Dave 2,322]

I was on normal Brian when I was flying it.