“Oldbie” Question -SF2 Flight Planning

[Mike Dora 171]

I’ve been playing the SF series since they began, many moons ago, but one thing has always frustrated me, the apparent inability to amend a flight plan before launching. Maybe I was spoiled by DI’s “Tornado” even more moons ago. This thing has finally driven me to ask the following question (maybe I’m slow)..

I know that one can shift waypoints in the planning Map, by clicking and dragging them. But what I’d really like to be able to do, is edit airspeeds and altitudes at those waypoints. My frustration is based on seeing Buccaneers, Jaguars, Harriers and even Tornados trundling on autopilot at ~5000ft, when in the real world RAF strike & attack ac worked at 250ft or lower*.

So tell me please, have I been missing something all these years, is there a way to edit the flight parameters at the waypoints?

Thanks

Mike

*Even our Hercs regularly flew low. I once flew down the Grand Canyon in the back of one of our Hercs, looking up at the clifftops.

[Wrench 9,849]

Quote

Even our Hercs regularly flew low. I once flew down the Grand Canyon in the back of one of our Hercs, looking up at the clifftops

I'm so jealous!! I've never even SEEN the Grand Canyon!!

Back to the matter at hand:

what about trying to adjust the AI routines by specific, tailored statements in the data ini?? You might have to add the "pilot" experience statements as well.

Extract the "AircraftAIData.ini" from the cat 001, and examine it. You can copy/paste various statements (LevelBombAI), and so forth into the data ini, and then adjust the altitudes. You can even adjust the "minimum and maximum" experience of AI flghts/pilots as well (we did this on the KAW Sabres).

A LOT of experimentation will probably be needed.

[+Sundowner 4,837]

You can edit the waypoint height and airspeed parameters if you create a mission using the mission editor.

[Mike Dora 171]

7 hours ago, Sundowner said:

You can edit the waypoint height and airspeed parameters if you create a mission using the mission editor.

Thanks SD, I've been playing these sims so long using automatic mission creation, I wasn't seeing that "edit" icon any more! Silly me.

 

However I've now discovered a couple of constraints with the mission editor. It doesn't allow waypoint settings above 592kt, or below 1000ft. If you try to use settings above/below these, the waypoint defaults to these max/min values.

Secondly, even when you do accept these max/min values, the in-sim autopilot makes the ac porpoise horribly, cycling several hundred feet below and above the selected (1000ft) altitude. So next steps, will experiment with Wrench's suggestions.

[+Sundowner 4,837]

Might be worth trying some different values in the MISSIONCONTROL.INI....

[Altitude]
Normal=3000
Low=500
VeryLow=100
High=5000
VeryHigh=8000

 

These are the stock values and are in meters.....I think..

[Mike Dora 171]

1 hour ago, Sundowner said:

Might be worth trying some different values in the MISSIONCONTROL.INI....

[Altitude]
Normal=3000
Low=500
VeryLow=100
High=5000
VeryHigh=8000

 

These are the stock values and are in meters.....I think..

Good call, I’ll try that.

Looks like TK may have used USAF definitions of “Low” and “Very Low”? 😉🇬🇧

Even “Very High”, my V-Force friends used to wander around at FL5500+, which translates as 16500m.

[Wrench 9,849]

remember the missioncontrol ini  is a GLOBAL controller. 

I'm wondering if some of that there stuff might be hard coded in one of the dll. I know manually flying, you can be as low as you want, but wingmates tend to "wander".

yes, everything is in metrications 

[Dexter249 76]

On 3/6/2021 at 7:44 PM, Mike Dora said:

Maybe I was spoiled by DI’s “Tornado” even more moons ago.

I wish I could do the flight planning that sim had, it still hasn't been beaten in many sims. Flying Low is pretty much impossible in SF2 because the AI can be pretty dumb.

[Wrench 9,849]

and that's UNDERSTATING the matter!! 

[+EricJ 4,245]

6 hours ago, Dexter249 said:

I wish I could do the flight planning that sim had, it still hasn't been beaten in many sims. Flying Low is pretty much impossible in SF2 because the AI can be pretty dumb.

The main reason I fly solo. I mean I could use the help, but realistically wingman AI is just too dumb for it to be an effective tool.