Mr_Tayto

The first image has just made the penny drop for me as to why the Super Etendard had a droopy nose!

This is great info, I'll try this, thanks!!

Just wondered if you guys had any ideas for managing SF2 mod installs? I downloaded NF5 yesterday and installed it and it nearly maxed out my C: drive. I got a big SSD (my fourth in this machine) the other day and moved every game install out of the C: drive. SF2 and the mods are still the biggest non-Windows group of files. I saw a KB article a while back about a way of moving the mod folders to different drives, are there any other ways or is that the best?

I've done as much as I (think) I can. It's a smallish SSD (250GB). I'm considering cloning a much bigger one

I'm not arguing that it's realistic, forgive me if it comes across like that. It's not (compared with a study sim like DCS) realistic in terms of aircraft handling, but I don't think I've ever played a sim before that was more immersive in combat than SF2. If the OP wants to fly a realistic F-4 he should spend £60 on HB F-4E for DCS, or DCD F-4s for MSFS, but neither will give you (at least, at the moment) the feeling of being part of an Alpha Strike over Hanoi or a Ho Chi Minh trail interdiction like SF2.

I have DCS but only the F-4, F-5 and A-4. Obviously they have more realistic flight models compared with SF2, more realistic radar, and certain weapons are far more realistic in DCS because you have computerised bombing systems accurately rendered (and things like accessible bombing tables). What I can't do, is compare weapons behaviour because I don't think I've seen an AIM-9B in DCS.

RCS? Barely a consideration in the 50s and 60s. No false positives, true, but the radars can still be finicky and hard to use due to sweep arcs etc. I think you're being harsh and not giving enough credit. What active homing radar missiles would you like to see? EDIT: Oh, and no IFF too. Some of these things are corrected for by mods (where applicable to the correct time period), but you have to remember the game is representing 1948-1979 as a basis for its mechanics.

It all depends on what you mean by this. As for aircraft avionics, I think the radars of the time are very well represented, actually. The only thing missing is ground clutter, but otherwise they work exactly as they should. For everything else, we're talking steam gauges (given the 2nd and 3rd generation jets the game was designed around) and they are much better represented than most flight sims short of study-level sims, and even then they mostly concern themselves with more modern glass-cockpitted jets. The more you play the game, and with the HUD off, you learn to fly the aircraft with the engine gauges and instruments. Weapons work as intended; remember poor performance of early missiles is literally coded into the game. It's actually impressive how well TK programmed the early Sidewinders as they work EXACTLY like they did in the early cold war period. One thing I do miss is a proper LABS or Dive/Toss system, and also the ability to manually target EO weapons.

Brilliant post, very entertaining!

Hey all, I've been practicing in The Range deploying a few different weapons types to try to prepare myself for the inevitable SEAD missions as a 105 driver, but I still have a few questions. - How does one deploy CBU24 without CCIP? Is shallow diving preferred? Given I'm attacking AAA I don't want to get too close to the guns but I have the best results against inert targets in the range in a shallow dive releasing under 3000ft, which is danger close for low calibre weapons. - Is it better to drop two at once until Winchester, or single bombs per target? - Finally, I have graduated(!) to flying without the HUD now I'm comfortable with the instruments in all aircraft. However this makes SEAD very difficult in terms of rendering targets. A good example of this is SAM sites; these are not displayed in game as they were in real life, with obvious "star of David" patterned installations. Often, the first time you see one is the launch tail. It's even worse for gun sites, where you can have a momentary flash or a puff of smoke, but you have to be very low to even see the smoke let alone the gun, and I'm trying to operate above 6000ft until making a run. Any Vietnam guys have any ideas on the above. Before it's mentioned I have seen every Devin Horner video and I still need help!

Thanks Erik. I'll follow good advice and get the one month sub, in that case.

Hi there, for the first time since I've been here I'm looking to obtain a (short) sub, mainly to download some files but also to show support for maintaining an active SF2 userbase and repository of files. It is very appreciated. What I don't understand is, when I select "2 day subscription" (and I assume it's the same for monthy), it says "6.95 + 6.95 per two days". Does this mean it automatically charges every two days? Do I have to cancel the sub as soon as I pay?

Now I'm confused @EricJ; you appear to have the GK model and cockpit but your radar screen works?! And the moving map display below it is dark?

Brilliant, thanks! Is this how the radar should look? It doesn't seem to pick out targets (or at least I don;t see them on the scope)

Just one question (now I finally got round to installing) - is this how the radar screen should look? It doesn't seem to work "like a radar", I see no targets on the scan, and it's the same for terrain following. I'm sure I've done something wrong!

This is an old thread, so just take the above as "sharing info" as opposed to continuing to cry for help I am comfortable with bombing both strategic and tactical targets using the above methods and, most importantly, knowing the aircraft (especially the F-4 hardwings). The one thing The Range can't do is prepare you for Hanoi, sadly, because that's where you'll come unstuck if you're new to it. Even with "just" optically and radar-guided AAA, and 1st generation SAMs, it's the deadliest environment I've ever flown in in 30 years of playing combat flight sims. I think part of that might be the "squashed" nature of the map, it's so easy to dodge a SAM and find yourself in a flak box over an active airbase.

Beautiful A-6s Which model, please? I have the ROTI ones and for some reason every model is KA-6 with 5 tanks, with the bombs clipped through them every time! (and the cockpit is a bit buggy)

Oh yes I'm aware, and trust me I have researched this method now to the nth degree to try to maximise effectiveness in SF2, up to an including editing .ini files to adjust the mil settings for A2G mode ; it doesn't work, it's still TLAR bombing whatever you do. I did find a couple of bombing charts for shallow (27deg) and high angle (50deg), the last one by Devin Horner. I find for larger, strategic targets, the 50deg method is fine early war but drops off massively a few months in as SA-2 starts to be quite numerous unless you use Hi-Lo-Hi profiles (i.e. ingress at treetop before climbing above 12k ft to initiate the dive). For smaller targets I find the 27deg works really well as if you get the (stock mil setting) pipper on target at release height, but it leaves you very vulnerable in low-permissive environments like RP5 and 6 because your roll in is 10kft. Imagine doing this 5-8 times, once per target, and how many SAMs get fired at you (let alone AAA) - without an RWR! Sometimes the game feels like an art installation, teaching you about the folly of war and the loss you the flower of American youth. From 1968 onwards (imo) in the F-105D, every flight feels like a suicide mission you're lucky to survive, in the unlikely event you do. EDIT: Almost forgot to share the bombing charts!

That's a pretty neat Idea!

Decided to start a new campaign after my guy made himself a surviving and decorated veteran of the 1967 Dhimar emergency. Logically I went Linebacker and the opportunity to stick with the F-4, this time in the F-4E. What immediately struck me is "no internal ECM??" The control box is right there in the cockpit! And Navy Phantoms had ECM from 1966?! Why is this? Also, no chaff? Again chaff dispensers were standard on Navy Phantoms a few years into the war! Of course I can see about 7 different external ECM units I can equip, but how do I choose which one? Also, I want to use LGBs for strategic targets, but given they're in NVN, I can't have a Pave Spike and an ECM unit... Or can I? The loadout screen seems only to offer one choice, and it's either or in the forward Sparrow wells. Someone make it make sense?

Huh, I've never done that yet. Changed weapons in loadout screen and the odd waypoint position, but otherwise just follow the defaults

That looks simple enough; can you select a loadout? Or does it auto-select based on mission type (which seems to make sense). I see there's a "Fast FAC"/FAC loadout already there, I've never had one of those missions.

Ah... It wouldn't work then, because you'd have: Wing outboard x2 (1) Wing inboard x2 (2) Wing inboard heater rails x4 (3) Centreline x1 (4) Sparrow aft x2 (5) Sparrow forward x2/ECM/Pave Spike (6) Otherwise I'd need to delete a station completely