Couple of questions
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Hey everybody
I’ve had Falcon BMS for several months now and have made my way through all the training missions and have even started a campaign . I hope this is the right forum for these questions:
1. How do you know when you’ve been spiked by an another plane? When I lock up a friendly they make a buddy spike call and I noticed that there is an option on the comms menu to declare a buddy spike if it should happen to me, but how do I know if I’ve been locked or not? I understand that the diamond float on the RWR will probably go to that plane but it does that for other reasons too.
2. On the training mission involving maverick missiles, it has me boresight them on a conveniently located friendly ship but what if I’m flying a mission and there isn’t one, what would I boresight my missiles on?
3. What happens if you die in the campaign? I’ve been getting shot down on the first mission and just restart from my save file at the beginning but it looks like I can continue playing if I want. Can you continue flying missions even after you die? What exactly are the consequences?
4. Comms question: I have the UHF frequency set to the tower but I can hear AWACS and other friendly planes as well as communicating with them. I would assume that I would only be able to hear people on the tower frequency. Is it the VHF that they are all on and is that why I can hear them? When I transmit to AWACS the UHF lights up on my DED meaning I’m talking over the UHF which to me means that everybody is on the tower freq but in the briefing I says to contact AWACS on a set of other frequencies besides the tower one
Thanks everyone and hope that’s not to much trouble.
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This place is as good as any!!
1. How do you know when you’ve been spiked by an another plane? When I lock up a friendly they make a buddy spike call and I noticed that there is an option on the comms menu to declare a buddy spike if it should happen to me, but how do I know if I’ve been locked or not? I understand that the diamond float on the RWR will probably go to that plane but it does that for other reasons too.
IIRC, there will be a diamond over that contact. I can’t remember if there’s a distinction between being painted and being locked, but the diamond will be over the highest priority or when someone locks you, they’ll then be the highest priority. At least that’s what I recall.2. On the training mission involving maverick missiles, it has me boresight them on a conveniently located friendly ship but what if I’m flying a mission and there isn’t one, what would I boresight my missiles on?
Any landmark. Or boresight on the ground before takeoff.3. What happens if you die in the campaign? I’ve been getting shot down on the first mission and just restart from my save file at the beginning but it looks like I can continue playing if I want. Can you continue flying missions even after you die? What exactly are the consequences?
Your log gets +1 to your death count, your squadron gets -1 to aircraft count, but that’s it! You can continue on freely. -
Hey everybody
I’ve had Falcon BMS for several months now and have made my way through all the training missions and have even started a campaign . I hope this is the right forum for these questions:
4. Comms question: I have the UHF frequency set to the tower but I can hear AWACS and other friendly planes as well as communicating with them. I would assume that I would only be able to hear people on the tower frequency. Is it the VHF that they are all on and is that why I can hear them? When I transmit to AWACS the UHF lights up on my DED meaning I’m talking over the UHF which to me means that everybody is on the tower freq but in the briefing I says to contact AWACS on a set of other frequencies besides the tower one
Thanks everyone and hope that’s not to much trouble.
Winger…Firstly, Welcome!
In answer to question 4, the reason that you first hear AWACS is that the BMS comms defaults to Channel 6, called “Package 1”, I believe. To get to the tower, you either can either enter the freg manually or, and more preferably, preset button 15 to the tower via the DTC before entering the cockpit. Then, when you select preset 15 you get the tower. Don’t forget to go back to Channel 6 when you want to contact AWACS, and back to !5 for approach/landing -
Hello Winger,
About point two. While planning a mission, you can slide a waypoint over something that will have trackable objects. Maybe a town or depot… you know… Enroute, when you switch to that point, your TGP will be near the objects. Or… to refine the search area, recon the target when mission planning and set a target steerpoint… select that point and perform the boresight.Back to point one. I’ve never been lock on to and fired upon by AI friendlies in the 17 years of flying this sim… you will know when that 29 bugs or hard locks you… your RWR will scream.
On to point 3… it’s a dynamic campaign… the war goes on. You don’t need to complete a mission in this sim for it to continue to truck along. Someone may correct me if I’m wrong, but losing airframes or your life goes into the overall morale of the troops and their effectiveness in defeating the enemy…
Check my sig for some helpful, laidback folks who love this sim…
Good luck, sir
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Thanks everyone.
After a couple of tries I managed my first successful mission. Day 1 BARCAP, I downed three (1-flogger, 2-29’s) I was shocked to see at the debriefing as I didn’t know my missiles had hit, and my wingman got an Su-25. I did only get an “average” performance because I had to RTB early from my station due to low fuel (dropped my wing tanks too early; rookie move)
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Don’t drop your wing tanks for nothing but only in case of emergency. Wing tank are reusable.
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Don’t drop your wing tanks for nothing but only in case of emergency. Wing tank are reusable.
You know, there is opportunity for the devs to add more unrealistic limitations to the sim to enfore realistic behavior. You could set it up so that dropping wing tanks inhibits weapon release, or zeros your score for the mission.
not at all realistic, but much like over G breaking the aircraft, enforcing realistic behavior.
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You know, there is opportunity for the devs to add more unrealistic limitations to the sim to enfore realistic behavior. You could set it up so that dropping wing tanks inhibits weapon release, or zeros your score for the mission.
not at all realistic, but much like over G breaking the aircraft, enforcing realistic behavior.
You must be kidding, Blu3. Real Viper drivers do get zero point when they jettison their tanks. In some air forces, they even crash to desktop for that.
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You know, there is opportunity for the devs to add more unrealistic limitations to the sim to enfore realistic behavior. You could set it up so that dropping wing tanks inhibits weapon release, or zeros your score for the mission.
not at all realistic, but much like over G breaking the aircraft, enforcing realistic behavior.
Not needed. Wing tanks are counted in squadron stores … once you are out of WT, you will be f.ked up until the resupply (if any).
Edit: zero or reduced score for the mission is a good idea … just like if you land or takeoff without proper clearance.
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As I also heard an immediate malfunction after over-G (and the noise) is unrealistic behavior, wouldn’t it be fixed to only reducing score after a flight?
Or maybe you can add crew chief yelling at debriefing UI.
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You must be kidding, Blu3. Real Viper drivers do get zero point when they jettison their tanks. In some air forces, they even crash to desktop for that.
I am, yes. Making a point about unrealistic simulation. Theres good argument against unrealistic behavior in a sim. One is made in the RP5 manual, specifically about over G.
Id love the idea about takeoffs, but only if ATC became realistic. So not a good idea for the immediate future. Makes it hard to simulate QRA flights by 111FS at the KUN for example.
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Of course this is a matter of some philosophical debate but so far the answer has been this “choke chain” modeling to encourage flying within regulation limits. Overall there is not a broad request for change on this point. You can imagine that PvP interactions would be degraded by such a change! After some experience flying within book limits poses no significant hindrance to mission performance. Just like race car driving the saying “slow is smooth, smooth is quick” applies. The best pilots I think rarely exceed 5G.
Radios are a bit funny in BMS. They work on “filter” system. AWACS and wingmen you can talk with on many frequencies, but a tower only one. The frequencies associated with channels 6-7-8-9-10 will filter in package members. Frequency for ch. 12 is “proximity” and filters to a certain range. Of course this makes no real sense physically. So it is expected that you can talk with AWACS or wingman when on tower; they aren’t filtered out.
Realistically you would align Maverick on ground and maybe again in air at longer distance to improve it or verify. In BMS ground calibration is funny so don’t rely on it. With experience you can calibrate very fast and there is always something to work with on the way to the target. It is like tying your shoes, you stop worrying about it.
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the answer has been this “choke chain” modeling to encourage flying within regulation limits. Overall there is not a broad request for change on this point.
And while I disagree with the solution chosen so far, I think we can all agree that having a uniform solution is best. Ergo, it would be better to introduce unrealistic limitations across the board, everywhere that we find any level of unrealistic behavior.
Case in point, the PvP interactions you mentioned are rarely realistic flight behavior. The aircraft and simulation are realistic, but the pilot behavior is unrealistic. Now, I am a proponent of pilot enforced realism, but with the current solution we would be better off to introduce unrealistic limitations to limit that PvP behavior to the realistic. Enforcing ROEs for example.
Similarly, it is not realistic to over-G the aircraft, so a good unrealistic simulation that would enforce realistic behavior would be to artificially limit the FLCS to only allow the pilot to pull the safe level of G. Unrealistic simulation in the name of realistic behavior by pilots.
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I believe IFF is one of those things, IIRC Dee-Jay once said that in real life pilots turn off IFF when fencing in and across a front line. Identification mainly relies on flight plan at exercise like REDFLAG. I don’t know why. Is IFF detectable to enemy radar receivers? Anyway implementing IFF for sim without realistic cons results in all players rely on it for identification like in Flaming Cliffs 3.
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It depends on theaters and enemy detection means … and if air superiority is achived … or … etc …
Is IFF detectable to enemy radar receivers?
Yes. And might say “hey, I am there and I am not a friendly” … so while it helps you to id friendly, is might helps also the enemy to id you as an “enemy” (indirectly) if on their side they do not use it in reply mode… etc …
IFF is not THE ultimate id tool. It is only one of them.
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not mainly, but it can. procedural ID should never be sufficient to satisfy hostile criteria, and correspondingly it should not be sufficient to satisfy enemy criteria either.
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I propose we drop discussion on IFF and ID procedures before we start swirling down the toilet again
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And while I disagree with the solution chosen so far, I think we can all agree that having a uniform solution is best. Ergo, it would be better to introduce unrealistic limitations across the board, everywhere that we find any level of unrealistic behavior.
Case in point, the PvP interactions you mentioned are rarely realistic flight behavior. The aircraft and simulation are realistic, but the pilot behavior is unrealistic. Now, I am a proponent of pilot enforced realism, but with the current solution we would be better off to introduce unrealistic limitations to limit that PvP behavior to the realistic. Enforcing ROEs for example.
Similarly, it is not realistic to over-G the aircraft, so a good unrealistic simulation that would enforce realistic behavior would be to artificially limit the FLCS to only allow the pilot to pull the safe level of G. Unrealistic simulation in the name of realistic behavior by pilots.
Might not get my vote on the unrealistic behavior thing, unless these enforced limits can be switched on and off like invulnerability etc.
I try and fly to the limits but it is often not possible because the only physical feedback I have the stick……so forget preventing overspeeding or over G when things go tits up…in fact I spend a lot of time in CAT III to try to prevent these failures occurring.
It seems to me that real life pilots try to fly the limits but also cant always enforce G limits either…be good to get stats on over G events from the last 5 years because the way they talk it doesn’t seem to be uncommon (airframe, pods etc)…and at least the F-16 has a 9G limiter…remember that F-15 that broke in half…fatigue after years of over G in training!
In a Falcon campaign I thought you were supposed to be at war…how many pilots got reprimanded for over G or dropping tanks when a MiG-23 was miles away and closing on your AMRAAM armed F-16?
Similarly if I’m trying to save my jet I shouldn’t have to be penalized going through someones imposed limit that is nowhere near the actual limit.
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Yes, that is what I am getting at MiGbuster. I am making the point that the unrealistic behavior already present in the sim is a bad idea.
As a minor point, flying in CAT III will not really help WRT preventing failures from overspeed or over-G. It will limit your alpha and your roll rate, but speed and G you have to sort for yourself.
G you can control very easily, because the stick is the only physical feedback you need. The G-command system means that the same stick input always corresponds to the same G - save when you are at low speed and thus high alpha, and then alpha gets blended into the stick, meaning you need more stick to get the same G. Upshot being, that you cant accidentally over-G without having hamfisted the stick.
Overspeed, fair call - the F-16 is capable, and when clean very capable. When flying clean or close to, I typically remind everyone Im flying with to set their throttles appropriately, because its very easy to leave the throttle in MIL for 10 seconds too long and pick up a hundred knots you didnt really need.
In summary though, Im making the same point you are - that unrealistic simulation is not what we fly BMS for.
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I guess I spent to many years flying WW2 sims where I jettison before any air combat The crew chief will lecture me about how Jabba is mad that I dumped my cargo at the first sight of the enemy.
Is there anyway to display current G amount in the HUD? The only thing I can get is the max G pulled during the flight which seems useless to me. Why would I need to know the max rather than what I’m pulling in a given turn?
Also, I’d like your thoughts on this:
Lately, I’ve been thinking that modern air combat (especially with stealth aircraft) is becoming more like submarine warfare. It’s less dogfighting and more cat-and-mouse with the emphasis on staying hidden from the enemy as long as possible while detecting him as soon as possible to get a favorable firing solution; missiles being analogous to torpedoes. Radar is similar to sonar and radar signature is similar to noise made by subs: the less “noise” you make the better your chances of firing first.