Help with campaign
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So I’m just trying to learn the campaign. for the moment I am just sticking to A to A missions as I know all the weapons and systems best but I am simply struggling to actually complete a mission. Even if it is a simple BARCAP I goof it up. It seems that I either get shot down, stray too far from the mission area, or wind up BVR killing a friendly (doesnt the F-16 have IFF?). Im not frustrated or anything I simply dont know how to go about operating a mission in a modern fighter. (used to WWII and WWI sims but new to modern ones) I think my biggest problem is that I am too eager to get kills and wind up chasing enemies all over the map staring at my left mfd. I dont usually have this issue with WWII sims because its all WVR so if you get engaged you get engaged and if you dont you dont whereas with the F-16 i can see a guy 120nm away and start chasing him down. I also think the problem stems from me not being all that attuned with the tactics involved for BVR. Its a situation of I have the ability to use the tools I just dont know the best way to. I tend to get in over my head and become overwhelmed losing my SA.
any guidance would be appreciated.
-Jay
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IIRC IFF isn’t implemented yet, so you have to declare from AWACS
and also, call the AWACS to give you a target if you want to shoot something down
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If you lock up a friendly he will call “buddyspike”.
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Is there a way to ask AWACS to give me a heading to the target rather than it’s relationship to Bulls as it feels rather awkward switching SOI and panning around aimlesley to figure out the enemys location.
When I lock a friendly he stays silent. do i have to hard lock him in STT for him to notice me?
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No need for Hardlock, maybe the AWACS isn’t on station yet
And about heading, He gives you mostly only Bullseye location unless you are within 10 miles or so, then he will give you bearing from you
And you can also see the Bullseye location on your FCR, so no aimless searching…
But if you hardlock and no AWACS is active, you can get a buddy spike from comms if it’s friendly
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Alright I sorta kinda forgot about the FCR showing Bullseye info (palm is firmly applied to face) that should make things a bit easier.
I think my biggest problem is developing my SA so I can know where the friendlies and enemies are at and avoid accidentally crossing the front lines into enemy territory and getting swarmed by migs.
also what do the triangular waypoints mean?
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Alright so i tried another mission and once again a bunch of friendlies decided to fly directly into a flight of J-7s i was targeting to which i had no indication of as only a few seconds before the AWACS had declared the flight hostile. I really want to stab all of my AI f-16 flights right now.
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Alright I sorta kinda forgot about the FCR showing Bullseye info (palm is firmly applied to face) that should make things a bit easier.
I think my biggest problem is developing my SA so I can know where the friendlies and enemies are at and avoid accidentally crossing the front lines into enemy territory and getting swarmed by migs.
also what do the triangular waypoints mean?
TJ,
First welcome to the fun. Triangular waypoint symbols are what I call action wp(strike, SEAD, etc.). Also, if you would like to get a little more grounded, you can disable the use of Bull info in the UI gameplay section. -
ok thats what i figured they were for.
So I tried another mission and successfully engaged a flight of Su-27 and got one of them but as I was chasing another one down a got killed by something (there was no audible launch warning that I noticed and i sort of just exploded so i dont know what killed me. probably an IR).
In all honesty I have no idea what to do and when to do it I am completely lost.
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ok thats what i figured they were for.
So I tried another mission and successfully engaged a flight of Su-27 and got one of them but as I was chasing another one down a got killed by something (there was no audible launch warning that I noticed and i sort of just exploded so i dont know what killed me. probably an IR).
In all honesty I have no idea what to do and when to do it I am completely lost.
Firstly, don’t get frustrated. It also sounds like you’re being a bit rough on yourself. In 4.33 the AI has gotten sneakier. I’ve read posts about people getting zapped even returning to base, without warning. It sounds like that’s what happened on your last mission.
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Ya i thought it was really impressive that the AI was able to properly react to being tracked in TWS by weaving around. I assume this is because they are aware they could have a missile inbound at any point. Either that or the AI was just flying wierd. If anything I like it better than the AI in DCS where they fly head on into AMRAMS. They seem pretty clever, I also remember someone saying that they will set up ambushes behind mountains and stuff which is awesome.
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You can turn off “AWACS uses BE calls” to never use BE calls. They will switch to use BRAA calls when you’re close (20nm?) though automatically in either case. With practice you will get better at locating BE though.
Yes, STT is required for a friendly to say “hey bud, you’re pointing your gun at me.” I wonder if bugging and yelling raygun would work. That’s not exactly how raygun is supposed to work but that’s how you’d challenge someone without a RWR directly. Raygun should include identifying positional information which BMS leaves off.
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AWACS will vector you if asked to the closest bogie and it may not be a threat or the most lethal threat or actually a threat like a SU-25 that can shoot you down but AWACS does not consider it a threat. Your radar scope in TWS will show you a lot more info than RWS including friendlies that are between you and bogies; lock them up and wait for buddyspike, and you should never launch into a furball. Look at the bogie views to see what you got going on. You must fly like the SU27’s are engaging you if you are engaging them too. Check RWR. For training purposes turn on labels and you can learn a lot. The Su-27’s carry the AA12 which is very effective and your primary threat from air to air fighters. If I launch a 120C at 32k I can get first kill often and even if I break lock before pitbull the missile now in maddog will lock onto the first aircraft that enters its radar about 7 miles out. And they definitely react when locked up and when you turn your radar on.
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Should I possibly consider learning how to do something like SEAD or DEAD to start off with then transition into other stuff once I get more comfortable?
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Ya i thought it was really impressive that the AI was able to properly react to being tracked in TWS by weaving around. I assume this is because they are aware they could have a missile inbound at any point. Either that or the AI was just flying wierd. If anything I like it better than the AI in DCS where they fly head on into AMRAMS. They seem pretty clever, I also remember someone saying that they will set up ambushes behind mountains and stuff which is awesome.
Yes, this is definitely an immersion element I’ve not found anywhere else. I was recently on a mission, looked over my shoulder , then was about to go “fangs out”. I just happened to order my wingie to check my six, and the next thing I know I heard was “break high”. Yikes.
Padlock can also be a useful function.
I don’t know if my viewpoint is typical or not, but I actually prefer DEAD over A/a. -
It helps to know the weapons in the area and how to stay out of their ranges. With each mission type that you practice you will learn more about the weapons capabilities. It helps a lot to record ACMI tapes and review them after the mission too. There is a lot of stuff going on that you cant see and you need to imagine in your head. Watching the tapes helps develop that mental picture.
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Well, I’m just learning the game myself, but I like to take a TGP for AA engagements. I just put it on tv mode and zoom all the way in to 4x. Then when I soft lock someone, I can see what they are flying. Faster than waiting for awacs to confirm.
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oh thats an interesting idea Billy I might just try that.
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Jay15, try using instant action starting at lowest level and working your way up in the air to air combat. It will allow you to become familiar with controls and become very challenging as you do higher levels, but I found it prepared me a lot for doing a campaign. You’’ get shot down a lot, but you will start to see how to react etc.
As mentioned before, it the setup section after starting BMS, untick the option that uses bullseye. That means all calls or direction information in a campaign (like asking for vectors to target etc) now will be the actual direction (eg you’re on a heading of 275 and here a call for bandits at 25 miles at 90 degrees at 22000, you will know they are directly behind you 25 miles out).
As for identifying contacts, again as mentioned before, just move the cursors over the radar blip (you don’t have to have lock btw) and query Chalis to declare. They will respond with hostile, bogey (unidentified) or friendly. For better situational awareness when on a mission constantly use the 2 queries to Chalis to (1) give you the picture as well as (2) vector to target. They will respond that either there is nothing or a call as to the closet bandit. Don’t rely on that alone, constantly scan the radar and cursor over and have declare on any returns you see. If you get calls that there are bandits at a certain heading, pay attention to distance AND height info so that you find them by setting the proper radar range AND move the radar scan altitude so they appear on your screen and then you can lock them up or move on or whatever.
Enjoy!
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I changed some of the settings around and I think I’m getting more and more used to the bullseye.
I’ve been jumping between this and DCS to try and keep things fresh but I think that putting some extra time into the Su-27 has helped my BVR game a bit as I flew another BARCAP mission and encountered some su-27’s and survived the bvr fight (still managed to get shot down though).