Falcon BMS 4.37
EMF v1.8.0

Edit 28-01-23: Link removed due to new version, compatible with U1

Enjoy!

1. Download EMF v1.1.8 from this link:
   https://www.mediafire.com/file/3tqspepkmllkg4n/Add-On_emf_v1.1.8.7z/file

2. Go to C:\Falcon BMS 4.36\Data\TerrData\TheaterDefinition and open theater.lst with notepad. Add the following line: Add-On emf\theaterdefinition\emf.tdf

Enjoy!

Changelog

a) Added all updated Janhas F-16 models
b) Added HAF F-4E AUP dedicated cockpit (Thnx Manos)
c) Fixed HAF Mirage 2000 pits
d) Various bugs have been fixed

Enjoy!

BMS 4.37 U2
EMF v2.0.0

1. Delete any previous EMF versions

2. Download EMF v2.0.0

Enjoy!

Falcon BMS 4.37 U1
EMF v1.9.0

1. Delete / Uninstall any previous version of EMF (i.e. v1.8.0)

2. Download EMF v1.9.0

Enjoy!

1. Download EMF v1.1.7 (https://www.mediafire.com/file/mt1t2yta38nf5qf/Add-On_emf.7z/file)

2. Go to C:\Falcon BMS 4.36\Data\TerrData\TheaterDefinition and open theater.lst with notepad. Add the following line: Add-On emf\theaterdefinition\emf.tdf

Enjoy!

PS: No campaigns included

New EMF compatible with U1, will be uploaded later today when I get back from work.

I’ve created this F-16 quiz.

Most questions are based on BMS manuals we have.
I am gonna enrich it in the future with more questions.

https://www.fyrebox.com/play/5jjvd6kwjm77rxpzog/

I am a fun of the quiz method to enhance someone’s knowledge on any field. I think that after you have studied manuals, quiz is a quick way to check your knowledge and refresh stuff you might forgot.

As we all know, the Dynamic Campaign (DC) in BMS is one of the core aspects of this sim. Also, we are all familiar with the fact that in DC, the ATO generates lots of suicidal missions, which do not make sense. Other times, it generates missions which are not rational. The good news is that this can be changed. The bad news is that this cumbersome situation was never properly addressed in years. Finally, I managed to alter this situation during the campaigns I made for EMF theater. Below, I will describe the necessary steps campaign creators should follow to force the ATO to generate rational missions according to modern air force doctrines.

Two crucial files that affect directly the way DC operates are: a)falcon4.aii and b)mission.dat. Both are located in the campaign folder. In the former file, there are lots of variables which affect the DC engine. During the various BMS updates, some variables were tweaked and others were added or deleted. It is, beyond the scope of this thread to discuss the proper values for all those variables. What is important is that none of those updates addressed the following crucial values:

MaxFlymissionThreat=85
MaxFlymissionHighThreat=100
MaxFlymissionNoThreat=10
MinSeadescortThreat=20
MinAvoidThreat=40

For some reason, all BMS updates and even SP, FF or OF versions left those aforementioned variables in their default values. By googling around these variables, all the results regarding their meaning are rather vague. By playing around with these values and making correct changes in mission.dat, we can erase once and for all the DC suicidal missions.

So, what these values mean? These are thresholds, which represent the risk level of missions. In other words, it is a measurement of the GBAD (SAM) threat in an area. The higher the value, the higher the risk level of mission and vice versa. How the threat level is measured? It is measured by the maxalt of mission types. For example the MaxFlymissionNoThreat=10 means that the ATO will generate low risk missions. In other words, missions will be generated if and only if the SAM threat is minimal or absent. Now, the main problem is that the MaxFlymissionThreat=85 and MaxFlymissionHighThreat=100 are way too high. These values alone are responsible for the suicidal missions ATO generates all the time. In plain English, the values of 85 and 100 mean that the ATO will generate missions regardless of the SAM type in an area. So, you will find an OCA Strike or a SWEEP mission generated in the MEZ of a SA-10 or Patriot battery. Clearly, insane. Bottom line, is that if you increase these values, the ATO will generate more missions, simply because it doesn’t care about the threats, as if they don’t exist. Why these values were left too high? I assume that in the days of MicroProse the goal was to flood the skies with as many a/c as possible, regardless of the realism factor. Afterwards, who knows? Maybe they didn’t get the proper attention.

Having this in mind, we now move forward to the mission.dat file to check out which missions fall under which threat category. In order to find out this valuable info, we need a tool named missiondatutil (http://www.mediafire.com/file/rcdcd7dmeak8473/MissionDatUtil.rar/file). The tool is accompanied with a word, which explains all the mission.dat variables. It is beyond the scope of this threat to address all those values. For now, we care only to find out the Risk Level we have to assign to each mission type.
Follow the steps and convert your mission.dat file to mission.csv one. Open the latter file and scroll to the flags column for each mission. Each mission type will have one of the following variables: a)AMIS_Nothreat, or b)AMIS_Highthreat or c) none variable regarding threat. To save you time, this is the result below.

You can see that in the AMIS_Nothreat category fall missions which make sense to be generated in areas where SAM presence is either minimal or absent. It makes sense that HVA like AWACS and Tankers orbit in safe areas, far away from A2/AD bubbles.

You can also see that in the AMIS_Highthreat category fall missions which, rationally, do not belong there. You can’t generate and OCA Strike in area covered in full with A2/AD SAMs like SA-10. First, these SAM must be targeted with dedicated DEAD/SEAD missions. Once the area is clear of high threat GBADs, other strike packages can follow.

All the other missions which do not have any type of threat variable in the flags column, fall under the MaxFlymissionThreat=85 category, which is a risk level between the Nothreat and HighThreat values. Let’s say missions of medium risk.

So, what should we do to eliminate the suicidal missions and force the ATO to generate rational missions? We should do the following steps:

1. Leave the variable AMIS_HighThreat only in two missions. These are SEAD Strike and STSTRIKE (Stealth Strike). Perhaps, leave it in dedicated ECM missions too. But it is obligatory to include it in SEADSTRIKE & STSTRIKE. Remove the AMIS_HighThreat variable from all other missions, which have it by default. This way we tell the DC engine that only dedicated DEAD/SEAD packages will enter areas covered by A2/AD GBADs (high threat areas). Also, only stealth a/c will penetrate these areas for purposes other than DEAD. This rationale is on par with modern air force doctrines as well. You will observe that once SAMs are eliminated by DEAD / SEAD, packages, then the ATO will generate missions which fall under the MaxFlymissionThreat category. Once you done that, save your mission.csv file and by using the missiondatutil tool, convert your .csv back to mission.dat

2. Go to falcon4.aii, and use the following values:

MaxFlymissionThreat=20
MaxFlymissionHighThreat=85
MaxFlymissionNoThreat=10
MinSeadescortThreat=15
MinAvoidThreat=12

By having a MaxFlymissionThreat=20, all the missions in mission.dat which fall under this category (i.e. SWEEP missions) will have a low to medium ALR (Acceptable Risk Level). Thus, no more SWEEP flights in the MEZ of SAMs. It doesn’t make sense.

By changing the variable MinAvoidThreat from the default value of 40 to 12, the AI a/c will try to avoid more SAMs. Previously, they pretty much didn’t avoid any threat at all. By how far away the AI a/c will try to avoid the SAM, depends on the value Airpathmax. Currently, I am playing around with this variable to check if there is any tangible effect.

All the aforementioned values work perfectly in my EMF campaigns, given the EMF database. Play around with these values, but bare in mind that they should be close to the ones I provided.

EDIT #1

To elaborate a bit more on the threat values, the default code states the following:

ls = ScoreThreatFast (mis->tx, mis->ty, GetAltitudeLevel(MissionData[mis->mission].minalt*100), mis->who);
	hs = ScoreThreatFast (mis->tx, mis->ty, GetAltitudeLevel(MissionData[mis->mission].maxalt*100), mis->who);
	if (ls > MIN_SEADESCORT_THREAT || hs > MIN_SEADESCORT_THREAT)
		targetd |= NEED_SEAD;
	if (mis->priority > ATM_HIGH_PRIORITY && ls && hs)
		targetd |= NEED_SEAD;
	if (package_flags & AMIS_HIGHTHREAT)
		tar = MAX_FLYMISSION_HIGHTHREAT;
	else if (package_flags & AMIS_NOTHREAT)
		tar = MAX_FLYMISSION_NOTHREAT;
	else
		tar = MAX_FLYMISSION_THREAT;
	if (ls > tar && hs > tar)
		{
		if (ls > MAX_FLYMISSION_HIGHTHREAT && hs > MAX_FLYMISSION_HIGHTHREAT)
			return PRET_CANCELED;

The general idea here is that we must assign a TR value which lower than the minalt & maxalt of the mission types we want.

Nonetheless, as Mav-Jp and Dee-Jay stated, this kind of tweaking is for campaign & theater creators who know their stuff and want to introduce a more realistic risk factor into their campaigns.

Hi,

Sorry to miss some posts. This version was deliberately deleted by me because it is obsolete. A newer version will arrive in the near future.

@DennisGRC

Probably not, because I am working on a better BMS-Greek theater project for the future. The latter, will include campaigns…

BMS 4.37 U2
EMF v2.0.0

1. Delete any previous EMF versions

2. Download EMF v2.0.0

Enjoy!

@Rouge1512

They are compatible

Falcon BMS 4.37 U1
EMF v1.9.0

1. Delete / Uninstall any previous version of EMF (i.e. v1.8.0)

2. Download EMF v1.9.0

Enjoy!

New EMF compatible with U1, will be uploaded later today when I get back from work.

@choclate77
Check SA-20 in EMF theater

@Ironman53rd

Did u -by any chance- missed the EMF 4.37 thread?

@Bazyl_Mulder

Try this:

Go to

C:\Falcon BMS 4.37\Data\TerrData\TheaterDefinition and open theater.lst with notepad. Add the following line if it is not there: Add-On emf\theaterdefinition\emf.tdf

correct. It is a bug.

@Micro_440th

ok then

@GhastlyTT

First, CATM are supposed to be launched in SIM mode.

However, even in ARM, you shouldn’t have any issues.

Are you sure there wasn’t any live missile loaded?