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2. Distance. You need to consider the distance between targets. Since
everything runs in real time while online, if you make the objectives far
from the airfields you may have one mission take twenty minutes just to get
to the target. It doesn't always pay to fly long stretches in the sim
since being in the sim means you are not back making more missions to
counter what the enemy might be doing. I have often adjusted the scenario
by using the team "painting" tool to paint the map so bases are not too far
from objectives (see 11-37 in the manual). This distance factor plays in as
well for ground troop movements. Ground forces move slowly! And if they
get engaged in battle, you can forget a one-hour time limit. If you make a
victory condition the occupation of a city or airfield, you better be
prepared to put the troops close to the target and to extend the time limit
to three hours. Some of you may want to make scenarios that require you to
save the mission and then play it later to completion. Saving missions
works perfectly for scenarios flown offline, but online missions will suffer
from the same problems that affect the mission schedule. The save feature
for missions played online is another area that you use at your own risk.
3. Realistic Objectives. The temptation might be to make a mission that
has 100 victory conditions and 10,000 points to win the scenario. I urge
you to consider this carefully. A good 4-10 objectives per team are
attainable and give enough variety to make playing fun. You might also
consider how many objectives need to be accomplished to win the scenario.
In one scenario I had four objectives each worth 100 points. I then made
the points for victory 300 out of 400 possible. Think realistically when
making your objectives and you will make playing the scenario a rewarding
experience. I would caution you on setting just one objective since that
could make for a very quick or ridiculously busy game. If there is just one
objective, then guess where all the DCA's and OCA's will be? Spread it out
some and you will make it a much better game.
Strategy for mission making
Since with Force on Force type play you are responsible for the air war and
sometimes the ground war, there is the question of strategy. Because
scenarios will all be different based on victory conditions, there is no one
set strategy, but some things are important for you to consider. Force on
Force missions are normally made at the beginning of the scenario for the
time period you plan to fly. It is up to you to plan out your strategy to
cover the time period you will be in the sim. Consider as well the
limitations of squadron tasking. You only have so many flights per
squadron, so you need to plan with time in mind. Here are my suggestions
for strategy:
1. Get DCA and BARCAP's up immediately. You can't assume that the DPRK or
an online friend will wait twenty minutes to launch a strike. Cover
yourself and remember that aircraft may not be using the default waypoints.
You can now make a packages the right way.
Note the time of the scenario and the time set for takeoff
2. Do not use default waypoints. Plan your strike missions to come at a
target from different angles. It takes some time to adjust waypoints, so
make sure you give yourself a few minutes by adjusting the time of takeoff
for about ten minutes after the current time clock time. Giving yourself
enough time is also helpful because if the flight is within two minutes of
launching, you cannot change the loadouts.
3. Make "Dummy" flights for various times throughout the scenario time
limit. A dummy flight can be a simple BDA mission here and there. Give
yourself some flights that will allow you jump in and handle emergencies.
4. Fly your important missions. There is no substitute for the human
player. Get in there and wreak havoc. A good "Dummy" flight that is loaded
out with wide array of weapons will give the human player an ability to jump
in and win the war.
5. Think non-conventionally. Don't expect prescripted or human players to
play like you! I've learned this lesson a few times. I played once where
an opponent launched practically his whole squadron at the same time on
strikes against my targets. What to do if that happens? If you are in the
sim and you see a massive strike bearing down, jump out of the cockpit and
back to the UI. Try to make intercept missions even though they may not
show up in the mission scheduler for you to fly. They should still be in
the sim world and this might be the difference between winning and losing.
6. Watch the Abort bug! Until someone fixes this, you have to watch your
AI flights carefully. Many times AI flights will abort when they detect a
DCA, BARCAP, or SWEEP flight in the area they are tasked to strike. I've
found that one way to stop this is by making sure your flight has an escort
in the package. It's not enough to have your own DCA flights in the area,
you need to make a package that has an escort flight and that seems to
reduce the aborts dramatically.
7. Watch for ground force cowardice. Here is another frustrating area that
requires your micro-management. If your scenario requires you to give your
ground forces waypoints to accomplish "occupy" objectives, be aware that
ground forces will often retreat when they encounter opposition. This means
that they will redirect their waypoint from the target in the opposite
direction. It is good to keep a constant eye on ground forces while you are
in the UI watching the war and thinking of strategy. This is another reason
it is good to not stay in the sim too long. The longer you are in the sim,
the less opportunity you have to micro-manage to overcome annoying bugs.
If you are interested in seeing how this all comes together, please visit my
website and take a look at what I'm doing here.
What I've been doing there is making Force on Force Prescripted missions for
others to download and play. I'm prescripting the DPRK, so when you play
these missions you are flying against a human mind. My hope is that this
type of playing will catch on and that more and more people will begin to
script missions and play them out offline and online.
Here is an example mission from the latest release over at Force on Force
Headquarters for you to fly. Note please that this mission will require you
to have the I-beta realism patch installed. In this mission the USA team
has four F-16, one A-10, one F-15C, one F-15E and one B-1B squadron to task
flights from. Your job is to accomplish the victory condition objectives
within the two hour time limit. You can download it here.
As you can see, Falcon 4.0 is an amazing simulation that allows the player
many different options for play. If you have any further questions or
comments please contact me and let me know. I'm also looking to form a
Force on Force squadron for any who are interested. Give this type of play
a try because I'm sure you're going to love it.
Tom "Saint" Launder
ICQ 7644658
tomldr@yahoo.com
