After three missions with the 1.07 beta patch, the results are positive but not perfect.

Test System:

• PII 400 Celeron, 128 MB RAM
• SB Live
• Diamond Fusion Banshee
• Quantum Viking2 4.5
• Toshiba 40x CD

Wingman AI seems vastly improved in general, but still with rough edges. Debriefs likewise are more accurate, but still with glitches. Graphics do indeed seem nicer in general, and I haven't crashed this beta yet in normal use though the -hires switch has given me some trouble (I tried both Diamond drivers as well as 3dfx reference drivers. The patch itself is currently nine meg.)

My first flight was a BDA at twenty minutes into the campaign. It went smoothly until I took two SAM hits near the target area and had to eject. Here is a mission report from my second flight.

Rolling Fire: Interdiction

The mission was an Interdiction flight early in Rolling Fire, the campaign of middle difficulty. All my settings were ACE, and AI was set on ROOKIE. The missions were flown at 800x600 resolution, Player Bubble was set on 3 and Vehicle Magnification on 2.

My flight consisted of a two ship and I jumped in when the flight was five miles out and still climbing to cruise altitude of 20,000 feet. The first thing I noticed was that my wingman was perfectly positioned. I didn't have to go looking for him since the entry problems have been eliminated.

I used "Request Picture" to keep abreast of the situation, and I pulled my wingman in closer using "Close Up" command. I then shut down my radar and ordered my wingman to do the same, keeping a close eye on the passive warning system. By the way, I am using Game Commander to issue all these commands via voice. While reports are mixed, the system works well for me although I occasionally have to repeat myself.

My loadout consisted of four AIM 120s and four GBUs. I jumped into the flight quickly and really should have mounted two AIM 9s in place of two AMRAAMs.

As we came within twenty miles of the target waypoint I made a final check with AWACS and heard that I had MiG 23s at twenty five miles. I quickly kicked my wingman to SPREAD formation and ordered his radar back on, giving him WEAPONS FREE permission. I then turned my own radar on and locked up a bandit at twenty miles and nine thousand feet. I called DECLARE and the target was confirmed hostile.

My wingman did not fire a shot, which surprised me. I believe he confirmed the "radar on" order, but I am not sure whether he actually obeyed. Why I am wondering about this will become clear in a moment.

At fifteen miles I released an AMRAAM at my first target and then locked up a second, called for confirmation, and fired again when the target was confirmed.

My radar showed at least five hostiles at varying altitudes within thirty degrees of my nose. I then locked up another target and ordered my wingman to engage it. He acknowledged but did not fire. I then changed my angle of approach and dropped to fifteen thousand feet. I locked up another target, this time at 16,000 feet, called for confirmation and then fired.

My first two missiles hit home and my third was on its way. I was puzzling about my wingman's status when I locked up a fourth target and let fly. At this point I called AWACS for a "near threat" vector and found a bandit almost directly below me at four thousand feet. I closed on his tail, locked him up in boresight mode, and then ordered my wingman to engage. He acknowledged but as I kept the bandit in my sites, my wingman never showed, nor did he fire.

Finally I closed up and took out the MiG 21 with cannon. While doing this my wingman called a SAM launch with perfect accuracy. I dumped chaff and it missed me.

No longer confident in my team mate's fighting abilities I decided not to look for any ground targets and instead head for home. I called my wingie to close up and headed for fifteen thousand feet.

Shortly after we reached cruise altitude I was getting spiked from my five o'clock position. I ordered my wingman to clear my six and he acknowledged and broke formation. A moment later he called all clear, but again had not fired any missiles.

ATC was perfect, much better than in the past. However, this was my first landing in at least six weeks, and I cracked up badly.. sniff!

The surprise came when the COURT MARTIAL image appeared and I was told there was insufficient evidence to convict me, but a note would be made in my record! I was quite sure I had not fired on any friendly targets, although I was tempted to take a shot at my wingman.

Confused, I took a closer look at the breakdown of my shots and hits. I found an IL 28 and three MiG kills, and no shots on friendly targets. Yet I had FIVE kills noted in the total, and it seems that I myself was the friendly fire incident!

I could be wrong, however, because my wingman was also listed as KIA in spite of my hearing him being given clearance to land. He may have followed me too closely or he may not have aborted landing when I fouled the runway. I have no way of knowing what happened after I exited the campaign. It's possible that I was being accused of killing my wingman, which I certainly considered after his weak performance!

Here are the results of my third mission:

As you can see, a lot of missiles were fired. However, I didn't actually see any launches and none of the launches were called (ie. "Fox1," or "Fox2.") Hopefully this will be remedied by the time the patch is released since I was quite in the dark as to my wingmen's performance during the mission.

My fourth mission involved the Iron Fortress campaign, where I retasked a BDA mission as an Intercept mission since there were literally swarms of MiGs within forty miles of my base. This is a great way to have some fun, though it will mean your mission will be declared a failure since you wont' accomplish the stated goal.

Tomcats in Iron Fortress

Although I could see these aircraft on the AWACS map, when I entered the mission and called "Request Picture," the nearest bandits were given to me at 200 miles. This continued for the next few calls while I took out five aircraft within thirty miles. By the time I had taken out two MiG29s AWACS had smartened up and was giving me intercept vectors when I called for "Near Threat." Looks like some more work needed here also.

Swarms of Bad Guys

SUMMARY

From the reports of beta testers this patch is a HUGE improvement over 1.06, but it is neither finished nor perfect. Since there are a few more weeks to release, we can hope to see additional improvements and fixes prior to that date.

NOTE: The 1024x768 mode will work fine in the 1.07 release.

Update Part II

I've been using the 1.07 patch for a day or so now, let me give you my preliminary thoughts.

I have 2 computers hooked up using LAN, been mainly testing things out in the multiplayer campaign. First we fired up F4 and loaded up a saved campaign (Operation Tiger Spirit) at day 4. We had been flying this campaign for a few weeks now taking almost every flight we can.

We picked a strike mission, changed our load-outs and stopped the clock to sync up. In 1.06 we were usually 20-40 seconds apart before we synced up, now with 1.07 we're usually 3-5 sec apart b4 sync. In 1.06 we discovered (the hard time-consuming way I might add) that to have a successful entrance into the sim, everyone would have to wait until your flight had taken off, then the game host would enter the sim, and the client would have to wait until the host is in his cockpit.

Not with 1.07, as soon as we were done selecting our load-out and checking out the recon info, we both hit fly at the same time and both successfully entered the sim.

First thing we noticed was the ATC was finally doing things right. We entered the sim waiting on the taxiway; nobody plowed into us, nobody tried to drive around us and ATC actually got us up in the air in an orderly fashion. We also noticed that the graphics were improved greatly. I can't really put my finger on what's different, but everything seems better.

The flak now looks more intense and you are actually able to see the explosions, not just the smoke. We checked our graphics setting to see if they'd been changed during the patching, but they hadn't, things were just "better". Frame rates seem improved slightly, not really faster, but with fewer drops. (As a side note to the frame rate issue I had a different experience this morning in the Rolling Fire campaign, but I'll get to that in a minute.)

In our first flight with the 1.07 patch things went perfectly on the ground and we were soon up in the air heading to steerpoint 2. Enroute to our strike point we notice much more battle activity than 1.06 (We'd actually tried this same mission a couple of times with 1.06 earlier in the day so we had a valid reference point.) There were a lot more explosions, both in the sky and on the ground, and you could tell where the most intense battles were occuring.

About 40 miles from the strike point I picked up a flight of Mig-29s 42 miles out, I sent my element after them, while #2 and I hit the dirt (#1 is me and #2 is buddy on the second system.) Our element actually waited until the Migs were in range (roughly 30miles) before they engaged. Previously they would ripple fire missiles immediately on receiving the attack command. They didn't ripple fire this time: they both picked separate Migs and sent one Aim-120 each after them.

Just before impact they let loose with another Slammer each at the other two Migs. I was very impressed; they fired off a shot then waited till the seeker went active and picked different targets, and actually hit all four Migs!

By this time we're getting close to our target. I spotted a ZSU and turned my head and told my buddy to take out the other ZSU. I then locked up one of the buildings and told the element to take care of that, then I locked up the ZSU I'd spotted first.

We all dropped one bomb each; me first, then my buddy followed about 3 seconds later and #3 & #4 dropping about 5 seconds apart. We all had successful hits, but I noticed something very cool. Not only did #3 & #4 drop just one bomb, #4 dropped his bomb on a different building. I had designated the depot, and #3 took that out, but #4 had the brains to pick the barracks instead of dropping on the now destroyed depot.

But here's the cool part, everybody dropped their bombs within an 8 - 10 second window and all bombs were in the air for about 10 -15 seconds before the first impact, so #3 must have told #4 to designate a different target. I did hear #3 talking to #4 but I didn't catch what was said, so I can't confirm that #3 actually ordered #4 to attack, but that's what appeared to happen. So now we've all dropped one bomb and #1 & #2 have 7 bombs left and 3 & 4 have 3 bombs left (I loaded 3 & 4 with more A-A.)

Our main objective (the Depot) now destroyed, I'm worried about all the enemy AAA around our target site and start laying waste to as many ZSU and SAM sites as I can. (I don't care if it's the right tool for the job, the BLU-27s are still my fave, they totalled everything I dropped them on.) Having forgotten about the element I was quite surprised to see that they had decided to do the same thing as me; they were actually targeting ZSUs and dropping one bomb each on them, yes even #4 was doing it.

#3 & 4 having only 3 bombs each were done their bombing runs before me and my buddy, so they took up an air defensive tactic and started searching for the SU-27s that had been trying to sneak up on us all the while screaming out the SAM launches correctly (not just "Sam launch, southwest", they were accurate in their call directions. If they said NE, I looked NE and sure as sh*t there was a SAM barreling down on me.) They saved my butt not once but four times while I was emptying my racks. As soon as my bombs were gone I switched to missiles and joined in on the fun in the sky, taking out 3 Su-27s and one Mig-19.

I gave the order to rejoin and I hit the burners heading home. Looking back I saw that #4 was smoking and flying a little erratically, and buddy in #2 had taken a hit on his last bomb pass and was without a HUD, but flying ok. We were about 70 miles from home plate and I asked buddy in #2 if he wanted to head to the alternate.

We checked our fuel state and decided we could make it to home plate. #2 was flying ok and the only damage seemed to be in his HUD and MFDs. So we all straight-lined it to home plate and requested clearance at about 20 miles out. ATC must have had the MPs in there getting rid of all the glue-sniffers' cause ATC actually called us in properly, spacing us out about 30 sec apart.

Having landed safely I proceeded to the taxiway and started cycling through the action views (which work great now by the way,) watching each of my flight have a successful landing, even the smoking and damaged #4.

Based on just the landing I'd have to say that the AI fuel problem has been fixed. I didn't hear bingo fuel from anyone even though they were doing a lot of dogfighting. Heading back to the debrief we were pleasantly surprised to see that everything was recorded accurately and nobody got court marshaled. (I almost always got court marshaled in 1.06 no matter how good my flight and I did.)

We flew 4 or 5 more missions and then called it a night. We had no problems at all with the game crashing or wingmen doing wacky things, but we did notice a couple minor things. On one mission I was badly damaged and called an emergency landing. As I was just about to land, about 4 feet off the ground, ATC told me to abort landing and started freaking out on me when I ignored him and landed anyway.

I thought this was another ATC bug (why would he tell me to abort? I was coming in perfectly despite my damage and I didn't hear anyone else call emergency, and there were no other planes coming in or trying to leave, so what's the deal, why tell me to abort?) Then I checked out the ACMI and noticed that ATC told me to abort because I had passed the halfway mark of the runway without touching down yet.

ATC must have decided that I didn't have enough runway for a safe landing. And they were right 'cause even with full air and wheel brakes I just barely stopped at the end of the tarmac and had to turn around to get back to the taxiway.

The other weird thing is that when you end the mission your plane all of a sudden starts making a bee-line straight towards the control tower, I don't know if that's where it ends up cause it blacks out and brings you to the debrief pretty quickly, but it doesn't matter if your still on the runway or on the taxiway, as soon as you hit "end mission" your plane turns and starts heading over the grass towards the tower. Not a showstopper by any means, but weird all the same.

Now onto the frame rate thing I mentioned earlier. In the Tiger Spirit campaign frame rates hung in the mid to high 20s for most of the mission, only dropping below 20 in the most intense moments, and I never saw it drop below 15. (Just as a reference, I get an almost steady 58fps in dogfight with 2 planes, PII 266 overclocked to 300. 196 MB SDRam, Cl_Banshee.)

However, in the Rolling fire campaign, frame rates were hanging around the low 20s and high teens for most of the mission and dropping down once in awhile to an unacceptable 7fps. However, I did notice that there is about 2 or 3 times as much action going on in Rolling Fire than Tiger, and I've got to assume that's the reason.

Having said that, the frame rate sucks sometimes in this campaign compared to Tiger. But I've never seen such an awesome display of tactics and fire power. Many times in one mission I would see volleys of 5-10 SAMs launch all at once, and incredible furballs. Man, what a sight to behold.

I only did three missions in Rolling Fire. I started a new pilot 'cause my usual pilot has like a hundred Court marshals against him, and started up Rolling fire for the first time.

On my second mission I got hit by flak on my first bomb pass and had a hell of a time keeping my plane under control, but I stuck in there and did my best at placing my bombs on target. I was lucky enough to catch a flight of MI-24s taking off and was able to take them out with my BLU-27s, on my 4th pass I lost my HUD and had to drop my remaining bombs with just a hope and a prayer.

Having dropped all my bombs I started to head home and saw #3 and 4 sacrifice themselves opening up a pathway through a gaggle of Migs so #2 and I could punch through and scurry home. #3 took out 3 Migs before getting shot down, but thankfully being able to eject in time. It looked so awesome, I saw him chasing a Mig and spotted another Mig get on his tail. Having no HUD I was unable to get my sidewinders active and drunkenly (remember my plane is badly damaged at this point) attempted to get into a gun firing position.

Just as I started to fire and thought that I might be able to save #3, I saw #3 let lose with an AIM-9m at his target and as my bullets are just starting to rip into the Mig on his tail I see the Mig fire a missile at #3 half a second before my guns are able to do their job, it looked like the archer was fired from a ball of flame, I saw #3 get hit at the same time his missile took out the Mig that he had fired upon.

Everything happened in about a second and was just too intense for words. I hear #4 scream "Archer inbound" and I cut throttle and head for mother earth dropping flares like they're going out of style, I hit my padlock just in time to see said archer explode on one of my flares way too close for comfort. I pull up just in time to see #4 lose his life in an awesome ball of fire, sadly, no chute. He was however able to fire a sidewinder at the Mig who had just shot at me before he perished, thus freeing me up to high-tail it home.

So now I'm flying a wobbly brick hoping I can make it to my divert field, with only my analog compass and AWACS to guide me. And in I would have to say one of the all-time scariest landings, I am just barley able to touch down. I heard some sounds I'd never heard before upon contact with the runway and I almost slid off into the dirt but I luckily made it down amongst the protesting metal of my trusty F-16.

I end the mission thinking that I'm in for some scary stuff in this campaign and to my surprise I'm presented with the Distinguished Flying Cross! WOW what a rush, 10 a-a and 11 a-g kills and a medal on my second mission, I'd have to say the official 1.07 patch is gonna be smokin! :o)