| This
document is for stating exactly what guidelines must be followed
when constructing a TE for the 185th official missions. Everyone
on the TE Rota should be familiar with these guidelines.
There
shall be a briefing for the mission available that can be
sent out to the pilots so they can plan their mission beforehand
so that minimum time needs to be spent in the Mission Schedule
prior to flight.
The
briefing is to inform on:
- What
threats the pilots can expect during the mission. However
all info given in the briefing must be possible to
gather in the Mission Schedule! If you must enter the Mission
Editor to find a piece of info it has absolutely NO
place in the briefing!
- What
loadouts the aircraft have, and if the loadouts are fixed
or not.
- What
aircraft/packages that are allowed for human use in case
there are several packages available.
- If
steerpoints are fixed or not.
- What
the target/targets are. Make sure that the brief assigns
the same targets as the mission. It has occurred that the
brief has not matched the mission on that, which can confuse
pilots into striking the wrong target.
You
may see fit to add info about enemy loadouts and CAP areas,
but that info must be very vague!
Example:
You state that the enemy SU-27's are
now reported to have access to the new AA-12 Adder. That is
OK, but you must not say that the SU-27's are loaded
with the Adder. Enemy CAP areas may be displayed in the briefing,
but the areas must be large and unprecise like a big circle,
not the exact area or flight path
Please use only .jpg or .gif images in the brief,
to keep the size down. The briefing shouldn't exceed 150kB
at the most, this so modem users can easily receive them.
Keep
the language at a reasonable level, avoid using overly bad
language. These briefs and TE's will eventually wind up in
the TE archive available to the public, wouldn't want them
to get the wrong idea about the 185th!
The
briefing is to be sent in to the CO/XO on Thursday at the
latest!
It
will be sent out to all pilots on Friday evening at the latest.
Now
to the mission tac file:
Many
things need to be considered when constructing a TE for online
use, the Internet can play havoc with online gaming so we
must strive to not give it any chance to mess things up!
The
absolutely first thing you must do:
Go to the TEAMS tab and set ADA and pilot skills to the desired
level. If you add a unit to the TE before setting skill
rate the unit will be rookie skill no matter what you
set the skill to later.
There
are several things we can do to minimize the chance of technical
problems:
Length
of mission:
Keep
the total time in flight to 1 hour maximum, many of our pilots
are on 2-hour connections and may get kicked out if the flight
time is too long.
Takeoff
timing:
There
are certain limits to how close flights can take off without
risking an ATC cock up These limits are written in the code,
so violating them may work once or twice, but in the long
run violating this rule will drive the ATC crazy! You
will then see AI colliding on taxiway and driving off into
the fields, you will also hear the ATC repeating the same
message over and over again.
("Falcon 1-1, you are cleared for takeoff, runway 27…"
or something like that.)
The
limits are 1 min 40 seconds between takeoffs from the
same airbase and 35 seconds between takeoffs at separate
airbases. This goes for all takeoffs regardless if
they are DPRK or US since there is only one ATC that controls
both sides aircraft.
So,
to make it simple to remember the rule is 2 minutes
between all takeoffs.
Spacing
and numbers of ground units:
The
spacing and numbers of ground units has a big impact
on fps, thanks to the shared bubbles in multiplay. With player
bubble of 3 (which we use currently) ground units will
be deagged at approx. 6-8 nm.
The
rule for spacing between ground units is 10 NM (again
to be easy to remember).
The
number of ground units is one other aspect of fps conservation.
Try and keep the number of ground units to a minimum, no more
then 6-8 ground units in any TE.
Try
to keep them well spaced out from each other so that they
don't all get deagged at the same time! No more then 4
ground units should be deagged at any one time during the
mission to save the fps. If you can keep that figure lower
then 4, all for the better. You can place two units
closely together at the target provided that the total
number of deagged units doesn't exceed 4. It's a compromise
between fps and game play in that case.
Other
pointers about ground units:
Don't
deploy a friendly ground unit next to a target!
It may happen that the friendly unit moves forward and captures
the target during the mission, which would lead to you bombing
a friendly target… with adverse effects on your score
of course!
Don't
deploy an enemy ground unit directly on the flight path of
the US packages!
This is in case the steerpoints are fixed. If Steerpoints
are not fixed you can place units on flight path.
Deploying a AAA/SAM unit at the target is of course OK. You
can be sneaky and place a ground unit off the flight path
but with orders to move to the flight path during the mission.
The unit will appear to be out of harms way in Mission Schedule
but will actually move after takeoff. This reflects the inaccuracy
of Intel well, what the pilots will know is how things looked
at the time of takeoff. That may change during the flight.
Aircraft,
types and numbers:
There
should always be 4 F-16 seats available in the TE.
This simply because although we may fly other types of aircraft
during a TE, no one should be forced to fly non-Viper aircraft.
Having said that, it is OK to have flights of non-Viper aircraft
as well for human use. This can add a nice touch to the mission
and is an option that has been underused so far.
A
flight must be comprised of at least 2 planes for human use,
and the TE must contain 4 seats for humans!
This since we are flying online because we want to fly with
other humans, using teamwork. Allowed exceptions for having
a 1-ship is if the plane type is a defenseless bomber, transport
or AWACS. B1B, B-52, C-130, KC-10, E-3 are examples of this.
When you choose to use a 1-ship, make sure it is the same
package as other human flights so the debrief shows both flights.
Do
not put 2 Strike/Deep Strike/SEAD Strike in the same package!
For some reason Falcon always gives porked debriefs when having
several strike flights in the same package. If you want to
use two strike flights, put them in different packages.
Avoid
having excessive numbers of aircraft in a TE.
Large numbers of aircraft in a TE puts a larger strain on
the CPU, which can hamper the PC's performance on low end
systems. It can also cause severe problems in multiplay due
to the Position Update not being able to keep up pace. Typical
things that happen when Position Update freaks out is radar
contacts fading away, ghost planes, massive warps, ballistic
missiles (You shoot at a plane that isn't where you think
it is) and so on. The TE shouldn't look like a Campaign mission,
that is a sure way to disaster online! The maximum number
of aircraft is 30 in total including DPRK aircraft.
Avoid
using redundant units!
Adding units (ground or air) that have no effect whatsoever
on the mission is pointless and will only add to the CPU loading,
hence adding to the risks mentioned above regarding excessive
numbers of aircraft.
Do
not use Air-to-Air refueling in a TE!
That feature does not work properly online in Falcon4.
Loadouts
and Steerpoints:
Loadouts
are at the discretion of the TE builder, but the
loadout must be able to kill the target.
Not much point in striking an Underground factory with MK-20's
if you catch my drift…
Generally
speaking the loadouts should be reasonably suited for the
task, sending out a SEAD Escort into a ADA-crammed area without
HARM's and CBU's for example isn't the best thing to do.
The
TE builder may simulate a shortage of stores so that
for example the above mentioned SEAD flight has no Harm's,
only CBU's. If so that should be stated in the briefing.
When
you build a TE, keep in mind what types of missions we've
had during the last month or so.
What I would like to see is that we get different types of
mission in a reasonable mix, CAS, Sweep, Deep Strike and so
on. Also consider if steerpoints and loadout have been fixed
or not so we can get some diversity there as well. All to
enhance the experience of Falcon4 online!
Steerpoints
should be placed so that Ingress and Egress are optimum if
the steerpoints are fixed. If they are not fixed
the TE builder doesn't need to optimize the flight path, this
can be done by the pilots themselves.
Delivery
of TE and Briefing:
Briefing
must be sent in by Thursday evening!
If you can send it in sooner, all for the better.
Mission
tac file must be sent in by Thursday evening if not
tested online. If it has been tested it must be in by Saturday
12.00.
Again, if you can send it in sooner all for the better.
Send
the files to the CO/XO!
TE's
that do not follow these guidelines will not be used.
Failure
to deliver the briefing and/or tac file in time will result
in me replacing the TE with one "from the shelf".
Please
make sure you deliver in time, the entire Squadron will suffer
from the chaos that arises if I suddenly must replace the
TE with a different one! I can't risk that we stand there
without a TE to fly and 50+ pilots online just waiting.
Thank
you all,
Triton.
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