Lock on: modern air combat

[hellfish6 7]

I've been able to play the A-10 mission (though not very well at all - the ZSU makes short work of me) but I can't even load the MiG-29 mission. The scenario will load, but the demo freezes and just shows the undetailed ground and the sky. Nothing else. The A-10 mission loads up pretty fast for me, otherwise.

[NurEinMensch 0]

Don't know if that helps you, but don't enable engine wash when you play with FSAA.

And look for updated drivers, maybe that helps.

Btw driving through cities with the A-10 is fun, too, but be carefull and stay on the roads as you will get stuck on fields and meadows.

I think next time I will see what happens when I try to drive the plane into the sea.

[acidcrash 0]

i found easiest way to rid the Shilka was to engage it with the cannon at about half a mile, if you didnt hit it at about 0.2 miles then i usually break off so as not to get too far inside its engagement radius

[Baron Hurlothrumbo IIX 0]

I killed the shilka with the cannon as well. I need more time to play this, but I just got zero hour so I have to do a lot of LAN gaming in my flat

[Gollum1 0]

Ubi soft have chosen a great tactic to get me to buy this game. The game doesn´t have a tutorial, so when I´m thrown into combat with zero flight sim experience, I´ll be pissed off, then read the controls for about an hour, play it for an hour, and then finally give up and uninstall it in sheer frustration. Plus I´ll hate the game for being so hard to approach and wasting my precious time.  No wait, maybe that wasn´t such a great tactic after all...tutorial please!

[R. Gerschwarzenge 0]

Ubi soft have chosen a great tactic to get me to buy this game.

I believe that's not an official demo. It was just somehow leaked in public if I've understood correctly.

[Gollum1 0]

Ubi soft have chosen a great tactic to get me to buy this game.

I believe that's not an official demo. It was just somehow leaked in public if I've understood correctly.

Really? Well that would explain a lot.

[NurEinMensch 0]

It wasn't "somehow leaked", it was just an early release by the german "Gamestar" magazine, the release should have been on 6. october. But as far as I know it is the official demo, I think i read a dev note on the Ubi forum about that.

And I have to say I'm as much a newbie as every nubceak when it comes to flight sims, but after spending some times learning the controles I'm starting to get the hang on it.

And I enjoy it.

[edc 0]

Well, if you want a tutorial, there's a handy dandy readme, that tells your pretty much what to do, what key to press, etc.  And the keycommands.doc, tells you ever key command there is.

Its really not all that difficult to defeat the Mirage(French piece of crap  j/k ran).  The shilka, isn't too, too hard I've gotten it w/ bombs once(though I was heavily damaged).  I think its best to strafe the shilka w/ the 30mm GAU-8, starting about from the last row of trees before the road you fly over before getting to the field the shilka's in.  Use the Jammer(E), and fly low to avoid fire from the shilka.

The controls are pretty much the same as Flanker 2.5, so if you have that, you might want to practice w/ it some.

Its not difficult to bomb the shilka, but getting there w/o getting the shit blown out of you is difficult.

[drewb99 0]

I think that it's easy to get the Shilka with the Rockeyes

[Tex -USMC- 0]

It is the official demo, it's just that Gamestar magazine jumped the gun (the demo itself has been ready since late August/ early September). And please don't hesitate to RTFRM, as it tells you everything you need to know.

[denoir 0]

Yeah, once you get the keys it's quite simple to shoot down the mirage within 2-3 seconds. Start the game, switch firing mode to air-to-air (key: 4). Get him in your sights (he is right in front of you). Lock target (tab) and fire.

Otherwise, if you are looking for a dogfight, he's no real match. You have a dual engine Russian monster that can both outrun and outclimb the little Mirage.

[Tex -USMC- 0]

Yeah, once you get the keys it's quite simple to shoot down the mirage within 2-3 seconds. Start the game, switch firing mode to air-to-air (key: 4). Get him in your sights (he is right in front of you). Lock target (tab) and fire.

Otherwise, if you are looking for a dogfight, he's no real match. You have a dual engine Russian monster that can both outrun and outclimb the little Mirage.

But not outturn- what that means is if you do want a little yank and bank action, lock your French friend up right away in CAC mode (5), padlock him so that you can take advantage of your helmet-mounted targetting reticle, go burner and do an Immelman so that you'll come right down in time to have a very attractive high-aspect shot. Just take advantage of the Fulcrum's obscene thrust/weight ratio, and don't be stingy with the flares, and you'll be all right.

[S_Z 0]

It's a good game but I have to say there are some things I really don’t like about it. Some situations like stalls and especially landings feel too scripted. The computer will take over just before the wheels touches ground that makes landings very easy and boring in my opinion. I get the feeling they might have put to much work in getting the game look good but not enough time with the flight model/physics which in my opinion is much more important in a simulator. I guess they want to please the “casual simmersâ€

[Tex -USMC- 0]

Unfortunately, it doesn't have the depth or richness of physics that Il-2 does, at least in this beta. Hopefully things like the current landings and stalls are just placeholders until a better alternative is developed. Still, overall, it shows incredible promise, especially for a product that is not even halfway through the beta process (the demo is built on beta 05 code- Lomac is currently on beta 10). This demo just reinforces the claim that Lomac has the potential to revive the flight sim genre.

[denoir 0]

I like the options that make life easier for non-sim enthusiasts, like me. I've only really liked one flight sim so far and that was Strike Commander (how many of you remember that one, ey   ).

IL2 was nice, but it lacked a campaign with a nice story. I hope they'll have that in LOMAC.

Mirage toast:

[Badgerboy 0]

I like the options that make life easier for non-sim enthusiasts, like me. I've only really liked one flight sim so far and that was Strike Commander (how many of you remember that one, ey   ).

Strike Commander? Did anyone have a machine capable of playing that when it was released? I think it needed a 486sx to run properly.

Ah, the days of the Origin spectaculars. Always over budget, and always over the average machine specs.

Good fun though...

[S_Z 0]

@ Sep. 29 2003,23:42)]Unfortunately, it doesn't have the depth or richness of physics that Il-2 does, at least in this beta. Hopefully things like the current landings and stalls are just placeholders until a better alternative is developed. Still, overall, it shows incredible promise, especially for a product that is not even halfway through the beta process (the demo is built on beta 05 code- Lomac is currently on beta 10). This demo just reinforces the claim that Lomac has the potential to revive the flight sim genre.

Yes, I hope they do fix these issues before the game is released but I don’t think it will happen based on what Carl, Shepski and others that are involved in some way with the game have said. I have heard thing like “landing is only a small part†and Carls comment “Right, scripted. [insert sarcasm] If that's what you want to believeâ€.  That doesn’t sound good to me  

I don’t care what Carl is saying, landings in lomac feels very scripted compared to IL2.

[denoir 0]

Strike Commander? Did anyone have a machine capable of playing that when it was released? I think it needed a 486sx to run properly.

Nah, I had a 386 sx (25 MHz!!) back then.  

Ah, that was in 1993. I guess that things have developed a bit since then. Hmmm. I wonder if I can find it somewhere. I feel nostalgia coming on  

Edit:

Hehehe remember this screen?

Edit: Uuuuuhh I found it! It's freeware now (abandonware) download page Screw LOMAC, I've got SC now!

[Badgerboy 0]

Yeah, I had a 386sx as well, (4mb! ), so I didn't get Strike Commander until I bought my 486DX 100mhz (16mb) . (I was god to all for a few months at least!

On another note, I have been fooling around with that Lomac demo....

It's bloody awful! The FM's are terrible, avionics are a joke, and there are no decent clickable cockpits! (Press D to cycle weapons! Ha! )

Shame I can't have the dev's shot.... I was expecting something remotely enjoyable, but got handed a flashy 'shoot 'em up'.

Bah, Falcon 4.0 still loves me. (I own 3 copies! )

[denoir 0]

Bah, it won't run under xp   Hmm.. I wonder if there's some MSDOS emulator around  

Edit: LOL, it complains that I have only 554K DOS memory while 586K are required to play Strike Commander. Ahh, good old 640k limit

[Tex -USMC- 0]

It's bloody awful! The FM's are terrible, avionics are a joke, and there are no decent clickable cockpits! (Press D to cycle weapons! Ha! )

C'mon, be reasonable- Falcon 4 is as close to planes on rails as it gets. Just because Falcon 4 SP3 has redefined hardcore to mean 'lots of button-pushing' is no reason to get down on a game that is working off the solid base that is Flanker 2.5. And remember: (very) beta code. Falcon 4 wasn't even playable before v1.08 (much less high quality- things didn't take off until the developers stopped messing with it), and already Lomac is looking to be a gem of a sim. As for clickable cockpits- meh. If I have to take my hand off the joystick, then I'm pissed, much less having to move my mouse around. I got a HOTAS for a reason: so that I would never have to touch my mouse or keyboard (much) again  

[NurEinMensch 0]

Oh Strike Commander.  

WOW even better they have Pacific Strike, too!  

edit: Always wanted to have them back then but never got the chance.

[NurEinMensch 0]

Bah, it won't run under xp   Hmm.. I wonder if there's some MSDOS emulator around  

Edit: LOL, it complains that I have only 554K DOS memory while 586K are required to play Strike Commander. Ahh, good old 640k limit  

Did you try this yet?:

Right click on the executeable, select the memory tab and play around with the settings, often simply maxing out everything works.  

Will try that with Pacific Strike now.

edit: Didn't work either. "EMS driver isn't VCPI compliant"

[Homer Johnston 0]

It's bloody awful! The FM's are terrible, avionics are a joke, and there are no decent clickable cockpits! (Press D to cycle weapons! Ha! )

No respect...   Lock On is one of the few games that 'pushes my buttons' just right... the experience of going near clouds is pretty darned near real, I must say.

I've been waiting for lock on for nearly a year now... this demo was quite a treat! It's like Flanker 2.5, but with absolutely beautiful graphics... my only problems with flanker were a)too hard to oumaneuver missiles (anyone here play it?)    b) unstable code

other than that, it was a top class sim for combat... you guys can complain about the bad landings, but while IL2 definitely beats LOMAC in some areas, LOMAC obviously will offer many things not available in IL2...

Badger, have fun pushing buttons and controlling an aircraft on the side... I think I'd rather fly the plane instead   (btw, don't know why you think the FM is so terrible... how many hours have you logged in Mig-29s and A-10's? lol it seems quite reasonable to me.. little 'squarish' at times perhaps)

FWIW, I believe the landing (and flight) physics were not improved much from flanker 2.5's code due to time constraints... if you followed LOMAC's development, there were once some incredible screens of an Su-25's gear collapsing from too hard a landing, but they didn't have time to fully develop the code hope they can do it some day...

oh well, as long as I can slalom an Su-27 around power lines I'll be happy

at any rate, can't deny that its beautiful...

http://www.x-plane.org/users/hojo/ScreenShot_011.jpg

http://www.x-plane.org/users/hojo/ScreenShot_015.jpg

http://www.x-plane.org/users/hojo/ScreenShot_016.jpg