This post contains hints and bugs I've discovered during my playthrough of F-19 Stealth Fighter. Hopefully it'll make your flights in F-19 a little easier if you're struggling.
Setup
These hints and bugs were found using the GOG version of F-19 Stealth Fighter, version 435.04. It ran under DOSBox Staging v0.81.1. The game was configured using the settings described in these two earlier posts:
Hints
A career without a Purple Heart means you've done things right, you don't need one!
If your avionics are hit and your plane is jinking around the sky it is still possible to make a carrier landing. I know I've done it.
Cold war, restrictive Rules Of Engagement (ROE) against elite opponents nets the best score. However elite opponents can feel like a huge step up in difficulty compared with veterans. Forgivable mis-steps against veterans will punish you against elites.
Low Altitude stable flight can be achieved at an altitude of 225ft and an airspeed of 100 - 120 knots with flaps deployed. Any lower and you'll encounter low altitude choppy air. Above 120 knots you'll encounter more chop. Having flaps deployed throughout the whole mission is ok, the very minor RCS increase is more than compensated by the low speed low altitude RCS decrease.
Low altitude stable flight will reduce your Radar Cross Section (RCS) hugely. However if you are close to detection at 120 knots, apply the airbrake briefly to bring the speed closer to 100 knots. It may not reduce the RCS but seems to reduce the radar energy absorbed. The radar energy bar at 120 knots seems to be longer than the radar energy bar at 100 knots.
At elite level opponents, when heading to a target with a time limit, low altitude stable flight is usually not an option. Altitude should be reduced below 150ft. The initial ingress can be made at 300 knots to build up some spare time. As you get closer to enemy radar this can be reduced to 250 knots. If detection by enemy fighter or SAM's is coming close, use the airbrake to drop speed to 120 knots before releasing the brake and allowing the speed to build again. This will eat into spare time which is why it's important to build it up at the start of the mission.
Low altitude stable flight is not fuel efficient, if your going to run in this configuration for an extended period take extra fuel. If the mission calls for extra fuel take another extra fuel for a total of 2. Once you're far enough away from enemy radar you can increase speed and altitude to establish a more fuel efficient flight, but be very sure of your RCS exposure and radar activity.
In a cold war scenario, fighters may hesitate to attack, especially with a low RCS. If you have enemy fighters behind you, running at 200 - 220 knots will often cause an overshoot and/or a veer off, this can be sufficient to break a radar track as the enemy fighter will struggle to obtain another track as you leave the area at 200+ knots. Applying the airbrake to reduce speed to 120 knots will often catch them by surprise as well.
Low altitude stable flight and threading the needle becomes very necessary against elite level opponents. Plan to fly towards pulse radar at or near the target during ingress or egress. Doppler radars are more problematic at or near targets.
In a cold war, elite opponent mission, if you have space, take Mavericks to attack SAM radars that track you, without breaking the Rules Of Engagement (ROE). Don't deviate too far from the flight path to do so though. This is practical for the Libya and Persian Gulf areas. For North Cape it's probably not worth the hassle it'll generate.
Enemy radars seem to deactivate or reduce energy if they are near a target as you approach, reactivating once you are a certain distance away. This is probably the game trying to prevent an impossible situation from developing.
In a cold war scenario, this is both a blessing and a curse, as a tracking radar can be engaged without breaking the ROE. However if deactivated they never get the track on the approach, so can't be attacked, only to activate and begin tracking you later as you egress the area.
In a cold war, elite opponent situation, you should expect radar and visual id's to happen. It's often better to take the score hit rather than prosecute an attack which can lead to a rapidly deteriorating situation and failure.
Low altitude stable flight means traversing areas of enemy activity may not be as problematic. The SA-14's are very ineffective when you're in this flight profile. Most will fall short or go wide. However those approaching from the rear may still need to be distracted with a flare. These areas are best avoided as they can use up flares, you may wish to traverse at a higher speed and lower altitude.
SAM's may also be less effective. Often missiles launched will hit the ground and never reach you or go wide. However for the better ones, you may need to put some on your 3/9 o'clock beam to avoid or drop a decoy. Making tight turns at speed may not be ideal but it may be your only choice.
Not all missions are created equal. A timed attack on a primary surrounded with lots of long range doppler radars with multiple areas of enemy activity dotted along the flightpath might not be worth it. It's ok to pick another one. Sometimes what seems reasonable can go very badly very quickly if an IL-76 AWACS is over the target area.
The low slow approach may be a bit boring but can also give enemy fighters or AWACS time to patrol out of a target area and sometimes land.
For cold war, elite opponent missions, Mavericks are the weapon of choice, far more reliable than the other ordnance, they can frequently be deployed below a minimum altitude of 500ft. Launching at 250ft maintains excellent RCS with a high degree of weapon success.
Mission hints
Don't be afraid of cargo drops or secret airstrip deliveries, they're fun! There's supposed to be a secret airstrip in the North Cape but I've never got it to trigger.
For secret airstrip delivery missions, land, kill the engines, apply the brakes and come to a stop. As the airstrips are short, release the brakes, set the engines to the first setting and head to a corner of the airstrip at about 15 knots. Apply brakes if it feels too fast. When you're close to the corner spin the aircraft around so it's facing down the airstrip crank up the engines to max and take off.
The northern secret airstrip in the Persian Gulf is close to a small mountain orientated NW to SE. Head to the NW corner when approaching the airstrip then correct for the landing.
You can land to complete a cargo drop. Land, come to a stop and then drop the cargo on the 'tarmac?' Check the mission objectives, should say the mission was successful. This can be a useful tactic if the secondary is nearly 180 degrees in the opposite direction. It means you can orientate the aircraft and take off heading very roughly toward the secondary, without having to make tight turns while in the air, increasing the chance of detection.
Terrorist training camps are about 500ft at the highest point, so dropping at slicks in level bombing at 3000ft is going to damage your aircraft, go higher!
Terrorist training camps must have flexible radio antenna as you can fly through them without crashing.
Photo recons targets need a picture within 5 miles at regular or veteran. At elite for need to be much closer, under 2.5 miles. At regular or veteran one picture will do, at elite it's tricky to get the one picture, so keep snapping away. Be aware: you may need to adjust the flightpath to keep the camera pointed at the target box.
At elite level your weapon selection is going to be relatively dull. Camera for photo recon, Mavericks for strikes, Sidewinders for enemy aircraft and lots of fuel. If you want to try other weapons I recommend running a few green or regular missions. Using a variety of weapons at elite is just going to get you detected and the situation will deteriorate.
Cold war air to air missions may have to be completed with cannon. Missiles may often track and hit the best target they can find, which can be an escort aircraft rather than the primary target you fired at.
There's one unique target, the Severomorsk Sub Pens in the North Cape. No career would be complete without this target! You'll need the only weapon that's effective the FAE and it has to be delivered by toss bombing. I wouldn't recommend elite opponents, the toss bombing technique will increase altitude and guaranteed to get you detected and completing the secondary may be impossible, but regular (recommended) or veteran (if you want a challenge) should be quite feasible.
Mission breakdown
Each primary and secondary mission is numbered from 0 to 55. This is a list of what each mission type is. The location will vary. A number of missions aren't listed as I haven't encountered them yet. If you know about a missing mission type, please let me know.
0 Secret airstrip pickup
1 Secret airstrip delivery
2 Reach beacon drop supplies
4 Photo SAM radar
5 Destroy SAM radar
6 Destroy mobile SAM
7 Photo LPAR radar
8 Destroy LPAR radar
3 'may' be a secret airstrip in North Camp but this looks like it was an unfixed bug or disabled by design (see F-19 Stealth Fighter: North Cape secret airstrip fixed?)
I 'believe' 9/10 would be photo/destroy Severomorsk sub pens but I haven't been able to get this mission yet.
11 Photo refinery
12 Destroy refinery (assumed)
13 Photo tank farm
14 Destroy tank farm
15 Photo airplane
16 Destroy airplane (ground)
17 Photo airplane
18 Destroy airplane (ground)
19 Photo airplane
11-12 Only seen in Libya, 12 is assumed to be the corresponding destroy mission for 11, not actually seen yet.
15-19 seem to be for different aircraft, one is an Russian stealth bomber.
20 Destroy airplane (assumed)
21 Photo camp
22 Destroy camp
25 Photo missile boat
26 Destroy missile boat
27 Destroy missile boat
28 Photo SA missile
29 Destroy SA missile
20 would seem to be the destroy aircraft mission for 19.
25 also includes the Krivak frigate in the North Cape.
26-27 seem to be for different kinds of missile boat.
30 Photo oil rig
31 Destroy oil rig
32 Photo nuclear plant
33 Destroy nuclear plant
36 Photo cargo ship
38 Photo Typhoon sub
39 Destroy Typhoon sub
32-33 rogue nuclear plant in Libya.
38-39 North Cape only
40 Photo supply dump
41 Destroy supply dump
42 Photo HQ
43 Destroy HQ
45 Photo bridge
46 Destroy bridge
47 Intercept and destroy AN-72
48 Intercept and destroy AN-72
49 Intercept and destroy AN-72
40-41 only ever seen in Vietnam scenario
50 Intercept and destroy AN-72
51 Intercept and destroy AN-72
52 Intercept and destroy Tu-95
53 Intercept and destroy Tu-95
54 Intercept and destroy IL-76
55 Intercept and destroy fighter patrol
47-51 are for different personnel/cargo carried by the AN-72.
52-53 one is a cruise missile carrying Tu-95 and the other is a different Tu-95 type.
55 covers all fighter types, so it can be MIG-29, SU-27, F-14, F-4E, etc.
Bugs
A lot of these bugs got fixed in the sequel, F-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter 2.0.
Weapon delivery can be very very unreliable, laser guided ordnance is always a pass, it just doesn't work properly. Retarded and dumb bombs work some/most of the time but can be very DOSBox cycle dependant. The Harpoon doesn't work. AAM's and Mavericks are pretty solid.
The strategic map in the left MFD will replace parts of the map with a solid block of colour. In fact this is probably an environment bug as it'll match the outside environment. Most notable are solid blocks that appear in Libya and Persian Gulf and the northern area around the carrier in North Cape will suddenly become green land (or maybe it's an algae bloom?) This seems to happens during medium/longer mission
Enemy aircraft will turn their radars off for a while and may/may not turn them back on again. This mostly happens in longer missions.
Enemy aircraft may stray outside of their airspace and on occasion F/A-18's from a carrier have decided to carry out their own missions over enemy territory. I've seen a dogfight over eastern Libya (the F/A-18's kept losing and carrier kept sending more?!?) and incursions into the North Cape so far.
On very long missions the aircraft can suddenly flip 180 degrees, so if you are heading 270, the heading strip will suddenly flip to 090 and you'll be heading in the opposite direction! This has only happened once in a mission lasting nearly 2 hours (real time).
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