Hello to all F-16 Pilots/addicts.

Actually Im from the Jane´s F/A-18 Forums, but I thought I should give this great game (Sorry! Simulation I mean!) a try. So I ordered it today and I just want to get rdy for the arrival.

Can you tell me 1-2 good, reliable (no dead links etc.) DL sources for: Patches and Mods?
What are the "must have" Mods? I heard about Open Falcon, Free Falcon and others, but wasnt able to find the latest version of Free Falcon. Oh and what do you prefer and why?

I think I ignored Falcon for so long because I never was a A/A combat guy, always a striker. I watched GBU´s killing targets for years in JF18 and never get bored. I hope there are much possabilities/Missions for a striker guy like me in F16 too? But Im also interested in the other aspects. cold start-up´s, high detail in-depth simulation of the F16 etc...

I hope I wont get dissapointed?

Kind regards,
Daimaju

Welcome m8, you're in for a treat even just with AF and no mods. Open Falcon cannot be installed over AF only original F4.0 just so you know. Download the latest path from http://www.lead-pursuit.com . Regarding details on these two mods just make a quick search here, it has been discussed to death on many threads.

As for the rest of your post, you do know that the Viper is one of the most accurate and effective planes in AG right? (probably THE most effective in this role as far as multirole jets go)

In a campaign (after months of training :)) you will mainly be hitting ground targets - and using AMRAAMs for self defence. As in RL F-15/F-14/F-22 will be your main A-A assets and they are very good at taking out the enemy leaving you to get on with the job (even better if manually manage where they CAP). Be aware the enemy AI in the sim is lethal.

Theres plenty of A-A opportunities but you will be fighting BVR if you want to live - the missiles dont often miss - and dogfights are a very rare thing and probably only best fought over your own ground against strike A/C with no heaters.

There arnt many Mods for AF - Hi Tiles is a must for the terrain and there are some very good F-16 skins about - see links on older threads

You're going to be disappointed by the FLIR, as well as the Mavericks. The LGB/AGM-65 implementation in JF-18 is way better. Not to mention you get command-guided glide bombs and missiles in JF-18. Also, less HARM modes. I lament having no self-protect mode in Falcon (TOO mode in JF-18? Been a while...), because the SAM AI is extremely good.

The campaign missions in Falcon, as well as the air base operations, are great though. The world doesn't "go to sleep" if you're aloft too long like it does in JF-18. The whole theatre is alive with activity. The campaign is really not comparable to anything else in existence; just when you thought you were amazed enough, you see other things happening. Repaired SAM sites, CAPs that drag you into SAMs, finding and hitting engineer units that are on their way to repair an airbase, "realizing" an airbase was repaired when intel at take-off said it was out ("2,1, Nails, MiG-29, 12 o'clock", "1,2, say again?"), stumbling upon enemy helos that are hitting your advancing ground units, etc. Canned missions, even with variables, really can't compare.

There are some different versions of Falcon floating around at the VFWs. OpenFalcon comes as close to a JF-18 style FLIR/Maverick implementation that I've seen.

Oh, and no multiple-AMRAAM launch in Falcon. OpenFalcon implements PDT and SDT.

I prefer AF for its online stability and campaign (OpenFalcon might be "stable online", but no one is doing day- or week-long campaigns involving 10-20 pilots at a time in a campaign).

Thanks for the answers so far. Very great to hear and no, I didnt knew that the F-16 is the most successful strike bird. Interesting!

Good to hear that the most stuff in Campaign is A/G. This makes me smile...

"Month of Training"...sounds familiar. But honestly - MONTH? Just realized the downloadable Manual (german version for me) has 72mb... hell, I pray its just full of Pictures! ^^

But thats actually what I want - to learn about the real stuff. Never was a friend of "Arcade" stuff.
So, I will check in again after firing the sim up - if Vista doesnt trouble me on this one...

Thanks again!

Falcon remains the King of modern jet sims. Agree re most of comments, except that in the online Saturday evening campaigns you can read about in this forum we've had a number of dogfight situations. Many have a good outcome, others...not so good primarily due to poor odds.

It may indeed take months of practice to feel comfortable with a broad set of systems and situations in Falcon. However many of the veterans of the sim still learn things years later - a sign of a deep rewarding sim.Doesn't mean you can't enjoy aspects today.

Good luck!

AG it there just to get ya into the chit.

getting below FL200ft. at mach 1.2 with an adder looking at ya.....
now that's entertainment.

Welcome......

AF has some things available as far as aftermarket cockpits and terrain enhancements.
See this thread to whet your appetite.

http://forums.frugalsworld.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=91457

Be Well............

Thanks for the link, will check it out.
Unfortunately, Falcon will arrive just monday...*sigh*

I cant wait any longer. I checked the 72mb manual yesterday and as I was reading about the campaign part my chin has hit the table. Its a brilliant Idea that the player can not onyl set-up the mission priority like precision strikes, but also the targets for it...wow...

But I wont touch the campaign before enough Training... Would only kill the immersion to go to war without training...

"Intercept incoming bandits!"
"uh yeah ok...and can you tell me how to do it!?"

na... training first, fun later...

Daimaju

There's a few good training missions on my website for ground pounding.

Curtis
Montana