Interesting re: Comanche Gold... Maybe it is the ARCADE model screwing you up. Try switching to the non-ARCADE model. With VSTAB on, it is (sorry Flyboy...) pretty much still an ARCADE model to me.

I hadn't noticed LB1:FPK to be that cranky on DOSBOX, but I really only flew 1 or 2 missions just to be sure it worked.

The Avionics in LB2 are pretty much identical to those brought to life in FPK with realistic FCR/TADS etc. In fact, I used my LB2 COUGAR profile to fly LB1:FPK and pretty much everything worked (except in cases where I had remapped keys).

One thing that changed from LB1:FPK to LB2... Rippling (or Rapid-Firing) Laser Hellfires at multiple targets in LOAL mode no longer works. Rather than switching targets when the next one is lased, the follow-on missiles just seem to go stupid.

warthog77 - For a start, Comanche Gold is a Windows-only game. May you be referring to Comanche 3, which is a DOS game?

You may just as well play on realistic level, as between that and 'arcade' mode there is very little difference.

What else do you want to know about CG?


Recluse - I guess you're just a traditional helicopter sorta guy when it comes to the Comanche, as I am sure that its flight model is pretty realistic (without getting further into that... again!)

LB1 doesn't run very smoothly for me in DOSBox, even with having a dual-core processor. I'm not a huge fan of LB1 anyhow, on the contrary to what someone else said, I think that feels more unfinished than LB2. And just silly little things niggle me like being able to lock onto targets with the FCR in excess of 8km and being able to lock onto targets with TADS through terrain. But you know I'm a perfectionist. The voice acting is also pretty rubbish - and voices are so quiet.

It is possible to ripple-fire Laser Hellfires in LOAL mode in LB2, but the constraints are much smaller. I think in LB1 that element is made to be performed easily so as to add to the fun. I don't think it's quite THAT easy in real-life. Even though the missile itself is certainly agile enough to re-acquire and assume a new flight path, its seeker head may not always be able to see the next target.

hi recluse
(LOL) - okay i try to fly it with non-arcade + V-Stab and come back later
..i think Comanche is an Arcade-SIM compared to Jane's Longbow but i like the Novalogic Games
a lot of hours in a dark room with Comanche 1,2 W vs C, Armored Fist 1 -3 and the Deltaforce Series inclusive Black hawk Down..but Novalogic creates action games with a simulation flair - it is ok an fun.

My feeling is with LB1 that is not so smoothe but i will check it - i only played some instant action missions for testing - i want to read the manual first and then do the Training :-)

Why? i thought this is one of the strength of the Longbow-System..?
Are in LB2 no Hellfires II ( AGM-114B with Active-Radar)? the DID Longbow Apache is equipped with this..i dont find anything in the manual..?!

Cougar-Profile? Sounds good :-) but what is it? Is that ypur own created dosbox-settings or your gamesettings for LB?

THX

warthog77

warthog77 - The Longbow system is for the Hellfire II. It has nothing to do with the effectiveness of ripple-firing Laser Hellfire - that is done by TADS (optical sensors) and not the FCR (radar). Laser Hellfire can be fired from any AH-64 model, the RF Hellfire can only be fired from the AH-64D model. Yes, LB2 has RF Hellfire (Hellfire II).

A Cougar profile is a custom key mapping file for Cougar joysticks.

Warthog, do 2 things:
1. Turn on advanced flight model - it's more fun this way.
2. Turn on Vertical stabilizer (with 50% of collective the V-stab will try to maintain current altitude - it shouldn't limit your speed).
3. Make sure you have Limit Cyclic Range turned off - this is very important as this option is the root of your problem with slow speed - it limits the range of the cyclic so you cannot pitch or bank at excesive angles.

As for the LB1+FPK - so did you managed to play it 3DFX?
The speed of DOSBox is tied purely to the raw clock rate of your CPU - IIRC it doesn't use additional cores (can't confirm this as I'm at work right now - you can check it yourself by opening the task manager -> performance tab and checking if the second core has any load while only DOSBox is running) so the most important thing is high clock frequency. I see you have 4600+ which frequency is 2400MHz per core. On my X2 6000 clocked at 3GHz per core the LB1 plays very smooth.

I tried LB2 but didn't had the time to get past all the issues, so I gave it a rest. Maybe someday in the future. LB1 worked basicaly out of the box for me (little tweaking in DOSBox conf file) and I had much fun with it through the Baltic campaign (the action playes out in my homeland - Poland, so that's additional immersion factor for me) although it's lacking dynamic campaign, the semi-dynamic mission branching works pretty well. I'm planning to get on the Korea campaign in the near future - so little time available, so much sims to play...

uh think i have then already done ripple-firing with Comanche - firing 1 HF after 10 seconds firing the seconf HF and so on -then require for the inflight HF a new target - thats ripple firing?
Thanks for the information flyboy - have you any good websites for further information about Attack-Helicopter - i have some books but they are not so detailed.

warthog77

hi flyboy,

first nice work with your website

ah- yes Comanche Gold works with XP - very good and i tried the special mod to increase resolution -
and yes i referred C3 it is working with dosbox portable on an an 4GB USB - for playing at lunchtime :-) nothing is relaxative than jumping into the comanche an fly one mission..

Ah..like AF2 i find it is sometimes frustrating to manage the target priority - for example: whne you encounter a armored collumn with T80's, BMP's and SA9's - i set target priority to high but the system targets first the T80's after a while griffon 2-7 is down..because the SA9 or a #%&*$# of an BMP fires a SA7 or what ever :-(
my basic doctrin is to rid off first the air defense and Anti Tank (SAM, AAA and BMP) then the MBT's but it is not easily to do..
Have you some good strategies? this were very grateful :-)

LB1: uh.. i was very proud to have LB1 + FPG in good conditions ;-) ok i will absolutely insist that YOU and a lot of the other guys here in the forum are specialists with the Helicopter Sims with lot of flying-hours
for this i am ..a creepy maggot..
BTW: i don't regret to join this forum and being a member - you are here great and it is very informative and fun to read the threads here

oh yes, the voice acting is..in german language AWFUL (in german "Scheiße" ) - i dont like the accent and the voice sounds like reading a script or a goodnight tale not like (i think so) a helicopter pilot or CPG will speak..

I thik i will try to play first LB1 to make me a own point of view ;-) then i want to play LB2 oh and there is Gunship! I need more time :-(

Thanks for the help and information

warthog77

hi damson ,
thnaks for the solution i will check it if i have more time and then i report back to you

No i dont managed LB1 with 3DFX because it is a native DOS program.


hu X2 6000? "sniff" i will check


..oh YES..I will say..




if you meant "fun" to ditch and scratch against every obstacle and mountain..then you are right
yes, the flying is realy more realistc - i have to learn it!

Hi warthog77 - Yes, ripple-firing is like you described, when you fire one Hellfire and while that is in-flight fire another. When the first one hits a target, lock onto another target and the second one will hit that. Depending on target range, target dispersion and things like that, it may be possible to have 3 or 4 Hellfire's in-flight! That's like a mini-game on its own, managing all those missiles to make sure they hit targets!

I'm glad you have found my websites useful. And can I just say that it is always a pleasure to help European's with not so good English! In my experience they always have a big amount of appreciation and it feels good to help you guys out when I can. It's mainly American's who I 'deal' with, and most of what I learn is from them anyhow, so I don't always find myself in a position to teach them anything. Bigheads!

If you haven't seen it, you may also like the helicopter section on my real-world military website...
http://digitality.comyr.com/milnet/heli

Yes, the target priority in Comanche Gold does not always work how you want it to. When you set it to Target Priority, it doesn't always target the threats first - but also throws in the mission priority targets too. This can lead to harmless trucks being targeted before SAMs! Sometimes Target Cycle is better, and if you can limit the range of targets you can lock onto this will help. You can do this by trying to get any harmless targets out of the sensor field-of-view, this is the sensor on the front of the helicopter. Your doctrine is correct in that you take out any threats to you first (SAM, helicopters), then any threats left to your ground forces or mission (tanks, APCs).

Regarding having a lot of flying hours, in LB2 I have over 140hrs of flight time, over 330 successful missions and over 6200 kills. These figures were recorded back in 2007, although I must admit since then I haven't played the game that much.

A 'creepy maggot'? LOL Don't be so harsh on yourself, we all start somewhere... even if people are now only playing games that came out 15 or so years ago!

Do you mean the voice acting in German is awful for LB2? I have the English speech files online for you to download!

You might also like this article I did for SimHQ back in 2007, if you haven't already seen it...
http://www.simhq.com/_air10/air_320a.html

Always a pleasure, Flyboy

hi flyboy,

first it is a pleasure to me to communicate with you (and the others here),
2nd my english was much better..long ago..i have the feeling that was the time when dinosaurs rule the world..
i know this and it is a little bit displeasing for me..pls forbear before i tried to post here, i searched this forum(and the wwww) deeply for answeres to my questions..ok 90% of my searchresults referred to SimHQ :-) (because i 'googled' the right questions)

up to you:
flyboy's site is very good i like the enter-screen from Gunship!

nice,nice very informative but were are the pics? uh..and i think that the MBB BO 105 PAH has a right to exist on your site, because it is a great Anti-Tank Heli, eqipped with HOT-AT-Missiles and i think it was the first Heli who can do a looping..
think you know this site, do you? Helicopter History site


..yes i saw it already but i do not already read it - will do :-)

I meant the voicees from LB1 but i think LB2 would not be better..that is the problem when you buy german games..but i cant find cheap UK-Versions or i found on ebay.us but the shippingcosts...you know.. UK to Germany no problem i bought a lot of Playstation2 games (original versions not the zensored german ones) on ebay uk
..where can i download the files?

..yesterday i had a minute to play Comanche and checked the authentic modell with v-stab - huh, it is difficult to fly..
i have a 'solution' for easier targeting with the comanche - use the TAB-key for target holding - every target in sight an range will be saved - then ripple-firing Hellfires -that was it. you do not cycle through all targets. it is a good method to deal with armored convoys and troop concentrations.

...it is strange to love playing such old games..think this is an indicator for growing older..

warthog77