Okay, I know a lot of you love LOMAC and have been playing it since it first came out. My question is to the those that play exclusively single player. Since there is no dynamic campaign, what keeps you playing? How do you play day after day with nothing dynamic? Just curious what keeps you all going? Thanks.

I play Lock On single-player mostly for two reasons.

1. To prevent myself from getting rusty for my online Cooperative sessions. It's very easy to forget which command does what in the SU-25T if you dont play it for a while.

2. I've downloaded a bunch of user-made single missions and single-player campaigns which have added quite a few new things to the single player experience.

But in the end though, I have a lot more fun when I play a Cooperative online mission in Lock On when compared to playing a single player mission.

I'll answer this one since this question pretty much describes me.

1. The mission editor. Seriously, people way way WAY under appreciate the mission editor in LoMAC. Making your own missions is fun as hell and rewarding in of itself. I once made a mission that involved a Red force attack on an US Carrier group. It was so involved that it was unplayable (from the cockpit, that is. I could still watch it) on the old computer I currently have. However, simply creating it was rewarding. I did a little research on US carrier groups and did my best to dig up info on Soviet tactics. Had I really been dedicated, I could have probably spent months researching information to get a resonably accurate depiction of such an attack.

Besides this, the mission editor is very easy to use. A blind chimp could make a resonably well made mission. Remember, it doesn't have to be complex -- just fun. You can check out Beach AV8Rs Su-25T training missions for proof of that.

2. You can fly Russian planes (and choppers! ). That itself is worth the money after years of USAF/USN stuff. Nothing better than creating an accurate A/G or point defense mission with the MiG-29 after playing F4AF for awhile.

3. A/G stuff. Air to ground is inherently more single-player friendly, IMO, than A/A stuff since your esentially just blowing stuff up while trying to avoid being blown up. There's a lot of depth there if you take the time to learn how to fly the Su-25T (which I haven't had time to do ). This will also hold true for Black Shark.

Of course, all this may just be based on bias because...

4. I prefer single player. My career is competative enough. I don't have any desire to come home and play a video game and compete with others. Throwing your HOTAS out the window in frustration and ruining other's fun with your anger is not a good thing. Coop multiplayer can be fun, but again, I deal with hundreds of people each day. Thousands each week. I don't have any desire to organize anything or apply for a squadron after all that. I quit seriously playing MMORPGs because of how much they force you to rely on other people to have fun. I didn't pick up Flight sims to do that all over again!

Sounds like you needed to find a casual coop group. I would never stick with a group that REQUIRED anything out of me.



The Jedi Master

Possibly, but I really do prefer single player even if no one would expect anything of me. The more I play F4AF, the more I realize how far a dynamic campaign goes to enjoying single player. However, LoMAC still has plenty of single player fun in it for me!

Funny. I use the exact same approach when it comes to women.

As RedTiger already said - despite its occasional niggly features and annoying AI traits, the Mission Editor is powerful and fun to mess around with. I can spend hours trying to make the perfect mission for myself.

Plus I have reams of single player campaigns and missions I have D/L'ed and still not had the time to fly yet. For me, half the fun of Lockon is simply flying around when you have got the time/weather set just so and you think "wow, that's a great sunrise". Sometimes I'll start a mission and abandon it to follow a river or a road or a set of power lines simply to satisfy my curiosity of where they go to/come from.

The short answer is "Nothing"

That's why games like LOMAC doesnt get as much play time from me as games like F4 or EECH. Once you have flown the missions that came with it multiple times, you really don't want to fly them again.

I like the Mission Editor because it allows me to tell stories in a campaign setting.
I just fly missions that I've created. I've created a lot of missions - all of them Air-to-Ground.

Lately I've gone to Hyperlobby's dedicated servers to blow things up.

And I've played a bunch of them and enjoyed them all! :-)

I do the exact same thing! The "sterile" world that LoMAC presents has the benefit of providing more freedom. I have a mission that I play from time to time that has the player taking off from the Kusnetsov in a Su-33 loaded with A/G ordinance. There are no objectives, no enemy units, no wingmen, just total freedom to explore the map and practice blowing stuff up. It can be surprisingly fun to fly through the valleys in Georgia and see what you can find! I found castle-like structure that was completely hidden in a valley. I was amazed by this and wondered how many other players knew that the building was there. Then I proceeded to practice dive-tosses and rocket launches and level the thing to the ground!

Now I just need to make a similar mission with the Su-25T and a few vehicles to take advantage of the A/G missiles.

Guys, thanks for all the replies! On using the mission editor...yes you can make tons of your own missions and scenarios but when you go to fly them, don't you pretty much know where the enemy is and how many of them there are? I guess what I mean is, don't you already know what's going to happen?
Again, thanks. I ask because I have no desire to play online, just single player only.

Yes you will. However, if you don't go overboard on the scope of your mission and keep it at the tactical level, this isn't too unbelievable. Say you have a mission to attack a power plant. With modern intelligence and reconnaissance, you may already have a good idea of what to expect. You might know where enemy AA defenses are. You might also know that enemy fighters operate in the area. But yes, you will know exactly where they are and what they are.

If you really want random, you should take a look at the LockOn mission randomizer. It allows you MUCH more randomness when designing a mission. You're basically designing a mission with many more variables than you normally would and the program will randomize what you see. One time you're flight might be intercepted by a 4 ship of F-15s. The next time you might only encounter enemy AA defense. The next time you might find your airbase under attack before you even taxi to the runway!

Let me know if you want the program. You might be able to find the zip file for it if you search around (its called LMR.zip). There's a tiny bit of a learning curve, but it works pretty well once you get the hang of it.

Yeh, you're right. I never thought about it that way. I think I have that program somewhere, I'll have to see if I can find it. How good a job does the quick mission generator do (or whatever it's called)? I've only used it a couple of times but it seem to be okay. The only thing I don't like about it is that you start in the air and not on the runway.

Me, i just test and tweak the missions i made in the Mission Builder.

I'm particularly fond of playing with group "spawn" times. It makes the mission feel a bit more vibrant. As you return, another flight from your base takes off to do their task or replace you something like that. (I got inspired from Jane's F/A-18 amd during my "short" time at F4AF)

As I use A2G, what I sometimes do is use the "spawn" times to activiate different SAMs AND combine that with small distractions - enemy helos that need to be dealt with, friendly aircraft that need to be identified, course changes, AI A2A high level combat(3 friendly vs. 1-2 enemy jets) that can lock on the player's craft with some chance of it turning into an escape from the fast-movers.

You should try the mission randomizer:
http://forums.ubi.com/eve/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=400102&f=38610606&m=867106651
(second download link works ok)

One can make the missions more dynamic and random. Very good tool!

I never played one of the missions that came with Lock On - I don't know why, I played the F-15 quick mission a few times.

I've never played any of the stock missions either. Only my own or other player-created ones. And as far as knowing what to expect ruining it...just because you know there's a 4-ship of F-15s out there doesn't mean you're gonna automatically win...you still have to employ correctly...same goes for A-G missions. I spent a few hours last night just doing 1v1 guns-only BFM engagements...fun!!

and there are so many missions and campaigns around that it would take a year or more to re-fly a mission.

As for re-flying your own missions, although I remember the outline of mine , I am as clueless as anyone as where the threat is after a few months - besides, even if I do know where a target is in a Su-25T mission , there is always the challenge of flying the mission better.