Although a list of changes were stated on the FC3 web page, it seems that this was not noticed by many users. Many of these changes were in fact what the team has been working on since the product was delayed. This was in addition to addressing many serious bugs.
FC3 page:
http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/series/flaming_cliffs_3/There will of course be further changes while FC3 is beta, but until those features are final and integrated into an installer, we cannot comment on them at this time.
(sorry, I was out of the country when FC3 was released)
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DCS World Integration
Lock On: Flaming Cliffs 3 operates as part of DCS World. As such, DCS World must be installed prior to installing Lock On: Flaming Cliffs 3. DCS World is a new, free, combat simulation. DCS World provides a free-to-play Su-25T ground attack aircraft with no online restrictions. Online DCS: World includes friendly and enemy forces that can be controlled by other players or AI air and ground units. The purchase of additional DCS modules allows the player to have careers as pilots of the A-10C Warthog, KA-50 Black Shark attack helicopter, P-51D Mustang, or armor vehicle commander. You may read more about DCS: World and its modules at:
http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/Common F-15C and A-10A Changes
- Updated US RWR threats display logic - threats in scan mode do not update their position continuously anymore.
- US RWR display symbology was made stabilized to the horizon.
- Glide slope/localizer deviation bars were removed from F-15C/A-10A HUDs.
- Adjusted F-15C/A-10A HUD gun reticle distance sector visual appearance.
New F-15C Cockpit and Updated Cockpit Systems
Perhaps the most noticeable new features with Lock On: Flaming Cliffs 3 is the new, beautiful cockpit. This cockpit is fully rendered in every detail and provides 6 degrees of freedom of movement within the cockpit. This new cockpit includes both day and night lighting, an improved HUD that is focused to infinity, re-worked HUD symbols and many improvements and new functions for the radar and radar warning receiver:
- New flap position lights
- Flaps position lights logic was updated.
- AI & SAM warning lights are functional now.
- Active jamming is indicated by open X in the center of TEWS screen. Flashing X - standby, steady X - active.
- CHAFF/FLARE, and MINIMUM lights are operational now.
- Marker beacon light was made functional. MKR display was added on HUD.
- Added CSET display on HUD - is displayed for the first 10 seconds after ILS mode selection.
- Steer mode select knob was animated.
- Fixed HUD Integrated Flight Director indication.
- Added bank steering bar on HUD.
- HUD altitude scale is always barometric now.
- Removed radar altimeter scale from HUD.
- Fixed AoA scale and numeric indication on HUD.
- Adjusted HUD display logic of Mach number and current/maximum G displays.
- ADI light was made functional.
- Fixed unstable radar lock at certain ranges in the vertical scan mode.
- Radar scan zone in TWS is limited by 60 degrees now.
- DTWS scan zone automatic centering is implemented.
Changes to the A-10A
- Fixed bank steering pointer and bank indicator animation on ADI.
- Adjusted TVV position limits on HUD. Out of view arrow has been added for TVV.
- Pitch numerics were changed to Flight Path Angle numerics on HUD.
- Adjusted position limits of various HUD symbols.
- Reworked visual shape and display logic of the destination index (tadpole).
- Added TD box (steer point position) on HUD.
- Fixed visual appearance of the Target Designator Cue (TDC) on HUD.
Changes to the MiG-29 and Su-27/33
- Stations display was removed from Su-27/33 HUD.
- Radar scan zone on Russian aircrafts is now always centered on the tracked target in TWS.
- 'Target unlock' command is now functional in Russian TWS - current track and radar contacts data is cleared.
- Radar is correctly returns back to TWS (instead of RWS) on Russian aircrafts when STT is lost.
Common Changes to All Aircraft
- Fixed momentary jump of the HSI course pointer in some cases when steerpoint is switched.
- HSI course/bearing/distance pointers and ADI steering/deviation bars animation was made smooth in all aircrafts
Improved Air-to-Air Missile Flight Dynamics
- With a return to a heavy focus on air-to-air combat in Lock On: Flaming Cliffs 3, the flight dynamics physics of air-to-air missiles has been improved in multiple ways:
- Launcher platform speed, thrust, missile weight, total drag, gravity, etc. are all calculated to determine missile speed.
- Missiles now incur realistic energy bleed that accounts for drag, induced drag and gravity. Induced drag calculates g-load and that factors the missile’s lift. Missiles will now bleed energy very quickly if the target performs hard maneuvers.
- We added a longitudinal-load fuze arming type. The missile warhead of missile will only be armed after reaching the assigned longitudinal g-load (acceleration). Otherwise the missile will not detonate.
- We added a limited duration to the missile’s power system (gas-generator, generator and hydraulic pump). When the onboard power system is exhausted, the missile goes ballistic.
- We added a self-destruction timer. Some missiles will self-destruct when the timer is reached.
- We added altitude based of self-destruction. Some missiles will destruct when reaching an assigned altitude above ground level.
- We added a guidance timer delay. After launching a missile, the missile will fly straight from the from launcher for safety reasons before initiating the guidance stage. This is typically 0.3…1.5 seconds. For example: the R-27R missile flies unguided forward for 0.5 seconds before guidance to target starts.
- We added parameters of loft trajectory. The initial range to target, the range of transition to proportional navigation, and initial angle of loft are all factored.
Resource Manager
In any war, logistics plays one of the most critical roles. If an army air force cannot be resupplied, it will be useless in battle. The new Resource Manger allows mission designers to add the element of resource management into missions.
Mission builders can now place warehouses on the battle map and allow them to resupply airbases and other facilities with set amounts of weapons and fuel. This can be done for both single player and multiplayer missions.
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I posted this earlier but I think it bears worth repeating here:
Philosophy Behind the Release of FC3
Although it was not stated in the original announcement, I wanted to share the motivation behind FC3 and the logic behind some of the choices we made.
With the current divide between FC2 and DCS, we felt there was an unneeded gap between the two products that only served divide the larger Eagle Dynamics product community. Further, those flying DCS online really had no dedicated fighter aircraft, just mud movers. For a more encompassing online experience, this needs to change.
Given that "DCS: Fighter" is still a ways off, we hope that FC3 will serve as a good bridge while we continue to flesh out the stable of DCS aircraft (both 1st and 3rd party). However, given the time window for this and the available resources, there was a lot of back and forth discussion internally of what we could and could not do in a reasonable time frame. In the end, a list of improvements was created that we believe will most benefit FC3. Many of these improvements though (like AAM AFM, resource manager, etc.) could not be specific to an FC3 install, rather they would have to be part of DCSW or it would break the game online. Make no mistake though that these features were specifically created for and budged for FC3.
As for the new and improved F-15C cockpit, work on this started about a year ago because we felt of all the FC aircraft, it is the most popular. That is not a slight to the eastern aircraft, nor any indication of some sort of western bias. While we would also have LOVED to include a new and improved MiG-29 or Su-27 cockpit, the time needed would fall well outside the product window. As someone that has been flying Eagle products since the original Flanker, I too look forward to a new Crane cockpit!
As mentioned before by our moderators that show boundless patience, it is not our decision regarding the requirement for a LOMAC installation. This was a stipulation with Ubisoft that allowed us to create these addons. However, this is also a big reason why FC3 will probably be the last LOMAC product.
Finally, on the matter of price, we price all products based on the financial investment compared to forecasted revenue based on two decades of experience. For those that think we make money hand over fist making these titles, you could not be more wildly mistaken. If we solely based price on what end users deemed the cost should be rather than based on actual development costs, we would have been out of business long ago. As it is, we are often lucky to break even on these products.
