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FALCONER A MANAGER PROGRAM FOR FALCON 3.0D (Release 3.1) By Rob "Orinoco" Heittman (72700,1067) Member Expert for PC Air Combat Simulation CompuServe Flight Simulation Forum (GO FSFORUM) DOCUMENTATION IMPORTANT ----- READ the file called README.NOW before continuing any further! OVERVIEW ----- Falconer is a freeware tool that lets you control every important aspect of your FALCON 3.0 ("F3") squadron and campaign. You can: Automatically reload your favorite squadron every time you run FALCNR. Automatically create "super squadrons" with max abilities for each pilot, and no fatigue Automatically eliminate all fatigue from your squadron Automatically reorganize the roster in four different ways Control ALL supplies and weaponry used on campaign Edit pilot ability scores Edit pilot rank Edit pilot status (KIA, MIA, Active, etc.) Export a single pilot and custom face to a pair of files Export a squadron full of pilots to a file Give or rescind any pilot's awards Import a single pilot and custom face from a pair of files Import a squadron full of pilots from a file Print a pilot dossier Print your Sierra Hotel sheet Print a squadron roster Reactivate/resurrect lost pilots Replace any existing "pilot face" with part of a .PCX file Replenish any planes lost in combat Replenish ECM modules lost in combat Replenish fuel used in combat Run Greg Prete's Falcon Mapper at any time Use Falconer as a shell for Falcon 3.0 INSTALLING FALCONER ----- If you're reading this file you must have unZIPped the FALCNR.ZIP file already. You must make sure that the file FALCNR.EXE is in your FALCON 3.0 directory (typically C:\FALCON3). If FALCONER is not in your F3 directory, it will not start and display an error message asking you to install it correctly. To run FALCONER, just log to the F3 directory and type FALCNR at the DOS prompt. LOADING A SQUADRON ----- The first thing you need is an active squadron. If you don't already have one, go back to F3 and "FORM" a squadron. From FALCONER, select "File Open..." from the menu by pressing [ALT- F], followed by [O]. Alternatively, you can make menu selections with the mouse. (Note: where possible FALCONER uses a CUA-compliant interface, so it should be quite familiar to most PC users) FALCONER will present you with a list of available squadrons which you may modify. Any squadrons which you have deleted using the "DEACTIVATE" option in F3 _cannot_ be recovered. Only active squadrons can be modified. If you have more than 6 active squadrons (F3 is still not known to actively support more than 6), you will only see the first 6 of them in the FALCONER menu. You may not edit squadrons with a number higher than 6 in FALCONER. The squadrons will be identified by name and number. Select the number of the squadron you want to modify. The on-screen frame will fill with pilots and statistics, and the other menu options will be activated. SAVING YOUR FILE ----- After you have made changes to your squadron, you can save the file back to disk by selecting "File Save..." from the menu. If you do NOT select "File Save..." the squadron data will not be changed, no matter what you do to the on-screen representation. INTERACTIVE EDITING ----- The interactive editor is started by selecting "Edit Interactive" from the menu [ALT-E],[I]. You may use the arrow keys to move the cursor around the roster, to highlight an item to edit. You press one of several keys to perform an action on that item or pilot. These keys are listed at the bottom of the screen. Interactive editing has six functions: AWARDING - if you highlight any part of a pilot record and press the [A] key, you will be presented with a dialog box where you can give or rescind any awards that pilot possesses. EXPORTING - if you highlight any part of a pilot record and press the [X] key, you can export that pilot to a special file on disk, while simultaneously saving his "face" picture. You will be prompted for a filename, which can be up to 8 characters. Two files will be created. One will be given the extension .F3P -- for "Falcon 3 Pilot." Another will be given the extension .F3F -- "Falcon 3 Face." FACE REPLACER - if you highlight any part of a pilot record and press the [F] key, you will be able to replace that pilot's face with part of a .PCX file. This function is covered below in the section "YFIF3 - Your Face in F3!" IMPORTING - if you highlight any part of a pilot record and press the [I] key, you can import a pilot from disk in that record slot. You will be prompted for an 8-character .F3P filename. The .F3P file must already be in the F3 directory. WARNING - the new pilot will be imported "over" the pilot you have highlighted. The highlighted pilot will be lost permanently if you save the file to disk. If an .F3F file is present, the pilot's face will be imported into the appropriate slot in the face file. CHANGING DATA Every field on the screen (except slot #) can be edited. To edit a field, move the cursor to that field and press the [ENTER] key. For text fields like NAME or CALLSIGN, or numerical fields like DGFT (see below for abbreviations) you will be asked to enter the new text in a dialog box. For multiple-choice fields like STAT, each time you press the [ENTER] key, the field will toggle between its various states. VIEWING AND PRINTING DOSSIERS If you highlight any part of a pilot record and press the [?] key, you will view the complete dossier for the pilot, including their air-to-air and air-to-ground kills. If you select the button <PRINT Dossier> (press [TAB] to move the cursor to the button, then press [SPACE] to select it, or select it with the mouse) you can print that information to the printer on LPT1:. A printer MUST be connected to LPT1 and online for this option to work. If FALCONER cannot access your printer, you will get an error message. You can exit Interactive Edit by pressing the [ESC] key. SETTING AVAILABLE PILOTS ----- In addition to the individual status flags for each pilot (KIA, MIA, ACTIVE, etc.), F3 keeps a separate list of the number of pilots you currently have available. During a campaign, KIA's and MIA's are pushed to the BOTTOM of your pilot roster. If F3 says you have less than 30 available pilots, then the ones at the bottom of the roster are not shown in your Pilot Info. screen. To simulate this effect, FALCONER "grays out" the appropriate number of pilots at the bottom of the roster if you have less than 30 active pilots. The "Edit Set Available Pilots..." menu option allows you to change this number, and make campaign mode think you have more active pilots than you really do. Remember, though, just because you can access the pilot record, if he's KIA or MIA, he still can't fly. You must manually change the KIA and MIA flags for each "greyed" pilot that you put back on the roster by increasing the number of "available pilots." When you play around with this, you will see why I have dubbed this the "waterline" value. By decreasing the Available field, you raise the "waterline" and more pilots are "sunk." AUTO-UNFATIGUE ----- With one menu selection ("Edit Auto-Unfatigue") you can reset your entire squadron's fatigue scores to 100. AUTO-PERFECT ----- If you want to quickly create a "super squadron" all you have to do is select Auto-Perfect. All your pilots' ability scores will jump to 100, and all fatigue will be reset to 100. AUTO-ORGANIZE ----- This performs several housekeeping functions in one fell swoop. First, it organizes your pilots according to: STAT (Status. Non-active pilots go to the bottom like F3 expects) then according to the choice you made in your Config menu (which can either be DGFT, BOMB, FLYG, or RANK) then by NAME (Alphabetical order) Finally it counts the number of non-active pilots and sets the waterline to the first non-active pilot -- just like F3 expects. I suggest ALWAYS using Auto-Organize after doing any squadron editing that involves rank or status. I have not had any problems with setting the waterline to strange values, or having pilots out of rank order -- but you never can tell. Also, Auto-Organize makes the roster a LOT easier to read. EXPORT SQUADRON ----- Once you have a squadron you like, you might want to save it for future use. Export Squadron will prompt you for a file name and let you save all 30 pilot records into one file. You can import this data into any squadron later, without disturbing campaign or other peripheral information. The file is stored with the extension ".F3S" for Falcon 3 Squadron. IMPORT SQUADRON ----- The opposite of Export Squadron, this allows you to import an .F3S file back into any existing squadron. FALCONER is packaged with two .F3S files: the 386th and 387th Flight Simulation Forum Squadrons. These are stored under 386th.F3S and 387th.F3s. SQUADRON ROSTER ----- You can print your squadron roster by selecting this menu option. Again, you must have a printer connected to LPT1 and active. SIERRA HOTEL ----- This option prints your Sierra Hotel list. It is based, like the one in F3, on air to air kills alone. Release 2a includes a special routine that reorganizes information in the .SQU file every time you save the file. This routine prevents the F3 "Sierra Hotel" display from showing erroneous information, as is otherwise prone to happen when pilots are repeatedly resurrected. REPLENISH ECM ----- If your squadron is on campaign, and you run out of ECM modules, you can replenish the ECM modules by selecting this option. This option boosts the number of available ECM modules to 50. REPLENISH FUEL ----- If your squadron runs out of fuel on campaign, you can replenish fuel by selecting this option. Boosts the amount of available fuel to approximately 290,000 gallons. REPLENISH PLANES ----- If your squadron is on campaign, and you are low on available planes, you can replenish the planes using this option. Also, if you want to give yourself a challenge by _reducing_ the number of available planes... you can use this option to do it. Enter a number of planes between 1 and 18. If you attempt to use this option on a squadron which is not active on campaign, you will receive an error message. SUPPLY MANAGEMENT ----- All other resources on campaign (weapons) can be controlled using this function. Your supply manifest will be shown. In the edit box provided, type in a new quantity you would like to apply to the various weapons on the manifest. To apply that quantity to any weapon, either move the cursor to it using [TAB] and then press [SPACE], or click on that weapon with the mouse. SHELL OPERATION ----- You can use Falconer as a shell for Falcon 3.0! Instead of running FALCON3.EXE, use the provided F3.BAT file. This will load Falconer, and enable a special menu option to "Run Falcon 3.0." After you run Falcon 3.0 via Falconer, your squadron will be automatically reloaded so you don't have to File..Open it again. At any time, regardless of whether you use F3.BAT, you can run Greg Prete's Falcon Mapper (F3MAPS) utility. You can also run Falconer from within F3MAPS... thanks to coordination among members of the Flight Simulation Forum. CONFIG MENU ----- By selecting one of the Config menu options (a "bullet" appears by the selected option), you can choose how Auto-Organize will sort your roster. "YFIF3" - YOUR FACE IN F3! ----- Version 2.5 of Falconer introduced a code module called YFIF3, short for "Your Face in F3." If you have a scanned photo of yourself (or anyone else), in .PCX format and at the appropriate size, you can replace one of the existing pilot faces with a cut-out from that .PCX file! The "correct" picture will then appear for you when you fly in F3. IMPORTANT NOTE: There is only one file that contains all 50 pilot pictures, called PILOT.BIN. Changes that Falconer makes to this file are PERMANENT. The first time you run Falconer 3.1, it will make a copy of PILOT.BIN in PILOT.ABK. If you need the stock faces back for any reason, you may use the Restore Faces option in the File menu. Select your pilot in INTERACTIVE mode, and press [F] to get to the face editor. You will first be asked to confirm the face to replace. If you want to overwrite a different face, you may choose a different face number, from 1 to 50. If you do this, you will have to go back into F3 to associate the new, replaced face with your pilot using the "SELECT FACE" button. You will be asked for a .PCX filename. The .PCX file must be 256 color, version 3-compatible, and preferably smaller than the 320x200 screen space (though this is not strictly necessary). You will get an error message or garbage on screen if you attempt to use a different format of .PCX file. The file should be in your Falcon 3 directory. If you are having format problems, the shareware program WINGIF does an excellent job of converting other formats to .PCX and sizing them appropriately. Also, Windows 3.0 Paintbrush 256 color .PCX files are compatible with FALCONER. If you have a scanner program that runs under Windows, try pasting to Paintbrush and saving as a .PCX file. At this point FALCONER must take the broad 256 color palette of your picture, and try to mash it down into the narrow band of flesh tones in the Falcon 3.0 palette. Results will vary from "recognizable" to "excellent," depending on how closely your scan matches the colors in the Falcon palette. NOTE: When your picture is displayed, you may see bright "STARS" of white at various points. This is because Falconer keeps one attribute to itself to display "white" text on-screen. Don't worry about the "stars", they are only a display problem, and won't be saved in the final picture. When the picture is displayed and the palette matched, you can select the region to clip by moving the small black box with the arrow keys. Press [ENTER] to confirm the region you want. You will be reminded that the change to PILOT.BIN is permanent, and asked to confirm the face save operation. If you don't like the results so far, this is the time to bail out! If you press [Y] the new face will be stored permanently in PILOT.BIN. Tips for best results: use pictures with high contrast and a broad band of flesh tones in the source palette. What that means is: the better the source scan, the better the results, basically! CAUTIONARY NOTICES AND LEGAL MUMBO JUMBO ----- This program is freeware. It may be copied freely and distributed as long as it is not modified in any way, and this documentation file is packaged with the executable program. No guarantees are made as to the compatibility of this program with Falcon 3.0D. It has been tested thoroughly, however, remember that the purpose of this program is to allow you to modify data that Falcon 3.0D does not want modified! A combination of changes you engineer via this program could conceivably destabilize a F3 campaign and thence the program, though I believe it is highly unlikely. It is also possible that future upgrades of F3 may be incompatible with this program. But read this carefully and understand it: THIS PROGRAM ALTERS FALCON 3.0D DATA. ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR SYSTEM OR FILES, EITHER DIRECT, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL, WILL NOT BE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE AUTHOR OF "FALCONER." ADDITIONALLY, NO GUARANTEES ARE MADE CONCERNING SUPPORT OF THIS SOFTWARE. SUPPORT ANYWAY ----- At the present, I am available to support this file via the Flight Simulation Forum on Compuserve (GO FSFORUM). Leave a message in section 8, Modern Air Combat, if you have questions, comments, or suggestions about this program, or would like to solicit help with a problem. ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE SCREEN AND PRINTED ROSTERS ----- DGFT = Dogfighting Skill BOMB = Bombing Accuracy FLYG = Flying Skill FATG = Fatigue RANK = Rank COL = Colonel LTC = Lt. Colonel MAJ = Major CAPT = Captain LT = Lieutenant STAT = Pilot Status ACTV = Active KIA = Killed in Action MIA = Missing in Action INJ = Injured C.M. = Court-Martialled RET = Retired ADDITIONAL ABBREVIATIONS IN THE PRINTED ROSTER ----- SORT = Sorties Flown ATAK = Air To Air Kills (total) ATGK = Air To Ground Kills (total) AWARD ABBREVIATIONS ----- MOH = Medal Of Honor AFC = Air Force Cross SS = Silver Star FC = Flying Cross BS = Bronze Star AM = Air Medal PH = Purple Heart RELEASE HISTORY ----- Release 1 --- provided for editing of pilot abilities and fatigue only. Release 2 --- enhanced and redesigned version with export, import, and printing features, as well as pilot resurrection and waterline adjustment. Uploaded to CIS for a brief period... few if any copies in existence. Release 2a -- stabilized Sierra Hotel system, added plane replenisher feature based on FSFORUM input prior to the LIB inclusion of Release 2. Only one copy made, for Steve "Auger" Edwards of FSFORUM. Release 2b -- included award grant/rescind system at the request of Steve Edwards. Uploaded to CIS. Release 2.5 - necessary because of new .CAM file structure in Falcon 3.0c, incompatible with previous versions. Incorporates basic SMS/YFIF3 functions. Release 3.0 - includes shell operation. Fixes bugs. Works with 3.0D. Incorporates lateral scanner to prevent minor revisions from locking up system. Face and squadron exporting. Release 3.1 - numerous minor revisions from 3.0. Sort modes added to Auto-Organize. Lateral scanner bypass implemented. YFIF3 parts changed to assembler for speed. Prompt for save added. Stack expanded to prevent lockups. Auto reload feature added. ENDNOTES ----- Did you read the README.NOW file? You really should, if you haven't! If you are getting this file from a BBS somewhere or another online service --- please, drop in on FSFORUM, you don't know what you're missing. Give me a buzz in area 8. Internet fiends, you can of course reach me at 72700.1067@compuserve.com. Good luck, god speed, and for heaven's sake CHECK SIX! - Rob Heittman [FSFORUM]