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AIR WARRIOR PILOT'S GUIDE. 12/91 R.Wolf ________________________________________________________________________ About This Guide This Pilot's Guide will cover the operation of the Air Warrior software and features of the game. It is generally a copy of various text sections of the printed Air Warrior User's Manual ver 2.3 available for order in the KESMAI order page (m130). Other printed support materials such as detailed terrain maps are available for order as well. All flight controls and features of the Host game and technical setup issues are covered in detail for each specific version of Air Warrior. An individualized copy of this Guidebook is included in every starter kit along with the software files. Reviewing these instructions is quite an important orientation. The details of flight technique and Air Combat tactics cannot be properly covered in a text guide alone. To support the training of new players to Air Warrior, we have developed an additional printed Training Guidebook, demonstration films and a live training Academy organization. See the Training Academy menu for a full description of this school and Press <RETURN> or <S>croll?s it's function. _________________________________________________________________________ Overview Below is a list of the main points new Air Warrior players should become acquainted with. Most are covered in this guide text (o). Other skills (*) must be cultivated through the training described above. o Overview of Air Warrior / game environment. o The player community / Forums and Squadrons. o Online Support / Resources. o Relevant menus on GEnie. o Conference room commands. o Radio use in-flight and on the ground. o Navigation / Displays / RADAR / printed Maps. o Identifying other aircraft. o Use of View Keys and Icons to track targets. o Offline practice mode. o Online flight mode / terminal mode. o Use of the inflight Camera. / Editing, Sharing films. * Basic piloting skills. / Understanding various aircraft. * Air combat maneuver skills / Bombing / formation flying / Tactics. o Details of scoring o Description of Strategic Targets. o Overview of organized events / Squadron activities / Dueling Ladder. * Weaponry statistics. * Aircraft Performance statistics. o Air Warrior Libraries on GEnie. o Air Warrior Bulletin Board area in the MP-Games roundtable. o Online extras: Art, Sound, Documents, Films, software tools. o Creating custom art and sharing files online. o Designing / leading Historical Scenarios. o Software Setup / Configuration options. o Description of the pull down menus. o Trouble shooting. o In Flight keyboard controls. o In Flight Command Line commands. o Host commands / examples / record keeping. o Pre Flight Checklists. _________________________________________________________________________ - About Air Warrior - Air Warrior is a multi-player air combat simulation. Using sophisticated software techniques, Air Warrior combines the visual realism and detailed graphics of a video game with the live action and dramatic content of an online multi-player game. Players in Air Warrior fly WW II vintage fighters in live dogfights against members of any of three nationalities. In addition, ground vehicles such as tanks and jeeps can be commanded. Heavy bomber aircraft can be commanded and staffed by up to seven live crew members. Paratroop aircraft and dive bombers are also simulated. There are both European style terrains and Pacific terrains with Aircraft Carriers, rivers, and bridges. A north Africa terrain is planned. Airfields have automated ack-ack guns, radar towers , fuel farms, and repair hangers as targets. Strategic targets such as refineries, aircraft factories and supplies factories are located outside capitol cities. Automated resupply convoys of trucks and C-47's roll when a target is bombed. Interception of these convoys can cause temporary deprivations of fuel, aircraft and repairs to opposing countries. Various aircraft are closely modeled to match the theater of operation in use. There are American, British, German, Soviet and Japanese aircraft modeled individually in Air Warrior. Air Warrior has a WW I theater as well as Korean War vintage Jet aircraft and the ME-262 jet. There are live conference rooms as well as ready rooms in Air Warrior. There are both radio channels and private intercom channels for communications. Players can fly as members of organized squadrons or alone. Periodically, special weekend campaigns are organized to recreate historic events. There is a dueling mode as well as a special practice area with organized training sessions. There is a gun camera feature which allows complete recreation of a flight including radio traffic. There is a chase plane perspective with view angles and magnification user selectable. Films can be played back on any machine. A film editor has just been released. Players take an active role in influencing the course of game evolution and features. Air Warrior is the only flight simulation of it's kind in the public marketplace. - The Software - Air Warrior , for each player, can be considered a PAIR of programs that work together. The 'HOST' program runs remotely on a GEnie service computer. The HOST program handles all the multi-player interactions as well as dogfight scoring and game record keeping. You run a local Air Warrior program on your home computer. That 'front-end' program handles all the flight simulation math, the screen animation, sound effects, and pilot control inputs. The two programs work together when you sign onto GEnie. Use the terminal portion of Air Warrior and enter the game through the Air Warrior menu. -The Starter Kit- The starter kit is a complete set of Air Warrior software and support files in compressed format. The kit, for new players, is available for direct download from the [*] FREE Instructions menu (m871). The KIT will contain all software needed to run Air Warrior plus demo art files, sound where applicable, and a flight FILM demonstration. A copy of the Pilot's Guide text for each computer will be present in the KIT. Each type of supported home computer is represented individually. - The Air Warrior menus- The GEnie menus used in Air Warrior will be listed completely later in this manual. They may be reached by via previous menu selections or through direct move commands which will also be listed for handy reference. -The Air Warrior Libraries- The libraries contain all software from the starter kits stored individually for manual download. Copies of the compression utilities are installed there. In addition, there are many extras for each type of home system. These include art files for many aircraft, sound files, player designed maps, films of mission adventures, and documents and instructions for more advanced activities like running special events. The libraries will be discussed later in this Guide. -The Air Warrior Bulletin Board- Great debates rage in the Air Warrior topics of the MP-Games bulletin board. This area is GEnie*Basic and provides the vibrant forum for interactions between all Air Warrior players. Your questions can be answered here and special events are announced and organized in these topic areas. Frequently players lobby KESMAI for feature changes and report bugs / problems they may encounter. Individual squadrons have private posting categories reserved for their members. Several Kesmai representatives read the full set of postings daily. See further details in the MP_Games round table area m1045. _________________________________________________________________________ Flight Commands The microprocessor program starts up in practice mode. In this mode the Control, Planes and Options menus are enabled. You can practice flying a plane by selecting the one you want from the Planes menu. Everything works in practice mode except the guns and bombs, however, they are unnecessary since there is nothing to shoot at. You can select your starting airfield from the Options menu. The practice mode is primarily designed for you to learn to fly the plane well and hopefully to land it safely. Once you have the hang of flying, its time to get on GEnie and test your mettle against other pilots. Practice is the most important thing you can do to learn to fly and fight well. Use the Practice Mode of the program to master landing, as getting a landing or ditch is vastly superior to bailing out at the end of the mission. Aerobatic skills can also come in handy in eluding a plane on your tail, or making a fancy maneuver to get on someone else's. Learn to fly using the "expert mode" rather than relying on the autopilot. _________________________________________________________________________ The Display The graphical display on the computer screen contains all the information you need to fly your plane. The largest part of the display is taken up by the graphical picture, which shows what you can see from your plane. You will see runways, roads, buildings, mountains, other planes and sometimes guns or vehicles on the ground. Part of the picture will be obscured by your own plane, which may be represented by a silhouette, or may be drawn in detail depending on the plane and the version you have. If you do see another plane or ground target which is within 5000 yards (less for some small targets), the program will textually display the id number or plane type of the target, the range to the target in yards and a small unique icon used to identify the target. This small icon will also appear below the picture, directly below the corresponding target. The different icons can be used to distinguish small images of other planes on the screen, compensating for the small size of the computer screen. The country of the indicated aircraft is represented by the shape of the icon on the Macintosh and by the color of the icon on the IBM PC, the Amiga and the Atari ST. Below the picture on the screen is a representation of the aircraft's instrument panel. The major instruments are the altimeter, rate- of-climb gauge, accelerometer, compass, fuel, oil and ammo indicators, and the airspeed indicator. The altimeter has three needles, representing tens, hundreds and thousands of feet and a small knob that travels around the inside rim of the gauge to show tens of thousands. The following description applies to the standard Macintosh instrument panel arrangement. IBM PC, Amiga and Atari ST control panels differ slightly and it is possible to customize the arrangement for each plane, in some cases radically altering the appearance. The digital compass reads in degrees, with zero as north and ninety due east. Fuel, oil and ammo indicate in percentages. The accelerometer measures how much force the airframe is being subjected to by the current maneuver. In straight and level flight the accelerometer will read 1 "g", meaning the wings are exactly supporting the weight of the plane. If the plane executes a level or climbing turn, the wings will have to provide more lift and the accelerometer is used to monitor how much more is being produced. The velocity gauge displays airspeed, usually in knots or nautical miles per hour.1 By default, the gauge indicates true airspeed (TAS). By selecting the appropriate option from the Options menu, Indicated Airspeed (IAS) can be displayed instead. Indicated airspeed is what the pilot of a real aircraft generally sees; it is measured by sampling the air pressure outside the plane with a Pitot tube. IAS will go down as the the plane climbs to higher altitude, due to decreasing air density. A plane that does 300 knots at sea level (where IAS and TAS are the same) may only do 250 knots IAS at 20,000 feet, whereas it's TAS may have in fact increased substantially with altitude. IAS is an accurate indication of how close the plane is to stalling and how close it is to exceeding one of its maximum safe speeds, because IAS is a direct measure of the force being exerted on the plane by the air. Other indicators on the control panel are aircraft control indicators. The large box in the center of the panel is the "stick box" or stick position indicator. Below it is the rudder position indicator (The rudder on an IBM PC, Amiga or Atari ST is located inside the stick box at its top.) The throttle indicator shows the current throttle setting. Small icons indicate whether the landing gear are up, down, or in motion and the position of the flaps. A stall indicator shows whether the airflow over the wings is stalled or not. If this light comes on during flight, a audible stall horn will sound also. _________________________________________________________________________ Mouse Controls The basic controls of the plane are on the mouse. Pushing the mouse forward and backward lowers and raises the nose, respectively. Moving the mouse from side to side will bank the plane, turning it in that direction. The IBM PC version supports an standard analog stick. The Amiga version also supports an analog joystick and the Macintosh version has an option to configure the program for use with a joystick such as the CH Flight Stick. There are two basic modes of mouse control, expert mode and autopilot mode. Expert mode is designed to give realistic responses to mouse or joystick motions, whereas autopilot mode is designed to provide a simple and stable control system at the cost of some realism. In autopilot mode, the mouse controls the actual position of the plane rather than the positions of its control surfaces. Moving the mouse to the right banks the plane to the right, the farther to the right it goes the steeper the bank. When it reaches the desired course, move the mouse back to center to straighten the plane out. Unlike the expert mode, the mouse motions here bear little resemblance to the actual motions of the stick in a plane, but they are easy to understand and easy to fly with. The variety of maneuvers the plane can perform in this mode is basically limited to level flight, climbs, dives and turns. Autopilot mode can only be engaged when the plane is in basically stable flight. Loops, rolls and more complex maneuvers require the use of expert mode. We do not recommend using the autopilot mode in combat, due to the serious limitations it imposes on aircraft tactics and maneuver. In expert mode, a mouse motion to the right causes the plane to bank to the right, the more the mouse is moved the faster the plane rolls to the right. If you move the mouse to the right and keep it there, the plane will execute a full roll and keep rolling till you move the mouse back to center. Likewise pulling the mouse back and keeping it there will put the plane through a full vertical loop. To execute a controlled turn to the right, you would move the mouse to the right causing the plane to roll to the right. Once it reaches an acceptable angle of bank, such as 45deg. or so, move the mouse back to center to stop the roll. A plane can make a slow shallow turn merely by being banked in this manner. If it attempts to make a steep bank, it will side slip, that is slip in towards the center of the turn and lose altitude. In order to make a fast turn, a large force is needed to bend the flight path of the plane into a curve. This force is provided by increasing the angle at which the airflow is striking the wings (known as the angle of attack), causing them to generate additional lift. Thus, to make a fast turn in Air Warrior without losing altitude, you pull back on the stick (mouse) just the amount needed to balance the force of gravity pulling the plane down with the lift of the wings pulling the plane up along the angle at which the plane is banked. A glance at the accelerometer and rate-of-climb gauges can help you to judge the force required. Air Warrior always performs what is known as a coordinated turn, meaning that the program automatically provides the rudder force necessary to compensate for the stick deflection you make, so that the plane remains properly aligned with the flight path. The rudder control in Air Warrior is used only for deflecting the plane away from this condition, such as to deliberately sideslip on landing. On the IBM PC, Atari ST and Amiga (with appropriate option selected) the left mouse button activates a feature called roll lock, where the stick is constrained to move only forward and backward along its centerline, making it easy to push the stick forward or pull it back without introducing an inadvertent roll. This feature can be quite handy when executing a hard turn or a loop. Roll lock is activated from the keyboard on the Macintosh. On the Macintosh, IBM PC and Amiga (if the roll lock option is not activated), with the mouse button held down, moving the mouse forward or backward will adjust the throttle up and down (note the throttle gauge on the screen that tracks the motion of the mouse.) The throttle on the Atari ST (and the Macintosh and IBM PC in joystick mode) is controlled by the keyboard. You'll want to use full throttle for take off and steep climbs, with maybe 70% throttle for level cruising and will usually shut the engine down to 40% or less for a descent for landing. On The IBM PC and the Amiga, Air Warrior supports simultaneous use of both the analog joystick and the mouse. In this mode, side to side motion of the mouse control the rudder and forward and backward motions control the throttle. Double-clicking the mouse button will center the stick. This is extremely useful for trimming the plane to fly straight in expert mode or leveling the plane out in autopilot mode. On the IBM PC, Amiga and Atari ST, the right mouse button can be used to fire the guns. _________________________________________________________________________ Keyboard Commands There are a number of keyboard commands and key-mapped controls. They fall into three categories: those that are pressed once to initiate an action (immediate controls), those that are in flight line- oriented commands (command-line commands) and those that you hold down to perform an action (hold-down controls). The following keys of the immediate type are the ones used by the Macintosh version. The Amiga and Atari ST versions uses some different keys on the keypad to achieve a more logical arrangement (since these machines have a standard keypad), although the Amiga version supports many of the Macintosh keys as well. In addition the Macintosh version allows re-mapping of the immediate style keys. See Summary Charts below. _________________________________________________________________________ Looking Around The keyboard commands that control the direction of view are hold- down style commands on the Macintosh and Amiga and immediate- style commands on the Atari ST and IBM PC. The Macintosh allows the user to select immediate-style view keys as an option (the Sticky Keys option). The IBM PC version also allows the user to select whether or not to use sticky views; machines with very early BIOS versions may work properly only in immediate-style mode. On the Macintosh and Amiga, holding down the h key will cause you to look out over the left wing of the plane. As long as the key is held down, you'll look to the left. The l key does the same thing, to the right. The m key is used to look directly behind you. The k key looks straight up and the j key looks straight down.The g key is used as a forward key, although you do not need to hold that key down, as forward is the normal default view. Holding down the h and m or l and m keys in combination will give you an over the shoulder and leaning to the side view, which can be useful in a plane with a high fuselage behind the pilot. There are a number of combination views, accessed by holding more than one key down at once. On the Amiga, a series of keys on the keypad will perform the same actions. On the Atari ST, pressing the desired view direction key will change the display until another view key is pressed. To use the combination views the keys are pressed in sequence instead of simultaneously. All the default view key definitions are summarized in the table below. Table of View Directions View Direction Macintosh Amiga and PC Atari ST Left h 4 7 Right l 6 9 Rear m 2 5 Up k 8 * Down j 5 + Left Rear h and m 2 and 4 4 Right Rear l and m 2 and 6 6 Up and Rear k and m 2 and 8 * and 5 Down and Rear j and m 2 and 5 + and 5 Up and Forward g and k - and 8 * and ) Down and Forward g and j - and 5 + and ) Up and Left h and k 4 and 8 * and 7 Up and Right l and k 6 and 8 * and 9 Down and Left h and j 4 and 5 + and 7 Down and Right l and j 6 and 5 + and 9 Forward and Left h and g 4 and - ( Forward and Right l and g 6 and - / Located on the Keypad. All the Macintosh view keys also work on the Amiga. PC's with non-"Hold Down" mode use the keypad + instead of 5. _________________________________________________________________________ The Radar Screen Air Warrior has what may loosely be called a "RADAR" mode built into each plane. This is not radar in the usual sense and is not intended to represent a realistic radar display. It is instead intended to provide the pilot with a quick overview of the area around his plane, so that he may most economically locate targets to attack or friends to aid. It compensates to some extent for the small size of the computer screen and the lack of depth perception and detail, which make it difficult to know whether the little dot on the horizon is worth chasing or not. During World War II, very few fighters were equipped with radar, but fighters were often guided to targets by a steady stream of radioed instructions. This is what the Air Warrior radar mode simulates. Radar may not be available at all times or in all areas and usually if radar is available it will be centered on some building located in friendly territory. The Macintosh Radar Screen Holding down the = key is used to request radar mode, to tell you whether any enemy planes are nearby. The map display, like the illustration below, shows several things. Your plane is represented by a small + in the center of the picture. North is always to the top of the screen. Gray lines represent map grids (see the discussion of the Map). Short horizontal or vertical lines show the positions of the various runways. Small x's represent nearby fighter planes and small boxes bombers, within about 8 miles. Any plane you can see out the window, either with or without a range and tracking icon, will be displayed on the map, with a tracking icon enabling you to identify it. In addition to these true position indicators, each map sector within a radius of two sectors will have a set of small icons along its sides telling you how many friendly and enemy planes are within the sector. Up the left side, small black boxes represent enemy planes. Up the right side of the sector, small diamonds represent friendly planes. Note that these counters are only updated every 45 seconds or so, whereas the true position indicators are updated continuously. The Amiga Radar Screen Holding down the Enter key on the keypad on the Amiga is used to request radar mode. The Amiga radar mode is similar to the Macintosh. The same information is presented but the format is slightly different. Your plane is indicated by a white dash which is always centered on the display. Nearby aircraft are indicated by either dashes (fighters) or t-shapes (bombers). The dashes and t- shapes are appropriately colored for the allegiance of the aircraft they represent. Grid lines, airfields and tracking icons are essentially equivalent in nature to those available on the Macintosh. The information which is indicated by the black boxes and diamonds on the Macintosh is represented on the Amiga with colored boxes occupying the upper portion of the grid box. Enemy aircraft are represented with light green boxes, friendly aircraft with dark green. The IBM PC Radar Screen Pressing the F1 key on the IBM PC is used to request radar mode. The IBM PC radar mode is similar to the Macintosh; the same information is presented but the format is slightly different. Your plane is indicated by a white dash which is always centered on the display. Nearby aircraft are indicated by either dashes (fighters) or t-shapes (bombers). The dashes and t-shapes are appropriately colored for the allegiance of the aircraft they represent. Grid lines, airfields and tracking icons are essentially equivalent in nature to those available on the Macintosh. The information on the Macintosh which is indicated by the black boxes and diamonds on the Macintosh is represented on the IBM PC with colored boxes occupying the upper portion of the grid box. Enemy aircraft are represented with light green boxes, friendly aircraft with dark green. In CGA mode the colors all will be different, but the format is the same. The Atari Radar Screen Pressing the F2 key on the Atari ST is used to request the radar display. .The display format is similar to the Macintosh. Small plane shapes depict fighters and larger ones represent bombers. The relative position of your plane is indicated with an X. Small black boxes at the top of each sector represent the number of enemy planes (all types) in that sector diamond shapes are friends. Press the F1 key to return to normal viewing. _________________________________________________________________________ In Flight Command Line The line oriented keyboard commands are used primarily for things that require communicating to GEnie, such as talking to another plane. To enter one of these commands, hit the <esc> key (or the ` key on a Macintosh that does not have an <esc> key.) A > prompt will appear on your screen and anything you type will be echoed back next to the prompt. All of the line oriented commands should be entered just by their first character. These commands are terminated with a <Return> and can be canceled by entering a <Control> X ( -X on the Macintosh). _________________________________________________________________________ In Memory View Cache All versions of Air Warrior support the use of customized art files for each plane. Using these files, the image of your own plane will be rendered in detail rather than as a gray or black polygon. These art views can take quite a bit of time to load from disk and image, slowing down the process of looking around for enemy planes. For this reason, all the versions support the ability to keep a number of pictures in memory. If you select a cache size of 5, for instance, the last 5 views you have used will be retained in memory. If you use them again, they will be redrawn rapidly. If you only have the minimum memory required to run Air Warrior (generally 512K), you will only be able to use 1 or 2 cache entries. In a megabyte there will be plenty of room for more views. On the Amiga, the higher the screen resolution, the more memory the cache will take per view. This means you will be able to afford fewer cache entries. Likewise, on a Macintosh II, larger views or more colors use memory rapidly. _________________________________________________________________________ The Flight Recorder Air Warrior has a flight recorder built in enabling you to record your flights both online and offline and play back both your own flights and those of other players that have been uploaded to GEnie. The camera operates in a similar fashion on all the different microcomputers and the film files produced are compatible between the different machines, regardless of which computer made the film. The Camera menu is used to set up and control the operation of the flight recorder. There are several options that can be selected from this menu, that you should check on before you start your flight. The Set Film Size option tells Air Warrior how much disk space (or memory) can be devoted to the film being recorded. The film will generally need between 500 and 1000 bytes per minute. On the Macintosh, a menu option allows you to select recording to either disk or memory. Recording to disk is slightly less efficient than recording to memory, but usually more disk space is readily available. On the IBM PC, Amiga and Atari ST, there is an option to specify the location of the temporary film file, that is always recorded to disk. Setting this entry to a file on a RAM disk is an excellent way to improve performance. Playback of a film on disk (or the current film in memory on the Macintosh) is initiated with the Play menu option. The Save option is used to save a film just recorded to a permanent disk file. Be sure to save any film you want to keep before starting your next one! When in flight, recording is initiated by pressing the 9 key on the Macintosh, Amiga, IBM PC or the F9 function key on the Atari ST. Recording can be suspended and resumed by hitting the key again as many times as you want. During playback all the usual view keys are active, so you can look around you and perhaps see things you missed in the heat of battle. During camera playback only, an additional set of views is available, from outside the cockpit looking back at your plane. To access these views, press the n key and then hold whichever view key you want as normal. The view will shift to looking at your plane from that angle. The zoom in and out keys ([ and ]) can be used to adjust the distance between the view point and your plane. The n key can be touched again to move the viewpoint back into the cockpit. _________________________________________________________________________ Multi-Player Operation (Online) The following sections discuss getting online and the conference room capabilities of the game. Logging Into GEnie To put the program in Terminal Mode, select Choose Terminal Mode option under the Control menu. The Setup menu now becomes enabled, so you can set your baud rate and other communications parameters correctly. If you need to select your communications port, you should do this first before choosing Terminal Mode. You can either use another program to dial into GEnie first, or use the Dial command in Air Warrior. Before you dial you should enter the correct dial command for your modem with Set Dial Command option. The communications parameters and dial string will be saved in a file called config or config.air. It is safe to delete the config file before running the program; if the file is not present, the program will default all the communications settings to reasonable values. If you are having trouble getting Air Warrior to dial, a good first step is to remove the config file and reset all the settings again. This often clears up the problem. It's important to be in the Air Warrior program in Terminal Mode, before selecting the GEnie menu option to Enter Air Warrior. The actions a normal terminal can perform in Air Warrior are limited. GEnie will figure it out eventually if you switch to the Air Warrior front end in mid-run, but the process may be confusing both to you and the system. (Note: if you are using an Apple modem on a Macintosh, you may not be able to change programs in mid-stream, as the modem will hang up the phone when you exit the first program to go back to the desk top. You'll need to dial GEnie with Air Warrior in this case.) Once online running the Air Warrior program, type AIR or m870 to go to the Air Warrior menu area. The second entry on the main menu, Enter Air Warrior, moves you into the Air Warrior conference area. When you enter the Air Warrior program on GEnie, the Planes and Commands menus will be enabled. The Commands menu provides a convenient way to perform common operations without having to remember commands. The Planes menu is used to select a plane once you reach your airfield. The fourth and sixth menu entries will move you to the Air Warrior Training area and Air Warrior Scenarios Arena, respectively. The Scenarios arena is where special events are staged; generally every weekend a special battle is run, recreating an interesting moment in history (or someone's imagination!). The Scenarios are organized and run by players who volunteer for the honor of staging their own battle. Check the Schedule entry on the Scenarios page for what's going on in the near future. In the Training arena, no score counts towards the main game, so you can kill or be killed with no risk. When you are shot down, your plane will not actually crash or explode, but both you and your killer will be informed of the "kill". You may change countries freely in the Training area and your permanent alliance in the main game will not be affected. Lastly, there are several drones flying around in the training area under host control. Feel free to use them for target practice, but they might shoot back! _________________________________________________________________________ The Conference Rooms Conference rooms are the staging areas for Air Warrior. When online on GEnie, players use the conference rooms and briefing rooms to enter and exit the game, form up teams, select a plane and load up passengers. Anything not done while in flight is done in a conference room somewhere. When you enter Air Warrior on GEnie, you'll be in general conference room one. Here you can talk with other players, look to see who is flying, or move to a different conference room to private conversations. There are a total of nine general conference rooms, open to anyone no matter which nationality (they're located in a neutral country). The general conference rooms are open to users with normal terminals as well, so you can come in and talk even if you don't have the Air Warrior software running. If you want to discuss something with people of other countries you can do it there in the general conference rooms. Each country has a conference room located at its headquarters. This conference room is open only to players who belong to that country, so it can be used for planning missions or other sensitive discussions. The headquarters conference room is also open to users of normal terminals, so that they can participate in these discussions if need be. Each major airfield also has a briefing room, where pilots readying for take off or returning from missions may talk. These briefing rooms are open only for users of the Air Warrior terminal software and of course only to members of that country. From the briefing room at the airfield, you can go into flight by selecting the plane you want from the Planes menu and then selecting the menu command to start flying, or entering the proper keyboard commands. The conference rooms provide a convenient way to talk to other pilots, all sitting around the same table, so to speak. If you want to talk to pilots at other airfields or in flight, you have to use the radio. To go into a radio room and put on a pair of headphones, you just enter the tune command to select a radio frequency. With headphones on, you can't hear the conversation going on back in the briefing room, but you'll hear anything said by others on your frequency. In flight, you can tune to any channel from 1 to 999, just as in the radio rooms. You should be sparing with chatter while in flight, everyone (including you) will be busy flying their planes. _________________________________________________________________________ Ground Vehicles Air Warrior supports several types of surface vehicles, which have additional commands to support their special capabilities. Both the Flakpanzer IV and the Jeep have guns for firing at planes overhead and the T-34 medium tank carries a cannon for long range destruction. Gunners and other passengers can sign on exactly as with the gunners of a bomber. One major difference from the bombers is that the driver of the tank can change positions and operate a gun if the vehicle is stationary. To enter a tank or FlakPanzer you select the Vehicles menu and type /Fly. See the Appendix command summary for Gearshift controls. You must downshift for steep hills and bridges. To occupy the gun position, first stop the tank, then type <esc>jg for gun position. (This command will only function online. No guns or bombs function in practice mode.). You can aim the turret via mouse motions plus keyboard turret commands listed in Appendix A. The tank gun position is unlike any other, because the gunner operates a 76.2 mm cannon, with an effective range of several miles. The display will look much like that from a bomber's bombsight, except that there is a mouse-controlled pipper for adjusting the elevation of the gun. The turret can be rotated using the usual turret rotation keys. The zoom keys are used to magnify the view through the sight, for finer adjustment of aim and to examine targets at a great distance. The rotational rate of the turret is reduced at higher magnification modes to allow fine adjustment of turret position. You fire just like in an aircraft (F key or Mouse Button). Shells travel a long distance and will take a while to reach the target. Use the ] [ keys to alter magnification up to the 8x limit. It is best to aim at lower sight magnifications. (3x for instance). Changing sight magnification actually alters the range (aim) of the fired shell. Generally, if you can see a target it is in range. After firing you can zoom in for a closer look at the hit. Two players can ride in a tank at the same time. Tanks cannot aim on the fly. Use the /join <pilot ####> g command. /accept or /deny is the standard response from the pilot. Tanks also have a hull mounted .50 Cal machine gun. See the full position list in the Appendix A section. Flackpanzers are operated similarly to tanks. They are useful for knocking out ACK ACK and paratroopers! You can wreck havoc at enemy airstrips blasting departing planes with a Flack. 600 yards is the effective range. _________________________________________________________________________ World Geography The current Air Warrior world is made up of three major theaters of operation, called Europe, the Pacific and World War I. Each area has different terrain and different aircraft to choose from. Different theaters may be active at different times and all three will generally not always be available simultaneously. All players of Air Warrior are members of one of three countries and all three countries have territory in each area. The entire Air Warrior world is divided up into a grid, with each grid sector being about twelve and a half miles on a side. These grid sectors are used to give the general location of runways and other planes. Geographical Features Within each major area, the Air Warrior world is divided into several zones of operation in order to spread the action out a bit and to provide additional variety in the choice of aircraft and the terrain being flown over. In order to take off from an airfield, you may have to select the appropriate theater of operations and reserve a position for yourself in that theater. If you do not reserve a theater position before takeoff, one will be automatically selected for you if one is available. If a theater is full, you will have to chose a different one and ,therefore, a different set of airfields. You do not need to reserve a theater position in order to fly as a gunner or passenger on a bomber, or to chat with someone in a briefing room or at headquarters. The World War I area is all contained within ZONE 5 and lies many hundreds of miles away from the main European area. The European area is composed of three large lakes connected by rivers. The rivers form the natural boundaries separating the three countries. Various hills, mountains, bridges and industries dot the landscape. Forward airfields are capturable. Rear area capital fields are located adjacent to major industries. The Pacific area is composed of three groups of home islands with a large central atoll in between. Action is fast and furious over the atoll with occasional deep penetration raids to the home airfields. The area is divided up into three zones. ZONE 6 is the naval zone with several aircraft carriers for each country. Only a few carrier- qualified aircraft can operate from the carriers. ZONE 7 is the main land-based airfields in each country. Zone 8 is comprised of several vehicle garages located within the central atoll. _________________________________________________________________________ Capturing and Destroying Airfields Most of the airfields in Air Warrior can be destroyed by bombing and some can be captured and used by different countries. Attacking enemy airfields and defending your own is one of the major ongoing strategic activities in Air Warrior. To destroy an airfield, you have to drop eight bombs on the field. Each bomb crater is repaired in five minutes, so to knock the field out, all eight bombs must hit within five minutes of each other. All airfields can be destroyed except the primary airfield in each theater of operation (airfield 1 in the European theater and airfield 14 in the Pacific theater, in each country.) During the special weekend Scenarios, the number of bombs and the timings may be changed to suit the scenario. Some of the airfields located between the countries are capturable, so that one country can use them to advance its base airfields closer to the enemy's home country. The three border airfields in Europe and the four airfields and garages on the atoll in the Pacific are capturable. To capture an airfield, several actions must be accomplished within a short period of time, generally five minutes. The control tower and anti-aircraft defenses must first be knocked out and a C-47 Skytrain must drop paratroops to capture the field. Eight paratroopers must land within a half-mile of the airfield within the five minute period to capture the field. Note that the garages in the Pacific have no anti-aircraft defenses or control tower so capturing them involves only landing the paratroops. To drop paratroops, take off with a C-47 from a nearby airfield. When flying over the field with an altitude of least 500 feet (the paratroopers aren't idiots!), you tell the paratroopers to jump by giving a special command over the intercom. Hit the intercom key ' then type the following: '*go This will cause one paratrooper to leap and you'll get a message when he does. Repeat the sequence for each trooper in turn. Paratroopers fall fairly slowly, so be sure not to release them too high up. They are very vulnerable to fire from the ground, so suppress any anti-aircraft or Flakpanzer fire before dropping them! _________________________________________________________________________ Strategic Targets For those pilots who want to damage the abilities of the opposing countries, making them more vulnerable to invasion, they can attack the infrastructure of the enemy country directly. Each target affects the capabilities of a country differently. Damage to these targets can rob them of planes, deteriorate their fuel or even make an airfield virtually inoperable. Types The following sections describe the various strategic targets. Targets can be associated with airfields, be supply producing or be supply delivering. Airfield Targets There are a total of three types of strategic targets available at the airfields. Each of these targets provides a service to the airfield without which the operation of the field is degraded. The following is a description of each of the strategic targets. Hangers are used to store and repair aircraft. If a hangar at an airfield is destroyed, the maintenance capability of the field is impaired. This will have the effect of aircraft possibly being issued to pilots with maintenance problems or battle damage not properly repaired. Fuel Storage facilities are used to store fuel. If the fuel tanks are destroyed, the airfield will be forced to use lower quality (i.e., lower octane) fuel, which will result in reduced engine performance for the aircraft. Since the Me-109 and Me-262 were designed to operate on low octane fuel, they are not affected by fuel degradation. Ammunition Storage facilities are used to store ammunition of various types. If the ammo dumps are destroyed, the airfield may not be able to stock aircraft with all the different types of ammo. An additional target can be found in the form of an aircraft carrier. Aircraft carriers carry their basic services around with them and are not dependent on nearby facilities. Aircraft carriers are available only in the Pacific Theater. Strategic Factories There are three basic kinds of factories that support the facilities at the airfields: Ammunition Factories, Industrial Factories and Oil Refineries. When the buildings at an airfield are destroyed, in addition to repairing those buildings, the supplies they contained need to be replaced before the airfield returns to full capacity. There are three ways that can be done: 1) A drone C-47 can fly supplies in, 2) A drone truck convoy can delivery supplies, 3) A player-flown C-47 or truck can deliver the supplies. Each country will dispatch C-47's and trucks as needed. It may be necessary to protect them from enemy attack. The /convoy command will list the currently active host-run convoys for your country. Supply Convoys Supplies can be loaded into a C-47 or truck. To load a plane, go to the airfield that is fed by the factory. The /available command will show whether supplies are available. Use the /cargo command to select the needed goods. Then fly to the destination and land on the field. Trucks are operated with the /truck command in the same manner. The supplies are delivered when you stop the truck on the airfield and end the mission. Convoys cannot be dispatched if the factory has been destroyed. Thus any airfields needing resupply of a given type will not be able to obtain it if the corresponding factory is also destroyed. Destruction of the factory will not affect any airfield whose facilities are intact. Like airfield facilities, the factory regains function before the building returns to visibility, so it is not possible to keep the factory destroyed 100% of the time. Aircraft Factories There are also a few aircraft factories. If these factories are destroyed, any airfield that does not have intact hangars will not be able to operate that type plane. A player landing that plane at the airfield will be able to take off again so long as he does not change types of planes or leave the airfield before takeoff. The /strategic command will display the status of the factories (assets) in your country and also a summary of the activity of each country so far that night. Repair and Replacement When a target is destroyed, the building vanishes for the normal period of time. However, the service provided by the building actually returns in half that time. This means that it won't be possible to knock out the service for 100% of the time, giving the defenders a chance to recover. The command summary has descriptions for target related status commands. _________________________________________________________________________ Friendlies and Enemies One of the most important concepts one has to master in Air Warrior after playing another computer flight simulator is that one will encounter friendly planes. Shooting them is very much frowned upon! Before you do anything else while sitting on the runway the first time online, figure out who your friends and enemies are. A very common mistake occurs when a new pilot opens fire on the first targets he sees, the planes taking off ahead of him on the runway! The enemy airfield is many miles away, so if you see a plane on the ground ahead of you, it is almost certainly a friend. On the Macintosh and Atari ST once you are sitting on the runway, the n command (<esc> n <Return>) will print a short display of what icon shapes and colors are associated with what country. On the Amiga and IBM PC, a small display in the lower left corner of the control panel gives the same information. If you do kill a friendly plane, you will get a message from the software informing you of your mistake. You are allowed one such accident per 24 hour period. If you kill a second friendly, you will become what is known as persona non grata, or PNG in the parlance of the players. Your own country will no longer trust you with live ammunition, so you must either wait till the next day or change to a different country. _________________________________________________________________________ The Scoring System Air Warrior keeps track of points earned by various activities, generating a cumulative score useful in assessing how much a player has accomplished. There are individual scores, squadron scores and country scores. Individual Scores You can earn points in basically only one way, by inflicting damage on an enemy country. You can shoot down enemy planes or strafe and bomb enemy ground targets. You will earn some score for damaging a target and additional score if you succeed in destroying it. Once you have earned points for your actions in the air, you will need to return your plane to base to get credit for your victories. Partial or full credit is awarded under four scoring categories depending on how your mission ends. The four scoring categories are: Completed Mission, Ditched, Bailed Out and Crashed/Shot Down. Completed Missions are missions in which you successfully land the plane at a friendly airfield, bring the plane to a complete stop, and use the end command to return to the briefing room. This will record all points earned in the mission, and gain you full credit for the mission. It is all right for the plane to be on fire when you do this; the important thing is to bring it back! Ditched missions are missions that end with a successful soft landing in friendly territory, but not on a runway. You have to be more careful to touch down slowly than if you land on a runway. A mission ending in a ditching, followed by an end command, will only be worth half credit;. Due to aircraft conditions it is often not possible getting back to the runway. Ditching in enemy territory is very bad (delivering an intact plane to the enemy is about the worst thing one can do) and counts as a crash rather than as a successful landing. You can bail out of your plane at almost any time. If you are over friendly territory, you'll receive one-third credit for the mission (if you make it safely to the ground). Bailing out over enemy territory is tantamount to being shot down, because the pilot, if he survives, will be a prisoner of war. Thus, a bail out over enemy territory is treated the same as a crash. When you bail out, the kill will be awarded to the person who shot you. Bailing out itself has risks that should be considered. With any given bailing attempt, there are the following risks: 1) There is a five percent chance that the chute will fail. 2) There is a 50 percent chance of capture or death, if the bailing occurs over neutral territory. 3) Death or capture is assured if bailing is attempted over enemy territory. 4) It is possible to be shot down during a bailing attempt. If this happens, death will result. Although it is possible to shoot down a pilot who has bailed, it is not encouraged, if the pilot has bailed after a fair duel. The last category is one in which your mission results in your crashing, your bailing out or ditching in enemy territory, or your being shot down. In this category, the score recorded will be worth one-fourth credit. There is an additional category, which is currently not shown on the score board. This is the system error category for all missions terminated by a system shutdown or a crash of the Air Warrior host software (as unlikely as that is). Full credit will be awarded for any missions in progress if one of these unfortunate events occurs. Bonus points are awarded for hitting special targets, such as buildings within towns, valuable airfields or buildings with special purposes, such as radar towers. In additions to points, the number of kills scored from enemy planes is displayed for each category, separated into kills as a pilot and kills as a gunner on a bomber. The criterion for being awarded a kill on an enemy plane consists of inflicting serious damage on the enemy and having the plane crash or the pilot bail out within ten minutes. If more than one person hit the plane, the kill will be awarded to the plane that fits the above criterion, did the most damage and is still in the air. Points are always awarded for inflicting damage, but Air Warrior will not divide the points for the kill itself among several pilots. Fractional kills are not given. There is a survival bonus calculated on raw point accumulations prior to the 'outcome' adjustment. This multiplier relates to the successful completion of multiple sorties. There is significant benefit to safely landing several flights in succession. The longevity point benefits will flatten after the first several consecutive sorties. Recouping after a death occurs quickly. In a given flight, multiple kills are scored at increasing values. There is a bonus calculated for kills over hostile territory. Strategic ground targets have a varying point value and an indirect competitive value in the conduct of the competition. Certain strategic targets (like a V-1 intercept) will have added point value. The precise values of the individual strategic targets is discussed in more detail in the Strategic Targets section of this document. Bomber scores are separate from fighter scores. The bomber score includes all points accumulated while you flew or were a crew member on a bomber. You get full credit for the totals accrued by everyone during the mission. Ground vehicle scores sum into the BMB column at 1/10 raw score. Bomber Points are also awarded to C-47 pilots for troop drops. You get 50 points for each paratrooper who makes it to an airfield and 1000 points to capture the field. A fully crewed bomber will generate multiples of the basic points scored during the flight. These duplicate benefits will go equally to each crew member, squadron totals and country totals. Deaths due to bomber or gunner missions will not effect the fighter score rates. Squadron Scores The squadron scores is the total of the scores for all the members of the squad that they have accumulated while they were on the squad. If a squad member leaves the squad in mid-campaign, his score no longer counts towards the squad's score. Country Scores The country score is determined by the achievements of the individual pilots. The score is updated at 5 am ET when the scoreboard for the individual pilots is updated. It is, quite simply, the sum of all the scores of the individual pilots from a given country. Displaying Scores The Print Scores menu is used to display a list of the scores of all of the players. GEnie Page 872 Print Scores 1. List World War II Fighter Scores 2. List World War II Bomber Scores 3. List World War I Scores 4. List Squadron / Country Scores The complete score listing is updated daily at 5 A.M. Eastern time. Scores displayed in the conference rooms within the game are always current, so may differ slightly from the scores on the board. The Squadrons entry will list the team scores; the team score is computed as the sum of the cumulative scores of each of the current members. All the scores will be periodically cleared, generally every three weeks, so that newcomers have a chance to compete on an even footing. The final scores from each campaign will be posted in the Air Warrior Software Library -1-. The /who command prints a short summary of score detail. The following is an example of the display: Handle: WhereWolf Flying for Country A Squadron: Barnstormers Most recent kills : 1111 2222 3333 4444 5555 6666 7777 8888 9999 1111 Who most recently shot you down : 7777 The following is an example of a score table: Handle: WhereWolf Flying for Country: A Squadron: Barnstormers Most recent kills : 1111 2222 3333 4444 5555 6666 7777 8888 Who most recently shot you down : 7777 Final combined score in last mission : 0 WW II # Sorties # Victories Adjusted Score FTR/BMBR FTR/BMBR FTR/BMBR Landed 0/ 0 0/ 0 0/ 0 (1/1) Ditched 0/ 0 0/ 0 0/ 0 (1/2) Bailed Out 0/ 0 0/ 0 0/ 0 (1/3) Crashed 0/ 0 0/ 0 0/ 0 (1/4) Total scores this campaign : 0/ 0 WW I # Sorties # Victories Adjusted Score FTR/BMBR FTR/BMBR FTR/BMBR Landed 0/ 0 0/ 0 0/ 0 Ditched 0/ 0 0/ 0 0/ 0 Bailed Out 0/ 0 0/ 0 0/ 0 Crashed 0/ 0 0/ 0 0/ 0 Total WW I scores this campaign : 0/ 0 The /strategic command describes country score daily totals and current strategic target status for your country. /strategic Country Sorties Victories Planes Lost FTR/BMBR Scores A 0 0 0 0/ 0 B 0 0 0 0/ 0 C 0 0 0 0/ 0 Assets Sector Near Status Special Industry 4 5 B:21 operating Munitions factory 3 5 B:1 operating Oil refinery 3 5 B:1 operating Aircraft factory 3 5 B:1 operating builds Fw 190A-8 Country scores are adjusted to reflect the relative achievements during the evening. _________________________________________________________________________ Signing Up for GEnie Service To speak to a GEnie service representative, dial 1-800-638-9636. Find out about the GEnie*Basic flat monthly fee and the Genie Value services which are billed at an hourly rate. Air Warrior is part of the GEnie Value services. You can enroll in GEnie service with any standard terminal program and a 1200 Baud or 2400 Baud modem. The time you spend online during signup is free of charge. Set your terminal to 7 Bits, Even Parity, 1 Stop Bit. Set 1/2 Duplex mode. The following are the steps required to sign up for the GEnie service: 1) Dial 1-800-638-8369. 2) Reply: CONNECT 2400 3) Type: hhh (no <rtn> required) 4) Reply: U#= (your number please) 5) Type: XJM11868,AIR 6) Follow the sign up MENU prompts. Have a major credit card number ready to use for billing. _________________________________________________________________________ Air Warrior Command Summary All commands are prefixed with a slash, "/," character and can be abbreviated to 3 characters. Diagonal Brackets, "<>," indentifies information which must be filled in with a value. Some of these commands can be executed from the pull down menus in the front end programs. ----------------- General Conference Room Commands: ------------------------ /end exit to GEnie AIR menu. /exit " " " /help List this chart in conference room/ /handle <name> set your Air Warrior Pilot-name. /roster list all pilots in Air Warrior and locations. /room list all pilots in current room. /score display your score data. /score <player #> display a pilot's score data. <player #> is the same number that shows in /roster table. /who <player #> display condensed score data. <player #> /status show details about you and current plane selected. /status <player #> see info about any player on-line. /country <cntry ltr> choose a country (A B C). /airfield list only the available airfields for your country. /zones list the terrain zones and their current occupancy. /strategic list strategic facilities in your country and scores. /convoy list active convoys for your country. /port display the GEnie port you are on. ----------- Moving Around the Conference Facilities --------------- /hq go to your national headquarters. /general <room #> go to a general conference room; <room #> may be 1..9. /goto <airfield #> go to the briefing room at one of your country's airfields. ---------------- Radio Communications on the Ground ---------------- /tune <channel #> put on headphones to speak with planes in flight. CHAN 1 , CHAN 2 - 999 =(private) /squelch <player #> ignore all messages from specified player while in flight. Up to 5 players can be squelched. /unsquelch <player #> remove a player from your squelch list. ------------------------ Getting Into a Plane: ------------------------ /fly enter Air Warrior Arena. Hold on active Runway. /available list planes available at selected airfield. /plane <plane #> select a plane. /troops select a troop carrying C-47 Dakota. /jeep select a Jeep with 0.50 caliber. /start start in a jeep. /bomb <# of bombs> arm your plane with bombs. /cargo <type> load a C-47 with <f>uel, <a>mmo, or <s>upplies, e.g. /cargo fuel /truck <type> select a supply truck and load vital equipment. type = fuel, ammo, supplies /join <pilot #> <position> ask <pilot #> if you may crew on his/her plane in the specified <position> SEE POSN LIST BELOW. /accept <player #> permit a player who has asked to board the plane as a crew / gunner. /deny <player #> tell him/her to forget it. ------------------------ Setting up a Duel ------------------------ /duel <player #> Invite a pilot to a private duel. (must be in same room) Duels may include several people /duel List all participants in current duel. /accept <player #> Challenged pilot Accepts duel invitation. /deny <player #> tell him/her to forget it. ------------------------ Observer Rides: ------------------------ /observe <pilot #> Request to board Pilot's's jump seat. (many can observe) P-51,ME-262,ME-109,P-38,F-86,MiG-15 only /accept <player #> Accept observer ballast onto your fighter. /deny <player #> tell him/her to forget it. ------------------------ Squadron Commands: ------------------------ /withdraw leave your current squadron. /rename <your #> rename the squadron (leader only.) /transfer <player #>transfer leadership to another team member. (leader only, cannot be abbreviated.) /team <leader #> list the roster of a team (default is your squadron.) /expel <member #> Squadron leader shows member the door. /disband disband the squad. All members must be expelled first. ----- Both the leader and new member have to be in the same ---- ----- conference room for these commands: ---- /ask <leader #> ask the leader about joining. /invite <player #> ask a player to join your squadron. /accept accept an outstanding squad invitation. --------------------- Special Scenario Event Commands: --------------------- /order List the ORDERS file prepared for this conf. room. /mission List the MISSION description file. Aircraft Position Names The following is a list of the aircraft position names that are used from within the Air Warrior Conference rooms and used in fight with the <ESC>Jump command. The positions can be listed with the /Status command after the plane has been selected. Each position name can be abbreviated. Fighter aircraft Pilot (used for both varieties of fighter) and Observer (used for only two seater varieties) The B-17 : Pilot, Navigator, Tail gunner, Upper turret, Chin turret, Ball turret, Left waist , Right waist The C-47 : Pilot, Copilot, and Passenger The BETTY, the Mitsubishi G4M, : Pilot, Navigator, Tail gunner, Upper turret, Chin turret, Left waist, and Right waist The JU-88 : Pilot, Upper gunner, Nose gunner, and Lower gunner The B-25 Pilot, Copilot, Tail gunner, Upper turret, Left waist, Right waist, and Nose gun The A-26 : Pilot, Upper turret, and Lower turret The jeep : Driver, and Gunner The truck Driver, and Passenger The tank : Driver, Gunner, Upper, and Hull The Flakpanzer Driver, Hull, and Gunner The Brisfit Pilot, and Gunner The Mosquito : Pilot, and Observer _________________________________________________________________________ Command Examples This section contains examples of the output from the airfield, zone and strategic commands. Each of these commands provides information about the current status of the areas for your country. The /airfield command produces the following output: Field Sector Status Ammo Fuel Maint. Type A:1 6, 6 Open 100 100 100 NORM A:2 6, 6 Open 100 100 100 NORM A:3 5, 6 Open 100 100 100 NORM A:4 5, 4 Closed NORM A:5 4, 5 Closed NORM A:6 5, 6 Open 100 100 100 NORM A:7 5, 5 Closed JEEP A:8 5, 5 Closed JEEP A:9 5, 5 Closed JEEP A:10 5, 6 Open 100 90 100 JEEP A:11 5, 5 Closed NORM A:21 6, 6 Open 100 90 100 CARGO The field column lists the country letter and the field number. The Sector column lists the position on the map. The Status indicates whether the airfield is open or closed. The Ammo column tells the availability of ammunition at the airfield. The Fuel column indicates the octane rating of fuel available at the named airfield. The percentage of repairs available at the airfield is listed in the Maint column. The Type column describes which type of airfield is at the named location. The /zones command lists the type of field is located in the zone listed, the current occupancy of that zone and the number of people who are allowed to fly within that region. The following is an example of the output from the command: Zone Type Occupancy (A B C) Limit (per country) 3 WWI 0 0 0 20 6 CARRIER 0 0 0 30 7 ISLAND 0 0 0 30 8 JEEP 0 0 0 20 The /strategic command lists the current status of the countries. Below is an example of the output from this command. Country Sorties Victories Planes Lost FTR/BMBR Scores A 0 0 0 0/ 0 B 0 0 0 0/ 0 C 0 0 0 0/ 0 Assets Sector Near Status Special Industry 4 5 B:21 operating Munitions factory 3 5 B:1 operating Oil refinery 3 5 B:1 operating Aircraft factory 3 5 B:1 operating builds Fw 190A-8 /status Player Id : 3955 Country : B Computer : Mac II Location : General 1 _________________________________________________________________________ Troubleshooting This section provides helpful hints about common problems that occur in Air Warrior. Each problem is defined and a list of possible solutions is provided after it. QUESTION: I can fly fine in Practice Mode, but when I try to fly on GEnie I get dropped out of flight or disconnected. There are several things that can cause this; they are: A. You are using 300 baud. Air Warrior does not work properly at 300 baud and must have at least 1200 baud. Running at 2400 baud does not give a significant advantage. B. Your modem is echoing characters back to the microcomputer. GEnie normally runs in Half Duplex and it is common to instruct the modem to locally echo characters back so that you can see what you are typing. Air Warrior cannot run with a modem doing this. You should set the modem up for Full Duplex, i.e. NOT echoing and use the Local Echo option within Air Warrior instead. Air Warrior will then echo what you are typing when it is appropriate. C. You are getting a lot of line noise. You can usually tell this elsewhere on GEnie as well, if a lot of your commands fail. D. The host software on GEnie crashed. This does happen sometimes and occasionally the hardware itself will fail, dropping all the users. If this happens, try getting back in. If it happens again, especially if it is happening only to you and its not one of the four things above, let us know via Feedback. If its happening to other people too, its not your problem, its ours! ________ QUESTION: I get a box on the screen saying I bailed out, when I didn't. A] This is a failure of the network to pass the data back and forth fast enough. It shouldn't happen and its been getting better as time goes by, but if this happens to you often let us know! _________________________________________________________________________ Online Rules of Conduct The Rules of Conduct outline the basic guidelines of behavior that players are expected to follow while participating in a multiplayer game. The text of the rules of conduct can be found on the Air Warrior Instructions menu m871. _________________________________________________________________________ Flight Testing for Consistency Each version of Air Warrior undergoes very stringent testing across the different computers (Macintosh, Atari ST, Amiga, and IBM PC). The goal is to ensure that the flight performance of each plane modeled in Air Warrior is consistent across the board. The testing was performed by internally instrumenting the program, to eliminate the errors that would occur by manually controlling flight, reading the instruments or following a stop watch. Not only were the observable variables instrumented, but also internal aerodynamic quantities such as thrust, engine horsepower, drag, lift, angle of attack, lift coefficient, air density, and so on. The resolution of the differences being sought was smaller than could readily be seen on the instruments, since split second timing was often required to make valid comparisons. Initial conditions for the various tests were established exactly by the automated facility, so that no human error or influence would be present. The tests were performed on a number of different aircraft, representing the various extremes of both performance and certain critical properties. The tests were performed both in practice mode and online. They consisted of the following: 1. An instrumented take off roll, followed by an 11 minute climb, a minute of level acceleration, then a 60 degree dive, usually into the ground, or 3 minutes, whichever came first. Acceptance was based on the point at which the plane reached full throttle, the point at which the plane left the ground, the altitude, speed, angle of climb, and engine horsepower at the peak of the climb, the speed reached by the end of the acceleration, the time and speed at which buffeting began during the dive (if it did), the peak Mach number in the dive (for the F-86), and the time and speed of impact. 2. A 2/3 aileron deflection roll in expert mode. Acceptance was based on rate of roll, and loss of altitude and change of attitude during one complete roll. A roll time varied from 1.5 seconds for the Sabre to 40 or so for the B-17 (the B-17 did not complete the roll before the test ended.) 3. A test of full rudder deflection at an exact speed and altitude. Acceptance was based on the amount of course change, amount of roll, and amount of altitude lost during a one minute deflection. 4. A full elevator deflection loop starting at an exact speed and altitude. Acceptance was based on the g's pulled at various points in the loop, the altitude gained during the loop, the final altitude at the end of the loop, the time at which various points in the loop were reached, and the velocities at various points in the loop. 5. A test of the top speed of the plane, at two or more different altitudes representing different performance regimes. The plane was placed at the correct speed, and acceptance was based on comparison of internal values during a one minute run at that speed. 6. A test of stall performance. The plane was placed in a known climb attitude at a known speed, then throttle was reduced by the program. Acceptance was based on the speed of the stall, altitude of stall (a check on the climb), various internal values at the stall, the time required for the nose to drop through horizontal, the time required for recovery from the stall, and the altitude changes associated with those points. In addition, tests were run at several different settings on the Macintosh II, to quantify the effect of monochrome vs color, that is, the frame rate, on aerodynamic performance (the Macintosh II was the easiest machine to perform this test on, it was also done on the IBM PC with its variable clock speed.) Several equations were changed to retain better numerical accuracy in accounting for very fast update times and better accuracy in handling unusual clock frequencies. Lastly, a drag race was run with a jeep and a tank, to measure the acceleration, turning radius, and roll performance (grin) of the vehicle under an automatically controlled test. A bug in the roll over point in the jeep was found and corrected. In conclusion, we are confident that the machine to machine performance is identical, to a far greater degree than the accuracy at which a user can read the instrument panel and control an airplane manually. One thing that became apparent early on was how sensitive the planes are, and how even a very small difference in control setting or initial conditions can produce results different enough to mislead the observer. Automated testing was essential. ________________________________________________________________________ **** END OF GENERAL MANUAL INFORMATION ****