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Text File | 1992-09-09 | 46.2 KB | 1,062 lines | [TEXT/SNTE]

Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games Path: iat.holonet.net!uupsi!psinntp!uunet!charon.amdahl.com!pacbell.com!ames!sun-barr!cs.utexas.edu!milano!cactus.org!rdd From: rdd@cactus.org (Robert Dorsett) Subject: The Hellcats FAQ/Tips list (LONG--but new and improved! :-)) Message-ID: <1992Sep4.210632.10042@cactus.org> Organization: Capital Area Central Texas UNIX Society, Austin, Tx Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 21:06:32 GMT Lines: 1052 Hellcats Over the Pacific FAQ/Tips Version 1.2.1 UPDATE September 4, 1992 by Robert Dorsett [ This is a heavily edited version of the compilation by Ted Wagner (trwagner@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu). Any comments in the first person should be regarded as written by him. I've made several minor corrections to the text, as well as a couple of additions. ] Ted's original background intro for the project is at the end. This file's organized as follows, for easy reference. Sections I through VI contain both Q&A's and general tips. I. AIR COMBAT MANEUVERING II. GROUND ATTACK III. GROUND DEFENSES IV. TAKING OFF, LANDING, AND GROUND MANEUVERING V. SCENARIO-SPECIFIC TIPS VI. SCORING/GENERAL GAME VII. COMMON PURCHASING/MACHINE REQUIREMENT QUESTIONS VIII. EXERCISES IX. CREDITS X. CHEATS XI. FAQ BACKGROUND Note that a lot of the following is bona fide "spoiler" material. Read this only if you're REALLY stumped, or have "played the game out," and are looking for things to do. I. AIR COMBAT MANEUVERING (ACM) Tip 1: To register a kill, try to shoot when the Zero is still relatively small. There is a bug, such that even if one's immediately behind a Zero, pouring one's guns into him, he won't die. In real life, a Zero would be torn to shreds in a similar situation. So you do want to be behind him, but not TOO close (having the airplane fill the screen is too close; having it span the blank area inside the cross-hairs is probably about right). Head-on attacks or side attacks are more successful/damaging, when up- close. Usually, though, he's shooting at you at the same time, so it's not a good idea to make a habit of this. Tip 2: When dog-fighting, always try to get behind the Zeros. Try not to let them get behind you. Tip 3: When dog-fighting, it is usually better to come in low, a little off to the side, and start turning BEFORE the enemy fighter flies past you. Put the flaps in the up position so you can turn faster, and if you're about to crash, use your rudders to pull you up without having to roll out (actually, this rudder technique works for all turns). If you do this, you come up behind the enemy, relatively close, and you just have to shoot at him until he gets hit. Make sure you don't go too fast and fly past him (or worse, crash into him if you're not careful). Tip 4: A technique to use when dog-fighting is a "skidding turn." In World War II, a consistent trait of American aces was their willingness to "abuse" the airplane; the Japanese pilots, in comparison, were very good, but tended to fly "coordinated" too much. Liberal use of the rudder--manhandling the airplane to your will--can give you the winning edge. Tip 5: Getting someone off your tail: Plan A: start a tight turn, drop the gear, reduce power, and kick in the flaps. Plan B: build up as much airspeed as you can, go level, kick the flaps in and pull up into a vertical position. (Plan B may not be a good thing to try with a sick engine). Tip 6: Make liberal use of the rudder controls. When taken to excess (such as *turning* using them), they're clearly a cheat, an aberration of the program. But do use them for lining up with targets. Tip 7: To keep from overtaking your target (aircraft), simply reduce throttle while holding your attitude. If that doesn't work (closure rate too fast), try gear, and flaps, in that order, giving time to get a trend rate from each attempt. To counteract the upward pitching moment of the flaps, anticipate it, and command pitch-down slightly, to keep the target in sight. If this still doesn't work, climb, but keep the Zero in sight. If you get really close, the Zeroes will turn, so take a guess and turn in that direction. If you guessed wrong, just complete the circle and pick your victim up again. Tip 8: Lower the gear to slightly decrease your speed. Flaps may be used for more effect. Tip 9: You rarely (if ever) need a full tank of gas, and the difference in performance is amazing. No mission really needs more than 30% to be completed in a reasonable amount of time; an extra 25% would be a good reserve. Tip 10: If your mission doesn't need them, leave bombs behind. They are heavy and decrease performance. Take as little fuel as possible for the same reason. A full tank is 1500 pounds and is good for 3 hours at 70% throttle. Tip 11: Don't waste ammunition! You've only got so much. If you see flames, instantly break of the attack and move to another target; don't be morbid and wait for the splash. Tip 12: Lots and lots of quick bursts are better than a couple of long ones. Tip 13: To judge the altitude of bogies, keep in mind that if they're BENEATH the horizon, they're below you; if above the horizon, they're above you. In general, by the time you see them (straight and level), if they're in your field of view, they're no more than 1500' above or below you. Q: Just because I see something on radar, does it see me? Will they immediately come after me, or do I have some time to pursue my mission before I worry about the Zeros? A: Maybe, maybe not. Most likely yes. Unless you are in 'Scramble' or 'Flying Fortress,' you can take your time. Usually Zeros are easy points and it is fine to try and take them out. You *DO* need to worry about the Zeros in 'Scramble' and 'Flying Fortress' as your objective in those missions is to protect. Q: Is it possible to collide with another plane? A: Yes. If you slam into a plane, you will explode and die. This is another danger of using the autopilot. Q: Is it possible to shoot down the pilot after he ejects? A: No. Don't even waste your ammunition. This feature was not provided, due to "humanitarian reasons." Q: Is it possible to collide with the pilot after he ejects? A: Yes! Colliding with a parachute, as discussed before, or the pilot, or the lines, will result in immediate death. Q: If I try to dogfight with another pilot using the autopilot key, half the time the autopilot drives me into the ground. Am I doing something wrong? A: Yes. Your autopilot is not smart enough to know when you are too close to the ground. Watch your altimeter. If you are getting down to 300 or so feet and are above 180 knots, get the hell out of dodge! Pull up on the stick or make a steep climbing bank. If you don't, you will auger into the ground and will go home in a pine box. Q: What's wrong with my plane? The Zeros run circles around me! A: If you try turning with your flaps down, you'll find that you can keep up with the Zeroes. But watch your airspeed! Q: Why does the plane seem to over react to stick movements? A: Your mouse speed is set too fast. Use the control panel and set mouse speed to "tablet". Q: I can't get the hang of getting behind the Zeros, how can I improve...is there a quick way to learn? A: Just lots of practice. Practice tight turns using your flaps, gear, and (if necessary) decreased throttle. Don't be afraid to make "out of plane" maneuvers (for example, instead of a level turn, at constant altitude, lower (or raise) the nose, and turn in a tighter, smaller, cone). You can also use the autopilot, but that's a really miserable cheat. :-) Q: How can I outmaneuver a Zero that's behind me? A: You can use the flaps ('f' key) as an air brake to slow your plane. Then you can do a tight turn to the opposite heading from your original heading. When your heading is where you want it, then retract your flaps and gear (if down) and increase the throttle fully. It will probably not be able to follow you, and you'll be behind it soon! Q: Why, in frontal passes, do the Zeros seem to always damage the Hellcat engine, contrary to actual experience? A: Try evasive maneuvers when you are approaching the Zeros. If your radar is scanning in '1 mile' mode, and you are one square away from the Zero, use your rudder and weave to the Zero. Contrary to real life, it helps to come up from below, and slightly slow, on first contact--given the limitations of the display, what matters here is YOU seeing THEM first, and just accept that they'll probably see you, no matter what you do. Fire short bursts, head-on, break, and turn as fast as possible to re-acquire them. Q: The documentation on air combat maneuvering in the manual really sucks, especially compared to the FALCON manuals. Where can I learn more? A: Try Robert Shaw's FIGHTER COMBAT: TACTICS and MANEUVERING (Naval Institute Press: Annapolis, 1985). ISBN 0-87021-059-9. Has extensive sections on maneuvering/energy-management issues. It takes the subject seriously, though: it's not a mass-market "game-style" book. II. GROUND ATTACK Tip 1: Make only one pass, hit 'em hard and accurately, and get out of there. Tip 2: If you drop a bomb while flying level, it will be VERY inaccurate. Dive bombing is used to take the forward momentum of the bomb (which travels initially with the airspeed of an airplane) and make it arrive in a smaller target area. A dive-bomb attack can be commenced from 7K to 15K, depending upon entry airspeed and the energy you want coming out of the attack. For instance, if you want to make two passes, it might be desirable to accelerate to 290 knots, straight and level, at 15K, then nose down at 80 degrees and peg the airspeed indicator. When you release at 1.5K, you can "zoom" up to 5000' (where machine gun/ack-ack is less accurate), get your bearings, and come back for a second attack. Tip 3: The Setup: To get a direct hit on a pinpoint target (as in the test target in the training mission) fly at the point you want to hit low (500 feet or less) and fast (200 knots IAS as target is likely to be HOT as in Battleships). Zoom straight down when target goes below your panel view. Tip 4: The Hammerhead Stall: When target appears at the edge of your view, pull up sharply until you are vertical, climb until you are about to stall and pull over so that as you stall, your plane flips over and you are pointing straight down at the target. Tip 5: Timing the Drop: Watch your shadow on the ground. Give this a couple of tries on the training mission target to get a feel for how the shadow indicates your position and the time to drop your ordinance. Tip 6: Pulling Out (or Popping your Rivets) A: BETTER OFF DEAD METHOD: After the drop, cut the engine, continue to fall until you hit 500 feet, put down your flaps and simultaneously pull back hard. Immediately re-throttle. You'll scrape the ground and bounce up to around 600 feet again. B: MOMMA, I WANNA GO HOME METHOD: Hit the flaps the moment you drop the bombs and pull back to a steep dive. Hold this attitude till you reach 200 feet and then pull level and retract the flaps. You'll be out of AAA range quickly. WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! Never attempt this bombing maneuver when there are enemy fighters (smoking or not) around. They WILL hit you when you slow down for the stall. Tip 7: When attacking enemy targets, try to hit them as you fly over them length wise. This way, you don't have to time your bombs exactly to hit if you're coming in to your target on a perpendicular angle. This is also very good because many times, you can sink an enemy carrier with only 2 bombs if they hit near the middle of the carrier. Tip 8 There is a small village in the south-east of Henderson Field--three houses and a small lake--try these out for target practice. Tip 9: South of Henderson field there is a bridge that can be "sunk." Tip 10: You can actually sink a carrier with one bomb! If you can manage to drop the bomb in such a way that it goes under the flight deck and explodes on the main deck (under the flight deck), then the carrier will sink. It looks great in instant replay because after the bomb explodes within the carrier, you see debris fly all over the place. Tip 11: Another trick when going after a carrier is to dive at the red-dot on the deck. Go up to around 8-10K feet, cut power to 60-70%, and head directly for the nice red dot on the deck. At about 1000-1500 feet (a higher percentage hit occurs at 500-800 feet...but the chances of being shot down are higher) drop both (or one) bomb, break away from the escort (if there is one), and go to full power like a bat out of hell! Tip 12: Desperate kill : If your engine is out or you are out of fuel after the first pass of a carrier (with two hits) and you are too low for expecting going back home (or whatever), try to crash you plane into the carrier (and don't forget to jump before and high enough). That way you can kill the carrier and you have a reasonable chance of being rescued (anyway it has worked several times with me). Anyway, you won't get a medal for your mission as you lost the aircraft. Tip 13: In most of the scenarios, you most likely don't require a full tank of gas--half at most. Take what you need, but not more! If you don't need bombs, don't take them. In some of the scenarios, if you do a good job of protecting the carrier, you can land back on the carrier and rearm, this time with a bomb load. Q: How can I sink a enemy carrier? A: You must put 3 bombs on it. One method is to fly very low on the same heading as the ship. Use rudders to fly in a zig-zag pattern when approaching the ship to escape the AAA (Anti-Aircraft Artillery) fire. Another method is to climb to 9,000 feet and dive bomb the carrier or ship. Q: Why don't I get credit for bombing the enemy's runway? I know I dropped the bomb right on it! A: You probably dropped the bomb on the Japanese flag. You need to make sure you drop a bomb right in the middle of the runway. Try to drop the bomb in the center (width) and the middle (length) of the runway. Once you get the hang of it, you will be able to plant the bomb anywhere on the runway. III. GROUND DEFENSES Tip 1: Dodging AA: Never undervalue the view from behind, from this vantage point you can see the AAA machine gun fire before it crosses your plane, and thereby dodge potentially mission ending bullets. Tip 2: When attacking any target that shoots back, other than fighters, their shots always seem to go in bursts. Just stay out of the stream when the burst starts, and then get back to business. This is especially helpful against that stupid bomber. IV. TAKING OFF, LANDING, AND GROUND MANEUVERING QUESTIONS. Tip 1: To take off go to full throttle by holding down the "+" key. Around 50 knots, start pushing down on the nose, such that you're level with the horizon. Unlike P-51, you needn't worry about prop strike. Around 80 knots, ease back slightly on the stick. Hold your attitude, with the horizon about 1" beneath the cross-hairs, and wings level. Flaps are not necessary for takeoff, but help one after taking off from a carrier, if one didn't use the entire available runway for takeoff (such as a sloppy landing, then starting a takeoff mid-point on the carrier deck). Tip 2: To land normally on any surface, the idea's to maintain a constant attitude, keep wings level, modest sink rate (vertical-speed indicator unstuck), and maneuver as little a possible. Lower gear and flaps when the runway's still less than a centimeter large; don't rush things. Reduce power to 30-40%, and aim for a touchdown airspeed of 80 knots. Keeping the nose about an inch above the horizon will do this for you. Use pitch to control the rate of descent, adding not more than 20% power, as necessary. Right before touchdown, hit the "M" button, to kill your engine (unless you have engine damage--you might not be able to restart for a go-around). After touchdown, lower the nose until it's level with the horizon, and hit the space bar for braking. "Tactical" landings (under fire, Zeros behind you) require a bit more skill, but can be done flaps-up, abeam the carrier, in a circling approach. Work at it! Tip 3: Use the rudder to line yourself up with the runway, when landing, rather than ailerons. This will keep your plane level but still allow you to move left and right. If you have a Gravis Mousestick, try the setting the other two buttons to control the rudder. Note that, unlike a real airplane, the rudder in Hellcats doesn't raise the leeward wing any. Tip 4: To land on a carrier you must catch an arresting wire. They are on the back half of the carrier. That is the side with the numbers. The tower should be on the right. Using flaps will give a steeper decent. If you miss the wires, gun the throttle and try again. Don't land on a damaged carrier. If you do, reload quickly, and take off quickly or you will go down with the ship! Tip 5: How to land on a listing carrier: Land like you usually do, but keep the Hellcat on a horizontal plane *with* the listing carrier and use the rudders to maintain your heading and position relative to the horizontal plane of the carrier. Tip 6: If you are damaged you have 3 options in landing. You can attempt a disabled landing, a ditch (water landing- make sure gear is up), or bail out. Landing is the preferred option since you will keep the plane and get mission credit. Bailing out loses the plane, and mission credit. Also if you successfully land, you are much more likely to live than the other two options. Bailing out is the most risky. Tip 7: You can't ditch w/ your gear down. Tip 8: If you're screwing up the approach, don't despair: full power, clean up (gear up), raise the nose, and go around. Q: I can't turn around tight enough, especially after landing on a carrier. A: Hit the down-arrow once, so you can see where you're going. Then, hold down the brakes and apply full power. Steer with the rudder keys. When you're headed in the right direction, release the brakes, pick up 10-15 knots, and cut the engine again. Q: Can you land on the bridge in 'Bomb Base?' A: Yes. It has been done. However, watch out. The bridge is in enemy territory. Many pilots report that if they come to complete stop on the bridge or near it, then they are captured by the Japanese. Q: Why is it so easy to crash on landing contrary to what films show of actual landings from WWII? A: Flight simulators, no matter how good they are, are not very good "visual" simulators. They have lousy input devices, and lousy displays. You lose virtually all the cues that are normally available to the pilot (ground texture, grass, nearby structures, sounds, motion), and are look- ing out a window with a 90 degree peripheral field of view, without chang- ing views--45 degrees on both side of the centerline (compared to around 180 degrees in a real airplane). So there's a significant difference in HOW the airplanes are flown; comparing this to the real thing just won't work. But note that Hellcats has one of the best "in-envelope" flight control models around; if you're consistently landing poorly, best look up the landing sections in the manual, or work through the FS 4.0 tutor- ials. The "tail-dragger" aspect of Hellcats has little to do with effect- ively landing the airplane. In a nutshell, make sure you are straight and level when you land the plane. Make sure your Artificial Horizon instrument indicates that you are parallel to the ground. Once you get the hang of it, it is pretty easy. Fly--don't mush--onto the ground. The program is actually pretty tolerant of error, provided the wings are fairly level. V. SCENARIO-SPECIFIC TIPS Tip 1: In 'Flattop' where you take off from a field and try to sink a carrier, I've found that the most effective technique is as follows: 1. Fly directly north (? or whatever the direction the runway is pointed) at 50-100 ft. altitude till you get to the ocean. 2. Turn left and fly directly at the midsection of the carrier (again as low as possible about 50 ft.). 3. Fire the machine guns constantly, spraying the carrier as you approach. 4. At the last second, release the two bombs and pull up sharply to avoid slamming into the side of the carrier. 5. Get the hell out of Dodge. 6. Gun down the Japanese plane while returning to base. Tip 2: In 'Flattop,' the enemy fighter is going after your cruiser. Kill it before you attack the enemy carrier, it's an easy 500 points. Tip 3: In 'Bomb Base' and 'Capture Island,' after bombing the runway its possible to take out the AAA batteries on either end of the enemy runway, after which you can strafe the airfield to your heart's content. Tip 4: In Bomb Base you get credit for shooting the planes that are on the ground. Tip 5: In 'The Duel,' try to hit one or both of the leading Zeroes as you go into them head on, and even if you miss, go after them immediately, otherwise they'll ignore you and go straight for the carrier. Tip 6: In 'The Duel,' after you've shot down all the Zeroes, follow the other Hellcat to the enemy ships, and wait for him to bomb them, after which you can finish them off. Tip 7: In 'Divine Wind,' keep an eye on long range radar after the fourth or fifth Zero...if there is no others in sight, land and reload as quickly as possible, as a whole bunch more will show up, and you'll need the ammo. Tip 8: Another fun HotP thing to do: In "Flying Fortress" mission, when returning, let the B-17 get well ahead of you (10 miles or so) and configure your Hellcat to fly strait-and-level. Then use the "e" cheat to see what the "enemy" sees. What you will see is the bomber base and final approach and landing! Keep swapping back-and-forth to be sure that your Hellcat is doing what you think it's doing. Then, you can land, refuel, and take off and go try to sink both ships that where near the island! Tip 9:In 'Flying Fortress,' fly ahead of the B-17 on the way there, and behind it on the way back. Tip 10: Engage the enemy bomber in "Scramble" from above and to the front. You can usually get him smoking on the head-on run. Tip 11: In 'Scramble,' one way to minimize exposure to the gunners is to attack in a steep dive from 4 or six o'clock--there is a gap in the coverage there. Tip 12: Another approach to the bomber in scramble is to fly very fast at about 100 feet until almost (<1/3 mile) directly under it, then pull up and roll around. You'll be approaching it from slightly behind and almost directly below it, giving you about 10 seconds of good shot time and putting you directly behind it after the maneuver. VI. SCORING/GENERAL GAME QUESTIONS. Tip 1: Make sure the "Triple Time" setting is turned off if you are trying to attack targets. Tip 2: The first time you play a new copy of Hellcats it will take about a minute to "build instrument panel". This needs to be done only once, but makes the file bigger. If you decide to play a game with a different number of colors, or a different screen size, it will also construct the instrument panel and get bigger. Tip 3: If your Hellcat is on fire and you have no control, *bail out*! Tip 4: Command T is the triple time option. It makes the game go 3 times as fast when you are over 500 feet. It is good for long trips to bomb a base. Tip 5: You have enough ammo to fire for 45 *continuous* seconds. It is best to fire in short bursts. The manual suggests 2 to 3 seconds. You can re-arm and refuel when you land. You must be at a full stop (brake with space bar), and your engines must be off (hit "m"). Tip 6: Be careful using the autopilot down close to the deck. If you've damaged the Zero, and there aren't any more in range, the autopilot will release when it crashes. If you happen to have the controls "hard over" in some way, you could crash yourself before you realize what's happening. Tip 7: Change the Gravis joystick's settings so that instead of the gear and flaps on the base's buttons, place the throttle controls there. It makes the plane a lot easier to fly with the speed controls handy. If you are right handed, the flaps and gear are easily accessible on the left side of the keyboard. Tip 8: The biggest mistake people make in all flying games is to simply cruise around with the throttle wide open all the time. Use your throttle wisely. Drop down to about 80% once you get behind the bogey and shoot that sucker out of the sky! Tip 9: When your machine crashes during a landing, or your aircraft gets flamed or something like that, just hit <Esc> and end (or is it abort) mission. You will then survive keeping the points from previous missions, plus what you have added to your permanent score on the current mission. This does not work if you get hit direct by a bullet though. Then you're dead immediately. Tip 10: The north west quadrant there are several strange, small, islands and a field right in the middle of the sea. Tip 11: Most of the Missions (except "Divine Wind") are of short duration, compared to your fuel capacity. Especially in the carrier missions you should keep your fuel at half and only make one pass at the target. Once you have eliminated fighter support, you can always land, refuel and rearm. This works great with "Bomb Base" and "The Duel". I keep my fuel at just over half for both and my takeoffs are easier. "Flattop" is also a good example. You should lower your fuel levels each time you fly a mission and see how close you come to "dead-stick"/BINGO landings. Tip 12: Use "tablet" mode (from the Mouse control panel) for more mouse control. Q: Is it possible to fly under the bridge? A: Yes. It has been done. Upside down, and some have landed on the bridge. Q: What's in the "off limits" area to the west in "Flight School"? A: A lake with two sailboats enjoying a relaxing afternoon. Q: What happens if you shoot or bomb your own carrier, base, other Hellcat, etc? A: You usually get a warning that you destroyed a friendly unit when you land. After two more occurrences, you are discharged. In "The Duel" someone shot down Lt. Cmdr Herbert *and* sunk the carrier, then bailed out of my plane. He was given a court martial and executed. Q: What is the highest score anybody has made? A: The sky is the limit. That has not been recorded as of yet. That would be a little trivia. If you are a 'net-person' you could find out in comp.sys.mac.games. Q: Has anybody successfully completed all of the missions without cheating, i.e., without using ResEdit to resurrect a dead pilot? A: Yes. Many have. Q: Are the planes in the training mission SUPPOSED to be shot down? A: Yes. Please feel free to do so. You should decide to either practice bombing or downing the drones. The drones are good practice for attack angles. They are not that good in evasive situations and do not attack you. When you first load up with bombs in the training mission, you get six! You will only get two if you reload after that. Q: Why, if you pause the Flying Fortress mission when the Hellcat is still in the hangar, does the B-17 still take off? This makes it a little difficult to catch up and protect it. A: Well, you are pausing it for you. If you pause the game in 'Scramble' and pay attention to your radar, it does move. If you pause, it is wise not to pause that long. Pausing in the air seems to not have this same effect for some reason. It is best to have all your settings as you want them before you begin and saved. Q: How does the collision detection work? Only in the middle? A: This author is not 100% sure. But, it seems to be the way it works with naval objects. If it is the ground, then the first contact of your plane and the ground usually results in an explosion. Q: Sometime in the play back, after crashing, it seems that the Hellcat literally falls in the sea the last few meters. What happens ? A: Refer to the question above. The water seems to be treated as a transparent object to a certain depth. (sort of like what happens in REAL water) When you hit a certain depth after penetrating the water, the Hellcat will always explode. Q: How is it possible to have enough fuel to go in the extreme north-west of the map (and see the north directional arrow)? A: Don't forget the previously mention 'cheat' key. (ctrl-s) Also, this author has been able to do this on a full tank of gas at 70% throttle at Triple speed. However, I run out of fuel and cannot get back to a base. You can also Island hop. Pause the game, do command-m for map, and look for the nearest airfield. Most are friendly. You can fill-up, take off and reach an island closer to the directional arrow, then take-off again with full tanks, then return to that nearest island and fill up again! Q: What happens if you jump and a plane hits you? Does the plane explode? Are you killed? A: Well, when a plane hits, it has only happened to a few pilots as of this date, you die. The plane explodes. The same thing happens if you run into a parachute from a Japanese pilot. Q: Where is the second F6F Hellcat going in 'The Duel?' A: The other pilot is heading toward the carrier. He usually runs into other Japanese pilots and they end up in a dog fight. If you follow your wing-man, then you are bound to end up in a dog fight. Q: How much time has elapsed if you resume a mission after loosing the first Hellcat? A: It depends. If you live, and are close to your base, not long. It is hard to tell since there is not clock or game timer which is visible. In 'Scramble,' if you lose your plane and you are close to the base and are found, it is not very long. You can usually see the other planes on radar when you are in your new plane. Q: Can I hide from the radar from the Zeros or the Japanese ships? A: Yes. You have to stay very low; you can see the effect when you fired on a Zero and somehow it disappeared from your radar at some point in it's fall. You just need to do the same. Stay up off the trees around 200-300 feet! You can do this if you are short of ammo and there are still Zeros around. Just make sure the Zeros are not in sight. Chances are that they can see you if you can see them. Q: Why is my Hellcats program growing in size? A: Each time you use it on a new size of monitor or 1/2 or 1/3 size, then Hellcats generates a picture of the cockpit and other stuff to match this size, and stores it in the program for faster redraws. So, for example, using it on a 21" monitor may add significantly to the program size. Q: How can I visit or look around the Hellcats scenarios real quick? A: There is a hidden command that put you in the 'Superman chair' and allows you to move all around at a great speed. Just type 'Control S' while playing. Your plane is now immobile, you can move it around with the key pad. for example, '7' to go up, '8' to go forward, '5' to stop. You can press repeatedly on the keys to accelerate, but be careful with the speed, it will lead you outside the game ! You can fire when in this mode, but the point will not be added to your score. if you try to bomb, that bomb will fall when you resume the game. Be careful when resuming the game, the plane will be nose DOWN and the engines will be OFF ! so remember to gain a lot of altitude! (ctrl-s will get you back). VII. COMMON PURCHASING/MACHINE REQUIREMENT QUESTIONS. Q: What is the current version? A: 1.0.3. Q: Does it support networking? A: No, but that's rumored to be in the works. Q: When will the first scenario disk be released? A: Scheduled for September 1992. Q: Will there be a bug-fix for the "transparent Zero" up-close machine-gun bug? A: No word. Q: What does HOtP stand for? A: Well, it is the acronym for the game Hellcats Over the Pacific. Q: What is the "ultra" cheat key? A: Well, it depends on how you want to cheat. The 'e' key will give you the enemy's viewpoint. 'a' is the autopilot key, as you already know. 'crtl-s', is the slew-invoke key. Q: How do I resurrect a dead pilot & modify other scores 'n' stuff? A: There is a utility called 'Hellcats Rescue.' It will resurrect your pilot from his death. You may also edit your copy of Hellcats with Res-edit. See the section following, explaining how to do that. Don't use res-edit unless you have done so before and know how to use it correctly. In order to really appreciate this game and earn rank ethically, most Hellcats pilots do *not* cheat. Q: What hardware is needed to run Hellcats? A: You need 2megs of RAM, system 6.0 or higher, and a microprocessor of 68020 or higher. The best machine to run this on is a Quaddra, fx, or a ci. It will work on others, but these are best. It runs much faster if installed on a hard drive. If you are using system 7, do *not* increase your virtual memory above 50% of what the real memory is or the game will be sluggish. Q: Does it use color? A: Yes. Color is much more playable than B/W. Specifically, 8-bit color: even 4-bit uses dithering, and visibility/resolution's much reduced. Q: Is the flight simulation fairly accurate? A: It is not perfect. Like most games, it is an approximation of a flight model, and this model is one of the most pleasant-feeling, "realistic" of any simulator on the market. However, there are artificial limits to the program: one cannot, for instance, stall the airplane (it always sorts of "mushes out"; nor is the ground model highly realistic (one can't lift off a carrier until one flies off the end, even if one has an abundance of airspeed). In some ways, it's a "fly-by-wire" aircraft, providing coordinated controls with a single input mechanism (the mouse). The rudder controls, by the author's own admission, were a last-minute addition, and aren't properly represented by the flight model. Q: Does Hellcats run under System 7? A: Yes. Q: Can two or more people play using networked Macs? A: No. The current version of Hellcats does not allow this. There is a new version *expected* to be released next summer that may incorporate network flying and combat. Q: Does it support the creation of general mayhem on the ground, or can you only shoot down other planes? A: Oh yes. You can take out AAA batteries, other aircraft, bomb hangars, and other ships. Many people report completing a mission and getting their mission award and resuming the mission to go back and take out the AAA batteries and any planes on the ground. The air combat maneuvering (ACM) component of Hellcats is MUCH better than any other PC-based combat simulator, including Falcon (2.2 OR 3.0). Q: What kind of alternate input devices are available? A: The Gravis MouseStick is the most popular input device. However, many users have found that the mouse is just as satisfactory, given the control model; others have found the ergonomics of the MouseStick to be unsatisfactory (it's more of a fingertip-device, than a grab-it device; thus, given the height of the stick,it's difficult to command full stick- back--which one's almost always doing in ACM). Q: Is it copy-protected? A: It uses a look-up-a-keyword-in-the-documentation protection method. When one registers, the publisher will send an "unlock code," such that this isn't needed, again. The publisher has been known to take a long time to send the code (manual says two weeks; people have reported any- where from one to four weeks). VIII. EXERCISES All of the following have been done. * Try to ditch and take off after a loooooong slide. * Try to land on a enemy carrier. * Fly and dogfight upside down. * Try to follow one Zero without killing it. (very good practice) * Try to land on the mountain, or a wounded carrier. * Bomb everything in flight training. * Place a bomb on the top of the control tower in flight training. * Bomb all the bases (friendly or enemy) on your map after completing 'Scramble.' * In 'Scramble,' take off with bombs and kill one Zero and the Beatty. Let the other Zero go. Stay a good distance away and follow it on radar. See where it goes! * Fly upside down at 200 feet when flying over the runway at Henderson Field. Buzz the control tower! * Fly your plane, fully loaded with fuel and bombs, straight into your carrier or friendly ship. Bail out at 200 feet! See what happens! * Fly by the bunkers in 'Bomb Base.' See if you can see the doors. * In 'Bomb Base,' try to get a bomb to hit the doors on the bunkers. [use replay as soon as you know your bomb hit so you can see how it went]. * Try to get right over the Beatty in 'Scramble.' When you are maintaining the same speed as the Beatty, try to maintain a height of about 100 feet above it. Push your down arrow twice to get a bottom view. You can sit there and watch as the Zeros try to shoot you down....they will put their machine gun fire into the Beatty! Also, if you are at LEAST 100 feet above the Beatty, you can drop a bomb right on top of it. As soon as you release the bomb, lower the flaps and go to full throttle and go vertical. By the time the bomb hits the Beatty, you should have climbed at LEAST 400-500 feet. * Fly under the bridge--inverted. * Land on the bridge. * Do a touch-and-go on the dock. * Land on the carrier the wrong way. * Miss the arresting wire, and complete a landing on the carrier. * See how little runway it REALLY takes to take off from the carrier. You'd be surprised. * Kill a Zero with a bomb. IX. CREDITS Below are the names of about everyone who contributed. If you did contribute and your name is not below, your item was a repeat and I apologize. I used the first of each suggestion. I do wish to thank EVERYONE on the net who contributed either with wish-lists, suggestions, or just undying support to see the finished product. I want to thank all of you. Without your help, this project would have taken several longer weeks than it has. Without all of your contributions, this never would have come about. If I misspelled anyone's name, I apologize. I just cut and pasted names so they are spelled just the way they were when they were cut from the mail messages that were sent. Howard Berkey Wile E. Babak Gohari John Hirsch Erik Hoel Jim Hogue Steven John Knezevich Mathieu Lafourcade Charles Lamonte Bob Lesser Derek LeLash Jim Melton Joe Mac michel@segin.com "Mike" Peter Newton Povl H. Pedersen Michel Pollet Jon Pugh Peter Rigsbee Ramiro Sarmiento James Stricerz Mike Tanner Brad Ward X. CHEATS It is hard to 'cheat' per se. We have already discussed the 'e,' 'a,' 'ctrl-s,' and 'command-t' keys. We are now getting into more sophisticated cheating. Most game pilots don't do this. Please be warned again, if you have *NOT* used Res-edit before, please do not try this stuff. If you still want to try, MAKE SURE YOU MAKE A BACKUP COPY AND EXPERIMENT ON YOUR BACKUP COPY! To resurrect a pilot: For the ResEdit-headed, the 'HEL1' resource contains the pilot data. The first resource ('HEL1') is unrelated to the second one (I forget the ID's, but they do have names). In any event, the HEL1 resource containing the pilot data is a list of 20 records 64 bytes each. The first 32 bytes seem to be reserved for the pilot's name. These are Pascal-style strings with a preceding length-byte. The 32 bytes of data following the space reserved for the name appear to be shorts (integers of 2 bytes in length each). The first word is whether you are alive or dead (0=alive, 1=dead). Changing this to 0 can resurrect the dead pilot. The integers that follow are rank, # of fighters downed, bombers, etc. There are a few bytes in there that appear to do nothing. Some seem to increase your score but have no mention of how or why (perhaps reserved for subs and other targets in future scenarios). The rank can go from 0-5, the others don't appear to have a cap. Explore, have fun. The score is not stored in the resource - instead it appears to be calculated on the fly based upon # of various targets you've downed. Rank, however is not calculated. (Information from by John Calhoun) Q: Is there a Hellcats unlock patch? A: Yes. XI. FAQ BACKGROUND I saw a lot of questions on this game and felt that a FAQ/Tip document would be useful. This document is not intended to replace the manuals. It is meant to enhance the novice HOtP gamer's pleasure and skill in the game. I fully support all efforts to complete the missions without cheating and to buy this product from Graphic Simulations or a software retailer or mail order company. Hellcats Over the Pacific FAQ/Tips was created with the HOtP enthusiast in mind. It is my hope to expand this document in the future to accommodate the new scenarios to be released in a few months and the new Hellcats version next summer. This document will include FAQ's, Tips and Hints while playing this game, easy 'cheat' methods, neat stuff to try or see, and an appendix with a list of all the gracious people who were instrumental in the completion of this document. A couple people had sent some reproductions of the HOtP manual typed by hand. Thank you for your contribution, however, I cannot print what is in the HOtP manual without permission from the author. (And besides, as I will mention many times, this is a game worth buying...if you buy the game, you have the manuals.) I hope this document is useful to everyone who reads it. If you have any suggestions for changes to this document, please e-mail me at the address above. I tried to get everything in here that everyone sent. This will grow in the future, there is no doubt about that! Some of these look like redundant questions. Some of the hints, tips, and FAQs do look the same...but are subtly different. I left it that way because of the way people read and understand things. Some things click for some people, some other things click for other people. This was a rather rushed job as I completed this while on vacation here between August 13-August 26. The updated version which will be released this fall will promise to be a bit more organized with sub-categories beneath sections. This should make it much easier to find things. If you get the new scenarios or just have some stuff to add that is not included in this document, please e-mail me at the address at the top of this page. [ Minor quibbles: I disagree with a couple of Ted's tips: 1. It's not possible to out-turn the Zeros *in plane*, per se--merely *outmaneuver* them. It's an important difference. Due to the control logic, they don't react quite like a real pilot should, when one tries out-of-plane maneuvers. 2. On bombing, you don't need to be much below 2000' to both release and climb out, even if you're 90 degrees down, and have got the airspeed indicator pegged. At these speeds, being closer makes little difference: being stable in the dive is much more important. It is suicide to try to slow down after dropping: use your excess airspeed to get away from the ack-ack batteries as fast as possible, or climb beyond their effective range (fast!), and come in for another run. In actual film clips of Hellcat bomb missions from WWII, one NEVER sees the airplanes getting anywhere near as close to targets as one is tempted to do in the game, even at 2000' levels. --rdd ]