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1993-06-07
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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
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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!
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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.
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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.
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**** END OF GENERAL MANUAL INFORMATION ****