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Text File | 1992-09-05 | 42KB | 825 lines

╔═════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ FALCON MAPPER ║ ║ ║ ║ A UTILITY PROGRAM FOR FALCON 3.0 ║ ║ Operation : Fighting Tiger ║ ║ (Version 3.01) ║ ║ ║ ║ Release 4.0 ║ ║ Copyright September 1992 ║ ║ ║ ║ By Greg Prete [70720,2566] ║ ║ CompuServe Flight Simulation Forum (GO FSFORUM) ║ ║ ║ ╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ DOCUMENTATION IMPORTANT --------- READ the file called README.F3M before continuing any further! This file contains important information concerning new features. OVERVIEW -------- Falcon Mapper is a shareware tool that allows you to painlessly modify FALCON3.EXE (version 3.01 only) and change the geographical locations for Instant Action (IA) and Red Flag (RF) modes to any part of the Falcon world. You can: Quickly and easily change either the IA or RF modes to reference any one of the theaters currently defined for Falcon 3.0 : Operation Fighting Tiger: KUWAIT, ISRAEL, PANAMA, NELLIS, KOREA, INDIA or JAPAN Practice dissimilar A/C missions using Red Flag, but do it in the same area you are currently campaigning in!! Change the Instant Action theater location WITHOUT copying ANY map files, for more exciting modem or Network play. Do all this, and at the same time, run as many campaigns as you want, in any theater! F3MAPS *ONLY* modifies the FALCON3.EXE program file and the NELLIS.MSC file, NOT the map files!! OTHER PROGRAM UTILITY OPTIONS ----------------------------- Use the "Run Falconer" option to shell out to Falconer and then back to Falcon Mapper for total Falcon-control! Use the "Decode Red Flag Mission" option to load any Red Flag Falcon mission, and view all the information on Allied/Enemy flights, aircraft armament loading, ground forces, waypoints, etc. Tired of the canned Falcon 3.0 Red Flag missions? Generate RANDOM missions with the F3MAPS Auto-Mission Gnerator. One thing's for sure, you'll get into some NASTY furballs with this one, as it will generate Red Flag Missions impossible to create using SpecHolo's mission editor!! Eliminate the dreaded ILS view-shift feature with the "ILS View Shift" option!! Thanks to my friends Steve Kramp and Rich Michta at Grumman for their tireless lunch-hour (well, *extended* lunch-hour) efforts to find the assembler code for the "view-shift" routine and nuke it!! Customize the F-16 HUD to suit YOUR preferences. Change the default magnification scale from "2X" to any of the other legal scales (1,2,4 and 8) and have it STAY THAT WAY. No more going back to the menus between missions! Once again, thanks go to Steve Kramp for hacking the code for this option. ╔═════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ New Utility options for version 4.0 ║ ╚═════════════════════════════════════════════╝ Change the "allowable armament" for aircraft in Red Flag mode. Now you can make ANY aircraft carry ANY type of armament! Ever see an AWACS fire a radar-guided missile? Or a C-130 drop bombs? You will now! Configure the Auto Mission Generator so it generates missions within certain constraints that YOU specify. You may never use the Falcon 3.0 Red Flag editor again! WOW, this sounds neat! ┌────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ SHAREWARE FEES AND LICENSE AGREEMENT │ └───────────────────┬────────────────────┘ │ │ │ ┌───────────┴───────────┐ │ FEES / AVAILABILITY │ ╒═══════════════╤════════╧════╤══════════════════╧════════════════╤════════╕ │ Item │ Filename │ How to get latest version │ Fee │ ╞═══════════════╪═════════════╪═══════════════════════════════════╪════════╡ │ F3MAPS │ F3MAPR.EXE │Compuserve Flight Simulation Forum │ $ 4.00 │ │ executable + │ │ GO FSFORUM │ │ │ documentation │ │ Modern Air Combat, Section 8 │ │ └───────────────┴─────────────┴──────┬────────────────────────────┴────────┘ │ │ │ ┌──────────┴──────────┐ │ LICENSE AGREEMENT │ └──────────┬──────────┘ │ ┌─┴─┐ The F3MAPS code and documentation are licensed by Greg Prete only to legal users who have registered their copy by sending the $4.00 shareware fee to: Greg Prete 1927 Commonwealth Avenue Merrick, New York 11566 If you have obtained F3MAPS from a fellow Falcon 3.0 pilot, a BBS other than Compuserve, or through any other means and have not registered your copy, please do so. By legally registering the source code, you agree to be bound by the terms and conditions stated below. If you cannot agree to these terms, please destroy this software!! (Or pass it on to someone else you think might be interested). TERMS AND CONDITIONS -------------------- 1. This utility program is brought to you as SHAREWARE via the Compuserve Flight Simulation Forum. You may distribute this software to your friends, or send it to non-profit single-site BBS's, so long as all of the documentation is packaged with the executable file, and NO PROFIT IS GAINED FROM SUCH DISTRIBUTION. The author reserves the sole right to personally upload this file to national or international networks and information services, and retains sole ownership of all code and documentation. 2. As is the case with all shareware programs, the author (Greg Prete) STRONGLY encourages users to distribute F3MAPS to their friends, or fellow Falcon 3.0 pilots, as long as all of the documentation is included, and this license agreement remains part of this file. 3. Registering F3MAPR.EXE not only gives you the legal right to retain possession of these files and use them on your computer, it also gives you the rights to download (or to let a friend download, and give you) all future editions of the F3MAPS software and docu- mentation at no extra charge. HOW TO REGISTER --------------- This is the easy part. Just send the appropriate payment (in U.S. funds) along with your name (address not required), to: ┌──────────────────────────┐ │ Greg Prete │ │ 1927 Commonwealth Avenue │ │ Merrick, New York 11566 │ └──────────────────────────┘ Fees are as described in the "FEES / AVAILABILITY" table above. In case you received the files already de-archived . . . . F3MAPR.EXE should contain: F3MAPS.EXE Executable image F3MAPS.DOC Documentation file README.F3M Release Notes If you are missing any files from the archive file, get yourself onto Compuserve's FSFORUM and download the latest version from section 8, Modern Air Combat. When I receive your payment I will add you to the list of registered owners, and record the date and amount you paid. It also means that I will be nicer to you than to non-registered owners if you contact me on Compuserve! <grin, kidding> Unfortunately, the ONLY means I have to correspond with users is on Compuserve, which means if you want to ask a question or get help with a problem you MUST contact me on-line. I cannot answer personal requests via U.S. mail. Tuning in to Compuserve's FSFORUM is also the best way to get news on updates to the software, and to find out when a new version has been released. It's also the *best* way to get tips and ideas on the Falcon 3.0 simulation itself, from some VERY knowledgeable people. Most of the Falcon 3.0 beta testers, Falcon book authors, utility programmers and the like drop in to the Modern Air Combat Section of FSFORUM from time to time, or are regular members. F3MAPS, like all software that strives for excellence, is constantly being improved. New releases usually coincide with an update to the Falcon 3.0 simulation by Spectrum Holobyte, but they don't have to! Chances are that a few days after I uploaded this file, I made more changes to the source code! INSTALLING FALCON MAPPER ------------------------ If you're reading this file you must have run the F3MAPR.EXE self- extracting file already. You should make sure that the file F3MAPS.EXE is in your FALCON 3.0 directory (typically C:\FALCON3). If F3MAPS is not in your F3 directory, it will report an error saying it can't find the FALCON3.EXE file, and ask that you run F3MAPS from your Falcon directory. Although the effects of F3MAPS on FALCON3.EXE are reversible by simply re-running the program, making a backup copy of your original .EXE file WOULD BE A VERY GOOD IDEA. <Ahem!> * IMPORTANT * * IMPORTANT * * IMPORTANT * Falcon Mapper will check your FALCON3.EXE file to make sure it is version 3.01, and will NOT run unless it finds the correct version. Still..... Please, Please, Please BACK UP your FALCON3.EXE file before running Falcon Mapper!!! F3MAPS 4.0 will only run with Falcon 3.0 : Operation Fighting Tiger, which is also known as version 3.01. Confusing, isn't it? RUNNING FALCON MAPPER --------------------- To run FALCON MAPPER, just log to the F3 directory and type F3MAPS at the DOS prompt. Note: Falcon Mapper version 4.0 uses a CUA-compliant interface, so it should be familiar to most PC-users. After running F3MAPS, Falcon Mapper presents a shareware license screen, followed by an "About" dialog box. Click on OK, hit escape, or Enter to clear this box. FROM THE MAIN MENU BAR, YOU CAN: -------------------------------- I. Run Rob 'Orinoco' Heittman's Falconer program Selecting this menu option will bring you to Falconer, if the FALCNR.EXE file is in your FALCON directory. Run Falconer just as you did before. Exiting Falconer will return you to Falcon Mapper. Cooperation among members of the FSFORUM Skunk Works crew ensures that once inside Falconer, the option in Falconer to run F3MAPS will be disabled. II. View a text file This option was added at the request of FSFORUM members who wanted a means of viewing their own Red Flag mission texts along side of the summaries produced by the "Decode Red Flag Mission" option in F3MAPS. It will allow you to view any ordinary text file (including the .SUM files) in a text window. III. Change directory All this does is let you change the default directory where F3MAPS reads, writes and generates all of its files (except FALCON3.EXE). Use this option if you have another utilities directory where you keep Red Flag Missions or summaries. In order for F3MAPS to begin executing, the current directory must be the one where FACLON3.EXE is. After F3MAPS has started, however, you can change the directory to any valid directory on any drive in your system. If, after you change the directory, you attempt to run one of the utility options which is looking for FALCON3.EXE, the program will request that you change the directory back to the original FALCON3 directory. F3MAPS will refuse to patch any other copy of FALCON3.EXE that you may have laying around in another directory - it will ONLY patch the copy that was present in the current directory at startup time. IV. Select Falcon Mapper After selecting Falcon Mapper, a screen is presented containing the current locations for the IA and RF modes present in FALCON3.EXE, as well as a list of all possible theaters. In addition, the file extension for Red Flag Missions (initially ".RFM") is displayed. To change the theater locations for either Instant Action or Red Flag modes, simply click the mouse on the text for the desired theater or "TAB" to the correct box, then use the arrow keys to highlight your choice. When you are satisfied with your choices, click "Write changes" and Falcon Mapper will update your copy of FALCON3.EXE. To quit without updating, simply select the eXit button or press escape. When you change the Red Flag theater location, FALCON3.EXE is patched so that the Falcon 3.0 program will only recognize Red Flag missions with the file extension that goes with that particular theater, as follows: RED FLAG THEATER MISSION FILE EXTENSION ---------------- ---------------------- KUWAIT .KFM ISRAEL .IFM PANAMA .PFM NELLIS .RFM KOREA .OFM INDIA .NFM JAPAN .JFM This allows the Falcon pilot to create Red Flag missions that are specific to each theater. (Thanks to FSFORUM member Craig Allen for this idea, and the MANY of you who seconded his motion). Now run Falcon 3.0 the way you always have. Same old program, only now the IA and/or RF modes are the ones YOU specified, not the ones Spectrum Holobyte wanted! What a feeling of power! NOTE: Changing the Red Flag location also affects the "Auto-Generate Red Flag Mission" option. Auto-Generate will create missions with file extensions specific to the CURRENT Red Flag Theater, as outlined in the above table. To change the extension used for the Auto-Generate option you must run Falcon Mapper to change the actual theater location. Unfortunately, neither the Harpoon missile or the SEA radar mode is available in JAPAN Red Flag. V. Auto-Generate Red Flag Mission I don't know about any of you, but I quickly grew tired of the canned "LESSONXX" missions that came with Falcon 3.0. Soon after I bought the sim, I began experimenting with Red Flag mode, creating my own missions. I have to admit, they were better than the canned ones, but this also got tiring after a while. I mean, you had to spend quite a long time pecking away at the keyboard before you could sit down and enjoy a mission. I wanted a way to randomly generate a "surprise" mission, with completely unknown parameters. I also hoped there was a way to bypass certain limitations in Spectrum Holobyte's mission generator like "max number of airplanes=8" across an allied or enemy group of flights. Without going into all of the gory details (which would ruin the fun anyway), suffice it to say that "Auto-Gen" accomplishes these goals, and generates missions with as many parameters randomized as possible while exercising logic which guarantees they will still make some sense and be FUN!!! HERE'S THE NOT-TOO SPECIFICS You'll always be leading a flight consisting of yourself and as many as 7 wingmen. These wingmen could be any type of Allied aircraft, including F-16s. Each F-16 will be given a general-purpose combat load consisting of an ALQ-131 ECM pod, 2 AIM-9M sidewinder missiles, 2 AIM-120 AMRAAMS, 2 AGM-65D Maverick air-to-ground missiles, and 12 MK-82 500 lb. bombs. Feel free to alter this armament if you want to. That's about all I can tell you. Really, I don't even know what all of the possibilities are. Probably infinite. I *can* tell you that any other allied flights will be somewhere in your vicinity, flying in the general area you are, with any and all sorts of aircraft carrying any and all sorts of armament loadings. Watch out for enemies, cause they're CERTAIN to cross your path at some time during the mission! Enemy and Allied ground forces may also be present in varying degrees of concentration within 2 miles of one of your waypoints. Watch for them! Remember, they could be allied or enemy and they MIGHT be carrying SAMS. DON'T BOMB YOUR ALLIES!!!! Note: Allied ground forces will NOT be generated unless you specifically select "Random" or a fixed number of allied forces from the Ground Forces Configure menu. (More on that later) The defaults are set up to ALWAYS generate four enemy ground troop concentrations. In addition, your flight will always begin in the air, and you will never have a LAND or LOITER waypoint. Just the fun stuff!! Missions will be generated for the Red Flag Theater currently defined by the Falcon Mapper portion of F3MAPS. They will be titled with the theater name (ISRAEL, PANAMA, KUWAIT, NELLIS, KOREA, INDIA, JAPAN) and a number. For example, if you currently have KUWAIT defined as your Red Flag area, the first time you "Auto-Generate", a mission will be created called KUWAIT1.KFM. The next will be KUWAIT2.KFM, etc. If KUWAIT1 and KUWAIT2 already existed, the first mission would be called KUWAIT3.KFM. If you now want to generate NELLIS missions, select Falcon Mapper from the main menu bar, and change the Red Flag theater to NELLIS. Now, Auto-Generate again, and you will have "NELLIS1.RFM". In addition to actually creating the mission file, Auto-Gen will also create a .SUM file, just as if you created the mission yourself and "Decoded" it with the Decode Red Flag Mission option. NOTE ABOUT PANAMA MISSIONS I have to say, Panama was an annoying theater to create missions for. If you happen to get a "BOMB" waypoint over water, or any of the ground forces get generated over water, kindly re-locate them yourself after you load the mission. This problem should be minimal, but it was impossible to avoid altogether without eliminating some of the *real* terrain from the waypoint possibilities. I have found in play-testing that I had the most fun generating a mission, loading it, but NOT peeking at anything before actually playing. If you do it this way, you get the uncertainty and surprise of Falcon's Campaign mode, without the committment or aggravation. Version 4.0 of F3MAPS adds a "Configure" menu that lets you choose some of the mission parameters for Auto-Generated Red Flag Missions. You may now instruct the mission generator to generate a fixed number of flights each time, how many planes you want in each flight, as well as formation, waypoint action, speed, altitude, aircraft armament and max waypoint distances. VI. Select "Decode Red Flag Mission" option. This option will allow you to read in any Red Flag Mission File and generate a report for that mission. The mission reports are saved with the same filename as the Red Flag Mission, and an extension of ".SUM." Multiple missions may be read in and viewed on the Falcon Mapper desktop, and they may be printed from DOS using "PRINT ____.SUM" or "COPY _____.SUM LPT1:" You may open as many Red Flag mission summaries as the memory space in your machine allows. The program will default to looking for Red Flag missions with the file extension for the theater currently selected (RFM, IFM, KFM PFM, OFM, NFM or JFM) but this can be altered by editing the input line. If you find there are too many Mission summaries cluttering the desktop, simply use the Tile or Cascade Functions from the Window menu to clean things up. To simply view a ".SUM" file (or any text file) that already exists on your hard disk, use the "View Text File" option from the File menu. NOTE ABOUT WAYPOINTS -------------------- No matter what theater you are operating in, the Falcon world consists of a square grid 320 nautical miles by 320 nautical miles, for a whopping 102,400 square miles to fly around in. The Red Flag Mission viewer reports waypoints using a Cartesian X-Y system, with 0,0 in the lower left corner, and 320,320 in the upper right. These waypoints are accurate down to 118.6738281 feet, for those of you who care!! Just thought it would be a good idea to explain how I oriented the waypoints with respect to the map, to avoid confusion! VII. Select the "ILS View Shift" option This option will allow you to patch away the insidious code in FALCON3.EXE responsible for the ILS and gear-down view-shift BUG. Previously published as Steve Kramp's NUKILS program on FSFORUM, that functionality has now been added to F3MAPS. Thanks go to Steve for all of his work. (Thanks Steve...) Falcon 3.0 : Operation Fighting Tiger allows you to switch between the view-shift and non-view-shift modes during flight, by pressing the shift-scroll-lock key combination. However, the default is still "view-shift-enabled". If you NEVER want to see that view-shift again (since it's ridiculous anyway) you can semi-permanently NUKE it with F3MAPS. VIII. Customize the HUD with "HUD Declutter" option If you use the F-16C HUD in Falcon 3.0, you might have wondered (as I have) why the static legends "SPD," "ALT," and "HEADING," are display- ed at all. All they seem to do is clutter up an already restricted HUD field of view - and they never change! After you've flown the Falcon around for a while you *know* which readout is which, you don't need a reminder!! Now you can selectively NUKE some or all of these legends. For either the F-16A or C HUD, you can also eradicate the "ARM" legend, and both the "R XX X" and "C XXXX" legends which appear on the HUD even when you have no radar lock-on. Go ahead and nuke'em, they'll still pop back up when you re-establish radar lock-on, but they won't be blocking your view when you don't!! IX. Change the default scale Everybody who flies the Falcon knows that only real men (and real women) use "1X" magnification. For better or worse, the designers of FALCON 3.0 decided 2X magnification would be best. In fact, they must have thought this so strongly, they decided to always revert you back to 2X after every mission, even AFTER you've selected the scale you want. Well, we've taken care of them this time!! Select the "change scale" option and change that default scale to be any value you desire (1X, 2X, 4X or 8X). But remember, REAL pilots use 1X!! Thanks to my friend Steve Kramp for scratching his head and plugging himself into his PC for a few hours to find this one!! X. Configure Red Flag Armament This option will allow you to change the default _types_ of armament that Falcon 3.0 allows you to select for allied and enemy aircraft in a Red Flag mission. By highlighting an aircraft in the list box, you can see what types of armament your CURRENT version of Falcon 3.01 will allow you to select for that aircraft in a Red Flag mission. If you remember, Falcon 3.0 will only display "radio buttons" next to certain types of armament for any given aircraft in the Waypoint Setup section of Red Flag. For instance, C-130s do not normally carry ANY armament. Kind of annoying! Well, just select C-130 in the list box, and check each box in the "allowable armament" cluster. Next, click on the "Write Changes" button, and F3MAPS will patch your NELLIS.MSC file with the new defaults. The next time you run Falcon 3.0, if you create any Red Flag Missions with C-130s and go to the Allied Waypoint Setup menu, you will notice that the C-130s may now be armed with whatever types of armament you selected from within F3MAPS! This actually works!! If your C-130s are engaged by fighters they will now *fire missiles* to defend themselves, if you selected that type of armament from the Red Flag Armament Configuration dialog box in F3MAPS, AND you armed the C-130 from within Falcon 3.0. To create some really *unfair* Red Flag missions... 1. Press "Select All" underneath "Allied Aircraft" 2. Select "Clear All" underneath "Enemy Aircraft" 3. Select "Write Changes", then "Exit" 4. Go back to the Configure menu, Allied Flights 5. Select "Maximum" for Non F-16 Armament Loading 6. Select "Commit changes" then Exit 7. Now hit F4 a few times to generate some missions If you run Falcon 3.0 now, go to Red Flag and load up these missions, then go to "Allied Setup" you will notice that EVERY aircraft in EVERY flight has EACH type of Falcon 3.0 armament already loaded! Not only that, if you do the same thing for the Enemy flights, you'll notice that NONE of the enemies are armed at all, and CANNOT be armed from within Falcon 3.0! <He he he. Time to wax those bums>. You could have stopped the above procedure after step 6, then gone into Falcon 3.0 to create your own Red Flag missions. You would have had the capability of selecting ANY type of armament to be loaded on ANY type of Allied aircraft, but you would have been _incapable_ of arming the enemies, since you nuked all of their "default" armament from within F3MAPS. To quickly restore the default armament allowances that came with Falcon 3.0, simply click on the "F3 Defaults" button underneath "All Aircraft" and select "Write changes" again. The other intimi- dating buttons on the F3MAPS armament configuration screen are provided so that you can globally select or deselect armament allowances without having to manually go through each aircraft and click the check-boxes. Of course, you can still manually check any boxes you want to. Go ahead and play around with the buttons, then cycle through the "Falcon 3.0 Aircraft" list box to see what the changes might look like. To exit without updating NELLIS.MSC, simply click on the "Exit" button. * VERY IMPORTANT NOTES * The selections you make with this option have NO EFFECT on Red Flag missions that have ALREADY been created, nor do they affect the Campaign or Instant Action modes of Falcon 3.0 - ONLY RED FLAG. If you play around with different settings, then want to run an old Red Flag mission, the ONLY way you are going to be able to tell how the aircraft in that mission are REALLY armed is to "Decode" the mission from within F3MAPS, using the "Decode Red Flag Mission" option from the main menu. Keep this in mind, or you will get into a confusing situation where the Falcon 3.0 mission editor is telling you a certain aircraft is unarmed with a particular weapon, when in fact the aircraft *is* armed. TECHNICAL NOTE FALCON 3.0 displays its Red Flag armament radio buttons based on bit masks stored within the NELLIS.MSC configuration file. It decides whether or not to *shade* those buttons by looking at the Red Flag mission file. If NELLIS.MSC says, "Don't display the radio button," all that means to you is that you cannot arm an aircraft with that weapon from within Falcon 3.0. It DOESN'T mean that that particular armament is not _already loaded_ on the aircraft, as far as the Red Flag mission file is concerned. When you *run* the mission, the only thing that matters is the mission file - not the bit masks in NELLIS.MSC! The Auto-Generate Red Flag Mission option in F3MAPS *WILL* use the "allowable armament" settings from the CURRENT copy of NELLIS.MSC when it arms aircraft. Basically, what this means is you can affect the POSSIBLE armament generated for an aircraft in a randomly-generated mission by using this new Config option. When the mission-generator creates a mission and arms an aircraft, it does not allow any armament to be selected for that aircraft that Falcon 3.0 would not allow. By using this new configure option to change the armament that Falcon 3.0 would allow, you are also changing the values that the F3MAPS mission generator will allow. The armament settings for F-16s are irrelevant, since you arm your F-16s in a totally different way than you arm other aircraft in Falcon 3.0. It is not enough to select the armament types you want from within F3MAPS - you must ARM the respective aircraft when you create a mission. All that this menu option does is let you select a certain type of armament for an aircraft. ══════════════════════════ VERY IMPORTANT ════════════════════════════ This option will only effect the visibility of armament radio buttons in the NELLIS Red Flag theater. When you change the Red Flag theater to a non-Nellis location, the armament radio buttons WILL NOT match the settings you made in F3MAPS. In addition, the aircraft list boxes will behave a little differently in Non-Nellis theaters, and certain aircraft text descriptions will appear as "EMPTY25" or "EMPTY26". The good new is, all of this weirdness has NO EFFECT on the missions that can be *run* in any theater, and the auto mission-generator will have no problems generating missions for any theater. The little bit of weirdness is the result of doing something that the designers and programmers of Falcon 3.0 never intended to be done! If all you're interested in is generating missions with F3MAPS, or you simply want to "fly around" unhindered in any Falcon theater, you can safely ignore all of these boring technical notes and just use the program normally! These explanations are for you technoids out there who want to actually understand how and why things work the way they do. (Like me). ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ * MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL * THIS OPTION ALTERS THE FALCON 3.0 EXECUTABLE IMAGE! ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR SYSTEM OR FILES, EITHER DIRECT, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL, WILL NOT BE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE AUTHOR OF "F3MAPS." IF YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO ACCEPT INCIDENTAL RISKS TO YOUR DATA AND CANNOT ENSURE ITS SAFETY VIA BACKUPS, DO NOT USE THIS PROGRAM! XI. Configure the Auto Mission Generator Underneath the "Red Flag Armament" option beneath the Configure menu is an option called "Auto Mission Generator". This will let you change the way the Auto-Mission Generator in F3MAPS generates Red Flag Missions. No longer do you have to be satisfied with the TOTALLY random nature of the auto-generated Red Flag missions. Now you can specify whether you want a particular mission parameter to be random (as before) or user-selected. You can now "seed" the mission generator for Allied and Enemy flight parameters, and Ground Forces. For instance, you can specify that you want a random mission, but you want X number of flights, Y aircraft in each flight, Z waypoints, etc. Almost every parameter can be chosen to be either random or user- selected. For the armament-loading, selecting "Random" will make the mission-generator select any types of armament for an aircraft that have been "allowed" by Falcon 3.0, either by default or by use of the "Red Flag Armament" configuration option from within F3MAPS. Selecting "Maximum" will arm all aircraft (except F-16s) with the maximum allowable armament. To obtain a printout of your settings so-far, make sure your printer is powered on and configured as LPT1, then select the "Print" button. This will spell out exactly what the Auto-Mission Generator settings are for either your Allied or Enemy flights. In order to make these settings take effect for your current F3MAPS session, you must select "Commit Changes" or all will be lost. * VERY VERY VERY IMPORTANT * I'm sure the first thing you're all going to try to do is select four allied flights and 4 enemy flights, each with 8 aircraft a piece. If you do this, you'll notice that EVERY time you generate a mission you'll have two allied flights with a total of 15 planes, and 1 enemy flight with 1 plane. This is because REGARDLESS of what you specified in the Misison Generator Config dialog boxes, the Auto Mission Generator has logic which prevents it from generating more than 16 aircraft in all allied and enemy flights combined. This is a change from previous versions of F3MAPS, due to BIG PROBLEMS with disappearing enemy forces. Falcon 3.0 DOES NOT LIKE missions that have more than 16 airplanes. Why? you ask. Must have something to do with memory, or throughput, or some other computer-related thing. Ask Spectrum Holobyte. It is for this reason that if you select a "non-random" number of flights (Allied or Enemy) you SHOULD also dictate how many planes will be in each flight, and NOT leave the "Number of Aircraft" settings on "Random". If you don't, nothing major BAD will happen. The Auto- Mission Generator will do its best to accomodate you, and then it will kindly DEVIATE from your "Number of Flights" or "Number of Aircraft" settings. It's not a bug!!! The next choice in the Auto Mission Generator Configure menu is called "Aircraft Choices". This will let you select which types of aircraft you want in Auto-Generated Missions. Choose the types of aircraft you want by clicking on the appropriate check box, and selecting the Commit Changes button. Any missions generated in your current F3MAPS session will contain only those aircraft selected. The difference between "FSX JAPAN" and "FSX U.S." is the markings that will appear on the aircraft. One has Japanese markings, the other does not. IT'S NOT MY FAULT, DEPT. ------------------------ This program is shareware. It may be copied freely and distributed as long as it is not modified in any way, and this documentation file is packaged with the executable program. You may NOT sell F3MAPS for profit, or upload it to any BBS that operates for profit. No guarantees are made as to the compatibility of this program with Falcon 3.0, although I believe it highly unlikely you will encounter any problems which will damage your files or the Falcon 3.0 simulation. F3MAPS has been around for quite a while now, and I don't believe I have ever received a negative report from anyone! (Mostly, I get suggestions for what to incorporate in the next release). But remember, F3MAPS is essentially PATCHING the Falcon machine language program. F3MAPS will NOT work with any Falcon 3.0 version other than 3.01 and is NOT likely to work with any future upgrades. As new versions of Falcon 3.0 are released, I will evaluate them as to their compatibility with F3MAPS and make updates as necessary. F3MAPS checks your version of Falcon 3.0 and will gracefully exit if it finds any version other than "Operation : Fighting Tiger" (Version 3.01). In short: PORTIONS OF THE FALCON MAPPER PROGRAM ALTER THE FALCON 3.0 EXECUTABLE IMAGE! ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR SYSTEM OR FILES, EITHER DIRECT, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL, WILL NOT BE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE AUTHOR OF "F3MAPS." IF YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO ACCEPT INCIDENTAL RISKS TO YOUR DATA AND CANNOT ENSURE ITS SAFETY VIA BACKUPS, DO NOT USE THIS PROGRAM! SUPPORT ------- At the present, I am available to support this software via the Flight Simulation Forum on Compuserve (GO FSFORUM). Leave a message in section 8, Modern Air Combat, if you have questions, comments, or suggestions about this program, or would like to solicit help with a problem. I do check in fairly often, so I will respond to your pleas as soon as possible! I cannot respond to support questions through U.S. mail, and I have no facility to offer phone support! Please do not try calling - I'm hardly ever home anyway! I will do my best to answer any questions posted on Compuserve's Flight Simulation Forum, Section 8 - Modern Air Combat. Remember, the next suggestion incorporated into F3MAPS could be yours! (No prizes will be awarded for implemented suggestions). Good luck, and may you be free of flying telephone poles!! RELEASE HISTORY * = Internal release only --------------- Release 1 --- Provided as a supplement to Rob "Orinoco" Heittman's FALCONER version 2.5 program. Allows IA and RF locations to be patched to any Falcon 3.0 theater. Release 2 --- CUA-compliant user interface. Incorporated Craig Allen's suggestions for modifying the Red Flag mission file extensions along with the theater location. * Release 2.1 --- Cosmetic fixes. "Shell to Falconer" option using new FSFORUM Skunk Works API. Release 3.0 --- Red Flag Mission Viewer Release 3.1 --- Waypoint distance computations added to Red Flag Mission Report. Auto-Generate Red Flag Mission option. Allows pseudo- random Red Flag missions to be created with a click of the mouse. ILS View-Shift remover option. A million thanks to my good friends Steve Kramp (author of the original NUKEILS program) and Rich Michta at Grumman Aerospace for their wonderful detective work in getting this feature in. Rich, you did it all with serial ports and DOS debug! Steve, you restrained Rich when he ran at the PC with his solder- ing iron and chip puller! HUD Declutter and Change Scale options. Miscellaneous features - "change directory" and "view a text file" options. Release 3.1D--- Identical to version 3.1, updated to work with Falcon 3.0, version D Release 4.0 --- More cosmetic changes. Mission-Generator clean-ups and fixes. Configure options for Red Flag Armament and Auto-Mission Generator. Change from freeware to shareware :( Support for Operation : Fighting Tiger aircraft & theaters - Greg Prete [FSFORUM] CIS ID [70720,2566] September 1992