Post by Dutch Owen on Sept 7, 2019 15:25:17 GMT -5
If you're flying an FSCAI mission you have two special features to make life easier. Accessing them isn't obvious, so here's how.
Forward Air Controller/Joint Tactical Air Coordinator, FAC/JTAC.
Objects created with the FSCAI missions system can be assigned a "role code" of 11, 12, or 13 which gives them special powers. Currently in FSCAI only the 12 code is working.
An FSCAI SimObject (whether ground or air) that's given a 12 is a FAC. If you have one in a mission (and quite a few of the Southeast Asia missions have them) you can access a menu to talk to him via the Control-F9 key combination. You can request a report and he'll tell you the bearing and distance to the target zone, a count of the number of friendly, enemy, and neutral units within his sight range, and a count of the number of air defense threats he sees and what type they are. You can request the FAC to put colored smoke on enemy air defense targets, non-air-defense targets, and friendly units. The FAC is a SimObject and can only access what he can see, and this is affected by his position. In open ground a ground-based FAC can see and identify targets up to 5KM, whereas in a forest he's limited to much less range. Airborne FACs can see much better but they are always in danger of being shot down. If a FAC is shot down or destroyed, then of course he's no longer available to help you.
In all version prior to 0.9.8 the FAC/JTAC feature is not accessible.
Virtual Bombardier
In any mission where you can arm and select FSCAI bombs on your aircraft you can request the services of a bombardier. This is most useful for level bombers but works anytime you are on a mission and have a bomb-type weapon selected. Press Shift-F6 to access the Bombardier. He will give you directions to your target and tell you when to release the bombs. In no-wind conditions he's pretty accurate. If there's wind he will be less accurate, and this is realistic. Of course he uses the same calculations any AI level bomber uses to guide you. In most cases using him will be more accurate than you guessing. Level bombing is very difficult to hit targets.
Hope this helps,
Dutch
Forward Air Controller/Joint Tactical Air Coordinator, FAC/JTAC.
Objects created with the FSCAI missions system can be assigned a "role code" of 11, 12, or 13 which gives them special powers. Currently in FSCAI only the 12 code is working.
An FSCAI SimObject (whether ground or air) that's given a 12 is a FAC. If you have one in a mission (and quite a few of the Southeast Asia missions have them) you can access a menu to talk to him via the Control-F9 key combination. You can request a report and he'll tell you the bearing and distance to the target zone, a count of the number of friendly, enemy, and neutral units within his sight range, and a count of the number of air defense threats he sees and what type they are. You can request the FAC to put colored smoke on enemy air defense targets, non-air-defense targets, and friendly units. The FAC is a SimObject and can only access what he can see, and this is affected by his position. In open ground a ground-based FAC can see and identify targets up to 5KM, whereas in a forest he's limited to much less range. Airborne FACs can see much better but they are always in danger of being shot down. If a FAC is shot down or destroyed, then of course he's no longer available to help you.
In all version prior to 0.9.8 the FAC/JTAC feature is not accessible.
Virtual Bombardier
In any mission where you can arm and select FSCAI bombs on your aircraft you can request the services of a bombardier. This is most useful for level bombers but works anytime you are on a mission and have a bomb-type weapon selected. Press Shift-F6 to access the Bombardier. He will give you directions to your target and tell you when to release the bombs. In no-wind conditions he's pretty accurate. If there's wind he will be less accurate, and this is realistic. Of course he uses the same calculations any AI level bomber uses to guide you. In most cases using him will be more accurate than you guessing. Level bombing is very difficult to hit targets.
Hope this helps,
Dutch