Flight Models
When ‘dumbing down’ a sim, it’s more than just turning off the plane’s ability to stall. As a matter of fact, as a casual gamer, I’m not opposed to stalling at all, unless it’s really important and it gets me waxed. It’s also not just about a ‘God Mode’, allowing the player to fly with impunity over SAM and AAA-infested territory. Getting shot down is not really an issue, we’ve all experienced it as single people. We just don’t want it to happen five minutes after take off.
Flight models are important to us casual gamers, too. They can go a long way to helping us suspend belief. Occasionally, though, they can be an exercise in utter frustration. It’s for this reason I believe LOMAC was never intended for the casual audience, no matter how hard they tried.
When flying LOMAC, the casual gamer should avoid any new patches beyond v1.01, as stated before. The ‘Easy’ flight model is utterly wiped out. What really bothered me was when flying the A-10 in the ‘normal’ flight model, I never could get the beast above 300 KIAS and it cornered like a house, falling into a stall every time. This is the United States Air Force’s CAS demi-god? If I were facing an assignment to the Hog and it truly flies like this, I’d be asking if it was too late to change my MOS to mess officer. The only threat there is the occasional outbreak of food borne illness. LOMAC’s F-15 felt even more sluggish for what was supposed to be the thoroughbred racehorse of the air combat set.
Jane’s F-15’s casual flight model can be a little too forgiving. I can break 700 knots at 60% thrust and still be accelerating. My landing setting is about 12% thrust and I have to use the speedbrake to slow me down. Cruising speed is about 33% thrust, I can out-turn a pigeon, and do it all on a thimble-full of gas. F-15 requires me to ramp up a few things in difficulty. There is one thing that will disappoint people who like to fly in ‘God mode’. It won’t work at all in the campaign.
Falcon 4.0 Allied Force’s casual flight model is the best of both. It’s like the pleasant feeling you get after drinking the good scotch. It is just a little quicker in sneaking up on you; enough that even after the aftertaste is gone, you know you drank something a little stronger than a beer. Falcon 4.0’s casual flight model is comfortable and enjoyable, but you don’t want to press your luck. Which is again, like drinking good scotch.
