Lock On: Modern Air Combat Lock On: Air Combat Simulation TM TM Enhanced Manual Reference Manual Training Guide Recognition Guide Digital Aspirin Ltd & Ubisoft 2003 Copy Number All content, (including in-game graphics), except where otherwise noted are copyright by Ubisoft and Digital Aspirin Ltd and cannot be reproduced without expressed written consent. All screenshot images, except where otherwise noted, are copyright Digital Aspirin and are used under license. Certain images are Public Domain, such as the aircraft recognition section. Please email info@lomac-manual.com if you believe the manual contains copyrighted material and we will remove and/or label the images accordingly. Index Introduction by Carl C. Norman Reference Manual Training Guide Recognition Guide Key Reference Acronyms Brevity Code SAM/AAA Reference Sheets Mission Planning Sheets i 1 134 209 269 276 278 282 284 Introduction i Introduction It is indeed a pleasure to have been asked to write this introduction for what will hopefully become a trend for flight simulation games. Our Unique Hobby Combat Flight Simulation games for have been in existence since the first personal computers. At one time flight sims were one of the primary entertainment applications for the personal computer. Those of us that enjoy these products share a love of several genres, be it the military, flying, speed, or the fine details and procedure of aviation brought to our screens. Whatever the reason, we all share a common interest in something that requires patience and skill as well as an understanding of the principals of flight and aerial combat. We are a unique group of enthusiasts. Instead of wanting a game that is easy to figure out and simple to operate, we demand and marvel at the complexity and fidelity of air combat. We are the "Armchair Fighter Pilots" who want to sample a bit of the thrill of strapping ourselves to a jet that is going to go into harm's way. Our Hobby Abandoned Being unique has a real disadvantage. We are a niche market in an overall population that craves instant gratification and reward. Alas, our niche community has been abandoned by the traditional market for video games. The big money can now be found in first-person shoot `em ups, "Pop Culture" licensed titles, and "simulations" that model our interpersonal relationships. The video game industry has "gone Hollywood" and there is little room in this financial juggernaut for the detail and high-fidelity that we desire. Video games are now played on your television with a console box that is easy to use and simple to configure. While I have nothing against the world of console video games, their popularity has pushed our hobby off the shelves. Combat fight simulations are not dead, but they are no longer a genre that is supported by the software industry. Fortunately publishers like Ubi Soft have supported products like IL-2 Sturmovik (an excellent WWII flight simulation developed by our friends at 1C: Maddox Games who are also located in Moscow) and, of course, Lock On The Community The combat flight simulation community is a strange bunch. Some of the most loyal and dedicated users of any product can be found in our midst. Many of these people participate online in the various community forums and product websites. It is an international crowd with users from all over the globe sharing their passion and experiences. The majority of these people are friendly and will go out of their way to help out a fellow flight sim enthusiast. I'm pleased to have made friends all over the world through my participation online in the flight simulation community. Unfortunately, we have our dark side as well. While the majority of users are helpful and willing to assist anyone showing an interest in our hobby, there are also those that show incredible amounts of intolerance and snobbery. These types are easy to spot in the online community. Like most human endeavours, there are always a few bad apples. They are to be avoided if possible. You'll recognize them immediately should you encounter them online. Introduction ii But fear not brave user! The community remains active and vibrant. You can always count on the majority of online users to give you the answers to your questions and provide you with the latest information about our hobby. There is also an enormous amount of creativity online in the form of humor, third-party enhancements, and new missions. It is well worth your time to spend some time online with this bunch. A good place to start is the General Forum at www.lo-mac.com. Back in 1994 an entertainment software company called Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI), well known for its line of wargames and fantasy role-playing games, was purchased by Mindscape, Inc. A gentleman named Jim Mackonochie, who was a Vice President for Mindscape, was able to enter into an agreement with a gentleman named Nick Grey. Nick is one of the managing directors of The Fighter Collection (TFC), which operates with a software development studio named Eagle Dynamics. Eagle is based in Moscow and at the time had a prototype simulation depicting the Su-27 Flanker jet fighter. This product became Su-27 Flanker and was published in 1995. History of Lock On Lock On is the third product in a generation of combat flight simulations that started with Su-27 Flanker and was followed by Flanker 2.0. The Flanker series of products introduced the flight sim community to combat aircraft flown by Russia. is a very talented and dedicated group of professionals. The staff at Eagle Dynamics I was fortunate enough to have been a newly hired Producer at SSI when the Su-27 Flanker product was started. The opportunity to work on this project was something I jumped on immediately. I was working with the fine folks at Eagle Dynamics and my counter-parts at the Mindscape UK office. Following the release of this first Flanker product we soon created an add on product for Su-27 Flanker which included new missions and a major product upgrade to Version 1.5. The sequel Flanker 2.0 was released in 1999 by SSI. As with the original Su-27 Flanker product, we went on to create a major upgrade to Flanker 2.0 that we called Flanker 2.5. This upgrade would be sold online and would add the MiG-29 as a user flyable aircraft. We also upgraded and enhanced the overall simulation by fixing some problems and adding new features. Lock On began as a proposed add on product to Flanker 2.0 that would feature the Russian Su-25 Frogfoot attack jet. Our original plan was to dovetail the development effort for the Flanker 2.5 upgrade into the process to create the Su-25 Frogfoot product. During the early planning for this next Flanker product Mindscape and SSI went through a corporate acquisition by The Learning Company. This was to be the first of several additional corporate buyouts and mergers. At the time I was an Executive Producer with SSI in charge of Combat Simulations. We saw an opportunity to expand our original plans for a new Flanker product by adding a Western attack jet, the A-10 Thunderbolt II affectionately known as the "Warthog". At the time another large publisher of combat flight simulations had cancelled their plans to feature the Warthog in a product. I must admit at this point that my personal interest in the Warthog was a major factor in my going the distance to get this aircraft included in the product. I have always had an interest for the A-10 and wanted it in our simulation very much. We obtained approval to proceed with including this unique and very popular combat aircraft into our plans. Introduction iii The decision was made to create a sequel product instead of a mere add on. This new product would feature the Frogfoot and Warthog and would be called Flanker: Attack. Of course there would be a few more corporate adventures and The Learning Company was soon purchased by Mattel and we became a new publishing and development organization known as Mattel Interactive. The scope of the product increased at this time by the inclusion of a Western counter-part to the Su-27. Thus, the F-15C Eagle joined the ranks as another flyable aircraft in the product. At the very end of our development efforts on the Flanker 2.5 upgrade the future of our group was again questionable as Mattel was selling off the assets of Mattel Interactive. We were up for sale with no idea what would happen to our future products. This state of being would become a familiar one as we were soon sold to a holding company which helped maintain our existence but had plans to parcel off the assets of the former Mattel Interactive/Learning Company. Once Flanker 2.5 was finished we were still in a state of limbo. We came to decision to release the 2.5 upgrade for free over the Internet to ensure that the upgrade reached the users who had purchased Flanker 2.0 in case we were forced to shut down. Several weeks following the release of the Flanker 2.5 upgrade the entertainment product group of the former Mattel Interactive/Learning Company was sold to Ubi Soft Entertainment. Each one of these corporate acquisitions and changes in ownership resulted in a process of evaluation to determine which products would continue and which ones would be cancelled. This resulted in major delays to the products we were working on at the time to include all the combat simulations. Some products were cancelled; others were cancelled and then resurrected. Fortunately, Flanker: Attack survived but it now had a new name ­ Lock On. We added some new features to include the ability to scale the product to make it more accessible to new users without taking away the more realistic aspects that veteran users desired. Of course all of this only resulted in further delays. In late 2002 I left Ubi Soft and began working directly with The Fighter Collection and Eagle Dynamics. I was pleased to be able to concentrate my efforts on the genre and product line that I loved. Our product had suffered many delays and yet all of knew that it had great potential. We also knew that there was little competition for this type of product as modern air combat simulations were not being supported by the industry. We believed then and we still believe now that we have a product that would be popular. My association with Mr. Nic Cole began in the late Summer of 2003 when he inquired on the official Lock On forums about the possibility of producing a hard copy manual for Lock On. I contacted him and lent my support for such an effort. I had been suggesting that a hard copy manual for Lock On be made available for separate purchase by the publisher so I was very pleased to see an effort from the community take form. The trend in the entertainment software industry has been to eliminate hard copy manuals and move to smaller standard packaging for software products. The documentation for most products being sold now consists of a small "get started" pamphlet and a more extensive manual in "electronic format" on the game disk. This arrangement works fairly well for 99% of the games being published. It does not work well for a detailed and complex product like a combat flight simulation. I have always been an advocate of rich and detailed documentation for the products I've worked on, but the costs and resources for this type of manual were no longer something that the publishing arm was interested in devoting to a niche line of products. This Manual Introduction iv Through his persistence and some backing by a few of us that really believed in the concept of a third-party manual effort, Nic Cole was able to convince Ubi Soft that this manual was a viable option. An agreement was soon reached. Nic began to gather content and enlist the help of several of us in the Lock On community to assist him in getting the manual together. We at Eagle Dynamics were delighted at the prospect of a more detailed hard copy manual. That you are now reading this is proof that a grass roots effort by dedicated and talented members of the flight sim community can achieve great things. The Future As I write this introduction we are in the final days of development for Lock On. We are testing a Release Candidate as I type. It's been a long process to get it finished and we are very proud of our work. What about the future? We see great potential for follow on products in the form of new aircraft to fly and new missions. We have several proposals for such products and we hope that they are forthcoming. There are also new combat simulation products on our drawing board that we hope to bring to you in the future. The future of all these products depends on the success of Lock On. The potential for these types of third-party produced manuals depends on you, the members of community. Please help promote this manual to your peers. Let them know about it and urge them to support Nic and his efforts. This will ensure that we have this type of documentation for future ...