COMBATSIM.COM: Jane's USAF: Review (2024)

A New Breed

USAF is a new breed of simulation. It isn't a Novalogic sim, where allsystems are pared down to their functions for quick reference, and theemphasis is on action. Neither is it a Falcon 4.0 or a Flanker 2.0, where each system is replicated in such detail that a huge manual and many hours of practice are required.

USAF stands firmly in the middle, and manages to please many in thehardcore crowd without alienating the novice. The emphasis is on gameplay and immersion, two strong suits which are helped greatly by a verygood graphics engine and some well designed missions. "Groucho" and Ihave cooperated to bring you an in-depth look at JANE'S latest.

USAF: Mid Core Heaven

The net is thrown broadly by allowing the player to fly some ofthe most famous aircraft ever built, in some very diverse places. Checkit out: Vietnam, Iraq, and and a campaign set in the future as well.Fly the F4, F105, F15 (C and E), F16, F117, F22, MiG 29 and A10. A nicewhack of single missions, a powerful mission editor, good multiplayerfeatures, a mission recorder, comprehensive pilot records... have Imissed anything?

How about ability to command your wingman or the flight, jump into theaction in another aircraft, IFR (in-flight refueling) or use built invoice command? How about a thick spiral bound manual? Dang, this is asgood as MiG Alley. USAF isn't quite as serious in its flight modeling,but the addition of modern avionics adds an additional level ofchallenge for the novice.

For some of you, this is "the other guy's" simulation. But for theweekend jet jockey, this is pretty close to heaven. Wanna fly the Thudin Vietnam? It's all yours. Got an itch to try the Phantom? Check itout. Still pining for an A10? It's in here (a "turbo" version, Ithink!) You've always loved the F15, but you're not into groundpounding? Climb into the C model here. You've been admiring Falcon 4but the weight of the manual gives you weak knees? Yep, the F16C andeven the F22 are here for you.

Gentlemen, Install Your Jet

Remember when Longbow II arrived on the scene, with a maximuminstall of some 600 MB? In those days the average hard drive was around1.5 GB. We've come some distance since then, and USAF arrives on twoCDs, REQUIRING 415 MB as a minimal installation. Go for the full mealdeal and allocate a full 1145 MB of your drive.

I chose the CUSTOM route, leaving out the Vietnam campaign as away of testing CD access. This means actually SWAPPING in CD number twowhen loading the campaign, and that is the only time you will noticeany access. Leaving out a campaign saves around 250 MB of your harddrive.

Test system was a PII 450 with TNT2. At 800x600 frame rate hasnot been an issue with all details to the max. Once loaded up you'llget the usual JANE's multimedia intro, followed by the USAF specificvideo footage. It's worth watching.

Entering the sim, the interface is a cross between the IAFstyle and WW2 Fighters. Overall it's relatively clean and intuitive.Your first stop will likely be the PREFERENCES.

My system defaulted to 1024x768 but not all the options were turnedon. I made that correction, and then turned off the training aids (EasyAiming and Easy Targetting were turned ON by default.)

When Tim "Flyboy" Henderson installed USAF, it failed to detecthis AMD Athlon 600, instead deciding he was running a K6-3 400. Itlooks like Jane's have optimized for the Pentium III but have notoptimized for the Athlon. Too bad, but maybe this will be rectified ina patch. I've been running under DX7 on WIN98 OSR 2.

Learning the Ropes:
Training and Single Missions

Next up, some flight training. This is the narrated, instructorprovided style training that we're getting accustomed to. It's nicelydone and I didn't find a single flaw in the taxi and takeoff missions Iflew in both the F16C and the F22A.

Landings are too forgiving, even on high realism settings. But formost weekend simulation pilots, this isn't a bad design choice. You mayargue that they could simply select Easy Landing. I tend to agree.Oddly, you'll have to keep your speed close to 200 knots for a safelanding.

Groucho: USAF is a blast! Part of the reason for this is theeye candy, no doubt. USAF is a gorgeous sim, funny colors on the F-16aside. But I think the main appeal to those of us who like a jigger ofreality in our fun and games (shaken not stirred) are the generallywell thought out mission structures.

All of the missions you can fly are at any of four"destinations"- Iraq (of course- I think it's the law), Vietnam,Germany, and the strangest, most exotic, not to mention highly hostile(especially to your paycheck) of all- Las Vegas. The Quick Missions,Training, Single Missions, and Multiplayer structures are great-annoying quirks aside- but the Campaigns and rough yet latentlypowerful User Mission Editor or UME are where the real entertainmentlies. In my opinion, the UME is one of the most promising things aboutUSAF, especially for those of us with a decidedly more technical bent.A God complex is also helpful.

Keep in mind before flaming in the Forum that my comments arebased on (1) Yes, I have tweaked the flight control gains in thejoystick utility and (2) All of the realism settings cranked toeleven…making this a challenging simulation- even for you selfproclaimed F4 aces.

The Quick Mission Editor is an intuitive way of setting upfairly simple scenarios. With a max of two flights per side andrestricted target choices, the QME is of the McDonald's school ofmission building- limited; fairly bland choices, fast service, and youwant fries with that? The QME is a great way to get familiar with theindividual airplanes and terrain, and a great way to tangle inimplausible "what if" scenarios (F-105 v. F-22?) when you don't wantyour hard won pilot profile besmirched by abject failure.

Single Missions are a smattering of prefab scenarios, and arepretty challenging. One of the more imaginative missions involvessaving a French 707 airliner from being abducted by those now genericbad guys, the Iraqis (boo, hiss). There are enough surprises going onhere to keep even those with a stunted attention span involved. In thispackage you also have the choice of flying missions that have beencompleted in the semi-dynamic "Future" Campaigns (I'm getting to that)and ones created in the Quick and User Mission Editors.

The pre-mission briefing contains all the information you need. Adescription of the mission is presented, along with the flight taskingand objectives, and even mission tips! USAF takes full advantage ofhtml content, and hyperlinks are used so that you can click on asubject to bring up a window with 3D models and vital statisticscourtesty of Jane's Information Group. Clicking on a target name willbring up a satellite photo of the target area where you can also accessa 3D view of the target in its setting.

Multiplayer works pretty much as advertised, although my hostingexperience is limited by my sim buddy having an internet connectionthat is one step removed from a taught string between two soup cans.Once a stable connection is accomplished, however, co-op missions are atrue blast. The screens for accomplishing an internet mission are wellthought out and idiot resistant, and clearing the skies of the Sukhoimenace with a friend is much more satisfying than going solo.

USAF has been pushed as the "beta" for Next Big Thing- Jane's WorldWar-, which does sound VERY promising. At this point, however, JWW isjust so much vaporware. Logging on to the Jane's Combat Net you get thesame old aerial fragfest- fine if that is your cup of espresso. Can'tget into it, myself…but a lack of anything better to do sometimes drawsme there. Lock on to Groucho_01 if you disagree with my views on that.

Viking1: After the training missions I went straight to Desert Stormand chose the second mission. This mission involves taking out a COMMScenter if you choose to fly the F-117A. I took out the center on myfirst try (!), but neglected to watch my fuel status. By the time I wasgetting the warning message I had 1000 pounds left and thought I mightbe able to limp home. Wrong. I had to bail.

After explaining the loss of a few million dollars worth ofmilitary hardware, I reflew the mission. I didn't want to deal with thetime consuming process of finding and hooking up to a tanker, so I wascareful to monitor my throttle and managed to make it all the way backto base on the single tank.

How Do You Want It? Flexible Gameplay

It's at this point that USAF builds on its strong suit. I choseto fly the mission in the F-117, but after I had hit my target and wasout of SAM range, I decided to visit some other action.

Hitting ESC brings up the Tactical Display.From here you can click on any of the aircraft listed along the bottomof the screen, and either VISIT (you can observe but have no control)or FLY (jump in the pilot's seat and get in the action.) If you chooseto VISIT, be sure you selected AP NAV mode when you left your assignedaircraft.

In fact you don’t have to go back to the Tactical Display/Mapview to switch planes, you can do it in-flight via a shortcut (SHF1-4). You can also VISITother aircraft via the Tactical Display if you have a long ingress totarget. I visited an F111 which was about fifteen miles from the targetarea when I was still fifty miles out. The action over Baghdad wasintense.

I also recorded my second flight in the 117. The entire record was justunder 6 meg, a large file but with the hard drives today, not enough toworry about. Playing back the mission, you get every sound and actionand can even edit camera views and save the changes. Events thatoccurred during the mission are tracked, allowing you to jump directlyto a particular part of the mission.

There are two limitations: the inability to jump in to reflyand inability to access Night Vision. Unfortunately, going to anoutside view on a night mission isn't very interesting when you canonly see clearance lights.

Ah well. Hitting ESC while running the playback brings you to amodified Tactical Display. From here you can look over the battlefiedand choose other aircraft to visit, so you can see other action thatoccurred during the mission you flew. It's at this point that you maynotice some limitations: you can't access other views for otheraircraft, only for your own.

This brings up a few other limitations of USAF. Currently youcannot access other views when the simulation is paused. A strangelimitation that many have found annoying. Many have also noticed someserious texture tearing. These graphical glitches were quite serious inmy installation until I downloaded the latest 3.53 Detonator driversfor my TNT2 board.

Another annoyance relates to control configuration. The USAFdemo showed us that there was some extreme sensitivity in the joystickroutines. The solution is to enter the PREFERENCES Control setup andedit the joystick settings.

This will take care of one issue, but leave you with another. It'sstill difficult to maintain level flight apart from engaging theAutopilot. The trim settings (PGUP and PGDN) adjust the trim in strokesthat are too broad, and don't have the sensitivity needed. Solution?Simply find the course and heading you desire and engage the AP LVLmode. The second press of the "A" key engages the AP NAV mode and youno longer have control of direction or throttle (other than through thewaypoint setting).

Built in voice comms is a first for a JANE's sim. I use GameCommander so I haven't tested the voice comms for USAF. If you useRoger Wilco you may have discovered there is a problem, but the fix issimple. Open your \Resounding Folder (usually under Program Files) andadd the following line to the games.txt file: "Jane's USAF" "Jane'sUSAF" 1 3000. Save the changes and you're ready to rock and roll.

As for AI, yes there are a few glitches here too. I've seen friendlyaircraft discover that the mountains are too high (G), and I've hadwingmen not respond to commands (only once.) I've also seen wingmenapparently stuck in taxi mode on the ground. On the whole, however,wingman AI is reliable in the single missions, but weaker in thecampaign (more on this later.)

Flight Modeling and Physics

Physics in USAF is pretty much state of the art. You'll seeprimary and secondary explosions, damage can bleed from one system toanother, and your aircraft struts will compress when you hit thebrakes. Granted, landings are simply too easy in general.

If there are complaints to be made, they have to do with flightbehavior. Aside from the surprising similarity between dissimilaraircraft, low speed behavior is greatly over done. If you fly thetraining missions, the instructor will tell you to get your speed downto about 150 knots on final. Don't do it. At that speed these aircraftwallow around like a stuffed pig and you will drop like a stone.At 150 knots you won't be able to maintain a proper glide slope.

Secondly, inertia is modeled in the extreme. Aileron rolls don't stopwhen the ailerons are neutralized. Finally, the A10 appears to have thepower of four engines pushing it. Top level speed is somewhere around500 knots, and it is possible to maintain a climb rate rivaling a muchmore powerful and streamlined aircraft. Trying to shake a hog off thetail of an F15 is quite a challenge.

Is this a big deal? Not really, though it would have been nice to see the higher realism settings offer more accurate modeling.

USAF Campaign Mode

Groucho: Now into the true meat- Campaigns and UME. The Campaigns inUSAF are broken down into two types- Historical and Future. TheHistorical Campaigns consist of scripted missions that are loosely-most of the time VERY loosely- based on actual happenings over Vietnamand Iraq. These missions are not related in any way other than era andtheatre and can be attempted or completed in any order.

The two Future Campaigns are a Red Flag war game over the Nellis AFBComplex near Lost Wages and a (very) hypothetical battle against thosepesky Russian Nationalists over Germany. The Future Campaigns areespecially challenging, as they are semi-dynamic, or resource-driven.This is a fancy way of saying that you start out with a set quantity ofpilots, aircraft, and armaments and any assets that are lost or usedhave to be escorted in during a logistical mission that you mustescort.

In the course of these missions, if you lose cargo aircraft, you losesupplies. These missions are limited to two per campaign, so yourtiming is critical. A quick word from He Who Has Been There- don't letyour AMRAAMs run out before you have to get more stuff. Trust me. It isthis added dimension of supply chain management that adds to theimmersion and makes me enjoy the Future Campaigns a bit more than thehistorical ones.

What the scripted campaigns lack in the logistic planning challenge,they make up for in flavor. Even the "bumper music" is period specific,with hendrixian acid rock for Vietnam and synth-heavy tunes for DesertStorm. The aircraft are right for the era also- Rhinos and Thuds for'Nam, Vipers and Eagles for Iraq. The strange mix of aircraft in theVietnam theatre makes for some interesting problems- flying the Thudagainst a MiG-19 comes to mind. Let the rather impressive enemy AI suckyou into a knife fight and you tour of duty will be shortened a bit.

The missions in all Campaigns and Single Missions consist of multiplepackages with specific tasks (i.e. CAP, SEAD, strike, etc)- each ofwhich must successfully carry out their assignments. You can jumpeasily between aircraft in the individual flights. I fact, to completemost missions I have flown, you have to.

Friendly vs Enemy AI

If the enemy AI is so good- and it is- why does friendly AI suck sobadly? I have witnessed a flight of four strike package fly to itstarget, one aircraft drop a single bomb (that misses), an elementleader fly into terrain, and the remaining flight of three initiate aRTB. That made me have to drop out of my incomplete CAP, turn thestrike flight around, shack the target, and return to my now depletedCAP flight (friendly air to air skills also lacking).

In having these horribly inept squadron mates, Jane's has takensomething which could be seen as a cool feature and transformed it intoa liability. At the risk of sounding like a spoiled child, sometimes Idon't WANT to fly air to mud! Don't wanna don't wanna!

Which brings me to the very cool User Mission Editor, or UME. Idon't know why, but Jane's printed documentation is very quiet aboutthis powerful tool. For those of you who have USAF and don't know whatI'm talking about, it is buried deep in your USAF folder (default pathis C:\Program Files\Jane's Combat Simulations\USAF\Resource\Missions)provided you bit the hard drive bullet and did a full install. It canbe put in through a custom install also.

The UME allows you to create some highly complex missions in any of thefour available theatres, including the ability to script intricate "If-Then" causal events and triggers. All of the objects in the USAF world,be it user flyable aircraft, AI controlled weapons systems, or evenstatic buildings from skyscrapers and grass huts, are available for thecreation of a playground to blow stuff up in. Up to four Usercontrolled flights can be generated, along with as many AI aircraft asyou have the time to set up.

While presented in a fairly intuitive GUI interface, the capabilitiesof the UME can be pretty intimidating. The "Wizard" tutorial is a greathelp in getting ones arms around this beast. Still stuck? ExcellentHTML documentation is available online. The SPOT satellite imagery isgorgeous to behold. Such info as terrain elevation is right at yourfingertips, allowing you to route packages through valleys and thelike. Of course, the ability of your AI flight to successfully fly yourmission is problematic.

What is the truly cool thing about building your own large-scale amission- as in the canned Campaign missions, all mission goals must bemet…but you set that goal! Want to create a huge tank-plinking mission,leading a herd of Warthogs through the Fulda gap? Go ahead and buildit, omitting the bothersome opposing air force. This allows you openT-80's like tuna cans and without worrying about the lobotomizedfriendly AI stumbling around 20k' above you flying CAP like the ThreeStooges on heroin.

UME Limits and Needs

While the UME is definitely a huge "plus" that adds to theappeal of this diversion to the hardcore simmer, it is not without somevery frustrating problems. I don't consider my system a slouch, but forsome reason navigation on the map is a tedious affair. I'm not sure ifit the graphics intensive SPOT imagery or what (though I doubt it, itstill chugs in Map mode), but trying to drag your view around thetheatre is an exercise in patience that would make a Zen Buddhist reachfor the Jack Daniels- straight up.

Setting waypoints is similarly annoying…do I have hold of the point Iwant to move, or not? Must be one of the "if-then" triggers- "IF Icould set my waypoint over the target THEN I might actually be able tofly this damn mission tonight". Annoying.

In accordance with the old adage about leading a horse to water, as faras I can tell there is no way to get your flight to actually take onfuel from a tanker, even when an actual hookup is performed. This is abig deal in the Vietnam theatre as there are no friendly airfieldseither! Note to Jane's- let's see some blue bases in the south, OK? Or,even better, the ability to place airfields anywhere a structure can.

Another problem I have with planning a mission using the UME-well, actually all missions in USAF…stealth does not appear to bemodeled very well. While, as recent experience in Kosovo can attest to,there is no deterrent against the Mark 1 Eyeball, low-observable radarshapes such as in the case of the F-117 do not appear to work muchbetter than F-15Es. Just a random thing I noticed while trying toemulate a Kosovo-esque runway denial / SEAD mission.

This may come across as "piling on" the UME, but I enjoymission building almost- I repeat, almost- as much as flying them. TheUSAF UME has the potential of being one of the most powerful missioneditors for a sim- period- and it's painful to grow old trying todesign some really Uber-strike on the Luxor in Vegas. The ability tobuild a scenario in four different terrains and then try and make ithappen is a powerful thing- it would be a pity to let some easilyresolvable problems cripple it.

News and Views

Viking1: USAF has a flexible view system, and you can fly with fixedco*ckpit, virtual co*ckpit, and no co*ckpit view with HUD. You can alsofly using an outside view with HUD (F8), an arcade style option forthose atmospheric but less dangerous moments.

The padlock view works well, and you also have options to padlockyour target or your wingman. Again, these are fairly standard featuresbut sometimes are missed in the rush to get a product to market. Thevirtual co*ckpit slews very nicely, and the reflections are in fullcolor!

USAF also includes player to target views and the ubiquitousplayer to threat view. The latter allows you to look across youraircraft to an incoming missile. I hope that at some point in thefuture JANE'S sims will also include a switching internal/externalpadlock option such as that used in MiG Alley. But the essentials areall here.

More Screens

USAF lends itself to screen shots. I've taken a few from othermissions to give you a sample. The terrain in Vietnam is VERY differentfrom the terrain in Iraq!

Graphics is a strong suit in USAF and greatly adds to the sense ofimmersion. Virtually everyone who flys this simulation remarks on theincredible detail in the terrain, and the generally impressive objectsand aircraft. Clouds are also quite awe-inspiring, and dawn or dusk isliterally beautiful.

Pilot Records

JANE's has taken the requests of virtual pilots very seriously,and has gone the next mile in making it possible for pilots to comparetheir abilities and experiences. The ability of USAF to record yourmission statistics is simply unsurpassed, and you can even share themwith other pilots via the web. Check out the image below.. you can evengraph your performance!

Aside from the sense of community that this kind of feature creates,it also helps the player care about his success. That's good, becauseit generates involvement in the game which in turn translates into morefun. And if USAF is anything, it is FUN.

Multiplayer

Finally, it's terribly unfortunate that USAF doesn't allow LAN playwith a single CD. Not many people have a local area network in theirhomes, but those who do would love to be able to run a local gamewithout having to purchase two copies of the game.

JANE'S Combat.net is a busy place with the release of USAF. Itried a single mission and was AMAZED at the warpless connection.However, I had no luck trying to establish a co-op mission when Iattempted it two weeks ago. The good news is that you can alsoestablish a TCP/IP connection and fly co-op missions, even in campaignmode!

Multiplayer features are quite rich, and you can type and sendchat messages or send preset radio messages using the function keys(F1-F12).

Manual and Documentation

USAF comes with a fat spiral bound manual and a short (27 pages)installation guide. The manual includes a section on combat tactics, anentire chapter combining the History of the USAF with campaignbackgrounds, and a chapter on aircraft specs.

The manual is nicely done, a vast improvement over that forWWII Fighters, but of course there is also more to talk about! Thecommand card is nicely laid out, with four folding sections giving fivepages of information and a keyboard reference chart.

But of course USAF also includes the JANE'S reference sectionaccessed via the main menu. The separate access almost becomesredundant since you can access information on virtually any threat youwill encounter in a given mission from the links offered in the missionbriefing.

For those who haven't yet discovered it, a file in the co*ckpitsub folder called "co*ckpits.ibx" that has a line like "AddFrMessage=0".If that 0 is changed to a 1, then the screen displays the frame rate.

Conclusion and Ratings

"You can please some of the people all of the time...." Perhaps one ofthe most difficult challenges faced by simulation designers is to throwthe net broadly enough to attract the serious players as well as theweekend jet jockeys. USAF has succeeded, boldly going where angels fearto tread.

USAF is immersive, accessible and challenging all at the same time.It's gorgeous to look at, fun to fly, and flexible. It allows flight inmany of the most famous aircraft ever built in diverse settings. Itincludes a powerful mission editor, good multiplayer features, amission recorder, and comprehensive pilot records.

USAF can be played on your own, or head to head, or in co-op mode withyour friends. You can take on in flight refueling, and you can issueorders to your wingmen via voice commands. With some tweaking in theUME and flight modeling, USAF may yet appeal to even more of thehardcore crowd, accomplishing what many thought impossible.

For some of you, this is "the other guy's" simulation. But forthe weekend jet jockey, this is pretty close to heaven. Fly the Thud inVietnam or check out the F4. Go tank plinking in an A10 or go stealthyin an F22 or F117. Jane's Combat Simulations tends to set the pace with each simulation they release, and USAF redefines the mid-core market with flare. Highly recommended!

Ratings

Core Rating: 70

The core rating is a scale to give the player some idea of what kindof gameplay experience to expect. In general, the "core" rating revealshow "hardcore" of a player the game will appeal to. Factors may includemaximum challenge, perceived realism, control-use difficulty,complexity of AI and the depth of gameplay in determining the rating.

Learning Curve. What will an "average" sim fan have to invest inthis simulation in order to be able to survive (not necessarily excell)in the simulated environment with cheats off and a moderate difficultylevel?The "average" sim fan is someone who has been participating in militarysimming for two years or more, and who has invested in some goodequipment: a joystick and throttle, and a decent computer system (PII300 with 64 MB or better and a GOOD hardware accelerator).

• Gameplay: 90
• Graphics: 100
• Sound: 90
• Intelligence/AI: 80
• User Interface/Mission Planner: 85
• Fun Factor: 90
• Learning Curve (in hours): 4
• Overall Rating: 90