Wow. So stoked for this!
Yay me too!
As long as it is a “flight of the old dog” text adventure I’m all over it.
The first campaign is taken directly from Flight of the Old Dog. I wonder how they’re gonna address that for this fully digital version, since the original version came with a copy of the book.
OMG IT’S LIVE Y’ALL!
Away for the weekend, but as soon as I am back on Monday I’m all over it. Reading Flight of the Old Dog to get in the mood. I first read that book when I was 12 and thoroughly enjoyed it and I am happy to say it is still good so far!
While I am a DCS addict there is something about VGA polygonal graphics that increases the tension and mystery for me and keeps these games exciting. Played F-19 stealth fighter again a few months ago and had a very good time with it, which surprised me. A lot of old games thrive on nostalgia these days, but I found it genuinely enjoyable. Fiddled around with Megafortress back in the day on a friend’s Amiga but the frame rate was terrible and we didn’t know what we were doing. (NOT a pick up and play game and we were instant gratification kids.) The PC version was much better apparently - this was the time when the poor old Amiga started to fall behind.
Very much looking forward to it. I might even pick up the GOG version instead of steam so I can start reading the manual on holiday.
< Got it - if it is half as exciting as the manual will be awesome. I also now finally understand why my friend and I kept getting shot down by friendly fire :-D >
Hah, can’t wait to hear back on your experience with it.
And yay F-19!
OK. Played through some of the red flag missions.
First the annoyances:
(1) Nonexistent flight model; banking the mega fortress without rudder does not cause any side slip. The aircraft is on rails.
(2) No way from the pilot’s station to manually fly towards waypoints. Not marked on heading tape or any other instrument. Only from NAV station.
(3) Air to air refuelling - you can see the tanker before your radar picks it up. MK1 eyeball must have a range > 75 miles
(4) No way to zoom the map to set waypoints threading through mountains. Can only be done in flight from the NAV station.
(5) Cannot figure out how to evade MIG’s. Flying NOE does nothing - unclear what options one has except masking through terrain - but not always easy to do and inconsistent. Sometimes MIG seems to see through mountains. No visual indicator of MIG’s as far as I can see - even though I can see the refuelling tanker from > 75 miles.
(6) Manual is not very helpful for suggesting how to deal with (5). Tried everything and just hammered by IR missiles all day long. This is training with only one MIG!
The pluses:
(1) Atmosphere. Nice attempt to model aircraft startup for early 90’s.
(2) Multi station approach is pretty neat in places. Autopilot and terrain following is useful when using other stations.
(2) Ability to dynamically move waypoints in flight or add new ones is neat.
(3) Various sensors for terrain mapping, visual references
(4) there may be others - after I can beat the MIG-31 Firefox unbeatable Mach 5 invisible to radar adversary - I may get further enough to find some.
Quit in frustration this morning. I watched @BrianRubin ’s YouTube vids and see you experienced the same ;-) Any tips? There seem to be some others with vids on YOuTube attempting more ambitious missions where hopefully I can get some tips.
In sum - it was enjoyable until the MIG…
As of right now my only tip is to keep practicing. Back in the day I finished the first campaign, so it can be done.
Hey congrats!!
Finally did a mission in Gunship 2000 in which I got both the primary and secondary targets. Felt terrific.
Man, what a game.
This forum really needs a like button…
Seriously though, I can’t wait to get promoted and open up new mission types like rescues and recon and shit.
So, really enjoying Megafortress. I have played through all the red flag training missions and about to embark on “the real deal”. I suspect I am going to die a lot. It is a challenging sim to manage due to the many different stations, but the whole is more than the sum of its parts as a result. It makes me itch to replay B-17 the Mighty Eighth, which I saw is actually already in my GOG backlog bought back in the mists of time.
I am reading “flight of the old dog” in parallel and enjoy how some of the minutiae mentioned in the book feature in the simulation. The devs actually seem to have read it. I enjoyed the book tremendously when I was 10 or so - now there is a LOT of eye rolling. It is enjoyable, but it stretches the bounds of credulity a fair bit. A small enemy team somehow invades Area 51 - it is almost as if the characters in the story are just lounging around there by themselves without any base security. And then at one point after the attack we are told the site is swarming with “newsmen”. A classified US facility is swarming with newsmen? Seems very unlikely to say the least. And then there is the whole expose of the Soviet’s evildoing at the UN - as if the USA would divulge their national technical means in this cavalier fashion - and as if the UN would have any power to demand dismantlement of a sovereign military facility. That being said though, suspending disbelief, I am enjoying it. And the tie in to the game is solid and enhances it.
While I am waiting for the DCS Strike Eagle to drop, the game has suddenly given me a hankering to tackle some older sims in addition to B-17 TM8, Tornado and Fleet Defender in particular. I never played Tornado and I never managed to get into Fleet Defender. I do know they are both highly thought of. I have also decided - for a blast - I’ll play Tornado both on the PC and my souped up Amiga 500 to compare the differences. When will GOG release Tornado, F-15 Strike Eagle 2 & 3 - and Janes F-18 and F-15?
I’ll keep you informed! Assuming you care 🤣🤣🤣
Of course I care! LOVING that you’re getting into Megafortress!
So today in Gunship 2000, they foolishly promoted me, so now I’m in charge of multi-helicopter flights, and my god, it feels like almost a different game. It’s gonna take some practice to get better at this, because I somehow gave some of my pilots bad orders, so one just waited in the middle of the map before getting back to base. So weird.
Also flew a Blackhawk for the first time today, what a thrill.
For those who’d prefer not to click on a twitter link, text below.
“Falcon has officially returned to our line-up and we are commited to fully supporting BMS too! We can’t wait to share more with you soon!”
Do we dare to hope for real DCS competition?
