Lock On: Modern Air Combat
| Lock On: Modern Air Combat | |
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| Developer(s) | Eagle Dynamics |
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| Genre(s) | Flight simulator |
Lock On: Modern Air Combat or LOMAC, known in Russia as Lock On, is a modern combat flight simulation developed by Eagle Dynamics and published by Ubisoft in Europe and 1C Company in Russia; it is considered as a survey simulator by its creators.[3] It contains 8 flyable aircraft and over 40 non-playable/AI-controlled planes. The game mainly revolves around air-to-air combat and air-to-ground combat with some optional, unique roles such as pinpoint/anti-radiation strikes, anti-ship strikes or aerobatics. The game realistically models all aspects of take-off and landing, AWACS (also known as AEW&C), carrier-based landings (for the Su-33), and aerial refueling.
Over 180,000 buildings, 50 million trees, 21 cities, 1,700 towns, 500 bridges, 18 airfields, and 8 naval bases are present in a virtual world modelled after Black Sea region. The 8 flyable aircraft are the MiG-29A, MiG-29S, Su-27, Su-33, Su-25, MiG-29G (a German MiG-29 variant with a native board-computer), F-15C, and the A-10A; only the Su-25 and A-10 are dedicated close air support aircraft, the rest are air superiority or multi-role fighters with limited or no air-to-ground capabilities. Due to the small number of aircraft the player can only fly as a pilot from either the United States, Ukraine, the Russian Federation, Georgia, Israel or Germany.
A flexible mission editor is included to allow users to make a wide variety of missions or even full-length campaigns, equal to the quality of those presented with the game. Many fan-created mission packs and campaigns have also been released.[4]
There are 4 Eagle Dynamics constructed campaigns in the original game, one for each main aircraft represented; the A-10, F-15, SU-25 and SU-27. Each one boasting around 6-7 missions. Additional campaigns were later added in patches for the SU-33 and MiG-29.
Upgrades
Aside from the v1.02 patch for the retail game the developer, Eagle Dynamics, has released an unofficial add-on named Lock On: Flaming Cliffs, designed in part to correct numerous flaws within the original game. Also included is another flyable aircraft, the Su-25T and several new missions. Some changes and tweaks to the games missile modeling are also included, as is an Advanced Flight Model (AFM) for the Su-25T. A patch to Flaming Cliffs was released, correcting minor coding errors and bringing the game to its final, current version: 1.12b.
Flaming Cliffs 2.0
LockOn: Flaming Cliffs 2 is a further evolution of LockOn: Flaming Cliffs. All of the player-controlled aircraft have been transferred to the virtual environment created for the Digital Combat Simulator series.[5]
Improvements include:
- Forward compatibility as well as online compatibility with the new Eagle Dynamics title DCS: Black Shark. Players may fly Flaming Cliffs-specific aircraft in missions/campaigns created for DCS:Black Shark (and vice versa) and in multi-player games with players running DCS:Black Shark online.
- General improvements and bug fixes to the multi-player component of Flaming Cliffs.
- Features the same virtual world environment as DCS:Black Shark (the Crimean portion of the previous Flaming Cliffs map has been removed while additional areas of Georgia have been introduced, modelled at higher resolutions than in DCS: Black Shark).
- Automatic detection of player-modified configuration files when connecting to a multi-player server.
- Updated graphics engines (referred to as The Fighter Collection Simulation Engine (TFCSE)) running natively under DirectX 9.0c with numerous improvements to texture, weather and resolution quality.
- Improved and more realistic aircraft, weaponry, sensory and audio modelling.
- Brand-new Mission Editor with scriptable triggers, new mission roles and improved AI/flight modelling for NPC aircraft.
- Additional range ground units such as infantry.
In November 2009 Eagle Dynamics announced that a pay-for upgrade ($14.99 USD) called Flaming Cliffs 2.0 was planned for release in early 2010.[6] Flaming Cliffs 2.0 (Russian version) was released on 25 March 2010 ($29.99).[7] The English version was released shortly after.
Flaming Cliffs 3
In 2013, the third version of the game was released as a Digital Combat Simulator module.
References
External links
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