TFX DOCS. CREATE A NEW PILOT. ------------------- When loading the game and if you want you can skip the credits by pressing the right mouse button,this will take you to the first options screen. This gives you the choice of creating a new pilot or continuing a previously saved game. The first thing you do then is enter your full name and your call sign a nickname thats used for clear communication. Next you need you need to sellect a game save slot for your new alter ego. Double click any of the blank ones,you can now take your pick from the list of five game types. Arcade mode drops you into a dogfight situation for some instant action. Training is the sensible option and the one that starts you off on your career as a top gun pilot. This breaks you into the game and acts as a kind of qualifying stage for the real deal missions. The simulator option is good for checking out the five different scenarios [europe,middle east,atlantic,west africa,and central america] This also gives you the option of selecting six different weather and time settings. The cloudy scenario has real cloud cover - try flying up through it to the blue sky above. The night time and storm settings are supprisingly realistic too. Youll find plenty of things to do here but wont have any hard and fast missions to carry out. Tour of duty is reserved for those who have passed through the training ranks. Finally theres flas oints which also requires training to have been completed. Training might sound a bit boring but its not and its worth earning your wings as soon as possible so as to get on with the tour of duty. Youll also find the training schedule is quite addictive with a variety of mini missions to be taking care of based in various scenarios. LOAD PREVIOUS GAME. ------------------- You can take a short cut into a full game by selecting load previous game from the initial option screen. This allows you to select one of a few previously saved game positions from disk. Select one of the Dirk - Inferno - Loose Cannons slots to be dropped straight into a "Hop". Youll have the mission briefing displayed for a short time only,so make sure you jot down the basic gist of the mission and any co-ordinates that are mentioned. Watch out for further messages and updates appearing on the scrowling text display in the cockpit. These also appear on external views. TAKING OFF. ----------- Getting airbourne is pretty easy once you know what to do,but blowing up before youve left the runway can be a bit embarrising,not to mention annoying at first. Follow these steps. 1) Turn on both engines [and] [keys] 2) Increase thrust using the + key 3) Disengage wheel brakes [ W ] 4) Proceed along runway to gain speed 5) Lift nose gently at speed 150 6) Pull up the landing gear [ G ] PICKING OFF BOGIES. ------------------- If theres one essential skill you need for TFX this is it. Fortunately the first training session drops you into what is virtually a no lose situation to get you into the swing things. Your armoury of air to air missiles brings a clinical edge to the proceedings altho once you get into a real dog fight situation youll find its not quite as simple as it was in training. TFX KEYBOARD CONTROLS ---------------------- Escape .................................. Eject/Quit. F Keys .................................. Views. F1 ...................................... Cockpit. F2 ...................................... Virtual Cockpit Left. F3 ...................................... Virtual Cockpit Right. F4 ...................................... Rear View. F5 ...................................... Tracking Camera 1. F6 ...................................... Flyby Tracking Camera. F7 ...................................... Tracking Camera 2. F8 ...................................... Missile View. F9 ...................................... Enemy View. F10 ..................................... Virtual Cockpit Centre. SETTINGS -------- 1 ....................................... VDU 1 DISPLAY. 2 ....................................... VDU 2 DISPLAY. 3 ....................................... VDU DISPLAY 3. 4 ....................................... SAVE GAME POSITION. 5 ....................................... AUTO STICK PRESSURE. - ....................................... DECREASE THRUST. + ....................................... INCREASE THRUST. B/SPACE ................................. GROUND TARGET. TAB ..................................... AUTO RECOVERY. SHIFT + Q ............................... QUIT. W ....................................... WHEEL BRAKES. R ....................................... RADAR SCALING. T ....................................... TIME WARP. I ....................................... INFORMATION. P ....................................... PAUSE. [ ....................................... ENGINE 1 ON/OFF ] ....................................... ENGINE 2 ON/OFF RETURN .................................. WEAPON SELECT. A ....................................... AUTO PILOT. S ....................................... STEALTH. G ....................................... LANDING GEAR. H ....................................... HOOK. L ....................................... LANDING SYSTEM. B ....................................... AIR BRAKES. M ....................................... MAP. * ....................................... MAX POWER. 9 ....................................... COCKPIT UP. 3 ....................................... COCKPIT DOWN. HELP .................................... PAL/NTSC. CONFIGURATION. -------------- Detail Settings. ---------------- You can change the ammount of detail in a number of ways in order to get the best trade off between speed and visuals. Press the ~ key (above tab) to access the configuration menu. From here you can you can make a few general set up changes,such as joystick sensitivity, music,sound effects,world detail,and the flight model. Click the detail menu button to changespecific aspects of the display. This allows you to specify the graduation of the sky couloring,turn the texture maps on/off enable or discard gouraud shading and decide whether the weapons will be visible under the planes. You can also choose wheather to have the different views snap from one to the next or to have the camera pan to the new view. Try cranking all the detail levels up to maximum at first then if you would like some more speed take out the aspects that you think are the least important. VIRTUAL COCKPIT. ---------------- One of the many innovations in TFX is the virtual cockpit,this gives you a feeling of actually being there thats just not possible with the usual fixed posision cockpit view. Accessed with the F2/F3 keys it allows you to look around from left to right as you would be able to if you were sitting there yourself. Turn the texture maps maps off if it causes the game to run to slowly. REALISM SETTINGS. ----------------- Not to be confused with the graphical detail settings,as the realism settings control how harsh or forgiving the game is. These are reached via the the same overall configuration menu that leads to the details control. For example you can set the game up so that its impossible to crash. In the real world flying at high speed with your landing gear down would damage them,if not rip them off altogether,but you can opt for unbreakable landing gear. Theres variable wind,rain and temperature conditions too,which can be enabled or disabled. You could turn all of these off for a more arcade style affair,or to make the game more playable for anyone less proficient at flight sims. Turning off crashing is a bit of a cop out but can be useful if you find yourself continually plummeting earthwards. COCKPIT AND EXTERIOR VIEWS. --------------------------- No decent flight sim would be complete without a range of different view points and TFX has a stack of them. Never before has an amiga flight sim had such detailed and realistic planes,and comes concequently these are the best exterior views your ever likely to see on in an amiga flight sim. You can switch from one to another using the function keys. As well as being good to look at and impressing your mates with (esspecially the F6 fly by view which comes complete with "swoosh " sound effects) these are often very useful for getting a better idea of your surroundings. The rear view comes in esspecially handy for gloating at a ground installation youve just reduced to rubble as you power off up into the sky or at least checking that youve hit the target on a close range ground base attack. ARMOURING YOUR PLANE. --------------------- You can scroll through the arms on the menu then drag and drop them on the plane to load up manually. Alternativly use the default arming button. COMPASS BEARINGS. ----------------- Your head up display (HUD) includes a compass to show which way you are facing. 0 degrees is north , 90 degrees is east , 180 degrees is south , 270 degrees is west. NAVIGATION AND TRACKING. ------------------------ All the planes come complete with advanced tracking devices and maps of the areas which your missions take place. Its essential that you know how to read and use these devices if your to be able to find your prey,avoid being hit and find your way back home after a successful mission. You can view the maps anytime by pressing (M) The maps youll see in the game also show blips to indicate friendly and enemy activitie. The green and blue blips are friendly while the enemies show up as red. Flashing red dots indicate primary targets Youll often be giving a grid reference during the mission briefing to tell you were your target lies. Check the grids overlaid on the maps opposite for a quick idea of were you should be headed. WEAPONS. -------- Your weapons fall into two basic caterories air to air and air to ground. Use the return key to cycle through you air to air missiles and use the backspace key to activate air to ground missiles. You also have a cannon for when al else fails. This can be used to shoot down planes and also to destroy ground based target,but ammunition is limited and so is its range. If you have a target in view,the curently sellected weapon will attempt to lock on to it. Youll know if youve got a lock with an air to air missile as the floating diamond on the HUD will meet up with the square around the target. You should also hear your onboard computer announce that its tracking the enemy. The air to ground weapons work in a similar way, If you cant get a lock on your ground target for any reason a bit of sharp shooting with the cannons will normally do the trick. Once youve got your lock you can hit the spacebar to the sound of "MISSILE AWAY" from your friendly in flight computer. If you dont need to take any immediate evasive action you could switch to the enemy view or even better the missile view to watch it home in. Getting a lock doesnt necessarily mean you will get a direct hit. A good bit of flying from the enemy can shake off a missile although the missiles themselves dont give up without a fight. LOCHEAD F-22. ------------- An incredibly versatile plane,the Lockhead F-22 was designed to scramble from both land and sea via aircraft carriers as and when required. Its strike potential is eqyally varied with the ability to take out air and land based targets with a range of modern "fire and forget" missiles and bombs. While not the most attractive of the three on offer its the only one capable of seas based missions. F-117A STEALTH FIGHTER. ----------------------- The famous F-117A Stealth Fighter also comes from the Lockhead camp and marked a significant step forward in Stealth technology. It has since spawned the Stealth Bomber,which was used most publicly in the Gulf War,with the precision of its air to ground strikes making the headline news. Although harder to detect than other planes the F-117A is by no means totally invisible. EURO FIGHTER. ------------- Based on the French Mirage jet,the Eurofighter 2000 was commissioned as a cost effective state of the art jet fighter for european security. Like the Lockheed it too is very versatile in its ability to carry out a wide variety of strikes effectively. It also offers Stealth properties with short take off and landing abbilities,high agility and extremely configurable payload options. docs typed by Jr.