Tips n' Tricks

Last Updated 29 August

Send me a tip or trick!

Preload Weapons
Radar and Seeker Stuff
Weapons Quantity
Waypoint Altitude
Paint Shop Pro: Object Icons

An F-15E fires an AMRAAM from my LIB

Tip #1: Preload Weapons

Requires a text editor Well, here is the tip that some have called,"best thing since the 3D mission editor for ATFv1.14..." You can now change aircraft weapons loadouts for ATF Gold or Fighters' Anthology!
To do this, open the mission file (*.M) in a text editor. Look for the aircraft that you want to change the load of. At the very bottom of the paragraph:

obj type MIG23.PT pos 1270429 0 1300699 angle 90 0 0 nationality3 161 flags $4497 speed 0 alias -1 skill 2 react $c000 $0 $0 searchDist 25 startTime 1200 wing 7 0 wng 1 0 2048 0 .

You see the " . " Just before that period, insert some text. Say you want to load some extra air-to-air missiles on this particular MiG-23. Find out the Flogger's hardpoints, and then decide what kind of missiles should be put there.

obj type MIG23.PT pos 1270429 0 1300699 angle 90 0 0 nationality3 161 flags $4497 speed 0 alias -1 skill 2 react $c000 $0 $0 searchDist 25 startTime 1200 wing 7 0 wng 1 0 2048 0 hardpoint 4 1 MIG29I.SEE hardpoint 5 2 AA11.JT hardpoint 6 4 AA10.JT hardpoint 7 2 AA12.JT hardpoint 8 2 AA12.JT .

As you can see, here we've added a FLIR seeker to hardpoint #4, 2 AA-11s to hardpoint #5, 4 AA-10s to hardpoint #6, and 2 AA-12s each to hardpoints #7 and #8. Now, that old MiG is gonna be a little bit tougher in a fight...

This is a very handy trick, as it can be used to change the player aircraft's loadout as well. Say that you are making a precision strike mission in a F-15J, taking laser-guided bombs for attack and AMRRAMs along for defense. That Eagle isn't going to be able to carry both the weapons and a laser seeker, 'cause it only has two hardpoints that can be player-loaded. So, insert this line just before the period.

hardpoint 0 1 PAVESPK.SEE

If you remember Vark's ToolKit tips, you'll know that every aircraft has a VIS seeker on hardpoint 0, but none need it. So mount a laser or IR seeker there!

Download my FA loadouts RTF file

I made this file while editing my Latin American and Greece missions. It has a few aircraft on it, with mostly just air-to-air loadouts. I'll keep working on it, and I'll try and update it every time I update my page.

Also, Kay Ove has sent me his list of all the default hardpoints forATF Gold and USNF '97!

Tip #2: Radar and Seeker Stuff

Requires the ATF Toolkit (for ATF or NATO), the ATFG Toolkit (for ATF Gold), or the FA Toolkit (for Fighter's Anthology). I have borrowed and modified a few of these tips from Vark111. Basically, the radar settings from ATF to FA are very unrealistic. The LookDown and Doppler settings both make radars way to effective. The easiest way to change these would be to edit the seeker info using a Toolkit.
Lookdown: Open the Toolkit, and then open a seeker (.SEE) file to edit. In the lower right corner, there is a setting for "Lookdown". If you want a radar that can look perfectly down at 45 to 90 degrees, the value would be '0'. As the values get higher, radars lose their effectiveness on tracking targets below them. I chose about '75' for older radars, and '50' for new ones. Targeting aircraft got lower (the E-3 Sentry got '20'). If you really want to downgrade radars, change the "FOV Pitch" on the TWS and RWS Parameters screens to a number lower than '90'. This will keep the radars from looking at anything from the new value to 90 degress below.

Doppler:On the right side of the box, find the "Doppler Parameters" field. "Speed Above" indicates how fast an above horizon target must be going in order to be locked/tracked by the radar. "Speed Below" does the same for below horizon targets. If the target is beyond the distance specified by "Min Range", the "Speed Above" and "Below" settings will take effect.

Tip #3: Weapons Quantity

This tip requires a Hex Editor Up until recently, CAM file weapons quanities were shadowy things that caused problems for the gamer who only wanted 50 Mavericks, not 70. A few days ago, I spent some time figuring out the position and value for weapons quantities in CAM files.
First of all, the bit required for editing is exactly "15" behind the first letter of the weapon name. After going back 15 spaces in the HEX editor, type one of these values:
0500 ------ 5
FFFF ------ unlimited
0A00 ------ 10
1900 ------ 25
4600 ------ 70
0F00 ------ 15
FA00 ------ 250
6400 ------ 100
1400 ------ 20
3200 ------ 50
4B00 ------ 75

You can use these to designate numbers of weapons, jamming pods, chaff/flare pods, seekers, or fuel tanks.
Two notes: 1)I've been told by a few people to just count in HEX to get the numbers. However, I will keep this posted for those of us (like me) that cannot do this.
2)I heard a couple of things (thanks for the emails!) to the effect that the same formula works when editing aircraft quantity. I tried it, and it worked! So go ahead and give yourself 12 F-22s for that 1975 campaign!

Tip #4: Waypoint Altitude
I was cruising around the Internet the other day and I saw the new tip at Wrench's Toolbox. You can now edit the altitude of the waypoints in a Pro Mission!
First, make a mission where you want to take advantage of this tip. Want a flight of Hinds flying at 150 feet instead of the normal 1000-foot limit? Make those Mi-24s, and call the waypoint something special so you can remember it. Then go into a text editor.
waypoint2 6
w_index 0
w_flags $1
w_goal 0
w_next 0
w_pos2 0 0 611242 1000 746057
w_speed 0
w_wng 0 0 0 0
w_react $0 $0 $0
w_searchDist 0
w_preferredTargetId2 $0
w_name 150 feet

Now, the altitude is set by changing the underlined number:
waypoint2 6
w_index 0
w_flags $1
w_goal 0
w_next 0
w_pos2 0 0 611242 1000 746057
w_speed 0
w_wng 0 0 0 0
w_react $0 $0 $0
w_searchDist 0
w_preferredTargetId2 $0
w_name 150 feet

Change that to 150, and you got those choppers coming into target undetectable by ground based radar.

Tip #5: Paint Shop Pro and Object Icons
Requires JASC's Paint Shop Pro I first saw this tip at Kai Ove's USNF/ATF Page. I tried it, it worked, and so I decided to put it on this page.
Okay, here's what the tip does: you can get a transparent background for your weapon icons with the FA Toolkit. You need the JASC Software program Paint Shop Pro.
First, go into the toolkit and make sure that Paint Shop Pro is selected as your paint program. Then open an object icon and open it up in PSP. Now, "Edit Pallete" and make sure that the colors are listed by "Palette Order". The bottom right color should have the RGB values 255 255 255. It seems that the ATF-FA considers color #255 to automatically be transparent, but not if the values are the same as another color on the pallete! So change the values of #255 to something not on the palette: like 255 200 220, or something like that. The background of the image changes to the new color, and now anytime you want to make a part of the image transparent, just paint it that new color.

I'll be adding more tips soon! Check my site for updates.

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