Gameplay-I'm probably the only dude in my country playing Tornado, but anyway...

[Frankie]

..I am in Campaign Mode, Warzone 1, Level 1 - Liberation, and I get shot down by an enemy Mig EVERY TIME.

I can hit the camouflage site with a cluster of BL-755s no problem. However I keep getting shot down by a pesky nemesis Mig's air-to-air missle on my tail every time. How do I evade this Mig? Fly super-low and super-fast? Turn and burn and let loose a missile of my own against him? Or just, like in chess, resign?

Advice needed.

[General Sandman]

My first thought was, that probably you would rather be the only dude in many countries who doesnt find any fellows to share the spirit. Since the internet and DoW work worldwide I hope you will get an advice to carry on with your passion in a suitable manner.   

On the other hand I am wondering, if the issue could be one of those continuums of imbalance coming up at a certain point, when a program isnt supported anymore. 
Maybe time for more modding, if even possible. 

But one thing is for sure: I cannot contribute anything here. 

[Frankie]

Hi General Sandman
Thank you for your reply. Contrary to what you typed, you DID contribute. You kept my faith in (gaming) humanity ....erm community...alive.

>  if the issue could be one of those continuums of imbalance coming up at a certain point, when a program isnt supported anymore.
>
In all honesty, even if I were to play this campaign 27 years ago, I'd probably still ask the same question. I could say that the imbalance in the space-time continuum had something to do with it, but perhaps closer to the truth would be that I sux at evading the enemy Mig aircraft. Sneaky rascals!

Thank you for your kind thoughts and advice.  Much appreciated.
Cheers
Frankie Kam

[Frankie]

I solved it. Another one bites the dust.

Camouflage site burned and smoking, Tornado egressing.
The three windows gallery view is part of modded Tornado.

I modified the fight path using Tornado's famous Advanced Mission Planner. After bombing Target X, I swung over the left, and flew over hilly terrain. Away from the enemy CAP, AWACS and Migs. Simple solution. What about the original flight path of the Campaign mission? Forget it. Whoever designed the flight path that took my Tornado over enemy CAP, should be court martialled.

Original flight path in black, modified flight path in white - note Tornado egressing to the left and over hilly terrain.
Robin Heydon's Advanced Mission Planner is still a beauty after all these 27 years!

Here's what I did to successfully complete the mission objective and to arrive back to base in one piece. It was just two things:
(1) Arrive over the target area at 650knots
(2) Egress by swinging left, instead of right, and fly behind, between and around hilly terrain to mask my Tornado from the enemy.

I answered my own question. Thank you, Frankie.

Hey Frankie, you're welcome.

Probably the only guy playing Tornado in his country,
Frankie Kam

P.S., of course when one is able to mod one's own favorite combat flight simulator, the world's your oyster.

[Agathosdaimon]

i play tornado still and just even convinced someone today to buy a boxed copy of it - i was just looking for your cool website but it looks to have expired - will it come back? i loved it

[Frankie]

Hi Agathisdaimon (speed demon, printer daemon)

You mean https://moodurian.com/ and https://moodurian.com/tornado ?

I've just put them both back online. Enjoy.

Regards
Frankie Kam

[Agathosdaimon]

wonderful Frankie - your dedication to keeping the tornado flame alive needs some kind of greater recognition and reward!

[Frankie]

Thanks Agathosdaimon!

The big dream is to code a shadow below Digital Integration's Tonka. Til now I have yet to figure this out. In the meantime, I just stare at the screen and poke around the source code.....and sometimes...just sometimes....rarer now....an idea for a mod springs to my mind.

On September 01, 2019, I decided to call it quits. Mod#150. I am glad that the cogs in my mind still continued to whirl and I managed to crank about twenty more improvements to the code. It's a labour of love I guess. If what I do brings you joy and helps you relive the combat flight simulator glory days of the early 1990s, and if it gives you just an ounce an appreciation of this masterpiece of a DOS flight simulator by Digital Integration, and for Kevin Bezant's brilliant coding, then I would have done my job.

Cheers
Frankie Kam

[Agathosdaimon]

thank you , i think you have done more than enough - probably the only thing i would wish would for the aircraft in game to show the weapons on their pylons - but such a thing is i assume not actually possible to do

[Frankie]

Weapons on pylons and which are removed when the missile is launched - Eagle Dynamic's Su-27 Flanker 1.0 and 2.0 (year 1995) had that special realism effect. Flat-shaded polygons that rendered faster than bitmapped graphics (e.g., EA's Fighter Anthology).

The problem with Tornado is running out of variable space due to the 640Kb memory limitation. So adding physical weapons to the Tornado's 3D mdel is impossible.

[Tom N]

wonderful Frankie - your dedication to keeping the tornado flame alive needs some kind of greater recognition and reward!

OH, YES!!!

[Tom N]

And Frankie, don't accept the given flight plan, that mission planning map just spread out some waypoints, simply saying "Have some of these to drag around (split and/or formate)."