A Boost For Multiplayer

Introduction
Every user of Falcon dreams of an internet experience where setting up servers and connecting players is easy, gameplay is stable and the positional updates of aircraft, missiles, and other objects in the 3D world appear as if the session was a Single Player game. Of course, the internet is a fickle beast and nothing will ever be perfect. But Falcon 4.0: Allied Force has taken a major step forward in improving the multiplayer experience for both the novice and experienced hand alike. At this point it is important to mark the achievements of the developers of the original Falcon 4.0. They really had a huge task on their hands. They had to keep a massive database of some 5,000 entries consistent across multiplayer connections, and bear in mind that the vast majority of players at the time of release of Falcon 4.0 were using dialup modems. Their work was nothing short of extraordinary.

The Problems

But the developers of Falcon 4.0: Allied Force faced some significant challenges to bring multiplayer up to the standard of a 2005 product. One of those was prompted by advances in technology itself: namely the rise in the use of routers, devices which allow several computers on a local network to share a single connection to the internet. It led to players having to put in command line switches in their shortcuts to tell Falcon which internet IP address it would work on, or what available bandwidth could be allocated. Then there was the more fundamental question of the process of connection. How could we make this as simple, and as stable, as possible for the player, particularly the new player, eliminating any confusion or complicated set up procedures? In Falcon 4.0: Allied Force these hurdles have been overcome. The redesigned multiplayer user interface (UI) is intuitive and simple to use. And substantial work on the core code allows as many types of connection as possible to connect up and fly, producing, we feel, the best multiplayer experience yet in Falcon.

The Solutions

The majority of time in MP coding has been spent attacking bugs and examining ways to increase performance, reliability and ease of use. That brings us to the first area of improvement, the User Interface. There are two types of multiplay: Local Area Network (LAN) sessions, where two or more computers are simply hooked up together with cables to play, or pure Internet sessions, where players from around the world can take part in the same mission in real time. Both these options are presented to the player in a screen when they hit the Multiplayer button. When choosing the LAN option, the player has the choice of either setting up a server to host a session (Dogfight, Tactical Engagement or Campaign) or joining a server to take part in a session. Selecting a game to join is easy: Falcon 4.0: Allied Force queries the local network and finds games for the player to select to join.
Multiplayer LAN selected.
Multiplayer Internet selected. When choosing the internet option, the player simply inputs the IP address of the player hosting the mission, then connects up.
New coding also caters for potential problems when connecting, for example if one player has the wrong theater selected a warning message appears.
If they enter the wrong IP for the game, or the internet connection itself fails, another warning message appears.
When connecting over the internet, the server and the client negotiate about details such as external IP address, even if the client is behind a Network Address Translation (NAT) router. Everything is then properly routed through to the games so that each game talks to the other games.
But of course work hasnt been confined to the UI and the connection procedures. Substantial improvements were made to the calculations in the code to ensure that most important messages get sent out to all players in order of priority, messages such as positional updates of missiles, the bleep of the RWR when being locked up by another player, a whole raft of important information.

Final Thoughts

No game will ever produce a 100% problem free multiplayer experience. But exhaustive tests have been carried out, both with real players and also newly developed autosim coding, where the equivalent of many days testing is done by speeding up the time in the User Interface or 3D world up to thirty two times, testing a succession of missions automatically. Lead Pursuit LLC is confident you will really enjoy the enhanced MP features.

Falcon 4.0: Allied Force

Ramp Start Procedure
Panel: LEFT AUXILIARY Set PARKING BRAKE on [Alt-P].
Panel: ELEC Set switch to MAIN PWR (2 clicks) [Ctrl-Alt-F2].
Panel: EXT LIGHTING Set MASTER to NORM [Ctrl-Alt-F9]. Set ANTI-COLLISION [Ctrl-Alt-F10] and WING/TAIL/FUSELAGE [Ctrl-Alt-F11] on, and set FLASH [Ctrl-Alt-F12].
Panel: FUEL Set MASTER to ON [Ctrl-Shift-F7] and ENG FEED to NORM [Ctrl-Shift-F6/F5] (inc/dec).
Panel: EPU Verify EPU switch is set to NORMAL. Adjust if necessary [Alt-E].
Verify FUEL QTY SEL is set to NORM. Adjust if necessary [Shift-Ctrl-F2/F1] (inc/dec).
Panel: AIR COND Set AIR SOURCE to NORM [Shift-Ctrl-F4/F3] (inc/dec).

Set throttle to idle.

Panel: ENG & JET START Set JFS to START2 [Shift-J].
Watch RPM. When it reaches 20%, move throttle to 50%.
Throttle idle detent [Alt-I]. Return throttle to idle. RPM should increase to 70%.
Panel: ENG & JET START Verify JFS has switched OFF.
Panel: Right Brow Verify HYD OIL warning light has switched off.
Panel: AVIONICS POWER Turn on FCC [Shift-Alt-F6], SMS [Shift-Alt-F7], UFC [Shift-Alt-F9], MFD [Shift-Alt-F8], GPS [Shift-Alt-F10], and DL [Shift-Alt-F11].
Panel: AVIONICS POWER Set INS to ALIGN NORM [Ctrl-Alt-F8/F7] (inc/dec). Takes about 8 minutes to warm up.
Panel: SENSR PWR Turn on LEFT HDPT [Shift-Alt-F3], RIGHT HDPT [Shift-Alt-F4], FCR [Shift-Alt-F5]and set RDR ALT to STDBY [Ctrl-A].
Panel: HUD Set ATT/FPM to FPM [Shift-Ctrl-Alt-P].
Turn on HUD using SYM and adjust brightness [Shift-Ctrl-Alt-X/Z] (inc/dec).
Panel: DED Check INS status in DED. INS aligned when line 1 reaches 10.0 and will flash RDY.
Verify no flags in ADI, VVI, and AOA displays.
Panel: MANUAL TRIM Verify TRIM is reset [Shift-].
Panel: AUDIO1 Adjust volume for COMM1 [Ctrl-Alt-]/[ ] (up/dn), COMM2 [Shift-Ctrl-Alt-]/[ ] (up/dn), MSL [Shift-Ctrl-]/[ ] (up/dn) and THREAT [Shift-Alt-]/[ ] (up/dn) as needed.
Turn on THREAT WARN AUX [Shift-F1]*, EWS RWR [Ctrl-Alt-F6], EWS JMR [Ctrl-Alt-F5], EWS CHAFF [Ctrl-Alt-F3], EWS FLARES[Ctrl-Alt-F4]. Set EWS MODE to MAN [Shift-X] (inc) or [Shift-Z] (dec). (* had to map this key to RWR-Power)
Arm the ejection seat [Shift-Ctrl-E].
Panel: AVIONICS POWER After INS is aligned, switch to NAV [Ctrl-Alt-F8]. Can use [Caps Lock] to speed things up.
Panel: SENSR PWR Turn on RDR ALT [Shift-A].
Panel: LEFT AUXILIARY Turn LANDING LIGHTS [Ctrl-Alt-L] on and Turn PARKING BRAKE [Alt-P] off.

Enable NWS [Shift-/].