MAPS OF THE FALCON WORLD Version Two Don Tatarelli The Maps of the Falcon World are shareware. You are welcome to download them, pass them among your friends and fellow Falcon 3 pilots and try them out. If you find them useful, and continue using them, you should register. More information on registration is provided at the end of this file along with a registration form. REGISTERED USERS WILL RECEIVE OVER 150 INTELLIGENCE PHOTOS. What's NEW IN VERSION TWO? 1. Version two contains five more maps than version one. 2. Terrain has been removed from most maps for clearer printing. 3. Coordinates on main theater maps which are helpful when using Falccalc. 4. This documentation has been improved to include info on printing and using maps. 5. Intelligence photos. 197 photos are available to registered users. 21 photos of Nellis are provided with Version two, others will be sent upon receipt of your registration. See section on Intelligence photos. WHAT'S IN THE ZIP FILE? 1. Twenty-eight black and white maps in PCX format. 2. Six color maps in PCX format. 3. This readme file. 4. Twenty-one Intelligence photos of targets in the Nellis area in GIF format. WHAT ARE THE MAPS AND WHAT ARE THEY USED FOR? Have you ever lost track of where you were in the Falcon world while you were flying? Have you ever lost track of your own waypoints? You know you are flying to a waypoint but don't remember were Waypoint number two is taking you. Have you lost track of enemy flights? Have you planned other flights such as escort and sead, only to lose track of them as soon as you took off. Have you ever tried to use the maps provided in Falcon3 and Operation Fighting Tiger to plan missions? Did you ever need to find a bingo field? Did you ever want to find other targets of opportunity? If these things have happened to you, you're not alone. Most of us have wished that SH would have provided maps that were useful. Maps of the Falcon World fills this void. These maps are taken right from the Falcon screen. On them, you can plan missions, plot flight paths, note radar ranges, make notes while in flight of enemy activity, etc. You can note your waypoints and those of other flights you've planned. You can maintain your orientation in relation to everything around you. The maps are in PCX format. There is one color map of each theater which shows the entire theater. There is one black and white map of each theater which shows the entire theater. The remaining are maps of zoomed target areas in each theater. MAPS FORMAT. The maps are in PCX format, 320x200x256. They were made, for the most part, with PC Paintbrush. In all the maps, shaded icons are allied positions, white icons are enemy positions. Naturally, as your campaign develops, positions will change as they are overtaken by allied or enemy forces. An icon on the map that shows allied occupation may change quickly as the campaign starts to enemy occupation. The reverse, hopefully, is also true. The maps in Version Two show very little terrain if any. I found, that as I used the maps in Version One, the terrain printed out so darkly that you couldn't plan missions and draw flight paths, etc. It seemed better to remove the terrain altogether. This provides a much better mission planning aid. If you view the maps with a PCX viewing utility, you may find that the shading is very slight. It might be difficult to see the difference between land and water. This is because the maps were made primarily to be printed, not viewed. Although the shading may be very slight when viewed, when printed, it will be enough to differentiate land from water, but still be light enough to see your flight paths and notes. The grid squares on the main maps are 40 miles horizontally and vertically and 60 miles diagonally. On the zoomed maps, this ration may be off somewhat, but generally, it's close. On each main black and white theater map, there are coordinates. These coordinate numbers correspond to the Strat 2 setting when you view the maps in Falcon3. These are also the coordinates used by Bill White in his fantastic Falcon utility called Falccalc. Version 2.51 is an excellent tool. It can provide you with extensive information on enemy flights, ground movements and lots more. More on this later. The zoomed maps don't contain coordinates but you can easily transfer the information from the main map to the zoomed maps. HOW DO I VIEW AND PRINT THE MAPS? All of the maps can be viewed using any graphics utility that handles the PCX format. They can also be viewed with most word processors, spreadsheet programs and with Windows Paintbrush. However, except for the color maps, the black and white maps are really for printing. See the explanation on shading above. Of all the comments heard about Version One of the maps, the most frequent was "They are so small, how do I print them larger?" This was an excellent question that I should have addressed better in the documentation with Version One. So, I'll try to help a little more here. As far as why they are so small, there are two reasons. One, the smaller size takes up less disk space. Second, that's how they turned out! I'm no graphics guru folks! The instructions for printing the maps vary depending on what you are using. I can't cover all the bases here, but I'll try to cover some of the programs I am aware of below. However, there are a few things to be aware of. The maps don't have to stay small. Nearly any utility that allows you to view graphics also allows you to resize them either initially or when printing them. Also, what graphics format you operate in may change how the maps look on your screen. When I view the maps with Paintbrush in windows, the colors are all different. If I then save them from Paintbrush, they get very, very weird. So if you are using a utility to print them, and the printout looks ok, but the colors on screen are strange, don't overwrite your original file. You could destroy it. PC Paintbrush: This is what I used to print the maps for myself. I used margin settings of .5 inches, horizontal setting of 7.5 inches and vertical settings of 10.5 inches. This provided a full page print out for most of the maps. Paintbrush for Windows: Import a map file into the utility provided with Windows and you'll find it looks very small. To print it, select the print option and changed the scale setting in the lower right of the print dialog box. You'll have to experiment for yourself, but you should find that somewhere between 200 and 350 percent gives you results you can use. Paint Shop Pro: This excellent shareware utility for windows gives you lots of resize options that will work on the maps. Again, you should experiment but a good start would be to select Resize from the Image menu. Check on 800x600x256. This should give you a very good printout. Word Processors: Don't forget your own word processor. Most can import PCX files or have a conversion utility. Most also allow you to resize the image and preview the printout before printing. Other Programs: Don't forget spreadsheet programs, and other programs such as Harvard Graphics. Most handle PCX images very well. HOW TO USE THE MAPS? The uses for the maps are as varied as the number of people using them. But, here are some ideas. I recommend you either make multiple copies of the maps. Printing out one every time you want to draw a flight path is laborious at best. The best alternative is to laminate them or use plastic protector sheets. You can then use Flare markers, grease pencils or dry erase markers to mark up the maps and erase them easily. So, assume you are flying a mission in a campaign. Go to the screen in Falcon3 and note where your base and the target are. Note the range circles of the enemy radar and draw them on the map. You can then plan your ingress and egress to the target and draw your flight path on the map. Note the individual waypoints on the map as well. This will help you stay orientated when the stuff hits the fan. Plan additional flights for escort, sead, cap, etc. Note their flight paths. It is also helpful to write their mission at each waypoint. Sometimes it becomes difficult to remember whether Shadow flight was supposed to take out the radar dish or escort you. Mark friendly airfields on the map in case you need a Bingo field. Remember, the map shows the icon ownership at the beginning of the campaign. If an airfield is taken over by the enemy during the campaign, the map will still show it as it was at the start. That bingo field you see on the map may now be filled up with enemy sams and aircraft! As you fly to your target and you see blips on your radar, note their relative position, heading and altitude on the map. This way, you will always know where that flight was, and probably where it is going. You can also plan intercept paths and plan strategy. This is usually better than pointing your nose at the bad guys and flying straight at them. You can also note friendly aircraft you see along the way. This helps you from having to constantly interrogate blips with iff, as you are searching for threats. It also helps when your wingperson won't shut up with those radar contact warnings. USING MAPS OF THE FALCON WORLD WITH FALCCALC, THE MISSION PLANNING ASSISTANT Falccalc has become much more than a simple fuel calculator. Bill White has taken version 2.51 to a full mission planning, intelligence gathering, keep your butt alive utility. Here is a brief review of some of the features: See summary and detailed information on fuel use See summary and detailed information on waypoint timing Change speeds to effect waypoint timing. Select pilots from a squadron roster for a printed Knee Board Sheet Warns you about low supplies See tactical information about allied and enemy flights for the mission See strategic information about allied and enemy ground positions See the strength of enemy ground concentrations See which bases are critical to the campaign Use as a shell to run Falcon3, Falconer, F3 Maps and a user defined program Backup and Restore critical Falcon3 files View data on formations, standoff ranges, twi codes, etc. You can find Falccalc on Compuserve, America Online and on several bulletin boards. Most notably The Cockpit at (410) 780-9425. So, now that you've heard me speak so highly of this utility, how can it be used with the maps? Below is part of a Tactical report and part of a Strategic report provided by Falccalc for a mission in a campaign in India that I've been flying. Tactical ZNR CCCCC I 31 1751Z MAR 93 FM FALCCALC OPS DIV//GEN LYONS// TO TRICKSTERS SQU CMDR//COL TATARELLI, DON// TOP SECRET UNAUTHORIZED DISCLOSURE MAY COMPROMISE THEATER OPERATIVES INTELLIGENCE DISPATCH FOR TRICKSTERS//DAY 2 TIME 1800 SECT. I: KNOWN AIR ASSETS IN AREA Flight Data for Enemy Flight. Classified as Flight 1A. At Mission Time 0 min. 0 secs.: Flight 1A will be at map coordinates 28 (N), 18 (E). This is 97 miles from F-16 Flight 1, Wypt. 0 (Home Base), at a bearing of 65. (It is also 14 miles from F-16 Flight 1, Wypt. 1, at a bearing of 69.) Its altitude will be 12000, its speed 450, and its assigned action INTERCEPT. At Mission Time 6 min. 40 secs.: Flight 1A will be at map coordinates 11 (N), F7 (E). This is 49 miles from F-16 Flight 1, Wypt. 0 (Home Base), at a bearing of 75. (It is also 17 miles from F-16 Flight 1, Wypt. 2, at a bearing of 247.) Its altitude will be 12000, its speed 450, and its assigned action INTERCEPT. At Mission Time 13 min. 20 secs.: Flight 1A will be at map coordinates 28 (N), 18 (E). This is 97 miles from F-16 Flight 1, Wypt. 0 (Home Base), at a bearing of 65. (It is also 14 miles from F-16 Flight 1, Wypt. 1, at a bearing of 69.) Its altitude will be 12000, its speed 450, and its assigned action INTERCEPT. Flight 1A Components: Number of Aircraft: 2 Aircraft: 1A-1 Type: MiG-29 This aircraft is armed with 2 radar missiles. Aircraft: 1A-2 Type: MiG-29 This aircraft is armed with 2 radar missiles. Note that Falccalc also gives you information about ground forces, where they are in relation to the closest icon, what direction they are traveling and what their heading is. Ever had a problem finding those little brown spots...not anymore! Strategic ZNR CCCCC I 31 1750Z MAR 93 FM FALCCALC OPS DIV//GEN LYONS// TO TRICKSTERS SQU CMDR//COL TATARELLI, DON// REF THEATER STATUS: DAY 2 TIME 1800 SECRET Site: 0 Site Name: LAHORE Occupation: Ally Type: Military Airbase Capacity: 60 Units: 29 Growth Rate: 3 Unit Types: Sams: 4 AAA: 2 Tanks: 6 Mech: 5 Inf: 3 Art: 2 Transports: 4 Site Location: (E) 07 (N) 0A Adjacent Sites: Total: 3 Dependent #1: 29 Name: KASUR Dependent #2: 32 Name: AMRITSAR Dependent #3: 18 Name: SHEIKHUPURA Isn't it cheating to use this information? I don't think so. From what I've seen and read, AWACs would give you most of the aircraft information as you fly. In addition, most missions involving ground assaults start by telling you that some unit has spotted the enemy or is pinned down by the enemy. It is likely that, in the real world, they would pass on information about exact locations, enemy composition and concentration, etc. Falccalc also gives you information and locations on bingo fields, enemy forces, and even gives you transporter coordinates. So how do you use this stuff. You'll notice coordinates and locations are given in the following format: (E) 07, (N) 0A. Take a look at the main map of India. Go North along the left border until you find 0. Go East along the top border until you find 0. Join these two lines and you end in about the middle of the map. The area defined by these two coordinates is the lower left-hand box in that quadrant. (It just about covers the friendly airfield). Imagine that same grid inside the small box you just defined with the two zeros. By finding the 7 and A coordinates within the small box, you can really narrow down the location. Using this information, you can plot enemy flight paths, allied flight paths (didn't you always wonder where those F15s were going and why they weren't there when you needed them. You can also note their waypoint commands. You can also plot where the enemy ground formations are, and make note of the transporter information so you can use this feature to get a look at them. You can also plot the location of the nearest bingo fields. In the tactical reports, Falccalc gives you this information. I think you can see that using The Maps of the Falcon World and Falccalc can make you a very dangerous person! INTELLIGENCE PHOTOS After you unzipped the Maps file, you probably noted another zip file. This is Nellis.zip. This file contains twenty-one "intelligence photos" of hard enemy targets in the Nellis area. You can view these with any utility that can handle GIF file formats. There are many of these utilities available on the various bulletin boards. If you also see a file in the map file called Vugif190.zip, it means that I found room to include this shareware GIF viewer. What do registered users get? As soon as I receive your registration, I will rush you a disk containing all 197 Intelligence photos and a GIF viewer. (Here's an idea . . . use the "shell to a user definable program feature" in Falccalc to shell to a GIF viewer in your Intelligence Photo directory. This gives you instant access to photos of the targets and areas mentioned in the Intelligence reports). Here are how the photos break down by Theater: Nellis: 21 photos Korea: 24 photos Japan: 28 photos Kuwait: 51 photos Panama: 9 photos India: 40 photos Israel: 24 photos Total Photos: 197 GETTING A HOLD OF ME I can be reached on Prodigy at JRPT26A and on America Online at Dont707282. My name and address are also on the registration form. REGISTRATION The Registration cost for Maps of the Falcon World is $10.00. Along with this fee, you'll receive the Intelligence Photos mentioned, free upgrades on disk, and continued info about any other goodies I might put together. You also get my thanks. REGISTRATION FORM To register, tear off this page and send along with $10.00 to: Don Tatarelli 6020 W. Paradise Lane Glendale, Arizona 85306 Enter your name below and I'll immediately send you the Intelligence Photos and keep you in a database for future upgrades and new stuff. Intelligence Photos will be sent on 3.5" disks unless you specify otherwise. Thanks for registering _______________________________________ Your Name _______________________________________ Street Address _______________________________________ City, State, Zip