I am thinking about buying Falcon 4.0 should I?

[Chalenge]

Open Falcon was intended to be a 'private' version of Falcon 4.0 but someone leaked it and it got popular. There isnt any real support for it and as unstable as F4 was its worse with OF installed. Until F4AF came along it (OF) was the best going because of modifications throughout the game. F4AF pumped up the AI the weapons and made things very very stable.

One thing you need to watch is how many addons you put the game through because every addon (with the possible exception of HiTilesAF) adds more instability and thats why LP is slow to add people to their approved addons list.

There is no money in the game. You join as a Cadet and move up through the ranks as you succeed in missions but I wouldnt worry about the campaign until you have covered a lot more territory in the manual. Start from the beginning and go through all the training many many many times until you can do it blindfolded with 100% realism (no icons) and you will be fine. I love this game and you have to screw up every way possible to understand certain inside jokes about tower jerks and... well you should learn that on your own I guess. 

[Buzzard7]

Open Falcon tries to be even more realistic using the old Falcon code. It is much harder to learn than AF and the multiplay suffers from the old problems. I can fly Tactical engagements designed by some of the 16th guys with huge amounts of goings on and not get booted. We have some missions that last 3 hours or better.
What a ton of fun. If you modify a couple files you can fly any plane in the sim. You can have guys on both sides of the engagemants if you choose. Check out the site I posted and ask you question on the BBS Demon.
Most of those guys would be happy to help you out.

[indy007]

your talking about $500 in real life? or in the game. whats the difference between the openfalcon and F4AF? i have rudder peddels and a siatex x52 and maybe in the future will get trackir. So im thinking i have a pretty good setup right?

$500 in real life. Your setup is fine. It's the ability to expand on that setup which makes the game pretty damn spiffy. For the $500, you can add another video card and 2 car headrest sized LCD screens to function as your F-16s MFDs, along with a "Phidgetts" usb input card that would let you wire up all the buttons for those displays.

I don't often say that gaming toys make a difference... it never really does... except for this game. It's still not even necessary, at all... but it's quite the addiction.

www.viperpits.org has some cool stuff on it.

[Cobra516]

I hate to think of how many hours I've spent blasting through the virtual sky in that F-16, at least a thousand hrs, not something to brag about   

If you're looking to fly Falcon 4.0 - I'd highly reccomend flying the Open Falcon v4.5 -it's much more involved regarding the avionics/weapons systems/radios - steep learning curve, but more fun once you get it.  It works very nicely online as well once you get it configured properly.  The flight model of Open Falcon is a bit more realistic as well from what I remember, most notably the pitch rate at various angles of attack/speeds is vastly improved over the original Falcon 4.0 and AF - where it felt like a damn C-130 in terms of snapping the nose around.

Check out some videos of it here,
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Open+Falcon+&search_type=&aq=f

Here's the forum to download it from,
http://www.f4forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9840

Open Falcon certainly looks better than AF, and it makes AF feel somewhat arcadey once you've flown them both.

You can always do a dual install of AF and OF or RedViper if you want, easy to do and that way you can pick which one you want to fly.  AF is more stable than OF, but Open Falcon isn't nearly as bad as it used to be in the "olden" days.  I started flying it in Dec. of '98 and the multiplayer / the game itself was full of bugs, I'm amazed at how far it's progressed since then, it's quite a sim.

[Gaidin]

Do you already have to have the payware Falcon 4.0 before you can use open falcon?

[DmonSlyr]

yeah thats what i was about to ask. can i just go the store and buy it and then download open falcon or what do i have to buy do inorder to get open falcon to run?

[Chalenge]

You are going to need this.

http://www.amazon.com/Falcon-4-0-Pc/dp/B00000K4KF/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1224697152&sr=8-13

[DmonSlyr]

so get that then download open falcon and i should be good to go?

[Chalenge]

I have long since forgotten if thats it or not. I have several downloads archived such as F4108us and F4SP4 and FFCockpitAddon... Im not even sure you can get all these anymore which is why I point everyone at F4AF (and its a lot easier to get along with).

[brad13]

I just bought falcon 4.0 allied force a month ago, I like it but I don't like the fact that the F-16 is the only plane available to fly. Anyone know any ways to unlock or download other flyable aircraft?

[indy007]

It's been awhile, but I think I found something on Frugals (could have been viperpits or F4HQ) that you could fly different flight models, but you're still stuck in the F-16 cockpit. Which, imho, kind of defeats the purpose.

[Chalenge]

It was brought up briefly on F4HQ but squelched because the moderator wanted to keep the F4AF guys at LP happy and F4HQ isnt around anymore now. You can still find videos of dogfights on youtube between Mig29s and F16s where the Mig has the F16 cockpit.

I think OFv4.5 will install on top of a fresh install of F4 without any other patches. I have theaters for:
Bosnia
Israel
Desert Storm
Europe
Vietnam
If anyone knows of another theater I would like to know where to get it.

[brad13]

Ok thanks guys.. I figured that but just wanted to check! Also any patches out there for Allied forces?

[Chalenge]

Check out page 2 of this topic.

[Buzzard7]

Brad go into all your campaign folders and change the name on the validac.bin files. My files are named xvalidAC.bin. That will allow you to fly any fixed wing aircraft except the Strike Eagle. That requires a change to the cockpits files. My squadron knows how to do that. You will be stuck with the F-16 cockpit on them all and your internal views will be goofy. Externally you will see the plane you choose. The flight model will be from the chosen aircraft also.

I have Open Falcon installed with my AF installation. Works well offline so far. There is also RedViper somewhere on the net and some of the 16th guys like it.