Hello all. I am a rookie to the military flight sims but I really enjoy this game. Great graphics and realism make for a great combination. The only downside of this game as with all simulator games is the heavy consumption on computer rescources but that is to be expected. My computer is a laptop P4 3000 Windows XP sp2 system with 1GB ram and 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon graphics card.

I have noticed that the game crashes sometimes with complicated missions (when lots of air, ground and naval units are chosen) and when switching views primarly to and from map view. The game either crashes to the desktop during the execution of a mission or just hangs when planning a mission in mission editor. I don't know if this an error in the code or a lack of computer rescources. I have read other similar complaints in this forum(and some say that the patch does not resolve this issue)! I have not installed the patch yet but i soon will!

Also, i think the six RWR indicator lights on the russian planes are misconfigured in accordance to the manual. The correct format should be from left to right as follows: (1)airborne radar (2)short range sam (3)medium range sam (4)long range sam (5)early warning radar (6)awacs. When i tested the RWR only airborne radar was lighting up correctly. EWR was lighting up as short range sam, short range was lighting up as medium range, medium as long range and longe range as ewr!

Lastly, I cannot shut down the engines after parking the aircraft. I try the default declared keys but with no positive response.

I read about flaming cliffs in some posts. Can someone describe what this is and if i should install this instead of the patch provided by ubisoft?

Many thanks and i hope my comments/questions were usefull!

I am having the same problem with the map view keys and such... and the patch doesnt help that. but install it because it will fix a few other issues. flaming cliffs is just an expansion pack that adds one additional flyable aircraft, another russian SU aircraft, and it adds some more realistic effects. for ex, there are now seasonal changes depending which month you fly in, like snow on the ground for Jan-Feb. there are also some new ground targets and buildings that can be added, like lightly armored check points along roads for instance, along with some new anti-aircraft vehicles. Flaming Cliffs is definately worth getting and installing... i hope all this helps ya out a little. later.

If you have the basic Lockon then you have version v1.00 (or a slim chance maybe v1.01 - the last production run of CD's had the 1st patch included).
I would advise you patch up to v1.02 as this will fix quite a few things, and while it might not necessarily completely stop lockups when you overuse F10 or use the Editor for long periods, in my experience it lessens the occurences somewhat.
NOTE that for US aircraft (F-15 and A-10), the patch v1.02 changes weapon release to make them more like real life. So dont be surprised when you think it is a bug because you can now only fire the guns....

As SoulKeeper said, Flaming Cliffs is a payware add-on that adds another flyable aircraft Su-25T and the other things he mentioned. Most folks online seem to use FC patched to the latest v1.12 level. There are still a few v1.02 folks online at UBI, but the majority (the FC 1.12 folks) are all on Hyperlobby.

http://users.skynet.be/bs999158/LomacDownload.htm

This link has some cool maps (and airbase diagrams) you can print out.

It is a known bug that overuse of F10 can crash Lockon for some folks. Best advice - stop using F10, after all, it is not realistic to see a map with all the bad guys marked on it. What some folks do is print out a copy of the maps (link above), laminate them and then before flying a mission, they read the mission briefing and map then use a marker pen to show known enemy/friend positions. Makes it more realistic.....

If there is an AWACS in your mission, then you can use your radio commands to ask the AWACS the BRAA of the nearest bandit.