RUSSIAN AIR FORCE STAFF COLLEGE

Rules and Such

These aren't rules so much as instructions so you know what's going on here.  

We like to challenge people by assigning interesting missions for them to fly to see how well they have mastered the Flanker military flight simulator.  The mission assignments are as varied as the capabilities of the aircrafts.  It is amazing how much variety is possible with this sim.

Competition in the assignments is optional.  If you wish to simply download the missions and fly them you can.  All of the General Mission Assignments we still have  available are on the GMA Mission Downloads page.  

If you do compete we ask that you send in the .sst (Debriefing) file by the Closing Date listed on the Current Assignment page.  You need to include your nickname in the file name.  It should look something like this;  GMA33superhotpilot.sst  

I'm not a real stickler about times but I usually update the Previous Assignment Scores and Overall Scores pages for that assignment by the following weekend.

Scoring is noted in the Briefing and is generally different for each mission.  One thing that stays the same is that the winner of each mission will usually receive 2000 points and the other competitors will receive points based on their score in relation to the winner's score.  For instance, if the winner scored 5000 points for a mission he would receive 2000 points for the mission and if the second place player scored 4000 points he would receive 1600 points.  Another rule that I have is the tie breaking rule.  What this does is reward the player with the earliest last kill in the mission.  Say two players have a tie score and one of them makes the last kill 20 seconds before the other player, he will receive an additional 20 points to break the tie.  There is a cap of 100 points for this scoring however.  This should still keep the scores fairly close while also rewarding the winner for a slightly better performance.  I usually count all kills whether you make the shot or if the target explodes later.  If I don't allow that kind of scoring it will be noted in the briefing.

Another thing we try to do is to help the people just starting off with this sim by posting the tracks of successful missions for people to download and review.  There is a lot to learn if you are just starting,  and sometimes you just have to see it done to understand it.  That brings us to the somewhat arcane art of track creation.  A lot of consternation has been produced by track (.trk) files.  They don't often play the same on somebody else's computer.  (Especially if another Operating System is on the other computer.)  Sometimes they won't play the same way on your computer, but when they work right, they are an excellent teaching tool.   In spite of this problem we are still committed to posting tracks for people to review.  

If you wish to send in a track for possible posting we ask that you include in the file name the type of OS that the track was recorded with.  The file naming convention will look something like this;  GMA33superhotpilotWin98.trk   You should also place the track in a zip file which will compress the .trk file considerably.  I will post the best mission I receive for each OS on the Previous Assignment page.  After that it will be included in the zip file for the GMA Mission Downloads archive.  If you are sending a .trk file include a .stt file.  They don't have to be made at the same time.  You can fly one mission for a good score and another for show, if you like.  It would be nice if the outcome of the two files is more or less the same.  I know how difficult it is to record a track and how it alters the outcome of the mission.  This is a compromise to allow the participants a chance at having a good score while allowing them to also make a track of the mission after they become proficient with it.

The missions are designed with certain desired outcomes.  That will be spelled out in the Briefing.  Pay particular attention to the comments on scoring.  That could dramatically affect your actions in the mission.  You still have the opportunity to experiment with the flight route etc. to try to improve the outcome of the mission.  Initiative and resourcefulness are good qualities, they are just difficult to score.  Nothing you try to do in the mission is forbidden unless it is specifically noted in the briefing.  For instance, unless the briefing says no refueling or rearming, you are free to refuel and rearm.

Control Events are there as a convenient way to show when the mission ends.  Sometimes they are there to show that you didn't crash or get killed before that time.  It is usually necessary /desirable to have the CE in the .sst file you submit.

In the unlikely event that there is a problem with anything, the ultimate decision belongs to the big guy in charge of the RAFSC: BigBri