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* The autopilot now realizes when it has gone winchester.

* The artificial intelligence has been improved to allow for autopilot bombing and landing (however, if you are damaged, there are no guarantees). Enemy pilot logic has also been improved-- enemy aircraft are now more aggressive at higher logic levels.

* Enemy aircraft can no longer detect a Sidewinder lock-on.

* Pilots involved in a campaign can no longer recover fatigue by flying in Red Flag missions.

* Wingmen now receive their assigned weapons load when the
Limited Weapons option is set to "OFF."

* One of the new features we added to Falcon 3.0 is called the "life after death" view. Life after death allows you to view the action in a Red Flag or campaign mission even if the plane you're flying has been destroyed. If your plane crashes into the ground or you are wiped out by a missile, the mission will not immediately end. A dialog box will appear informing you of your death and giving you the opportunity to watch the rest of the mission from your wingmen's point of view (if you have any on the mission).

* You can now see the action from any of your wingmen on the flight by pressing the "7" key to change your view from wingman to wingman. If you want to watch a different target from the wingman's view, press the "T" key. If all of your wingmen are destroyed, the mission will end. Otherwise, the only way to end the mission is to select End Mission from the FILE menu.

Flight models

* The roll rates on the Simplified and Moderate flight models are significantly slower than on the Complex and High Fidelity flight models. This allows a beginning user more control while learning how to fly.

* In all flight models, airspeed will increase during dives.

Radar and ECM

* If the radar lock on an enemy aircraft becomes unstable, the sides of the target designator box will change to broken lines.
If this happens, don't fire a missile until you get a stable radar lock on the target.

* ECM pod, chaff and flares have greater effectiveness.

* Enemies will use ECM to break a radar lock.

* Enemy aircraft that are randomly given ECM pods will use them according to their skill level.

* Computer-controlled aircraft (both friendly and enemy) will use
ECM pods with more intelligence.

* ECM now works against all aircraft and radar-guided missiles, not just ground units and SAMs.

* Computer-controlled planes now jettison stores based on skill level. Also, heavy bombers will not jettison stores under any circumstance.

Missions

* Aborting missions will no longer consume supplies or add to the mission count.

* Unused stores at the end of a mission are now restored to your inventory.

* External fuel tanks added by the user are now loaded correctly.

Joysticks, keyboards, mice, etc.

* Users of joysticks with a throttle, such as the CH FlightStick or the Kraft Thunderstick, have the option of turning off the joystick's throttle and using the "+" and "-" keys on the keyboard instead. During joystick calibration, you will be given the option of using the throttle wheel or not. Just press "N" for
"No."  If you change your mind, simply recalibrate your joystick.

If you use the throttle wheel for throttle control, you must first advance the throttle several clicks and then press the "+" key on the keyboard to start the engine. You will then be able to control the engine RPM with the joystick throttle wheel.

* The problem with the keyboard not responding on certain systems has been fixed.

Sound and music

* Digitized radio messages on the Thunderboard and Sound Blaster now work more reliably on fast machines such as 33MHz 486s and with a bus speed faster than 8MHz.

* Sound glitches, including the missing IFF squawk, have been corrected.

* Systems with only 1MB of total RAM and no sound card need to set Sound and Music to PC Speaker in the Configuration screen.
This will allow you to hear guns, lock-on tones, enemy lock and launch warnings, stall warnings and a caution tone. Digitized voices are not supported on machines without expanded memory
(EMS).

* If you have a sound card and the Music option is turned on (from the Configuration screen), the type of music you hear will indicate how well you are doing in the war.

Padlock View

* Incoming missiles can be tracked in Padlock, Track and Wingman
Views. Whenever you first switch to Padlock or Track View, the closest missile targeted at your aircraft, if there is one, will be tracked. You can switch the view to padlock or track nearby aircraft by pressing "T". Pressing "T", however, will not switch the view to padlock or track a missile. To re-establish missile tracking, you must again press the view key ("8" or "9") for the view you are using. You can also track any missiles targeted at your wingmen in the same way using the Wingman View.

The following names will appear in the Padlock Status Window when you have padlocked a missile (regardless of the specific designation of the missile):
*  ATOLL - rear-aspect IR air-to-air missile
*  MAGIC - all-aspect IR air-to-air missile
*  APEX - semi-active radar air-to-air missile
*  ALAMO - active radar air-to-air missile
*  AMOS - active radar air-to-air missile
*  SAM (R) - any radar SAM
*  SAM (IR) - any IR SAM

* The Padlock View will now be able to lock onto the runway for landing. This may help you make an efficient turn on the last leg of a racetrack landing pattern. You must be fairly low and close to the runway, however. You should also be wary of becoming disoriented while using the Padlock View so close to the ground.

Communications

* In communications mode, you can now enter modem commands of up to 60 characters directly. Just press "N" when you are asked if you want to use the default modem settings.

* In head-to-head mode, shutting off one player's radar will remove blips from the other player's Threat Warning Indicator or
Radar Warning Receiver.

Miscellaneous

* The low fuel HUD readout will appear over the Master Arm
Indicator rather than over the AGL Indicator.

* All the Realism Values on the Difficulty Levels area in the
Configuration screen now add up correctly.

* Glare caused by the sun now occurs at the appropriate climb and heading.

* If a given waypoint has an air-to-air mission such as CAP or
INTRCEPT, the waypoint will not automatically increment until after all hostiles either depart or are shot down.

* The F-16 has a thrust-to-weight ratio of approximately 0.97:1, not 6.2:1.

* The MiG-27 is a Strike aircraft, not a Class A Fighter.

* Video palette problems caused by bus speeds faster than 8MHz have been corrected.

* The bug which gave certain systems erroneous "Player disconnected" messages when exiting to DOS is fixed.


2.3 MIG 29: DEADLY ADVERSARY OF FALCON 3.0

Mig-29 Fulcrum is the second add-on disk to Falcon 3.0. There is also a Stand-alone version of MiG-29, which is compatible with
OFT and Hornet. MiG-29 add-on version, currently at version 1.0, includes the Falcon 3.02 upgrade on its distribution diskettes.

MiG-29 Fulcrum allows the Falcon 3.0 player to experience the action from the standpoint of the opposition in Instant Action,
Red Flag, and Campaign play.

Highlights of Falcon 3.0 Adversary: MiG-29 Fulcrum is described here, parts taken from a press release from former SH Product manager Daron Stinnett:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-------------
Highlights:

* Head-to-head and multi-player comms.  Six players with any combination of MiGs and F-16s can fly against each other in either H2H or campaign mode.  For example, if the F-16s are given a mission to destroy an enemy air strip, the MiG-29 group will be given the mission to protect the air strip.  Each side can setup their own tactics to accomplish the mission.

* NEW FLIGHT MODEL - We have redone our flight model from scratch.  Everything including non-fly-by-wire characteristics, spins, tail slides, separated control surfaces has been implemented.  You will find that it takes a lot more finesse to control this plane in a dogfight.  For instance, the MiG-29 has amazing nose authority, which means that you when you are turning circles in a dogfight, by cranking your stick back you should be able to point your nose at your opponent, however your high AOA will cause you to bleed speed at a rapid rate and you will be a sitting duck if you don't get a kill.  In the hands of a good pilot, the MiG-29 can out perform the F-16 but an inexperienced pilot will get shot down every time.

* REALISTIC AVIONICS - We are pulling out the stops in this area.
I expect that the avionics will be more accurately portrayed in the game than any where else including books and video.  We are working with Soviet fighter pilots as well as the Department Of
Defense to make it as accurate as possible.  Some of the features: IRST (including head mounted variant), Functional gauges, realistic HUD, and systems failure.


2.4 MIG-29 VERSION INFORMATION

These is the list of the changes made by the patches, taken directly from the readme.txt distributed with the patch.


2.4.1 Version 1.04 changes

* The MiG-29 flight model has been improved to more accurately reflect its capabilities and to be more competitive with the other aircraft.

* Sometimes the plane would unexpectedly roll left in version
1.03. This problem is now fixed.

* Your wingmen will be more aggressive in engaging enemy planes, especially when returning home.

* TM-STICK (developed by Ken "Stinger" Richardson and
ThrustMaster) has been updated in version 2.1 to work with MiG-29 version 1.04. In addition, TM-STICK 2.1 works with earlier versions of MiG-29. For more information on TM-STICK, please read
TM-STICK.TXT.