Confirmed Kill FAQ version 7 Compiled by Dave "French" Chaloux Edited by Bryan Walker, Simulations Producer, Domark Software (Updated 22 August 95, current with CK version 0.91) Table of Contents **Type "A" Personality Section: ("Do I look like some instruction-reading sissy?? I want to some action NOW!!)** 1.0 What is Confirmed Kill? 2.0 What Aircraft will be Modelled? 3.0 What kind of system do I need to run it? 4.0 Where do I get the FE software? 4.1 How do I connect to CK? 4.2 How do I find a good Internet Provider? 5.0 What does it cost to play? 6.0 Speed Optimization 6.1 Why do S3 cards have special support? 6.2 What does this error message mean? 6.2.1 "Domain Error in ACOS" 6.2.2 "Bad Checksum Error" 6.2.3 "You must download the art file" 7.0 Will CK have... 7.0.1 An Arena for Beginners? 7.0.2 Multiple-player/crewmember planes? 7.0.3 Modeling of collisions? 7.0.4 TCP support built into the FE? 7.0.5 A historical arena? 7.0.6 H2H offline play? 8.0 How do I... 8.0.1 Lock the tailwheel on takeoff? 8.0.2 Access the easier flight model? 8.0.3 Check how good my internet connection is? 8.0.4 Recover from losing updates to all players? 8.0.5 Recover from being grounded? 8.0.6 Stop the rapid jittering in the planes position? 8.0.7 Recover from a spin? 8.0.8 Tell what country I am from? 8.0.9 Use the radio? 8.0.9.1 What are all these abbreviations I see people using on the radio?? 8.0.9.2 What are those voices I keep hearing?? 8.0.10 Make my joystick work with my GUS? 8.0.11 Capture airfields? 8.0.12 Set my fuel level? 8.0.13 Load Bombs and Rockets? 8.0.14 Turn faster? 9.0 Do ... 9.0.1 Bombs and other ordnance affect the flight model? 9.0.2 Flaps and gear down have any affect? 9.0.3 Planes burn any fuel? 9.0.4 More about fuel consumption and loading 10.0 Why ... 10.0.1 Do the distant planes warp? 10.0.2 Do I need to trim my plane? 10.0.2.1 What's that line moving around above my gunsight? 10.0.3 Do some planes seem to warp and others don't? 11.0 Should I use Error Correction and Data Compression? 12.0 Where's the Action? 13.0 What's good etiquette? 14.0 What are the various "." commands to use in HQ? 14.0.1 What Are All the In-Flight Commands? 15.0 When's the boxed version coming out? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- **Type "A" Personality Section: ("Do I look like some instruction-reading sissy?? I want to some action NOW!!)** Here's a very concise breakdown on how a brand-new player would go about playing Confirmed Kill: 1) Make sure that your local internet provider offers "UNIX shell" access at 9600 baud or faster. (See section 4.0, 4.1, and 4.2) 2) Make sure you have AT LEAST a 33MHz 486DX machine with 8 megabytes of RAM. (See section 3.0) A Soundblaster-compatible sound card and joystick is required, as well. 3) Get an account on the ICI2.INFOHWY.COM server by using any Terminal Emulation (modem) program such as QuickLink or Procomm to log onto your local internet provider and TELNET to ICI2.INFOHWY.COM. Log in as "new" (no quotes) and use "pizza" for your password. Fill out all the information, except your credit card number. MAKE SURE to fill out something in the 2nd Address block. Select your login and password, as well as your 4-letter identifier that you want other pilots in the game to see. (Keep it clean, please...) 4) Make sure that you have the latest software, currently CKBASE91.EXE, and ART320V1.EXE if you plan on running in VGA mode, or ART640V1.EXE if you wish to run in SVGA mode. (This software can be downloaded from both the ICI and Domark Software home pages.) Keep in mind that a 486 will likely require an S3-chipset card, or a very strong VESA graphics card like the Hercules Stingray or Matrox Millenium to play in SVGA. (See section 6.0) Remember that you must "run" each of the files to decompress them and play CK. (See section 4.0) 5) Go to the directory you installed these files and configure the software for your system. First, you'll need to run GETVESA, then SETSOUND. Note that CK (version .91) WILL NOT run without a sound card or joystick. 6) Type CK to run the game. 7) Use the mouse pointer to select the CNFG option. 8) Select the Serial CNFG option and enter your modem's settings. 9) Select the Stick option to select which type of joystick, throttle, and rudder pedals you're using. Make sure to Calibrate them. 10) Exit CK by selecting the EXIT option. 11) Restart CK, by typing CK -ON for 320x200 graphics, or CK -V -ON for 640x480 graphics. If you have a Diamond Stealth 64 or other graphics card that runs the S3 864, 964, 868, or 968 chipset, you can use the CK -S0 -ON command to run with accelerated SVGA graphics. 12) Once the game opens to the briefing room, type ATDT#######. (The phone number to you local internet provider.) 13) CK will dial your modem for you. Log into your internet provider as you usually would. 15) Once you've logged into your internet provider, make sure that your modem type is set to VT100 emulation by typing the TERM=100 command. 16) Type TELNET ICI2.INFOHWY.COM to access the CK host. 17) Enter your login ID and password. 18) Select B from the Main Menu to select the CK arena. 19) Using the mouse, click on the Select option button, and select the country color of your choice. You can also do this by typing .country #, (1-4). 20) Type .fields and view which airfields are available to your country's aircraft to take off from. 21) Choose a functional airfield by clicking on Select, then clicking on the airfield of your choice. You can also perform this function by typing .move f#, where # is the number of your chosen field. Keep in mind that airfields can be attacked and disabled at any moment, so it pays to do this quickly. (See Section 8.0.8) 22) Choose the aircraft you wish to by again clicking on the Select button and choosing the Plane option. For new players, the P-38 is usually the best choice, since its contra-rotating propellers eliminate most torque effect that single-engined aircraft suffer and make it easier to fly. You can also perform this function by typing .plane 4. 23) You can choose to increase the performance of your plane by reducing the amount of fuel you're carrying. You can do this by typing .fuel ##, where ## is the percentage of the planes total internal fuel capacity. A P-38 uses a lot of fuel, so don't select less than 50% fuel unless you intend to fly for only a short time. (See Section 8.0.12.) 24) If you want, you can load your aircraft with rockets and bombs by typing .rockets ## and .bombs #. The P-38 can carry up to 20 rockets and 4 bombs at once, but the plane is VERY sluggish with this much loaded. (See Section 8.0.13.) 25) Type .radio 1 10#, where # is the number of your country. 1=Red, 2=Green, 3=Gold, and 4=Purple. This allows you to privately talk to other countrymembers by pressing the "/" key. (See Section 8.0.9) 26) Press the F1 key to view the Map. Check out the closest enemy field, or ask your other countrymen where the action is. 27) Time to go for it! Select the FLY option with the mouse, or type .fly. 28) (In the cockpit) Type E to start your engines and 0 (zero) to hit full throttle. When your airspeed indicator (right guage) shows about 100, gently pull the stick back and press G to raise your landing gear. Use the Map to find the crosshairs representing your position, and find a fight! 29) Hook up with another countrymember flying near you, let them know you're new, and listen to their tips. You'll have a lot more fun that way! 1.0 What is Confirmed Kill? Confirmed Kill is flight simulation based on WWII aircraft that can be played online against hundreds of other players at the same time. The people who wrote this game cut their teeth playing Kesmai's Air Warrior (AW), and wanted to take that concept to the next level. Some of the more notable features of this game are its force-based flight model, ballistics, location-specific damage model, and full-screen, multiple-resolution graphics system. The graphics of other planes in flight are quite detailed and included texture maps for nose art and other insignias. The force-based flight model means that the way aircraft behave is based on the various forces that act on the airplane instead of being derived from a set of "look-up" tables. Force models have much more accurate "feels" and avoid the "seams" that table-based flight modelling suffers from. Because of this, things like the vortices created by your prop effect, flat spins, tail slides, torque and rudder/rolls coupling are all part of the game. Accelerated stalls can throw you upside down or into a spin if you're not careful. Because some people may find that the flight model is too realistic to be fun, a somewhat less realistic flight model is available (for a separate arena). The ballistics and damage model are also quite realistic and detailed. Instead of shooting at a "hit bubble" that surrounds a plane, you actually have to hit a particular part of the plane and the damage you do is based on the part you hit. Hit the fuel tank and the plane explodes. Hit the right wing enough and it falls off. Chew up the rear end and the horizontal stabilizer will come apart. Partial damage is also possible. Individual guns are modeled for rate of fire, ammuntion capacity, muzzle velocity, and even "convergence," an adjustable range where the bullet streams from the guns meet in front of the aircraft. Machine guns can be fired independently of cannons so they can be used to zero in on the prey and the cannons can be used to finish them off. Other weapons such as rockets, torpedoes, and different types of bombs can also be employed. The full screen view is another nice feature. 90 degrees of view is mapped to the full screen. What this means in practice is that the planes are large enough to show the nice, detailed, texture mapped shapes in combat without artificially making the planes bigger than they should be. When you take that right wing off the other guy, you can see it! 2.0 What Aircraft will be Modeled? The first 15 aircraft to be modeled will be: A6m5 Zero KI-84 Frank VAL P-51D P-38J P-39C F4U-1D Spitfire Mk. VIII Me-109G FW-190A4 JU-87G2 and B2 ME-110C IL-10 B-17G A-26B The first Historical scenario will be the Solomon Islands campaign. These aircraft will be present there: KI-61 Tony G4M- Betty D4Y2-Judy B6N -Jill ______________ B25 F4Fs, and/or F6Fs SBD-3 Dauntless TBF-3 Avenger PBY Catalina All significant variants of each aircraft type will be modeled. 3.0 What kind of system do I need to run it? The stated minimum requirements are: 486 *DX* 33 MHz VGA Graphics adapter 8 megabyes of RAM Soundblaster-compatiblesound card 9600+ baud modem DOS "shell" internet account required to play online A good VLB video card with 2MB of DRAM or VRAM is recommended **It is important to note that CK uses floating point calculations in its flight model so a 486 DX is required. DO NOT EVEN BOTHER trying to run on a 486SX or NexGen 586 without a math coprocessor installed. (NexGen is planning on having a math coprocessor available later this year.)** 4.0 Where do I get the FE software? The best place to get the software is ICI's ftp server. Its FTP address is ici1.infohwy.com. The software can also be downloaded from cactus.org in /incoming/ConfKil Web Surfers can download the CK front end from Domark Software's home page at http://www.domark.com/domark 4.1 How do I connect to CK? You must use a "UNIX shell" TELNET connection to run CK. It runs through DOS, so using SLIP, America Online, WinCIM, or other Windows-based Internet access methods won't work. We recommend that you use a locally-based Internet provider service that runs high-end hardware such as Sun Sparcstations or Silicon Graphics machines. 4.2 How do I find a good Internet Provider? Perhaps the most important part to playing CK is finding an internet provider service that has enough bandwidth to run CK without excessive latencies. We recommend that you shop around if your current provider doesn't offer "UNIX shell" access, or you're experiencing an excessive level of warping when playing CK. It's always a good idea to call a prospective provider and ask what kind of hardware their using. Nail them down, and don't accept answers like "We're using a network of UNIX boxes." An 1985-vintage 8086 PC can be a "UNIX box." Look for providers using high-end hardware like Sun, Silicon Graphics, Digital Alphas, or other dedicated internet hardware. If you're looking for a new provider, you can access a very comprehensive list at: ftp://ftp.primus.com/pub/providers/isp-list This list contains several hundred providers, their phone numbers, the regions they serve, and the services they provide. 5.0 What does it cost to play? During the current beta testing process it's free! When CK actually goes "commercial," it will cost $2 an hour. There will also be a monthly fee of $10. John "Killer" McQueen, Vice President of ICI, had this to say about that fee: "Actually the $10 will get you 5 hrs of flight and unlimited access to the BBS on our system." 6.0 Speed Optimizations Actually, there are a couple of things you can do. First, if you have an ISA motherboard instead of a VLB motherboard, you can upgrade to a VLB for under $160 even if you get one of the higher end replacements. (VLB or VESA Local Bus, is a system architecture designed to provide a fast 32-bit data pathway straight to the CPU of a PC, and radically accelerates a machine's performance.) Second, you can get an S3-chipset video card. *THIS MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE.* Using special video drivers by Domark Software, systems with the S3 864, 964, or Trio chipsets can nearly double their frame rates in CK, and can also run resolutions of 800x600 and 1024x768 at 15-25 frames per second. Domark Software is now working on drivers for the new S3 868 and 968 chipsets, and hope to include them in CK very soon. (Keep in mind that the new Diamond Stealth 64 Video cards use this chipset.) These S3 chipsets are used by several graphics card manufacturers, including Hercules, Genoa, Orchid, STB, Spider, #9, Diamond, ELSA (Germany) and SPEA (Germany). A typical 2MB S3-chipset card runs in the $200-$250 range. Some new cards we've just tested include the Hercules Stingray (ET4000 WPI chipset) and Matrox Millenium, both delivered excellent 640x480 SVGA performance. You can also speed your system up by trimming unnecessary memory managers from your CONFIG.SYS file. Confirmed Kill uses a 32-bit protected-mode "DOS Extender," that eliminates the need for memory management software such as EMM386 or QEMM. By making a boot disk that only loads the necessary sound and mouse TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident) programs, you can increase the speed of the game, and cut down on some annoying system crashes. A CK boot disk can use an AUTOEXEC.BAT file that looks like this: @ECHO Off PROMPT $P$G PATH C:\DOS;C:\MOUSE;C:\VM300 SET TEMP=C:\TEMP SET COMSPEC=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM SET LMOUSE=C:\MOUSE C:\MOUSE\MOUSE rem ************************ rem * Sound Driver Section * rem ************************ SET MAD16=C:\VM300 SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T4 C:\VM300\M16INIT /B rem **************************** rem * End Sound Driver Section * rem **************************** A CONFIG.SYS file can include only these things: BUFFERS=30 FILES=30 LASTDRIVE=C FCBS=16,0 STACKS=0,0 BREAK = OFF 6.1 Why do S3 cards have special support? Because the newer S3 cards have built in polygon rendering accelerators in them that take much of the graphics load off the CPU. 6.2 What does this error message mean? 6.2.1 "Domain Error in ACOS" This error is shown when you try to run CK on a machine without a functioning math coprocessor. CK must have one to run. 486SX machines don't have math coprocessors built in, so can't run CK without an additional math coprocessor chip installed on the motherboard. The NexGen 586 machines also don't have math coprocessors, and won't have them available for a few months, according to NexGen, Inc. 6.2.2 "Bad Checksum Error" This message is uncommon for most players, but some have seen it appear regularly. It usually doesn't affect the actual play of CK, but can be annoying when it does appear. Players using the built-in joystick port of the MediaVision Pro Audio Spectrum 16 have reported this message more than anyone else, with the following steps proven to cut down the occurrence of this problem. Add the following commands to the end of your DEVICE=C:\PROAUDIO\MVSOUND.SYS line in your CONFIG.SYS file: Disable the Sound blaster mode, S:0 Disable the on-board joystick port. J:0 Enable the PAS16 on-board oscillator T:1 Tried various DMA and IRQ settings (IRQ 5, DMA 1 recommended. IRQ 7 and DMA 3 work well.) 6.2.3 "You must download the art file" Many new players began receiving this message when version .91 came out. CK currently runs in two graphics modes: 320x200 VGA, and 640x480 SVGA. Each mode requires two completely different sets of cockpit art. To run CK in 320x200 mode, you'll need to download the ART320V1.EXE file, and run CK by just typing CK from the proper directory. To play CK in the 640x480 mode, you'll need to download the ART640V1.EXE file and run CK with the CK -V command. (Or CK -S0 if you have an S3-chipset graphics card.) 7.0 Will CK have... 7.0.1 A Beginner's arena? John McQueen writes concerning the easier arenas for beginners: "Less strict as in a fly by wire applied to the model to help out those that can't or won't stay in the flight envelope. 1/2 time? nope, no, no way, no how, not ever, over my dead body... Won't it be enough to fly in a full screen 640x480 warpless environment, hitting planes and doing damage relative to what part you hit? blowing off parts of planes like wings and tail structures and watching them spiral into the dirt to explode into hundreds of pieces??(and the enemy may not be able to bail out ) popping chutes of bailing pilots (they can shoot back with that .45 too) Firing rockets and dropping bombs and torpedoes? Angling in on your target, fire off a stream of MG till the lead is close, then open up with cannon and cut him to ribbons?" After he calmed down, he did admit that yes, an arena for new players to have fun with forgiving aircraft would certainly be included in CK. 7.0.2 Multiple-player/crewmember planes such as the B-17? "Yes!" according to Robert "GunJam" Salinas, President of ICI. 7.0.3 Modeling of collisions? John McQueen writes: "Nope sorry, no collisions. When everyone has fiber-optic communications in the house and we can have latency down to miniscule numbers maybe. 'Til then we probably wont do it." 7.0.4 TCP support built into the FE? No. However, John McQueen wrote: "We are seriously considering offering TCP/IP as we have received more interest in it than I had expected. For at least the short term we will be modem access only, which is to say the FE looks for a standard COM port. There may in fact be a way to fool the FE into "thinking" its talking to a comm port instead of TCP/IP, maybe ComT. Thats about all I can say on it for now." 7.0.5 A full-time historical arena? John McQueen wrote: "We have discussed this exact idea many times. We will build one and see how people like it. It would take maybe a whole hour to set up a Axis vs Allies arena with the stock terrain. Maybe a day or two for a realistic English channel terrain." 7.0.6 Head-to-Head offline play? Bryan Walker, Simulations Producer at Domark Software wrote: "The initial online version will allow offline play, but only to the point of flying the individual planes. The boxed version of CK, due late this year or early '96, will allow modem and 16-player IPX Network play, as well as some interesting tutorial features and an adjustable Artificial Intelligence system." 8.0 How do I... 8.0.1 Lock the tailwheel on takeoff? John McQueen wrote: "Right now you can lock the tailwheel by holding the stick full back. Keep it full back till you hit 50 IAS or so then you can center the stick and avoid alot of the yaw on powerup." 8.0.2 Get the easier flight model? John McQueen wrote: "There already is an easier flight mode. The host can control this or you can enable it on or off line. Try the .dweeb 1 command and try to spin one." 8.0.3 Check how good my connection is? You can check this by using the ping -s ici2.infohwy.com command from your shell account. Be warned that for some reason on CRIS, this continues forever instead of being killed with a [CTRL]-C. Therefore, you may want to use a different form of the command. ping -s ici2.infohwy.com 56 10 This will ping ICI's machine 10 times and then summarize the statistics. Doing this from CRIS I got: CRCINET 1> ping -s ici2.infohwy.com 56 10 PING ici2.infohwy.com: 56 data bytes 64 bytes from ici2.infohwy.com (198.65.146.10): icmp_seq=0. time=128. ms 64 bytes from ici2.infohwy.com (198.65.146.10): icmp_seq=1. time=99. ms 64 bytes from ici2.infohwy.com (198.65.146.10): icmp_seq=2. time=136. ms 64 bytes from ici2.infohwy.com (198.65.146.10): icmp_seq=3. time=97. ms 64 bytes from ici2.infohwy.com (198.65.146.10): icmp_seq=4. time=95. ms 64 bytes from ici2.infohwy.com (198.65.146.10): icmp_seq=5. time=94. ms 64 bytes from ici2.infohwy.com (198.65.146.10): icmp_seq=6. time=94. ms 64 bytes from ici2.infohwy.com (198.65.146.10): icmp_seq=7. time=94. ms 64 bytes from ici2.infohwy.com (198.65.146.10): icmp_seq=8. time=94. ms 64 bytes from ici2.infohwy.com (198.65.146.10): icmp_seq=9. time=114. ms ----ici2.infohwy.com PING Statistics---- 10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0% packet loss round-trip (ms) min/avg/max = 94/104/136 Numbers below 200 are fine and will yield a good connection. The higher the numbers, the worse the connection and if the go high enough, the game becomes unplayable and the host will ground you. You should be aware that normally low numbers can be ruined if you get occasionally very high ones. I was flying one night where I could go for minutes with a ping time of around 50. However, every once in a while the system would basically just stop and I would get numbers like 1800. When actually flying, I could fly for a couple of minutes and then I would get grounded. The next question is, "Would switching providers help?". In order to answer that question, we need to know a bit more about how your messages are getting sent to ici2.infohwy.com. We can use the traceroute command for this. traceroute ici2.infohwy.com I get the following: CRCINET 5>traceroute ici2.infohwy.com traceroute to ici2.infohwy.com (198.65.146.10), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets 1 router-sprint.cris.com (199.3.12.1) 4 ms 3 ms 3 ms 2 sl-chi-1-S17-T1.sprintlink.net (144.228.128.129) 13 ms 13 ms 16 ms 3 sl-chi-6-F0/0.sprintlink.net (144.228.50.6) 14 ms 14 ms 22 ms 4 sl-chi-nap-H1/0-T3.sprintlink.net (144.228.56.10) 23 ms 19 ms 24 ms 5 198.32.130.227 (198.32.130.227) 15 ms 16 ms 20 ms 6 border2-hssi1-0.Chicago.mci.net (204.70.25.5) 21 ms 18 ms 16 ms 7 core-fddi-1.Chicago.mci.net (204.70.3.81) 25 ms 21 ms 16 ms 8 core-hssi-2.KansasCity.mci.net (204.70.1.17) 29 ms 25 ms 25 ms 9 core-hssi-3.Houston.mci.net (204.70.1.22) 45 ms 48 ms 56 ms 10 border1-fddi0-0.Houston.mci.net (204.70.2.98) 205 ms 117 ms 195 ms 11 sesquinet.Houston.mci.net (204.70.36.6) 44 ms 40 ms 39 ms 12 HOU1-F10.SESQUI.NET (192.67.13.181) 40 ms 46 ms 40 ms 13 HOU2-F0.SESQUI.NET (128.241.200.82) 53 ms 40 ms 39 ms 14 SCCSI-S0.SESQUI.NET (128.241.5.146) 43 ms 49 ms 43 ms 15 com4.houston.sccsi.com (198.65.128.45) 41 ms 41 ms 42 ms 16 cisco1.houston.sccsi.com (198.65.128.2) 62 ms 43 ms 83 ms 17 i3t1.sccsi.com (198.65.144.214) 60 ms 48 ms 46 ms 18 ici2.infohwy.com (198.65.146.10) 53 ms * 48 ms By the way, those numbers are individual times and do not represent a minimum, average, and maximum like with ping. This gives me all the steps in the route needed to get internet traffic from my provider to ICI's machine. The times show will give you some idea about how much time it took to get to each step along the way. By the way, those numbers are individual times and do not represent a minimum, average, and maximum like with ping. However, to get a better idea, use ping again. CRCINET 8> ping -s HOU1-F10.SESQUI.NET 56 10 PING HOU1-F10.SESQUI.NET: 56 data bytes 64 bytes from HOU1-F10.SESQUI.NET (192.67.13.181): icmp_seq=0. time=359. ms 64 bytes from HOU1-F10.SESQUI.NET (192.67.13.181): icmp_seq=1. time=39. ms 64 bytes from HOU1-F10.SESQUI.NET (192.67.13.181): icmp_seq=2. time=42. ms 64 bytes from HOU1-F10.SESQUI.NET (192.67.13.181): icmp_seq=3. time=41. ms 64 bytes from HOU1-F10.SESQUI.NET (192.67.13.181): icmp_seq=4. time=40. ms 64 bytes from HOU1-F10.SESQUI.NET (192.67.13.181): icmp_seq=5. time=41. ms 64 bytes from HOU1-F10.SESQUI.NET (192.67.13.181): icmp_seq=6. time=40. ms 64 bytes from HOU1-F10.SESQUI.NET (192.67.13.181): icmp_seq=7. time=44. ms 64 bytes from HOU1-F10.SESQUI.NET (192.67.13.181): icmp_seq=8. time=41. ms 64 bytes from HOU1-F10.SESQUI.NET (192.67.13.181): icmp_seq=9. time=112. ms ----HOU1-F10.SESQUI.NET PING Statistics---- 10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0% packet loss round-trip (ms) min/avg/max = 39/79/359 You can do this every step along the way and you should be able to isolate exactly where a problem is occurring if you are having one. Remember, the problem may not be your provider (and then again it might). If it is, you now have the ammo to shoot at their tech support people. If you don't mind a somewhat messy display, you can also use the traceroute -q nqueries form of the command. However, ping is better for doing large numbers of queries (the reason will be obvious if you try with traceroute). 8.0.4 Recover from losing updates to all players? I have heard that this is a known bug. For now you should use enter the following command on the radio. /.e This should take you back to the selection room. Then enter: .exit .exit will take you back to the menu where you choose between the BBS, getting software updates, entering the arena, etc. Enter the arena again. At this point, you can select field, plane, and fly again. You can also try the .abort command. This leaves you in the arena. Follow this with the .login command. You should now be able to select your plane, etc. 8.0.5 Recover from being grounded? First, this happens because the host received nothing from you for 4+ seconds. This can be because of a temporary burp in the system or because the load on your internet provider is just too high at the moment. You might want to see the section of the FAQ on checking how good your connection is. You recover by doing a .abort followed by a .login at which point you can select your field and plane. If this happens a lot, you are going to have to find a different provider (or learn to live with it). 8.0.6 Stop rapid jittering in my controls? The rapid jittering is caused by the fact your joystick does not usually put out one consistent value for a particular position of the stick. What you should do is adjust the deadbands for your stick and rudder pedals (if you have them). You should be aware that the oscillations back and forth that occur on a somewhat slower and smoother basis are normal and are part of the flight model. Real planes behave the same way. For some people, their are two other causes: a) For a limited # of people, using the .stick 1 command has helped. However, for most people, this makes things worse. If it isn't broke, don't fix it! b) You may be calibrating incorrectly. Some people are trying to calibrate their joystick and then calibrate their rudder. The program wants you to calibrate them at the same time. If you calibrate them seperately, you undo the first calibration. Say you did your joystick first and your rudders second. What you will have done is told the game that the center position is both the minimum and maximum position for your joystick. This is going to give you an EXTREMELY bumpy ride. c) CK version 0.8.7 (CKU81t87) and all later versions include many new joystick routines to help iron out joystick problems. 8.0.7 Recover from a Spin? Doug "Pyro" Balmos writes: "I've been playing around offline with the really nasty spins. I did a lot them in all the planes and I definitely believe that there is no such thing as an unrecoverable spin provided you have enough altitude and have not had flight controls shot off. At least, I recovered from all my test spins (probabably about 50 of the nasty sort). Most of those were done using the F4U. [Perhaps the toughest plane to recover from a spin. There are evidently two cases of pilots ever recovering a Corsair from a "deep" or flat spin]" I'll try to explain the technique. It may be hard to visualize but if you watched it once, it would be very clear. First off, if you get into a flat spin at high altitude that's particularly bad, recovery can be impossible until you get down around 7K. It seems that for those spins, you just can't get enough bite into the air until you get down in the denser stuff. You still have plenty of time to recover though. I've spun at 15000 feet and couldn't do a thing until I hit the lower altitude where recovery was made without much problem. Throttle is very important. I found that spins can be unrecoverable if you throttle all the way back. Realistic or not, stay throttled up. The whole trick of spin recovery in CK is get your nose pointed straight down. You want to get your nose aimed at the point on the ground that everything appears to be spinning around. The first thing to do is get the nose down a little. Use opposite rudder, forward stick, and some opposite aileron. Monitor your airspeed and watch for gains in it. The object at this point is to get from a flat spin to at least a slightly nose down attitude. Hold down opposite rudder and adjust stick input to aim your nose down at the center of the spin. If you use too much stick input, your nose will shoot past that point. As your nose gets closer to center, ease up on your stick input. Sometimes ruddder input needs to be adjusted a little, but for the most part, it is held down all the way. Stick input will differ according to the attitude you are in. Just using forward stick alone will not do it in most cases. Use your stick input as if you were flying your plane towards the center of the spin. And go into the direction of the spin, not with it. Sometimes, you get in an attitude that is very flat and hard to get any input into it. If you give a quick kick of rudder going into the spin followed by max opposite again, it can sometimes put you in a more favorable spin attitude that you can get out of quicker. Use the airspeed indicator as a feedback to what you are doing also. Speed increases as long as you are doing something good. Once you do get nose down and stabilized, watch your speed and allow it to build some. If you try to pull out before doing this, it is very easy to reenter a spin. Once you do it a few times, it will click and you will be able to get out of any spin as long as you haven't lost any flight controls and have a few "k" of alt between you and the ground. It's pretty hard to explain in words, but it really isn't that difficult although they do take some work. It ain't textbook spin recovery but it works here." Bryan Walker writes: "The easiest way out of a spin is not to get in one. Use smooth control inputs, and try to keep the aircraft in trim as much as possible. If you try to yank a foul-tempered Corsair around like you may be used to with table-based flight models, you fall down, go 'boom.' Finesse is the key." 8.0.8 Tell what country I am from? Your color of country depends on the country that you selected (the default is country 1). The countries are: 1 - Red 2 - Green 3 - Gold 4 - Purple As of version .90, your country color is also represented as the color of your gunsight. 8.0.9 Use the radio? "Katana" writes: Since it seems to be the most asked question online at the moment, I've decided to post some instructions on how to use the radio commands/channels on CK. Grab a copy and pass it on. There are 4 radio channels. You can send and recieve on all 4 channels simultaneously. At the moment, the message does not indicate what channel the incoming message is on, which is what is causing most of the confusion out there. You transmit on the various channels like so: Channel 1 : / Channel 2 : Shft / Channel 3 : Ctrl / Channel 4 : Alt / Makes sense when you look at it on the keyboard. Channel 1 is best left tuned to the common channel, which is its default (channel 100). Each country has it's own private channel, corresponding to its country number: Country 1 (Reds) : 101 Country 2 (Greens) : 102 Country 3 (Gold) : 103 Country 4 (Purple) : 104 You tune the radio by using the format: .radio # ### As an example, if I am a Red (country 1), I might tune channel 2, which is activated by Shft /, to the country private channel by typing: .radio 2 101 Now, whenever I transmit by typing Shft / only my country-mates can hear me. Easy, eh? If you want to use Alt / to talk to your country rather than Shft / you'd type: .radio 4 101 Tuning to enema country channels allows you to transmit on their private channel, but you cannot hear their transmittions on that channel. Better to just use the common channel to talk to enemies. You can also tune any of your radio channels to individual pilots for private plane-plane conversations. This is very useful for wingman tactics. The format is the same, but instead of a numbered channel you use the 4 digit plane id of your wingman: .radio 4 kat- This would tune your channel 4 to my plane only, and nobody else would hear your transmittions to me. Note that your message won't echo when you use this method, but rest assured it was sent. On my first flight, I generally tune my channel 2 to whatever country channel I'm flying for (.radio 2 101 for Reds). Then I tune my two extra channels (3 and 4) to whichever squadmates are up (.radio 3 crsh and .radio 4 flet). That would mean: / : talks to everyone Shft / : talks to Reds only Ctrl / : talks to Crash only Alt / : talks to Fletch only Well, that's longer than I meant it to be, but it should cover all of the possible problems you may face concerning the radio system. Hopefully this will reduce the "how does the radio work" questions on the air so I can fly instead of type. ;)" 8.0.9.1 What are all these abbreviations I see people using on the radio?? Since dogfighting and typing don't mix well, most folks have adopted some abbreviations to cut down on the distraction in the heat of battle: bingo: I'm out of fuel/ammo. btw: By the way... bz: I'm busy fighting someone, can't talk now. b&z: Use high-speed passes on the enemy, instead of getting into turning fights. cap: defend an airfield or other aircraft. cc: I understand/I copy/Roger lol: Laughing out loud! otw: I'm on the way rgr: Roger rofl: Rolling on the floor, laughing. 6: Check your six. 6! Clear MY six. vulch: (Vulture) To attack a plane taking off, or fly over an enemy airfield and attack planes trying to use it. wing: The bad guys shot my wing off! 8): Smiley face 8(: Frowning face in: Entering a fight l8r: Later nite: Logging but some radio traffic might be possible. out: Exitting a fight poof: Logging out immediately - no further radio traffic will be possible. thnx: Thanks 8.0.9.2 What are those voices I keep hearing?? As of version 0.90, the CK programmers are experimenting with new software that allows the players to transmit VOICE radio messages to one another. Right now, only the Sysops are using this while the code is being tested and tuned. ICI hopes to have this code fully functional by version 1.0. (However, if you're playing CK and drinking tequila, there could be other voices you're hearing that aren't related to this new feature.) 8.0.10 Make my joystick work with my GUS "Shaky Stick" writes: To GUS owners...do NOT select GUS when choosing a sound card for CK. The driver's hosed. Choose Soundblaster, or whatever else you can with your system setup. 8.0.11 Capture airfields? a) You have to take out the tower and the HQ. (The HQ is the small orange shack). It seems to take 8 rockets to take out the HQ. b) You have to land on the runway. Use your side views to be sure you are still on it. c) Type /.e to exit. You should get the "exited" message, and be placed back in the HQ. You will see a message informing all players that the field has been captured. d) A certain amount of time will pass before the field comes alive. You must prevent some other country from landing and exiting at the field. 8.0.12 Set my fuel level? Typing .FUEL # while in the HQ sets the fuel level of your airplane in percentages of its maximum internal fuel load. 8.0.13 Load Bombs and Rockets? Typing .BOMBS # and .ROCKETS # while in the HQ will load this ordnance on your plane. 8.0.14 Turn faster? Some people have a reputation in the arena of being able to turn their planes almost unbelievable fast. Here are a few pointers: a) A plane will turn fastest at "corner velocity." Note that "corner velocity" differs drastically between different altitudes and aircraft. b) In order to get a plane at corner velocity, you may want to either put your nose up or down. People often turn nose down in a fight because they are trying to maintain speed. c) Flaps may help in a turn. Each plane will differ somewhat with regards to this. I personally have a stopwatch that I use to time turns in the aircraft and find the flap position that turns best. Full Flaps is NOT necessarily the best setting to use. d) There are various maneuvers that are designed to make use of the fact that planes can usually roll 360 degrees faster than they can turn 360 degrees in a flat turn. e) Judicious use of high and low "Yo-Yos" can give you an edge. f) Remember that turn rate does not always when a stallfight. Turn radius can also be very important. g) The ability to ride the edge of a stall can be important to winning turn fights. 9.0 Hey, do ... 9.0.1 Bombs and other ordnance affect the flight model? Yes. Version 0.90+ has enabled weapons weight and drag. 9.0.2 Flaps and gear down have any affect? (v.0.90+) Yes. Gear does cause significant drag, as do flaps. Note that different aircraft have differing flaps sizes, lift factors, and drag factors, as well. 9.0.3 Planes burn any fuel? Yes, in proper relation to their actual consumption in reality. 9.0.4 (More about fuel consumption and loading) Note that when setting your fuel level with the .FUEL # command, it's in percentages of maximum internal capacity. A P-51 with fuel set to 30% can fly for over an hour, where a P-38 set at the same level can barely last 20 minutes. Also note that full throttle consumes a great deal of fuel for a moderate increase in speed over cruise throttle settings. (Around 70%) 10.0 Why ... 10.0.1 Do the distant planes occasionally move like inch-worms, warping a bit? CK uses special code that prioritizes closer planes with more frequent updates. This focuses more bandwidth on the planes within range of you. Planes farther off aren't updated as often, causing them to slide around sometimes. 10.0.2 Do I need to "trim" my plane? Mike "Boomer" McCoy writes: "An aeronautical injuneer is probably gonna have a heart attack, but here goes If you were flying a real airplane that was designed to cruise at, say, 250 mph, flying it at 150 (fuel economy , whatever..) you would quicky tire from holding the stick back to maintain the angle of attack (AOA), etc. Trim tabs allow you to 'fine tune' the Horiz Stab airfoil via little 'elevator' tabs set into rear of stab. For older planes, these tabs were mechanically set via a wheel in the cockpit (in this case WWII). Later, they became electrical with a small up/down switch. Turn the wheel one way, the tabs went down, pushing the nose down a bit, Turn it the other way raised the nose. In the example above, you could set th trim so the stick was neutral, i.e. needing no force to keep the plane in the right attitude to fly a high speed plane at low speeds. It's important to note that trimming the plane is only good for the speed it's trimmed at. If you trim your plane level at 200, it will be OUT of trim at 250. Of course the design of the plane would determine just how much." 10.0.2.1 Is there a line moving around above my gunsight? In version .91 and above, a "sideslip indicator" has been added. This is represented by a vertical line above your aircraft's gunsight. This line will move in the direction that the tail of your plane is "skidding" to. If the line moves to the RIGHT, apply RIGHT rudder to bring the tail "into trim" with the nose. Keeping the "sideslip indicator" centered will result in a noticeable increase in airspeed and turning performance. Note that in some airplanes, certain airspeed/attitude/altitude combinations will make it impossible for the plane to be "in trim," even with full rudder application. This is particularly true with high-powered single-engine planes like the F4U Corsair. 10.0.3 Do some planes seem to warp and others don't? If you see one plane warping, or jumping around the screen, while others in view are staying steady, this is almost always the result of an excessive latency from that player's provider. If you see ALL the planes warping, it's either YOUR provider causing delays, or the CK host. (The CK host is under little strain, and rarely causes warping.) 11.0 Should I use Error Correction and Data Compression? Go ahead and set your modem for Error Correction. You should probably turn Data Compression off. 12.0 Where's the action? First, you should get and print a copy of the map for the arena you are flying in. In the current arena being used for beta testing most of the action has been between country 1 (red) and country 2 (green). Good choices for take off spots for quick action are fields F3 (red) and fields F9 and F4 (green). * Note that you can use the .FIELDS command from the HQ building to get a quick rundown of what the status of the entire arena. This will show you who owns which fields, and what their operational status is. A quick radio call of the pilots already flying will help steer you to the action, as well. * More logical choices for involving all four countries are Field F8 (red), F9 (green), F14 (gold), and F22 (purple). These are the closest fields in each country to the center of the map which is over Field 15. 13.0 What's good etiquette? I want to play well with others! There are no set rules for player etiquette in Confirmed Kill. The virtual battlefield can accomodate a number of different tactics, personalities, and activities. However, there are some good guidelines to follow to make sure everyone has as much fun as possible. o Don't shoot down your own countrymen. CK often runs anti-fratricide code that inflicts the same damage to you that you've inflicted on a player of the same country. (It's the virtual battlefield equivalent of a court martial.) o If you've been waved off of a fight by someone in your country, stay away. (You should not have to ask before joining a 1 on 1). In other words, if two players are having a pitched duel in an isolated position, it might be considered rude to immediately jump in and steal a kill that a fellow "countryman" had been working hard to achieve. o Don't constantly wave off countrymen from a fight. Reserve this for when you are actually dueling someone. o Don't boss people around in the arena. Instead of, "All Greens follow me to F3," try "I'm headed to F3. Anyone else want to come?". Though CK will eventually provide additional "command" priveleges to expert players, being overbearing will generally get you ignored, or viewed as a jerk. o Don't make excuses on the radio for everytime someone shoots you down. We get shot down all the time, so it's only fair that you do, too. Even the greatest real-life aces often found themselves looking at the wrong end of an enemy's guns. o Don't expect other people to bail you out of your dumb decisions. They're not obligated to help you out. o Do NOT bail out on someone in a fight just to avoid giving them the kill. (Bailing after you're hit is obviously OK). This will earn you a bad reputation very quickly. If you lose a plane in such a fashion, you still are considered "shot down," and those who were fighting against you can be credited with a kill. In addition, that parachute is a VERY tempting target. o Don't monopolize the radio channels. Keep your messages brief and concise as possible. o Don't just stay at home waiting for others to come to you. The best defense is a good offense. o Don't use profanity online if you can absolutely help it. o Don't take this game too seriously. If you find yourself getting exceptionally angry about a lost dogfight or bad break, take some time off from playing and reset your priorities. Play because it's FUN, not because you've got a chip on your shoulder. Of course there's the flip side: o Do compliment your opponents for a good fight. A little sportsmanship goes a long way. o Do help your countrymen out when they are trying to accomplish something or are outnumbered. Teamwork is the key. o Do try to help the new players out, and please be patient with them. A new player treated with respect becomes a good wingman in a hurry. o Do feel free to attack enemy aircraft on the ground if you have flown a significant distance to get there. o Do give ICI and Domark constructive feedback, itemized if possible. 14.0 What are all the various "." commands? .abort - sometimes helps to abort your session when in HQ when things aren't working right. Follow this with .login to get back to HQ and ready to fly. .bombs # - This sets the bomb load of your aircraft. Note that the performance of your plane will suffer with each bomb carried. The maximum bomb load varies between aircraft, with most fighters carrying a maximum of 4. .conv ### - Sets your convergence setting for your guns at ### yards .cou # - Is equivalent to using the country buttons .e - Typed on the radio when you want to exit the plane when you have landed. .exit - When in HQ returns you to the menu on ICI2. .fields - This command, available in the HQ, shows you the status of all airfields in the game. .fuel # - This sets the fuel load of your aircraft in percentages points of its maximum internal load. (See section 9.0.4 for more info on setting fuel loading.) .fly - Is equivalent to hitting the fly button .handle XXXXX - would set your handle to XXXXX. Note that there is not currently a command to change your 4 letter callsign which is fixed when you first setup an account. You should use this command right away when getting a new account unless you want to be known by one and all as a dweeb. .help - gives a list of some of the . commands .login - Used in combination with the .abort command. .mov F## - Is equivalent to using the field buttons. .plane This command shows the planes that are available to you at the airfield you selected. .plane # - can be used instead of the buttons to select the plane you are flying. .radio # ### - Sets radio channel # to be frequency #. Note that ### can also be the 4 letter callsign of a player. (See section 8.0.9 for more info on how to use the radios.) .rockets # - This sets the rocket load of your aircraft. .ros - Will give you a partial listing of the players who are up, the country they are flying for, and where they are (in flight or HQ, or some field). .show - this gives a listing of some of the current settings on the host. For example, this command can be used to check the frag and lethality settings. .speed ### - This sets the speed that the plane will seek when you hit speed trim. One use is that best rate of climb is sometimes specified as a speed that you should hold at full throttle. .stick 1 - selects an alternative set of joystick logic that helps for some people. 14.1 What Are All the In-Flight Commands? E: Start/Stop Engine SHFT-E: Start/Stop All Engines 1-0: Throttle +/- Incremental Throttle S: Trim Rudder. (Use often) A/D: Left/Right Rudder G: Raise/Lower Landing Gear. Button 0: Fire guns Button 1: Fire/Drop secondary weapon Backspace: Toggle Secondary Weapon F1: View "Radar" map view. F2 to toggle identification levels of other players from Range Only, to Player Callsigns, and Aircraft Type. Keypad/Cursor Keys: View controls. Q: Lower Flaps W: Raise Flaps V: External view from the rear O: "Fly By" view. ENTER: Hit 3 times quickly to eject. 15.0 When is the boxed version coming out? Late this fall, or early '96, according to Bryan Walker.