Mountains

Mountains are an environmental feature that can sometimes be forgotten, but play a crucial role in separating a match into sectors, and are currently the only natural barriers which affect the player since all mountains peak higher than the player's altitude. The lanes which the Creeps follow are marked by these mountains, and mountains can be used defensively to prevent effective deployment of aerial ordnance.

Placement on Maps
A screenshot of each map, viewed from the top, has been provided.

Desert Trap
There are 6 mountains in the Desert Strike map. There is a lone, isolated mountain near each corner, nearby the flight paths to and from the airbases. Two mountain ranges span the center of the map, separating the central Creep path from the northern and southern paths. All mountains seem to peak at similar heights.



Woodlands
There are a great many mountains in Woodlands, which split the map not only into lanes like Desert Trap but also into sections within those lanes.

A pair of ranges, in horizontal orientation and just above the map center, serve to create the top lane. They are augmented by three individual mountains, in a line, just north of them. A space is created between these individual mountains and the northern border, and this marks the northern IFV route.

In the southern area, a mountain range running north-south separates the two halves. It extends from the central IFV route to the southern IFV route; while isn't any more difficult to pass, many aircraft will opt to fly around them to protect or attack ground vehicles. A lone mountain is in each side, on the NATO side amidst a lake and on the Pact side being rather elongated. They can serve to eliminate pursuing missiles.

A large mountain range covers much of the southern border.



Effect on Player
Mountains are not just a part of the background; they do have an effect on the player and his/her ordnance. The mountains are all taller than the default altitude at which aircraft fly, and this means that they have an effect on missiles and planes. There is a mechanic where aircraft will fly over them if they are in the right condition to do so, and lock-ons can be created across mountains.

Maneuvers, Stamina and Trajectory
The game's automatic mountain climbing will drain stamina. If this is combined with a maneuver, a significant amount of stamina is lost, and often the maneuver is unsuccessful or not carried out to its full extent.

It also takes time for a plane to descend back to normal altitudes from crossing a mountain. This means that an attacker seeking to engage ground targets just beyond a mountain will usually be unable to hit the targets at first. It is recommended to either go around, to descend from the mountain at an angle, or to overshoot the target before reversing direction.

Crashing Aircraft
The game will automatically guide an aircraft above a mountain if there is enough stamina and if the aircraft is capable of making the course correction. If those conditions are not met, then the aircraft will crash into the mountain.

Causing an enemy to crash will award a player an achievement.

Blocking Missiles
Although it is possible to gain lock-ons with any sort of missile, the mountains will usually block them without some form of player intervention. They are tall enough so that missiles will crash into them before impacting the target. This means a player should understand where the target is located, and angle the plane upwards early by using the maneuver button. This will send the missile on a path which will have it arc over the mountain, but it will not work with heatseeking missiles that have been fired without a lock - the heatseeker will usually fly too high to lock onto a target at a later time. It may also be necessary for the player to simply cross the mountain first.

Race Maps
On the race maps, the player cannot fly over mountains without attempting to use maneuvers. They mark the path along which the player is intended to fly, however, and doing so is discouraged. Some mountains have names on the Race Maps. For instance, there is a very high, vertical cliff known as the Devil's Face in the MiG-21's race map. Another in the F-5E's race map is known as the Death Trap, as two ridges create a very narrow bottleneck that an unprepared player will usually crash into.