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    Blitzkreig 1940: CFS3 ETO Expansion
    33LIMA
    By 33LIMA,
    A Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf110 Campaign in the ultimate CFS3 expansion     CFS3 - so far anyway - marks a controversial end to the Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator series. In returning from CFS2's Pacific to the European Theatre of Operations, CFS3 had many new features. On the positive side, there was a modest but intriguing range of flyable aircraft, including the 'usual suspects' like the Spitfire, FW190 and P-51 but also medium bombers like the Ju-88 and B-25 Mitchell and some late-war prototypes like the Dornier 335 'push-pull' heavy fighter and the P-80 and Vampire jets. There were 'autogen' scenery objects to populate the terrain; and most of the ETO was covered, in a single 'map'. Less positively, graphics were questionable, with many rather poor cockpits and odd, mostly unrealistic coloured bands and other markings the player could apply to personalise his flight. Wingman commands were still the same limited set from CFS2, with no ground control interaction, a major gap. AI, damage models and flight models were dubious. Wingman radio traffic sounded canned and cheesy. And while there was a dynamic campaign at last, it was a rather odd beast, a sort of parallel universe 1942-45 ETO where the Germans could have invaded England and their shipping plied the English Channel in daylight.   But at least CFS3 covered the ETO, and while the air-to-air experience wasn't great (and completely left out battles with the heavy bombers) it made a passable job of simulating its declared subject: tactical fighter-bomber and medium bomber operations in the latter part of WW2 in Europe. For those of us whose fancy wasn't really caught by the Eastern Front, it was worth playing. Especially as the modders got to work, with groups like the Ground Crew and the AVHistory team developing many new planes. Commercial add-ons helped too; Firepower was widely praised, my other favourites being D-Day and Just Flight's Memphis Belle.   Nowadays, much of the modder's good work on CFS3 is available as a great package, under the title of the ETO Expansion. Others are still around, including Mediterranean Air War (MAW) and a Pacific Expansion. This mission report features the ETO expansion, which adds a real host of aircraft starting with those from the Spanish Civil War, along with much-improved airbases, scenery, ground and aircraft textures, period menu music and improved effects. Details of the package and download links are available here:   http://www.mrjmaint.com/CFS3/ETOHome.html   Installation is fairly complicated and involves creating a second CFS3 install; but there is an excellent .pdf guide which takes you through the process step by step and is pretty foolproof if followed.  The job's well worth while; it's still CFS3 at its core but on the outside, it's pretty well a whole new animal - CFS3, Jim, but not as we know it.   One of ETO Expansion's features is the addition of extra campaigns. You can now start your World War 2 in 1940, either during the 'Phoney War' when the two sides faced off at the Franco-German border immediately after the Polish Campaign; or as I chose, in the Blitzkrieg, when in May 1940 the Germans attacked in the West in one of the most successful and decisive campaigns of the war.   Having run the front-end ETO Expansion process which sets up the sim's spawns for this earlier period, I used the ETO Start 'selector' desktop proggie to choose the 1940 era. Pilot and campaign creation was next; both done in conventional CFS3 style. I chose to fly as a Luftwaffe fighter pilot. Unlike European Air War, CFS3 doesn't make it easy for you to fly your plane of choice. You select the role - fighter or bomber - and CFS3 picks the unit and the aircraft. There is a facility to transfer or change planes but it's limited. For this mission, I was allocated to a 'Zerstoerer' (destroyer) unit - as the Luftwaffe called its heavy fighters. Flying the sleek twin-engined Messerschmitt Bf110 and also known as 'Goering's Ironsides', these units were something of an elite. Disillusionment was to follow, when the Battle of Britain ruthlessly spotlighted the limitations of such aircraft in an environment dominated by more agile single-engined fighters. But that was all in the future. This was May 1940, and my Gruppe was about to play its part in the great Blitzkrieg in the west which, in a few weeks, would bring France to her knees and Britain to the verge of defeat.     ...to be continued!

    First Eagles: Fokker Scourge
    33LIMA
    By 33LIMA,
    Recreating the dawn of the fighter aircraft in First Eagles 2
     
    "Hundreds, nay thousands of machines have been ordered which have been referred to by our pilots as "Fokker Fodder" ... I would suggest that quite a number of our gallant officers in the Royal Flying Corps have been rather murdered than killed" Noel Pemberton-Billing MP, campaigning in 1916 against the dominance of the Royal Aircraft Factory in the design of RFC aircraft
     
    "...McCudden gave him another burst, and the Fokker broke off the attack. For the rest of the flight, the Fokker merely accompanied them, more like an escort than anything else. 'We live and we learn' was McCudden's comment on the deflation of the Fokker Menace story"  Alexander McKee in 'The Friendless Sky'
     
    The deployment of small numbers of a rather inferior monoplane armed with a fixed machine gun synchronised to fire forward through the airscrew was just one of a series of swings in the fortunes of the main combatants in the WW1 air war. Shortly beforehand, French pilots like Garros and Pégoud had sent shock-waves through German ranks with similar weapons, unsynchronised but with deflector wedges to protect their props. And within months, the Fokkers themselves had been eclipsed by superior enemies in the form of the Nieuport 11 and DH2, which in turn were outclassed by the Albatros.
     
    But it's the Fokker 'Eindekker' which gave its name to a whole chapter in air warfare, even if this owes as much to its exploitation in a British politician's campaign to secure a bigger role for private enterprise in British military aircraft design, as it does to the plane's own qualities. For despite its gun, the Fokker was a rather mediocre aeroplane, low-powered, with wing-warping rather than ailerons. And while its principal RFC prey the BE2c certainly suffered from a badly-placed observer with a limited field of fire, there are accounts which confirm the BE was not just the 'Fokker fodder' of legend and could defend itself ably enough if well-handled and not caught by surprise.
     
    Anyway, enough potted history! Having recently flown Stephen1918's superb new BE2c in the hostile skies of Spring 1917, I wanted to step back nearly two years and see the BE (and/or its fellow RFC machines) from a different perspective - through the gunsight of a predatory Fokker pilot, hunting his two-seater quarry in the period which truly pioneered the concept of the fighter aircraft.
     
    I decided to kick off a campaign in Ojcar's 'Armchair Aces' month-by-month campaign, starting in August 1915. At this time, Immleman and Boelcke were on the threshold of making names for themselves flying their new Eindekkers. Keen to do likewise, I created a new pilot and opted to fly with Kampfeinsitzer Kommando (KEK) Douai, based at nearby La Brayelle and flying against the RFC.
     
    Thanks to the modders, no other modern WW1 sim comes close to First Eagles in its flyable planeset, just as Red Baron 3d set that standard, before it. FE benefits from an excellent series of Eindekkers by modders Laton and BortdaFarm. Versions available are the EI, EII, EIII (which look much the same but have progressively more powerful engines) and even the twin-gunned but overweight EIV. And there are some look-alike Pfalz equivalents. For this campaign, our mount was the Fokker EI, with only an 80hp engine and a single 'Spandau' 7.92mm LMG 08/15. Ojcar's 'Armchair Aces' campaign integrates modder aircraft like these (and many more) into the FE campaign system and was therefore a natural choice to try my hand with an Eindekker in campaign mode.
     
    At this time, it was common for a flying unit on any side to operate more than one type of aircraft. Fokker monoplanes were initially allocated in ones and twos to ordinary two-seater units. While I believe you can do this sort of thing in single missions in FE, in campaign mode you have one plane type per squadron. As a staffel's Fokkers seem generally to have operated independently of the unit's two-seaters, it's easy enough to handle this by using the squadron roster, pre-mission, to ensure you fly either on your own or with one or maybe two companions. No need for missions with eight or twelve Fokkers lined up on the flight line, impressive though that may look! Operations in (slightly) greater strength become more realistic later, by which time Fokkers were often concentrated into Kampfeinsitzer Kommandos. I believe KEK Douai was associated with two-seater unit Flieger Abteilung 62 and actually formed in late 1915.
     
    Our first mission was in effect a 'scramble', to intercept an incoming enemy flight headed for Aniche airfield nearby. Although air defence/air raid warning systems were rudimentary at this time, it is clear from many accounts that Eindekkers were 'scrambled' in this fashion and did not always just fly patrols.
     
    To accompany me, I'd selected one other pilot, a senior NCO by the name of Rall, and here we are on the grass at La Brayelle. Assuming you haven't opted for an air start, FE starts you off in this fashion, with your prop just starting to turn, which gets around the issue of invisible ground crew in other sims (although I quite liked the invisible mechanic's cry of 'Good hunting, sir!' or 'Hals und beinbruch!' as you started up in CFS2 WW1 expansion 'Combat Aces').
     

     
    As we took off, I noticed flak bursts quite low in the sky, ahead of us. Snatching a glance at the in-flight map, it seemed clear that this must be the flight we were intended to intercept. Peering into the sky near the tip of the trail of busts, I could make out a pair of specks. These looked to be heading towards a friendly airfield which I could see as I gained height, a few miles distant. Today, I would not have to look far; trouble was coming to me!
     

    ...to be continued!

    'In the Nay-vee...' - WW1 seaplane action in First Eagles
    33LIMA
    By 33LIMA,
    Life and virtual death on and above the ocean waves in Ojcar's 'Unsung Heroes' seaplane campaign     Rise of Flight is not the only WW1 flightsim to feature seaplanes. Thanks to modder Stephen1918, First Eagles/FE2 also got its feet wet, with a series of floatplanes suitable for the Channel coast and a 'terrain' package, complete with some shipping. Fellow-modder Ojcar then provided us with a campaign to complete the scene.   The aircraft are available here...   http://combatace.com/files/category/360-first-eagles-add-on-aircraft/   ...the terrain is here...   http://combatace.com/files/file/14129-north-sea-terrain/   ...and the campaign is here:   http://combatace.com/files/file/14164-unsung-heroes/   The campaign needs a separate install of FE, which for FE2 is just a matter of copying the game executable, renaming and running it. This creates the 'mods' folder where you install the new items. The drill for FE(1) is slightly different but equally simple. You can combine the seaplanes in a normal install, but this campaign really needs a separate one, to avoid oddities like vehicles or landplanes moving on the sea surface. This limits the campaign to aero-naval action but it's nicely done and makes a fun and interesting challenge, nevertheless.   The campaign is set in 1917 and the briefing sets the scene nicely, with some short but interesting historical background to help you get 'in character'. The Germans, having occupied a stretch of coastline running from the eastern end of the English Channel to the southern end of the North Sea, are contesting the British and allied blockade and running some naval operations of their own. Both sides have the support - for this campaign - of seaplane tenders and their aircraft. Which is where the player comes in, of course.   I elected to fly for the German side, in a late-model Albatros W4. This was a fighter, basically a scaled-up Albatros DII with two large floats. For our first mssion, dated 1 November 1917, two of us were detailed to fly a defensive partol around our tender, the SMS Answald. I could have increased our strength by selecting more pilots from the squadron roster, but I thought we'd stick to a twosome. That was my first mistake.   Anyway here we are, ready for the 'off'. If you don't have an air start selected, FE, logically enough, starts you on the ground. Also logically enough, if there's no ground - as in, the middle of the North Sea - you're started on the water. Like so.     The ship in the background isn't our tender - which vessels were the progenitors of proper aircraft carriers - it's our surface escort. WW1 warship identification's not my speciality and it may be a representative type rather than a model of a real vessel but it looks suitably Victorian. I suspect FE doesn't model sea states which is just as well as I had enough trouble with all that water, in the 'dead calm' we got.   Getting off the ground - sorry, water - was the first challenge. Basically I opened her up and when it felt right, pulled back on the stick to increase the angle of attack and get a bit more lift in an effort to unstick. This worked...eventually. But my W4, once airborne, soon confirmed my suspicion that she was going to be rather less tractable than the scouts I was used to flying. She felt somewhere in between one of those, and a two-seater. Slow in the climb, ready to buffet in an impending stall if I increased the AoA too much, but reasonably willing to turn without behaving badly.   As you can see, you don't get a wake effect (unless I've not installed something somewhere, must check...) but the sea surface and our little flotilla made a nice backdrop for Stephen1918's beautiful plane, as myself and my wingman - the AI manage water takeoffs just fine -  climbed slowly away.     In a nice touch, our ships fly the correct Imperial German ensigns at stem and stern (the former being the pointy end, I believe). Behind us in the pic below, you can see both our escort and our seaplane tender.     As I orbited, slowly gaining height and getting a feel for my machine, the gunners on both our ships decided to give me a little surprise by commencing some brisk shooting. Fire and smoke bellowed from every barrel and tracer fire sped up and past us, directed at a target or targets which I had not yet seen. Obviously, our patrol was going to be no mere sight-seeing trip...     ...to be continued!

    Jasta 11, Rise of Flight + PWCG
    33LIMA
    By 33LIMA,
    First try-out with the latest version of Pat Wilson's Campaign Generator   Fans of classic WW1 sim Red Baron 3d like myself will likely know Pat Wilson from his outstanding 'Western Front Patch' which added shed-loads of good stuff to RB3d - I still have a WFP install on my current PC! More recently, Pat has turned his attentions to Rise of Flight. The latter shipped with simple 'mission set' linear campaigns, later joined by a career mode (which is still nominally in beta!). To this, Pat added a new campaign interface and mission generator, which adds lots of features and for many, transforms the RoF Single Player campaign experience into something reminiscent of RB3d, whose campaign set the bar for these things so many years ago.   PWCG has its own forum at RoF, where you can find out more, get the download links, and discuss the mod with others, including the developer:   http://riseofflight.com/Forum/viewforum.php?f=394   The PWCG web page is here and includes help and documentation, as well as the downloads themselves;   http://www.pwcampaigngenerator.com/WebSite/PWCG.html   PWCG simply unzips into your RoF game folder and when you run it, lets you create a campaign pilot, chose his rank and nationality (if you choose 'US' this allows you to transfer from French or British services to the US Air Service after the latter takes to the field) and campaign start date, month by month. You then generate a campaign. After that, you generate one mission at a time. You can review the mission briefing with a map which describes route, waypoints and enemy & friendly air units known to be operating in the area. If you don't like the look of this you can scrub it and try again. This is similar to the option in OFF but doesn't just give you a different target/route. Don't feel like busting balloons today? Scrub that and try again, till you get a mission type that you prefer. You can also vary waypoints, review the squadron roster and select which pilots will accompany you (except the leader, if that's not you).   You can then close PWCG and start RoF. Your generated mission will be there, waiting for you to fly, under the 'Missions' menu option.   After flying the mission, you can go back into PWCG. You're prompted to give the number of any claims you want to make and can then view a RB3d-style animated mission debrief on the map. This describes results more like the Red Baron original and in a less cryptic way that OFF's equivalent: naming your wingman in entries for losses or kills for example. If you want, you can type free text into a mission report, for future reference or to impress the 'brass hats'.   PWCG also lets you adjust many campaign parameters, not just simple ones like air and ground unit density. You can also apply for a transfer to a different squadron and take leave (=advance your campaign's current date).   There is an interface mod available at the PWCG web page, that will put PWCG onto the RoF menu, improving integration. I'm not sure if it works ok with the latest versions of both PWCG and RoF.   I started using PWCG on the recommendation of Barkhorn over at SimHQ while doing a comparative series of campaign mission reports for OFF, FE2 and RoF. I had been reluctant to do so as I (wrongly!) thought that working back and forth would be more hassle than I cared for, but I'm glad I changed my mind. Main factor here was that PWCG lets you choose a rank high enough to ensure that in most missions, you are the flight leader. This removes the chore of formation-keeping, takes away dependency on potentially-erratic flight-leader AI, and best of all, gives me the important and satisfying extra challenge of leading the patrol: navigating, watching out for activity and enemies and deciding what to do when we have a 'contact'. That's how I like to play all my sims so this is the biggest 'plus' for me.   This is not a review of PWCG. I've barely scratched the surface of its capabilities; suffice to say it looks like an amazing piece of kit and I can well understand the general enthusiasm for it in the RoF community.   Rather, I'm going to describe a campaign mission in the latest release. The change I was most looking forward to seeing (which came the previous release, IIRC) was more flak.   One of the things I didn't like at all, beforehand, was the paltry AA fire. Naturally, I have long ago installed the mod which kills RoF's horrible 'environmental flak'. In a war where the sight of AA fire was perhaps the main indication of potential targets in your area - something well replicated in FE2 and OFF, but not in RoF -  the presence of stray flak rounds just to add immersion was, in my view, a classic 'What WERE they thinking?' feature. But with 'environmental flak' laid to rest, I'd found that there was precious little 'real' AA fire. Much too often, planes that looked like obvious (if not priority) flak targets - and which I could see only using the excellent RoF view system - were not fired upon at all and so were not 'legitimately' detectable. This may have been compounded by enemy flights spawning rather close. Bad enough, but much worse if their arrival is not announced by the presence of nearby AA bursts. Getting no warning might be a fun extra challenge to some; but to me it's unrealistic if it happens nearly every time and it severely reduces the opportunity to do the patrol leader thing, where you spot an enemy flight in time to consider your options and make up a quick plan to deal with them. Preferably, with results like this:     So having downloaded and installed PWCG 15.2, I was keen to see the difference and to get to the grips with the enemy, at least sometimes on my own terms, rather than just blundering into them. I was not disappointed!   ...to be continued!

    CombatACE Spotlight: Interview with Russouk2004
    Skyviper
    By Skyviper,
    COMBATACE Spotlight: Interview with Russouk2004 “The community here is so talented, I’m surprised we ain’t got together and made our own sim yet…” -Russouk2004     This week CombatACE got the chance to catch up with Russouk2004. He hails from Cardiff, South Wales, in the United Kingdom and has been a member here at CombatACE since 2004. Over the years he’s a released a number of mods but his most downloaded mod is the BF109E. A download link will be inlcuded at the bottom of this interview for those interested in trying it out.   Thank for you taking the time to do an interview with us, Russouk2004. Please, tell us a little about yourself. Well im,52..yikes,did I own up to that?  Live in Cardiff ,South Wales UK. I work full time for a well know UK supermarket, owned by Wal Mart. I love flight sims, play call of duty in a clan and love beer, my missus and our 2 cats in that order  I love to mod and am grateful to people who like what I make.   What interest you about aviation? Well it all started when I was a kid, granddad and dad were both flyers. My gramp in WW2 flew Hurricanes and Typhoons. And my dad flew hunter and phantoms and a few others... I’ve always loved aircraft and built hundreds of kits, mostly a\c . It’s the magic of all that metal hurtling through the air, god knows how lol.(I know...wings create lift etc etc   he he)..a\c just amaze me...the speed, sounds and smells, it’s just brilliant, makes the hairs on your neck rise, when a Tornado in Afterburners speeds past you...or the sound of a merlin prop of the spitfire...awesome.   What is your favorite aircraft and why? My favourite aircraft hard question...hmmm I would say, Ive really 2,one a prop and other a jet. For prop, it would be the hawker hurricane, such a rugged fighter and unsung hero really, sounds and looks the business. Jet will have to be the Flanker...it’s just a beast, looks perfect for its assigned tasks... and is. It’s a huuuuge aircraft but so agile etc, and looks just what it is...deadly.   What got you interested in flight simulation? Can’t fly for real so 2nd best thing is flying a simulated aircraft. Perfect! You get to fly anything you like, and from your chair, and it’s safe.   Do you remember the first flight sim you ever played? Yes indeed, chuck yeagers...advanced flight sim ...seems so long ago compared o today’s standards.   What motivated you to arrive at CombatAce and stay over the years? Good content not found elsewhere, great people to visit here ,lots of info ,and downloads galore..basically it’s a magnet!   When did you start modding? Blimey, can’t really remember...I think it was for USAF,making skins. What does modding do for you? Is it something that is relaxing and neat hobby etc? It’s a buzz...realizing, stuff you make is available for people to use worldwide...and you see it on google lol..its addictive (as any 3d modder for example, will tell you)...also, you get to fly stuff you never see anywhere else..my Hawker P1211 for example, I’ve never seen it in a sim. If cant find jet in a sim you would like to fly..?...make it lol..   I see that your most downloaded file is the BF109E. What inspired you to create that mod? Ahhh yes, lovely little fighter,2nd favorite prop by the way...just looks the biz and a real gem of a plane, just had to make one.   How much time and research did you put into making that mod? Well actually I spend ages on google etc looking for plans and pictures, thing is, there`s so much out there, you get carried away looking...I suppose a few months actually getting info etc and building the thing. The actual 3d stuff is the easy bit, time consuming work is the mapping and skin. I usually make the template first ,panel lines rivets, parts etc then paint layered colour schemes, wear n tear etc etc..that takes your time up. When you see the end result. And its popular, well worth the time.   What modding tools do you use and why? 3ds max Paint shop pro 7.04 Photoshop. 3ds max...obviously,for the actual model.   I use ps7 as its tools are so easy and effective, basically for the templates, lines rivets etc, and paintjobs. ps I use primarily for decals, some paintjobs and the effects are outstanding for weathering models, etc. Also its good for making the bumpmaps that give models that 3d looking skin.   What is your favorite mod you have created? hmmm,good question. I would say undoubtedly, the P47N-15. That was just right I think. with hawk 2nd place.   What is your favorite mod that you did not create? You like tough questions eh?...lol. easy, anything by stary, for terrains like his Green hell mods...outstanding stuff he does.       Provided that you have the time and resources what would be your dream mod that you would like to make? BAE HARRIER T4 most definite, in shiny Black it looks wicked aircraft.   Who is a Modder, or group of Modders, you admire or inspired you to start modding? Basically, people here, after seeing stuff here I decided to try it, gmax was free so decided to get some tutorials, and have a go.   Do you have any favorite quotes or thoughts about being here at CombatACE you’d like to share? No quote comes to mind. I would say this, any time you need help, there’s always someone here willing to offer help etc, everyone who loves to fly sims here who can’t mod or unable to, still offer help, thats rare on a lot of other sites I’ve been to. The community here is so talented, I’m surprised we ain’t got together and made our own sim yet, I’m sure we could, lol. No matter who you are, where you live, we share a common hobby (addiction ?...lol) and regarding strike fighters for example, it would be an ok sim, but guys here have made it far better, I know it’s not graphically as good as say Lock On ,but it’s easier to use, and easier to mod. Actually saying that, the gfx are good. I digress, I thank all at CombatACE, for putting up with me lol...     Staff members are awesome. Let’s keep it up.   That’s it, all I shall say is now, Merry Christmas everyone.   Cheers!   Thank you Russouk2004 for the interview and you too enjoy your holidays. Here is the link to the BF109E mod created by Russouk2004. Please read all associated readmes and download instructions to fully enjoy the mod. Thank you for stopping by and checking out today's CombatACE spotlight.

    DCS Winter Sale
    MigBuster
    By MigBuster,
    DCS Winter Sale Friday, 20 December 2013 From December 20 to January 5 2014, Eagle Dynamics will have a 60% off Winter sale for the following DCS products:    DCS: Mi-8MTV2 Magnificent Eight, Pre-Purchase Beta. $49.99 now $19.99  DCS: UH-1H Huey, Pre-Purchase Beta. $49.99 now $19.99  Lock On: Flaming Cliffs 3. $49.99 now $19.99  DCS: A-10C Warthog. $39.99 now $15.99  DCS: Black Shark 2. $39.99 now $15.99  DCS: P-51D Mustang. $39.99 now $15.99  DCS: Combined Arms. $29.99 now $11.99  DCS: Black Shark 2 Upgrade. $29.99 now $11.99  A-10A: DCS Flaming Cliffs. $14.99 now $5.99  Su-25: DCS Flaming Cliffs. $14.99 now $5.99    http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/shop/

Portal by DevFuse · Based on IP.Board Portal by IPS


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