AI FLYABLE RIGID AIRSHIPS:
Well, a quick and dirty work to make AI flyable two of the excellent Stephen1918 airships.
-The real L32 Zeppelin was shot down in 1916 over Horns Reef by the cruisers Galetea and Phaeton while trying to raid England. Before this it made 77 recon missions over North Sea.
The model we have is intended to have a generic German rigid Airship to use in campaign mode (you should create units with one plane and only one pilot).
-The real R23 class was never used in combat, but two of the improved R23X were built in 1918, and in fact one of them, the R29 attacked the UB-115 U-boat (it also was attacked by some ships. The submarine was sunk, and this was the only recoorded success of a British rigid airship.
Both airships are hard to destroy with machine guns, but the AI fighters will try to pass through the Airship sometimes (a game engine limit). Bad idea! The fighter will be destroyed (and the pilot probably will had the VC or Legion d'honneur) and the Airship badly damaged.
To install them you should put the AirshipR23 and ZeppelinL32 folders into your Aircraft folder.
Enjoy it!
Both models and skins by Stephen1918
All FMs, Loadouts and .ini stuff by Ojcar
Special thanks to Peter01 and Hitchingbroke!

Palestine Terrain - June 2014
(Summary of the ReadMe file included in the download.)
 
I highly recommend that you make a new install of First Eagles for this terrain. The ground objects, planes, and nations involved are different from the stock game.
 
This terrain works best using the Desert.cat file from Strike Fighters. It is possible to run this using the Cambrai.cat file from First Eagles. Instructions for installing either option are in the ReadMe file.
 
NOTE - In FE2, this terrain has a problem with shadows for some areas. The only solution is to ratchet down the shadow settings until the problem goes away. I have included notes in the ReadMe file which go into more detail.
 
 
CREDITS
Gepard made a Palestine terrain for Strike Fighters some time ago. I have kept many of the objects he included in the original, including the Pyramids of Giza.
 
Wrench made a World War I version of Gepard's terrain. I have kept a lot of his work - you will still find many of Wrench's "Easter Eggs" in my version.
 
Wingwiner gave me permission to use some of the buildings he made for Strike Fighters.
 
Geezer gave me permission to use his ground crew and airfield objects, AA guns and balloon winches. Geezer also made the skin for the city buildings.
 
Everyone whose work is included in this download has given me permission to use their work. I thank them.
 
Gerwin made a TFD Tool which I used for a lot of the terrain map tweaking and target placement. I thank him for sharing it.
 
Ojcar shared many resources for the history of WWI in Palestine. I thank him for his help.
 
I wish to thank Geezer, Panama Red and Ojcar for beta testing. They all did multiple installs and tweaking as we tried to figure out the shadow problem. Geezer and Panama Red installed the game on different computers to see how the game performed on different platforms. I also wish to thank Wrench whose input was helpful during the testing phase.
THIS VERSION
I have made many minor changes to the terrain - I made new terrain tiles, (most based on Gepard's) and I have leveled the airfields and train stations, and smoothed out the height map around cities.
 
I changed a lot of place names, and I added places that were significant in WWI. I added a lot of (unnamed) small towns and villages to fill out the landscape.
 
I made a lot of new objects - bridges, trains, tents, trucks, cavalry units, city buildings, etc. I also reskinned some buildings, vehicles, and ships that I made for other terrains.
 
In my version I used the "ActiveDate/InactiveDate" feature of the target.ini to make airfields and targets change sides as the war proceeds. So different flags, AAA guns, vehicles, and planes will show up in the locations depending on the month and year.
 
The dates I used match the dates Ojcar uses in his campaigns. You should fly Ojcar's campaigns to get the real benefit of this terrain.
 
I have included a new title screen for this terrain.
 
Complete installation instructions are included in the ReadMe file in the download.
 
I highly recommend that you install Panama Red's sky mods. It adds a whole new level to the experience.
 
I also recommend that you install Ojcar's Palestine campaigns. This terrain was built for his campaigns and you will get the best gameplay using them.

These are new BE2c skins made for the Palestine mod. To install, replace the existing five bmp files in the BE2cRAFLinen folder with these five new bmp files.

Kudos to Wrench! He massaged the basic elements I sent him, and created a complete DL ready to drop into your game folders. He set it up for SF2 but it should work OK for FE2. As usual, pay attention to the ReadMe. This pack does not include airfield figures - they are still in-work so a separate pack will be released when they are complete. The floor of the large hangar is a separate object, similar to the parking ramp. Hopefully, you can tweak the height and angle of these objects if you encounter problems with a game map that is not completely flat and level.

This pack contains all new airfield objects - hangars, barn, farmhouse, shed, barracks, etc. Just updated the pack to V1.1 - it now includes the missing Barracks and Base Ops files.
 
These objects use hi-res graphics and may not run well on older computers.

This pack contains all new WW1 airfield figures.

This pack contains all new WW1 maintenance objects.
 
4/24/2014:
revised the pack to include missing .bmp for the maintenance equipment.

Dogfight for Thirdwire Simulators (Series 1)
 
Dogfight is a quick mission generator much like Microsofts Quick Combat and
Ubisofts Quick Mission Builder.
This simple little program is an attempt to add similar facility to Thirdwire products
without editing Mission files by hand, or struggling with a complex Mission Editor.
So, using it you should be up and flying against a selected opponent within a few
seconds (once you're use to the system anyway!).
 
As a template for the Missions I used a standard 1v1 fighter encounter so the action
begins very close together (2 km seperation for WWI types, slightly further for faster types).
 
To use you:
1)Start Dogfight.
2)Setup mission.
3)Press the Red GENERATE button.
4)LEAVE Dogfight running.
5)Start the Thirdwire Simulator.
6)Go to the Single Mission page and then Load Mission Menu.
7)Click on the name of the mission that you just created in dogfight(default is "0 Dogfight").
 
8)When you want to change the mission click on Alt and Tab simultaneously.
9)Select Dogfight, make your changes and then press the red GENERATE button.
10)Return to the Thirdwire Simulator by clicking it on the task bar (or alt tabbing if you prefer).
11)ALWAYS RESELECT THE MISSION from the Single Mission-Load Misiion Menu to update the information.
12)Play the mission!
 
Repeat 8-12 as many times as you want
 
This sounds a bit long winded but you do soon get used to it.
 
Testing
DogFight has been tested with FE1 extensively (with virtually all the add on aircraft from
CombatAce, the Skunkworks and Peter01 fms), SFP1 (chiefly SCW) and WOE1 (chiefly WOR and WOA).
I've also tried it with some early Korean War era jets (SFP1).
I have only briefly tried it with more modern types (WOE) and though it works I'm not too sure
how useful regular fliers of these types will find it (it's the one period that I never really fly).
I have no access to any Thirdwire Series 2 sims so I really don't know if it will work with them.
 
 
The program was written using Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2010 C++ and FLTK.
FLTK (Fast Light Toolkit) is a great free package for constructing GUIs really quickly and easily.
Without it I doubt that I would have had time to write this program.
 
 
Thanks
 
Thanks to TK for creating a marvellous set of Sims. I love the way they work with TrackIR.
 
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the many add on creators at Combatace and
the Skunkworks who have given me many hours of great gaming.
 
I hope Dogfight helps to provide some entertainment for Thirdwire Simulator Users.
 
Gary Ireland