WWI Alternative Medals Pack for FE - December 2015 update

Welcome to my latest update, December 2015, for this Medals Pack intended to provide your campaigns on the Western Front with a more complete immersion into the WW1 universe.

Compared with my latest update in July 2010, you will notice many changes, especially the appearance of new lists of awards for the Belgians and for two more German States, and some conspicuous increase in the already existing lists. The available panels now cover Germany, the United Kingdom & British Empire, France, Belgium, and the United States. About Germany, four panels are actually provided, allowing you to embody a pilot from either one of the main four federated kingdoms of Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria, or Wurtemberg – and to receive awards accordingly. Each Allied panel includes several awards from other Allied countries, each panel for the German Kingdoms includes several awards from other German States.

Two Nations lists are provided, the first one devoted to campaigns and missions taking place before early 1918, and the second and default one reassessing the state of the belligerents from early 1918 on. You’ll have to juggle with both lists according to the period of the War when you plan to fly your campaigns. Everything has been designed, when swapping the pre-1918 for the 1918 medals file during an extensive career, for the decorations you were awarded before April 1918 both to be preserved with original look and citations, and not to be awarded a second anachronistic time thereafter.

The pre-1918 list grants much more lenient criteria to be awarded the same distinctions you could also receive later spending more sweat, and prevents you to get awards unavailable before 1918. This pre-1918 list also allows you to explicitly fly as distinct nations both of the British air components existing before the Royal Air Force: the Royal Flying Corps, and the Royal Naval Air Service, both of them with their own lists of ranks, awards and citations.

Generally speaking, the requirements for awards for enduring service have been now revised upwards by large, to hang on to Ojcar’s Armchair Aces dynamic campaigns allowing to go through that long-term World War in its seemingly never-ending aspect. Each panel includes several decorations from allied countries (or from other German States in the case of the Second Reich). I chose to have the citations display the decorations’ names in original language without subtitle, as you can notice on the screenshots. Be easy, the awards you deserved are still announced in English on the Debrief Screen, and listed in English on the Medal List Screen.

A complete set of musics for all occurrences has been enriched, and sometimes modified since my latest update in July 2010. Several themes from the soundtrack of “The Blue Max” replace the game's default themes (Main Screen, Base Screen, Options Screen...), while national anthems and marches are devoted to each nation's overtures and successful debriefings sequences.

This Pack is a huge lot, and has been many, many times entirely re-engineered on a new basis. Each list of medals includes many links to other files, and not all of the available panels have been tested on the long term. Please report all of the quirks, crashes, and other non-appearances of medals or citations you could experience. I shall then edit the Pack according to the problems found.

VERY IMPORTANT : Be aware that in comparison with the former July 2010 update of this pack, this updated version has reshuffled orders of precedence and that the decorations in each panel had their code names modified and their individual numbers reallocated. This may certainly alter the lists of honours received already in any of your ongoing Allied or German campaigns. So think twice before installing this December 2015 update if you have current campaigns underway, and prefer installation when beginning new campaigns.