Adding Kittyhawk Carrier to SFG

[Platinum Rogue 48]

Following the instructions Here, I just started a campaign from the carrier, but when the mission loads, my flight has crashed into the sea, and there is no carrier anywhere in sight. What's wrong with the tutorial?

[Platinum Rogue 48]

No-one knows? Maybe there's nothing wrong with the tutorial then, but I've done something wrong? I checked all the ini edits and as far as I could see there were no typo's or extra spaces etc.

 

This time I've tried adding an add-on carrier, one of Beer's/Capun's, the CV59 Forrestal class. I extracted the rar file to the groundobjects directory as the readme states, then edited the campaigndat.ini as follows:

 

//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[CarrierUnit001]

CarrierType=CV-59 Forrestal Class

CarrierNumber=59

UnitName=CVA-59 USS Forrestal

ForceID=1

Nation=USN

BaseArea=Echo Station

NumSquadron=5

BaseSize=MEDIUM

Experience=100

Morale=100

Supply=100

 

//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Next I edited the Skyhawk squadron as follows:

 

[AirUnit004]

AircraftType=A-4B

Squadron=VA36

StartDate=9/1/1959

ForceID=1

Nation=USN

DefaultTexture=USNGrey1

BaseArea=Echo Station

CarrierBased=TRUE

CarrierNumber=59

(etc)

(etc)

 

In the planning map the carrier exists but when the mission starts, the result is the same, the carrier isn't there in 3D and my flight explodes in the water.

 

Perhaps someone who has this working could post there .ini files for comparison?

Edited November 1, 2006 by Platinum Rogue

[Platinum Rogue 48]

Well looky here, I got it done

 

 

The tutorial contains some errors/omissions, so I'm going to post here how I got it to work.

 

The Forrestal problem was mainly due to the directory structure not being correct in the GroundObjects folder, after extracting the rar file. Probably my fault in hindsight, but the readme didn't state that I had to create a new directory within the GroundObjects folder. That part was probably lost in translation, or maybe just presumption

 

I moved the files and folders from the CV-59.rar into their own folder called CV-59, then referenced that folder in the CAMPAIGN1DATA.INI file here:

 

//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[CarrierUnit001]

CarrierType=CV-59

CarrierNumber=59

UnitName=CVA-59 USS Forrestal

ForceID=1

Nation=USN

BaseArea=Echo Station

NumSquadron=5

BaseSize=MEDIUM

Experience=100

Morale=100

Supply=100

 

//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I'm happy, I have a usable carrier stationed off Dhimar but, not wishing to take anything away from the guys who made it, the deck textures are too low a resolution, so I really have to try and get that WOV carrier working. Which I'm glad to say didn't take long once I applied the same file structure principles.

 

First, I copied the 'CVA-63' folder from C:\Program Files\Wings Over Vietnam\Objects\GroundObject to C:\Program Files\ThirdWire\SFG\Objects\GroundObject.

 

Next I extracted all the CV-63, CV63 and CVA-63 files from C:\Program Files\Wings Over Vietnam\Objects\ObjectData.CAT with SFP1E, and copied them to the new CVA-63 folder in SF. Here I've shown the files, everything between, and including, the 2 that are selected were extracted.

 

 

The bitmap files I copied into the 'USN Grey' texture folder, the rest stayed in CVA-63. I guess you could extract them all to WOV's CVA-63 folder before you copy it, but I'm just stating what worked for me :)

 

I then edited SF's CAMPAIGN1_DATA.INI adding the new carrier as Carrierunit002:

 

//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[CarrierUnit001]

CarrierType=CV-59

CarrierNumber=59

UnitName=CVA-59 USS Forrestal

ForceID=1

Nation=USN

BaseArea=Echo Station

NumSquadron=5

BaseSize=MEDIUM

Experience=100

Morale=100

Supply=100

 

[CarrierUnit002]

CarrierType=CVA-63

CarrierNumber=63

UnitName=CVA-63 USS Kitty Hawk

ForceID=1

Nation=USN

BaseArea=India Station

NumSquadron=5

BaseSize=MEDIUM

Experience=100

Morale=100

Supply=100

 

//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Then I made Airgroup006 it's embarked squadron, VMFA-531, flying F4-B's:

 

[AirUnit006]

AircraftType=F-4B

Squadron=VMFA531

StartDate=8/15/1963

ForceID=1

Nation=USMC

DefaultTexture=USMCGrey1

StartNumber=1

BaseArea=India Station

CarrierBased=TRUE

CarrierNumber=63

etc...

etc...

 

It's location is named 'India Station' which is 60 KM East and 100 KM North of 'Echo Station', defined in the DESERT_TARGETS.INI file, as Location=4:

 

[TargetArea075]

Name=India Station

Position=800000,760000

Radius=5657

ActiveYear=0

Location=4

Alignment=FRIENDLY

CarrierStation=TRUE

 

Finally I added 'Location004=Eastern Dhimar Strait' to the DESERT_NATIONS.INI

 

And that's it, a nice hi-res carrier in SF

 

 

Edited November 1, 2006 by Platinum Rogue

[column5 62]

That article I wrote is a bit old now, and ground objects are handled a little differently since SP4. Glad you got it working.

[SayethWhaaaa 245]

That article I wrote is a bit old now, and ground objects are handled a little differently since SP4. Glad you got it working.

 

That particular article states that you can't change the carrier name from CV-63 or something to that effect meaning you can only have that particular carrier on station.

 

 

By adding the Forrestal and the KittyHawk, does this mean that multiple carriers can be added at once? I'm interested because I'm coming from the point of view that I wouldn't mind adding a carrier for each side, or multiple carriers depending on the nation.

Edited November 3, 2006 by SayWhat?!

[column5 62]

Well, this is what I say in the article:

 

"Note that the CarrierType must remain CVA-63, but the CarrierNumber and UnitName can be changed to whatever you want, so you could use the CVA-63 model to represent any Kitty Hawk class carrier."

 

This is because you are using the CVA-63 model, but you are free to change the Number and Name to reflect whatever Kitty Hawk Class you want to represent.

[Platinum Rogue 48]

Just a quick update, I deleted 'Location004' from DESERT_TARGETS.INI and changed India Station to 'LOCATION=3' in DESERT_TARGETS.INI. Now the location of the Kitty Hawk is reported as India Station, Straits of Dhimar, and the carrier is still visible, and usable

 

I was just checking that the third location would support more than 1 carrier, since they theoretically are just another airfield.

 

I think I'll add a British carrier next

[+Dave 2,318]

Well PR why don't you update the tutorial so I can repost it.....

[Platinum Rogue 48]

Sure, I'd be glad to

[Bulldog 0]

Sigh...even after reading all of this, and checking it over again and again, I still see no carriers. Bit frustrating it is.

[Fubar512 1,350]

Sigh...even after reading all of this, and checking it over again and again, I still see no carriers. Bit frustrating it is.

 

 

 

Bulldog,

 

 

 

I've just responded to a similar query on another site, so if you don't mind, I'll simply recycle my post...

 

 

 

Installing the carrier is only half the battle as you can only take off and land from a carrier in either a campaign or a scripted mission, either of which must be written to include the carrier.

 

Unfortunately carriers aren't available in randomly-generated missions (at least, not yet )

[Bulldog 0]

That's just it, I edited everything to include carriers, and still it's not showing up. There must be something I'm not doing, but right now I can't seem to find it...never can when I'm looking, lol! I haven't tried a scripted mission though, I'll try that and maybe I can isolate the problem a bit. In previous installs I have got that to work.

 

Maybe the next service pack could address adding carriers.

 

PR: I looked at the readme in the CV-59 package and I too did not see anything about making a new folder to extract to. So it wasn't just you.

Edited November 25, 2006 by Bulldog

[jtin 0]

That's just it, I edited everything to include carriers, and still it's not showing up. There must be something I'm not doing, but right now I can't seem to find it...never can when I'm looking, lol! I haven't tried a scripted mission though, I'll try that and maybe I can isolate the problem a bit. In previous installs I have got that to work.

 

Maybe the next service pack could address adding carriers.

 

PR: I looked at the readme in the CV-59 package and I too did not see anything about making a new folder to extract to. So it wasn't just you.

I think the CV-59 package was updated for SP4, but make sure that you have three lines at the top of the CV**.ini:

[GroundObjectData]

ObjectFullName=xxxxxx

ObjectDataFile=xxxxxx_data.ini

Also, check if you've done everything in the updated article on adding carriers.

 

Platinum Rogue:

You can assign multiple carriers to a same location and multiple squadrons to carriers. I've only noticed one thing. While fiddling around with Gepard's DRV campaign, I noticed that Zulu station (It may have been the other one) doesn't work. You start on the water with no carrier. I can't see anything wrong with it, so more investigation is needed.

Good Luck!

[Bulldog 0]

Well, the carriers work when I create a mission, so I assume it's installed correctly, the only thing I'm wondering is this at the top of the CV.ini file:

 

[GroundObjectData]

; Forrestal Class Carriers

ObjectFullName=CV-59 Forrestal Class

ObjectDataFile=CV-59_data.ini

 

Should that second line be there? It says in the readme that it was updated for SP4, yet the entry is slightly different that I expected.

 

I was using the "Vietnam Campaign Fictional" which is a modification of Gephard's campaign, and neither station was working. I'll try the original and see what happens.

[Bulldog 0]

Progress! I got the carrier to work in the Burning Sands campaign. It seems all I had to do was this in the Campaign.ini file:

 

[CarrierUnit001]

CarrierType=CV-59

CarrierNumber=59

UnitName=CVA-59 USS Forrestal<======= change to CV-59 USS Forrestal

ForceID=1

Nation=USN

BaseArea=Echo Station

NumSquadron=5

BaseSize=MEDIUM

Experience=100

Morale=100

Supply=100

 

I had copied some of the data from this post and it didn't match what was in the CV folder.

 

Now on to DRV!

 

UPDATE: in the "Vietnam Campaign Fictional" Campaign.ini, I made the carrier entries this way:

 

[CarrierUnit001]

CarrierType=CV-59<=====This is the change

CarrierNumber=62

UnitName=CV-62 USS Independence

Nation=USN

BaseArea=Yankee Station

NumSquadron=3

BaseSize=MEDIUM

Experience=100

Morale=100

Supply=100

Tour[01].Start=11/1968

Tour[01].End=12/1972

 

[CarrierUnit002]

CarrierType=CV-59<======Ditto!

CarrierNumber=61

UnitName=CV-61 USS Ranger

ForceID=1

Nation=USN

BaseArea=Zulu Station

NumSquadron=3

BaseSize=MEDIUM

Experience=100

Morale=100

Supply=100

Tour[01].Start=11/1968

Tour[01].End=12/1972

 

 

JTIN: it's the Yankee Station that doesn't work, I can get it to work At Zulu Station now.

Edited November 25, 2006 by Bulldog