How To Create A Seperate, Era Specific Install

[Wrench 9,429]

EDIT, 3/19/09: It should be noted at this time, that using ANY of the game patched up to the current level (ie: with the 9/08 and/or 10/08 patches) is ABSOLUTELY NOT RECCOMENDED!!!! Just about all these WW2 and later prop aircraft have flight models that were built MUCH eariler. It is my considered, and much tested, opiniion, that you not patch your game install, in particular one to be used for WW2, to any level higher than the 10/06 patch. Otherwise, you WILL experience some "oddities" with almost every aspect of the flight model; from landing gears to who know what!!

Thank You!

 

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This little tutorial is designed to show you how to create an Era Specific Install.

FPS players (Doom, Quake, etc) would consider the creation of such an install as a 'Total Conversion', which is basically what we're about to do....totally convert a Modern Jet Sim into a 2nd World War version

 

It should be noted, that I'm using the word "install" to actually mean 'copy'. You won't be running the install program, or have to add patches, as you'll be taking an existing install of the game, and creating another.

 

There are many and varied reasons to create an 'Era Specific' install of your game; the most important is to remove confusion of having the wrong types of aircraft/ship/ground objects showing up in inapproiate places (for example, having Mig-21's arrive over the Solomon's while you're flying a F4F Wildcat, or Zekes over London.)

 

These instructions are built around Wings Over Europe, but they are the same for any of the other in the series: Strike Fighters, Wings Over Vietnam, or even First Eagles.

 

We're going to concentrate on a World War 2 install, this one for the European Theatre of Operations (ETO). While on the subject of WW2 installs, in theory, you'll need at least 3 different ones, covering the major Theatres:

 

ETO (Western/Northern Europe)

PTO (Pacific)

MTO (Med and North Africa)

 

The Pacific can also be split in two, one for general PTO (Darwin/Oz, Solomons, Phillipines, Japanese Home Island/Okinawa) and China/Burma/India (CBI) -- each would have it's own specific aircraft sets.

 

To Begin....

 

You're going to need a fully patched version of WoE -but REMEMBER--use no patch later than the 10/2006 version--, and the latest weapons pak. You should already have them somewhere on your hard drive. If not, you will most definately need one.

 

For those of us with massive HDs, you should have a stock, unmodded install, that can be used as the base for updating others.

(for more information on that, see USAFMTL's post here in the KB, Add-On Saving Patches: Patching With Confidence)

 

Ok, let's get to creating a 'new' install. We all know how to copy/paste files around here, so I won't insult anyone by explaining that

 

1) Create a new folder; call in it "WoE_WW2_ETO"

2) Open your stock install of WoE, and copy EVERYTHING - that means ALL the subfolders and other files inside the root folder; all the exe's and other little bits floating around.

The folder list is:

 

Campaigns

Controls

Effects

Flight

Manual

Menu

Mission

Net Cache

Objects including the subfolders Aircraft, GroundObjects,Decals,Weapons

PilotData

Screenshots

Sounds

Speech

System

Terrain

 

It's extreamly important that the GermanyCE terrain folder comes over, as you'll be making adjustments on the WW2 terrain to make use of the GermanyCE.cat, located inside the terrain folder -- this cat holds a lot of the objects needed for your eye candy (airfields, and such like)

It should be noted here, that Edward's WW2 terrains contain almost everything needed to run; just follow the instructions in his enclosed readmes, and all should be well. If not, I'm only a PM away....

 

Sorry for the digression, but I'm sure someone would have had that question.

 

Back to what we were doing...

 

Don't worry about registry entries for the 'copy of install'....once the game is installed in the usual manner, you don't need to run it again. The single registry entry is sufficent for any number of installs for whichever game you're using. (thanks to SayWhat for reminding me!)

 

You'll need to create a new shortcut for your ETO install, hopefully you know how to do that.

I must insert a shamless plug here, as I've created several icons for shortcut use for various WW2 style installs. They're available here at CA, and also at my site.

 

Ok, now we've got our ETO folders set up, but we're still full of modern aircraft. This is the easy bit...delete ALL the modern aircraft ... you won't be needing them anymore. Toss them into the recyle bin.

 

As for the ground objects, you can pretty much leave them alone, as they for the most part, won't show up. You may want to extract the Zil-157's data ini and change the NationName= to 'WW2_Soviet". Leave the jeep alone, as it's a world-wide standard vehicle.

 

Speaking to the Nations, you'll need the WW2 Nations ini and Formations mod, otherwise you'll get all kinds of CTDs and general weirdness. The formations have been changed to fit the era, as have the Nations...in particular the addition of the Axis Powers. Most of the Allies are unchanged; RAF, RN, AdA, USMC, USN, etc...only the USAF needs a little tweek; here's what I did with mine for all my WW2 installs:

 

[Nation002]

Name=USAF

DisplayName=United States Army Air Force

Alignment=FRIENDLY

 

With the above data, you don't have to change the "NationName=" in any of the data inis, or the weaponspak. It shows up in the debrief, or medal screens as "United States Army Air Force", as the USAF as such, didn't exist until September/October 1947.

 

EDIT: One thing I forgot to mention, is a little file called the "Options.ini", that resides in the main, or root folder of everyone of the games. You'll need to do a little tweek on the mission years. So, go ahead and open that up in you text editor of choice.

When you've it open, scroll down till you find the 'SingleMission' header. At the bottom (this one is from WoE), you'll see this:

 

StartYear=1955

EndYear=1985

 

You'll want to go and change it to something that fits more with the time frame. What I've done on all of mine, is basically make them spread for 100 years...

 

StartYear=1930

EndYear=2040

 

Continue scrolling down, as it's repeated several more time (DogfightHost, Co-OpMission). Replace every instance with the year spread above. Save and close.

 

Now we've got that sorted out, you can go ahead and start installing you European Air Warbirds. Be advised, however, that there are skin sets that are theatre specific...you don't want a Desert camoed Hurricane or Blenheim flying over France & Low Countries. Those that are here at CA should have that stated in their readmes, and hopefully, in the blurbs in the downloads section (I know mine do!)

 

You'll find the WW2 aircraft here at CA, in strangelly enough, the "WW2 Aircraft" section, with all the usual suspects; especially now that Wolf has re-released his WW2 Plane Pak, with loads of updated Luftwaffe and USAAF birds.

 

You'll have to go searching for the vehicles; some are here at CA, others are scattered around the Web - Geo has many of them at his site;

Geo's SF Aircraft, Vehicles and Etc

Many of the other ground objects, AAA units, etc can be found in Edwards terrain pak. Ships and other items can be found in the usual places, ususally right here at CA.

 

Now, I know there are some issues with the loadouts on some of the WW2 Luftwaffe and IJN/IJAAF aircraft; those will be addressed as soon as possible in the 'Editing Loadouts' thread right here in the Knowledge Base, and for right now, is beyond the scope of this turorial.

 

That about finishes off creating a WW2 ETO Total Conversion Install of WoE for you flying pleasure. These same instruction can be used to create lots of others; Korea, the aforementioned PTO, and several that have already been released, such as Major Lee's superb "Danger:Bering Straits", or "Operation Tainted Cigar", or Mid-East Wars, the (well, needs updating and a major rebuild) Iran/Iraq Wars.

 

What are you doing reading this?? Get out there and fly, boy!!!

 

Any problems, questions, clarifications, please feel free to PM me

 

Happy Landings;

Wrench

Kevin Stein