sockboy 0 Posted March 14, 2008 Hi guys... Ive been playing First Eagles since it came out and I must say that its one of my favourite Games of all time..I have chosen, after listening to many discussions here and viewing many Posts on this Forum, not to go along the route of installing the Expansion Pack as I believe, at the moment anyway, that i would prefer to fly under the constaints of a Pre Expanded F.E. but without the problems (and indeed possible advantages!) the Expansion pack might bring..also this decision is based on the fact that I downloaded all the planes and terrains, enhancements, tweaks and add ons that all the excellent Modders and workers here have provided over the time...Perhaps work can continue on Pre Expansion pack new Aircraft(we have most,Far more than most WW1 Sims, only need a few now!)that can be used (albeit with a bit of work) on Post expansion F.E.? thanks so much in advance for all you Modellers here time and effort..I really do appreciate it..;0) I cant thank enough many of you guys who have provided me with lots of entertainment over these Months with your excellent work for this game, Peter (for his constant and contiouous improvements!) Tilspin, Firecage, Capun and Charles, Poppy,Bort, Mr.Craig and the many many others who have made this game as good as it is today..I salute you all as I have absolutely no Modding or design skills whatsoever myself!! lol... Now making this choice NOT to get the E.P. means I have some Problems regarding certain things...lol... reduced Stalls (I can live with that!)but I would also dearly love and pre expansion working R.E.8 Aircraft to fly as its one of the few missing from the pre expanded F.E as it stands...My wish list continues below..lol..the R.E.8 is one of the few really important Aircraft missing from Pre Expansion F.E.That and the Hanriot. A Desert Terrain, for those Lawrence of Arabia type scenarios!!! An Italian/Austrian Front Terrain, A Somme Terrain,Ypres Terrain,Mons Terrain, Paschendale Terrain, a Russian Front Terrain, Tannenberg anyone? Hee Hee..any of these Terrains would be a great help to overall immersion in F.E. Some more early War Aircraft,Ive seen the post about the Voisin but I was thinking of a Taube, a Bleriot X1, and perhaps a Caudron? (if not, and i have no modelling Skill myself!..does anyone fancy a new project?) I love the F.E. Community and know just how talented some of you guys are with FMs.. I was also looking recently at some Russian Aircraft of WW1 and there are quite a few possibilities and more info on them available on the Net..some potential Candidates could be... An Anatra DS Recon Aircraft An Anadwa VKh Light Bomber A Mosca MB 2bis Fighter (monoplane 1916) A Sikorsky Mourometz (4 Engined Heavy Bomber, the worlds First, 1914) A Sikorsky S-16 Fighter A Voisin Ivanov fighter Other Aircraft that id love to see in F.E are: Vickers FB5 Gunbus De Havilland D.H.5 Sopwith one and a half Strutter Bristol Scout A Hanriot H.D.1 Vickers F.B.12 Ansaldo SVA5 Sopwith Salamander Hansa Brandenburg D.1 (Starstrutter) Phonix D.III Fiat R2 Short Bomber Vickers Vimy Airco D.H.9 Armstrong-Whitworth F.K.8 Nieuport-Delage 29 Dorand A.R.1 Paul Schmitt 7 Lloyd C.II Lohner C.1 Rumpler C.I. Ago C.II A.E.G. CIV Well thats my wish list for Santa!!! lol lol.. seriously though lads, ANY of these Aircraft would be amazing in F.E. Thanks already for all your hard work modders and skinners and I look forward to any new Project developments All the best to everyone here and long live F.E.! Greets also to Guitar Man, some interesting Posts mate and im glad you are enjoying the game as much as I do!! all the best to you pal... Rab Watson Sockboy Fife Scotland Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Tailspin 3 Posted March 14, 2008 Hi sockboy. Although I have expressed some reservations about the EP, I do recommend you get it if you have the spare funds and the harddrive space. IMHO its worth the $30 US. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+peter01 2 Posted March 15, 2008 (edited) I cant thank enough many of you guys who have provided me with lots of entertainment over these Months with your excellent work for this game, Peter (for his constant and contiouous improvements!) Tilspin, Firecage, Capun and Charles, Poppy,Bort, Mr.Craig and the many many others who have made this game as good as it is today..I salute you all as I have absolutely no Modding or design skills whatsoever myself!! lol... I can't really speak for others (but it never stopped me before generally in life ), but I appreciate you saying this, I'm sure the those on the list above would agree - we like people enjoying what we spent time doing(sometimes lots!!!). You are right, many more on that list too: EmID, TexMurphy, Laton, MontyCZ, gambit, max, Edward, Gepard, Aladar. Others too? Its a good idea sticking to the Pre-EP game to fly all the planes. The number (not to mention quality) of planes we have as you say is astounding, and one of the best things in FE. I would encourage any person new to the game that wants to fly all the planes, and goes to the considerable trouble, as you have, of downloading/installing this stuff, to fly the pre-EP game seperately. The planes all work fine there, we all loved this game before, you will maybe too. But I'd agree with Tailspin, the EP is absolutely worth getting. It is a better game. I'm not sure many are aware but there are actually numerous improvements to the game with this version. Some things that are not mentioned often are: ground collision modelling was very shonky in previous version, works well now; it is better that there are no soft landings, you don't get that silly scenario where a pilot without an engine working tries to follow you around and shoot you down; stress modelling is done quite well (its not used much yet, I for one am still learning); AI now don't go to "ground", waiting to be shot up, and if low try to get height (this was very annoying to me before); I believe with the previous point, improved collision modelling and some new ai options you can indeed have tree top fights in some planes say camel, Dr1; engine starts; takeoffs are much better/more interesting (again early days for FM'ers, but possibilities are good); damage modelling is far better, ie, what happens when you lose a stab or wing etc - a great improvement and a major issue for us before; although we made the AI pretty good/tough in pre-EP, it is better now in handling stalls and in variety and possibilities, overall a great improvement; the FMs are considerably better (just much harder to do!! at the moment, at least). There are many smaller (but important) ones as well - TK was very painstaking, and did a great job. Actually I don't think there's much wrong at all with the EP (a few bugs yes, but TK always fixes bugs - horizon, minor AI issues, some graphical issues). I like it very much. My only issue with it is a personal one: I am finding the FMs very difficult to do, or at least to do as well as I'm sure they can be done. Just two things the EP is lacking, perhaps. Campaigns/immersion, but thats TKs game, take it or leave it. TK won''t do much here, its up to modders to slowly (with heaps of important, time consuming things) transform this area, with terrains, objects etc. Second point is a transitional one: not all planes are flyable as per pre-EP, or at least not done right for the new game. But thats just a matter of time, I guess. Like you, I hope we do get some of these other planes. Laton has started a few of them, and I hope he continues with the Italian front stuff to, and transforms that, as he and Bort did with the early part of the war. Cheers Edited March 15, 2008 by peter01 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Tailspin 3 Posted March 15, 2008 Hmmmm....well we all see different things I suppose. I've witnessed, more than once, entire enemy flights just land for no apparent reason and roll along on the ground. Alt-N often results in entire enemy flights crashing to the ground giving the player an excellent score without a shot being fired. The Bomb Target bug where if you take off on auto pilot on bombing missions your flight mates fail to follow waypoints and just climb steadily on the take-off heading is still present. Army co-op missions for some A/C causes a CTD. I think there is plenty of anecdotal evidence of pilots going to ground when faced with unrelenting attacks or a damaged engine. Sure it happened too often in the game at first but a little engine armor reduced the frequency to a reasonable level. This was something that made First Eagles unique IMO. Yes, the AI are better fighters on both sides. Yes, you have to watch to your six more but I don't think its any harder to get kills in the EP. Like I said before, IMHO, the increased performance actually makes it easier. Not so sure about the damage model. It is improved somewhat. Reaction to losing wings and parts of wings is more realistic but control components still fly off with only one or two hits. Planes still continue to fly with no elevators or half a horizontal stabilizer. It may sound like I really don't like the EP. Not true, I really do. Between it and the last iteration of FE I fly them FAR more than any other flight sim I own. Yeah, its better but then it isn't. Really a mixed bag for me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gr.Viper 131 Posted March 15, 2008 Well, there were no patches for EP yet and original FE had some bugs even worse than that... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+peter01 2 Posted March 15, 2008 (edited) yeah, we need a patch. I think our hot fix went into WOI anyway, still would like a blipping sound, and maybe a new rotary sound hehe. all would be forgiven then (well, still want gyro effects too) have you seen this... http://paul-flightsimguy.spaces.live.com/?...%26ayear%3d2008 incredible. its one of reasons I like this era. there's nuthin like rotary sounds Edited March 15, 2008 by peter01 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Brainless 1 Posted March 15, 2008 I tried the 'Blip' switch in the 'HARD' setting but I don't really understand its true purpose. Can someone please explain this to me, what it does and how this worked in the real aircraft that had it? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gr.Viper 131 Posted March 15, 2008 Planes with rotary engines have no carburettor. Fuel and oil come into engine from one end through crankshaft, air comes from the other end. Pilot can control fuel mixture by adjusting fuel valve and air intake valve but there is no throttle lever. If you want lower RPM you reduce fuel flow, and then balance the air intake to make engine run properly. Changes in altitude require adjustment too. If mixture is not perfect the engine is either choked with extra fuel or has not enough. So with all this valves accurate throttle tweaking is done mostly for formation flight. In combat instead of complex adjustments simple cutting of ingnition i.e. blip switch is more convenient if you need to slow down. Some engines had ability to switch off ignition only on several cylinders not to lose power completely. Look through this to learn more about a sucessful rotary design http://www.enginehistory.org/Gnome%20Monosoupape.pdf Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sockboy 0 Posted March 15, 2008 Hi Guys... Thanks for all your Input and Opinions on the Expansion Pack..Im noy saying I will NEVER purchase it, was just holding off for a while until significant imrovements were available, both Peter and Tailspin make some excellent and very Valid Points, Im interested to see that there are many more improvements than I had known off or invisiged in the E.P. Hmmmmm..still in two minds a bit though!!!... still I do love my Pre Expansion pack F.E. and only have room for one Install at the moment until I purchase my New External Hardrive in the summer, thus relieving my Eternal lack of space problems!! lol..its great to have an educated discussion here with fellow Virtual Pilots..all very civilised!!!! lol.. as ive said many times..great game, great community, great Forum and very helfull insights into opinions and improvement areas... Thanks to for pointing out some of the many unsing heros of this community Peter, those guys you mentiones have of course also made significant modding and skinning improvements to make an already good game great..love it..Ive recently managed to take ownership of an XBox 360 and Call of Duty 2,3,and 4 and next on my Hit list is Medal of Honor Airborne, Ace Combat and Blazing Angels although I still PC game on Medal of Honor Spearhead, Call of Duty 2, Battlefield 1942 (with BG42 and Forgotten Hope) but I still always come back to Strike Fighters, first Eagles and my WW2 Instal, which i love!!! I also Retro game often with the Mame, C64 Emulation, Virtual Pinball, Sega Master System and Mega Drive, Atari 2600 and Vectrex Gaming and of course the good old Spectrum so you could so at 40 im definately a Gamer from the 'Old School' who loves all forms of gaming and games in general since 1980 and my first Atari VCS!!!! lol.. feel old now!!! Hee Hee!!! My new 360 sits proudly beside my PS2 which I still play often..(Still trying to complete Battlefield 2!) Thanks for all the thoughfull advice and opinions lads..ill get that R.E.8 yet!! Rab Watson ;0) Fife Scotland Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gr.Viper 131 Posted March 15, 2008 next on my Hit list is Medal of Honor Airborne I'd suggest running MoH: Pacific Assault on PC - jungle fights where you can't see a thing behing bushes are awesome. Like Vietcong 1. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MigBuster 2,884 Posted March 15, 2008 Am more of a Jet jockey myself so only play this for a bit of fun - the EP seems to have fixed two things for me anyway: 1. I can now actually recover from most stalls - where as before it was 99% death in the Spad regardless of altitude etc 2. The German bombers used to get caught in a constant loop of climbing slowly at about 90 degrees till they stalled - then flipped over and dived - they would continue this till they hit the ground - didnt seem right somehow. Like the static Planes option too! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Brainless 1 Posted March 15, 2008 Planes with rotary engines have no carburettor. Fuel and oil come into engine from one end through crankshaft, air comes from the other end. Pilot can control fuel mixture by adjusting fuel valve and air intake valve but there is no throttle lever. If you want lower RPM you reduce fuel flow, and then balance the air intake to make engine run properly. Changes in altitude require adjustment too. If mixture is not perfect the engine is either choked with extra fuel or has not enough.So with all this valves accurate throttle tweaking is done mostly for formation flight. In combat instead of complex adjustments simple cutting of ingnition i.e. blip switch is more convenient if you need to slow down. Some engines had ability to switch off ignition only on several cylinders not to lose power completely. Look through this to learn more about a sucessful rotary design http://www.enginehistory.org/Gnome%20Monosoupape.pdf Thanks Gr.Viper. Now I know. Nicely explained. I had the 'blip' switched off. I'll have to try it out again now. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
