Big Al Posted January 3, 2009 Posted January 3, 2009 Is there a formation.ini out there for FE that will allow WW1 planes to form up closely and orderly in eschelon formation, etc. JUST LIKE the jets in SFP1. WOE, and WOV ? It seems that is the last thing left without attention, regarding FE and its imersion factor. Is it available for download somewhere? If not, is any of you wizzards able to make one? thanks. Quote
Czech6 Posted January 3, 2009 Posted January 3, 2009 (edited) Is there a formation.ini out there for FE that will allow WW1 planes to form up closely and orderly in eschelon formation, etc. JUST LIKE the jets in SFP1. WOE, and WOV ? It seems that is the last thing left without attention, regarding FE and its imersion factor. Is it available for download somewhere? If not, is any of you wizzards able to make one?thanks. Big Al, No solutions out there that I'm aware of (and I'm obsessing over the formation issue). Thinking that the sim engine in Wings Over Israel was similar to First Eagles, I put the Nieuport 28 in WOI. Flies formation just fine in WOI, even at low speeds. Tried putting the formation.dll from WOI into FE and it crashes FE. Also tried WOI's MissionControl, Formation, and AircraftObject ini's into FE. They work but have no effect on the formation antics. I still think it's something in the formation.dll but looking at that file with Notepad and a Hex Editor doesn't reveal anything that I can jump on for a fix. There's bandaid fixes out there involving the AIData and turn rates, but that's not solving the problem. There's something weird going on. If I hit Level Flight right after takeoff my wingman will home in on me and stay in formation. A turn will break that up. Also, had both wingmen thrown out of formation by a hard turn in Autopilot. Took them a while to catch up and I throttled back to slow cruise to speed things up. They both formed up on me in left echelon formation. Testing it, I did a break turn and threw them out. Formation when out the window then. Curious that the formation.ini has different formations, but no way to make the wingmen go into those formations. Maybe it's a radio communications thing. Still working on finding the problem. Edited January 3, 2009 by Czech6 Quote
Big Al Posted January 4, 2009 Author Posted January 4, 2009 Big Al, No solutions out there that I'm aware of (and I'm obsessing over the formation issue). Thinking that the sim engine in Wings Over Israel was similar to First Eagles, I put the Nieuport 28 in WOI. Flies formation just fine in WOI, even at low speeds. Tried putting the formation.dll from WOI into FE and it crashes FE. Also tried WOI's MissionControl, Formation, and AircraftObject ini's into FE. They work but have no effect on the formation antics. I still think it's something in the formation.dll but looking at that file with Notepad and a Hex Editor doesn't reveal anything that I can jump on for a fix. There's bandaid fixes out there involving the AIData and turn rates, but that's not solving the problem. There's something weird going on. If I hit Level Flight right after takeoff my wingman will home in on me and stay in formation. A turn will break that up. Also, had both wingmen thrown out of formation by a hard turn in Autopilot. Took them a while to catch up and I throttled back to slow cruise to speed things up. They both formed up on me in left echelon formation. Testing it, I did a break turn and threw them out. Formation when out the window then. Curious that the formation.ini has different formations, but no way to make the wingmen go into those formations. Maybe it's a radio communications thing. Still working on finding the problem. Czech6: Wow, I commend you on your efforts! Very thourough explanation, too. I've tried and failed, myself. Let us not give up, ok? If any of us finds something we will post it here. Never give up! thanks. Quote
Czech6 Posted January 4, 2009 Posted January 4, 2009 Well, throw those theories in the round file. After more testing in SF2 and WOI, the N28 forms up because I've had to stabilize my flying to allow the wingmen to catch up, same as FE. I'm now thinking it's the AI and a problem either dealing with the slower speeds of the WWI aircraft, or with being in close proximity to other aircraft. I've also noticed that with a large formation you always seem to get aircraft trying to share the same space. I created a squadron vic of vic's from Charles' WWII formation, and after a long period of stabilized flight my wingmen will form into a vic, but the AI doesn't always seem to see the formation.ini. When FE first came out I spent a lot of time changing values in the AIData to the point where I lost track of what effect I was trying for. Plus, I didn't know the function of all the values in the AIData. Peter01 has done such a good job of tuning the FM for dogfighting, that I suspect you can't have a good dogfighter that can hold a tight formation. Those two functions are opposites. Taking a break from theories and watching football now. Quote
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