Question for the multi install prop heads

[Viggen 644]

How do most of you have your WWII installs set up?

 

Pacific*

CBI

Battle of Britain dedicated install

ETO

MTO

And eventually an Eastern Europe/Russian install?

 

*Maybe a couple of Pacific installs due to campaigns and to avoid certain aircraft over certain places?

 

They're still primarily flown at the 06 level I presume? Just want to know having been out of the prop head world for 8 months now (deleted my WWII installs ).

 

And still no Black Widow or Helldiver I see. Shame.

 

Although, there is a real Black Widow being built :yes: : http://www.maam.org/p61/p61_rest.htm

Scroll to the bottom of the page for a very pretty plane!

[Wrench 9,849]

That's pretty much how mine are set up; PTO should be broken into Central/Southern PTO (Solomons, Phillipines, Central Pacific, Okinawa) and CBI (using the China and Burma maps).

 

my 'basic' ETO install is "SWOTL", as it's got everything from 39 onwards to the (conjectural) 46/47 era. A seperate BoB would be a good idea, to limit the plane sets. Same for CBI - certain types of aircraft would NOT be showing up (although that can be handled via data ini edits. In particular, for the A6M2 -- they wouldn't be around CBI after Jan, 42)

 

MTO has the Tunisia and North Africa maps (and that hack job WW2 Libya of mine), plus 2 that are waaaaaay on the back burner for "What If..." oddball scenarios (no, no details will be forthcoming)

 

Yes, 06 levels, which screws up the water effects for Vista users, but it's a 2 second ini tweek to turn them off.

 

wrench

kevin stein

[Viggen 644]

Thanks Wrench. Are there any other WWII era ETO maps other than the one made by Edward?

 

Guess I'll have to save up for a 16GB flash drive!

[jet_spud 0]

has there ever been a malta map? the air campaign for malta (the most bombed place in history) lasted for the best part of 3 years continously, but has never featured in any combat flight sim that i know of. its been modded over at il-2 because OM was just as shortsighted as every other sim producer!

 

most think that malta was MORE intense than the BoB, simply because it was an island that was being beseiged by the luftwaffe (at a time when they were supreme) and the Italians.

 

if you're talking about ww2 heroes then the poor sods who had to fly worn out hurricanes against bf-109f's must have been at the front of the queue, specially wen you remember the RAF hardly ever had enough warbing as sicily was so close, and usually had the 109's and mc.202's above.

 

cant understand why this place hardly ever gets a mention, even the USN had some involvment as the CV Wasp ferried spitfires to the island, also some americans flew spits from the island as part of the multi national RAF.

[Wrench 9,849]

Yes, Malta is on the Tunisia map, which is 'in the hangar' for it's overhaul -about 60% done. Unfortunately, due to the standard tiling issues inherent in this game, I'm unable to exactly duplicate the Grand Harbor (but there IS a castle!)Also, WASPs convoy and the PEDESTAL convoy stations are present (and the addition of a carrier station for JUDGEMENT, although we don't have any Stringbags....perhaps the Baffin can be modified as a stand-in???, will need LOTS of data in tweeks, and a new skin of course) Missing the Gladiator too....

 

I can post screenies, if wanted

 

wrench

kevin stein

[jet_spud 0]

Yes, Malta is on the Tunisia map, which is 'in the hangar' for it's overhaul -about 60% done. Unfortunately, due to the standard tiling issues inherent in this game, I'm unable to exactly duplicate the Grand Harbor (but there IS a castle!)Also, WASPs convoy and the PEDESTAL convoy stations are present (and the addition of a carrier station for JUDGEMENT, although we don't have any Stringbags....perhaps the Baffin can be modified as a stand-in???, will need LOTS of data in tweeks, and a new skin of course) Missing the Gladiator too....

 

I can post screenies, if wanted

 

wrench

kevin stein

 

 

sorry to not get back to you earlier - i was trying to get the hang of the game structure and putting some mods on etc. yes screenies would be great!

 

okay i've found out how to do multiple installs of SFG, WOV, WOE and WOI. i reckon pacific for WOV, africa for either WOI or SFG and nw europe/bob for WOE, what do you think?

 

now i need to know how to go about it!! presume i have to rid the games of their modern stuff completely? is that safe to do?

 

 

i notice that there is no weapons folder or weapons dat.ini in the objects folder? i'm guessing here that i'll need to create one before i start importing aircraft in? what about guns etc.

 

any other tips before i take the dive would be much appreciated. thanks.

Edited September 1, 2009 by jet_spud

[Wrench 9,849]

Actually, following the discussion in the File Release Thread about the Okinawa upgrade, it seems that WoV has "issues".

 

Therefore, I'm reccomending that ONLY WoE be used for WW2 installs. Simply put, it's the most flexable of the series, and supports EVERYTHING, expecially carrier operations.

 

WoI is absolutely NOT reccomended, as it's basically an 08 level game, and many (ok, 99.9%) of the aircraft will be screwed up one way or another.

 

Most important thing to remember, is patch ONLY to the 06 level. Otherwise you're asking for trouble. Well, until 400+ aircraft have their flight models rebuilt...

 

Don't know if I linked this thread in the KB to you or not, but this contains General Instructions

 

http://forum.combatace.com/index.php/topic/19630-how-to-create-a-seperate-era-specific-install/

 

As to objects, you can delete all the 'modern' aircraft.

 

For GroundObjects, you'll still need the

 

cargoship

tanker

SovetTruck

SovietFuelTruck (ZilFuel)

ZilCommand

USFuelTruck

USJeep

USTruck (deuce-and-a-half, even if it's the wrong body style)

 

So, all the other AAA, SAMs, AFVs can go into the recycle bin, as they'll all be replaced with era specific objects. (on a side note, even though the object folders are deleted, the objects -lods, inis and sometimes the skin bmps will still be residing in the Objects.cat, so you can't damage the game that way)

 

Now, in the data inis of the 2 ships should be set to 'generic' as to nation, and have a 0 start year and 2050 for end year. You'll probably want to pull the data inis for the aforementioned ships/vehicles and change the NationName= and operational years. In several of my terrain mods, i've included modified data inis that create new alignments (even though the standard "Soviet" is still considered an Enemy Nation ™ for gaming purposes - I've rebadged them for Nazi Germany or Japanese Empire, depending on theatre used in. The US vehicles, should also be edited. You can leave the NationName= to USMC or USAF or whichever Western nations they're using. The jeep should have a start year of 1940, the USFuelTruck 0 and the USTruck also 0.)

 

As always, you'll need to create the /Objects/Weapons folder. Search in the D/L section for my WW2 weapons pak, it'll have everything you need.

 

The gundata.ini and gundata.dat go into the root of the /Objects folder, right next to the Objects.cat

 

Any further questions, feel free to ask!

 

wrench

kevin stein

[jet_spud 0]

hi wrench - like your mods by the way. thanks for all the info and link to your excellent tutorial, no i hadn't found that. anyway i've saved the details to my docs.

 

funny enough i've just installed a 2nd WOV and renamed it WO Korea! like as a practise run. so far so good but i only finished it last night!

 

i've got all the usual suspects in like f-84, f-86, mig-15, but also i wanted to get the feel of 1950 ops so i put in yak-9, la-11, b-29, f4u, skyraider, tigercat, bearcat, sea fury, sea vixen, meteor, vampire, postwar spit & seafire etc.

 

just wanted to get some of those postwar aircraft in that don't really fit into the other cold war scenarios. the only one i can't find is an il-10, not just really post-war but the NK used them in 1950 too.

 

i've seen the warnings regarding certain prop planes, especially ww2 stuff going into 08 patched games - is the biggest problem with the aircraft or their loadouts, or both?

 

WOV seemed the obvious choice cos of the s. e. asia connection, what with all the textures being perfect etc.

 

would you believe it - i've just got WOE set up perfect with 08 patch and all NATO fighters add-ons, darn it! i'll get korea finished and then delete WOE and reinstall to follow your instructions. how about pacific/far east scenery with WOE - wont the land textures/sea be wrong?

Edited September 2, 2009 by jet_spud

[jet_spud 0]

can now report that you are right!! twice i've locked-up on modded WOV, both tmes with prop aircraft; sea fury and tigercat despite having all weapons etc working. dumped all prop aircraft and hope jets ok.

 

something you said in your post interested me - can we import SF1 ww2 planes into FE? has anyone tried it? scenery is spot-on for nw europe after all, no missiles or anything like that. might be a lot less work than backdating my WOE v.08 to v.06 and building from scratch.

 

what do you think?

[Wrench 9,849]

I think the major problem with WoV is build into it's various dlls that have the mission statements. They don't support ALL the mission types as listed in the aircrat's data ini.

 

Of coure, if you want the Vietnam tiling, you can always just move the VietnamSEA terrain folder over to WoE --which is pretty much what everyone has done, along with the Desert terrain from SF. (which is why I've included ALL the tiles with my terrain mods, as a just-in-case.)

 

So, here's what I'd reccomend doing:

 

Step 1) Install WoE, patch to 06 level

Step 2) Create 'copy' as outlined in the thread linked above, create new shortcut, etc, new icons, whatever

Step 3) Build WW2 install for which theatre tickles you fancy or flying bone

 

Step 4) -optional Rename 06 STOCK WoE install to "WoE_06_Stock" and don't play it. don't patch it. don't mess with it

(this'll give you a 'warehouse' to have in case something goes south in another. In fact, you can zip up the entire install and store on a CD or external HD -that's where mine are)

 

Step 5) Create another copy install, patch to 08 for modern gameplay.

 

dont' forget to rename all the folders and shortcuts to match, use new icons if you want, to diferentitate them. Safe and easy way.

 

------

FE is basically an 08 level game (as is/was WoI when first released -and now more than ever after the FE Exp1 and WoI's 08 patch)

 

BUt, you sure can import stuff back and forth between them. So, yah, you could have RAF Phantoms tring to intercept IGAS D.7s!!!

 

Terrains are also interchangable .. I've got a screenie around here somewheres of Spad 13s on a desert airfield near Cairo, using the Desert terrain in FE. I wrote a little thingy about that in the FE forums a year or so back. Even add-on terrains will work, as long as one of the Original 3 Terrains ™ -GermanyCE, Desert or VietnamSEA are residing in the FE /Terrain folder. Some editing may be required of course.

 

Going the other way, FE to SF/Wo*, I haen't done but it should work in 08 TOS and SF2 NextGens with minimal fuss. Airfield WILL be problematic, as there's no real runway in FE, just a statement in the types ini defining it:

 

[TargetType043]

Name=Airfield

FullName=Airfield

ModelName=

TargetType=LARGE_RUNWAY

ActiveYear=0

TargetValue=1000

UseGroundObject=FALSE

DamagePoint=140.0

ArmorValue=0.0

ArmorType=0

RepairRate=10.0

StartDetectChance=100

StartIdentifiedChance=50

IncreaseDetectChanceKey=10

MaxVisibleDist=8000.0

ZBufferOffset=6.000000

FlatObject=TRUE

DamagedModel=

DestroyedEffect=

DestroyedModel=

SecondaryChance=0

 

which makes me think of something I've been trying to do for a while.....hmmmmm

 

back to the terrain, FE to SF/Wo* ... some editing will definatly be required, to remove the weather/season options that aren't supported in 06 level games. It IS howeve, supported in 08 and SF2 NextGens, so you could probably go that way as well.

 

Other than the runway issue for jets and expeically bombers .... no one I know of has experimentated with that as yet. Even me!

 

wrench

kevin stein

Edited September 2, 2009 by Wrench

[jet_spud 0]

very interesting - its amazing what combo's can be dreamt up with this series if you really think about it!

 

guess FE as a ww2 game might be worth a try, but it really does sound as if WOE patched upto v.06 is the best way to go, so its back to removing WOE v.08 with NATO fighters and then reinstalling and starting again methinks.

 

least that way i get to keep my ww1 planes too.

 

i've got SFG set-up now as a fictional 1946-1950's jet sim, using stock scenery plus india which i like, western allies v russia, so can fly all the early jets that don't fit in anywhere else. props are banned though LOL.

 

man this stuff is addictive - must lose my desire to constantly fiddle with this thing and actually strap myself into the cockpit for a change!

 

thanks for all the tips; i probably wouldn't attemp this on my own!

[Wrench 9,849]

Ok, just to let everyone know that the Verdun terrain dropped into my MTO install, didn't work. I finally DID get it to work, with extensive dataini editing, but aircraft explode when trying to take off.

 

Neither did importing the empty 'airfleld' for use as standared WW2 grass runways (or generic no-runway airfields as seen most commonly in WW2)

 

Although, perhaps Gepard's invisible runway, as used for carrier stations might be usable, I haven't experimentated with it as such

 

wrench

kevin stein

[+PureBlue 71]

So I've still been getting this dreaded groundobject.dll CTD. (Okinawa Terrain)

Wrench can you please paste a shot of your GroundObjects folder for a PTO install. I think I have all the things you listed but still getting this error on a clean WOE 06 install.

 

Edited September 3, 2009 by pureblue

[Wrench 9,849]

I still see a lot of 'modern' stuff in there ... might want to get rid of them. They shouldn't cause any issues, but you never know

 

I've attached my 2 shermans, modded from rebelryders; mostly just renamed stuff, no major changes. and the screenie you requested.

 

wrench

kevin stein

[+PureBlue 71]

Thanks Wrench. I cleared all the modern stuff and used your Sherman updates. Still CTDs on me.

Well what about the weapons, should I have installed Bunyaps pack? Probably!!

Dang, I think I'll just drop your terrain in a SF2 install and fly it there

[jet_spud 0]

wrenchie mate, i've followed your excellent tutorial you linked me too and i've succesfully got loadsa WW2 installs off WOE; ETO, BoB, MTO, Malta, Africa, PTO and CBI, plus WW1 & Korea. all of course done with a fresh install of WOE v.10.06. followed up by adding all ww2 weapons (done by some bloke called wrench i think), ww2 formation/nations.ini and ww2 fx., and ww2 plane pack by wolf.

 

i've backed up in WOE vanilla in a zipped folder and hidden it...............now where did i put it?

 

finally i re-installed WOE, patched it up to the latest version and installed all the NATO add-ons. yippee what a collection.

 

will start on scenery etc another time. thanks anyway.

 

any problems or questions i'll pm you if thats okay.

[Wrench 9,849]

PB: get the WW2 weapons pak I did; it's here in the DL section someplace

 

JS: down at the bottom of this page, if you can't find them here at CA

 

http://wrench1smog.com/wrench3.html

 

don't forget to name the shortcuts to match the installs!!! (this is actually trimmed down from the 21 I'd had before)

 

wrench

kevin stein

[+PureBlue 71]

Thanks for the link.

WW2 Pack installed; didn't help either.

I think I'll start from scratch, see how that goes.