SF2V / WOV Air & Ground Expansion Packs

[JediMaster 451]

Ack! My SF2VAGE got updated, but I admit I've not tried to fly it since. I'll try that tonight, but I'm fearing the worst...a total reinstall...ugh.

[snapper 21 767]

Well don't get me to check your home electrics!!! When converting the files I got an extension on them so the game wasn't seeing them. SO I was probably flying over the stock terrain. (STUPID) looked nice though. Have removed the extension and problems come back. Sorry got all excited my fave mod was fixable.

 

Just did a very quick experiment, and I was not flying over the same part of Vietnam. But first mission after installing SF2 I, I had white buildings and white flickering patches on the Vietnam SEA terrain. Resaved all the config files as unicode. Had one more flight, no flickering and brown buildings. If that is all that you have to do, big sigh of relief! Will fly a bit more and see what I can find.

Cheers

 

Snapper 21

Edited October 19, 2009 by snapper 21

[stingray77 4]

You guys sure keep track of things like this - just in case that not ( ): wouldn't the PanAm 747 (http://forum.combata...632-pan-am-747/) add a lot of atmosphere to the Tan Son Nhut airport?

I thinks it fits the theatre - so would it be worth including in the "Gold"? What do you think?

Just an idea...

 

Oliver

Edited October 20, 2009 by stingray77

[+eburger68 195]

Stingray77:

 

Interesting suggestion, but if we were going to include some additional aircraft (esp. large aircraft), we'd probably go with one or more of the following:

 

- KC-135

- KC-130F

- EKA-3B

- EB-66C/E

- RB-66B/C

- KA-6D

- E-2

- S-1

- P-3

- U-2

- RC-135

- EC-121

 

Eric L. Howes

[JediMaster 451]

Oh, you could also go on the "Internet" and find every other plane that ever flew! After all, I really want *insert name of random plane that flew between 1960 and 1975 here* to be in this!

[stingray77 4]

Interesting!

Most of those sound pretty cool - especially

the Destroyer-variants:

- EKA-3B

- EB-66C/E

- RB-66B/C

and

- E-2

- P-3 when around the Carrier Battle Group.

 

The tankers

- KC-135

- KC-130F

- KA-6D

would make most sense if some refuelling-function would be coming with it, but that's out of scope - I know! (Hum, the KC-130 with some Jollys behind..... )

 

Although I LOVE the Constellation I think that the Recce-birds

- U-2

- RC-135

- EC-121

would mostly be seen on the ground, right?

 

And what's the S-1?

 

 

Well, thinking of Vietnam, Choppers come to mind immediately. Why is it that those are so hard to get into the game? (Hueys and some Jollys - the latter working together with Skyraiders on SAR-missions - would be great, I guess.)

 

But I definitively do not want to bug you! I am thankful for what you deliver as add-on to the original game already - even without new planes coming with the Gold!!!

 

 

@ JediMaster: as said - no offense!

[+malibu43 142]

The aircraft that are included were chosen because they met the following criteria:

 

1) Played a significant role in the air war over Vietnam

2) Fit within the missions types and roles that are used by the game engine (in other words, we could include tankers and transports, but the game won't let you fly a tanker or transport mission)

 

Sure we could have included anything and everything, but then the download and install would be huge.

 

Helicopters are a different story. Two reason for not including helicopters:

1) In my opinion, the helo's that are publicly available for TW games don't fly like helicopters, and that kills the immersion (for me...)

2) The helos that are publicly available aren't really available publicly, and we couldn't include them.

[stingray77 4]

Thanks for explaining...

 

And I fully share your view that if doesn't look/work convincing, better leave it away!

That's why I like the XP SO very much...

[topcat II 6]

Good to hear Eric thank you!!

[Biggus 0]

AP-2H Neptune. Yes, only a few of them, but the missions they flew would be unreal to relive...

[luckyluca 0]

Hello,

 

Could you pls help me out as I'm confused on the optional sections of the installation.

I have both sf2:v and sf2:e patched to june installed onto the same directory d:\thirdwire\sf2. Both the vietnam and europe executable generated their own mod data structures in my documents folder.

When in the readme you refer to "merged" do you mean merged mod directory or merged game directory?

I'm asking because I wanted to install the brand new NF4+ and it also says it's compatible with merged installations and can't figure out whether it refers to merged mod folders or merged game folder

(in the latter case I assume each mod would sit in its own structure sf2va&gp2 in the vietnam mod folder and fn4+ in the europe mod folder)

 

Thanks for the clarification

Luca

[+EricJ 3,937]

And maybe more directed to malibu43, you going to include the Cambodia stuff (SAM locations) from Linebacker III? I though it was a nice touch since you're trapsing through their country to strike targets from Thailand into Vietnam.

[+eburger68 195]

Luca:

 

You asked:

 

I'm asking because I wanted to install the brand new NF4+ and it also says it's compatible with merged installations and can't figure out whether it refers to merged mod folders or merged game folder (in the latter case I assume each mod would sit in its own structure sf2va&gp2 in the vietnam mod folder and fn4+ in the europe mod folder)

 

NF4+ and the Expansion Pack need to be in separate mod folders -- they cannot be both active in the same mod folder because of overlap and conflicts between the two different mods. In your case, SF2E is using a different mod folder than SF2V, so you could install SF2E to your SF2E mod folder and the Expansion Pack to your SF2V mod folder.

 

Eric Howes

[luckyluca 0]

Thanks Eric, I'll do that.

Regarding the optional items, since I have a merged installation of sf2:v+sf2:e (no sf2),

could you please point me to which items include and which skip based on my setup?

unfortunately I can't figure it out from the readmes.

here's the list from my documents vietnam mod folder, before installing the expansion pack:

 

Directory of D:\documents\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2 Vietnam\Objects\Aircraft

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> A-10A

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> A-10A_78

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> A-1H

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> A-1J

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> A-4C

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> A-4C_65

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> A-4E

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> A-4E_65

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> A-4E_67

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> A-4F

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> A-6A

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> A-7A

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> A-7B

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> A-7B_71

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> A-7C

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> A-7C_71

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> A-7D

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> A-7D_75

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> A-7D_78

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> A-7E

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> An-12

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> B-52D

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> B-57B

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> CF-104

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> CF-104_72

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> CF-104_76

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-100D

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-100D_64

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-100D_68

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-104G

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-105D

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-105D_66

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-15A

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-4B

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-4B_65

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-4B_67

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-4C

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-4C_67

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-4D

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-4D_67

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-4D_75

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-4D_78

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-4E

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-4E_72

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-4E_75

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-4E_78

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-4F

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-4F_80

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-4J

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-4M

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-4M_75

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-84F

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-8C

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-8C_66

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-8D

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-8D_66

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-8E

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-8E_66

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-8H

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-8H_69

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-8J

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> F-8J_69

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> Harrier1

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> Harrier1A

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> Harrier3

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> Hunter4

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> Hunter5

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> Hunter51

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> Hunter6

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> Hunter9

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> IL-28

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> J-6

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> MiG-17

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> MiG-17F

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> MiG-17PF

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> MiG-19S

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> MiG-21bis

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> MiG-21F

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> MiG-21MF

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> MiG-21PF

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> MiG-21PFM

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> MiG-21PFV

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> MiG-23BN

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> MiG-23M

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> MiG-23MF

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> MiG-23ML

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> MiG-23MLA

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> MiG-23MLD

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> MiG-23MS

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> MiG-23P

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> MiG-27

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> Mirage3C

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> Mirage5F

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> MystereIVA

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> Su-7BM

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> Su-7BMK

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> SuperMystereB2

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> Tu-16

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> Tu-22

 

 

Directory of D:\documents\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2 Vietnam\Objects\GroundObject

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> Barlock

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> BM-14-16

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> BRDM

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> BTR-152

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> BTR-50PK

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> BTR-ZPU

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> BTR-ZU-23

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> CargoShip

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> Centurion5

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> Centurion6

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> CVA-63

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> Fansong

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> FansongC

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> FansongE

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> FansongF

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> FuelTruck

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> KS-19

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> Leopard1A4

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> M113

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> M113-ZPU

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> M163

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> M35A2

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> M35_Quad

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> M38Jeep

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> M48A2

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> M48A3

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> M55_Quad

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> M60A1

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> P-4_PatrolBoat

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> PatrolBoat

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> PT-76

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> SA-2L

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> SA-2LC

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> SA-2LE

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> SA-2LF

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> SA-6L

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> SA-8

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> SCB-125

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> Scud-B

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> StraightFlush

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> SumnerFRAM2

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> T-54

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> T-55

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> T-62A

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> T-72A

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> Tanker

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> ZIL-157

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> ZIl-157Command

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> ZIL-157Fuel

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> ZPU-2

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> ZSU-23

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> ZSU-57

24/10/2009 19:01 <DIR> ZU-23

 

 

 

 

 

THanks

Luca

 

Luca:

 

You asked:

 

 

 

NF4+ and the Expansion Pack need to be in separate mod folders -- they cannot be both active in the same mod folder because of overlap and conflicts between the two different mods. In your case, SF2E is using a different mod folder than SF2V, so you could install SF2E to your SF2E mod folder and the Expansion Pack to your SF2V mod folder.

 

Eric Howes

[+eburger68 195]

Luca:

 

You have the ThirdWire MiG-17PF, so you'll need to install the MiG-17PF from the \Optional directory. You also have the M60A1, os you'll have to install the M60A1 from the \Optional folder.

 

You already have the MiG-17A, so you don't need to install the one from the \Optional directory.

 

Follow the instructions for installing the main Expansion Pack items, then follow the instructions for installing the optional items I specified above.

 

Eric L. Howes

[luckyluca 0]

Thanks Eric will do!

[topcat II 6]

Hi all,

 

Just checking on the gold version hope it is still coming??

 

Thank You

[+eburger68 195]

topcat II:

 

Yes, it is still coming. I spent most of the weekend adding in new terrain items, tweaking some target areas, fixing minor things in the TYPES.INI for each terrain, and performing other minor fixes. I'm hoping to release in the next week.

 

Eric L. Howes

[topcat II 6]

Very cool thank You for the update Eric looking foward too it many thanks on the work you all do just Great!!!!

 

Cheers

 

Darrell

[+eburger68 195]

Jarhead1:

 

You wrote:

 

Rolling thunder, and its any Skyraider squadron i fly with.

 

I started looking into this reported bug and quickly realized that there are no player-flyable Skyraider squadrons in the Rolling Thunder campaign. There are a few player-flyable Skyraider squadron in the Steel Tiger campaign, but they all look good to me.

 

Could you shed any more light on how you were flying with a Skyraider squadron in the Rolling Thunder campaign?

 

Eric L. Howes

[+eburger68 195]

Hey Folks:

 

I need your opinion on something -- the more feedback the better. In an earlier post in this thread I complained about the air base areas and how much real estate they were taking up, esp. around Hanoi. I finally got fed up enough that I decided to do something about it. My skills with graphics editing are extremely limited, so I was reduced to finding potential substitute tiles and making minor edits to them. I think I have some that work pretty darn well:

 

https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ehowes/www/sf2v/New_AB_Tiles.rar

 

To install these two new tiles, unpack the RAR, then drop the two new BMPs in the \Terrains\VietnamSEA directory in your SF2V Mod Folder, overwriting the existing files. (If you don't like them, you can alway re-copy the originals back over from the \SouthVietnam directory.)

 

Once the new tiles are installed, take a few recon flights over airbases (using the North Vietnam terrain), esp. the ones around Hanoi (but check out the several "jungle" air bases like Dien Bien Phu as well).

 

What do you think? I like the fact that the air bases don't stick out like sore thumbs on the landscape anymore. The air base areas are definitely rougher and messier, but every photo I've ever seen of friendly or enemy bases in 'Nam from that era shows rough, messy air base areas, not those nicely manicured squares of green.

 

In any case, please let me know what you think.

 

Eric Howes

Edited October 28, 2009 by eburger68

[DrArrow 0]

Well I have tested this expansion pack for some weeks during 30 misions in two steel tiger campaigns in vietnam flying for 416TFS and many single missions with different planes. The first thing, I have to say that you did a great job with this MOD. The missions were very various, always hitting different targets in often difficult weather conditions with some great atmosphere and hellish FLAK over target with a lot of immersion. I was even hit by normal flak twice, what hasn't happened before. However I have some suggestions that could be improved further. 

 

1. The first bug I think I have are the missing cockpit lods for all A-6 variants (I installed it twice with all fixes on clean single SF2:V version, but cockpit.lod files are missing in all A-6 folders).

 

2. I have also found that samairburst effect causes in my install very weird explosions it looks like many brown triangles are emmited in the air. Maybe it was intentional, but I think that effect doesn't look well and eats a lot of resources (maybe it is only my install). Deleting samairburst effect brought back normal enhanced explosions that look good

 

-------------------------------------------------

 

The second set of sugestions relates more to FPS killers in the pack. In some well defended areas the game is resources heavy and the added candies worsen things too far. I have decent computer that can run with full graphic settings even the most intense missions over Hanoi with over 30 FPS. Not the case with SF2V AG pack. The sim runs fine by me in less intensive missions, however in most intense missions the FPS goes to 14-10 levels. I am listing the biggest FPS killers I found.

 

1. Green Hell 2 on high levels is of course a resource hog. The low level trees however look strange. I solved this by eradicating trees from jungle tiles and leaving the nice cities tiles and trees in other areas.

 

2. FLAK effects - in high flaked areas FLAK effects seem to be cause  of slowdowns (in my system it is 5-7 FPS), I solved it by deleting debris parts from these effects and only leaving smoke and flash effects.

 

3. Explosion effects - with some 10-15 planes attacking a target explosion effects are also taking up a lot of performance, I didn't do any tweaking with explosions as the first two are enough for me, but I may do some tweaking.

 

4. High poly models of planes like RF-4 when on airports are also resource hungry - so maybe here tweaking lod distances would help.

 

5. Mod for Buffs is already there, so that's fine :)

 

Anyway take these just only as suggestions and I could send you my lightened effects and GH2 if you wanted to add it as some optional MOD, or try to tweak that by yourself if you want to, or not. Otherwise once more - great job and I am looking forward to the GOLD release.

 

 

[+eburger68 195]

DrArrow:

 

Glad to hear that you're enjoying the Expansion Pack.

 

Regarding the A-6 LODs: yes, they are missing in the Expansion Pack. As stated in the ReadMe, you have to download the FOTI A-6A Intruder from here:

 

http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autocom=downloads&showfile=5014

 

Then grab the Cockpit folder from that mod and drop it in the folders for the A-6 and EA-6 variants.

 

I haven't seen the brown triangles you've seen with the SAM airburst effects, so I don't know that there's much I can do about that.

 

As for your other suggestions, we might be able to include an alternate set of flak effects. If you could ZIP up your alternate flak effects and attack them to a post here, I'll take a look. Same with your Green Hell 2 mods.

 

I'm reluctant to go much beyond that, though, as we've already got so much optional this-that-and-the-other that users are becoming confused during installation (take a look at earlier posts in this thread).

 

Best,

 

Eric L. Howes

Edited October 31, 2009 by eburger68

[RichardG 3]

How do I edit out aircraft available in Vietnam single mission? Aircraft from my other merged installs (Europe and Israel) show in available aircraft list, even though I installed this mod in its own Vietnam mod folder. I'm launching the Vietnam exe. in the merged install, is this the correct way? (Vietnam/Europe/Israel/Israel patch)

 

I also have Europe and Israel Campaigns showing in the selection list.

 

Everything is working well by the way.

Edited November 1, 2009 by RichardG

[+eburger68 195]

Richard:

 

I'm not sure there is an easy way to prevent that from happening. When selecting AI aircraft to use in single missions, the game should automatically select aircraft only from nations specified in the terrains limited nations list. But paring down the list of aircraft presented to the user is another matter. If there is a way, one of the resident SF experts here at CA should know.

 

Eric L. Howes