FE2 - Shot Pilot Effect?

[Mike Dora 171]

Can anyone advise please on what happens in FE2 when a pilot gets shot? In FE1 he simply disappears, leaving an empty cockpit. Does anything different happen in FE2?

 

Thanks

 

Mike

Edited March 5, 2010 by Mike Dora

[Bandy 3]

TK doesn't like to include the more graphic aspect of aerial combat. He has pretty much made this know and is set despite the fact that a simple slumped forward pilot is not that gruesome (he could be simply tying his shoes for instance!). I do not have FE2, but I would bet a year's wages it hasn't changed.

 

A while back a group (sorry guys can't remember names) tried to see if they could mod a small wounded/dead pilot that would fit inside the active pilot so he would show up when the active pilot 'beamed out'. It didn't work, or it isn't available publicly, though I assume it is the former.

 

Somebody else modded a scream when the pilot got hit, and is available here for download I beleive, but it was too blood curdling for me...

[Mike Dora 171]

Even leaving the normal pilot in place would do for me Bart, it's the suddenly vacant cockpit that doesn't look right. Know what you mean about the screaming though, that's too much for me too, as were RB2's pilots leaping out wreathed in flames.

 

BTW while I'm asking about FE2 effects, I wonder if the balloon observers have parachutes, or if the balloons winch down? I'm still trying to see what FE2 adds apart from graphics improvements and Vista compatibility. (Can't test it myself 'cos I'm still away from home)

[+peter01 2]

Even leaving the normal pilot in place would do for me Bart, it's the suddenly vacant cockpit that doesn't look right. Know what you mean about the screaming though, that's too much for me too, as were RB2's pilots leaping out wreathed in flames.

 

BTW while I'm asking about FE2 effects, I wonder if the balloon observers have parachutes, or if the balloons winch down? I'm still trying to see what FE2 adds apart from graphics improvements and Vista compatibility. (Can't test it myself 'cos I'm still away from home)

 

No change to pilot or balloon effects, FE2 is pretty much FE1.

 

Is it worth getting? Hard to say.

 

despite graphics being much nicer, my frame rates haven't been affected (i monitor FPS continously, it displays on the screen in the game). Graphics wise everything looks nicer, the colours are richer, more vibrant, terrains and planes are excellent. The shading and shadows work a lot lot better, and are pretty good. And all that is on a WinXP-DX9 machine.

 

The FM changes are interesting, and TK has done an *exceptionally* talented job "fixing" problems with the old flight model. It is pretty amazing, pretty incredible to me, I can appreciate it.

 

But initially the feel of the planes, just flying around, were more wishy washy to me, without that unique feel that made FE quite special in terms of FMs in the Expansion Pack. After flying (and especially dogfighting) a few hours I changed my mind completely, and FE2 is basically what I play now.

 

AND I say the above re FMs knowing that mine designed for FE1 aren't as good in FE2. Not all anyway. Normally that drives me crazy, but not this time. The other improvements to the flight model more than make up for it.

Edited March 6, 2010 by peter01

[Mike Dora 171]

No change to pilot or balloon effects, FE2 is pretty much FE1.

 

Is it worth getting? Hard to say.

 

despite graphics being much nicer, my frame rates haven't been affected (i monitor FPS continously, it displays on the screen in the game). Graphics wise everything looks nicer, the colours are richer, more vibrant, terrains and planes are excellent. The shading and shadows work a lot lot better, and are pretty good. And all that is on a WinXP-DX9 machine.

 

The FM changes are interesting, and TK has done an *exceptionally* talented job "fixing" problems with the old flight model. It is pretty amazing, pretty incredible to me, I can appreciate it.

 

But initially the feel of the planes, just flying around, were more wishy washy to me, without that unique feel that made FE quite special in terms of FMs in the Expansion Pack. After flying (and especially dogfighting) a few hours I changed my mind completely, and FE2 is basically what I play now.

 

AND I say the above re FMs knowing that mine designed for FE1 aren't as good in FE2. Not all anyway. Normally that drives me crazy, but not this time. The other improvements to the flight model more than make up for it.

 

 

 

Thanks for this Peter. When I get back I'll certainly get FE2 & give it a try, TK deserves our support. It's frustrating having to wait, I'm away for another month or so, but at least it's giving me time to read and learn.

 

One thing though, can you (or anyone else) advise on exactly how the folder structure and file formats have changed between FE1 & FE2? I know that modded folders have to go somewhere on the HD other than the FE folder, but are there other mandatory folder changes, are there new mandatory lines in key files? Indeed, are there new files? I'd like to think that I could just port across all of my heavily-modded FE1 folders to the new location to bring FE2 to the same standard, but I strongly suspect it's not as simple as that (it never is!).

 

Mike

[+peter01 2]

I found most of it quite easy, quick and painless, surprisingly so, but then I am used to modding FE.

 

The file structure is the same. Except the terrain folder is called terrains instead of terrain, and of course you have a seperate mod directory.

 

I moved everything from my FE1 installation straight over - Effects, Terrain, Flight, Sounds, Missions. And everything in the Objects folder. It was a bit of a risk, but if it didn't work, I would have just deleted it all and started again step by step. But everything works. I also transferred the campaigns, but haven't tried them yet.

 

There is a new Extract utility, and new Weapon and Gundata editors. They do work differently. After getting the hang of them, I extracted everything for future use, and redid the gun/weapons stuff to be the same as in FE1 just by copying all the old stuff from FE1 into the ini files and saving with editors. As always. All fine so far.

 

The annoying stuff is some plane models and decals. Laton posted a very useful guide for fixing the models (not all, maybe a dozen or so that I have I identified), where you have to move things like prop, gunner, glass bmp and or tga files etc from the main plane directory to each skin folder. Unfortunately! Otherwise no prop, no windshield. You also need to create a "Pilots" folder in the Objects directory - nicey expalined by Laton, he even provided the directory with the files. Just add others that you use. Laton's post is here http://forum.combatace.com/topic/53119-fe2-converting-my-models/ Actually that post, and some others need to be made stickies I think.

 

With decal problems, some you can fix by moving the stuff in the decal folder to the main directory, others do not. I tried changing the pathname in the decals.ini but that didn't help. How many planes? Not sure, not the majority by any stretch, so far for me the PfalzD3, F2b, HalbD3 (it could be many of the A-teams though). But it is early days! And my guess is that some decals will not work anymore, things like numbers etc although insignia can be fixed one way or another.

 

It a nutshell, thats been my experience. A bit of work, but not overwhelming, yet still some niggly things to do.

Edited March 6, 2010 by peter01

[Mike Dora 171]

Thanks Peter,

 

That was the encouragement I needed to try adapting FE2 to the level of my FE1 installation. I'm sure I'm not the only one with a laboriously built-up, multi-gigabyte FE1 setup, and was just dreading having to replicate it from the bottom up. I agree with you that there should be a sticky on how to port FE1 setups to FE2 though.

 

Mike

[OlPaint01 0]

Hello Peter01

 

I have found the new FE2 Weapons and Guns Editors but have failed to locate the new FE2 Cat Extractor Utility. I cannot find it on TK's site. Can you point us in the right direction?

 

Thanks

OlPaint01

[+peter01 2]

Hello Peter01

 

I have found the new FE2 Weapons and Guns Editors but have failed to locate the new FE2 Cat Extractor Utility. I cannot find it on TK's site. Can you point us in the right direction?

 

Thanks

OlPaint01

 

 

http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=10458

[OlPaint01 0]

Thanks Peter01

 

The CatPack Utility pulls everything out at one fell swoop. We don't have to pick one file at a time as in SFP1e Utility. Neat!

 

OlPaint01