SUEZ show stopper

[Tomb]

any news from those hard working folks of the SUEZ mod to fix the cyprus airfields from "enemy" to friendly ?

 

be nice to see the RAF/ADA take part. Flying RAF is bad for your health as your own airfields will shoot you down on take off Lol

 

no discrimination here though they also shoot the french airforce down as well

 

really looking forward to this one being fully operational

[+Dave]

We will get to it ASAP. Waiting to hear from eburger. Still can't seem to figure out what changed though because it was working.

[+eburger68]

Dave:

 

There are four Cyprus target areas defined in the TARGETS.INI -- two are marked NEUTRAL, while the other two (the air bases) are defined FRIENDLY. This arrangement did work before. The only reason I can think that it isn't now would be changes made by TK in the Jun2010 update -- from the ReadMe:

 

* Campaign front line handles neutral boundary better.

 

Not sure why Wrench left two of the Cyprus target areas NEUTRAL. Probably best to ask him to take a look at this problem -- he's the guru on terrains.

 

Eric Howes

[+Dave]

He left them neutral to keep them from being occupied by enemy territory and I think they are close to the wall. Change them to friendly and see what happens.

[+Wrench]

and also to prevent E/A from showing up on CAP mission the friendlies would be assigned to, if they weren't classed neutral. As it stands, they have a 0 value target 'place holding' the cites, just so's they exist as other than a named area.

 

Akrotiri and Paphos are most definately classed as FRIENDLY...

 

[TargetArea233]

Name=Akrotiri Airbase

Position=300000,866000

Location=13

ActiveDate=1/1/1930

//InActiveDate=1/1/1999

Alignment=FRIENDLY

AirfieldDataFile=desert_airfield4.ini

NumSquadrons=10

 

[TargetArea236]

Name=Paphos Airbase

Position=256000,884000

Location=13

Alignment=FRIENDLY

ActiveDate=1/1/1935

//InactiveDate=1/1/1999

AirfieldDataFile=desert_airfield6.ini

NumSquadrons=10

 

one could also try replacing the AAAn targets listing with oildrum1. Of course, that completly removes any Air Defense units from these bases, but they ARE out of range of anything/everything the EAF would have, excpeting their Beagles. But n series items also prevents enemy strike missions from being tasked to those target areas.

 

wrench

kevin stein

 

EDIT: actually, do the AAAn replacement first ... the game engine ™ may not quite know what to do with those. Test and let me know (as thats' use in Korea too, and if it's a glich, HAS to be fixed)

Edited July 11, 2010 by Wrench

[Tomb]

if start as say a canberra unit for example 10sqn

 

then go to the load out screen then check the mission map you will be on your home airfield but it will be coloured red instead of blue

 

you will see the border is drawn around israel then over the sea BUT passes on the west side of cyprus

 

then you check the east border syria way and sea the border passes east of cyprus

 

this places cyprus firmly in enemy territory (and the airfields get coloured red and show as such)

 

i suspect its a border issue rather than an airfield or unit issue

 

something gone wrong with the border definition perhaps ?

[Tomb]

ok i cant seem to post a screenie so i have uploaded it under suezmapbug for you guys to take a look at it

 

it shows cyprus in enemy territory very clearly

[+Wrench]

I keep getting Red AAA units shotting the crap otta me!! When I built those parts of the terrrin, that never happened.

 

the 'front line' statements are messed up ... I can't seem to get a screenie, but as you move the map back and forth, one of the red border lines moves with you.

 

the movement ini's front line statements need rewriting, probbly back to the orignal positioning of Isreal's pre-67 borders. There's 45 lines, and only 41 are called to being used.

 

Also, the Canberra units need their missions adjusted ... in teh campaign data ini, they get tasked with CAP. Rather odd for a bomber, that has no offensive or defensive armament!!

 

wrench

kevin stein

Edited July 11, 2010 by Wrench

[+Wrench]

I can state, with 100% certainty, that the issue with the border is in the campaign data ini, not my terrain mods. Swapping out the border statements from a freshly extracted IME movment ini, dropping them into the campaign ini, removed the extra lines...

 

However, it did NOT remove the soviet AAA units from Paphos and Akrotiri, even though these were reditd to just plain AAA. Even added cyprus to the FrienndlyNations list (which I'm going to remove as Cyprus don't exist in te nations.ini.)

 

In single missions, when flying from either, Blue AAAs show up. In campaign mode, Reds show up. So, something is glitchy there.

 

In the meantime, until it' gets fixed, I'd suggest replacing the AAA units at the 2 Cyrpiot airbases with oildrum1. They won't shoot you full of holes! And are easily changed back, whence the problem is found and fixed.

 

wrench

kevin stein

[Tomb]

ok...makes drowning noises..say what...glugg...glug

 

better learn to swim real quick

 

found the file...made the change (oiltank1)it workd fine the RAF and french are almost in the war

 

ok next problem

 

canbarra's and F84's pretty much taking off unarmed because whats allocated in the campaign munitions availblity file and what the aircraft will load up with are not aligned

 

so i have made the changes to get things moving...i am going to have to take a look at the F-84 soon

 

sundry changes to missing files for the hunter and F84 aircraft

 

egygpt 1 sqn aircraft update corrected from MiG17 to Mig17F

 

at some point i am going to change the order of battle in cyprus so that all the F84's fly in french makings (not Israli for some)

 

also the canberra's should be flying from paphos,bomber base (Nicosia stand in i presume)and the hunter/venom/F84 from Akrotori fighter base

 

will attempt to add a few more canberra sqns

 

have an inkling to create a canberra PR7 using the B2 since it had the short B2 fusalage with the B6 wet wing and engines

 

so i will just need to create the data.ini file hopefully

 

if anyone fancys skinning a B2 with 13 sqn markings i'll use that...otherwise default will have to do...tails numbers available ..just ask me

 

ok thier is a F84F with my name on it

 

time to bomb stuff

 

then i will be back in the seahawk Lol

 

regards

[+Dave]

Tomb

 

The 1 squadron in Egypt flew the Mig-17 not the F ,so its correct.

 

The F-84's in IAF markings ARE correct. They flew that way. We did our research on this.

 

I'm only leaving only 2 Canbera squadrons in there since they get chewed up by the AI Mig-15's pretty badly.

 

Some bugs have appeared since the new patch. We will address them. This is all based on eburger's, wrench's and I's schedule.

[+eburger68]

Dave:

 

I'll put together a set of updates this evening. It will include the previous updates/fixes that haven't been incorporated into the mod package yet.

 

Best,

 

Eric Howes

[Tomb]

first things first the cunning plan of removing the AAAn and using oilbarrel1 only works for 1 mission

 

after that you are relocated to LOD (F84/Canberra tried so far)

 

 

other

 

Mig 17 does not have an afterburner

 

pictures from the time clearly show EAF 1sqn mig17's taking off in afterburner from Almazza it also shows them on the ramp and taxing out with the cutback rear fusalage

 

so thats a mig17F i would suggest acig.org show a mig17 but it has a cutback rear fuslage to allow for the varible nozzle=mig17F

 

a mig17 looks a lot like the mig 15 (ie no cutback)

 

however the big flame coming out the back in the pictures during takeoff, coupled with the clearly visable cutback in what few pictures thier are

 

indicates Mig17F.

 

according to wings over suez...when the shooting started the french regained thier national insignia on french owned planes but not the israli owned mysteres they were flying.

 

in fact it would appear they used the same markings on many aircraft being ferried to israel via italy/greece "returning from repair" was the reason given..the more astute noted these serials never flew out...only in...so they had a lot more aircraft than they were "supposed" to have.

 

again picures from the same book clearly show the F84's from the akrotiri wing in french markings for both EC1/1 and EC1/3

Mysteres in israel of "199sqn" (EC1/2)in french markings

 

as to how long the nominal 200 sqn kept thier markings, hard to say, some pictures show no national marking but a painted out square, covering the french roundel or the star of david...hard to say.

 

however Suez period pictures of the ramp of the akrotiri wing do not show any F84's in other than french marking

 

the reason why that might be so is explained in the book

 

regards

[+Dave]

Tomb

 

It is very subjective oh who flew what with what markings then. One source says this, another say that. I will keep it as it is. As far as the Mig-17 goes, Egypt received a mixed bag of Mig-17 Fresco A's and F's, total in all was 12 during the Suez crisis. However the real count is very debatable as Egyptian sources are very unreliable. We can go tit for tat on aircraft all day, but I have bigger fish to fry, like helping Erik get those annoying bugs fixed.

[Tomb]

Mustafa Shalabi al-Hinnawi has provided the pictures of the aircraft he was flying

 

8044 looks like a MiG17F

 

this chap was the commander of ...you guessed it EAF's first MiG17 sqn

 

the others serials cant be see but they are all Mig17F's

 

not seen a single picture of a mig17 other than the mig17F in EAF colours...care to point me at one ?

 

November the 1st was when the french F84F(199sqn) and mystere(200sqn) ground crews (re)painted the french cockade replacing the morgan david (star)the previous night because and i quote "the need for secrecy having passed"

 

201sqn mysteres kept the morgan david as they were IDF aircraft flown by french pilots

 

regards

 

dont worry dude these are all things i have or am or in the process of correcting or learning to in the relevent .ini files

 

no work from you guys req'd...you get the map sorted, definatly no1 priority "grin"

[+eburger68]

Guys:

 

After spending a few hours with the Suez_DATA.INI and testing, I think I've got the fix for all the problems reported here.

 

First, TK added some new lines to the bottom of the FrontLine section defining neutral locations. So, I added added Cyprus as a defined neutral location. That stopped Red AAA taking pot shots at you while taking off from Cypriot air bases. But that didn't solve the problem of RAF and French AdA units being re-based off Cyprus after but one campaign mission.

 

Second, the front line statement was screwed up, effectively putting Cyprus behind enemy lines. Once I adjusted the last few front line nodal points, moving the front line well east of Cyprus -- close to the Lebanese coast, in fact -- the problem of RAF and AdA units being re-based after one campaign mission was resolved.

 

I've attached a revised Suez_DATA.INI with the new FrontLine section. Note that this file is for the primary Suez campaign, not the Arab Suez campaign or the "alternate" Hunter F.5 campaign version. If you want to test those other campaigns, simply copy the new FrontLine section at the bottom of the file (with the new NeutralLocation section) to the other campaign DATA.INIs.

 

I'm afraid that's all I have time for tonight. Please test this new campaign file and report back with your own results.

 

Eric Howes

Edited July 13, 2010 by eburger68

[Tomb]

thanks eburger, i fly a few hops in a few hours

 

it sure is tough being a canberra B2 pilot Lol

 

need to figure out how to get me some escorts

[+eburger68]

Guys:

 

I've got an update prepared. Anyone else have a chance to test that new campaign DATA.INI?

 

Eric Howes

[+Dave]

Not yet Eric, been busy with site business. Have logged a single minute of flying in the past week.

[Tomb]

been flying it from various cyprus sqns for a while now

 

i also restored the AAAn (from oilbarrel1)

 

you can fly fine from Cyprus over several missions

 

BUT Cyprus based aircraft are not really in play

 

i notice no cyprus based aircraft fly except my mission

 

is this because it is "neutral" and thier fore the AI wont assign missions from here ?

 

i suspect so, since when i am allocated an escort to my canberra or RF84...it comes from israel..not much use as they run out of fuel just as they get to cyprus and have to head home again..be nice the have the Cyprus venoms/hunters/canberra's/F84's in play

 

i also notice no other units show on cyprus map as they do on the carriers/israel/egypt..i suspect the cyprus units are not in play (for the AI)

 

i supect HMS Albion cannot or launch aircraft, they just sit thier

 

HMS eagle definatly does launch it's sqns

 

i think HMS Bulwark launches..could not swear to just yet though

 

all the Israeli airfields seem fine.

 

on the Egyption side i have yet to see IL28s fly..but its early days yet

 

what do i need to do to remove the "neutrality" from Cyprus ?

 

think i would like to see what happens and if those planes come into play

 

regards

Edited July 14, 2010 by Tomb

[+eburger68]

Tomb:

 

You asked:

 

what do i need to do to remove the "neutrality" from Cyprus ?

 

Simply remove the following line from the bottom of the Suez_DATA.INI:

 

Neutral008=13

 

Eric Howes

[Tomb]

ok looked over the F84F

 

no flap control...now fixed (human pilot)

 

no weapons...now fixed

 

weapons showing in the wrong place...now fixed

 

a few problems with the EAF aircraft i notice...will get to them in due course

[+eburger68]

Tomb:

 

I just checked the carrier stations -- they are on the proper side (i.e., the friendly side) of the front line.

 

Eric Howes

[+Dave]

God this is what frustrates me about this sim sometimes. All this stuff worked, then the patch breaks stuff. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH but the patches are needed and welcomed.

 

 

[Tomb]

dont think its a border issue

 

think thier is something wrong with HMS albion

 

will try the line you suggest...

 

just tried it

 

that makes a dramatic difference all the missing Sqns appear

 

and look like they are getting tasked with missions, i see hunters and venoms in the air...all three carriers seem to be playing as well

 

i could give you a kiss

 

let me be the first to say Yeuuuch

 

here is another one for you

 

i must be missing a file

 

The F84F now has been given rocket pylons i have changes the loadout.ini/data.ini/campaign data.ini

 

thier is obviously a 4th file that single mission use's... or an allowable weapons list..whats it called and where is it ?

 

regards