Has Anyone done a Balkans Campaign?NATO

[usafphantom2]

Call it NATO FIGHTERS 6!

[usafphantom2]

Hey Guy's ,I can help with the research ,Tell me what you need and where I can help.

[TheWarrior]

How hard would it be to do this map up for World War 2 mission of the 15th Air Force?

[+Wrench]

about as difficult as it was to turn the WW2 North Africa map into a modern "Eastern Med" map. (in other words, not very)

 

there's even room for the aifield at Tunis, a couple on Scily (don't know about Malta), and the 'heel and toe' of Italy.

 

but, it's still unfnished, and (talking about Baltikas) and I haven't seen it yet...

[TheWarrior]

Looking forward to it.

[Snailman]

now this is something really amazing. I did not expect Hungary will be included in this scale.

[jeanba]

That looks great

[+Brain32]

Brain32 has posted that he had prepared multiple tile sets to cover the region, with appropriate variation for each country, and yeah, Southern Italy will look much different to Balkans region. . .

 

You around, Brain? This terrain is crying out for a custom hi-res tileset, man ;-)

 

 

Baltika do you have a somewhat operational version of that terrain? I'd like to see if I can mold my work into that and see how much stuff is needed for it to be finished...

[+CrazyhorseB34]

^{Brain and Baltika, that would be epic!}

[+Baltika]

Baltika do you have a somewhat operational version of that terrain? I'd like to see if I can mold my work into that and see how much stuff is needed for it to be finished...

 

Sure thing Brain,

 

Give me a few days to knock it into shape and I'll upload it to the Modder's Repository, then you and Wrench can take a look if you like.

 

Cheers,

 

Baltika.

[+Wrench]

sweet!!!

[+Stary]

goood!

[+Baltika]

OK, having had a look at my old wip terrain I got the bug to update it.

 

Making good progress:-

 

 

 

 

As promised, once I get the rest of the towns and airfields plotted I will upload this to the Modder's Repository to see what can be done with it re tiles and targets.

 

 

Is there a way to get gerwin's TFD tool to make planning maps with the names of cities, not just airfields?  I have been fiddling with the TFD.ini file but no joy so far.

 

 

Slainthe!

 

Baltika.

[+Brain32]

Ohh this is nice, btw is it possible to put Rijeka Airport on the island of Krk? That's where it is IRL but I don't know if it can be fitted there due to hfd and game limitations...

[Snailman]

Shall I list (and mark on map) the airports and fields in Hungary?

[+Stary]

guys feel free to reuse my TODs or tiles however would fit ya

Edited November 27, 2013 by Stary

[tiopilotos]

This campaign looks awesome and as someone else said, it could be the Southern Europe Part of Nato Fighters.

[+Baltika]

Ohh this is nice, btw is it possible to put Rijeka Airport on the island of Krk? That's where it is IRL but I don't know if it can be fitted there due to hfd and game limitations...

 

Consider it done - will hand-tile and paint the heightmap if necessary

 

 

Shall I list (and mark on map) the airports and fields in Hungary?

 

All such suggestions and assistance gratefully accepted - as you will see, Hungary is yet to be done, but it's on the list.

 

I am using google earth and wiki as my main research tool , so if there is stuff you want on there, let me know

 

 

guys feel free to reuse my TODs or tiles however would fit ya

 

Thanks Stary, good to hear from you man.

[Snailman]

All such suggestions and assistance gratefully accepted - as you will see, Hungary is yet to be done, but it's on the list.

 

I am using google earth and wiki as my main research tool , so if there is stuff you want on there, let me know

 

OK, I'll make a simple map...  Of course the airfields vary by era. WW2 or cold-war  or modern setting it will be...  In cold war I have to search for Soviet air bases, too, not only those used by the HuAF.

[+Baltika]

OK, I'll make a simple map...  Of course the airfields vary by era. WW2 or cold-war  or modern setting it will be...  In cold war I have to search for Soviet air bases, too, not only those used by the HuAF.

 

Hmm. . .  good point, Snailman.

 

I have based the terrain frontline on a cold war setting, as that works best with the stock Thirdwire planeset.

 

Of course, the frontline can be varied from the campaign.ini for a particular scenario, but it's not so easy to change placement or naming of airfields.

 

I will just fire up what I have got, and then it can be tweaked with input from those who have a particular interest like yourself.

[+Wrench]

baltika, if you need maps ... i'll pm you the link to my secret stash. most charts, however are dated from the 1950s thru the 1980s. which is also good for a clod war timeframe

 

==================

 

btw, YOUR GE is working??? mine is tits up most of the time ... start the cursed thing, and the earth starts rotating ... from the N/S axis!! I'm not the only one having issues with it.  uninstalled/reinstalled 4 times just this month!!

Edited November 27, 2013 by Wrench

[+Baltika]

Thanks Kevin, all references gratefully accepted.

 

Have planted a stack of bases in Northern Italy:-

 

 

 

 

Plus, got the bug to do some tiling so added some rocks to Brain32's WoE repaint tiles, and then work stopped while I goofed around in the Alps:-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have also been trying out gerwin's TFD tool properly for the first time - gerwin, great work, man, let me add my voice to the chorus of thankyous for your great bit of kit   

 

So, I think I will work through the rest of the airbases and flatten them out with TFD (so much easier than TE).

 

Then at least this can go up as a flyable beta rather than an alpha development project.

 

Happy holidays everyone

 

[+Wrench]

great rocky mountain tiles!!! Me Likes!!

 

pm inbound

 

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don't forget Reggio Calabira, Cantania, Catania-Sigonella (and naval base!), Tripanni. Also looks like jjuuuuuuussst enough room to the west to add Tunis-Carthage Int'l . Malta, can't tell from this scale. You know how I hate empty spaces

 

I should have some of my 'specials', port tiles in GCE format laying around some place (probably in the WW2  Norway!!) Unfortunately, using stock TOD objects

Edited November 30, 2013 by Wrench

[jeanba]

That's very promising

[+Baltika]

Hey Guy's ,I can help with the research ,Tell me what you need and where I can help.

 

usafphantom2, you still around, dude?

 

I will take you up on this offer if you are still interested.  For campaign building, what I try to do is work up full OOBs for all air and ground units, covering unit strength, equipment, bases, engagements and significant personnel - commanders for ground units and aces/named pilots for air units.  The campaign engine can handle name, rank, confirmed kills, number of missions flown and assign a specific aircraft to an ace pilot, and then track them through the dynamic campaign, so all of that can go into the mix.  With a bit of tweaking of supply levels etc. it is possible to get campaigns to run a historical course, regardless of player success/failure (see my WW2 Burma "Longest Retreat" campaign, or Fall of the Philippines campaign for examples of this) so that's why I like a general overview of engagements and the historical course of the campaign.

 

But, like a say, a good baseline is to establish which units were involved, what they flew/drove, how many machines they had, and where they were stationed (at least at the start).

 

I am a huge fan of the SFP1/WoX/SF2 campaign engine, and when everyone batters on about the lack of a truly dynamic campaign in current sims, I always think SF2 gets short-changed and overlooked for what it does. Air units, strengths and ace pilots are tracked, shoot parked planes on the runway and the resident unit is weakened in later missions, the ground war plays out in a fluid, changing, dare I say dynamic manner (unless the campaign builder deliberately puts his hand on one side of the scales), the player's squadron pilots are tracked - I mean, what's not to like here?

 

Anyhoo, if you are up for it, have a crack at looking into the Balkan conflict and fire up an Air OOB and ground OOB, for each nation involved, and then we'll start campaign building

 

 

 

don't forget Reggio Calabira, Cantania, Catania-Sigonella (and naval base!), Tripanni. Also looks like jjuuuuuuussst enough room to the west to add Tunis-Carthage Int'l . Malta, can't tell from this scale. You know how I hate empty spaces

 

 

No worries, Kevin, all easily doable.  Geneva in the west marks about the realistic limit to the edge of the map, being about 40k from "the wall."  All the stuff you mentioned will fit no bother.

 

I hadn't thought of it, but since you ask, Malta is now flyable:-

 

 

 

 

 

Which is fine and dandy, but it just looks weird with Brain32's Germany tiles.  And it gets stranger - this is Naples:-

 

 

 

 

Italy is having a gloriously fertile season, and record levels of precipitation, obviously!

 

Also, it's obvious that I am using a mix of tilesets, my fully-transitioned set was based on Deuces' old, old, Woe repaint, and the stock GCE set, or Brain32's repaint, don't have all the transitions required.

 

So, I think this is where I fire this darn Frankenstein's monster of a terrain up for Brain32 to take a gander.

 

Brain, let me know what you think.  I have been having some success with autotile and exclusion zones in TE to get different tilesets for different regions on the same map - my old, old, wip Kuril Islands terrain now has a wip custom tileset to cover Hokkaido and a different wip tileset for Kamchatka and Sakhalsinsk - no pictures yet as I haven't done the transition tiles, but watch this space ;-)

 

So, multi-region tiling can be done.  Wrench suggested IME tiles for North Africa and Greece, etc, but I don't want to get too far into tiling until Brain has had a look over it.  Brain, you know what tiles you have, and how they might fit.

 

So I will keep on plotting cities and bases, but won't do too much more tiling until we can get a consensus on where we are going to take this.

 

Slainthe!

 

Baltika.

 

 

P.S.  Gratuitous beauty shot, I am most chuffed with my rocky mountain transitions 

 

Edited December 1, 2013 by Baltika