There are times you want to pull your hair out. Or, TK's.

[Heck 496]

So, I bought SF2NA and installed it. With it, I got carrier ops for my favorite install, you guessed it, Korea. Happy as a clam digger at low tide. Everything working perfectly, just Korean war era in my objects folders, and dates set to only Korean war period. Then, a mistake. Decided to give TK a little more "development money," so I purchased SF2, the fictional war, simply because I've never owned it. Guess what. First time I ran my modded installs, it added back in all the modern objects, because TK knows we're all twelve years old and sitting around saying, "Wouldn't it be like so cool if I could fly like an F-14 Tomcat against like the Bleriot that crossed the English Channel? That would be like so cool!"

 

You win, TK. I'm reverting to 12 years old. I'm not going to bother removing them again, it's too much of a pain in the butt, and they won't appear in missions anyway, because my period dates are set correctly. I'll just leaf through them to get to the uncool aircraft I want to fly. But, I'll tell you this, after all the frustrations of using this sim I BOUGHT, Expansion Pack 3 better have something in it that makes me drool, or I'm not parting with a haypenny more for Thirdwire. End of rant.

[FastCargo 412]

Dude, what did you expect was going to happen? Anytime you make changes to the system folders (the main install), especially something like adding a new exe, the first time you run it, that is EXACTLY what happens.

 

Several times we warn to move or copy your mod folders, run the sim, then put your folders back. I make duplicates of my mod folders, then run the new exes, clean up the created mod folders, then copy my mod folders back. Keep the copies until I've run and verified the new mod folders work how I expected.

 

FC

[+Stary 2,427]

Heck, simple process of removing the stock planes from the Aircraft folder will cure the 12-years old syndrome.

 

Rest was covered by FC above

[Wrench 9,848]

well, honestly if you're using MY terrain, it's designed with a 100 year operational life span ... not just the historik Korean War, but anything after.

 

and yes, everthing get added back every time you add ANY stock 3W item. Add a DLC and see happens ... a real bitch and half for us WW2 players too.

But that's just the way it is, and we learn to adapt to it

Edited April 4, 2013 by Wrench

[CowboyTodd41 134]

Dude, these games are fantastic and made even more so by the modding community around. That being said, I've been playing this forever and if you aren't ready to sink a bit of time into getting everything to work right to play with the mods you want, you got the wrong game. So just, relax.

[Tannethal 2]

That's exactly the reason I have my mod folders on a different path that's pointed to in the options.ini in the ...\.saved games\thirdwire\SF_whatever\ folder.

 

So basicly before applying a patch/DLC:

1. edit the options.ini found in C:\Users\put your username here\Saved Games\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2 KAW to point to the stock folder by comenting out the modded folder

 

[Mods]

ModsEnabled=TRUE

Directory=C:\Users\put your username here\Saved Games\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2 KAW [the stock mod folder]

//Directory=your drive:\your modfolders path\StrikeFighters2 KAW [your modded folder]

Editors=StrikeFighters2

 

 

2. Apply DLC/Patch

 

3. Run game and exit

4. Edit options.ini to point to modded folder by commenting out stock mod folder and remove // from your modfolder

5. Copy over new intended files from stock mod folder to modded folder

6. run game and be at ease or simply delete unwanted stuff in the modded folder

 

Just repeat these steps 1./3. to 6. with every SF2_whatever game / Mod you have.

 

Me thinks this stuff is also covered at lenghts in the Knowledge base.

 

S!

Edited April 4, 2013 by Tannethal

[Heck 496]

Dude, what did you expect was going to happen? Anytime you make changes to the system folders (the main install), especially something like adding a new exe, the first time you run it, that is EXACTLY what happens.

 

Several times we warn to move or copy your mod folders, run the sim, then put your folders back. I make duplicates of my mod folders, then run the new exes, clean up the created mod folders, then copy my mod folders back. Keep the copies until I've run and verified the new mod folders work how I expected.

 

FC

 

That's just it, FC. I did exactly what you said. I always have.

[+ST0RM 145]

This is probably the only time I'll stick up for TK.

 

When we mod, we run the risk of breaking things in the game. As has been said, modders are not the primary focus (despite the VERY open architecture). So anything we add, delete or tweak may have weird consequences. That comes with modding. A lot of trial and error.

[Heck 496]

All, well and good, but my understanding of the sim's operation is that if it can't find something in a mods folder that it needs, it pulls it from a cat file during assembly. So, I don't understand why the sim at startup, or when updated, would need to put folders back into a mods folder that weren't there when it checked. If they are there, it should update them there, of course, but if they are not there, it would be pulling them from an already updated cat file, according to what I've read here, so I guess I will just never understand why a simple if when type of code could not be written, telling the sim to update only the like folders, or files, it finds in the mods folder, and if it doesn't find them there, pull them from a cat. But, don't waste any more time on this folks, it was just a rant. I'm not going to...

[MigBuster 2,884]

As above - you modify the game at your own risk* - once you do so TK has no responsibility to ensure your mod or game still works - although in the past he has added code to support some mods.

 

 

 

*it aint much of a risk - at worst you might have to delete the mod folder shock

 

All, well and good, but my understanding of the sim's operation is that if it can't find something in a mods folder that it needs, it pulls it from a cat file during assembly. So, I don't understand why the sim at startup, or when updated, would need to put folders back into a mods folder that weren't there when it checked. If they are there, it should update them there, of course, but if they are not there, it would be pulling them from an already updated cat file, according to what I've read here, so I guess I will just never understand why a simple if when type of code could not be written, telling the sim to update only the like folders, or files, it finds in the mods folder, and if it doesn't find them there, pull them from a cat. But, don't waste any more time on this folks, it was just a rant. I'm not going to...

 

Repopulating the mod folder after each DLC/Patch /update is a pain - agree with that..............but have to live with it for now

[arthur666 65]

@ MigBuster:

What do you have to repopulate? Anything other than stock-aircraft-made-flyable's. ini's?

 

If that's it, here's a little trick I use. Wrench gave me the idea with his xAircraft.INI trick:

 

I copy folders of all stock-AI-made-flyable planes, put them in a folder backed up on my desktop. Go thru and delete everyting out of each folder except for the Aircraft.INI .

Now, everytime I update and the game rebuilds those files, i can just merge these folders directly into my Aircraft folder and overwrite the updated .INI's. If I change something in one of these INI's in my modfolder, I need to remember to change it in my little backup as well, but so far so good.

[+Stary 2,427]

I think it's really simple to do

 

rename your mod folder (for example it's "Korea") to "xKorea" or "_Korea" or "NotPronHere" etc

 

apply patch/whatever

 

run your mod executable (in this case Korea.exe) and exit

 

delete the newly created Korea folder

 

rename xKorea/whatever folder back to Korea and voila! In this case any added DLC won't work most propably but you don't want that A-7P or Lion in Korea install after all

[MigBuster 2,884]

@ MigBuster:

What do you have to repopulate? Anything other than stock-aircraft-made-flyable's. ini's?

 

 

Just a reference to the game putting the default folders back in automatically

[+SupGen 79]

All, well and good, but my understanding of the sim's operation is that if it can't find something in a mods folder that it needs, it pulls it from a cat file during assembly. So, I don't understand why the sim at startup, or when updated, would need to put folders back into a mods folder that weren't there when it checked. If they are there, it should update them there, of course, but if they are not there, it would be pulling them from an already updated cat file, according to what I've read here, so I guess I will just never understand why a simple if when type of code could not be written, telling the sim to update only the like folders, or files, it finds in the mods folder, and if it doesn't find them there, pull them from a cat. But, don't waste any more time on this folks, it was just a rant. I'm not going to...

 

Heck, the reason for that is those mod folders are not really different games; just renamed exes. For instance, I'm having a little trouble with Baltika's Battle of Britain mod built on SF2NA, it freezes when I hit the campaign button. When I run Task Manager to get out of it, it doesn't say Battle of Britain running, it says SF2NA. I think to the game engine they're one and the same. One thing I do is make copies of my Aircraft and GroundObject folders and rename them XAircraft and XGroundObject. After an update, delete Aircraft and GroundObject, make copies of XAircraft and XGroundObject and rename them. That being said I'm very interested in what Tannethal said as my installs are also on a drive other than C:.

[Tannethal 2]

@Supergen:

 

Basicly after install of the game i copied the whole created stock folder (bold) to a subfolder on a different drive.

 

C:\Users\put your username here\Saved Games\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2 NorthAtlantic

to

your drive:\your modfolders path\StrikeFighters2 NorthAtlantic

 

Then in options .ini i added the new path and coment out the stock one.

SF2 will always check the options.ini in C:\Users\put your username here\Saved Games\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2 NorthAtlantic and look for the directory of the modfolder.

I only apply mods to the copy on the different drive.

 

For patching/DLC refer to my first post.

 

By just switching betweeen the directory entry in options.ini, one saves himself the hassle of copying/renaming files for edited/modded stock planes, groundobjects, campaigns.

You just have to copy new DLC files/folders from the stock one to your Modfolder to get the new contend.

 

S!

[+SupGen 79]

@Supergen:

 

Basicly after install of the game i copied the whole created stock folder (bold) to a subfolder on a different drive.

 

C:\Users\put your username here\Saved Games\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2 NorthAtlantic

to

your drive:\your modfolders path\StrikeFighters2 NorthAtlantic

 

Then in options .ini i added the new path and coment out the stock one.

SF2 will always check the options.ini in C:\Users\put your username here\Saved Games\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2 NorthAtlantic and look for the directory of the modfolder.

I only apply mods to the copy on the different drive.

 

For patching/DLC refer to my first post.

 

By just switching betweeen the directory entry in options.ini, one saves himself the hassle of copying/renaming files for edited/modded stock planes, groundobjects, campaigns.

You just have to copy new DLC files/folders from the stock one to your Modfolder to get the new contend.

 

S!

 

Yeah, that's how I set mine up too, except I didn't think of the switchable directory entry; that's the neat part. Perfectly eloquent and simple; thanks for the tip.