FE2 update patch

[spiteful21 7]

The only thing I'd like to see is a final fix for the weather changing in the campaigns with out add-ons (which I as a numpty can't work out how to use ) I love FE2

[Panama Red 22]

This is a post by streakeagle over on a SF2 discussion thread about SF2 changes, but it would still apply to FE2 if TK ever "updated" this game for those agitating for change in FE2:

 

Over the time frame from Expansion Pack 1 to SF2:NA's final patch were a lot of "little" changes per those listed above.

The trend for the past few years has been to resolve complaints by making a change that causes worse problems than the original complaint.

TK's forums have been a "Monkey's Paw".

You wish for something, but get unintended consequences.

 

For years people had complaints about the terrain engine:

1) The way ground objects popped into view.

2) Sorting issues with clouds and terrain.

3) The 1998 dated look of the terrain mesh height resolution and textures.

 

TKs solution to these problems:

1) Make objects fade into view rather than pop-up. The new effect looked great, except that you couldn't even see the runways until just before landing. Of course the fade-in distance had been locked down. So, TK provided an ini key to disable the new system. But disabling it might cripple future changes and still didn't give you control over the view ranges.

For me, the biggest problem associated with this change was the limits on view distance to aircraft.

The "fix" that allows people to turn off the new system does not solve my problem: aircraft used to be visible as soon as they rendered as a single pixel AND met the ini file specified visibility range.

Now, they appear at a hard-coded range per the horizon distance settings with no regard for the ini setting or 1-pixel rendering range.

Even at the farthest horizon settings, B-52 size aircraft go from invisible to quite large, which makes fighting using visual spotting look as bad as the old system's terrain popping into view.

 

2) Since low level clouds and objects have sorting issues and many people using mods complained very heavily about these problems, TK hard-coded the clould altitude limits to a much higher level.

This didn't fix the problem, it just hid the problem.

Now you won't see as many sorting issues because the clouds can't be at historical low altitudes.

I like to create and fly historical missions.

A key component to getting historical results are the visibility conditions imposed by the historical weather.

In Vietnam, the clouds were low, usually about 3,000 feet, but you can't make clouds any lower than about 10,000 feet.

 

3) Aside from much improved support for naval actions, SF2NA brought the new terrain.

This new terrain cost TK a lot of time and money to develop.

But, it comes at a high performance cost, doesn't look that good in its stock release, is partially locked down, and modders get no support in the form of tools or even answers to basic questions about how to make new terrains using the new system.

There was also another little itty, bitty problem: the increased resolution came at the expense of the overall map size.

If you want maps that look as good as first person shooters, then the maps have to be the size of first person shooters.

Of course, the original terrain system was already limited in map size.

It was a flat square rather than based on the real shape of the globe.

But now it is a much smaller square.

Now, you can still use the old terrain engine... but the way the game handles getting close to the edge of the terrain was changed which broke many modders' terrains.

The Monkey's paw never fails to aggravate those wishing for improvements to the SF game engine.

 

Call me selfish, but I never cared that much about the terrain.

All I care about is the air-to-air fight.

So, aside from the dramatic change to visibility ranges for aircraft and cloud ceilings, none of the above got under my skin too much.

But, when people started complaining about missile reliability and how hard it was to win, the Monkey's Paw clubbed me over the head.

Rather than suggesting that these players use less than hard settings, TK just changed the weapons to be dramatically more reliable for the player.

As "lite" as the SF series was supposed to be, it was actually a pretty good simulation for the effectiveness of early air-to-air missiles.

Now, later missiles are almost a sure thing and even some of the earlier missiles will hit very consistently.

 

From the very beginning of SFP1, each major patch brought new things at the expense of new bugs.

When WoV was released, the flight models and AI got hosed.

The flight models were mostly fixed by WoE, but the AI didn't really improve until WoI was released many years later.

SF2 brought DX10, which greatly enhanced the look and performance of the game, but that came at the cost of multiplayer.

 

So, maybe the post on the Third Wire forums wasn't stated correctly in terms of describing the time frame, but I more than understand the frustration of the poster.

As is mentioned above, you can't go back to earlier versions if you want to use later content.

 

SF2 remains the best survey sim available that leverage current hardware capabilities.

The stock flyable and AI aircraft library is simply amazing in scope and quality.

Throw in the free user mods, and you still have an incredible range of options to fly anything in any time frame.

But if TK could have addressed problems without limiting the modders or creating new problems, it could have been so much more.

Now, his focus is mobile games.

I look forward to any new SF2 content that may pop up, but I dread what problems are going to be caused by installing them.

Of course, it is entirely possible that there will not be any more significant releases for SF2.

I am not holding my breath waiting for Expansion Pack 3.

[+quack74 329]

I think there could be patches for the .dll files or code that don't mix in with the mod folders. Several of the problems are straight from the main install location. Such as the weather changing. That's all in the code that, if patched, wouldn't ( or shouldn't) affect the mods. So nothing should be lost on our side of things. Other small things like Damaged engine sounds and dust emitters from wheels that used to be in FE could be reinstalled the same way. I'm not going to complain about terrains or sky mods in FE because most of it has been taken care of by fellow modders. I like my terrains and skies. It's really the little things missing or disabled from the original code that could be touched up. But I'm really not holding my breath. Would be nice though.