Having problems with selectable years in SF2 (Tried many solutions)

[+Eagle114th]

Hello everyone,

 

I am back after being gone for several years.  It is good to see everyone here!  :)

By the way, I have been organizing five separated installation of SF2 after setting them up in my external hard drive.  I did lot researches and experimenting to ensure everything works.  I am using Dell laptop so I am unable to have huge folder with many mods in SF2, so I installed SF2 and mods in an alternative methods with an external HDD.

I did it in this methods:

1) Installed all SF2 titles and patch it to latest version

2) Configured option.ini file to have it changing mod path to external HDD

3) Tested add-on mods in external HDD and everything worked.

4) Spend each days installing 5 mods into 5 different installations, they look like this:
 

- Strikefighters2 US

- Strikefighters2 Russia

- Strikefighters2 Asia

- Strikefighters2 Europe

- Strikefighters2 Israel

 

And the rest (SF2:V and SF2:NA) are not used because they are in these 5 different installations above.

 

When i was flying in any one of these titles, I noticed that when I go beyond mid 1970s, I no longer am able to select any years beyond that when selecting modern aircraft.  For example, I selected F-16I in SF2:Israel, I am only able to select 2004 instead of different years around that.

I went to option.ini to change this specific lines of codes and it look like this:
(Note:  I edited opinion. ini from this file path --> C:\Users\ --- names --- \Saved Games\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2 Israel)
 

[SingleMission]
AircraftType=F-8H_69
Service=USN
MissionMap=VIETNAMSEA
MissionType=STRIKE
MissionTime=NOON
MissionWeather=CLEAR
AirActivity=RANDOM
AirDefenseActivity=RANDOM
FlyAll=FALSE
LoadMission=FALSE
LoadMissionFilename=G:\_My Files\Games\Strike Fighter Series\Mods\_ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2 Israel\Missions\640802_TONKIN_GULF_INCIDENT.MSN
MissionDate=1975
StartYear=1900 <--- changed this to 1900
EndYear=2100 <--- changed this to 2100
EditMission=FALSE

 

And then I used CAT extractor to extract IsraelME.ini and created folder in SF2 I mod folder.  The path folder path look like this:

G:\ --- (several folder paths) --- \Strike Fighter Series\Mods\_ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2 Israel\Terrains\IsraelME

 

And then I changed the lines of codes in ISRAELME.ini:

 

[Terrain]
TerrainFullName=Israel, Middle East
DataFile=IsraelME_data.ini
TargetFile=IsraelME_targets.ini
TargetTypeFile=IsraelME_types.ini
MovementFile=IsraelME_movement.ini
NationsFile=IsraelME_nations.ini
LocationMap=IsraelME_Location.bmp
WaterMap=IsraelME_Water.bmp
BriefingText=IsraelME_briefing.ini
DogfightFile=IsraelME_dogfight.ini
DogfightOnly=FALSE
Longitude=34.80
Latitude=32.08
MagneticVariation=-5
LimitedNations=TRUE
GroundObjectTexture=tan


[Map]
FilenameFormat=IsraelME_Map%d.bmp
Width=1000000.0
Height=1000000.0
NumZoomLevels=3


[WeatherChance]
ScatteredChance=25
BrokenChance=25
OvercastChance=4
InclementChance=2


[AllowedDates]
StartDate=1900 <-- Changed this to 1900
EndDate=2050 <-- Changed this to 2100

I launched SF2: Israel and went to single mission and selected F-16I and realized that I am still stuck in 2004.  I am still unable to select any years to before and after 2002.  I am still confused and is not sure what to do next to solve this.  So i am wondering if any of you have faced similar problems and have solved it.

Edited August 20, 2016 by Eagle114th

[+Eagle114th]

UPDATE #1:  It look like it actually work for SF2: Israel but not my another SF2 installations.  I will keep digging and see what I can do to make it work for other SF2 series.

UPDATE #2: I think I might have solved problems for all my SF2 series and custom installation.  (Crosses my fingers)

By the way, it is good to be back.  It looks like I have lot of catching up to do here.

Edited August 20, 2016 by Eagle114th

[+Wrench]

have you LOOKED in the Knowledge Base?

I know for a fact there are at least 3 entries on "how to fix the year spread" issue

[+Eagle114th]

have you LOOKED in the Knowledge Base?

I know for a fact there are at least 3 entries on "how to fix the year spread" issue

 

Yes, I went there many times to find solution for modding.  I have found your two threads on it and that is how I found two of possible solution as posted at my first post.  However, my SF2 acts little strange because at first, it did not work.  And then after several attempts of starting SF2 fixed the problems.  I am able to select years for each SF2 installations.

 

By the way, Wrench, it is good seeing you again! 

 

I am your big fan of your works long time ago for Jane's Fighter Anthology modding, especially wingman series.  I don't think you probably remembered me from past and I was so excited that you joined SF series community.  I, especially enjoy your mods you created for SF series, including "What if" mods.

 

By the way, with my current modding going on, there is one additional question I will have to ask.  It is not related to spreading the years in SF2, instead it is related to changing IR growling sounds for some aircraft so they have their own unique IR growling sounds.  I am unable to find information on it.  As usual, I will look again in knowledge base to see if I can find answers there before posting new thread about it.

Edited August 20, 2016 by Eagle114th

[+Wrench]

for the IR growls, they are more "global" meaning all IR missiles use the same one

BUT...

 

say for instance, you want the Atolls and Aphids to use another. IIRC, that should be readily changable in each weapon's data ini (as SF2 uses seperate ones for each weapon --- Caveat---- you'll need to extract the main, stock WeaponsData.ini, place in in the /objects/Weapons folder and edit it there, otherwise it'll revert back to the stock sound.

If anyone knows for sure if that WON'T work, please correct me!)

 

EDIT-- !!! opps --IRGrowl & IRGrowlLock are in the SOUNDLIST.ini!!! my bad. I know you can replace the wav with a "same named" wav, but don't know if you can add another or how to link to a specific missile

 

As to changing the years, the instructions I wrote have always worked, in all versions of the game. 

Places not to change them are

aircraft's data ini

weapon's data ini (unless completely incorrect)

terrain operations span -- and there ARE several that ain't right. Those have long since been corrected.