Advice for an unlimited ammo+fuel mod?

[rogueranger1993]

Hey guys! So, first I'd like to explain a bit about my situation here, then I'll get to the issue at hand.

So, I came across Strike Fighters 2 some time ago, but only bought in when I realized that it seemed that no other flight sims out there could offer a 'game' experience - they were pretty much all study sims. So, I( bought in and dropped the cash for the full combo pack, and now I'm here. Best of all, I was able to jump into an instant action mission and have some real fun without even needing to dig into a manual or anything!

I did, however, want to try something. I know that DCS world has unlimited fuel and ammo options in their gameplay modes, so I wanted to try and find something similar for SF2. I was unable to find somethignt hat has already been made, so I figured I'd use my noob modding skills (and the skills and advice of my very coding-literate cousin) to try and put together a similar mod for what will probably be one of my go-to flight games from now on.

So, to be clear, my goal is to try and build a mod that, when added to an SF2 install, will provide the player with three new options for their games; unlimited fuel, unlimited gun ammo, and unlimited ordnance (missiles/bombs). Either that, or just some lines of code to add/change in aircraft or game files. What I'd like to do with this thread is solicit any advice, ideas, and/or help that you guys can give. Thanks!

[+Wrench]

not possible; the game is NOT coded for arcade-ism. Even if it is sim-lite

all you can go is "Easy". Check the Options menu, Gameplay, customize

[rogueranger1993]

Well, that was pretty emphatic... 

However, I personally would like to believe that it is possible, if people think about it in the right way and are willing to put the effort in. For example, if you can't make the default definition of unlimited ammo possible, why not make a mod that allows a plane to be rearmed instantaneously in mid-air? Then you can even put a limit on how many rearms you can use. Also, I know that someone mentioned they did do something similar by accident on these forums, though they couldn't recall how to replicate it, I think it was for SF1 but I can't remember just right where I saw it...

Anyways, I'm pretty sure it's possible to effectively have unlimited ammo and fuel (such as the instant resupply function I mentioned), it's just the way you get it to work that's the trick, and that's what I was asking about here; ideas for how such a mod could be made to work.

[+Wrench]

Not in this game. I've been playing and modding it since 2003. It's not possible.

You're allowed a maximum of 32000 rounds of ammo (and the attendant weight penalties). To get that you'd need to extract and edit every single data ini for every aircraft that carries a gun, and place them into each and every one of their respective aircraft folders.

Missiles and bombs are another story altogether. Meaning: weight limits of the hardpoint, aerodynamic forces of said overloaded hardpoint, limitations of the avionics (IR vs SAHM vs AHM).

Most of us have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to REMOVE arcade-ism from the SF series. Making it as realistic as the engine's physics will allow. You want arcade, this ain't the game.

 

[+Menrva]

New blood in the SF2 series should trust Wrench. He's a veteran of this game series, among many others.

There used to be a bug/exploit which allowed to press a key combination in order to refuel the plane. However, that bug existed on SF1 games. It was addressed in the SF2 series of games, and it no longer works. Other workarounds have been sought, but nothing worked.

Strike Fighters is another kind of game (and I am a huge Ace Combat fan). We modders long for additional features and bug fixes, but without a source code you cannot change how the game works and its routines. So, we have to deal with it.

[mue]

Setting Options->Gameplay->Fuel Usage to "Easy" gives you unlimited fuel.

[+gerwin]

6 hours ago, mue said:

Setting Options->Gameplay->Fuel Usage to "Easy" gives you unlimited fuel.

There is a similar setting there that gives you unlimited gun ammo.

Also I remember this entry in the control ini file:

[ControlSet001]

//scroll at the end of the list//

REARM_WEAPONS=ALT+W

 

[rogueranger1993]

Yeah, I was fiddling around with the controls and read a bit through the manual last night. The easy ammo usage and fuel cosumption settings give you unlimited gun ammo and fuel, respectively, so I think it should be possible to do something similar for ordnance, but it would probably take some real digging to do it.

Also, I'll try out that control setting later today, gerwin, just to see what it does.

[JosefK]

Staying tuned...

[+gerwin]

2 hours ago, rogueranger1993 said:

Also, I'll try out that control setting later today, gerwin, just to see what it does.

It respawns bombs and missiles as they were at the beginning of the mission.

Silly anecdote: After triggering external stores jettison, it won't won't work anymore, at least not really:

[rogueranger1993]

Well... 

But apparently, we can have respawnable ammo, so that effectively give us unlimited ammo. And finding the code used for the unlimited gun ammo that is part of the easy settings holds some promise if it can be applied to ordnance as well - does anyone know where I can find that piece of code?

[rogueranger1993]

Okay, so a quick update - I've found after some searching of the files and some time playing the game that using the rearm command is probably the easiest route to use, since I was unable to find the file that controls ammo limits for the gun based on difficulty level.

All you have to do is find the Controls.ini file in your game's mod folder and scroll to the bottom of it, then add a new line that reads "REARM_WEAPONS=ALT+W". You can, of course, set the keybinding to whatever you want - I chose to link it with a button on my joystick for easy access during gameplay.