Questions about mercenary campaign mode

[rogueranger1993 7]

Hey guys, I'm working up towards playing my first campaign (I've been doing some practice runs with single missions to get the hang of the game), and I'm excited to try flying with mercenary mode. However, after watching Zomb Lee's Blood Money campaign on YouTube, I have a few questions I'd like to get answered before I start. So, here they are;

1. When it comes to creating your own mercenary roundel/tail flash, I'm assuming I should use the decal making tutorial available in the downloads section - is this true, and what else should I know?

2. What do each of the pilot scores (I'm assuming the columns are for morale, condition, skill, and experience) used for, what effects do they each have on the pilot, and which ones are most important when selecting pilots for a mission?

3. When buying new planes, I'm assuming the price is for a single aircraft, is this correct?

4. I've come to understand that I cannot buy more planes of the same type as I already have. I'm curious to know why this is, and if so, is it possible that this could be changed in any way, or would that require someone to crack the game's source code?

[+russouk2004 6,958]

1 yes

as to others dont know dont do merc camps sry

1 select area around yer dec...pic 1  select inverse ,  pic 2   go to layers at bottom add alpha....pic 3  save as tga   sorted

Edited July 28, 2019 by russouk2004

[Wrench 9,852]

and then extract and edit the nations ini to add "new" nation, edit the campaign ini to add "new" nation ... 

iirc, that's how it works

best to just leave it as is. for now

[+Menrva 4,202]

5 hours ago, rogueranger1993 said:

When it comes to creating your own mercenary roundel/tail flash, I'm assuming I should use the decal making tutorial available in the downloads section - is this true, and what else should I know?

You can simply edit the INSIGNIA001.tga file in order to have your own Mercenary decal in place of the original. There's no need to add an additional nation, as that would require more work to get it properly working. I have released a mod package with new nations, some fixes to the countries' services and a new, generic Mercenary insignia. Feel free to edit the one included in it: https://combatace.com/files/file/16986-nations-medals-expansion/

[rogueranger1993 7]

Thanks for the tips on insignia, guys.

However, while that is helpful, it doesn't answer my other two questions. So, does anybody know enough about the values found on the pilot roster screen to tell me how they work? And also, could it be possible to mod the game so that I can purchase more of my starting aircraft?

[MigBuster 2,884]

The pilots in the squadron gain points in areas if you fly them and they survive.

The figures do make a difference.......a higher skill will mean a better AI level..................but you probably need TK to tell you exactly how they are calculated because that is coded IIRC.

 

not sure on the Merc thing - you want to start with more money?......don't remember this being possible although  maybe someone did some digging.

 

[+gerwin 451]

42 minutes ago, rogueranger1993 said:

Thanks for the tips on insignia, guys.

However, while that is helpful, it doesn't answer my other two questions. So, does anybody know enough about the values found on the pilot roster screen to tell me how they work? And also, could it be possible to mod the game so that I can purchase more of my starting aircraft?

in Campaign1_Data.ini:

Nation=MERC
MercenaryUnit=TRUE
PlayerOnly=TRUE
StartingFunds=10000

[CowboyTodd41 134]

Merc campaigns can be very fun, but I'd honestly recommend a regular USAF or USN campaign to get the feel of the campaign system. Sometimes you can shoot yourself in the foot wrt funds available. Although that can happen in a regular campaign too. The North Atlantic campaigns with weapons availability set to hard usually see the Tomcats running out of Phoenix rounds very quickly.

[rogueranger1993 7]

I'll take your suggestion into account, Todd!

Gerwin, you didn't exactly answer the question I posed, or at least I have no idea what you're getting at with your answer. I was watching the SF2 Blood Money Let's Play posted by Zomb Lee on YouTube, and in his videos he mentioned that if you start with 16x Mirage IIIC planes, for some reason you can't buy any more Mirage IIIC planes during the campaign to replenish your losses. I was asking if there was a way to make the player's current aircraft purchaseable - or do you get more of the aircraft when you get resupplied?

Also, I'd like for someone to tell me what the numbers in the pilot roster screen (the one where you choose which pilots to take before a mission) mean - the ones for Condition, Morale, Skill, and Experience. What should I be aware of in regards to them, how do they effect my squadron's performance during the mission?

[+gerwin 451]

17 hours ago, rogueranger1993 said:

Gerwin, you didn't exactly answer the question I posed, or at least I have no idea what you're getting at with your answer. I was watching the SF2 Blood Money Let's Play posted by Zomb Lee on YouTube, and in his videos he mentioned that if you start with 16x Mirage IIIC planes, for some reason you can't buy any more Mirage IIIC planes during the campaign to replenish your losses. I was asking if there was a way to make the player's current aircraft purchaseable - or do you get more of the aircraft when you get resupplied?

 

I meant you can get $9999999 starting money instead of $10000. I now see the campaign customizer DLC has an input field for that as well.

I don't know about finite stock of certian aircraft, and no time to find out now... You can look in .ini files to see if there is a setting that may be related. If you want to learn about this game it is easy, since everything is nice and tidy in readable .ini files.

[CowboyTodd41 134]

19 hours ago, rogueranger1993 said:

Also, I'd like for someone to tell me what the numbers in the pilot roster screen (the one where you choose which pilots to take before a mission) mean - the ones for Condition, Morale, Skill, and Experience. What should I be aware of in regards to them, how do they effect my squadron's performance during the mission?

Also, a really interesting aircraft for a Merc campaign is the official TW DLC F-21A Lion. It's a Kfir C.1 in US markings they used at Top Gun for a while.

As far as the Pilot status numbers, I'd probably just choose the ones with the highest numbers for Condition and Experience. But the other pilots DO rank up in this way, RPG style based on the number of missions you're giving them. Use less experienced pilots as wingmen and higher experienced guys as element leads. Often times deep into a NATO Fighters campaign I've found that other Squadron commanders are often keeping pace with me for kills. In fact one time I figured I was the top F-15 ace until I saw a 4 ship AI flight from another base, and all four pilots were named aces by this point and the flight lead had 26 kills to my 21. Needless to say, his reign didn't last long lol.

Edited July 30, 2019 by CowboyTodd41
kfir c.1, not c.2

[rogueranger1993 7]

Thanks for clarifying, gerwin. I'll be sure to take a peek in the .ini files when I get some spare time to see if I can find anything.

As for aircraft, Todd, I've actually had a few in mind already. My intention is to run the 1968 campaign, so I decided to try and find a starting plane that would be readily/easily available at that time, and also one that the UN wouldn't mind supplying to Dhimar at a bargain price so that their hired guns can fly them. I settled on the following airframes as ones that are all seemingly reasonable choices;

- F-5A Freedom Fighter

- Mirage IIIC

- Hunter F.58 (63)

- G.91R/3 Gina

I picked these because they have a decent array of ordnance and a variety of mission types they could perform. The G.91 is supposedly a light CAS/strike plane only, but while I was researching the Gina, I learned that the Portuguese wired theirs for Sidewinders, so I may try to mod the plane to accept them and allow CAP, sweep, and intercept missions for good variety. The F-5 can also carry four Sidewinders, so I'll probably mod it slightly to add similar missions to it's profile. Do you guys have any thoughts on the aircraft I'm considering, any knowledge or tips on the best way to fly them, which ones might be most useful/fun?

[Arrow 83]

My country flew the F-5A and I've flown them in SF2 Europe -  used to fly one a lot in Wings over Vietnam in what-if scenarios. It's dangerous to fly in heavy SAM theaters as it doesn't have a Radar Warning Receiver and consequently can't do, or is poor for SEAD. When flying strike or CAP with lots of AA, fly nape of the earth and pop-up to about 6000' at 1 NM distance from the target. It's decent with LDGP bombs delivery and is a very good rocketing platform. It's maneuverable and reasonably fast and therefore good in a dogfight;  especially when going guns. Again though, without a RWR it's vulnerable to any A-A radar based missiles and without flares is vulnerable to heat seekers. So if you're going to dogfight get in close and gun them out of the air.

You could also add the F-104 Starfighter, as it was specifically designed by Lockheed and funded by the US government for export to allied countries. I personally don't care for it, because it's a bitch to turn at high speed - also not that good in a dive. It's damn fast though and at least it has a RWR and a radar scope IIRC.

[Edit] Forgot to mention that the F-5A for SF2 has a very pronounced roll when applying rudder. Some players are probably OK with it and you might prefer it, but I felt it was off. I use the RCAF CF-5A freedom fighter and there's alternative flight models that correct it. The F-5A wasn't good on takeoff and required a lot of runway and IIRC the base fan-made F-5A for SF2 is similar. So go full throttle before releasing the wheel brake. In real life the CF-5A had a variable undercarriage that would raise the nose and change the AoA so that it could take off easier. My grey cells are failing me though and I can't remember if that feature is modeled in the SF2 CF-5A.

Edited August 1, 2019 by Arrow