F-14 Explodes On Ground in Iceland

[Wizard43]

Hello.  I've just started learning to fly and fight the F-14.  I have a strange problem that if I start a mission from a land based runway in Iceland (SF2:NA map), my F-14 instantly explodes at the exact moment the mission starts.  I considered that maybe a mod was causing this as I've added a few addon aircraft and some little sound mods.  I also have a 100% stock install from the Complete Collection version of SF2 but the same thing happens.  This seems to only happen on SF2 North Atlantic map and only the F-14.  Other maps and aircraft are fine.  By testing a couple things, I think I found the problem is that my aircraft and my wingman start the mission in the exact same spot of the runway.  With Collisions difficulty on hard, we both instantly explode.  With Collisions on Normal, collisions with friendlies is allowed.  Is this a thing others have encountered or is it unique to my installation?  I tried unsuccessfully to search the forum for any mention of a similar problem.

Thanks, Wizard

 

[+EricJ]

I never  heard of the issue myself, and this is the first of hearing  it. I think people are used to taking off from the carrier so there isn't any concern. What airfield are you having this problem at?

[+DoctorQuest]

I've had similar problems with an F-16A in Iceland. That seemed to be the only aircraft having issues. I never escalated the issue to the forums but I also never figured out an explanation. Eric had a good point. If I see it again I will make note of the specific airfield.

[+paulopanz]

Maybe beacuse there are two F-14s in the same place?

It seems an airfield issue ...

[bazillius]

it is not possible to test all mods on all maps. There are curiosities happens. I watched such an action as my heavily loaded wingmen on the MiG-27 crashed against the rock one by one on take off. I myself flew in with great difficulty and barely managed to gain altitude. Get used to it :)

Edited April 25, 2022 by bazillius

[Wizard43]

16 hours ago, EricJ said:

I never  heard of the issue myself, and this is the first of hearing  it. I think people are used to taking off from the carrier so there isn't any concern. What airfield are you having this problem at?

Yes it only makes sense to fly the F-14 from the boat.  With the aircraft sitting on different catapults there is no collision.  I'm not at home to verify but I'm pretty sure I tried this at Keflavik and Reykjavik and in both locations the F-14s exploded.  I also tried F-15s and A-7s and they worked fine.  I'm curious to try with an F-16 now.

7 hours ago, bazillius said:

it is not possible to test all mods on all maps. There are curiosities happens. I watched such an action as my heavily loaded wingmen on the MiG-27 crashed against the rock one by one on take off. I myself flew in with great difficulty and barely managed to gain altitude. Get used to it :)

Just to reiterate, I'm testing in a 100% stock install with no mods.

 

Wizard

[macelena]

I've had issues taking off with Tomcats from ground bases in mostly vanilla installs, going full flaps down and pitching up early seems the way to go, the aircraft seemed heavy on the runway, as if the landing gear was collapsing with that much weight above certain speed. 

[+EricJ]

5 minutes ago, Wizard43 said:

Yes it only makes sense to fly the F-14 from the boat.  With the aircraft sitting on different catapults there is no collision.  I'm not at home to verify but I'm pretty sure I tried this at Keflavik and Reykjavik and in both locations the F-14s exploded.  I also tried F-15s and A-7s and they worked fine.  I'm curious to try with an F-16 now.

Just to reiterate, I'm testing in a 100% stock install with no mods.

 

Wizard

Okay. I can't help you as I'm not associated with Third Wire but it's  good to know where it happens. And odd that it only happens with the F-14

[+Gepard]

If two or more planes are placed at the same startposition at an airfield it means, that the airfield.ini file of that airfield is wrong. It has nothing to do with the plane. It is an airfield issue.

Thatswhy it would be helpfull to know at which airfield the problem occurs. It is only one base or some bases or all bases?

[Wizard43]

I tried it again last night but didn't pay attention to the airfield.  I'm pretty sure it was Keflavik.  I will do a couple tests tonight if I have time and try a few Iceland airfields.  I confirmed a few little items.  I can get around the problem if I set collisions to normal instead of difficult.  It's not an issue with mods as I have the same behaviour between a stock and modded installation.  I tested the F-16 and it doesn't experience this same problem.  So far, A-7, F-15 and F-16 are fine.  F-14 not so much.  If the problem is with an airfield.ini file, it seems weird that only the F-14 so far has this problem.  I also noticed that my start position in the F-14 was in the middle of the runway and not at the end by the threshold. 

Wizard

[+Gepard]

2 hours ago, Wizard43 said:

 I also noticed that my start position in the F-14 was in the middle of the runway and not at the end by the threshold. 

 

Exactly this happens if the airfield.ini file is wrong. Perhaps it is a typo in the entry of the terrain_targets.ini file. Check out which airfield is it. I think it the problem is easy to solve.

[+EricJ]

It's definitely a wingman issue as I on a whim took off from all friendly airfields and nothing spectacular happened, spawned as supposed to be on all of them in the F-14.

Edited April 26, 2022 by EricJ

[+Wrench]

I'd be interested in HOW the OP got a Tomcat on a land base on the IcelandNA map. The game has a bit of a 'glitch' in it, wherein any and all maps with "NavalMap=TRUE", proper water bmp with the CV zones, any carrier based aircraft ALWAYS spawn on the boat. It don't work any other way on ALL my installs.

just wondering....

[+EricJ]

I usually disable NavalMap=TRUE because I don't like just shooting at CVBGs with a lot of air cover. And I have a free flight mission where I can check things or just fly over the terrain with no enemy.

[Wizard43]

I feel like a bit of a test pilot LOL.  In an unmodded install, I tried the stock TW A-7, F-4E II, and F-14 on the three blue airfields on the Iceland map. I was getting worried because I couldn't reproduce the problem.  But I did eventually figure it out.  To address Wrench's question, I started with Single Mission and used the TW mission editor to start my aircraft on a land base.  And here is where I created the problem.  I started on a land base but I selected the Nimitz to finish the mission on.  So take off from land base, land on a carrier in the mission editor causes the problem.  If you're wondering "why would he do that!?", I was trying to simulate a student pilot on carrier quals.  This seems like a programming thing within SF2 so I imagine the fix for this is "don't do that".  Anyway, hope I didn't waste anyone's time.  Thanks for chiming in and trying to help.

Wizard

[+EricJ]

I'll have to try that and see what happens.

[+EricJ]

It's just not the F-14. Here are shots from me spawning my Growler and had the same issue you had at Reykjavik airfield, so the map is glitched when you want to take off and land the way Wizard43 takes off:

Edited April 27, 2022 by EricJ

[+daddyairplanes]

off topic, whats on the ramp?

[+EricJ]

MQ-10A

[Wilches]

It´s related to DESERT_AIRFIELDS lacking. Place the files below on terrain folder.

Desert Airfields.rar

[+Menrva]

19 minutes ago, Wilches said:

It´s related to DESERT_AIRFIELDS lacking.

It is not. This is about the stock TW IcelandNA terrain, and both Reykjavík Airport and Keflavík Naval Air Station reference their own airfield data.ini file, like all of the other airports recreated specifically by TW for this terrain.

Simply put, this may well be a bug with the airport's data.ini file referenced in the terrain's targets.ini.

This is what the stock terrain includes and uses for Keflavík Naval Air Station, extracted from the latest July 2013 version: ICELAND_AIRFIELD7.INI

Same for Reykjavík Airport, it uses this: ICELAND_AIRFIELD6.INI

Edited April 28, 2022 by Menrva

[Wizard43]

23 hours ago, EricJ said:

It's just not the F-14. Here are shots from me spawning my Growler and had the same issue you had at Reykjavik airfield, so the map is glitched when you want to take off and land the way Wizard43 takes off:

 

Yes, I should have mentioned that.  It seems to be any carrier based aircraft where the option to return to a carrier is present.

[+EricJ]

24 minutes ago, Wizard43 said:

Yes, I should have mentioned that.  It seems to be any carrier based aircraft where the option to return to a carrier is present.

No worries as we're finding out that the map is borked in some ways more than one apparently. I mean I've flown over it but I didn't land anywhere or tried what you did. And one thing I noticed was that if I saved a mission where I took off from an airfield going to the carrier, and then when I opened up the file again it showed me taking off from the carrier and all the waypoints returning back to the carrier. There's some stuff going on that hopefully people can fix.