Strike Fighter Community Expansion (SFCE) - UPDATE (10/11/22)

[Eagle114th 659]

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone is enjoying the weekend.  I am taking a break this weekend too due to the real life.

However, I am sharing what I have been working on for a few days.  

The weapons are being overhauled with mods that make them more accurate while new add-on ordinances are being added and maintained.  I have thought again about how to improve existing tags and implemented them.  It will be more simple and user-friendly when looking through the list.  I am using the weapon pack by Ravenclaw_007 and Crusader.  

By the way, when I flew the SF2 mission and there was many variants of GBU-10s, 12s, and other.  I have no idea how they are different from each other.  And now with research, I am able to add the information which guidance and what kind of aerial bombs they are based on.



Now this time, I can tell which ordinance to select for any kind of mission.  I am still polishing and improving any of the tags further through testing in SF2.  The goal is to keep it simple, clean, readable, and friendly-user when looking through the list.

When looking for the ordinance, the first thing I look at naturally is tag such as [Bomb-type], [DT], [GP], [RBCB], [IIRM], [EOGB], etc... Then look at the weapons and the information in brackets. 



When looking for the rocket pods [RP], you can see the information on which kind of rockets it carries on the left section while selecting the specific RP you want on the right section.  No more rocket pod and rocket information running out of the space when being displayed.





For the next version of beta, the additional notes that explain the tag will be added to the note.  So everyone can use it as a reference.  F-104s are completed and I am moving on to the next UK aircraft after the break this weekend.


Cheers!

[Eagle114th 659]

Hello everyone!

Report for today:

Both Hawker Hunter series and weapon packs in SFCE are still being worked on.

Here is screenshot of Hawker Hunter F.6 (All F.1 to F.6 and FGA.9 is now completed. I am working on an export version of Hunter series.)

Eagle114th

[+yakarov79 11,082]

On 6/23/2022 at 1:08 PM, Eagle114th said:

SF2 have been missing what is needed for aircraft such as F-104G (Germany) and other nation's ordinance.

SF2 has F-104G all wrong. It is a very simplified attempt to cover nations/weapons/versions. Far from what was used in real.

[Eagle114th 659]

7 hours ago, yakarov79 said:

SF2 has F-104G all wrong. It is a very simplified attempt to cover nations/weapons/versions. Far from what was used in real.

I agree with you after opening a paradox box when realizing the inaccurate of loadout for export aircraft, such as Iranian and Eygptian F-4s and other aircraft besides Germany F-104Gs.  I can understand why TK wanted to do it in efficient way by sharing multi-nation for each aircraft by userlist.ini.  It is smart method BUT it lead to the inaccurate of the certain aicraft performance, weapon station in data.ini, and the loadout.ini.  May I ask for your help with F-104Gs and A-7s weapon data and loadout?  I am still looking for the information on both aircraft.  For now I am overwhelmed with SFCE project.  So the help is appreciated. 


Cheers

[Eagle114th 659]

Hello everyone,

Report for today:
 

It have been quite a journey gathering the information while getting advice from our fellow modders here.  (Thank you Crusader, DaddyPlanes, and everyone involved with this project), I have been working a lot on making copies of air to ground ordinances, ECM, and other equipment for Iranian F-4Ds and F-4Es.  I am very happy with the result.  After finding out some information about F-4Ds and F-4Es ordinances for air to ground (I am still digging even more through time):

http://www.iiaf.net/f4/

 

Quote

Weapons

Iranian Air Force used various weapons options in conjunction with its F-4 Phantom operations. They included general purpose bombs; such as 500lb. Snakeye (x12) to 750lb. (x6) and 1,000lb. (x6) GP or retard versions. AIM-7E Sparrow and AIM-9P/J Sidewinder missiles were also carried regularly for air defense and fighter escort missions. Other weapons included the AGM-65A Maverick used in conjunction with TISEO electro-optical sensor, BL 755 cluster bomb customized for low-altitude delivery, Napalm tanks and LAU-61 rocket launchers. Iranian F-4Ds also used the SUU-23 gun pods to good effect.
Two Iranian F-4D Phantoms were tasked with striking a logistically important bridge near Basreh on September 29, 1981, employing LGBs. They used a buddy-lasing tactic, one acting as target designator at about 13,000ft equipped with AVQ-9 Pave Light laser designator. The target was hit, but a short time later an SA-6 missile homed in on the designating aircraft. Both crew ejected as the aircraft was destroyed.

This is the result with F-4Ds and F-4Es limited weapon selections:

NOTE: This is still WIP, which means it will be improved further through times.






Eagle114th

[Eagle114th 659]

Hello everyone!

Report for today:

After asking questions about the loadout system in SF2.  I noticed that AI keeps one variant of AAM based on what is read from loadout.ini.  That breaks the immerisve experience for me, especially when they use one AAM until end of the service when newer AAM already come out.   After asking the question at this thread:

https://combatace.com/forums/topic/97452-question-about-loadoutini-being-automatic-with-weapons/
This confirms the concern I had with the loadout system.  This is what gives me more reasons to overhaul AAM in loadout, so aircraft use newer variants or another type of AAM based on the nation's aircraft and years.  After working on Iranian and Egyptian F-4Es, I decided to check USN and USAF F-4s.  This is what I saw, only AIM-9B for early F-4B when they could use AIM-9B and then AIM-9D as soon they become available.  Same thing with the AIM-7s situation by changing from AIM-7D to AIM-7E and then E-2, and the next variants. ||

So I rolled the sleeves and started working on all USN F-4Bs, then J and N variants. I am quite happy with the result.  However, since I am not an expert with the air-to-ground ordinances, I will leave them alone for now.  When I get the information and help with it, I will happily overhaul that part.  
 

Here is an example with F-4J Phantom II, this is the following AAM they will shift through from 1966 to 1983:
 

Quote

Gun pod
Mk4 [GP] (1965)

IRM
AIM-9D (1966)
AIM-9G (1968)
AIM-9H (1972)
AIM-9P (1977)

SAHM
NOTE:  AIM-7E-3 is still selectable if you prefer to use it over AIM-7F for any reason.  It will be available starting in 1976.)
AIM-7E (1965)
AIM-7E-2 (1970) 
AIM-7F (1977)

Now that USN F-4s are completed, USAF F-4s are being worked on at the moment.

There is another thing that also bothers me and that is how the vortex work.  The higher speed I go, the more vortex stretch backward and would sink through the wing toward the bottom when pulling high Gs.  There is one thing that gave me an "AH" moment.  I am going to study the F-16 vortex and see if I can make the vortex stay in place at any speed.

When AAM loadout overhaul for other aircraft that went through an overhaul and wing vortex being done, the work on Hawker Hunter and other aircraft will be restored.  I have no idea how long this may take and it will be worth the wait. 


Eagle114th

Edited July 1, 2022 by Eagle114th

[Eagle114th 659]

Hello everyone!

I want to share this with everyone.  It have been humbly learning progres since a few days working on F-4s LOADOUT.ini and researches.  It is like Daddyplane said, researching and finding information take most of our times.  He is right.

I also want to admit that I previously thought F-4s had the ability to carry AIM-9M and AIM-7M.  I was wrong and I am happy I did further research to ensure loadout is tweaked more accurately.  Now with the tweaks done, the latest AIM-9s and AIM-7s F-4s can carry is AIM-9P and AIM-97F for the late 1970s to 1980s.

However, I want to talk a bit more about F-4s. In the late-era SF2 F-4s, by default, they will have loadout with the AIM-9P and AIM-7F.   What I realized is that AIM-9L was reserved for newer aircraft such as F-15s, F-16s, and other aircraft.  However, you still can manually load AIM-9L on F-4s which actually happened rarely in real life. 
 

According to the research, in the Vietnam war, early F-4D was armed with AIM-4D Falcon.  Then later in the 1969, they would get phased out while being re-wired to use Sidewinder.  In SFCE, early F-4D (1966 - 1968) have loadout.ini to carry AIM-4D but you still can manually change load to AIM-9B or E.  However, for next version of F-4D (67) and onward, will be loaded with sidewinder by default.  Same thing with early F-4E.  

I want to talk about userlist.  I can see how TK is being efficient with it as stated previously, there is pro and con to it.  For pro part, it make it easy to clone aircraft with exact same aircraft data and weapon stations.  The con part is that, it does not work with other aircraft that uses different weapons, including AAMs.  For example, with Iranian F-4s, userlist allow Iranian F-4s to use all what USAF F-4s could use, which is historically inaccurate.  I had to split various foreigner F-4s out from USAF F-4s, in order, to give them an accurate AAMs and updated loadout.ini. 

I wish TK is still working on SF2 so they could add this codes which would make userlist system being perfect and efficient.  For example, if TK ever added an extra line like this in aircraft data ini.

Original codes:

[SidewinderStation1]
SystemType=WEAPON_STATION
StationID=10
StationGroupID=2
StationType=EXTERNAL
AttachmentPosition=-2.24,2.63,-1.12
AttachmentAngles=0.0,-1.0,90.0
LoadLimit=90.72
AllowedWeaponClass=IRM
AttachmentType=NATO,USAF
ModelNodeName=missile_rails_L
PylonMass=24.95
PylonDragArea=0.001
LaunchRailNodeName=
MinExtentPosition=
MaxExtentPosition=

Updated codes with "Nation_" suffixes

[SidewinderStation1]
SystemType=WEAPON_STATION
StationID=10
StationGroupID=2
StationType=EXTERNAL
AttachmentPosition=-2.24,2.63,-1.12
AttachmentAngles=0.0,-1.0,90.0
LoadLimit=90.72
USAF_AllowedWeaponClass=IRM
USAF_AttachmentType=NATO,USAF
IRAN_AllowedWeaponClass=IRM
IRAN_AttachmentType=IRAN
EGYPT_AllowedWeaponClass=IRM
EGYPT_AttachmentType=EGYPT
ModelNodeName=missile_rails_L
PylonMass=24.95
PylonDragArea=0.001
LaunchRailNodeName=
MinExtentPosition=
MaxExtentPosition=
USAF_SpecificStationCode=
IRAN_SpecificStationCode=AIM9_IRAN
EGYPT_SpecificStationCode=AIM9_EGYPT

That would make the user list system work well. 

Finally, another thing that got me stumped was researching the specific AAMs for various nations that use F-4s, such as Spain C.12, South Korea F-4, and others.  Finally got an answer to it, thanks to friends who introduced me to this website:

Sipri database website
https://www.sipri.org/databases/armstransfers

With this, you can find information on which specific AAMs are sent to nations for certain aircraft. With this, accurate information can be found!  This is where I find out that C.12 (F-4C) got orders of AIM-9P only, along with a few variants of AIM-7s. 

UPDATE:  It turns out that even the trade registry database does not cover everything.  It is like if I found pieces of dinosaur fossils with some parts missing.  I would have to theorize how dinosaur looks like based on what I have.  Same thing with the data on various aircraft loadout.  I am unable to find the earlier IRM for C.12, and in order, to fill the missing gap for IRM needed for F-4C, it makes logical sense that C.12 would have AIM-9J prior to AIM-9P.

I have to admit this project is not perfect but I do my best.  I always learn new things everyday.


Eagle114th

Edited July 1, 2022 by Eagle114th

[+Crusader 2,101]

C.12, Spanish AF started with AIM-9B which were upgraded to/replaced with AIM-9J very quickly.
The AIM-9J were again upgraded to AIM-9N-2. Upgrade was made by the EdA themself, they are different
visually (coloring) from US-upgraded 9N-2 in service with e.g. Belgium.
Sparrow variant was the AIM-7E during the whole service life with EdA.
Gun pod SUU-16
Spain received ECM pods,  "3-can" (6 antennas) ALQ-87 and the ALQ-72
Other stores in service with Spain: BLU-1, LAU-3A, BR-250, BR-500

Sipri database, yep, its a good source for basic info/research leads and not without errors, even missing known transfers entirely.
Useful for a general idea about acquisition/service entry of equipment.

Edited July 1, 2022 by Crusader
typos

[Eagle114th 659]

6 hours ago, Crusader said:

C.12, Spanish AF started with AIM-9B which were upgraded to/replaced with AIM-9J very quickly.
The AIM-9J were again upgraded to AIM-9N-2. Upgrade was made by the EdA themself, they are different
visually (coloring) from US-upgraded 9N-2 in service with e.g. Belgium.
Sparrow variant was the AIM-7E during the whole service life with EdA.
Gun pod SUU-16
Spain received ECM pods,  "3-can" (6 antennas) ALQ-87 and the ALQ-72
Other stores in service with Spain: BLU-1, LAU-3A, BR-250, BR-500

Sipri database, yep, its a good source for basic info/research leads and not without errors, even missing known transfers entirely.
Useful for a general idea about acquisition/service entry of equipment.

Thank you very much for the information!  This is a big help!

I will happily re-work on C.12 weapon data and loadout.  I also removed AIM-9P from Iranian F-4, so they only have AIM-4D, AIM-9E,and AIM-9J.  (Please correct me if I am wrong), Iranian F-4D have AIM-4D, AIM-9E, and AIM-7C.  Then their F-4E have AIM-7E / E-2, and AIM-9J. 

What kind of ECM did Iranian F-4 have?


Cheers!

[Stratos 3,188]

I'm astonished by all the work you're doing. Thanks a lot!

[Eagle114th 659]

36 minutes ago, Stratos said:

I'm astonished by all the work you're doing. Thanks a lot!

Thank you and this meant a lot to me!  With your message, I am inspired to work on this even further.  


Cheers!

[MigBuster 2,884]

15 hours ago, Eagle114th said:

Thank you very much for the information!  This is a big help!

I will happily re-work on C.12 weapon data and loadout.  I also removed AIM-9P from Iranian F-4, so they only have AIM-4D, AIM-9E,and AIM-9J.  (Please correct me if I am wrong), Iranian F-4D have AIM-4D, AIM-9E, and AIM-7C.  Then their F-4E have AIM-7E / E-2, and AIM-9J. 

What kind of ECM did Iranian F-4 have?


Cheers!

Only source on that I have mentions ALQ-71,  72,  87 (v 3 and v 4 ),  101

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Eagle114th 659]

3 minutes ago, MigBuster said:

Only source on that I have mentions ALQ-71,  72,  87 (v 3 and v 4 ),  101

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is noted and thank you for the information.


Cheers!

[Eagle114th 659]

19 hours ago, MigBuster said:

Only source on that I have mentions ALQ-71,  72,  87 (v 3 and v 4 ),  101

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for the information. I appreciate it.  PM sent.


Eagle114th

[Eagle114th 659]

Hello everyone!

Report for today:

I have been quiet for a while.  It has been a busy week with researching, talking with friends who have vast knowledge and experiences related to military aircraft, overhauling multi-nation F-4s, and overhauling the weapon pack so certain weapons are only available for certain aircraft.  For example, the AGM-78 series are only available for A-6s, F-4G, and F-105G.  At the same time, the only nations that operates AGM-78s outside of USAF and USN are South Korea and Israel. 

There is still a lot to do before I can finally move to A-4s, A-6s, A-7s, and other aircraft for weapon data and loadout.ini overhauls.  






You can see that the new loadout.ini are working now:



ROKAF F-4D Phantom II with AGM-78s:




ROKAF F-4E Phantom II




There is one thing I realize, I often hit the wall where I need more information that is not easy to find.  This is why when the next version of the beta gets released, the feedback will be very helpful for fixing the errors and inaccuracies in SFCE.


Eagle114th

[+allenjb42 4,234]

F-4s don’t carry sidewinders at the same time as AGM-78s as far as I’m aware. It’s an either/or loadout.

[Eagle114th 659]

2 hours ago, allenjb42 said:

F-4s don’t carry sidewinders at the same time as AGM-78s as far as I’m aware. It’s an either/or loadout.

That is noted and thank you for the feedback.  This is what I precisely need.

I will see if I can use StationGroupID more than once, so I can ensure it does not overlap with other store while disabling AIM-9s from being mounted.


Cheers

[+yakarov79 11,082]

AGM-78 on F-4G.  Not on E. As for intruders - A-6B.

AIM-7M on Phantoms. F-4G could carry M model.

 

Use "groupLimit=" to disable some stations when a certain weapon is loaded.

 

[Eagle114th 659]

8 minutes ago, yakarov79 said:

AGM-78 on F-4G.  Not on E. As for intruders - A-6B.

AIM-7M on Phantoms. F-4G could carry M model.

 

Use "groupLimit=" to disable some stations when a certain weapon is loaded.

 

May I ask, you mean that any USN and USAF F-4s have the ability to carry AIM-7M?  That is interesting.

About AGM-78 and F-4G / A-6A and B, that is noted.  Thank you for the information.

I found out is that Israel and South Korea F-4s were modified to carry AGM-78s.


Cheers

[+yakarov79 11,082]

4 hours ago, Eagle114th said:

you mean that any USN and USAF F-4s have the ability to carry AIM-7M?

No. They never bothered to go beyond F.  Except on  F-4G.

Sorry I was not clear earlier. 

[Eagle114th 659]

48 minutes ago, yakarov79 said:

No. They never bothered to go beyond F.  Except on  F-4G.

Sorry I was not clear earlier. 

Thank you for clarification.  That is noted.  I will make sure that all USN and USAF F-4s stay with AIM-9F except for F-4G.  


Cheers!

[+Crusader 2,101]

About 10 A-6E were modified for AGM-78 when the A-6B went into retirement.
AIM-7M, and on F-4G only after 1991 for the last few years in service.

[PJB 121]

On 6/6/2022 at 7:05 AM, Eagle114th said:

Hello everyone!

The new version of SFCE v1.1d is now released which includes updated F-4Ks and F-4Ms, J-6s / F-6s, and MiG-15s / 17s / 19s.  Let me know if you see any errors or inaccurates with any aspect of aircraft in SFCE. I will fix them.

As always, the feedback are appreciated.  They are what makes mod better.

ENJOY!


Eagle114th

yes many cockpits are faulty and many planes are disappeared in this mod 

[Eagle114th 659]

16 minutes ago, PJB said:

yes many cockpits are faulty and many planes are disappeared in this mod 

Thank you for the feedback.

Can you explain this problem in detail, please?  I can not help if there is not enough information.  Which plane were you flying?  What kind of setting do you set in the graph?  Are you running on a video card? 

The reason why I ask is that I don't have any problem when running SFCE mods.  As soon I get answer from you, I will investigate in SFCE and see if I encounter the errors.


Eagle114th

Edited July 6, 2022 by Eagle114th

[PJB 121]

50 minutes ago, Eagle114th said:

Thank you for the feedback.

Can you explain this problem in detail, please?  I can not help if there is not enough information.  Which plane were you flying?  What kind of setting do you set in the graph?  Are you running on a video card? 

The reason why I ask is that I don't have any problem when running SFCE mods.  As soon I get answer from you, I will investigate in SFCE and see if I encounter the errors.


Eagle114th

im running and modding sf2 since 11 years on intel hd 3000 cpu 2.5ghz works totally fine and smooth

since i have downloaded this patch mig-19 cockpits , mirages are fully disappeared 

and i have lost my paid dlc planes too 😭💔