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Central Front One-O-Fours

Upgrading an old aircraft: Wolf's Bf 109F-4. Data.ini updated and corrected, skins are WiP. This old model has some issues, making it quite hard to skin. But I like it, since this is the only freeware F-4 we have.

test in water....

Fuel probe is optional now for AMI IDS.

For Norge!

Started the panel lines for the CR32...

Been busy with Real Life, but managed to squeeze in some work on the Bleriot rifleman.

Skin almost Finish ...

B-61 test.

I think i was trying .....to make a Data.ini..in a ship to have a Gunner and gun.... [ and somehow was release...the depth charge ] ..in a very low spead...like a missile .....and with Large exlosion remake skin with white color's ...like sea hit instead of a ground hit.....etc ...and was look to working....about 40%. The problem is that the game doe's not leave the object's to be/come close...so is not like the Movie's....!! Anyway is a Strike Fighter's not Sea Warfare....! I thing will be nice one more ground object from 1944-1968....

bad thing we don't have proper anti-ship/submarine warfare... dipping sonobuoy, towing MAD, dropping depth charges....

Lockheed F-80C Shooting Star - Royal Canadian Air Force, 1952 Skin Credit: Charles

Yes, it is annoying. After years I've made one ultimate solution - unfortunately, it screws campaign thing (I haven't played campaign since 2010 so am fine with it now) . Thing is. All stock modified by me aircraft has a different name of a folder - example standard Canberra B2 changed name RAF_CanberraB2. and so on. Literally, I have no stock named aircraft - no way game will overwrite this. If the game decides to overwrite it will just create new folders of stock planes..but no harm to my modded ones. Same goes with my ground objects...no stock name. Yes, it is a strange thing but I'm fine with this. And I have everything the way I want. And the game will not fool with me anymore. But this is my solution. I

I think the aliasing is defined in ALIAS.LST contained in ObjectData001.CAT. The TW cat extractor does not extract this file, but my cat extractor does. e.g. ALIAS.LST contains the following lines, that maps insignia003 and insignia004 to insignia002: Insignia003.tga Insignia002.tga Insignia004.tga Insignia002.tga

Any chance of releasing the F15CX ??? Looks awesome ! mandatory Vulcan B3 Desert Storm screen shot

What's that thing they say about a good landing?

Hello friends, This week was a hard one - we had to let you play during the weekend without problems, so we released another update that continued the work started in 3.010. The majority of the changes are in the GUI and are required for the new Marschal multiplayer mode that is coming this Spring and will concentrate on the interaction with the map. Other important improvements were made for tank weapons and damage calcualtions. We hope that now the basic damage model is adequate and we'll start working on more particular tasks in the tank systems and combat damage department next week. This week we finished the map of the Southern part of the Kursk salient while two next tanks, M4A2 and PzKpfw III Ausf.M, will follow soon. The new tanks and the map will be released into Tank Crew Early Access after beta testing. Today we can show you the first in-game screenshots of them taken near Prokhorovka: You can discuss the news in this thread

I spent some time trying to find more information on the MiG-21 flap arrangement but didn't find any solid information. I did find enough to agree with Gepard, the flap set up wasn't considered a combat flap. Described as a "Floating Flap" or "Swimming Flap" the maximum deployment angle depended on aircraft speed. For example, during approach to land you would select flap 25deg but if the speed was relatively high, the flap wouldn't deploy the full 25deg but some lower angle. As the speed decreased the flap would continue to deploy until at the "right" speed it would reach 25deg. I assume it would work in reverse as well. I didn't find any evidence that any of the later versions such as the LanceR or Bison received a dedicated combat flap but India did some wind tunnel testing with models in 1985, investigating the potential for combat flaps on the MiG-21. There is some anecdotal information suggesting the floating flap may have had some benefit during combat maneuvering but probably at quite low airspeed and possibly more for defensive maneuvers as the drag would be quite high from the "simple" flaps. I did watch a LanceR airshow video with the plane maneuvering and doing rolls with extended flaps but couldn't tell if the flaps were moving through a range of travel. At some point MiG-21's were equipped with a Boundary Layer Control system [AKA Blown Flap] that worked when the flaps were in the landing position. The early versions didn't have the BLC system and that seems to be reflected in the stock TW FM's, with the early F-13 having less flap lift than the later versions. I don't think the early versions had the floating flap set up either, so the two systems might have been implemented at the same time. I haven't found any solid info on the speed range for the floating flap but the present speed range is probably too high with possibly too much lift as well but will leave it "as is" until I get more information. I found more support for reduced main rack weights, in the 24-28KG range. Also, the MiG-21Bis did get a slightly enlarged air intake as well as some refinements to the ducting. It also received some structural refinements to increase strength while avoiding a significant weight increase.

Love the 'loadable' fuel probe!

Last loadout. GBU-24 Paveway III and CLDP.

This works for me to. You can also make the mig-15.ini file read only once you have made your edits. On my campaign specific installs such as Falklands or ODS etc I make a 7zip copy of the entire aircraft and groundobjects folders. That way if the overwriting starts again I can just redo the options and version .ini files and replace the entire affected aircraft and groundobjects folders.

Hi, my Solution of this issue ist the "Falkland-Mod-Method". I made a Copy of SF2 Europe.exe at its root-path (C:\Program Files (x86)\ThirdWire\Strike Fighters 2). Named it "SF2 Modded.exe". Then i started the "SF2 Modded" exe-file. Now it creates the Folder "saved games/SF2 Modded". This Path wasn't overwrite during the last months. To me, this method works. Ah: don't forget to copy the ini-file, too.

Not in 'what if' land ;-)

Delete options.ini and version.ini in the mod folders for the particular install then run the game...........I think this was the fix for this. Only ever seen an overwrite with a patch under normal running.

fishing ...

@Menrva, Yes, there are hardcoded behaviours, including the aliasing for NationID 002/003/004, some aliases for default decals (which is why some DECALS.INI call for insignia that don't exist but nevertheless appear, mostly for wing specific insignias or left/right variants) etc... I never bothered to establish a full list of those yet but there should be no hardcoded behaviours for NationIDs beyond 212, at least I never encountered it. I'm not aware of a limitation to the NationID, but if there is a limit it's at either 255 or more likely 256 (since the sequence starts at 1). - Are you sure the NationID you chose are in sequence without gap ? If your NationID stops at 212 and you register locally as 221, the sequence will be broken and 221 ignored, it should be 213. To avoid this you could pad your global NATIONS.ini as such : [Nation212] Name=Oman_OLD65 [Nation213] [Nation214] [Nation215] As long a the [Nationxxx] entries exists, even with nothing else in it, the sequence will be considered as ongoing, the check being done only on the NationID. It's what I do to avoid having to remember what's the next number in sequence, I just know I have space between x and y and can assign whatever ID I want in my terrains. - Are you sure you have the right DecalLevel in your DECALS.INI and have not left it at something other than 0 through copy-paste ? - Does it work when you explicitly call the ID, there might be another problem at play. I'm betting it's the sequence thing; The engine reads all relevant files that might have a Nation definition, and among them after putting all entries to a common format (with terrain-specific entries overrinding terrain-specific entries from the CAT file overriding global entries overriding global entries from the CAT file), searches for existing definitions in sequence (starting with 1) and stops once there is no definition found EVEN if there are entries beyond (I never tested it for Nations, but that's how it works for all other INI files), so if it finds a 212, but no 213, it won't bother searching for 214 even if it's there. I'll check my own install to verify if I've had to use some trickery beyond the padding, but I don't recall anything else right now.

First of all wooooow!!!!! Second,do you think yo add the skin for Op. Locusta (ODS) ?

Another Tidbit Of History And Addendum To U.S. Destroyer Ward Video Above. U.S.S. MONAGHAN (354) DD354/A16-3/(0665) At Sea, December 30, 1941 From: The Commanding Officer. To: The Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet. Subject: Engagement with enemy on December 7, 1941; Report of. Reference: (a) CINCPAC Despatch 102102 of December 1941. (b) CINCPAC Ser. 02087 of 21 December, 1941. Enclosures: (A) Three completed White Print Charts of Pearl Harbor. (B) Executive Officer's report on engagement with enemy. (C) Narrative by Lieut. H. KAIT, U.S.N., Gunnery Officer. (D) Narrative by Ens. P.W. GILL, U.S.N., First Lieutenant. (E) Narrative by Ens. J.W. GILPIN, U.S.N., Communication Officer. (F) Narrative by G.S. HARDON, CTM(AA), U.S.N. (G) Narrative by A.F. PARKER, TM2c,, U.S.N. 1. At about 0753 (LZT) December 7, 1941, the Monaghan was in Ready Duty status, moored at berth X-14 in company with other ships of Destroyer Division TWO (Aylwin, Farragut, Dale, Monaghan from right to left). Ship's head was 025° True. 2. At the above mentioned time the communication messenger delivered a visual despatch to the Captain as follows: "HEADING: Z BULK 081318 D354 BT PROCEED IMMEDIATELY AND CONTACT WARD IN DEFENSIVE SEA AREA." The above despatch was received on the bridge at 1821 GCT (0751 LCT) and was receipted for by the radioman on watch in Main Radio at 1822 GCT (0752 LZT). It is noted that the date as given in the above despatch is in error. 3. Upon the receipt of despatch orders as received above orders were given to make all preparation for getting underway immediately. 4. At about 0755 (LZT) an excited member of the crew reported to the Captain, then in his cabin, that Japanese planes were in Pearl Harbor, which was immediately verified by the Captain who stepped outside and saw a large cloud of dense black smoke rising from the vicinity of Schofield Barracks and immediately thereafter, a Japanese torpedo plane making an attack on the Utah. 5. At about 0800 the General Alarm was sounded and word was passed to go to General Quarters and at about the same time the Engineer Officer in the Engineroom was ordered to get up steam on all boilers for emergency sortie. 6. Inquiries were made of the status of officers in the other ships in the nest and orders were issued to commence firing from all ships as soon as they were capable of ding so, as well as orders to send all boats ashore for their officers. 7. At about 0814 ships in the nest began firing on the enemy horizontal bombers with both machine guns and 5" batteries. 8. At about 0826, in obedience to order by flag hoist from the Detroit, the Monaghan got underway and maneuvered to sortie from Pearl Harbor via the North Channel and at about the same time an order was received by voice over the TBS for Destroyer Division TWO to establish the Offshore Patrol. 9. At about 0835 it was reported that the Curtiss was flying a flag hoist indicating the presence of an enemy submarine and very shortly after the Captain and other personnel on the bridge observed the conning tower of a submarine located approximately 200-300 yards on the starboard quarter of the Curtiss (moored at berth X-22) which was under vigorous fire from machine guns from Tangier (moored at Northwest end of Ford Island) and from both machine guns and 5" from the Curtiss. 10. At about 0837 the order was given "all engines ahead flank speed" and word was passed that it was intended to ram the submarine -- then distant about one thousand yards. At about the same time Williamson, D.C., (CQM) who had the helm, was directed to head for the submarine when he gave assurance that he saw it. 11. At about 0843 word was passed to stand by for a shock forward as the submarine had disappeared from the view of those on the bridge and ramming was considered imminent. Shortly thereafter a slight shock was felt and about 0844 the two depth charges released exploded violently about 50-100 yards astern of the Monaghan. 12. At about the same time of the depth charge explosions the order was given "all engines back emergency full speed", which, although carried out promptly, was insufficient to check the headway of the ship which consequently struck a derrick moored near Beckoning Point a slight blow. 13. Upon attempting to back clear of the derrick it was discovered that we were entangled with one of her mooring lines but by going ahead slowly we were able to free the Monaghan and at about 0847 we swung into the channel astern of the Dale and proceeded out of the harbor passing the Entrance buoys at 0908 from where we proceeded to our assigned station on the Offshore Patrol. 14. The Captain has only praise for the manner in which the personnel of the Monaghan conducted themselves in this engagement and subsequent events, however it is felt that the following officer and men are deserving of special commendation for reasons as outlined below. VERHOYE, H.J., Lieutenant, U.S. Navy, Executive Officer, who, when he heard the "General Quarters" alarm, proceeded to Battle Two (After Steering Station) and from that station and later Gun #5, ordered and supervised the preparation and dropping of depth charges in such a manner as to cause the destruction of an enemy submarine. During this operation lieutenant Verhoye showed initiative to a high degree and made a very rapid estimate of the situation. HARDON, G.S., CTM(AA) who exhibited great coolness and initiative in releasing one depth charge on his own responsibility as he saw the enemy submarine pass under our stern, his subsequent release of a second depth charge on orders of the Executive Officer, and his keen judgment in not releasing a third depth charge which would probably have damaged the ship and which he felt was unnecessary in destroying the enemy submarine. PARKER, A.P. TM2c, who, when informed of the presence of an enemy submarine prepared the starboard depth charges for the ordered depth setting of thirty feet, and thereby by his attention to duty and coolness in effecting the necessary operations to the racks and depth charges, made it possible for the successful attack on the enemy submarine. GROSS, E.E., (CGM), who, when he observed a misfire at gun #5, at great personal risk, extracted a faulty cartridge case, thereby restoring the gun to action. [signed] W.P. BURFORD. Copy (less Enclosure A) to: Comdesdiv TWO Comdesron ONE Comdesflot ONE Comdesbatfor Combatfor U.S.S. MONAGHAN (354) At Sea, December 20, 1941 From: The Executive Officer. To: The Commanding Officer. Subject: Report on Engagement with Enemy on 7 December 1941. 1. At about 0752 on 7 December 1941, this vessel was acting as ready duty destroyer moored at berth X-14 with Desdiv-2, on one hours notice to get underway. At that time orders were received from Commandant 14th Naval District to proceed and contact Ward in defensive sea area. Preparations were immediately made to get underway. This message was Com 14 081318, which was obviously in error. 2. At about 0755 Japanese planes were observed making torpedo and dive bombing attacks on ships and land objectives in Pearl Harbor. 3. The ship was called to General Quarters and at about 0815 fire was opened with 5 inch anti-aircraft and .50 caliber anti-aircraft guns. 4. At 0827 the Monaghan got underway and stood out proceeding via the channel north of Ford Island. 5. At about 0837 when abreast of number 7 buoy, a submarine was sighted heading into the harbor, bearing 230T, distance about 1200 yards. This position was 300 yards bearing 180°T from Buoy 22-S. The submarine's periscope and part of its conning tower were exposed. One shot was fired at the submarine from Gun #2 which missed and struck a derrick barge moored off Beaconing Point. The word was passed "Enemy submarine sighted" and shortly thereafter, "We are going to ram". The ship increased speed to flank and headed towards the submarine to ram it. A torpedo was launched by the submarine which passed close aboard parallel to the starboard side of the ship. 6. The Executive Officer, who was at Gun #5, ordered "Standby the depth charges, set on 30 feet." PARKER, A.F., TM.2c who was on watch at the depth charges set the charges on the starboard rack and HARDON, G.S., CTM(AA), who manned the port racks at the order "Standby the depth charges", set the port charges. 7. The ship passed over the submarine and the bow of the submarine was seen inclined above the surface close astern. Hardon immediately released one depth charge and shortly thereafter a second. Both depth charges exploded and the Gunnery Officer saw the bow and superstructure brought to the surface by the explosion. A third charge was ordered dropped when word was received that the ship was aground. 8. The ship cleared the foul ground and proceeded to establish the offshore patrol off the Entrance Buoys. 9. The following men are to be commended on their performance of duties during the engagement: HARDON, G.S., TCM (AA) for his initiative in releasing the first depth charge when he saw that the ship had passed over the enemy submarine, in releasing the second depth charge when ordered by the Executive Officer and for his resourcefulness and excellent judgement in not releasing the third charge after he heard the word that the ship was aground. This action probably prevented the depth charge from exploding under the ship and seriously damaging the vessel. PARKER, A.F., TM.2c, for his initiative and attention to duty in getting the first depth charges ready for letting go, and for his good judgement in not releasing charges from his rack when he observed that Hardon was releasing charges from the port rack. GROSS, E.E. CCM, for his coolness and initiative in prepping gun #5 for firing and at his own personal risk, opening the breech of the gun and extracting a powder cartridge case which had misfired. He thereby restored the gun to action. [singed] H.J. VERHOYE, Lieutenant, U.S. Navy, Executive Officer. U.S..S. MONAGHAN NARRATIVE OF ENGAGEMENT WITH ENEMY -- December 7, 1941 By the Gunnery Officer Following the alarm to "General Quarters", the main battery and machine guns were prepared for firing. There was no power on the ship to the guns or ammunition hoist. Guns were operated by manual control and ammunition was brought up by hand passing and manual hoisting. Machine gun ammunition was hastily belted and distributed. Firing was begun about 15 minutes after initial alarm. Upon getting underway from the nest and approaching Pearl City, the Curtiss was observed firing into the water at close range. A submarine conning tower and short periscope was then observed bobbing and zig-zagging near the west bank. The submarine was apparently glancing off the channel bed while maneuvering. Gun #2 was ordered to shift to local control and fire at point-blank range. The first shot struck over and ricocheted into a derrick moored near the west bank. When it was evident that we were attempting to ram the sub the guns were ordered to case firing. Within 75 yards the submarine turned sharply toward our bow and released a torpedo. The torpedo porpoised twice and then passed parallel to the ship's starboard side a distance of about 20-30 yards. (The torpedo was seen to go up against the north bank throwing a geyser of water about 200 feet high. The submarine was struck a glancing blow causing it to slide aft along the starboard side. The bow raised up out of the water as if she were blowing. As the sub passed astern the first depth charge was released. The explosion brought the bow and superstructure of the sub into full view. The effect of the second charge was not observed. The ship by this time approached close to the shore. The crew of gun #1 was ordered to stand by the anchor. The starboard bow came to rest against the derrick struck by the ricochet. An oxy-acetylene fire was blazing on the derrick and became an explosive hazard. Men stationed on the forecastle played a stream of water on the fire but the results were not noted. While the ship was backing away a second alarm of "submarine" was given. Gun #2 immediately trained out on the port bow and fired one round at what turned out to be a black cage buoy. The ship regained the channel and departed from Pearl Harbor. Respectfully, submitted, HART KAIT, Lieutenant (jg), U.S.N. U.S.S. MONAGHAN NARRATIVE OF ENGAGEMENT WITH ENEMY * DECEMBER 7, 1941. By the First Lieutenant and Torpedo Officer. After the General alarm rang and after getting on deck, the Captain informed me of the attack and of getting underway immediately. After getting underway Spring, CWT, and Williams, CEM were placed in charge of two repair parties to finish securing boats and gangway. Patterson CCCStd placed in charge of party to bring in two large fenders. Bennett CM2c and Chadd Sf2c began checking ship for Condition Afirm with view to help them. As we came down channel, cry went up "submarine sighted." Looking off the starboard bow, part of the conning tower of the submarine could be seen. Ship around Pearl City buoys had not started their fire on submarine at this time, submarine was about 300 yards distance, a torpedo was fired that broached at least two feet out of the water. Apparently fired at Curtiss. I headed aft and saw that Hardon and torpedomen were at depth charges. I knew Hardon could handle dropping of depth charges, if we did not smash the submarine with our bow; consequently I went forward, gathering repair-party men as I passed up the deck. As we passed over the submarine only a slight jar was felt forward. I was with repair-party at Gun #1. Two men were sent below to sound peak tanks and investigate damage -- none was found. I went on the forecastle and stood by to drop anchor in an attempt to snub ship and help keep it off mud ban. Captain waved that he did not want anchor dropped. At this time our bow struck a mud bank and starboard glanced off crane barge. Two explosions were heard aft and a large amount of what appeared to be oil came up with depth charge splashes. Men aft on Curtiss were observed to be cheering frantically. Oxygen-Acetylene tank on crane was burning -- caused by fragments of shell fired by gun #2. A hose was played on this fire in an attempt to keep bottles from exploding. A wire from barge was wrapped around our bow. The Captain jerked the bow free by surging back and forth as he took the ship off the mud bank. After getting clear, forward and after repair parties were gathered and equipment distributed. men were told to lie down and take cover. Both parties were ready to act on any damage that might be received from bombs or near hits as we went down channel. No bombs were dropped even close to us. After clearing channel repair parties began to strip and clear ship and to lash topside gear in place. A few men were detailed to assist gun crews in stowing ammunition in ready service boxes. Hole in starboard plates in D-205-L were reported after party was sent below to check all equipment. The hole was immediately shored up to stop leakage. Remainder of day was spent in organizing and clearing ship. P.W. GILL, Ensign, U.S.N. U.S.S. MONAGHAN NARRATIVE OF ENGAGEMENT WITH ENEMY AT PEARL HARBOR ON DECEMBER 7, 1941 -- By Communication Officer At about 0755 the radio messenger came into the Wardroom with the rough copy of a message directing the Monaghan to get underway and contact the Ward in defensive sea area. The time group showed that it had been originated at 0248 LCT, so I ran up to the bridge to find out why it had not been sent down sooner. The Signalman on watch assured me that it had just been received from the tower so I turned to go below and met the Executive Officer who ordered all preparations made for getting underway. I then went below to obtain the confidential chart and books preparatory to getting underway. I stopped by the radio shack to have them keep up the harbor frequencies etc. during our departure. Just after I arrived one of the radio strikers burst in and incredulously asked if it was a drill or air raid. I stepped outside and went to the outboard door which faced west just as the General alarm sounded. I saw one or two enemy torpedo planes coming in from the westward but continued below to get the charts and books. When I reached the bridge with the books the attack was in full progress, there were still a few low flying torpedo planes but the greater part were horizontal bombers. The Utah was already listing badly when I arrived, but little or no anti-aircraft firing was in progress. Machine guns in the nest opened up soon but the planes were much too high for machine guns. Then the 5 inch guns opened up and the batteries on all the ships got into action. I remember particularly two flight of high bombers in tight triangular formations of about 9 planes each. They were headed north and seemed to be moving very slowly. Every ship in the harbor seemed to be firing on them but the fuze settings and range were much too short and the sky was filled with smoke from shell burst 2000 to 4000 feet below the planes. These planes disappeared into the heavy clouds approaching rapidly from the northeast. The sky became overcast, a little rain fell and the anti-aircraft fire diminished. Every ship in the harbor was pouring out heavy black smoke from newly lighted boilers. I thought that the especially heavy black smoke near the northeast corner of Ford Island was from oil tanks but from later evidence it must have been the Arizona burning. Other battleships to the southward looked to be perfectly normal as we got underway, After backing clear of the nest we turned to starboard and headed out the channel. The ship was at General Quarters and I was operating the engine room telegraph during this and subsequent maneuvering. We were proceeding at ten knots on course about south when the General signal for "Submarine sighted" was seen on the ship moored at Buoy X-22. At that time I believed the ship was the Curtiss but I now believe that it was the Wright. She was lacing the water off her starboard quarter with machine gun bullets with occasional large splashes from 3 or 5 inch shells. When about 1000 to 1200 yards away we saw the conning tower of the submarine. The Captain ordered flank speed and full right rudder in order to ram the submarine. The ship swung too far to the right then came back and steadied on what it appeared to be a collision course. As we approached the sub marine it bobbed around and the bow broke the surface (target angle 40°) with the clearly distinguishable opening of a torpedo tube. It seemed to be a very small vessel. Gun #2 fired one shot but the elevation was much too great and I saw the shell strike the crane on a dredge moored at Beckoning Point. Then the Wright drew my attention for I feared she would not cease fire when we reached the submarine. At this time I saw a torpedo porpoise in the open water between the Monaghanand the Wright. It appeared to be aimed at the latter and passed at least 50 yards from her starboard beam and about the same distance from our starboard beam on a course slightly divergent from the reverse of our heading. Then the captain ordered "Standby to ram" and the submarine disappeared under the bow. We stood by for a violent shock but none came. We listed slightly to port and I felt a very slight jar, but it was so much less than I expected that it seemed that we must have passed the submarine completely. As soon as it was apparent that the bow had missed. the captain ordered "Full left rudder" and "All engines back emergency full." The shore of Beckoning Point was approaching very rapidly but I took a quick look aft to see if I could spot the submarine. All I saw were two columns of water as our depth charges went off and no sign of the enemy vessel. The engines were taking hold very rapidly and it seemed that we might not strike the bottom. The rudder seemed to have little effect and we were swinging left very slowly as we struck the dredge a glancing blow on the starboard bow and came gradually to a stop as the bow struck soft bottom. All engines were stopped at the order of the Captain as we struck. The stern swung to starboard and we ended up with the dredge close aboard just forward of the bridge. A fire was burning brightly on the dredge and I wondered if someone would jump down and put it out. Then we backed again; two-thirds at first, then standard and we started to move astern. We seemed well clear of the dredge when suddenly it started swinging sharply toward our bow. I could see no connection between our bow and the dredge but from the action of the dredge its outboard mooring lines must have been fouled on our bow. Then we went ahead and stopped again with the dredge close aboard on our starboard bow. I could see activity on our forecastle but could distinguish only that one man was playing a stream from a CO2 fire extinguisher over the side on the fire on the dredge. The stream had no appreciable affect on the fire. Then we backed again, more strongly on the port than the starboard engine and drew away from the dredge and we were free but in very shallow water. Then we went ahead slowly at first, with full left rudder which was bringing our bow entirely too slowly. Then as we continued to swing left full ahead with hard left rudder. We cleared the dredge by several yards and then struck bottom slightly but continued without losing any speed. Finally the bow was pointed to the left of the channel buoy and in a few seconds more we were in deep water. Dale who had passed while we were aground. When abreast the mouth of the south channel, I saw the condition of the forward battleships which were not covered with smoke. Two were listing badly and the bottom of the Oklahoma could be clearly seen. After we had cleared the channel entrance and established the offshore patrol a few small flights of enemy planes were seen and dive bombers were attacking in the vicinity of the battleships. J.W. GILPIN Ensign, U.S. Navy. December 27, 1941. From: HARDON, G.S., CTM (AA), U.S.N. To: The Executive Officer. Subject: Narrative of engagement with Enemy December 7, 1941. About 0745 I was on topside December 7, 1941. I saw bombs dropping on Ford Island -- then realized that it was the Japanese and not a drill -- so hollered General Quarters and sent men in vicinity after .50 caliber ammunition for machine guns. As soon as ammunition arrived I put Dorsettt, TM.2c and several firemen to making up belts of ammunition. Then I sent Parker, TM2c aft and told him to stand by depth charge racks and get some ready for dropping. Then Varnado, TM1c, and I started to charge the two torpedoes we had ready and while charging same heard someone call out, "submarine". I went back to the depth charge racks and left Varnado to continue charging. When I arrived there Parker had the depth charges in the starboard racks ready and set on thirty feet. As I checked the settings myself and saw the submarine. One end of it (I don't know whether it was the bow or stern, it looked like a big torpedo afterbody to me) came out of the water then it went under water again and looked to me as through it was coming towards out stern. I dropped one depth charge without orders -- then the Executive Officer told me to continue dropping, so I dropped one more and was about to drop the third when I felt the ship run aground so I ceased dropping. All told I dropped two but I believe the first charge got the submarine and it was an exercise depth charge with grade "B" TNT and had been in the racks ever since we received them on board from the Naval Ammunition Depot, Mare Island, California, March 15, 1939. G.S. HARDON, CTM (AA). U.S.S. MONAGHAN December 27, 1941. From: PARKER, A.F., TM2c, U.S.N. To: The Executive Officer. Subject: Narrative of Engagement with Enemy December 7, 1941. When the alarm went off I manned the tube, saw it was an actual raid so I went for ammunition for machine guns. Carried a few boxes of .50 caliber up under tube two. After a few minutes Al Hardon sent me to man the depth charges. After manning depth charges the Executive Officer ordered me to carry projectiles for Gun #5, then to take in lines aft. After we were underway I went back to the depth charges and stood by. When I heard a submarine was ahead I cut safety lines, let depth charges into trap, set on thirty feet, thought that may be wrong, so asked Executive Officer the depth of channel, he said thirty feet so I set the rest at thirty feet. Then Al Hardon arrived back there. He stood by to drop them while I got the rest ready. A.F. PARKER, TM2c, USN. Transcribed and formatted for HTML by Patrick Clancey (patrick@akamail.com)

you only need to enter the objects in the _types ini, if you're hand placing them on the terrain. As long as their GrondObjectRole= is stated as "AAA" they'll automatically generate in locations defined in the _targets ini as "AAA"

Good day my friends, part 1 of 4 of a great Interview is released on Stormbirds. Im proud to see the interest in il2 is growing in our community. So let me present you some great new infos about this great Adventure, called Il2. Best regards Martin It’s my great pleasure to introduce a four part series featuring two members of the 1C Game Studios team: Jason Williams and Daniel Tuseev. Jason Williams is President of 777 Studios and Executive Producer at 1C Game Studios and hardly needs introduction to regular readers of this blog. Jason’s one of the driving forces behind the current direction of the IL-2: Great Battles Series and a frequent presence in the community. Daniel Tuseev has been a Project Manager and is currently the Technical Producer at 1C Game Studios and has been involved with the IL-2: Great Battles Series stretching back to the very beginning of the project. This first part of this interview is focused on IL-2: Great Battles in 2019 with questions on everything from hardware and VR to new content and new features for the series. There are three more parts planned on specific topics covering everything from IL-2: Battle of Bodenplatte, Tank Crew – Clash at Prokhorovka, and Flying Circus Vol 1. We’re also going to talk about the future of the series so look out for follow up segments coming in the next few weeks! Part one: The IL-2: Great Battles Series in 2019 Let’s start by talking about your history with flight sims. How long have you been involved with flight sims and what were some of your old favourites? Jason Williams: “Oh wow…this could be a long answer, but I’ll try to give a short one. My first exposure to a proper flight-sim was F-15E Strike Fighter at a friend’s house when I was a kid. I think it was on an IBM PC with a monochrome screen. A computer teacher of mine also demonstrated the very first MS Flight Simulator in class one day. That was 7th or 8th grade. Later in the early 90’s my uncle had one of the first Falcon games. Then my family got a 386 PC and I played F-117 Stealth Fighter which I got as a Christmas present. In college I bought my first PC and started playing other sims/games including all the titles in the Jane’s series like ATF, USNF, Longbow, WWII, IAF etc. and anything else that piqued my interest including European Air War. In 1997 I worked as a legislative intern at the state capital building. All the staff was invited to the Governor’s mansion for a big party. They would be hob-knobbing with the Governor and other powerful political people who could give them jobs after graduation. I was like meh… I want to go home and play my sims. After college I played Jane’s USAF and then Falcon 4.0 quite heavily. I also played Flanker a bit, but it didn’t grab me like Falcon did. I remember sitting in a cubicle at a big law firm I worked at in Silicon Valley just day dreaming about going home and playing my sims. Then in 2001 I dove into the original Sturmovik and that was a life changing event for me. My passion for the hobby became an obsession.” Daniel Tuseev: “While my Grandfather was an aerospace engineer in USSR (he have participated in S-75/SA-2 SAM and “Shkval” torpedo development) and I’ve spend many time in talks with him about aviation in times even before school – aviation is my hobby and my love as far as I can remember myself. Flight sims was my first love in gaming from the moment I’ve received my first Sega Mega Drive. My first sims were F-117, LHX, Janes ATF. And always I’d love not only just to play them, but to investigate the sim world, do something unplanned, study how the things works. My first “adult love” in flight-simming was Flanker 1.0. I’ve decided to study for an aviation engineer while I’ve played it. This game have allowed me to start to understand how the combat aviation works. After that, when I’ve started my study in Moscow Aviation Institute, I’ve spend many times in study of aviation in LO:MAC and MSFS. These days were awesome.” The IL-2: Great Battles Series has expanded in scale and scope significantly over the last two years bringing a lot of new ways to play. What are some of the standout new features that you think are drawing new players into the series and at the same time satisfying the veterans of the series? Jason: “I think our move to abandon the original design and go back to the classic formula of QMB, SP and MP content without unlock gimmicks has helped and the addition of great new content like Kuban and other improvements in the graphics department and good VR support. The Career has also been a popular addition. The big survey we did a couple months ago helped to clarify what attracts virtual pilots to our sim. It’s a wide mix of things that bring people in, but we got some useful data. Thanks to all who took it seriously and participated.” Daniel: “I’m sure that the reason is consistent with the fast evolution of the project. We have performed several huge steps forward like switching to X64, moving to DX11, VR support, several major improvements in aeroplane physics and damage model, improvements of landscape model, adding Career, Cooperative and Scenario Campaigns game modes. All this was done so rapidly and with so good result that this have really addicted players attention and interest. Plus huge changes in gaming strategy – moving back from leveling system to classic sim gameplay – it is also have bring many positive from our community.” What kinds of improvements are you hoping to see from PC hardware (GPUs, joysticks, etc.) that might make your job easier? Jason: “Good question. Better VR goggles are on everyone’s list and I’d like to see large monitors with higher refresh rates for a reasonable price. How about a 32, 35 or 43 inch 4K 240hz monitor that is not just a stripped down television? And the video card prices are ridiculously high. There are a few joystick makers that really could benefit from committing to the North American market in a more serious way. All of their supply problems could be solved by now and sales would be enormous relatively speaking. The creativity is there that is for sure, just not the business vision. I have some experience in this department, which I won’t get into, but until they move west in a more serious manner their ability to grow will be limited and supply will continue to be an issue. I don’t want to see Thrustmaster be so dominant in this space forever simply due to supply and logistics issues.” Daniel: “IMO one of the great misses on controllers market is lack of medium-cost reliable joysticks and rudder pedals with force feedback. In previous times there was a great choose of FFB joysticks on the market – now we have too lack of it. Of course it would be great to have 4K VR devices with wide field of view which will allow you to use your peripheral vision. Also, I believe that there will become a time when 6-D moving seat platforms combined with VR will be standardized and will have acceptable cost to be widely used in flight-simming. So as you see – all my dreams are around player sensoring and feedback systems.” VR has become a selling point for serious combat simulators like IL-2. What do you see in the future for VR? Jason: “I predict higher res units, but difficulties with framerates. I hope, hope, hope there are some tricks we can use to boost framerates at higher resolutions.” Daniel: “As I’ve said above – for VR it is very important to have wider field of view which will allow you to full-use of peripheral vision. Also, virtual gloves technology is a great perspective.” Are there areas where you’d like to improve performance or add additional features to VR within IL-2? Jason: “The key to VR nirvana is higher FPS at a higher resolution. How we get there is still a bit unknown. With a custom engine like ours and a small team, solutions take longer to figure out.” Daniel: “I’d like one day to have VR gloves support in IL-2. It is the main one.” The team has been implementing new network related code over the last few patches. Are there plans to keep working on that area? How difficult is it to find and fix some of the issues that players have reported over the years? Jason: “Yes, but it’s difficult. We have a small team as everyone knows and re-writing and improving netcode is pretty complex. Our only option is incremental changes, gather feedback and then tweak more or dump the changes. It’s not ideal, but it’s what we are forced to do. We agree it can be better and we are working slowly, but surely in that direction.” Daniel: “Yes, we will not stop our work on that issue. It is very difficult area for debugging because most of the issues which we have fixed and improved I the recent past are related to situation of high population of game server. This fact has put serious restrictions on variety of methods which you may use for investigation and debug. In these circumstances the statistics and analysis become the main tool of the finding the reasons, this why these issues can’t be improved rapidly and requires time for develop.” The issue of cheating occasionally comes up (and has again recently) in the IL-2 multiplayer community. What is the team doing to try and prevent some of these efforts? What can the community do to help report the few that decide to cheat? Jason: “First, if we see concrete evidence of cheating, we ban the player, which we have done already to some. Second, we have built some experimental tools to try and stop more advanced cheating, but they need more testing. And finally, we have already plugged some exploits that most of the public didn’t even know about. Cheaters are assholes who don’t just stumble upon cheats. They create them and it forces us too divert resources to that instead of building the product you want. And “off the shelf” anti-cheat tools don’t necessarily work in a custom engine like ours. Remember, we have a custom engine built from scratch. I hate this subject with a passion because it’s complete intentionally caused destruction of our product. It’s malicious and wrong. Just play the game fair and square.” Daniel: “While flight sim with complex flight model and 80+ players on one game server can’t be developed in the way of shooter (where all physics, weapons and damage are calculated on game server) – this problem can’t be solved “once and forever”. In this case it always will be a competition of the sword and the shield. And as you know, sword is always is on the step ahead. But in combine with administrative methods we doing good job in moderating such cases. Also, of course we work on methods of cheating detection and cheating prevention – but methods which we’re using can’t be told to outside because this will give new arms to hands of cheaters. So what I can really say – we continue our work on that.” The ‘Havoc over the Kuban’ campaign is the first community created Scripted Campaign sold on the IL-2 store. Are more campaigns like that planned in the future? Jason: “Yes, I hope so, but the quality needs to be there. That can be hard to judge sometimes and Scripted Campaigns take a long time to test and development can take a while. But I have two more that I know will happen, but for now I’m taking a break from greenlighting any more. And don’t forget there are some AWESOME free ones out there posted on our forum. Check them out! Some very talented mission makers in our community.” Daniel: “Of course. The main reason of developing the Scripted Campaign game mode was to open the way for community to develop to distribute their result to players. Also, we are working closely with guys from community who doing really serious job on campaigns development helping them sometimes with advices and sometimes with specific changes in the game.” The U-2VS was the first aircraft developed by a third-party developer. Are there plans to continue with that model in the future? Related question: Is the Li-2 (or C-47/DC-3) still planned? Jason: “Yes, that is correct. The U-2VS was built by our friends at Yugra Media. They have a contract to build the Li-2 and maybe a C-47 if that works out, but we’re a long way from that at the moment. The U-2 was a very intensive process that took more of our own time than we had hoped. I’m still hopeful the Li-2 will happen as planned, but until I know for sure I can’t say more. Yugra is also making our Flying Circus planes and they are still learning how to make them efficiently and with high quality. Making planes from scratch or revising older ones up to our standards is a challenge even for an experienced team like Yugra. But they are making real strides. And don’t forget our tanks are made by DigitalForms and that was an entirely new type of machine to for us to support technically and gameplay wise. Daniel, Mike and Sergey have done a tremendous job making tanks possible along with DigitalForms who are giving it there all. It’s been fun to watch the progress.” Daniel: “Yes it is. We working hard to open our doors for everyone who is capable and interested to create content for IL-2 Great Battles. At the moment we have two studios in collaboration with us, we hope that after time it will be more. So, anyone who interested and capable in this – contact to us, we waiting for you. Of course, it is still requiring some work from our side because control, implementation and physics model development is on our side anyway, but this is means that anyone can be calm about quality and accuracy of the result.” Fans of the series have also wondered about future Collector Planes that continue to add to the Eastern Front experience (the Yak-9/9T, IL-4, Tu-2, I-153, Hs123, Bf110F and others come up frequently), are there any plans to do those or work with a third-party team to build those in the future? Jason: “Probably not third party for any of those. Those would be best built by us due to the subject matter. We do hope to make more collector planes in the future and we still like the Eastern Front. I’d like to see all those planes flying one day. Out of all of those the Yak-9T would be the most likely one.” Daniel: “At the moment only ideas are kicked around, it is too early to say what exactly we or our partners will do next. But yes, some of these planes are inside of the circle of possible variants.” You’ve talked about building an Air (and Ground) Marshal feature for a couple of years. How is the planning for that mode coming along and what are you hoping players will be able to get out of having a feature like that once it’s complete? Jason: “We’re in the initial stages of development now. We’ve agreed to a design and begun optimizations of the GUI which was needed before we start the main building process. The design, if it works, has been improved from my early concept into a really neat system. Our hope is that it will make MP more interesting and increase teamwork as it was in real life. It will be an optional feature for servers if they don’t like it. It could be a game-changer for online wars and all forms of MP if the community takes such a feature seriously and tries to fly like a real coordinated air force.” Daniel: “Marshall mode design is established and it is already in development. It will be a huge gameplay feature, comparable to Career by complexity of development. If everything will be good – this feature will be done before release of Bodenplatte. This feature also requires many GUI based improvements and optimizations, some of them you will see in 3.010 as a “bonus” from Marshall mode development which is still in progress. In result players on populated multiplayer game servers will have a new layer of gameplay and cooperation. First of all – this feature should bring an obvious and dynamically changed vision to each player of what multiplayer mission objectives are and what is the player coalition strategy and current tactical tasks. Also, it should bring a new proximity to immersion of real aerial battle to the players.” You’re currently working with Pat Wilson and his PWCG software to add a co-op career experience for players but you’ve also talked about building the IL-2 Career mode into Co-op as well. Is that a long range goal or something you’re hoping to add in 2019? Jason: “No, it’s a long-range goal for us. Pat is a very smart guy and when he said he could do this in a reasonable time frame I jumped at the chance to have him try and I’m confident he will succeed. For us to do it inside the game will take some serious time and right now we have other goals and things to build for MP. Fingers crossed Pat hits a home run with his implementation. Remember he has been working with his code for years now which is different than how we work. Sometimes, it takes one guy with a singular vision and a lot of time to build something super special. “ Daniel: “It is a long-range goal as Jason has stated. Our engine is designed around a central core and different modes of gameplay all share the same basic architecture, so different features of SP and MP can share things to make such hybrid features possible. It will be mostly a question of lobby and GUI design when we eventually focus on such a feature.” Improving the multiplayer lobby is one of the goals that you’re hoping to tackle this year and you’ve previously said that it won’t be easy. What kinds of features are you hoping to have and how much of a challenge is it to build this in? Jason: “I can’t say right now what the exact shape it will take. Obviously, people want chat and a lobby of some kind. Everyone remembers old Hyperlobby and how that worked. So, something that can make match-making easier, but with features users want. We haven’t sat down to draw a final design yet, but that time is coming soon. We briefly mapped it out over a year ago, but it was just to understand the resources we would need to do it. And yes, everything about MP is difficult. A very tough crowd to please. “ Daniel: “While exact design is in development now, now I can only say what we want to have there. We supposing to have common chat, chat rooms, friends, server pre-start lobby where players will bring together and start server when they will be ready and so on.” The team is going to be very busy building a lot of previously announced content in 2019. Are there any surprises we should be watching out for this year? Jason: “Mmmm… if I told you it wouldn’t be a surprise? Time will tell if there are any surprises. Right now, I don’t know of any… or do I. Hmmmm………” Daniel: “I think you will have some.” Three more parts coming I hope everyone enjoyed reading part one of my interview with Jason Williams and Daniel Tuseev. The next three parts are currently in the works and I hope to be able to share them with you very soon! Original link: https://stormbirds.blog/2019/02/06/part-1-an-interview-with-jason-williams-and-daniel-tuseev-il-2-great-battles-series/?fbclid=IwAR3xdunpO0sDtf0I6iG6DQEOB71I6yU_meKoSGH1aI5_4d-6A86CPFCeMBk

I think the history is not too good lol Of course is my opinion, but how about a new global economical crisis boos right wing party to power that seeing a busy elsewhere Russia invades the islands?

Now what if Russia decided to fire its opening shots against Japan with... nuclear anti-ship missiles? I decided to add a couple nuclear-capable Tu-22M3 bombers to the first mission and let them fire... Clearly Putin would never authorize first use of nuclear weapons knowing it would 99% be the end of his empire but it would clearly be brutal, short and wipe out all in its path.

"La Muerte Negra"

Really looks awesome with a jamming pod and detailed munitions! Amazed how you can get a camera focused on the munition! Mandatory screenshot from my campaign testing:

http://devblog.sim155.com/2018/10/v81345-updates.html v813.4 & 5 were uploaded to the BETA and VR BETA channels recently. Work was focused on A/G weaponry. Updates included: AGM65 IR Maverick IRMAV MFD Display Target Lock Flight routine Launch FX STRS MFD Display HUD Displays IRMAV Cage/Uncage display A/G Guns & Rockets CCIP display Bombs CCIP offscreen indication, reflected cue Graphical 'tweaks' Cockpit mirror improvements Bug fixes included: VR Pilot view black screen when using OpenVR/SteamVR Glitching cockpit shadows Flicker when using MFD containing a 3D Display The next couple couple of minor updates (v813.6/7) will continue with A/G work. These will include: FLIR Heat based rendering rather than the current gray scale (which gets dark at night :) ) HUD FLIR display with the 24hr rendering FLIR display becomes much more useful HARM HARM display of detected emitters/threats updated HARM flight code TDC (Target Designator Control) finalising TDC use and assignment between Radar MFD/ HUD/ IRMAV/ TPOD removal of target pod slew controls uses TDC when it is assigned to TPOD Weapon release tone enabled via TONE option in STRS volume set via rotary control on ACNIP panel Improved cockpit illumination AV8B cockpit updates After the final A/G weapons/Avionics updates are released we'll move on to the v814 series updates which will add the in-mission tactical display. After that we're on to single missions. Here are some screenshots of v813.4/5 Updated STRS (Stores) MFD display: IRMAV FLIR MFD display: IRMAV locked: Cockpit mirror reflection: Cockpit glass reflection: Gratuitous Shot of cockpit glass and helmet visor reflection: Miscellaneous shots from v813.5 build:

I'm going to launch the submarines Guppy, Oberon and Foxtrot, this week, they are only targets for helicopters and planes, no one can expect them to attack any air or naval target and excuse my bad english.