Caesar

Did you know that in Greenland, it is illegal for an American to beat a Polar Bear with an eel? It is also legal for the Polar Bear to murder the American. However, if Inuits arrive, especially by hovercraft, they may beat AND kill a Polar Bear with an eel and sell its parts, just not to an American.

Really, it is a matter of taste and what you want. Naval ops with multi-target engagement capability and slightly more "modern" avionics (functional TWS, for example)? SF2:NA (Includes F-14A, A-7E) Historic battles and campaigns with great difficulty and variety? SF2:V or SF2:I (Includes F-8, F-4, A-4, and many Century-Series for Vietnam and F-15, F-16, Mirage-series, A-4 series for Israel) What-if scenarios and a good variety of fighters and attackers? SF2:E (Includes F-15, A-10, Hunter, Mirage) Baseline game and terrains with multi-purpose use? SF2 (Includes F-4, A-4, Century Series and Desert terrain) The only reason that I personally, if I could only choose one, would go SF2:NA is because I'm a Tomcat fanatic and also love the catapult launches and arrested recoveries of SF2:NA. It reminds me of Fleet Defender! I will also bring up that although I own all 5, "Europe" is the one I use as my primary.

There's a cameras mod here on CA I used to have installed that allowed you to cycle view through all airborne missiles. I don't remember if it allowed cycling "player-to-missile" though.

What radar mode are you in when firing your AMRAAMs? Every once in a while my AIM-54's hiccup with the F-14, and it doesn't happen all the time, but when it does, I'll usually cycle the radar, switch back to TWS, re-designate the target, then shoot and it works. For whatever reason, it seems as if I'm in PD Search, and lock a target up, sometimes my Phoenix won't fire, but I just did a mission a few minutes ago and doing that very action worked fine. Otherwise, if you're in TWS, are you selecting but not designating a target? The Super Bug uses the AvionicsF14A.dll file, so its TWS works like an F-14's in game: when you select a target with "next/previous radar target", but forget to hit "lock radar target" you'll still get tracking information on your HUD, but no missile has been designated to the target, so if you have a weapon selected and try to shoot, nothing will happen. Every once in a while this happens to me, especially when I'm trying to get to closer ranges, forget that I haven't actually designated a missile to my target, and try to shoot. Whoops! Quickly hit "lock radar target" and ensure I've got my AIM-54 selected, and then it works.

Another consideration for you is to turn 90 degrees angle off to the missile's flight path to lower the closure velocity (Vc). In games, it largely depends on how the missile's data is programmed, but in reality, any air to air missile can't hit its target when fired from maximum range if the target isn't closing with the missile. For example, the AIM-7F could hit a closing target fired from somewhere in excess of 20NM. If the target turned 90-degrees to the launch platform, that range was reduced to about 8NM. If the target were running, it was less than that. As an in-game example, we boosted the AIM-54's maximum launch range in the F-14 Super Pack to 115NM (132mi/212km) from 75NM for the originals (with permission by Ravenclaw, his originals are also still in the pack) to match the longest range successful shot of an AIM-54 off of an F-14. In that test, although the launch distance was 115NM, the missile only traveled about 72NM because of Vc; the target had traveled 43NM towards the missile by intercept time. To allow for a longer range shot without affecting the missile's "legs", we modified only the "MaxLaunchRange" line in the data.ini and nothing else. During testing, it was found the missile could hit a target if fired from maximum range if the target was closing, and the player was flying very quickly towards the target at launch (~1.4-1.6M). It was also found that if the target turned perpendicular to the launch platform, the effective range of the missile was cut down to about 60NM. For a target travelling slightly away from the player, it's down in the 50's, while a target in a full "run" drops the range even more. How this translates to you: if you're flying against an F-14 (I usually fly BLUFOR, but I also like to practice against IRIAF F-14's) and the AI launches an AIM-54 at you from around Rmax, you can turn your aircraft to around 90 degrees to the F-14's (and AIM-54's) nose, and the missile will either run out of smack trying to reach you, or take longer than 5 minutes of flight time and run out of power (reflected in the "Duration" line in the data.ini). Regardless of which, if your AI opponent launches two or four missiles, you can shoot him dry, and ideally, respond with your own long- or medium-range missiles after you're clear. I haven't tested out too many missiles for the express purpose of figuring out their envelopes, but I do know the AIM-7F will still hit a target at 90 degrees angle off at more than 8NM, I just don't know what the limit is. Regardless, angle-off requires the missile to travel further to hit you (low or no Vc), which means it will decelerate more and be more liable to miss if you maneuver.

That ROYALLY sucks! Sorry to hear that. One of the things I've come to do is back up my most important stuff onto Blu-Ray discs every few months. While this prevents any further modification of the files, in the event of a catastrophic loss of one or both of my HDD's, I have most of the stuff I had in some form prior to the loss. Just a thought. Hopefully your work mate will be able to recover some of your data! I know I had to fish for files using Xubuntu once when one of my HDD's became corrupted (probably about 5 or 6 years ago now); apparently, though Windows was screwed, Xubuntu was able to read some of my files still, and I ran the OS from one optical drive and burned as much data as I could on the other.

I'd also be willing to bet that some of these techniques became less viable with high draw-weight bows; with the Mary Rose discovery, English warbows ("longbows" as we like to call them today) of draw weights in excess of 160lbs were found and the arrows they shot could weigh over 4oz (Strickland and Hardy estimate a range of 3.5-4.5oz for the arrow just to resist shattering under the power of a 150lb bow)! A warbow might not always be shot from maximum draw, but that is a LOT of weight to overcome for speed shooting. One of the things I like most about Mr. Andersen's efforts is that they present us a re-discovery of a lost art that proves at least moderate weight bows could be fired at a tremendous rate, and what has probably been dismissed as legend by old men in libraries again has a basis in reality thanks to an individual who took the time to practice, experiment, and breathe new life and data into the subject of archery and military history. And it's more than just speed; his accuracy is incredible, and while most of these shots are taken at very close range, it's pretty clear he's got good accuracy at moderate ranges based on this video, WHILE maintaining firing speed. Really looking forward to any other developments he has. Would be cool to see if he does take up a heavy weight bow and if anything he finds differs from the current research!

File Name: Fleet Defender Gold Theme for SF2 (1600x900) File Submitter: Caesar File Submitted: 17 January 2015 File Category: Menus Description: This Fleet Defender Gold theme is a set of menus and music for Strike Fighters 2 in widescreen format: 1600x900. While the basic Fleet Defender theme has been done before for the SF series, Fleet Defender Gold hasn't been represented...until now. The CD-based FD Gold had a MIDI rock theme and early 3D video introduction to the Windows 3.x/95 installation, albeit it ALWAYS skipped. Using Audacity, I was able to fix that issue following track capture. FD Gold's theme seems to have fallen by the wayside compared to the basic DOS music, and it is unfortunate, since it has a great MIDI track. Well, it's back! Fleet Defender Gold still ran the main game in DOS: it was really just a combination of the original FD and its scenario disk, but was Windows compatible for installation and featured a few extras as well: a training section, videos from Aviation Week's "Flight Deck," previews for MicroProse's upcoming games, and most interestingly, the recording of the MiG-23 shoot-downs from the Second Gulf of Sidra incident. The Package: The main screen attempts to recreate "Bio" Baranek's famous picture of a VF-2 F-14A in a 30-degree nose up climb, which was used as the cover photo on the game box (albeit with a 1970's era Bullet) and utilizes the Windows FD Gold intro theme. The Single Mission, Loadout, Options, Pilot Record and Roster screens use the actual FD game background music. Campaign start screen uses the FD DOS Intro music. Mission Successful/Failed/Player Killed utilize the FD Mission Successful/Failed music, and the Credits and Medals screens use the FD Mission Successful music (akin to the Top Ten and Credits of the original game). A set of 1600x900 menus have also been made. ------------- Installation: NOTE: The theme was tested on an All-5 Merged install, patched to July 2013. ============= CAUTION: If you didn't see in the description, these menus are in 1600x900 widescreen format! If you're using a different screen ratio, they probably won't work right. I will get around to doing a standard format in the future. ============= In order to install: 1.) Copy the contents of this archive to a temporary folder. 2.) Create a new folder in your main Mod Folder (e.g. C:\Users\Name\Saved Games\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2 Europe) called "Menu" (if it doesn't already exist). 3.) Copy the contents of your temp folder into the Menu Folder. 4.) Launch the game! OF NOTE: If you can't support the 1600x900 format, or if you want to keep the default or other menu screens, you can still use the Fleet Defender music by only installing the .wav files and menu .ini's. To do so, only copy the .wav and .ini files to your Mod Menu folder. ------------- Credits: Menu Package (incl. Music Editing, Screens): Caesar Original FD Gold Theme: Ronald Rizzo, MicroProse Original FD Game Music: Michael Bross, MicroProse Click here to download this file

So this is a bit of an interesting one in my opinion, having done the strategic warning/defense mission. Most folks know 99 Luftballons/99 Red Balloons, a fun dance song about a software bug triggering World War III and everyone dying, and I'm sure some folks know the Christmas song "Do you hear what I hear?" with its dark origins set against the Cuban Missile Crisis, but I personally hadn't run into this song until today: Fylingdale Flyer by Jethro Tull from the album "A," 1980. Now, I'm a fan of hard rock, heavy metal, and whatnot, but I'll also never hide the fact that I'm a fan of prog rock as well (which can easily delve into the hard rock side, King Crimson especially comes to mind in this regard), which Tull fits into. You may or may not like the song, based on that fact, but I think it's worth a listen for folks interested in how the times influence music. For those of you who don't know, RAF Fylingdales was one of the original three Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS, pronounced "Bee-Mewz") sites. Site I was operational by 1960 at Thule AB, Greenland (wewt!), Site II at Clear AFS, AK by 1961, and Site III at RAF Fylingdales, England by 1963, with the purpose of providing advanced warning of Soviet missile launches against the US, UK, Canada, and other allies. RAF Fylingdales currently operates a three-faced Upgraded Early Warning Radar, continuing the site's role in Space Surveillance/Missile Warning/Missile Defense to this day. The song isn't as edgy as 99 Luftballons with the world coming to an end, but it does hit the right notes as it were, about false indications and warnings, and the potential destruction it could cause ("Keep your hands off that red telephone!"), but also makes an allegory to the Spanish Armada ("One last quick game of bowles"), which to me rings of doubt and hesitancy to report what's being seen on the screen. Never happened during my time performing that mission (hesitancy, that is), but then I have heard horror stories of stuff that happened in the '70's and '80's... Anyhow, just thought I'd share.

Flaps are automatic. If you want to change that, go into the aircraft's data.ini and change the "DeploymentMethod=AUTOMATIC_AERODYNAMIC_LOAD" to read "MANUAL_WITH_BLOWBACK" for each flap. I've also found since re-installing I've again got more than twice the internal fuel than I should have, so I've gotta modify my .ini's again. Note on that, you might want to check how much fuel you have in the loadout screen; I'm still trying to figure this one out, because most people have reported their numbers to be fine, and I'm maybe one of three who have too much fuel for the Super Bug and the Raptor by default. Maybe they just don't like me? (EDIT: It's because fuel weight is in lbs, rather than kg, and the game reads fuel weights in kg). As for coming off the deck, I noticed my speed in KIAS was about 200 when I left the catapult. I had configured the plane with six AMRAAM, two Sidewinder and a 480 gallon tank with 50% internal fuel (due to my numbers being off). Takeoff weight was just about 53,500 lbs. Following this, I was able to do a shallow climb at military power, but if I wanted to climb with about 30-degrees nose up, I needed to be near full burner to accelerate or maintain speed in the climb.

So, I went ahead and landed the 3.5 Super Bug at about 135-140kts. Not sure what the AoA is supposed to be for the Bug, but I was able to get back aboard the boat with 2 AIM-9, 2 AIM-7 and about 7200 lbs fuel at around 140KIAS with total aircraft weight just above 40k pounds.

So...did you get that approach speed down?

Wow; had no idea the gendarmes were still around (guess they don't wear head to toe plate harness anymore...HARR!). Total respect for those guys and gals. Glad to see they waxed another stain from the planet.

Again, nice flying. Looks like I gotta get my video editing software re-installed; everyone's going the video route nowadays!

What airplane and what loadout are you carrying? The heavier the jet, the faster you have to go to get aboard the ship. E.g. I will usually approach in the F-14A/B/D at about 125-135kts post mission, but if I'm closer to max trap (54,000lbs), its faster at ~140kts+. 200kts sounds ridiculously fast.

F'KIN-A, MB! That was intense; thanks for sharing that.

For comparison, the F-14A's out file shows: Num Nodes: 259 Total: (28586 polys, 85758 verts) Mesh Max: (1087 polys, 3261 verts) or about 1/2 the total polys and verts (one quarter the mesh max). So, the F-14 is less graphically intense than the Super Bug. The legacy F/A-18A is: Num Nodes: 275 Total: (22048 polys, 66108 verts) Mesh Max: (865 polys, 2595 verts) I'm not entirely certain why it's stuttering for you, though. The Super Bug never really gave me problems when I was running my 560Ti's (just till about two weeks ago). I am running on 16GB of RAM; wonder if that has anything to do with it (I saw you're running 4)?

You could do either, though if you want to keep your current '74, either save a copy of your loadout.ini, or enter the new one as a different name, year, etc. (e.g. AirToAir'75, or AirToAir232, or something like that). You'll have to define what missions the 2-3-2 is default for if you keep both entries, since AirToAir'74 is default from 1974-1980 for Fighter Sweep and Escort missions. [AirToAir'74] StartDefaultDate=1974 <= Defines start date of loadout DefaultFor=SWEEP,ESCORT <= Defines mission types the loadout is used for

Very nice flying, Cougar! I just made a mission similar to this one; an Alpha Strike on Yen Bai, had similar results. In order to do a 2-3-2, you'll have to make a custom loadout in the loadout.ini. Problem is, we broke down the aircraft's weapon stations for maximum fighter/recce/strike flexibility, rather than straight air-to-air, so unlike the TW F-14, you can't do this loadout by default. We did a 2-1-4 for the F-14B_91, so you could copy that and modify it for Vietnam-era, but this is what a 2-3-2 would look like: [AirToAir'74] StartDefaultDate=1974 DefaultFor=SWEEP,ESCORT Loadout[29].WeaponType=F14DDE Loadout[29].Quantity=1 Loadout[11].WeaponType=AIM-54A Loadout[11].Quantity=1 Loadout[12].WeaponType=AIM-54A Loadout[12].Quantity=1 Loadout[03].WeaponType=AIM-7E-4 Loadout[03].Quantity=1 Loadout[13].WeaponType=AIM-9H Loadout[13].Quantity=1 Loadout[14].WeaponType=AIM-9H Loadout[14].Quantity=1 Loadout[01].WeaponType=AIM-7E-4 Loadout[01].Quantity=1 Loadout[02].WeaponType=AIM-7E-4 Loadout[02].Quantity=1 Loadout[17].WeaponType=Tank330_F14_W Loadout[17].Quantity=1 Loadout[18].WeaponType=Tank330_F14_W Loadout[18].Quantity=1 When you're in the loadout screen, your center Sparrow stations will read "Empty" but the little circle will be filled in. When you go in game, you'll notice a single Sparrow on the aft centerline station (Sparrow Station 4). This is a little more practical if you're anticipating a close in fight, since, like you noticed, four Phoenix slung beneath the F-14 is a lot of weight! One of the loadouts I commonly take now is a 2-4-2, but with the four Sparrow under the fuselage, the two Phoenix on stations 1B and 8B and the Sidewinders on 1A and 8A. Gives me one extra Sparrow, keeps the rails off the pancake area, and I usually fire the AIM-54's at long range anyhow, so when I jump into the fight, I typically have my Sidewinders, a Sparrow or two, and GUNS!

Two new hard drives and video card installed, and SF2 is back up and running! Returning home after a successful fight... Loaded for Bear!

Always remember the miracle cure: your ejection seat! If you get shot up so bad that the game considers your plane "destroyed" and you land, but don't eject, you're considered dead. BUT! If you land, and then add even more unneeded stress to your body by yanking your ejection handles, suddenly, you are jarred back to life, and the game only considers you seriously injured. I think on a campaign, both are game-enders, but at least you're alive.

Don't think so, what I was saying was that when I re-install the game, the bindings (obviously) go away, so I've backed up my default.ini file for an easy replacement. When the game un-binds stuff every once in a while for other reasons (such as another controller plugged in), it's an easy fix, too.

This happens to me every once in a while, and I'm not sure why - I think it likes to re-bind if I plug in or remove my XBOX 360 controller while I have my stick/throttle plugged in. What I started to do was back up my Controls/default.ini file, and any time I either re-install or the game loses the bindings, I just replace the "new" file with my backup, boot the game, and it works again.

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