Mr_Tayto

Early war Phantoms, pre- and post-repaint. My first mission (shot 1) was an escort of BUFFs striking a target in Pack 2. Nothing happened except me getting a few nice close-up shots of them.

Love me Thuds

Right enough, thanks. I have finally downloaded it tonight; can it be used in the campaigns? Do I have to select from the list at Campaign start?

Thanks, but I realise this - I cannot find it, however.

Thanks for this (and you @OlWilly). The extractor readme talks about finding the install directory path; I assume this is not the Mod Folder? Or is it?

Hi all, I came across this post in the Knowledge Base which I think might come in useful for me. I'm looking to increase the gunsight depression for rockets on the F-105, and this seems to be the answer (short of a clickable cockpit). I can see from the F-105D.ini, that it points to a file called F-105D_cockpit.ini, but I can't find that file anywhere. Being relatively new to the game, I'm looking for some advice. I HAVE had a look in the KB, but it's fair to say I don't know what I'm looking for exactly. I also find the search function of this forum simply doesn't work for me - again, probably because I don't know how to use it properly. TIA

I'll have a dig around, thanks.

I downloaded ODS during the week, I've been so excited to play it with Desert Storm being the first "TV war" I lived through while I was at school. I've been desperate to fly a Buccaneer in a sim my whole life, too. Firstly, what a step-up from SF2:V; not in terms of the aircraft necessarily (after all the Bucc is a contemporary of my favoured Thud), but in terms of the battlespace and enemy defences. While I got used to the cockpit of the Bucc fairly quickly, the lack of a radar display was strange - is this important and if so, how can I view it? Also, while I wasn't expecting a CCIP, am I to assume that (dumb) bombing is conducted the same way? I've had zero experience of LGBs in this game so far. My first mission in the Bucc was to bomb a barracks with a mix of laser-guided and dumb bombs - in pitch black. I didn't have a clue about the LGB employment and missed. How should I be setting up a run for LGBs? I had the objective targeted as normal, so I could order the wingman, but it didn't seem to matter. Any advice gratefully received.

Thanks, mate!

Hi, just installed the mod and looking forward to flying, I just had a hopefully easy question: Is the control scheme different for this game compared to others in the SF2 family? Can I use my SF2:V controls.ini to overwrite the created one in the mod folder? Thanks!

Turns out I'm still rubbish In anything that's not a 105 doing Hi-lo-lo-hi profiles like my F-4C (1 mission with mk82s) and A-4C (2 with mk82s), I'm really struggling. I need to hit the range in those aircraft I think.

In two years of playing this game, on and off, I've focused totally on mud moving, all within the Vietnam War campaigns. I'm not very good (as my constant requests for help in other threads prove!) but it's fair to say I've watched Devin Horner play more full missions than I've played myself. I generally change aircraft, to learn a new one, upon a campaign ending; up to now this has always been due to KIA/POW, and always shot down attacking well defended targets. At the start of this week I decided I'd play my first ever F-4 campaign, Rolling Thunder, 43rd TFS. My first mission was a very long overflight of Thailand and Laos to rendezvous with some B-52s plastering a target in RP1. Red Crown called out contacts but they were, as to be expected, far to the north and didn't bother us. A nice milk run which allowed me to learn flight parameters and cockpit dials for myself. Mission 2 was going to be a strike mission in RP6A, but upon loading in, my HOTAS wasn't recognised. A further attempt (and a restart) and still it didn't work. Luckily I had recently backed up my mod folder so copied over my previous controls.ini and tried again. Briefing this time was for another escort, this time a flight of Thuds from a western Thai base. Shame, I thought, I'm a mud mover at heart, and I was looking forward to bombing a bridge. Anyway, I suited up and headed for the flight line, and this time everything worked. The mission was to RP2, and my flight of 4 F-4 in standard A2A configuration made the rendezvous bang on time after a very long flight from the southern coast. At the IP we started to extend on the bombers (as a Thud driver at heart I was disappointed they were so high and slow), but while I was deciding whether or not to circle back to them the scope started to get busy; a flight of Scooters from Yankee was inbound to the target area, but there was a definite separation with a gaggle left of the nose at 30 miles. With switchology complete for a Sparrow shot, I waited until the IN RANGE light came on and bagged my first Fresco (it worked off the rail!) As our flights merged I realised we were facing two flights, seven bogeys left. My flight was instructed to engage and we got into it. The furball was glorious, and boy, did I put into practice what I'd learned from watching Devin. I chose a Fresco, and went in close, following him as best I could with this pig of a "dogfighter". These bad guys were good, and after two pretty perfect trail shots - and lots of high yo-yos and throttle control - with heaters were defeated with high G turns, I realised I'd have to try something else. My wingman was instructed to pin him and I extended about 5 miles, before setting up another Sparrow for kill number two. Red Crown reported mission complete as my wingman bagged his second shortly after, and I gathered the boys for the long trip home. I called Red Crown one final time for a picture of the battle space, expecting to hear that the remaining MiGs were heading north with their tails between their legs, only to hear that at least one was close. I looked at the maps and saw one turning with a straggler A4, and broke off to engage him, while telling the flight to mop up. I picked kill number three out of the clutter, and sent him home by truck. The A-4 departed back to Yankee and one of my guys got our 6th of the morning. These are my first air-to-air kills in the game, and I was (and am) totally buzzing with the adrenaline. The F-4 is not an easy plane to fly at 6kft, 325 knots, in a turn with a MiG-17 while AA explodes all around, but I managed to come out on top. Wish I had a gun - at one point I could read one of their tail numbers!

Thanks both, really good advice for mission execution. I wonder if there's a way to edit the mission success/failure parameters so that SEAD works the same way as "Escort", where success is defined by how many strike aircraft survive to attack the target and egress? This way, just the presence of the Iron Hand flight would be helping to achieve missions success, and it wouldn't be purely based on destruction of enemy units, which is unclear. In every example I've seen on video, there has never been a "Mission Accomplished", even where the strike flight has destroyed its target and the IH flight has egressed safely. You would of course have to have mid-late war Wild Weasel with completely different goals, as those flights were about destroying suspected SAM sites regardless of friendly air activity in the vicinity.

I love it Would make a great nuke bombing target for early 90's Moscow

Yeah, agreed. And generally I have good results with CCIP equipped platforms like the A-6 (I should, I've been practicing since the 90's with Microprose sims!) The issue I have is with my own behaviour with the aircraft in high threat environments, not the mechanics of the bombing itself. I guess I'm also trying to be good with TLAR aircraft. Dive/toss/level bombing without a bombing computer is more art than science in SF2, and it's all I have in the 105, but I can do it. Again, it's about how I approach targets (both psychologically and in physical terms) in SEAD environments, regardless of the method of bombing.