streakeagle

I had a lot of fun with several of the DLC aircraft. The A-4K and F-8E FN are certainly among my favorites... but you know I have to say the F-4K is my favorite DLC followed closedly by the beautifully painted F-4EJ. TK is just needs to release the F-4N, F-4S, F-4G, RF-4B/C/E to complete the all the models that existed in the SF time frame. SF2NA will apparently be the first SF series game released without a flyable F-4 variant... needs F-4N/F-4S DLC to make it right! I think an F-4S with a properly modeled AWG-10 radar would be my favorite plane in the game... the only thing missing on the F-4S was an internal gun, otherwise it was the best F-4 variant until the modern foreign F-4E/F-4F upgrades with F-16 and F-18 radars.

I am going to go out on a limb and guess that the new terrain is just that... new features that don't and won't exist in the old terrains. Yet, the new engine will support the old terrains to permit merging/backwards compatibility with previous mods. As I understand it from TK's previous discussions about improving the terrain engine and the tradeoffs it requires: needs more resources (double the RAM requirements in the hardware specs!) and smaller maps to permit higher detail with the limitation that the more the map looks like high-end first person shooter games the closer in size it will be to such games with corresponding horzion/fog limits. While I would prefer maps like Vietnam/Thailand with 1:1 scale, accurately placed bases, and aerial refueling... SF2 is heading in the direction of an island in the middle of nowhere... like OFP/ArmA series. Ok for shooters, not much fun for recreating historical missions. But backwards compatibility with the older terrains means you can pick you poison: latest graphics with small detailed map or the old ugly graphics but nearly full size terrains. As long as that option exists, I am OK with the new stuff.

As in pre-Eagle NATO :) Soviets get to use the MiG-23 to some extent by 1975 without Eagles around to wipe them out. Of course the early MiG-23Ms and their weapons weren't quite as effective as the later MLDs, but mixed with MiG-21s in large numbers could potentially overwhelm NATO's fighters. A lot more interesting for both sides than a Bekaa turkey shoot.

It seems we have so much in common. TK was an avid Air Superiority fan. I had all the newsletters put out by J.D. Webster and friends which included user content from fans. Among the contributors to new aircraft data cards was TK :) It seems an unusually strong interest in a less than popular subject brings us "niche" guys together... especially with the advent of the internet where we can easily find each other. Of course, a much less politically correct name for our "niche" interest might be nerdiest of computer nerds: flight sim geeks. I am sad to see the decline and almost total disappearance of the tabletop wargaming community. But to be fair, I am never sad about the fact that my 1981 Corvette replaced the horse and carriage. PC flight sims are better for me overall, but even online multiplayer cannot fully replace the fun to be had playing games face-to-face by hand moving markers or miniatures over a map or model terrain... although I must say, all the Operation Flashpoint LAN parties I used to have before getting married and having a kid were about equal since everyone was playing side by side or across from each other in the same room. Much better than online multiplayer. The memories that a simple image intended to be the menu screen of a lite pc flight sim can evoke... Again, thank you for the effort

Prior to the release of WoV, I spent most of my time flying over the original SFP1 stock desert terrain. Gepard's take on North Vietnam saved me from that fictional hell, but just as I was getting serious about building historical missions for it, TK released WoV... the rest is history. But after so many hours over the original desert, it is hard to believe that it isn't real. But with the release of WoI, my interest in flying over a fictional desert terrain fell to zero... except when I feel like playing a merc campaign. The fictional terrain is perfect for this--no preconceived notions due to history.

There are lots more than just those. People did like simulating air combat before PCs made it look pretty and run in real time. I used to own nearly every board game and set of miniatures rules ever released. When I moved last year, I didn't want to bother storing them or hassle with an ebay sale, so I threw them all away except the latest one: Birds of Prey. The 3d physics are so good in this one that it acts like a low resolution PC flight sim. Of course 6 seconds of game time (1 turn) takes 5 or 10 minutes to play out, but the simplicity and accuracy made all of those other games utterly obsolete! Your GUI main screen is so similar to what I used to see on store shelves that it gives me a warm feeling like I used to get when I spotted a new game on at the book store where I bought most of my games, Merlin's Books. Sadly, it is not a new game, just window dressing for one I already have. But it is truly a work of art easily as good or better than the box covers of all the other boxed games I ever had. Thanks for the hard work ;)

Captures the look and feel of board game box cover art -- which is excellent :) For example:

Nice footage. Enjoyed seeing both Phantoms and Bucs.

There is no question that the F-14 is a superior airframe to the Hornet. However, the F-14 was also more expensive. The combat needs of the USN since Vietnam versus the available budget since the fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of the Soviet Union forced the Navy to go with Hornets while the USAF somewhat unsuccessfully pinned its future on the F-22 and is now struggling to justify the cost of the much less capable but still very expensive F-35. Whatever the limitations of the Hornet, the USN was able to get much needed new airframes while the USAF soldiers on with Eagles and Falcons that will never be replaced by nearly as many aircraft.

It doesn't take hacking your hotmail password to send email via your account... It is just as likely a worm/virus on your pc used your mail while you were using it with the rights your pc granted to you. You need to check your computer for worms/viruses with software other than what you normally run for security (as it would have to be compromised for this to even happen). Alternatively, you have had a keylogger program on a PC you used when you last typed your password yourself. A lot of ways for this to happen that don't involve Microsoft being compromised in any way.

The last time I checked, when the perceived demand increases, so does price, regardless of the reason the demand increased. They don't sell her music because they like her or respect her, they only value her for the profits she can bring. Unfortunately, like Michael Jackson, she is worth more to them dead than alive. Death can instantly restore a rejected pedophile into a hallowed king of pop in the name of cash, so it is no surprise that Whitney could be so easily exploited given that all she really did was pick a lousy husband and fall into the usual substance abuse/rehab profile of so many celebrities. The beauty of the internet is that consumer backlash traveled fast and brought the prices back down to normal--but they managed to make some sales at the inflated price. Sony: reputation down, gross profits up.

Your loss.

As old as they are, the F-16 looks as futuristic as it did when it first flew (much like the SR-71). While I have never been much of an F-16 fan, the looks of the F-35 make me dread the day when the last Falcon is retired. The F-35 looks like a cheap multi-role fighter that sacrifices performance for cost effectiveness. The F-16 looks like it should fly rings around anything currently flying.

You would have to reverse engineer the game to figure out how to access the necessary values in memory. I don't believe anyone has done this, yet. But I see no reason why it couldn't be done if you are good at monitoring programs while they are running. I am sure there are a few people who would like to see you figure this out. I would certainly benefit from it :)

The problem with a merged WoE/WoV install is that when you play random single player missions, the game engine will randomly match aircraft from the entire planeset no matter which terrain you fly in. i.e. You may see a Soviet MiG flying in Vietnam or vice versa. Other than that little problem, the merged install was the way to go, especially if you play multiplayer, as it gives a much broader range of planes to choose from. I used to manually extract and drag over the files from SFP1/SFGold to fill in the few remaining assets: C-130, dessert terrain, etc.

Make a "2nd" skin (a copy of the first one) that only has the lo-vis decals and specify the 2nd skin for your campaign. Or remove the "hi-vis" scheme from the original skin, and make it into a dedicated skin.

The one size fits all fighter always makes sense on paper. Should the USN have accepted the F-16 instead of the F-18? Should the USAF and USN only had F-16s and no F-14s, F-15s, or A-10s? An F-35 is not an A-10. Nor is it an F-22. It is at best an F-16 with stealth and updated avionics. When you put all of your eggs in one basket, it better be a damn good basket. Only time will tell.

SF1 series runs fine in windows mode... but TK's coding doesn't really lend itself very well to multitasking. The game engine measures how much cpu power is available and scales up the processing loop to use as much as it can. So, in a windowed mode, the PC wasn't of much use other than playing the game. Of course, now the SF2 is designed to use multi-core, which should alleviate that problem, TK has disabled windowed mode... probably because he is still scaling up to maximize cpu utilization and doesn't see the point of running it windowed.

Another area to work on besides bombing is unguided air-to-ground rocket pods. Unlike reality, the game allows you to aim them very accurately if you practice a bit. I have been on SEAD missions in F-4s carrying AIM-4D Falcon IRMs and used the Falcons as supplemental air-to-ground unguided rockets. It is not entirely unrealistic to use them this way. There are references which claim AIM-4s could and did acquire and hit trucks at night in Vietnam.

The bombing options for F-4s aren't much different from WW2 fighters (at least in this game engine). The best thing to do is to practice a fixed routine and figure out when to release when following that routine. Mine is pretty simple: come in at 8-10,000 feet and nose over at the range that will result in a steep dive on the target. Chew up some altitude while lining up. Release at the lowest feasible altitude to maximize accuracy. Avoid hitting the ground. Climb out and evade air defenses. Target destroyed? No: repeat entire cycle. Yes: Identify next target, repeat entire cycle. The steep dive angle + low altitude release allows me to accurately aim with my pipper. If I fly a lot of strike missions, my accuracy gets insanely good. When I am rusty, I pull my pipper through the target. I release one bomb a bit before the pipper is on it, one while the pipper is on it, and one a bit after the pipper passes by the target. When I miss, it is usually because I forced the attack and came in at too shallow of an angle. I also tend to stay in the dive too long if I am having trouble lining up on the target after entering the dive. This can result in a ground strike or even getting caught in the blast of my own bombs. There are different bombs for different purposes. Learn to use retarded bombs to come in at low level without popping up for a dive bombing run. Level bombing from altitude is possible, but you need to practice at a fixed altitude and speed to find the right distance from the target to release the bombs, or use a mod to create a special view simulating a level bombing sight. But I am almost exclusively a dive bomber from 10k. If I have to come in low, I pop up steeply to 8k, roll over on my back, pull down into my usual steep dive, roll back to level, line up, and follow my usual procedure. If I can get lined up quick enough after rolling to level, I don't lose much if any accuracy doing this. When I fly a lot of strike missions, I get very good at this. SimHQ has a nice tutorial written a long time ago for the original SFP1 here: http://www.simhq.com/_air/air_055a.html

That is one cool paint job! I would like it better if the orange were the same as the German flag yellow, but it looks fantastic just the way it is. It is the original colors in Froot Loops plus the black nose for the beak :)

Good stuff :)

Aerial battleship? Really? In your dreams! Though there are some in power who think that way: B-1R Better yet, simply use large zeppelin as a combination AWACS/missile launcher. Endurance could be weeks... only limit would be crew supplies/comfort.

Love the dog dressed as an AT-AT.