Baltika

After a long time holding off for no particular reason, other than a tangle of WW2 campaign mod WIPs I am trying to sort out for release, I finally treated myself to the FE EP #1. I think I was prompted by the fact that TK released his FE/WoI patches, and while I would happily patch up my pre-EP FE to the current standard, I felt a bit of support for the producer was in order, particularly as he continues to support the older titles - I am a self-confessed SFP1 die-hard. Anyway, having seen this poll, and a couple of "EP #1 - is it worth it?" style threads, I thought I would throw my thoughts in to the debate. I am running FE EP #1, patched up to the current standard. For this install, I am taking a minimalist back-to-basics approach, so I have no mods whatever added. Gulp I am flying through a Camel campaign on the new terrain. Hard settings across the board, and graphics settings at high for everything. Finally, and this is a big step for me, I am flying from internal cockpit views only, no padlock and no "nearest enemy" locks, although I will occasionally resort to the inflight map to get a general bearing on the bad guys. TrackIr, oh yes So far, the experience has been simply magnificent. The cockpit is gorgeous, although strangely claustrophobic without external views. In that respect, the new "check six" view is, quite literally, a lifesaver. I tend to wonder how we managed without it, so, in retrospect, and with due respect, its addition is long overdue. Take-off, again at last, is something you have to concentrate on to do properly. My first Camel take-off post patch, I thought my controller needed re-calibrated. In fact, I had to deal with the engine torque effect in the proper manner. Getting airborne felt like an achievement, not an experience I've had before with Thirdwire. As an aside, flying the Spad in instant action, I pushed it too far and went into a flat spin. I just about fell out of my seat in shock. Next time around, did it again, tried spin recovery and messed it up big time. 3rd time lucky, thought about what I was doing, fought the plane a long way down, and pulled it under control very near to the ground. Spellbinding stuff. Back to my campaign missions. Offensive patrol, nothing to show for it. Vaguely disappointed at not seeing any real action, but home in one piece, at least. Army co-operation, couple of Jerry tanks defending a bridge. Loving the detail. Laid my eggs, watched the fireworks. Got in a bit of a scrap on the way home, wingmen took care of it. Kite full of holes on landing, d/k where they came from. Obviously had a narrow escape without even realising. Escort mission, serious opposition, half a dozen Albatrosses out of the sun. Very tense going in to combat. Where the hell are the Hun? Swirling dogfight, forced one down. Elevator shredded, didn't even know he was there. Albatrosses queueing up to pepper my tail. Headed back towards our lines, took a burst over no man's land which set my engine on fire. In desperation, bailed out. Must have hit a hay stack on the way down, wound up in hospital. Pretty jittery going up again after the MO gave me the all clear. Another offensive patrol, head on attack with a gaggle of enemy fighters. Fast turn to come around for another pass, spotted a multicoloured Boche machine sailing past below me. Got off a short burst, no visible effect. Jockeying to stay on his tail, firing more bursts. Must have hit the pilot as I saw his machine's nose dip, then his machine slewed round and spiralled down towards the lines, trailing smoke. Turned back to see if I could spot any other enemy kites. Something flashed across my nose, very close. Couldn't tell if friend or foe. Looking around. Where did he go? Spied a Hun, down to the left. Swung round behind him, diving and turning to get the shot. Swooped in very close, firing all the way. Tried to pull up at the last minute, he turned the same way. Juddering shock. Lost the end of my top starboard wing, kite going crazy. Ground spinning close below me. Here we go again, I thought, have to jump for it. Hope I land on something soft. Mission result: MIA. Friendly offensive successful, but ground gained lost within a few days. 45,000 dead on each side. My advice: If you don't have it yet, get the EP Next assigment: I'm going to have to try out Peter01's FMs, oh yes Cheers all.

Most welcome, have fun I spent a long time banging my head off the wall figuring it out, no need for everyone to do the same. Of course, the KB is always worth reading On carrier ops, check out this at post #18 http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showtopic=19207 And, again, there is a KB article on the nuts & bolts. http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showforum=190 Cheers, Baltika

Hi there UnderTheRadar, Glad you're enjoying the SFP1/WoV/WoE series. Adding units, especially flyable, to campaigns can be a bit fiddly if you don't know what you're doing as the organisation of the stock campaign files makes things less than obvious. There are two files you've got to play with: [campaign].ini and [campaign]_data.ini. The _data.ini lists all the units involved in the campaign, flyable and non-flyable. Each unit is listed in numerical order. The [campaign].ini file sets up which nations are flyable, and calls out units from the _data.ini file. Each nation (listed as Service001, 002, 003 etc in the .ini) calls out its flyable units in order, so you have [uSNUnit001], [uSNUnit002] etc. The entries are defined as follows:- [uSAFUnit002] <--- Next flyable unit in the list, for that nation (aka service) UnitName=13th TFS 'Black Panthers' <--- to correspond to the name in the SquadronList.ini ForceID=1 <--- Matches one of the forces as defined in the [campaign]_data.ini. To get red side flyable, set this to "2" UnitID=2 <---- Calls out a unit from the list in the [campaign]_data.ini. "2" calls out [AirUnit002] but see *** below StartDate=1972 <---unit start year, should match entry in [campaign]_data.ini for corresponding air unit DescFile=wovL2Start.txt <---- StartText=wovL2Start1.txt <---- These call out the text file you see at the appropriate point in the campaign *** The problem arises because the numbering re-starts at 001 for force 2. So, the first red side air unit may be [AirUnit0057] in tha campaign_data.ini, but you would call it out as ForceID=2, UnitID=1. Basically, you start over again for Red Side units. Other things to remember:- -For flyable units, you have to define their supply entries manually in the campaign_data.ini file, or they will have no external weapons or stores. -I think there may be a number limit to the units which can be called out as flyable. This may be why adding units to the end of the list in the campaign_data.ini doesn't work. For my campaigns, in the campaign_data.ini, I list Blue side flyable units first, in order. Then I list Red side flyable units, in order. Then I go on to list non-flyable units for each side in turn. -For carrier-based units, you have to have a carrier station defined in the terrain_targets.ini. That is the "BaseArea=" for the unit as defined in the campaign_data.ini. You also have to have the right carrier installed, and the carrier unit defined in your campaign file. The "CarrierNumber=" flag in your carrier-based air unit must match the number as defined in the particular Carrier Unit entry. There is an old thread here where I explained in detail how to add carrier units to Burning Sands '44 campaign. Take a look at the campaign.ini and campaign_data.ini files for say, Operation Mountain Twilight, or BoB, and you will see how things are organised. Meantime, attached is a quick edit to the stock Linebacker II campaign which will enable flyable Tomcats. LinebackerII.rar Good Luck, Baltika PS, Just to make it clear how it was done:- 1. I added [uSNUnit009] to the [campaign].ini file, defining the entries as appropriate. NB "UnitID=51" 2. In the campaign_data.ini file, I added the extra unit to the end of the Blue side list, as unit 51, and renumbered the Red side units from that point. I simply cut and paste an existing USN carrier unit, added it as AirUnit051, and amended the entries in the new unit to call out F-14A as A/C type, VF84 as squadron (must match an entry in the SquadronList.ini), vf84 as DefaultTexture (calls out the skin) and amended the supply entries as per the F-14A loadout.ini. I also amended the "MissionChance=" variables for the new unit so your Tomcats are not sent on strike missions, etc. Simple really

Hi there. Making progress on full-size terrain, by playing around with the various values for inputting DEM data in TE. I couldn't get the height bitmap method to work, I think because I am using PAINT.net rather than photoshop, and I see it makes a difference if you are using 8-bit integrated colour as opposed to RGB (or something like that, from an old thread here). Anyway, I can get TE to read DEM data and produce full-scale terrain, which is very handy for all the crinkly bits round the edge of Scotland as the autotexture works much better. But, when I use that method, I get very bad height data clipping in game - the hills pop up into view a short distance away from your plane, and everything beyond that is flat. rather an immersion killer. Deuces mentioned way back in an old thread that this issue can be fixed by "some" edits to the Flightengine.ini. I have been playing around with those settings, but no joy. Anyone got any suggestions as to what I should fix? Here's what I'm talking about:- Hills pop up into view, flat beyond. The distant white patches in this shot should be mountain peaks, not millponds: Nice contoured terrain out to the horizon: OK, it helps that in the second shot I am using Brain32's Germany CE repaint with CA_Stary's trees and farms mod, but you get the idea. Farclip and Nearclip settings look like they ought to do something, but I can't fix it. Any suggestions welcome. Cheers, Baltika

OK, Here's some advice. Use "gimp" as your image editing software and you can get the heightmap .bmp files to work properly Halleluyah

Simply glorious Thanks very much to the whole team.

Hi Sal, No worries, happy to help. Changing the catfile pointer is required because the different games have different terrains included as stock. SFP1 has desert, WoV has VietnamSEA, WoE has GermanyCE etc. Each of the different terrain .CAT archives has different groundobjects and terrain textures included. So, if your 3rd party terrain is looking for the desert.CAT file, but you are running WoE, it will come up a blank as that file is not included. You need to switch the catfile pointer to a CAT file which is in your particular install. Check out this KB article for more info:- http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showtopic=12230 As to your numbered questions: 1. I see Gepard has asked whether it's all French runways or only some which are affected. I must admit I can't recreate this one, but I am running a WW2 SFP1 install, and haven't tested this campaign in WoE. Gepard is the terrain expert so i would go with what he says. 2. Yes, I have seen this. You may want to play around with the pilot position variables in the particular aircraft _data.ini file. Scroll down to this section:- // Crew----------------------------------- [Pilot] SystemType=PILOT_COCKPIT PilotModelName=PilotSpitfire Position=0.0000,-0.1218,0.6308 <------------------ MinExtentPosition=-0.300,0.35,0.500 MaxExtentPosition= 0.300,-0.15,1.350 CanopyNodeName=Cockpit HasArmor=TRUE ArmorMaterial=STEEL Armor[FRONT].Thickness=1 Armor[REAR].Thickness=5 The indicated line is the one you are looking for. The format is x,y,z co-ordinate, measured in metres from the centre of the model. 3. So far as I am aware, engine starts are not modelled in the current SFP1/WoV/WoE build (v 083006), althought they are in WoI and will no doubt come alonmg in the next round of patches. Not sure what to make of this. 4. Yes, known issue with the current pixel shader. TK has mentioned a "much more robust shader" over on the Thirdwire forums, but whether that's being saved for the Vista versions of the games, or already appears in WoI, I d/k. Incidentally, do you get that issue only on internal cockpit views, or on exterior views as well? I get just the former. Dropping back a couple of driver versions for your graphics card may help, but I couldn't recommend it for what it's worth. 5. Sounds like CA_Stary's WW2 effects pack has not installed properly, for whatever reason. It is included with the BoB package, but you could try re-installing it as a standalone d/l. Get it here:- http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autoc...p;showfile=5072 Oh, and in case you missed them, there are a couple of separate BoB upgrades. WW2 RAF Speechpack:- http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autoc...p;showfile=5533 303 (Kosciusko) Squadron Hurricane skin & campaign screens:- http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autoc...p;showfile=6101 Tally-ho!

Just wanted to say thanks to Gepard for his outstanding TE tutorial series. Following his expert guidance, I have built a beta British Isles terrain (OK I admit it, I've not been doing much flying over England, Ireland or Wales) and to blast a Harrier down the Great Glen at zero feet with the hills on either side above me, then hang a right when you reach the sea and zoom across the Isle of Skye has come close to the fulfilment of a childhood dream. (probably the closest I'll get now, anyway ). So thanks for all of that, big man The Scottish terrain has some great NOE opportunities, but TE understandably has some difficulty with the rugged coastline. My question is this: I know that the "stock" terrain is about 60% of real size, and that it is however possible to create "full size" terrain - BoB for one. Before I do a Slartibartfast and spend my lifetime getting the fiddly bits round the coastline of Scotland right, is there a quick way to force the TE to create a full-size terrain (e.g. selecting 160% terrain size on startup?) or is it more complicated than that? Thanks for any advice. Slainthe, Baltika

@Gepard No worries mate, thanks very much for the tutorial @Wrench Yes, oh yes Nessie for Loch Ness, absolutely

Oh, and I know it's getting rather long and unwieldy, but there is good stuff on a variety of "user" changes in the BoB campaign feedback thread:- http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showtopic=19928

Hi there, Sorry to hear you are having problems. So far as the tinted glass is concerned, if this is what you are talking about:- Then it is supposed to look like that. Reinforced glass to stop Jerry's bullets coming in through the windscreen. Also handy when staring into the bright summer sky to find "the hun in the sun." Just have to get used to it As to the white runways, I haven't come across that before. I assume you have Gepard's BoB terrain v1.4, right here:- http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autoc...p;showfile=5203 As you are running WoE, you may want to open the .../Terrain/Battle of Britain/Battle of Britain.INI file (use wordpad or notepad) and change this line:- CatFile=..\Desert\Desert.cat To this:- CatFile=..\GermanyCE\GermanyCE.cat As to the "other problems" you mention, if you could be a bit more specific that would help. Is there something in particular which is troubling you? And, as stated, we are only up to Beta v0.60. V0.61 is in the works, but probably won't see the light of day until the next round of patches. OTOH, by all accounts, the base FM in WoI changes the parameters for prop birds so much that all the WW2 planes will need an FM overhaul before they will fly in the latest iteration. Could be a while before that happens. Anyhow, feedback and suggestions are welcome, so if there's something you'd like to see, or see fixed, in BoB campaign, let me know what, and we'll see what we can do. Cheers, Baltika

There is a known problem with the terrain_movement.ini file that shipped with BoB v0.60 - completely my fault, sorry. There is a quick fix posted in the BoB campaign feedback thread - I know, it's getting hard to find what you want. Here's the fix:- ************************************************************* OK, here's a quick fix to the "ships that sail on land" problem:- Open up the Battle of Britain_movement.ini file in wordpad or notepad. Scroll down to [Route007] and [Route008] Cut and paste the following as replacements:- [Route007] RouteType=SHIPPING StartArea=Port of Brighton EndArea=Portsmouth Harbour RoutePosition[001]=712000,570500 RoutePosition[002]=666666,570000 RoutePosition[003]=630000,562000 RoutePosition[004]=598000,570000 [Route008] RouteType=SHIPPING StartArea=Port of Le Havre EndArea=Port of Cherbourg RoutePosition[001]=727750,413000 RoutePosition[002]=578000,456000 RoutePosition[003]=540000,456000 Save your amended _movement.ini file. Go and sink some ships I will thoroughly overhaul the _movement.ini file for the next release, as we now have many more port facilities thanks to Gepard's hard work on updating his terrain. In the meantime, thanks for the bug report, keith. If anyone else spots any odd behaviour, drop me a line. Cheers, baltika **************************************************************** This issue will be resolved when BoB v0.61 patch is released. Cheers, Baltika

Nice one Candidate for public release?

Edward's WW2 North Africa, available right here:- http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autoc...p;showfile=4227 Development had stalled due to problems getting the strategic nodes to work. I have sussed that out for Burma Air War (thanks to Johan217 for suggestions), so BAW has leapfrogged WW2 North Africa in the production queue. Also, we have no Gladiator or CR.42, so those 1940 Regia Aeronautica/RAF biplane clashes over the Western Desert are a bit problematic. I have been fiddling about with getting Hinchinbrooke's Gauntlet running outside FE, without much success, to use as a stand in. That and Hinch's fictional CR.37 would do at a pinch. As ever, RL slows things up

Hi there, Glad you're enjoying it. Pace of development has slowed a bit recently as I have a number of other projects under development which will hopefully come out soon. (Burma Air War 1942 and WW2 North Africa, hint hint ) BoB has not been forgotten, I have been working on a scheme to enable correct squadron codes to show for all flyable and non-flyable RAF squadrons which is progressing nicely. Also, when I can organise it, there is an update to enable the various squadrons as flyables in campaign mode which Wrench and others have created specific skins for, including Wrench's ETO RAF Tomahawk At the moment, there is a bit of a lull as there are significant changes to the campaign engine etc as a result of the WoI release. We are waiting to see if the new patches for the older games will require much in the way of renovation to be done to existing campaigns. Meantime, in case you missed it, here is a very small upgrade:- http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autoc...p;showfile=6101 Cheerio for now.

The KB is a goldmine, I couldn't do without it. For those who haven't seen the light, I'll certainly give them a friendly pointer in the right direction The only patch whine I have is that I'm itching to update my completed and WIP campaigns to take advantage of the new features

Glad to see this up again, nice work Cheers Doghouse

Excellent suggestion, thanks.

http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showtopic=24776 This may also be of interest:- http://bbs.thirdwire.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5178

Thanks for the tip, I will double check all connections (again ) A few experiments overnight lead me to think that the best thing is to keep it simple - my initial Burma node map was quite complex. The main route ran from Bangkok to Myitkyina, via Rangoon and Mandalay, and various points in between. However, it also had branches running off the main route, one to Kunming in China and another to Akyab near the border with India, to allow (so I thought) for units which entered the theatre from those directions to follow the correct path - I'm thinking the Chinese Expeditionary Force to Burma in 1942, and the later Arrakan campaigns. However, that seemed to throw things off. When I cut out the side branches, things seem to run more smoothly (fingers crossed). I would still like to have those alternate routes, though. . .

Sorry to drag this topic up from the vaults, but I wondered if you ever found a solution to this problem? I have WIP WW2 North Africa and Burma campaigns (using Edward's excellent terrains) which are both having trouble with this issue. I have only two forces defined in the campaign_data.ini, I have double and triple checked my nodes so they are all connected up properly, and I have extensively re-defined the frontline to ensure it complies with the necessary requirements so far as I understand them, i.e. stretches from one side of the map to the other, has plenty of defined "points" to allow for movement as nodes change hands, and there are no nodes which are too close together, which can sometimes be a problem. I thought I had the whole frontline thing sussed after BoB campaign development (that was a headscratcher) and spent a lot of time getting it right for Operation Mountain Thunder, so I know I can get it working on 3rd party terrains. But this has me stumped. Every time, "The enemy forces have captured Mandalay," and the IJA 33rd "Yumi Heidan" Division, Lt. Gen. Shozo Sakurai commanding, disappears into thin air. Baffling, and it's frustrating my efforts to say to people, "What do you think of my Kobayashi Maru scenario?" when they take on the RAF or AVG role in Burma 41-42 campaign. Any tips? Cheers all, in mystification

Thanks Peter As someone who is really only getting started with FE, I really appreciate the various options you are setting out here. (It also makes it easier to reverse-engineer your AI changes and apply them to my WW2 installs )

Check out Polovski's WoW site, which hosts a number of mods to remove the arcade style elements of WoW. Also some great terrain mods:- http://www.polovski.com/WoW.htm

Hi capun, Thanks for the link. I think you pointed out something similar waaaay back at the start of the BoB campaign feedback thread, for AI bombers, but I didn't appreciate the flexibility of the technique. As I said, I haven't done anything to the "stock" _data.ini for the WW2 birds, and I note that Russo's Emil does not implement the individual a/c AI settings you mention. It seems, then, that the FE stock AI is a significant improvement over that in v083006. And I am running Pre-EP FE. As you say, it opens up further possibilities for tweaking individual a/c. Uriah, I don't [yet] have WoI or the FE EP, so I can't comment on whether the improved stalls work on "stock" WW2 FMs. Likewise with prop wash, although I have been trying to do a "proper" stall turn in FE with my Hurri, w/o much luck. There seems to be a fine line between staying "within the envelope" and falling into an unrecoverable spin. I suppose that is where the tweaking for the new FM comes in. I don't think I'll start messing with that until I get WoI and I can check this out on the latest and greatest version. I'll hopefull get a chance to do that over the w/end. Cheers all.

Yup, it's all there. The AI planes handle all that fine - wheel brakes off, open throttle, take off, gear up, flaps up. The default controlset ( . . .Controls/default.ini ) in FE has the restricted controls which are relevant to WW1 birds only, and won't let you define any others. I got round that by taking my customised control .ini file from SFP1 (set up for my Hotas Cougar) and renaming it Default.ini, and dropping it into the FE/Controls/ folder, overwriting the FE default. Then everything works fine. Don't mess with the FE customise page afterwards, or it will knock you back to the default FE control list. On further flights, the Emils are showing slightly odd behaviour at times, slewing around the sky a bit - I think it's to do with the fact that AI rudder control has been bumped up a bit for FE. OTOH, give the FE AI an Emil to play with, and it's a vicious beastie that's darn hard to get off your tail, and will defy your attempts to evade. Tenacious. And kind of trigger happy, in a sneaky snapshot kind of way. Sees a half chance, goes for it, and gets you more often than not. Mean. Roll on the patches - but in the meantime, I've got my excuse to buy WoI