Pancho

Thanks, Speccers. That's exactly what these campaigns are -- a way to fill in the gaps between the major wars, which are all pretty short, from a gameplay perspective. They're just simple mods. Nothing fancy, but they work for me. I hope other players enjoy them, too. Today I' ve just added my last filler campaign, War for the Water, available here at CombatAce: http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autoc...p;showfile=6162 . Now, maybe I'll take some time to actually play WOI ... for awhile, anyway. (And I'm eagerly awaiting Johan217's Suez Crisis campaign, which should be awesome!)

Download (ZIP, 16.5 KB) Attrition War BETA 2 Campaign for Third Wire's Wings Over Israel I'm pretty sure this campaign is ready for play. Since I haven't been able to thoroughly test everything yet, I'm posting it up for a second BETA. Give it a try, see how you like it. This campaign attempts to depict the situation in the Middle East as it stood between June 1967 and October 1973. My intent is to simulate the frequent border skirmishes that characterized this era. Basically, this campaign is a modification of the stock WOI Yom Kippur campaign. It begins in July 1967 and ends in September 1973. Ground offensive has been disabled, so borders should remain static. Supply is minimal, restricting the number of aircraft in the sky. Mission mix should include routine patrols punctuated by occasional strike missions into enemy territory. IAF fighter and strike squadrons start out with their historical aircraft, entering the campaign at the time they were activated. Some squadrons will upgrade both their livery and their aircraft type during the course of the campaign. The Soviets also make an appearance in early 1970 and 1971. There are two versions of Attrition War included: Standard and Custom. *Standard* This campaign assumes a standard installation of WOI. No add-on aircraft, skins, weapons, or effects have been used, nor have any user-enabled AI aircraft been employed. *Custom* Same as Standard, except for two items, both relating to the Soviets: 1) You'll need to install the skin SovietSilver1 from WOE into the MiG-21MF folder, and 2) You'll need to install the MiG-25RB from the Foxbat Package (made by wpnssgt, usafmtl, tomcat1974, sundowner,ghostrider, deuces and moonjumper), available at CombatAce ( http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autoc...p;showfile=4019 ) . To install Attrition War, extract the subfolder *woiCamp4* from either the Standard or Custom folder and drop it into your WOI Campaigns folder. To play, select *670701 Attrition War* from the Campaign start screen. As this campaign is a second BETA version, I'd appreciate any feedback you might have. Post your findings here, or contact me via e-mail (address in the campaign ReadMe) Feel free to modify or improve this campaign as you see fit. **Thanks to TK for his patient, detailed explanations of the WOI campaign engine's mission-generation and supply routines.**

Hey guys, just wanted to mention that the final versions of my add-on campaigns, Attrition War and Golan Stalemate, are out now, availavble here at CombatAce. Check here: http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autoc...or&id=17688

Hey guys, the final releases for Attrition War and Golan Stalemate are out now. Check here: http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autoc...or&id=17688

First you'll need to extract the file HangarScreen.INI from the Menu Data CAT. The line for music in WOI's HangarScreen.INI doesn't list a WAV file name. Just add HangarRadio1.wav to the end of that line and you can drop the file from SF/WOV/WOE into to your WOI Menus folder. Or just rename the WAV file of your choice to HangarRadio1 and stick it in the Menus folder. Right now, I'm using "Should I Stay or Should I Go." Alternately, I guess you can specify the name of whatever WAV file you like in HangarScreen.INI, as long as you put the WAV file in the Menu folder ...

Sweet, Johan! Thanks!

Download (ZIP, 8.1 KB) Attrition War BETA Campaign for Third Wire's Wings Over Israel This campaign attempts to deptict the situation in the Middle East as it stood between June 1967 and October 1973. My intent is to simulate the frequent border skirmishes that characterized this era. Basically, this campaign is a modification of the stock WOI Yom Kippur campaign. It begins in July 1967 and ends in September 1973. Ground offensive has been disabled, so borders should remain static. All IAF fighter squadrons start out in Mirages and will upgrade both their livery and their aircraft type during the course of the campaign. IAF strike squadrons start out in January 1968 with Skyhawks; they do not upgrade. The Soviets also make an appearance in early 1970. This campaign assumes a standard installation of WOI. No add-on aircraft, skins, weapons, or effects have been used, nor have any user-enabled AI aircraft been employed. To install, drop the subfolder *woiCamp4* into your Campaigns folder. To play, select *670701 Attrition War* from the Campaign start screen. As this campaign is a BETA version, I'd appreciate any feedback you might have. My e-mail address is in the ReadMe. Feel free to modify or improve this campaign as you see fit. Thanks!

Here's a good summary of A-4 production: http://www.skyhawk.org/2c/productionhistory.htm Looks as though A-4Es were only delivered to replace losses during the Yom Kippur War. However, Israel did take delivery of some A-4Ns starting in 1972, so I could add that as an upgrade for the IAF Skyhawk squadrons.

Thanks, Johan! Yeah, I've been tweaking the supply settings to reduce the number of aircraft. At first, I tried to get the air offensive to start and then stop, generating intermittent strike missions much as they occurred during the period. However, it seems that once the air offensive starts it just keeps running. Instead, I've set supply to zero and fiddled with the mission-chance settings. That's working pretty well. Now I've got fewer aircraft and occassional strike missions. It feels right for the Attrition War. Not sure about the Skyhawks. Some sources say that the A-4H was essentially an export version of the A-4E, and that the US replaced losses during the Yom Kippur War with shipments of domestic A-4Es. I'm happy to start off with A-4Es and upgrade to A-4Hs, however, if that's what happened historically, Can anybody point me to some definitive sources?

This one would seem a pretty straightforward conversion of the stock WOI Yom Kippur campaign. You'd need to: Remove the Arab states except for Egypt Introduce the USSR as a belligerent in early 1970 Take away the possibility of a ground offensive Set most targets to SAM sites, ground units along the Suez, and a few strategic installations Anybody consider building it? I might start tinkering, but my time is limited by our tyrant two-year-old and his hysterical mother ...

LOL! No thanks, I'll fold ...

Finally managed a kill with a Sidewinder tonight, Speccers. This MiG 21 was headed home or he didn't see me or whatever, but he didn't maneuver. Closed to 0.7 NM, got tone, pulled the Mirage's nose up just a hair, waited a few seconds, and fired. Sidewinder flew right up the MiG's tailpipe. Actually surprised me!

Very cool detail! Something I noticed last night, trolling through the Mission Data CAT file: all the DATA_INIs for the WOV and WOE campaigns are already included in the CAT. Interesting.

Heh ... I was thinking about it too, as I was flying the mission. Something else I noticed when I lined up for my next mission tonight and took a look at my bird in external view ... KILL MARKS ARE BACK!!!

That's good to hear! When I saw Cyprus on the map, I started thinking 1956, too. I was thinking about the USS Liberty incident, as well. You’d have to import a US carrier and aircraft from WOV, which wouldn’t be too hard. Me, I’d portray a limited response centered around a carrier battle group protecting the Liberty – short campaign, no more than a few days. IAF flies some strikes against the carrier and the Liberty. USN flies CAP and maybe a few strikes against IAF airbases. This would put the USN on the same side as the Arab states, of course (unless you removed the Arabs from the campaign). Could be an interesting mix to throw the USN into the stock Six Day War campaign, giving the USN a very limited role. Hey Crusader, thanks for the Sidewinder tutorial! I'll give that a go tonight.

Started a Six Day War campaign last night, flying a Mirage with the Bat Squadron. That Mirage is a classy bird, just plain cool. Very immersive, that first mission, watching Israeli jets swarm across the Sinai. Could observe friendly formations all around me as we headed west. Really felt as though I was part of a major operation. My wingman and I hit an airfield near Cairo. Flak was nasty. Nailed our target and turned for home. As we crossed the coast east of Alexandria, we spotted a single MiG 21 trailing a formation of Mystères. Rolled in on the MiG and fired a couple of Sidewinders, both of which went ballistic (can’t hit anything with these Sidewinders). Like everybody else, I’ve noticed that the enemy AI is smarter and more aggressive in WOI. Sure enough, this MiG maneuvered to evade the Sidewinders -- and then he ran. I’m accustomed to AI fighting to the death in Third Wire sims, but this guy must have been low on fuel or ammo, or maybe he just figured he was outnumbered. We chased him south for several miles before I was able to line up a cannon shot and take him out. One martyr, coming up. Fuel is something you really have to watch in WOI. I was running on fumes when I made it back to base. Actually ran dry taxiing back to the revetment. When I went to external view, I noticed that my left wingtip was chewed away. Nice damage modeling! To get into the spirit of things, I’ve named my new pilot Levi Solomon. Not sure if anybody else has mentioned this yet, but on the Pilot Record screen, now there’s an option to delete the record. No more manually deleting files from the Pilots folder. Thanks, TK!

Taiwan Straits 1958 has always been one of my favorite add-on campaigns. It’s got a real Cold War feel to it, with the Nationalist and Communist Chinese forces squaring off, and the US forces caught in the middle. Edward did a great job. Recently, I learned that some US Navy A-4 Skyhawk squadrons were deployed during the actual crisis in 1958. Since the Scooter is one of my favorite rides, I figured I’d add it to the mod. Skyhawks work fine in single missions. And I managed to convert one of the attack squadrons in the campaign from FJ Furies. Skyhawks show up properly in the campaign mission menus, the loadout screen and such. However, when you launch the mission the darn planes keep blowing up on the flight deck. Tried everything I know, and it just won't work. Even added the CVA-63 from WOV. That almost worked -- the A-4s fell through the flight deck, instead of blowing up. Weird. Not a big deal, I still enjoy flying the campaign. But it bugs me that I can’t add those A-4s. It shouldn’t be that difficult. For instance, I added Razbam’s payware A-1 to the Taiwan Straits campaign without any problems. Must be something simple that I’m doing wrong. Anybody have any suggestions? Thanks!

It's another sim, but I saw this happen once flying with my online IL2 squadron. We were landing at Guadalcanal after a mission, and the CO was lining up in his F4F. I'm behind him in the pattern. Next thing I know, his wings are folding. "Ah, Skip, ya might wanna check your wings ..." Heh. He was trying to open his canopy. Luckily, the wings weren't that far along when he hit the button for unfolding. :)

I've been flying the KAW campaign with Edward's latest update, using the lastest TW patch with clouds and all. I updated the ground objects myself to work with SP4 standard, so all the tanks and guns and ships are where they should be. Even using Razbam's payware Banshee. Gotta love flying to the Toko-Ri target in that baby. KAW is one of my favorite campaigns. It works well ... ... with one puzzling exception, regarding carriers. Returing from a mission, inevitably, I can't find the boat. The boat is never where the map says it should be, or where Red Crown says it is. Put the aircraft on autopilot, it'll try to land on the ocean or just crash into the sea. Sometimes, I hunt around and get lucky and find the boat. Other times, I'm convinced the boat has flat disappeared, since I can't locate it toggling through ground objects using the F7 key. Most times, I'm SOL, so I fly back to Kimpo and land. Anybody else experience this phenomena? Any ideas?

Got the F-14A into NATO Fighters 2. Even got 'em operating off of the Nimitz, flying VF-84 in the 1979 campaign. Everything works great, except the Phoenix missiles and the drop tanks aren't listed in the loadout screen. They're just not there. I've added the Phoenixes and the 330-gallon F-14 drop tanks to WEAPONS_DATA.ini in the Weapons folder, checked that the attachment points are correct, and that the missles and tanks are listed in the loadout file in the F-14A folder. Tried everything I could think of, and they won't show, in single mission or campaign. Did a search, and can't find a thread discussing this particular problem. Any ideas ... ?

Yep, we're operating off the Nimitz on November Station in the North Atlantic. :) Just followed the instructions for adding carriers in the Knowledge Base, then used Kreelin's mission editor to locate the coordinates on the Germany map and added it to the terrain files. Subsituted VF-84 for one of the F-15 squadrons in the NATO Fighters mod (for some reason, I couldn't get WoE to recognize a new air unit added to the end of the list in the campaign DATA file, but I've had that problem before -- puzzling). I'm running a merged WoV/WoE install, so VF-84 is already in the squadron list. Using the CVA-63 model from WoV for the Nimitz; cool thing is, WoE actually uses the proper number on the carrier. I know it''s not an actual model of the Nimitz class, but that's fine for my purposes.

Yep, that was it. I know so little about weapons editing, I assumed the weapons editor was only for creating new ordnance, not adding it. Thanks for the assist!

Thanks fo the ideas, guys! Yep, SW, it's int the campaign, but no, Fast Cargo, I wasn't aware that I had to run the Weapons Editor program. That sounds like the problem. I'll give it a try now. Thanks again.

PS: You can download the latest patches for all three games here: http://www.thirdwire.com/downloads_fe.htm