Brainless

Hmm...well here's my two pennyworth or maybe that should be two bucks or cents worth. I've looked at the screenshots and in my view those who have bought YAP, as I have, probably won't be all that impressed. I thought YAP was good value for money and in any case as the producers have to pay for the mods then I can't see that anyone should complain about having to buy the stuff. It really is good and some of the detail in the objects has to be seen to be believed. On top of this it's historically based and in my view this is a great advantage because the player is flying actual fighter pilot missions not some crazy fictious scenario. The only gripe is that all the files have to be manually installed and this might be a problem for some people as it was for me in the begginning. I guess the other sceneries might be of interest but I reserve judgement on that for the time being. I have no problem paying for enjoying my hobby but what does annoy me is when I pay the price but don't get the goods. I have just spent about £100 approx £200 dollars on aircraft for FS2004 and quite honestly you guys produce better models for free!! I ended up trashing them and they come from well known developers with purportedly good reviews. I say again without apology, the work produced and available on this site is well up to payware standard and I thank you all for distributing this for me and others who share the same passion. All the best to everyone. Brainless

I downloaded the superb Hawgs file but now I have problems editing the loadouts. I guess the first question asked may be, why do I want to edit the weapons in the first place and the answer to this is so that the AI flights use the same weapons I use and I would like to take more AGMs rather than bombs in a CAS mission. I had no problem with editing the weps in the Tornado file and after some very useful pointers from USAFMTL managed to convert the default fuel tank loadouts to fit the desert camouflage in the Tornado and Jaguar but I am at a complete lose to understand how to edit the A-10A weapons. I started with the A-10A-LASTE version. My first question is why does the default loadout (see below) not match the loadout in the loadout screen (see picture ) [CAS] Loadout[01].WeaponType=ALQ-131 Loadout[01].Quantity=1 Loadout[02].WeaponType=LAU_131 Loadout[02].Quantity=1 Loadout[03].WeaponType=AGM-65A Loadout[03].Quantity=1 Loadout[04].WeaponType=Mk82 my note – these stations are empty Loadout[04].Quantity=1 Loadout[05].WeaponType=Mk82 my note – these stations are empty Loadout[05].Quantity=1 Loadout[07].WeaponType=Mk82 my note – these stations are empty Loadout[07].Quantity=1 Loadout[08].WeaponType=Mk82 my note – these stations are empty Loadout[08].Quantity=1 Loadout[09].WeaponType=AGM-65A Loadout[09].Quantity=1 Loadout[10].WeaponType=LAU_131 Loadout[10].Quantity=1 Loadout[11].WeaponType=AIM-9L Loadout[11].Quantity=2 Loadout[11].RackType=LAU-105 It will be seen that the weapons loadout in the aircraft ini. file says there should be bombs loaded on the centre stations but these don’t appear in the loadout screen!! There is no ‘ModelNodeName’ noted in the separate pylons noted in the Aircraft DATA ini. and since different authors appear to use different references how is one to know what these are, if in fact these are needed as the pylons are individually referenced, which is not the case in several other aircraft DATA files? [Pylon8] SystemType=WEAPON_STATION StationID=8 StationGroupID=3 StationType=EXTERNAL AttachmentPosition=1.578,-1.476,-0.88 AttachmentAngles=0.0,0.0,0.0 LoadLimit=1800 AllowedWeaponClass=BOMB,TER,RP,FT,LGB AttachmentType=NATO,USAF ModelNodeName= PylonMass=86.18 PylonDragArea=0.02 LaunchRailNodeName= MinExtentPosition= MaxExtentPosition= FuelTankName=A-10_FuelTank I have tried to add the TER rack and load MK82’s on it but this is not recognised in the loadout screen. It seems to me if the default weapons ini. loadouts don’t show up in the weapons loadout screen to start with I have little chance of editing weapons! I expect there is some ridiculously simple explanation but I’m darned if I can find it and I played about with various editing options in the weapons ini and DATA ini all yesterday afternoon with no results but then again I’m Brainless! Please can someone put me out of my misery!! Hopefully Brainless

This is for Kevin and Saganuay82. See I can sink the b****y ships. Thanks and all the best. Brainless

Yeh!! I sent them a query about never being able to start from the ramp without disabling the ATC. This occurred after about the second patch and has never been addressed. I think others have the same problem. I sent an e-mail on their support site about a year ago and didn't get even an automated response. I sent another support site mail on the same subject about a week ago and still have no reply. I guess they are just to busy or lazy to reply. Keep trying!! All the best. Brainless

I've been building single missions in the super Desert Storm terrain. IMHO the textures and colourings are realistically drawn and 'sandy'. I always feel thirsty and have to keep drinking to stop dehydrating. O.K. maybe that's a bit OTT but I know you guys get the picture!! I have a couple of gripes (well there's always one or two isn't there). One is that some of the vehicles appear in the sea. It looks really odd tanks driving over water and they ain't amphibians. The other is that when I sink ships that the sim says are destroyed they don't sink just stop in the water. I definitely destroy them seeing the missiles hit and explode and Red Crown says mission complete and return to base. The debrief also says I destroyed the ships and awards points and a successful mission but they don't actually sink like they do in say the default terrain when you can see them going under. Is there a solution to this? I expect you'll come up with some ridiculously simple answer and I can't wait to find out what this is!! All the best Brainless

Well as usual I'm a complete clot and forgot to tick the 'ship' box in the mission builder and that's why the ships don't sink!! Thanks to Saganuay82 for pointing this out. Thanks guys. Brainless

Anybody know why Hinchinbrooke's great Zeppelin just flies straight into the ground as soon as the sim starts when this is used as an AI aircraft? I never get to shot it down before its crashed to earth all on its own!! As usual I expect there is some simple modification to correct the flight of this beautifully crafted object and I'd love to know what it is. Brainless

Hi again and again Kevin As usual its a case of my incompetence and stupidity. So as you were as they say!! All this does work! What I had done was to assume that as the loadout did not appear in the player flight as I had set it ( based on my first attempt with editing the the Tornado which does alter the player flight loadout ) that all the files would have the same result. I now know that this is not the case and although the player flight with the A-10A does not show the editing it does occur with the AI flights. I just hadn't bothered to look before, thinking that as the player flight had not been edited this held true for the AI flights. I just checked the AI flight on one of the missions I had created and low and behold the rack and bombs appear on the AI aircraft!! Well what can I say its Brainless Thanks for responding I guess I'll work this computer business out one day All the best Brainless

Hi again Kevin and thanks for replying to my post. Yes I have the lastest Weapons pack 3 and this works fine as far as I can tell. I have no referrence to NATO either in the A/C Data ini. or the weapons editor. The strange thing is that the MK82s load exactly as the weapon loadout in 'STRIKE' but not in any other format e.g CAS ,RECON etc. The stock A-10 loads all empty in 'STRIKE' is there any corollation between the two? I already tried the loadouts you suggested yesterday and re-tried again just a few minutes ago but I still get the same result which is no bombs loaded in the centre pylons in the 'CAS' format only in 'STRIKE' The 'STRIKE' loadouts don't have the racks which is the default as copied from the A/C file when I originally installed the files, they just come up singley attached to the pylon!! Of course the bombs can be loaded in the player loadout screen as 3No. pairs and these come up on the racks but I can't reproduce this in the AIs It's back to you again I'm afraid for your expert advice! Thanks in advance. Brainless

I downloaded the excellent Tornado package and after an hour or so and a few blasphemes, O.K quite a few, finally managed to work out how to change the load outs but it seems to me that as the referrence to the Tornado desert fuel tanks is the same for several other options e.g: grey/green there does not seem to be a way of adding the desert camouflage tanks to separate AI flights and these look really odd with desert camouflage and grey/green tanks! I know that the player flight can change other members of his flight to use the desert tanks but I can't make this happen with other none player flights. The tank referrence is 1500_Tornado in Weapon ini and applies to about five different styles and selecting this, which is the default loadout brings up the grey/green tank every time! As I see it since the reference for each of the styles is the same, the game has no way of knowing which one to select so uses the first in the list which is the grey/green tank. It seems to me each tank needs a separate reference so the modder knows which one is which. But hey guys I'm BRAINLESS. I don't have a problem adding the fuel tank - just adding the right one Tornado/ Jaguar Desert tank. I originally posted this topic to Erik who in turn referred the matter to USAFMTL who kindly replied to me suggesting I look in the knowledge base which I have done again but as far as I can see I don't have a problem adding the tanks only adding the Desert camoflage ones!! So over to you guys who know what there doing and can instruct me how to do this!! All best and I look forward to hearing from you. Yours truly Brainless

Hi Dave Errrr.......!!!! I knew it would by something b****y simple. I didn't realise the game would recognise the second code referrence. I guess that's why I'm BRAINLESS!!! Thanks and sorry for beiing so stupid when I could have tried this myself. Thanks a bunch All the best BRAINLESS

Since leaving my first post about the ETO install in SFP1 I have been playing about with mission design using Kreelin’s great mission building tool. I first noticed a while ago that the default aircraft made some really strange movements turning and wheeling to keep in formation. This is not so weird with fighter formations but it does look odd with large bombers which are a particular feature in the ETO instal and one of the really great plusses of the modification. In order to eliminate these movements I tried a number of different formation arrangements having previously installed Charles’s super WW11 ‘formations’ which as far as I can see only really works with AI fights. It seems to me the best arrangement is to organise flights using the single aircraft formation in Kreelin’s tool. This involves making separate flights for each aircraft in the formation so that for instance if a 16 bomber flight was required then 16 separate single aircraft need to be raised on the scenery file. This has a number of advantages and a few disadvantages. The advantages are that each aircraft can be made to fly its own pre-determined route in the overall formation which is predictable (mostly) and can attack individual targets in the target area. This is quite awe inspiring if the player flies at the back of the flight so that he can practise formation flying and watch the bombs fall and the resultant explosions on various targets in the target area. The aircraft fly as in real life with no dodging and weaving in almost perfect formation. There is an exception with some aircraft which seem to do their own thing after the bomb run. The scheme works well with ‘The A-teams’s’ B17 bomber and Lancaster. These are the two I have tried so far that work in the format. I give an example of this later with a mission which I created to bomb Paris rail station in The A-teams’s wonderful B17 bomber. The disadvantages of the single flight format are repetitive radio calls from mission control when each aircraft reach their respective waypoints and the time it takes to build a mission but in my view this is more than compensated in the experience flying the route. The player positions are really restricted to either flying lead or back of the group in a large formation but the player’s position can be changed once airborne. The important thing to remember in designing single flight formations is that the in-air formation position needs to be set on the ground if starting from take off or at the first waypoint starting in the air and at all waypoint positions along the route keeping the original formation wanted maintained through out the flight. Here’s an example I mentioned earlier with a bombing run targeting Paris rail station in Major Lees European terrain. Starting at Manston airfield using the KMD programme I set nine B17G player aircraft waypoints viz: take off, depart waypoint, marshall waypoint, initial point, objective point, another marshall point after bombing ( marshal points seem to keep the flight following the desired flight path otherwise ordinary waypoints can be ignored by AI’s) the approach, land line up and landing. I then set the same waypoint arrangement for the second B17 flight and cloned it fifteen times (these need to be separated into formation or you will get one aircraft in another!). I changed the last aircraft (number fifteen) to the player flight. I started on the taxiway at Manston with a full bomb load, just past the last hangers with the fuel silos in view. I takes a bit of work to get the placing right on the taxiway and aircraft direction at the right heading but well worth the effort. I used dfang’s Norden bombsight installed in the cockpit ( a really useful tool to drop bombs accurately at high altitude and bombing level ). I am now the last in the flight pointing in the opposite direction to the main flight. I set each of the other fifteen B17s on the runway in a four flight box formation with each take off set at 5 second intervals. The player doesn’t really see these appearing sitting in the cockpit because he is facing in the opposite direction to the main flight but it doesn’t really look that odd if viewed from outside as each take off starts in sequence but perhaps the sudden appearance of each bomber might upset some people. It’s important to keep the delay to a minimum otherwise there will be too big a gap between aircraft and they don’t catch up to one another! I have not figured out how to get the taxi option to work. This only seems to be available with the default flight numbers and using this is when the aircraft perform odd air movements. I set each of the aircraft with a different target at Paris rail yard. As the player taxis up to the take off position the other numbers in the flight start to take off so that when he arrives at the runway to take off all the other aircraft are in the air. This is when the fun starts as after take off careful formation flying is required to maintain formation position which requires a good deal of concentration and throttle adjustment but Oh how realistic all the aircraft look flying straight and level to the target. In fact when the flak opened up over the coast I jumped and ducked! I was there flying as a member of the formation in a daylight bombing raid! I was even scared!! The flight reached the target I opened the bomb doors and dropped the load on target and mission control said I could return to base! ( O.K so I had been practicing with the Norden bombsight a while before and knew when to release the bombs). I flew just past the target and turned back to maintain formation with the rest of the flight, which will become important later! It is a feature of SFP1 that AI aircraft drop down lower than the altitude I set at 16,000 ft for the cruise height and then return to the set altitude after bombing. This works as a plus because as the player approaches the target he can see the other bombers thro’ the Norden sight drop their loads usually on target and you can see them falling and exploding on target. It’s just like the movies really and breathtaking to see the damage. Oh I forgot to mention that I set a default flight of beautiful BF109s to attack the B17 formation on their return and this is where the formation I had set comes into play and is probably the best part. I set the enemy flight with a delay of 45 miniutes to attack the flight. As the lead bomber shouted ‘bandits’ the fighters attacked .I put the wing leveller on having flown into my formation position and went to exterior view. What a sight!! All the bombers were in formation holding position flying straight and level with the gunners opening up on the fighters. The player can see the criss–crossing tracers as they try to bring down the enemy. They are mostly successful and they go down burning but get a couple of B17s which can be seen heading for earth (one lands at base with its tail wheel shot away). I go back to the cockpit and just then I hear my tail gunner opening up on an attacker. It flies past and I can see my front gunner blasting away from the gun flashes over the windshield. What can I do! Nothing just stay in formation for protection and hope my gunners do their work. They do and I hear we’ve got one. Yes I say we because the player is just one of the many aircrew and not just in a jet or fighter fighting on his own! That’s the difference with this modification. I reminded me of the excellent B17 bomber sim but is easiler to fly in formation than that was and easier to hit the target! I descend to approach staying with the flight and land with them thankful I got back safe and sound. In all this the player gets an inkling of what it must have been like for those brave men on both sides who ran the gauntlet time after time and I wonder how they did it and kept their nerve. God bless them all and the dedicated guys who produce the awesome aircraft scenery and modifications in this versatile sim for us to experience the thrill and the terror. I make no apologise for restating that the level of detail and flight dynamics with the add on aircraft available on this site is truly remarkable and in most cases equal to and better than some of the commercial offerings. My thanks to all of them. Yet another long winded post you might say (if anyone reads these) but hey I haven’t left one for a while and I know you like them!! Is any of this new or do you all already know all this ?? If I forgot to credit someone in my text profuse apologises. I think all the aircraft are of equal quality and truly remarkable. All the best Brainless

An Old simmers tale Way back some years ago when I first got hooked on flight sim I bought and still buy just about all the flight sims marketed. After a while I started weeding out the ones that were less attractive to me and I just kept what I thought was the best of them.Then, as is always the case, the computer industry moves on and when the new formats came out I found that the sims I liked best didn’t run anymore. I’m talking about things like B17 Bomber, EAW and the Jane’s series. I didn’t know then that there were sites like this where many of these sims were being constantly updated and reformatted to run on the newer computer systems so that you could still run the older ones. So guess my delight when last week browsing thro’ this site and others I discovered there was EAW formatted in SFP1. Yes I talking about Major Lees European terrain and I’ve only just realised this was available ages ago (well don’t forget whose leaving this message - ‘BRAINLESS’). Anyway I downloaded all the files and then discovered that the objects were all in the old format and when I put them in the ‘Objects’ folder found nothing worked so I had to reformat them all into individual folders and re-note the files in the updated notations. All this took me nearly two days to do. I used the KMD programme to test that all the objects were working as they all now do with the exception of the Tiger2, both Sherman tanks (one format of this crashes the game ) and BlitzOpen – I think this is a German truck . I tried just about every combination of file arrangement but couldn’t get these to work. This may have been because I removed all the original SFP1 aircraft and objects that weren’t relevant to the EAW genre (I don’t need the aircraft as these are in the other files in WOV/WOE ) and I wanted a dedicated ETO. Apart from these issues the sim runs fine. Was it worth all the trouble you might ask. Well I have to say I think its b****y marvellous! My old favourite back again and in better shape than I last remembered it. What fabulous aircraft like the Spit and hurricane and BF-109 from you guys who make these wonderful models. I would like to take this opportunity to say a public thank you to all involved in bringing this to life for old simmers like me! It would be nice to have a EAW campaign to run in but I can’t find one having searched the sim community for about half a day. If anyone can point me to a site for this I would be grateful. Also if anyone has a working Sherman, Tiger2 and Blitzopen and can leave a link that would be so nice. Thanks again guys and sorry for the long blab – well you wanted messages left in the forum didn’t you! All the best to everyone Brainless

Thanks mate for all the info. I found Geo's site ( I think it was his - I've been to so many I've lost track) and downloaded Ground objects 1 & 2 and now have everything except the 'Blitzopen' working. This appears as a blank object. I've tried re-notating but nothing seems to work with this one object so I've deleted it for the time being but I'll try your noting. I've also found some other sites and downloaded more aircraft and objects. Its just so overwhelming!! I've been to your site too. Marvellous!! Virtual beer and cigars alround for those who still take the weed. I'm a pipe smoker myself which probably gives my age away but sadly limited to only one a day now!! Thanks again and cheers Brainless

I downloaded mdelmast's F-23A Blackwidow yesterday and have just flown it over the super updated Desert terrain. Wow! What a great looking innovative airplane. The cockpit is really new and different to most of the stock pits and the exterior modelling superb. How do you guys produce these great looking planes? Thanks to Del for this superb addition to the wonderful add-ons available at CombatAce. Got to go now for another F-23A flight!

I have over the last couple of years built up quite a large FS9 file with add on airports and aircraft. Before I lose all this to upgrade to Flight Simulator X does anyone have the two versions ( FS9 & Flight Simulator X ) to compare the two flight sims. For instance are the default airport sceneries in Flight Simulator X as good as the add on stuff in FS9? Are there any changes to to ATC in the new version? Is the weather any better than say Active Sky addon or similar. Will I need to upgrade to a dual core system to run the new version and is this better in Windows Vista? I'd love to know what you guys think before I splash my cash!

Any chance an administrator will reply to my e-mail regarding changing my Display Name sometime soon? I left a mail on the site 16th January 2007 but have not had a response. I'd love to hear from you.

Great. I'm now definitely'brainless' Thanks again and sorry for any inconvenience this has caused.

Well I've tried this. I removed the cookies from the temporary folder and in the 'local settings' list but when I log back in and enter my new log-in name 'brainless' I still get my old display name. Any other ideas? Thanks and sorry for the trouble this is causing. All the best

I reported this problem to USAFMTL. If you are getting the black screen and/or Microsoft error message when using these aircraft when hitting the 'escape' key after finishing a flight the problem may be in the sound file. Replacing this with the default version may cure the problem. This is one of my required posts for downloads. I'm not any kind of computer expert so forgive me if it isn't the resolution to your particular problem if you have one!