Nicholas Bell

File Name: Squadron Editor V0.6 File Submitter: Nicholas Bell File Submitted: 11 Jul 2007 File Category: Utilities/Editors Squadron Editor version 0.6 For Campaigns in Third Wire Series Flight Simulators: Strike Fighters, Wings over Vietnam, Wings over Europe, First Eagles V.6 Adds the ability to edit the Player's Pilot Name Rank Air and Ground Kills Missions You can edit the following for AI Pilots only: Pilot Names Rank Air and Ground Kills Missions Pilot Characteristics (Skill, Experience, Morale and Condition) Pilot Status (Active, WIA, MIA, POW, KIA) You can also change the: Current Date Number of Available Aircraft Squadron Supply Level Please note you must have MS Excel 2000 or newer installed to use this editor. Please read the Readme file included for complete instructions. Click here to download this file

I've been away from the series since 2007 and before I repurchase the new versions I am wondering if there has been any improvement in how AI controlled aircraft react to SAM threats. In earlier versions they never reacted with any defensive maneuvers and where shot down like flies if there was any semblance of a realistic SAM defensive system. (Important to me because of my HAWK background while serving in the 1980s). Thanks.

Thank you, gentlemen - I am looking forward to the experience again. Love the wingman song - good laugh. Even the wife laughed - but she is also ex-military so she understands :) US Army Air Defense (aka "Duck Hunters" to the tread-heads) 1981-88. 1/7 ADA Fort Bliss, TX '81-'85 6/52 ADA, Wuerzburg, FRG '85-'88

Perhaps this has to do with the lack of a patch for the EP. The screwed up horizon bug is a real interest killer for me, and there are other important problems. Going back to just pre EP is a non-starter for me because of its own problems (most fixed in the EP). So I wait.

The tutorial (a seperate download) explains it all quite nicely: http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autom...p;showfile=2679

One work around if your computer has the horsepower - you can edit the HorizonDistance in Flightengine.ini to 50,000+ 80000 works nice. You will probably need to adjust the FarSceneClip, FarClipDistance to a higher value than the horizon to avoid odd stuff. Pushing the horizon way out takes the fog with it. Unfortunately this brings my in cockpit FPS down into the low teens. Out of cockpit is 40+ FPS. Sure hope TK addresses it, as it really dampens my desire to fly. I can't use the language I really want to use to describe my disgust. Fogging the horizon at unrealistically close distances is why I could never fly RB2 or any of the Rowan sims. At low level everything is fine. But when you get above 3-4000 feet you start looking "down" at the horizon because the fog line is so near. Disorientating and totally unlike reality. This is a real step backwards. Wonder if this was intentional to offset the FPS hit from the cockpit shadowing feature? (BTW I have all shadowing off). Or did it somehow get missed in testing? Or is it only a problem for certain video cards? (I have a NVidia 7950GT with 512 mb, and a P4, 3.6 Mhz system with 2 GB Ram - never had any problems running Third Wire sims at near max settings). Note: I'm not sure that TK said he is looking at the horizon fog problem. I think he was replying more about the jagged blue tile at the fog line and missing terrain problem. Hope I'm wrong about this too.

http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autom...ode=sst&id=5547 File Name: First Eagles Expansion Pack 1 Squadron Editor v1.0File Submitter: Nicholas Bell File Submitted: 21 Nov 2007 File Category: Utilities/Editors First Eagles Expansion Pack 1 Squadron Editor version 1.0 For editing squadron pilot data in campaigns. *Works only for the Expansion Pack 1 version of First Eagles.* For early versions use my Squadron Editor v0.6. With the release of the FE Expansion Pack, Third Wire changed the file format of the campaign game save, thus this seperate version. This editor consists of a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet with embedded Visual Basic Macros which allows easy editing of the *.SAV files. You can edit the following: Player Pilot Name Rank Air and Ground Kills Missions AI Pilot Names Rank Air and Ground Kills Missions Pilot Characteristics (Skill, Experience, Morale and Condition) Pilot Status (Active, WIA, MIA, POW, KIA) New: You can set Pilot Experience up to 250 instead of just 100. **NOTE: You must have MS Excel 2000 or newer. Sorry, I don't have the programming skills necessary to create a seperate program. Click here to download this file

Peter- Wonder what you think about the radical changes between the flight model data between the pre-expansion and the expansion versions? After doing a side by side comparision of the data files, I am amazed at the differences. A lot of data types have been eliminated in the new version (eg Cm0,CLaMachTable, Cnp, Cnr). How often does code get eliminated <g>? Of course other data types have been added, especially regarding stalls. And the data in the same catagories in many cases has radically changed, indicating major changes to the hard-coded flight model forumulas. I looked at the D-VII and the SE-5a in the old and the expansion and there seems to be little in common. Even simple stuff I can understand is a lot different: These are from the SE-5 EXPANSION StallSpeed=23.53 CruiseSpeed=47.80 ClimbSpeed=43.60 CornerSpeed=55.21 OLD StallSpeed=17.08 CruiseSpeed=32.88 ClimbSpeed=24.98 CornerSpeed=40.35 It's no wonder add-on aircraft don't fly right anymore. I wonder how they fly at all without having the necessary data - or having too much in other cases. Don't know how you make heads or tails of it all, but appreciate your work!

No, I'm not posting in the wrong area. Thought this might be of interest.... TK stated on the Third Wire Forum: "I'll need to clean up and release the new Weapons Editor to work with the expansion (and with all the upcoming patches ). The changes to the data format and the editor are mostly aimed at SFP1 series and not FE, so it totally skipped my mind... " Examining the new FE Expansion 1 weapondata file here are the changes he is referring to: Added: SubsonicDragCoeff= SupersonicDragCoeff= SpecificStationCode= CEP= No Longer Present: Streamlined=

I'm sure that all the stock weaponry will be updated, but I would guess that everything else will need to be updated. The non-stock weapons currently will not work in First Eagles. Logically it would follow that the last Weaponpack will be non-op then too. Yeah, CEP at leasts registers meaning with me . The value for the bombs & rockets in FE are all zero, which makes me think that the CEP variable will only affect guided weapons.

Other than ground support, most missions I read about in books are 12,000-20,000 feet. So the horizon issue is a real problem if you want fly at historical altitudes.

I wish I had more photos of myself when I was in the Army. Guess it just wasn't the kind of "job" where I had time to tell someone "say there, take a picture of me". Dress events apparently were different. 1982 Just a kid 1984 - What I heck was I looking at in a snowstorm in El Paso, Tx anyway...idiot. 1986 Germany. Call me a "Redhead" - Wife attempted to bleach out the grey in my hair - yickes! And those glasses - oh man! 2007 - Different uniforms. Older. Less hair, more grey. Meaner.

Ah cr@p! Now I won't have an excuse regarding finishing my 1957 campaign

You got that right. My hat is off to those talent folks who have figrued it out.

Physical condition. Drops after a tough mission - exhaustion I guess. Goes down a lot when WIA. In WOE it also drops when a pilot ejects. If you have Excel try using my Squadron Editor to adjust all these values. It does help to a degree.

I agree that the F-15 in a late 1970's campaign is a monster. I've had AI wingmen make "ace" in a single mission.

The actual "in game" experience value will vary by approximately 20%. If you have Excel you can use my squadron editor to check it out yourself. Experience can be up to value 250 in First Eagles, BTW. I've tried it in WOV/WOE and the program resets it back to 100. The lower experience levels represents the lower training levels of Soviet and Warsaw Pact pilots. Historically they only got a small fraction of the flying time NATO pilots got. Something like NATO pilots flew as many hours in one month that a Soviet pilot would fly in a whole year, or something like that. Adjusting the difficulty level of the AI impacts the "in-sim" functioning of the AI pilots by in effect increasing the experience, skill and morale levels. So playing on HARD will make those pilots better. However, I have experimented with setting the campaign data values for WP units to 80 and then playing on HARD AI level. It is a very difficult challenge, almost impossible as the NATO player. The AI works best with more manueverable planes than with heavy Western type aircraft more suited to long range missile attacks, or boom and zoom tactics. Instead, the AI pilots flying F-100s or F-104s (for example) will get into turning fights with MiGs and quickly end up dead. Using the lower experience levels for the WP squadrons helps the NATO player a little. My experience is that surviving a campaign in early NATO aircraft is nearly impossible against MiG's.

Here's a PDF of the AAR. Couldn't figure out how to create or format columns and rows using the forum software... 1957_Campaign_Summary.pdf

atrdriver- In the 1950s AAA Mod I already did because of the results of this campaign (here: 1950's AAA Mod ) I made the AAA more effective by combining the effects of the weapon system data and also increasing the warhead weight as you did - just not as much. Increasing the warhead weight to your levels within my other system tweaks is way too effective. Remember it still took 2-3000 rounds of radar controlled heavy AA rounds to knock down a plane. I think we are after the same effect - just a different approach.

I've got a lot of bugs (weapon supplies and loadouts for example) to work out before it's ready for public use. Also need to add the new Vulcan in, and am hoping the newer F-86 series planes will be out soon. Perhaps more important, I have to experiment with dumbing down the Soviet forces. I had planned on presenting the campaign results from both sides. But survival for NATO AI-crewed aircraft is nearly impossible, to the point where I would flew a few missions and the entire squadron would be wiped out. 6 out 8 F-100s shot down in a single mission for example. Just couldn't get anywhere to provide a decent campaign summary. What I don't understand is that when fighting against the NATO planes, it certainly seems hard enough. My guess is that the AI routines are better suited for MiGs than heavier Western aircraft (F-86 series planes do seem to survive a bit more). I've tried stock, Uber AI, and few others from specific aircraft to no avail - especially for the poor old Hun. Perhaps Fubars latest MiG-17 FM will balance the field a bit. But the MiG-19 is still a killer vs the Hun. I think the AI flies it better than I do - except when they are my wingmen Maybe it would better to ditch this and back up to 1951 where the planes are better matched

If you eject over friendly territory the mission ends but the campaign continues. I was WIA on both ejects, although obviously not too badly as I was flying again 2 days later. During my rest period the squadron didn't fly. Read elsewhere that ejecting or landing in enemy territory sometimes allows the player to continue, so apparently search and rescue is calculated too. This would explain how some of my MIA AI pilots showed back up on base several days after getting shot down.

Glad you got it working. Always better to know "why" also.