OlPaint01

Hey Rabu, The maps are fantastic. I slid the printed sheets into clear plastic page protectors. I now can copy the flight plan from the mission briefing map with a grease pencil and straight edge. I can even note my wingmans' names in the margins. I am getting pretty good at recognizing the land marks from the air... Once I am airborne I hardly touch the M key anymore. I just discovered and downloaded your Somme Maps contribution from the downloads section. Outstanding!!! OlPaint01

My sympathys are with you, Prop-Wasche I have had three bouts with those pebbles from H**L!!! Mine usually hit me over the weekends when the uralogist's office was closed. My standard self treatment is as follows: 1) Draw a steaming hot tub of bath water - as hot as you can stand it. Fill the tub so the water level is up over your tummy - 2) get at least one six-pack of your favorate brew (Cranberry juice concentrate is OK if you don't care for taste of beer - But dont' use the cocktail mix since it has so much sugar in it). 3) lay back in the tub with a towel pillow behind your neck and down the suds one after the other. The Beer Buzz with reduce the ache in your back and volume of liquid will help push the stone down the pipes. I usually passed mine in less that 24 hours. My prayers are with you, my friend... OlPaint01

Hello Rabu, The Western Front Map 1915-1916 file formated in RAR successfully unpacks. Success!!! OlPaint01

Quote Gaw said "....and what's the warn % thingie....maybe I've been bad in a previous life?"Unquote Hey I am getting that warn % in the left panel of all my posts, too. What does it mean? Have I been bad? I don't recall being bad. Is it something I said? How do I get it removed? OlPaint01

Salute! Rabu The Western Front Map 1915-1916 file in the Downloads section appears to be corrupted. I cannot unZIP the file. I get the following error message: "The diskette in drive F: does not contain a compete Zip file. If it is part of a spanned Zip file set, please insert the last diskette of the set into the drive and select OK; otherwise select Cancel" BTW, I personally got the file from your link at our old SoH forum and printed all 16 maps. I have them in Sheet Protectors and I can navigate/fly around pretty darn well with them. Outstanding. OlPaint01

Hey Oh Everyone, I am sure glad we are setting up camp for OFF at the CombatAce Aerodrome. I have been flying out of here on patrols over the Mud in First Eagles Sim for well over a year now. I have handed my orders over to the CO and the Exec has assigned me a bunk. My OFF:BHaH Np11 is now safely under canvas in its new hanger and my trusty mechanics are preping the old girl for our dawn patrol over the lines. Now point me in the direction of the officer's mess. I want to see if every one has arrived safely. Thank you MK2 and the CA staff for allowing us to post at this new station so quickly. And OVS, I am looking forward to you Modding this rowdy bunch...Hey where do I get my new set of maps? OlPaint01

This great - all my favorate sims in on one forum. One stop shopping! I wish I could retrieve my donation from SOH. I never got the "Free Beer" they promised from their pub. Say, when does the officer's club open for service. You have a few thursty aviators waiting outside. Thanks MK2 and staff for giving this squadron/jasta/escadrille a place to put down. And a good flat runway... OlPaint01

Salute! Nixarass I installed your new gun sounds in my Nov08 mod of FE_EP1. They are absolutely fantastic! Crisp and Distinct MG Bark...Great Job! But I do think compared to the level of the game engine sounds, they are a skosh to loud for my taste. I edited the volume of each gun file down -5 db in my wave editor. Now your new gun sounds blend into the engine sound without overwhelming it. I am completely satisfied with the mix now. OlPaint01

Salute! Peter01 I have spend the entire week adding your 1915_17_FE_Plane_FMs_for_Nov_2008 mod to a fresh install of FE_EP1_Nov08. I have learned a great deal tweaking the Weapons in Weapondata.ini and editing the _LOADOUT.ini files. I have flown every a/c in the current list and I am amazed at how well the planes perform. The stock FM usually gave me bad side slip into a non-recoveralble stall with the earth coming up to meet me. Your FMs allow me to pull out of a stall condition and recover. Great work! One thing I would like to know... I am observing that that my AI observer/gunner has lost a great deal of his killing accuracy with this latest FM set. The O/G does not fire his MG as often or track the attacking a/c as well as I remember in FE_EP1_Oct07. Is there a way to increase my gunner's skill? It used to be that my flight of bombers could knock down an attacking swarm of scouts with ease. Now, when the enemy scouts approach, my flight scatters like a bunch of frightened ninnies instead of holding formation. Now I am lucky to escape with maybe a wingman. All the rest of the mission ends up augering in. Any Suggestions? OlPaint01

I am in flight school over the holidays learning to takeoff from runways flying all the available addon aircraft. I have FE_EP1_Oct07 loaded so I can fly Peter01's flight models. I have discovered that the EMLD's Neuport 28 ver.2 mod has a problem in that the AI planes attempting to start on runway immediately slowly pitch forward before starting the forward roll down the runway. After a few moments the propellors strike the ground with an explosion that disintegrates all the AI planes. I can takeoff in my plane with no problems but all my squadron mates have died a firey death and I am alone in the sky. I assume there is a setting in _data.ini that is causing the problem but I lack the knowledge to correct it. Has anyone observed similar behavior? What is the fix? OlPaint01

Salute Czech Your suggested edit of the ThrustPosition value in [Engine] section of N28_data.ini was just what the ground crew needed! Thanks. All my squadron flight mates successfully takeoff from the aerodrome now. BTW, Peter01 suggested that his flight model update files, when he released them, were designed for use only with FE_EP_Oct07 upgrade. Have you tried or have you heard of anyone else try to install the latest batch of Peter01's tweaked FMs into FE_EP_Nov08 patched game? I have yet to apply any of the available A/C mods including Peter01's latest FMs to my patched _Nov08 game. I was curious to know if it is worth the efforts. I am still flying the FE_EP_Nov08 patched game with TK's original A/C using all the defaults. OlPaint01

Well I believe I have discovered an acceptable work around for my problem. I reinstall EMID's N28 after removing the old N28 folder in Object/Aircraft directory. I edited the N28_data.ini file to turn on the Blip Switch by adding the following lines to the [Engine] section by coping several lines from Peter01's lastest FM set for FE_EP_Oct07 (see FMs___Campaigns_September_2008.zip on CA Downloads) . [Engine] SystemType=PROP_ENGINE InputName=THROTTLE_CONTROL BlipSwitch=TRUE <<< insert this line BlipThreshhold=0.95 <<< insert this line EngineID=1 . Then further on down in the file I changed prop speeds to match Peter01's settings . SlowPropRPM=400 FastPropRPM=900 <<< old value was 800 MaxPropRPM=1400 <<< old value was 1500 Idle PropRPM=500 <<< old value was 150 . And finally I edited ExhaustEmitterName=RotaryExhaustEmitter <<< old value was InlineExhaustEmitter There must be a typo somewhere in my copy of Peter01's latest N28_data.ini that I have yet to locate. All I know is that with these edits of EMID's N28_data.ini shown above and my Flight Model set to Hard all my AI aircraft now do not pitch forward and explode before starting their takeoff roll on the runway. Everyone gets airborne now. OlPaint01

Heck I have been flying with my game play options for the Flight Model set to Hard. I just discovered when I reset Flight Model to Normal my Nieuport 28 aircraft pitches forward in sync with the other AI aircraft. But instead of exploding when my prop strikes the ground like the other AI aircraft, my tail drops back to the ground and then I explode. How about that... Do the AI aircraft have the option for Hard or Normal FM like the flyable a/c? Might the prop thrust be causing the AI aircraft to pitch forward before they start the the roll off? OlPaint01

Salute Heck I edited the EmptyInertia values in _data.ini file to match your suggested values. The AI Nieuport 28 aircraft still pitch forward before the takeoff roll and explode when the props hit the ground. Any other ideas? What do you suppose causes the tail to lift off the ground without any forward motion? I have removed and reloaded EMID's N28 mod to the Objects/Aircraft folder and copied Peter01's Sept 08 N28_data.ini file. I am still at a loss what to do. OlPaint01

Salute Christian Thanks for the quick advice. I grabbed the file you suggested which is Peter01's September 08 various tweaks for the flight models in the FE_EP1_Oct07 game. I get no improvement at all. All of the Neuport 28s flown by AI lined up with me ready for takeoff nose over before they even start their takeoff roll and explode when their props strike the ground. My NP28 will takeoff normally under my control. I now must start my squadron in the air to avoid catastrope. So far the EMID's N28 is the only addon a/c that I have discovered with this behavior. Could it be a center of gravity adjustment issue that makes the nose heavy for AI flown planes? Or could it be a dynamic pitch adjustment? I have no clue which item to adjust in the _data.ini file. OlPaint01

Whiteknight, I have all of Peter01's FMs for EP1 + Oct07. Where are P10ppy's FMs located? I want to give them a try. OlPaint01

Sky High, What did you do with aircraftobject.dll to stop the Oct08 patch from dropping the game to CTD in Instant Action? I have installed Oct08 on top of WWI + EP1 + Apr08. I am just watching the game unfold before me in AutoPilot, just switching views, for about a minute when CTD occurs. OlPaint01

Salute Sinbad, I just downloaded the Alby D.II skin. It is beautiful!. But I could not find the Mercedes Engine PropLoop Wav file any where in the package. OlPaint01

Anyone I have been flying over the Flanders Terrain after loading Edward's beautiful Photo Realistic Terrain Mod into the Pre-EP1 game. And wwiVerdun, BTW. The ground is a lot more interesting and natural looking than the flat fields of the default game terrain. The EP1 expansion added the Cambrai area. I have successfully copied my Flanders terrain folder from Pre-EP1 into my EP1 terrain folder and can fly all over my favorite areas. I have not been able to load Edward' photo realistic tiles to the wwicambrai folder and get the terrain to work for me. What am I overlooking? Also what goes into the summer, winter and fall folders in the main wwiCambrai folder? OlPaint01

I have been following Gepard's excellent terrain building tutorial in the Combat Ace Knowledge Base. But I am stuck trying to locate the TextureList.ini file for Cambrai tileset. I found the TextureList.ini for Verdun on the download page of the ThirdWire Website but there are no entries for the "Rough" areas that are definitely a part of the vast areas of grassland/praire in the Cambrai terrain. The TextureList does not appear in the wwiCambrai.cat file. Can anyone point me in the proper direction? OlPaint01

Salute P10ppy Thank you, thank you. Gepard's tutorial in the WoI/Woe/Project-1 KB is just what I have been looking for. I do not have to invent the wheel all over again. All I have to do now is figure out how to edit an existing wwiCarbrai terrain as opposed to starting with a blank slate. This community is outstanding with its helpfulness. My experience so far with FE mods is that it is like using a dictionary - you have to know how to spell a word before you can find how it is correctly spelled...

Salute Sinbad Thanks for your advice. I discovered the TE Utility on ThirdWire Website several months ago. I got thoroughly frustrated trying to figure out how to use it that I set it aside hoping that someone had a better one. BTW, who is helping you design and build your English Terrain for your new Heavy Bomber Mod? Is the TE utility capable of showing the arrangement of terrain tiles so I can determine which tile edges need an edit to make a visually seamless passage over the landscape from one tile to the next? There has to be a file hiding somewhere that helps the game place and rotate the pieces to make a full terrain matrix? I have yet to discover it. I found the Verdun Texturelist file in the Utilities section of the ThirdWire Website. Do I need to use that file in some manner? Does the TE have the capability to help in placing trees and buildings on the Terrain? I have so many questions. I am sure someone has worked through these issues before since I am finding many custom terrains for other ThirdWire games on the Combat Ace Downloads pages. So I assume that these mods did not just jump into existence. OlPaint01

Salute MigBuster I am making great progress in my efforts to add the Photo Realistic terrain tiles to the wwiCambrai terrain set. I successfully extracted the missing Summer BMP files that I was looking for out of the wwiCambrai.CAT file using the SPF1 CAT file extraction tool. I recognized a pattern immediately. All the terrain tiles I am missing from my Photo Realistic tile set have the string of "ROUGH" included in the file name. So I am editing the BMP files for all the ROUGH tiles that are in reality bordering tiles - between Farmland or Woods or Trenches or Cities/Villages and the Rough areas that appear to be either grassland or praireland from the air. I also recognized another pattern in the actual graphic on each of the default tiles. The 25, 50 and 75 modifiers in the file name indicate the percentage of the primary area contained in depicted tile. I am easily merging two similar tile graphics by cutting and pasting in PhotoShop; for example, the Grassland area over the Woods area to make one of the missing Photo Realistic terrain tiles. All that remains for me to do is tweak the tile edges so the terrain flows seamlessly from one tile to the other in the terrain view. I appears the Edward's used the EAW tile set for his aerial views. and the tiles seem to be 256x256 and 16 bit color. I need to know if there is a Terrain Editor that I can use to arrange and rotate and possibly edit the tiles then view the results. It is very difficult and time consuming to test my edits in the actual FE game. OlPaint01

Salute TailSpin It appears that no one is interested in helping me add Edward's photo realistic terrain tiles to the wwiCambrai terrain. So I have started experimenting. I have extracted the BMP files from Edward's Flanders terrain tile set with all the matching TOD files and copied them to the wwiCambrai folder in the Terrain folder. I also copied the TGA files as well. The same tiles appear to be in Edward's Verdun Photo reaIistic terrain tiles set. Now am flying over the Cambrai sector terrain with some very interesting farmland and woods that appear to have great depth instead of flat rectangular cultivated fields and dark green low relief textures that are a poor imitation of tree tops that come with the default terrain scenery tiles. The photo realistic tiles I have copied over do not fully cover all the Cambrai terrain however. It appears that there are many missing high relief tiles especially the tiles that are at borders between Farm Land and Open Praire areas and also Forest and Open Praire areas. If I change to the map view (M key) there are large areas that are not filling in with any detailed tiles at all. I can recognize where the missing photo realistic tiles should go on the map view but I have no idea where to retrieve them or how to merge them into the landscape. If I fly over Edward's Verdun and Flanders terrains, they already show full photo realistic terrain with no missing areas and the map view shows all these areas filled in with the photo realistic terrain tiles. Does any one know if Edwards is even around our FE community anymore and if he is available to consult? My original posting has been read by over one hundred viewers but no one wants to add even a single comment or suggestion. I am very disappointed. OlPaint01