Wrench

Scorpions were never deployed overseas .. the farthest from ConUS would be Iceland. I'm pretty sure Starfire's were in USAFE, along with Metor NFs (which we don't have readily available), and possibly CF101 Canuks (also not available) wrench kevin stein

TMI, dude! TMI!!! not being familiar with SC, with reference to Egypt, how much territoriy is Egypt and how much Libya? Some of the WW2 maps could easily be fiddilated to fit a modern scenario (the Western Desert -ie North Africa) map comes to mind. Runs from the Suez Canal on the east, to El Aghelia in the west (including Benghazi), and as far north as Corinth and Athens. Grand Canyon - ANW??? (just call it "canyon country") wrench kevin stein

I couldn've sworn I'd Uploaded the IDF Sabre and Hun here at one point ... ??? (btw, there's an IDF Tomcat floating around somewhere's too) That's how I roll, baby!! and, you're very welcome! wrench kevin stein

Not true; not true at all. We've been running KAW and Indo-Pak with all the menu bits placed in the /Menu folder, and haven't encountered a SINGLE issue. wrench kevin stein

Then, theoreticly, one COULD create a locations bmp for those maps with multiple "participants" (DS for the best example, what with all the countries nearby) You'd think there'd be one for GermanyCE, but I guess all the Red forces are considered "WarsawPact", and therefor Soviet??? Something to experiment with, along with the terrains nations ini, that determine who is where...as set in the targets ini wrench kevin stein

Interesting to note, the stock terrain's main ini calls for a ***_Location.bmp, and only IsrealME has one!!! wrench kevin stein

no, what you saw was debris. OTH, since the 06 patch, the canopies have been seperating from the aircraft when destroyed. wrench kevin stein

I remember asking TK about the water bmp when SF2I Exp1 came out, as it was added to IseralME. Never got a real good answer, just "yes, it shows what's water and what's land" I guess we NOW have a definitive answer. Somebody should packaga ALL the new water bmps and inis, and upload them to the Terrains downloads section (still need Libya and a few others...some for terrains as not yet completed. I know what I"m doing today!) wrench kevin stein

there would be no SPADs in Europe ... even the French ones were only used in Africa (and then by Gabon) wrench kevin stein

isn't there a Mk.7 depth charge already in the WW2 weapons pak?? wrench kevin stein

The T-Steak Team did a GREAT job, on taking a little quickie mod I did and running it all the way for a touchdown. Superb works, guys! Kudos all around. And now, just flying in the wintry skies of Germany... wrench kevin stein

If you DO NOT have SF2:E, it ain't gonna work no matter you do, cause it's looking for the SF2E.exe, that don't exist. AND....without Expansion 1 (and SF2I), you'll loose some bonus items* TKs added for that, that show up in the Full-4 Merged SF2 install. (*just what they are, I've not found out yet) Answer: Not only covered in the KB, but it several dozen posts scattered around the site.....some are even illustrated! Now, since I'm old school, so I copy the exe UP on level, to the root of /Third Wire, THEN rename to what I want it to be (IndoPak, MTO, Nerds-vs-Jocks, whatever), THEN move it back to the SF2 main folder, whre all the other exes are. Others have said, you can copy it back DIRECTLY into the main folder, and Windoze will create it as *nameofexe(2).exe, which can them be just as easily renamed. Then, run it from the main folder, allow the game to build the mods folder/start, EXIT the game, and then I create the shortcut in my desktops' /Games folder, named to match the install. I even have custome-made Icons for each install, matching what they are. Cause I'm just that way <wink> It's not rocket science, or even really computer science .. it's just simply copy/paste, rename, and recopy back of 1 file. wrench kevin stein

FE/FEG (ie: 1stGen) or FE2? Makes a BIG difference in how weapons are handled. IF FE2, and the new style plug-and-play individual weapons folders, your WeaponData number is wrong. They're ALWAYS WeaponData001 wrench kevin stein

exp pak 1 did the same thing ... you can leave your SF2E alone, and just run the new stuff from the exp2 exe (create new shortcut). This, in effect, gives you 2 completly seperate games to play "To be modded as much or as little as one likes!" Probably the greatest advantage of Gen2s over Gen1s; mods folders completly seperate from core game files. wrench kevin stein

right on, brother!! you guys crack me up!! wrench kevin stein

First off, let me state that the instructions shown here, work the same for ANY of the 3rd Wire sims, be it 1st Gen SF/SFG/WoV/WoE/WoI/FE and with all the SF2 series, including FE2. As all this will do, is show how to keep the AI controled aircraft that have been made User-Flyable, still flyable after patching. With the minimum amount of work. Those that have been around a while, and have been through several rounds of patching, can tell you that one of the things any patch does is remove all extra inis from STOCK aircraft/ships/other ground objects. However, it may NOT remove add-on inis (we'll get to that in bit) that have come with, say, the Fishbed or Fresco cockpit packages. So, what's removed, you might ask? Well, if you've extracted any ini for the aircraft -data, loadout, avionics, cockpit, etc, and modded it (even if it's just to activate the manual canopy animation) the patch exe will remove from the aircraft folder. This can become annoying with the standar player-flyables expecially when you've gotten the loadout and/or lights juuussst where you want them. I'm not going into HOW to get them flyable; that's been covered in dozens of posts, and in the 1st Gen SF/Wo* series Knowledge Base. Your stock, unflyable main aircraft ini looks something like this (our example will be the ever popular MiG-21MF, my personal fav Fishbed): Well, in the case of the aircraft's main ini ), the easiest thing to do is after adding all the lines to make if flyabe, is do the normal "Save". Now, it looks like this: after running a patch, it WILL revert back to the stock configuration as show up above. To prevent this, and having to go back and do it ALL over for all the MiGs, Su-7s, Mirages, Thunderstreaks, Hunters, etc, this is the Easy, Lazy Man's Way ™. REopen the main ini, and do a "Save As..." and name it "xAircraftName.ini" (where AircraftName is the name of the aircraft) In short, just add the X in front of the name. The screenie show the extra ini quietly residing in the aircraft main folder, with all the pointer statements safe and intact. For to be safe, you might want to consider doing that for any/all other inis -including the data ini if extracted- so you can easily transfer any changes to the NEW data/loadout/whatever ini. Be advised, however, that extraction of new data ini IS reccomended, as the latest patch always seems to incorporate Flight Model improvements and such. As to the add-on inis, like for the Fresco and Fishbed or Floggers, just to be safe, you might want to create 'xnamed' copies for them as well. They're small files that don't take up a lot of HD space, and might wind up saving you all kinds of time in running around trying to find them from a backup disc or another install or Mod Folder. wrench kevin stein

Part 3-ish, With Reference to Expansion Pak 2: It updates ALL the exes, so if you've created 'stand alone', theatre/era specific mods folder, the exes for those will need replacing with the new one (for esample, the 1956 Suez mod ... I used the expansion1 exe, and ONLY have stuff for the 56 war) 1) back up ENTIRE mods folder by renaming to something like "z-NameOfModsFolder". Do this for ALL mods folders!!!! 2) run exp2 exe, and allow it to patch all. Use WinDoze Explorer to visually confirm new dates on the main exes - SF2, SF2V, SF2I, SF2E SF2I Exp1 3) Run exes to create new mods folders. 4) Start each game to confirm creation of new mods folders -For ALL installs 5) Delete newly created mods folders 6) Un-rename old mods folders. Be advised, there will probably be changes to some aircraft's data inis. Be ready to re-extract and re-edit. 7) -VERY IMPORTANT!!- Open each Options ini, and scroll down to [singleMission]. You'll need to change the EndYear=, as it reverts to 0, causing the games to have a max year of 1982-ish. 8) If you have stand-alone installs (Korea, DesertStorm, Iran/Iraq, Indo-Pak etc), you'll need to do the same thing with their mods folders as described above. Then, take the SF2.exe, create a copy and rename to to match the one you're replacing. Follow the steps above just like it was a standard install. (ie: run exe, create the mods folder, delete it, un-rename the original, etc) Year Change/Adjustements in Options.ini: Apparently, Exp2 does something (now!) different than before, locking end years. So, edit accordingly. wrench kevin stein

already on it's way!! wrench kevin stein

It updates ALL the exes, so if you've created 'stand alone', theatre/era specific mods folder, the exes for those will need replacing with the new one (for esample, the 1956 Suez mod ... I used the expansion1 exe, and ONLY have stuff for the 56 war) 1) back up ENTIRE mods folder by renaming z-NameOfModsFolder. Do this for ALL mods folders!!!! 2) run exp2 exe, and allow it to patch all. Use WinDoze Explorer to visually confirm new dates on the main exes - SF2, SF2V, SF2I, SF2E SF2I Exp1 3) Run exes to create new mods folders. 4) Start each game to confirm creation of new mods folders -For ALL installs 5) Delete newly created mods folders 6) Un-rename old mods folders. Be advised, there will probably be changes to some aircraft's data inis. Be ready to re-extract and re-edit. 7) -VERY IMPORTANT!!- Open each Options ini, and scroll down to [singleMission]. You'll need to change the EndYear=, as it reverts to 0, causing the games to have a max year of 1982-ish. Apparently, Exp2 does something (now!) different than before, locking end years. So, edit accordingly. wrench kevin stein

Apparently, neither the Red Top or Firestreak has/had a growl. I spent a couple hours researching them yesturday. Even though IR guided, they need to "see" the target via the aircraft radar. Neither track/manuver very well (Red Top was supposed to have limited all-aspect -read VERY limited!) So, lock up the target, close to 2.5 miles or less, and hope for the best. OTH, it's a simple matter to extract the weaponsdata ini from ObjectData001.cat, and edit appropriate line (you'll want to create a NEW weapons' folder for either/both missiles, and place in the /Weapons folder -REPLACING the older 2 from the BunyPak, if used). While not historically accurate ... it may incread PK Don't forget to create matching 'main' inis for the weapons folders wrench kevin stein

Sweet! Been waiting for these!!! BTW, with Expansion Pak 2, the correct 450 gallon drop tanks have magically appeared! wrench kevin stein

Unfortunately, on a lot of Wolfs older birds, the meshes for the control surfaces were never 'cut' in 3DMax to make them animatable (would that be the word?) Also unfortunately, there's nothing that can be done about that, without the source (ie: Max) files to re-create them. Obivously, they DO work, otherwise we couldn't manuver. They just don't move. Think of them a 'virtual control surfaces', like the virtual dive-brakes I'd added the Dauntless. wrench kevin stein

Here's the new _67 A-1H (J is similiar). This is my VA-115 skin, with the new 'body.bmp'; you'll take note of the chaff dispenser just forward of the tailwheel well. wrench kevin stein

I know! But everyone knows I'm crazy! wrench kevin stein

like Stary said, some Exp2 shots... (yes, I added a seat to the Flora, 'opened' the canopy, fixed the flaps angle, made sure the Lightning has enough gas!) Like the new yellow Bort numbers! wrench kevin stein