Firecage

Good to see more campaigns otw to FE. I tend to play mostly all the campaigns and hardly ever do single mission. I know how good the work is you normally do so I can't wait to get hold of your released work I already took a guess at which FMs you finished and have a new release of the Cambrai Fest waiting to see how well I guessed. I think I will keep the 2 seperate so there will be (1) full war campaign and (1) later war (starting around the Halbs/Albs era) so people who like the later war planes don't have to start with early war planes. I am guessing from some other posts of yours that the early war planes like the moranes and early pfalz planes might be forth coming? One of the things I am trying to get better control of is I want more of a battle on the ground at the front/no mans land area. I cant seem to get a large concentration of troops and tanks at the front lines for huge ground wars. I am hopeful you have figured out a few things I haven't been able to make work so I can borrow a few ideas from you if ya dont mind. Anyways keep up the amazing worka nd I look forward to your campaigns and FM release.

Cambrai France January 1 1916 The new campaign is now ready to Download as soon as its approved.... Here This campaign works on FE + Exp pack and FE+Exp+April Patch The plane sets as follows: 1. Dh2 2. F2B 3. Fe8 4. Pup 5. CamelF1_110 6. Triplane 7. CamelF1_130 8. SE5a 9. CamelF1_150 10. Nieuport11 11. Nieuport17 12. N24 13. N24bis 14. SPAD13 15. N28 16. HalbD3 17. AlbatrosD1 18. AlbatrosD2 19. PfalzD3 20. AlbatrosD3 21. AlbatrosD3OAW 22. AlbatrosD5 23. AlbatrosD5a 24. PfalzD8 25. FokkerD7F 26. Snipe 27. RE8 28. BE2 29. Re8 30. Salmson2A 31. Ca3 32. HP400 33. Walfisch 34. AviatikC2 35. DFWC5 36. AEG_G4 37. Staaken 38. GothaGIV The are also two additional packs included with the download. 1) The cambrai_targets.ini file to add many extra ground, balloons and AAA nests. 2) A new sound pack for FE planes to add realism for the sound of the game. As always if there are issues leave me a msg here and I will try and get the problem sorted out. Enjoy

SO your playing mostly the exp pack without the april patch ? Just checking to keep up with what everyone is using

Just a fast note for those who don't know. The terrain mods seem to be working well such as the mod for ground troops (link below) that move and can be tragets. http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showtopic=29097 Capun and Ateam have some sweet tank mods to add in.... plently of others with more dense damage smoke, damage from guns etc.... Look around the DL area and you will find many worthy mods. Everyone one in the FE area seems to work just fine in these campaigns I have. Another way to get deeper feel is to put a bunch of paint jobs to each squad so as you fight you will encounter different squad colors and after a bit you start noticing your rivals alot. I ahve about 15 different paints for each plane in this campaign so I see alot of vaiation in skins during each mission. Its great to see the different colors flying by. I also have quite a few aces skins that are easy to spot if your playing on hard as I do with no text boxes or anything other than locks and visuals. I have a sound pack in this DL as well so if you do the small change in the data file you will get where you know whats planes are near just by the way they sound and thats real damn cool Another great mod is the thick black smoke thats here at CA... its really easy to see an amzing difference when ya hit a plane with a good shot. Last off... I suggest if you can .... add some armor to plane parts or weaken bullet damage or something like that. THe Dmg model is still to easy to blow planes apart. I went to an extreme and beefed up every part in most planes by quite a bit. I have to riddle a plane full of holes to get him down now days but, its more a challenge and the kill ratio is more in line with real numbers from that era. I also made bomber gunners leathal as hell... If you attack solo on a bomber grp in my game your probably dead meat pretty fast. Anyways add mods and have more fun...... I dont have many pilots that live through to the end of this campaign at all. if you do the no refly thing then living to the end doesn't happen often ... or at least for me it doesn't

Actually the way I die most often is some enemy plane ramming me. They seem to have zero idea of self preservation I seem to be the only one in my games who has a reason to live

Thanks for the comments friends. I wanted it to be fun above everything else. I know Peter has kinda retired but I always wonder if he might tackle all those early war planes for the april patch when he gets bored one day Oh my ... did I say that out loud ? Anyways keep flying and die well.... at least thats what I do alot

File Name: Cambrai Plane Fest File Submitter: Firecage File Submitted: 23 Jun 2008 File Category: User Made Campaigns Cambrai France January 1 1916 The new campaign is now ready to Download as soon as its approved.... This campaign works on FE + Exp pack and FE+Exp+April Patch The plane sets as follows: 1. Dh2 2. F2B 3. Fe8 4. Pup 5. CamelF1_110 6. Triplane 7. CamelF1_130 8. SE5a 9. CamelF1_150 10. Nieuport11 11. Nieuport17 12. N24 13. N24bis 14. SPAD13 15. N28 16. HalbD3 17. AlbatrosD1 18. AlbatrosD2 19. PfalzD3 20. AlbatrosD3 21. AlbatrosD3OAW 22. AlbatrosD5 23. AlbatrosD5a 24. PfalzD8 25. FokkerD7F 26. Snipe 27. RE8 28. BE2 29. Re8 30. Salmson2A 31. Ca3 32. HP400 33. Walfisch 34. AviatikC2 35. DFWC5 36. AEG_G4 37. Staaken 38. GothaGIV The are also two additional packs included with the download. 1) The cambrai_targets.ini file to add many extra ground, balloons and AAA nests. 2) A new sound pack for FE planes to add realism for the sound of the game. As always if there are issues leave me a msg here and I will try and get the problem sorted out. Enjoy Click here to download this file

Ok I have the 1st version of the newest campaign uploaded and waiting on approval by the staff. This can be run with or without the april patch. It seems to work well in both. I VERY STRONGLY suggest you install peter01's FM pack as that will make thing WAY better. http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autoc...p;showfile=6821 THis has only 1 flyable squad, Jasta 11. THis will go through about 8 different planes from the D3 to the D7 and all in between. The list as follows AlbatrosD1 AlbatrosD2 AlbatrosD3 PfalzD3 AlbatrosD5a Dr1 PfalzD12 FokkerD7F Walfisch AviatikC2 DFWC5 GothaGIV Staaken Nieuport17 SPAD7 SPAD12 N24 N24bis N28 Avro504C Avro504D Fe2B Pup Triplane CamelF1 SE5a F2B Salmson2A BE2 BE-2D Ca3 HP400 I have also included my cambrai targets file for those who want alot more balloons and AAA nests for an added challange. PM me here if you have any suggestions or comments Enjoy

Yes I would suggest the orig FE install, then the exp pack then the april patch. That should get ya going in short order. Let me know if ya have any problems.

Most likely its the campaign design. I have only tested this release on the Exp pack & Exp Pack + april patch. I will try and drop the campaign in my older FE load pre exp pack and see if I can find out whats going on. This has been one of the reasons I had to lay off the campaign designs for a while. Its getting real hard to decide what release to design for. I love the FM in the newset release and the FMs that peter designed are so good its just a blast to play.... But I totally miss the orignal FE where the Plane fest campaigns had 60+ planes and I had a mix of all these great mod planes in one campaign. That was sweet, I really liked the early war planes. Those planes were done so well and dog fights were a blast. There were also many issues on soft landers and collision detection it made it hard to get into the feel enough. I hope TK can find a way to get everyones versions to work well together but, with a 1/2 open source code and thrid party planes and FMs its a tough challange. I will see if I can get you some help this weekend , thanks for the info and comments

File Name: Firecage Flying Circus Campaign File Submitter: Firecage File Submitted: 12 Jun 2008 File Updated: 14 Jun 2008 File Category: User Made Campaigns Thanks for downloading this campaign. This release has only been tested in the exp pack and the exp pack +April 2008 versions. They may be interesting results when played in the Orig Release loads Fly in Jasta 11 squadron against the RAF and the French over Cambrai Contents of this zip file The whole “wwiCampFC_J11” folder which can be dropped into the main campaign folder and your ready to go. I have included my cambrai targets ini file so there are MANY more balloons and AAA nest including every airbase and all main cities. Just drop this file into the cambrai terrain folder. Planes needed for this campaign to work properly. AlbatrosD1 AlbatrosD2 AlbatrosD3 PfalzD3 AlbatrosD5a Dr1 PfalzD12 FokkerD7F Walfisch AviatikC2 DFWC5 GothaGIV Staaken Nieuport17 SPAD7 SPAD12 N24 N24bis N28 Avro504C Avro504D Fe2B Pup Triplane CamelF1 SE5a F2B Salmson2A BE2 BE-2D Ca3 HP400 I will release a new update on this as I work out a problem on squad sizes and supplies that’s giving me trouble. Enjoy Firecage Click here to download this file

Yup, as with most any open (or close to open) source game the ideas are endless. That's becoming a double edge sword lately. As for your question 1. Adding armor to the parts of plane (one of the easy ways since you can cut and paste pretty easy and get this going) 2. Reducing the weight of bullets in Gundata.ini (there is an editor you can download here at CA to mod the weapons and such) 3. Increasing the VolumeStructurePoint in Aircraftobject.ini (more intensive I would think but I haven't tried that approach... might work better)

Hello there and welcome to the game. The fast answer to the 1st question is yes.... The way I try and view it is to use all the planes I can, even the same plane from different designers. I think this gives me a way to kind of simulate the fact that some squads had more problems keeping their aircraft in top performance so their pilots had a worse time than others. Some squads didn't get the parts they need and they had to improvise... and so forth. So I am in the process of getting the newest campaign finished and I am trying to get Ateams Albs and TKs albs along with peter01's FM set. I am doing this in the chance that even though some planes are not as easy to fly as others of the same model. SO far its working better than I thought. Peter has done some downright amazing work for us here as well as many other mod. people. So the fact that many of us have 3-5 seperate installs of FE so we can jump around to diferent versions of the game. Not the most liked idea at all but its worth doing IMHO. Damage models are a sore spot for alot of us right now. shooting a plane and seeing it explode like a LARs rocket hit it is a bit too much... I mean I want to see my enemies in flames but It needs to be harder. Now what alot of us have done is go in plane by plane and add armor to alot of the parts of each and every plane to suit your needs. Its time consuming but well worth the effort. THere are posts here in this forum on how to add armor to a plane area, including fuel tanks, engines, pilots, etc.. Well at least its not like IL2 where only certain KINDS of trees will kill you TK has made alot of improvments on ground collisions. At 1st you could submarine a good 40 ' under the ground and not blow up As a final thought I play mostly the April patch on the EXP pack, With Peters FMs in most planes. I find it a ton of fun once you get alot of paint schemes going in a campaign so you always running into special paint on a plane and you know its and ace AI which is fun as hell. THis forum is chocked full of info on how and what to change once your familiar with the ini files in the game. (edit) I I trying to get a beta release of Verdun Planefest out soon and it will have a mix of almost every mid-late war planes that are out and will work with the FM. The planes sets will be scattered so you wont know what planes each squad may get so its a real war time problem that I think we can simulate. Also I am going to try and get permission to load one huge file (or sets) that well be the fest + many add on packs for terrains and ground vehicles and maybe even paint sets. When im done I will get all involved permission to add the parts but for the most part I dont see much trouble since Im not breaking anyone requests of distribution notes. I have most of the planes modded with armor ratings that make it alot harder to get the easy kills but I dont know of any way to release that in a package with out viloating some distro requests. But I will get what I can get permission for as I finish.

I know this is starting to be a touchy subject but which FM or version of FE are these going to aim aor in the FM? EXP pack, Patched EXP pack, OLD FE or ? Im starting to take up more room than I like with all the FE installs to be able to fly most of the planes...

I agree on the fact of the OFF release being some nice work for sure. Since ALl I have seen is videos I cant comment on playability but it does look like a good product. If CFS3 is closer to the $5 deal then it might get a bit closer to being affordable for me. FE has probably been a bit of a dual edge sword for me since the FM and all keep changing all over the place and the guys like Peter are kinda getting tired of redoing FMs forever so who knows... maybe oFF 3 is the front runner if the price of CFS3 would drop I would say it stands a good chance. Good luck to them at OFF no matter what/which way it happens. THey put in a lot of time to make it work and they deserve some recog. Kudos Peace ..

Well while I agree it looks good ... but, I just can't justify the price of CFSIII and the $50 they want for off. Thats just too far out of bounds on the price. If I got the CFS3 and OFF it would run about $70-$80 for the set and that just too much for a exp pack of CFS3. I understand its very different from CFS3 but its still too expensive to consider for me. I wish them luck and maybe if the price dropped closer to $25-30 it might be a consideration. the total package cant really exceed the price of a new game if they wish to get new players to join. So the price of CFS3 is around $25-30 and the add on pack needs to keep under $25 or so to make it appealing to most of us that are looking around at a new sim. Just my 2 cents and I realize alot of people will disagree and thats cool. Like I said I wish them well it looks nice.

Im running the exp pack and the patches for it as well. Also heavy modded Cambrai terrain, Peters FMs, and some ground obj mods as well. Also added the other planes that peter has done fms for.

Peter are you playing TKs FM set or yours?

From Peter01 .....arrgggg, not again... I guessing this is how peter is looking these days after yet another patch.... but which one is the real hairstyle ? [

Got to where I have flown alot of the DIII, OAW, and the D5 now and I like all of them so far. Have flown them against the spads, camels, nieuports, and some 2 seaters and it has been a good fight all around and each plane seems to have a skill set of what it can do finally. Things before seem to be very "same" feeling in alot of planes. Now they seem to have a nice feel. Just hit where im in the D5a now and later on the D7s and will try and post more. Great job on all of the hun planes so far. Also did a few single missions and the Se5a seem to be one that if you could work it well it would be a sweet plane. Not sure who has more time in the plane around the forum here. If they were like the albs it took a bit to learn how to use them in DFs but once I found it its a good match up of planes.

Just my guess from playing with 3D Max a while back is that to get a fire trail as it crept around the balloon and then lets say it folds in on it self as it loses air and then the firey heap kida flutters to the ground .... Im guessing the modeling would be hard in this engine. But, If you look at the planes on the airfield as you strafe them and the plane disappears and a huge explosion appears and has plane parts in the fire. So its kind of something thats a bit closer to what your talking about. The balloon would have to be more along the lines of an animation of each crease in the fabric and then have a fire module start a flame sequence as the balloon disappears in flames and a smoke effect and drops to the ground kinda like the planes do now. I think Laton, Eml, or one of the mod people with a current version of Max might be able to make the animations up and get the collapse to look right. The fire mod I think is a plug in for max and has smoke available. Now as to the question of getting that from Max to the game might be an issue. Not sure really. Im sure one of the mod guys here will clarify the problems getting that done. I would love to see the balloons have a much better graphic as well. If you like a balloon hunt try the cambrai objusts.ini for that map I have here at CA. its a huge addition to the amount of balloons on the map. I also included 2-3 AAA positions around the added balloons so its a bit more of a threat to attack.

Great work on these... I say do a whole set and post. I would take a set of these anytime.

Im really impressed with some battles in this new FM you cooked up. Its a blast in an Alb3 vs the Pups in large furballs. Im using the hard FM set you included and the AI can be rentless at times and especially in groups of 2 or more. They tag team VERY well if your not carefull. Excellent work on the D3 thats an amazing plane now. Some of the twists and turns you can perform now are wild. I like the feel of the stalls myself, just my opinion. They can be used to a great advantage in turning if you can control them, THey also seem to turn better as you throttle back some for short inside moves. Just hit the campaign where I got the OAWs so I will drop a line on the match ups there. I think its spads and the tripes. Im guessing things turn south for the germans for a bit As you all were talking about the spins and stalls are a good part if we had the structral damage from yanking aorund planes that would be great!! Just a thanks for all the endless hours on this.