ShrikeHawk

I'm slowly building out my China 1937 install. I used Wrench's ww2 China terrain. There's a lot of planes that aren't available so I'm using stand-ins until Geezer's gorgeous models are ready. For the time being, A Bristol Bulldog (with cowling) is a pretty good Japanese A4N1. A Koolhoven F.K.51 is sitting in for a Japanese D1A2 dive bomber. Monty CZ's fabulous Avia B-534 is doing a good imitation of a Japanese Ki-10. The Gladiator, Cr-32, I-10 Rata, and Hawk III on the Chinese side were all available. Lots of quickie re-skinning for me, but the results aren't too bad. Lots of FM work to get SF1 FMs working well within SF2. They're all coming together like a well-oiled machine. Here's how it's looking so far.

Looks glorius! That looks more like an actual photo than a screenshot.

Every now and then, I see big news about IL-2. I try it out, get frustrated and go back to Strikefighters. But this mod has me curious. I'm just wondering... One of my biggest peeves is the AI fly like supermen. They can always find you in the clouds, and no matter what the matchup is, the AI can always climb better than you can. Thus AIs always have the energy advantage. So can anyone say if the AI has changed at all from the original "IL2: 1946?"

Looks Fantastic! I'm looking forward to flying it.

What an awesome airplane. Truly one of the best aircraft in history. I think it's still in use with other air forces.

I'm seriously looking forward to seeing this one.

Works! I've got my China '37 install going already, and Wrench's Hawk3 is already in it. Fiddling with the A5M FM right now. I'm looking forward to working with you.

Cool. Thanks for the update. Everything looks fabulous. If you need help with FMs or skins, I'd be willing to pitch in and help.

Hi Geezer - I'm wondering how work is going with this. I'm especially interested in the Japanese carrier planes, A4N and D1A. It's been a dream of mine to build out an install of the Sino-Japan war of 1937. Those are pretty much all I need to do it. Your work looks fabulous.

Seems like Russia is sending a strong message to ISIS. I can't help thinking they're sending an oblique message to us at the same time...

I know. Multiplayer would be awesome just about now. Scissors works so well against the AI I use it almost always. Against another human? Hmm.... I think I might try a vid with open mic next. ;)

A flight of 4 F-86A Sabres. Encountered 4 Mig-15As. This includes an engagement with a Mig that came far too close for comfort. Wingmen gave a good accounting of themselves, downing 1 Mig. Just as the last Mig burned 4 x La-11 Fangs showed up. They cut my wingmen up pretty bad before I showed the Lavochkins the door.

Awesome. Thanks Wrench!

Gawd, I would love to have the CD0 plots for the ww2 aircraft. As it stands, I'm going to wwiiaircraftperformance often to get the speeds at various altitudes. As it stands on many factors I'm trying to get aircraft performance, relative to another correct. And certainly recreate the combat environment as authentically as possible. My Spitfire IXc can easily turn away from an Fw-190A-4, but the Fw190A-4 easily out rolls the spit. In flying the Spit, an angles fight is its best fight, but trying the same with the Fw-190 against Spits is just about certain death. In the Fw-190 I'm doing BnZ and in that realm it can eat Spits for breakfast. I just gotta figure out how to make the AI do that. By the way, there's an ini file that lists AI parameters like chance to make a hard break, chance to attack vertical and so on. Does anyone remember what the name of that file is?

That's the downside to inline engines. Much more susceptible to battle damage. In the case of Yak-9 versus P-51: my read on this is that the Mustang has a speed advantage at most altitudes depending on which Yak-9. Mustang has the turn advantage at high altitude (mostly because it can build up a lot of speed for a fast turn). At medium and low altitudes, the Yak-9s turning ability outshines the Mustang. These are really two different airplanes built for different roles. But in Korea, they were holdovers from the previous war. They would meet, not in their originally intended, established roles. That's why this fight, and modeling the relative FMs right for both, is so interesting to me.

Thanks, but I'm using Pasko's Yak-9 from way back when. I believe the one from the WoK is Cocas' work. I always liked Pasko's Yak and had gotten used to it before so I've been flying it lately. I thought the FM is very good on it. Trouble is, I've tweeked the TW Mustang into a pretty vicious killing machine. In the vids, you might've noticed the Mustang AI pulled some very sweet maneuvers. I've played around with the FM until the AI fly it brilliantly and very aggressively. So even though Pasko's Yak FM was very good, the Mustangs were killing it far too easily. I could've dialed back the Mustang to match appropriately or change the Yak. I chose to change the Yak. I probably fiddle with the FMs too much, but that's where I get a great deal of fun out of the game.

I don't know the testing routine that otheres use for their FMs (Flight Models). I flight test a LOT. I like to create a mission of 8 versus 8. This gives me a better sense of how the AI is handling the FM. In 4 versus 4 engagements the AI tends to hold back and let the User run the fight. In 8 versus 8, the AI steps up and fights harder. In the vid below, I had been resisting changing the CDL and the CMQ values on the Yak-9 outerwing. The speed was good, but turning was lethargic, I finally gave in and changed it slightly. Got the combat results I was looking for. Of course FM mods is a constantly balancing act of many parameters. Combat results were good, but watch the speed of the User aircraft carefully. It's awfully high. I felt the Yak was now too fast. Normally, I only make small changes and immediately flight test. This time I increased the CDO in the fuselage. The better turning would remain but the average speed through the flight decreased. I also pulled back a bit on my highly energetic Mustang. I increased CDL in the wings and outerwings. Yaks and Mustangs matched up pretty closely before. I was concerned the Mustang might be overmatched after these changes. I was wrong. So far, the Mustang is a more stable gun platform, and its more guns means more hits. Lastly, I jumped back in the Yak after slowing it down. This change didn't diminish combat capability. In fact, as I sometimes find, the AI is better able to line up targets if the closure speed isn't too high.

A series of fights between Yak-9s and F-51D Mustangs. After a bit of FM tweeking, these two are a good matchup.