malibu43

Don't even want to talk about it right now...

I still dont get what you supposed to do with a P-51 in the DCS world.

Stearman FTW!

Apparently it was not too late to register for the beta...

Regarding ground objects - I think this would be a good place to start, at least in terms of what a stock game will use and what a new player will notice when flying a mission. http://combatace.com...8-sf2-aaa-pack/ "Best Bang for Your Buck," IMHO. And then, like eburger68 said, other ground objects (tanks, trucks, additional SAM's, etc...) could be carefully pulled one at a time from NF4+.

All, Here is something I meant to send to eburger68 for the update but forgot: A-1 NoTankJetision.rar This .rar file contains replacement _data.ini files for both the A-1H and A-1J that make it so the drop tanks cannot be jetisioned (by either the player or AI). I got tired of watching wingmen dropping tanks before making rocket, bombing, and strafing runs. The downside is that the tanks can't be jetisioned under any circumstances, but there really shouldn't be any times in S. Vietnam where the tanks need to be punched (no SAM's, no MiG's). These can overwrite the ones in the update that Eric just posted. Make sure to back up the old ones incase you don't like it. Or, if you forget to back the old ones up, you can always go into both _data.ini files and find the 3 occurrences of "NoJettisionTank=TRUE" and change it to false (or just delete it). Let me know if there are any issues.

GO NINERS!!!

Well, I just registered for the Beta (don't know if it's too late or not) so I can just see for myself. Then I can just sit back and laugh at these discussions (for what reason specifically, I'm not sure. But I'm sure I'll be able to laugh one way or the other! )

I have spent way too much time posting about Flight at SimHQ over the last few days, so I'll keep this short. Beta testers can't say much due to the NDA, but folks at SHQ have said that the game and FM (just like every other version of MSFS, even FSX!) are scalable. They have hinted that at higher realism settings, the FM feels no worse (if not better than) FSX. The cockpits are still clickable. I could go into FSX right now, turn the realism down, and then do all the ridiculous stuff you see the Flight trailer. A lot of the trailers and videos seem to focus on the "arcade" possibilities of the game, but that doesn't mean the for simulator-ish aspects aren't still there as well. Any game or sim (even DCS A-10C) can be played with arcade settings and then if you wanted to you would see the same ridiculous stuff you see in the MS flight trailers. FSX had missions with challenges that used waypoint markers and bubbles on the screen to aid in the mission, but we still all consider FSX a sim, so their presence in MS Flight don't necessarily indicate that that it can't be flown as a sim. So, I will reserve judgement until I actually have a chance to try it.

I run with everything at unlimited and didn't notice a difference.

There's a lot of things I'd rather see added before TK works on a drag chute.

Yes, as wrench said, let it overwrite. But not everything from pasko's pack is included, so it's not a complete replacement.

http://combatace.com/topic/57393-flyable-f-104s-for-sf2/

I wonder if DanW or TK are still watching this thread...?

I was born in the early 80's, and therefore gew up on a heavy dose of F-14's, F-18's, F-16's, A-10's etc... All I knew about the F-105 was that it was ugly. F-4's... bleh. All I knew about Vietnam was what I learned watching Flight of The Intruder. The Cold War was something boring that happened between WWII and Desert Storm... I only stumbled across the TW series because I had recently picked up F4AF and was looking for a modern-ish A-10 game/simulation (A-10 Cuba was just a "little" dated looking). LOMAC wouldn't run on my laptop, so I thought I'd give this "Wings Over Europe" game a try. I found it fun and started adding all my other "80's era" favorites. Given my affliction for the A-6 and my past experiences with virtual naval ops (F/A-18 2.0 was my first real flight sim), I thought I'd give WoV a try as well. Slowly over the next couple of years a shift took place. I ventured more and more into the world of "cold war" era aviation. Man, there was a lot of cool stuff I had never heard about. I started getting really interested in Vietnam. I read books like Thud Ridge and WTR (also re-read FoTI). It got to the point where I was interested enough in Vietnam to notice that WoV was missing a lot of stuff and it needed a big freeware mod to improve it. And of course WoE is great because it features all those Cold War jets doing what they were designed for - all out war in Europe. What!?!? There were conflicts in the mid-east during those times too? Featuring more of these jets I previously thought to be nothing more than REALLY expensive and over-sized paper weights? Cool. The Falklands mod for SF1 was a total shock to me. You're telling me the UK fought Argentina at one point? So anyway, the point of all this is that I have FC2 installed but never play it. I have F4 BMS installed but never play it. I have IL-2 1946 installed but never play it. I do have all of the SF2 titles installed and fire that up regularly (even if just to fly around using the arrow keys on my laptop). I find my self more interested in the status of the KAW mod than SF2NA or the update of the ODS mod. I few years ago it would have been exactly the opposite. Blah blah blah. Yackity yack yack... Anyway, thanks TW and Combatace for sparking my interest in an era of aviation that I otherwise would have never even noticed!

OK. How about this compromise: A simple new cloud.tga and some combination of modest terrain tile improvements and a modest increase in trees and buildings are the two graphical improvements that TK could do to get the most bang for his buck. I hearby declare this to be the final say in the matter. Any further discussion regarding people's opinions "the few things TK should focus on improving" is forbidden. Please inform TK that we have reached a decision and he may now commence work on making it happen.

Seriously, if he just used a new cloud.tga and added SOME trees* to the stock Vietnam SEA and a few more trees* to GermanyCE and IsraelME, the stock game would stand on it's own much better. ...not trying to turn this into a wishlist thread... sorry. * - and some better buildings in the city tiles.

Man, TK sure could benefit from a new cloud.tga. Those shots all look pretty good, except for the weird cotton balls floating in the sky...

(drools on keyboard...)

Since I switched over to SF2, I have managed to only have one install with everything merged and patched up to whatever the current level is. I then create separate .exe's from that install for my different mods. I have just gotten tired of updating my SF2V AGXP install every month for new patches when the patches aren't adding anything that relates to the that mod. I think I am finally going to do a separate SF2V install and only patch up to Feb 2010 so the trees and clouds all work they way they should.

Make no mistake. I'm in no way saying SF2 is dead or that I refuse to buy any new SF2 titles/content or patch up to new patch levels. My main, merged install will continue to be patched up and merged with anythign new I buy. I'm just saying, you never know when you might want older patch levels - either to for mods that can't be brought up to new patch standards, or for testing purposes.

The release of SF2NA seems to be looming in the near future. Once it's out, it's possible, or likely, that there will be patches (in addition to what we've seen already) to the other titles to make them compatible. This, of course, means that the installers available for download from the TW site will be brought up to the new patch standard. Every new patch brings new features, some good and some not so good. Who knows what changes might be in store? I don't, that's for sure. But there's a chance that future changes might totally pork some of our favorite mods that work at the current patch level. For example, if SF2NA and it's patches update the terrain engine, who know's how it will do to all of Stary's tree mods... Maybe updates to the campaign engine to handle some aspects of naval warfare will render your favorite 3rd party campaign un-playable. eburger68 and I try out best to keep the SF2V A&GXP compatible with whatever the latest patch is, but it may get to a point where it's not feasible anymore... NF4+, ODS, KAW, Suez may end up in the same situation (pure speculation on my part, btw). I back up my installers the minute I buy them. That means I can always revert back to 2008/2009 patch levels with a fresh install and then patch up to whatever level I liked best. I know lot of others here do the same thing. But some may not. There could be some point in the near future where we'll all be wishing we were back at the "good ol' Nov 2011 patch when 'this' and 'that' still worked." Yeah, that sounds crazy, but it could happen. So, if you've backed up your installers, good for you! If you haven't, now's a good time to grab them from the TW site and put them on a CD/DVD for safe keeping in case the SF2 appocolypse hits!

Also, if you were to tweak the F-4 so it flies "per the manual," the game would be out of balance unless you did the same thing for all other aircraft as well.

I think we sometimes over-estimate the power of an internet forum. We post here (and at SimHQ and at the TW forums) over and over and get upset when we don't see results*. Remember, the loudest voice a customer has is the one that comes out of his wallet. If SF2NA doesn't meet your expectations (whether it's destructable carriers, new avionics, a flyable pony, etc...) or the developer hasn't shared enough information for you to know if it's worth your $$$, then hold off on buying it. TK has every right to release whatever he wants. And we have every right to decide to buy it or not. Capitalism at it's finest. Personally, I am leaning toward buying it but am going to wait for a review or something first (thanks for taking one for the team, Pfunk ). If it' really boils down to being equivalent to the MF F-14A over a bland terrain, then maybe I'll pass. If there are enough new features/goodies included to make it worth my $$$ then I'll probably get it. * - Just my own two cents here about requesting from TK things on forums - For every 2 reasonable and well thought out requests for new features, there seems to be at least one request that is totally off the wall and unrealistic. Slightly more advanced radar modes to suit the tomcat. Sure. Sinkable carriers. Yeah that makes sense. Clickable cockpits... Huh? Now you're talking about a different sim/game. F-18's and Fulcrums... Wait - what happened to the F-14 game we were discussing!?!? So I'm not really surprised that some of our requests or ideas get ignored. It would be one thing if TK could stop by CA and get right to the point. But if he has to wade through pages and pages of silliness just to get a few good ideas or some good feedback... (again just my 2 cents)

IMHO it's not a real Tomcat sim until we see screenies of MiG-28's. But seriously, SF2NA looks great. Can't wait.