Gunrunner

Animals, even the seemingly smallest and simplest, are far more intelligent, sentient and self-aware than we give them credit for. And/or conversely, humans (at least the average ones) are far less intelligent, sentient and self-aware than we give ourselves credit for.

Or create a weapon using the pilot model, that way you can attach it any way you want to a pylon on group 7, loaded forcefully through the loadout.ini. Don't forget to use a SpecificStationCode to make sure the pilot doesn't show up elsewhere. You'll lose the head animation though.

Wait, a peace agreement between Israel and the UAE/Bahrain ? Countries that never were at war with Israel ? Didn't exist as independent nations until 1971 ? Riiiiiiight. The only novelty here is that they finally recognise the existence of Israel and initiate official diplomatic and trade. So no, not a peace agreement, but I guess you someone had to label it that so some spray-tanned buffoon can get his Nobel Peace Prize. I mean, it's great for Israel, the UAE and Bahrain, but it's really about some deranged egomaniac and selling a few more F-35, not "peace".

Ok guys, what was your first taste of combat flight simulator, and by that I mean a game in contemporary or historical setting, with "real" planes and played from the cockpit. Mine was LucasFilm Games/Lawrence Holland's "Their Finest Hour : The Battle of Britain" (it was indeed, one of the first four games I owned, the other three being SimCity, M1 Tank Platoon and Zak McKracken), which I played, at first, in 1989 on a ridiculous 8088 with a CGA (4 colors, black, white, cyan and the dreaded magenta) display. Can't believe the time I spent playing at the time, anyway, that started a long, very long serie of simulators over the years. So, what was the first sim that got you hooked to the genre ?

View File Su-21S/P "Flagpole" When the Su-21S, codenamed "Flagpole" by NATO, appeared in 1978, it surprised the West which initially thought the plane to be just another failed Flagon update experiment or a testbed for systems of the recently identified Ram-L or Ram-K aircrafts. It turned out to be a long endurance PVO interceptor, possibly meant as an interim or low-cost alternative to these new designs, using a clearly Flagon inspired but brand-new airframe and, according to some intelligence, reusing existing systems to mitigate development risk. The aircraft is purported to use a single uprated R-35 derived from the one already used in PVO Floggers for propulsion, also borrowing the MiG-23P's radar, albeit with a larger antenna and more powerful emitter and using R-24 and R-60 missiles (up to 4 of each for a total of 8). It has been seen using up to 3 large drop tanks to accomplish its goal of long endurance patrol in the defence of the central and eastern regions of the USSR. Going against the trend of recent PVO-only interceptors, the Su-21 has 2 internal guns, sources suggesting these to be weirdly old-fashioned NR-30 with a hundred rounds each, as well as what seems to be decoy launchers. This surprisingly elegant design was joined in 1980 by a dual-seat version, initially thought to be a trainer, but proving to be another interceptor, the Su-21P. While the single-seater Su-21S became a not too uncommon sight on the Soviet Western frontier, the Su-21P was almost absent, being more common on the other borders, the exact operationnal reason remains unclear as these planes seem to be otherwise identical. Recent sightings suggest that the plane might not be a PVO exclusive as what are thought to be Su-21s were spotted in AV-MF colours, but not enough is known at present. NOTEWORTHY OBSERVATIONS - As it was started as an AI only asset for my own use, I kept the original F-15 cockpit. - Likewise, as an AI only asset for my own use, I haven't taken the time to produce hangar and loading pics. - I did the minimal amount of modification to the INI. - All skins can be used on both variants if you want to switch things around. - I have included AV-MF inspired skins in the Su-21P folder, for those that might be interested (waves at Stratos), they should be considered a not so hidden easter egg. - PSD templates specific to this Soviet version should be released alongside. - Read the damn READ ME for install. CREDITS Everyone at Cocas Aircraft Factory for their work on the plane, and especially Cocas for listening to my whin... errrr... suggestions and always nicely doing what I was pestering him to do (the guy is just too nice for his own good) and to Nyghtfall for giving us the templates without which I probably wouldn't have bothered to do something in a releasable form. AmokFlo for the ejection seats. The Trooper for the pilot reskin. (I believe) PauloPanz for the Dark Blue Soviet numbers decals. (I believe) Lindr2 for the R-24 and R-60. Any error or omission is just that, feel free to correct me if I forgot or misattributed anything, everything should be under the CA Fair Use umbrella unless I messed up. Have fun and good flight Gunrunner Version 1.0 - 15/05/2020 Nyghtfall : Original skins and templates, he did the hard part of the job Cocas : Dual-seat LOD Elevator modifications Specular map support Soviet variants Gunrunner : Mostly pestering poor Cocas for changes Normal/Specular/Holes maps Minor INI changes Bringing parts together Getting the credit for other people's hard work, then profit from it somehow and maybe, tomorrow, world domination ! Muwahahahahahahahahah... cough... cough... cough... Submitter Gunrunner Submitted 05/15/2020 Category What If Hangar  

View File Su-21 Flagpole Templates Templates for the Sukhoi Su-21 "Flagpole" for STRIKE FIGHTERS 2 These templates are Photoshop versions derived from my own Paint.NET files, themselves based on Nyghtfall's original work. Layers starting with : NM are for generating the Normal Map SM are for generating the Specular Map DM Mask are masks for generating various camo patters for the Diffuse Map DM are for generating the Diffuse Map I hope everything is clearly labelled, I have flattened existing skins to conserve space and reduce the number of layers, but the presence of masks and the palette should help if required. CREDITS Thanks to everyone at Cocas Aircraft Factory for their work on the plane, especially Cocas for listening to my whin... errrr... suggestions and always nicely doing what I was pestering him to do (the guy is just too nice for his own good) and to Nyghtfall for giving us the original templates without which I probably wouldn't have bothered to do something in a releasable form. Any error or omission is just that, feel free to correct me if I forgot or misattributed anything, everything should be under the CA Fair Use umbrella unless I messed up. Have fun and good skinning Gunrunner Submitter Gunrunner Submitted 05/15/2020 Category Skin Templates  

Files are pending approval, I included my AV-MF inspired skins as an easter egg since you mentioned the Soviet Navy... up to you to turn them into something more than an interceptor.

If you have suggestions, I'm still fixing a few things before release, so fire away, I'll include templates for that particular version (it has a bigger nose, visually, adds a few bits and bobs LOD-wise thanks to Cocas, as well as a few things skin-wise) anyway.

Su-21S "Flagpole-A" (foreground) and Su-21P "Flagpole-B" (background) in their original natural metal livery. The same in their mid-80's camo schemes. Su-21S in dark grey air superiority. Su-21P in air defense camo.

Oh dear, poor Cocas, you attracted my attention again. Any chance for : - A F-118O (late wide nose single seater) with support for specular maps. - A twin-seater F-118 variant of the above, including the wide nose (all two-seaters have the pointed nose). And maybe smoothing the geometry around the airbrake... Ok, ok, I shut up now, I have things to finish. P.S. : Wait, SpecMaps and airbrakes again... Is it turning into some fetish on my part ?

I use things such as RN_Desert and others to control both timeframe and geographic fencing for planes. For instance in my all inclusive install that's how I make sure I don't get CF-5 showing up in Bering Strait (because BS is only open to Canada_NORAD and the CF-5 only belongs to Canada_Europe) or CF-101 showing up in Germany (because of course, Gemany only accepts Canada_Europe and the CF-101 is only used by Canada_NORAD). It also allows me to have theater specific squadrons/skins (making sure no Atlantic Fleet Tomcat squadron ends up in the Pacific and vice-versa unless it makes sense for the scenario). But yep that should never, ever be your first solution, insanity lies that way. Good thing I already was.

One way is to create a duplicate terrain-specific nation in the NATIONS.ini of the terrain (add a RoyalNavy_Desert or something), with an end date (AFAIR it works, but I haven't tested it lately so take this with a massive pinch of salt, if not, do it through the plane's userlist), but that means potentially a lot of editing on the weapons (as they now need to be exportable), planes (to add to the userlist) and skin fronts (as you can't use the DecalLevel 0 and 1 as intended anymore). Another way to do it is to duplicate terrains for specific timeframes with different, that takes more disk space and is not very elegant but it requires no further messing around. My way is much more invasive and requires creating a lot of nation duplicates at the global NATION.ini level (such as RoyalNavy_Corporate, RoyalNavy_DesertStorm and so on), and doing the necessary changes to all related weapons, planes, terrains to make sure the game only uses the limited sets in the appropriate timeframe. I certainly don't recommend it, it can be a great way to have control over an all inclusive install (my quest being to, at some point, be left with just one giant install only spawning relevant planes, at the relevant place and time) but it requires a stupid amount of work and breaks compatibility with the rest of the community.

Hi guys, wondering if there was any chance of getting layered templates for the Condor and Comet/GOR-339 ? I'm currently INI reworking these to turn them into masquerade evolutions of the Su-15 and Yak-28 lines respectively and, being the lazy ass that I am, wondered if you guys could, out of the goodness of your heart, save me a few dozen work hours on the skins. Of course, the end result would be published here.

Actually, I was not entirely right, after extensive testing using adjusted MaxVisibleDistance for targets it seems the ATG_AGM behaviour is not always following the RocketAttackAI profile, provided the AI starts its attack far enough from the target it seems to do its own thing properly, without an explicit AI profile, only firing one missile, at long range; but if it's too close to the target (or the target has too short a MaxVisibleDistance) it seems to revert to the behaviour set by RocketAttackAI (I thought it a coincidence but altering RocketAttackAI seems to affect that close range behaviour), with all the limitations and issues discussed previously. My hypothesis is that the attack profile for AGMs is either dynamic, based on the weapon's data, or hard coded (but why TK decided to do it that way when he added entries for the newer CruiseMissile remains a mystery), but similar to how the engine determines whether to conduct a LevelBombAI or DiveBombAI bombing run, there is a distance to target element to which of two behaviours it uses. Reasons it might not always work as intended thus are not really related to AI profile but possibly problems linked to warping (and thus the AI being too close to the target), or possibly a visibility issue, the target becoming visible to the AI at too short a range for the AI not to revert to the RocketAttackAI profile. Editing the AI profile thus helps mitigate the problem but isn't properly dealing with it as it creates its own issues. My previous statements are still valid for weapons set as guided rockets such as APKWS and Vikhr which are set up as ammo for Rocket Pods (at least the ones I use). Anyway... lots of things to change to take that into account, dammit, for years I was wrong on that one.

Yep, moving your square waypoint will solve that part of the problem but remember that when pressing Alt-N while you're by default teleported a bit before the square waypoint, IF the game detects you get in close proximity of an AAA/SAM protected site, or an hostile flight during travel, it only teleports you at the point of hostile encounter and lets you deal with it, refusing to teleport you again until the threat is destroyed or a safe distance away.

Yup, consequence of another of TK's little tricks, the pixels on the border of a decals are duplicated along the axis on the whole mesh, so you have to leave clean space around your decals. On the other hand, when doing solid stripes it allows you to have extremely compact decals, or have them adapt to the shape of your mesh if the design allows it (think of having a stripe above a tail number, you need the decal to be only as wide as the number, the stripe just needs to be at the right height and to reach the borders of the decals, once in the right position the stripe will get duplicated left and right till the end of the mesh). Weirdly enough, while it seems intentional to have coded it like this, I have no memory of stock decal exploiting that behaviour.

Congrats Denis, another deserved recognition.

EOGR and EOGB, provided a correct AI attack pattern, do work fine for all AIs, in most cases. CGR is a little more random and you must ensure the AI only has one in flight at a time and that the carrier still dives toward the target until it hits, because the game seems to properly track if the AI launcher "guides" the missile.

Actually to guarantee a single pass you'd also need to specify a ReleaseCount superior or equal to the max number of ordnance, and set your attack run so all ordnance has time to be released before PullOut, otherwise there will be ordnance remaining and you take the risk of the AI doing another attack run using the original RollIn parameters.

Don't diss the beautiful, tiny-winged white elephant; the TSR.2 was a thing of beauty, the problem was more on the insane specs and expectations than the manufacturer abusing the system to get infinite money. The F-35 program, at this point, is just a gigantic scam, it's no longer about making a plane fit for a mission, it's about extracting as much wealth as possible and funnelling it toward Lockheed Martin and its backers. To think that some European countries are paying insane prices to use these things for air defence and air policing makes me sick.

There is a problem with the AI and missiles. 1) The AI can't use Laser weapons (well, that's not entirely true, under specific conditions your wingmen might use them, but not always, and no other AI plane, it's better to avoid them for AI use). 2) The AI uses the RocketAttackAI statements of their DATA.ini to attack, which means that while it is suited for rockets, it usually fails for modern, long range missiles. 3) Modifying the RocketAttackAI statement means you will tailor it for a certain range-class of missiles but means the AI won't correctly handle rockets and classes of missiles requiring another attack profile. You could tailor planes to have a better attack profile for Mavericks, but then the planes won't be able to have an efficient dumb rocket attack, or missiles with a different profile requirement. The parameters in the plane's DATA.INI are (values are there as an example for dumb rockets, not missiles) : [RocketAttackAI] RollInRange=8000.0 RollInAlt=1400.0 PullOutRange=900.0 PullOutAlt=200.0 ReleaseRange=2000.0 SecondPassRange=4500.0 SecondPassAlt=750.0 ReleaseCount=16 ReleaseInterval=0.08 AimPitchOffset=0.6 Everything is in meters, except ReleaseCount (in number of weapons fired), ReleaseInterval (in seconds) and Aim PitchOffset (in degrees). RollInRange and RollInAlt are the distance to target and altitude the AI tries to reach before starting its attack pattern. PullOutRange and PullOutAlt are the distance to target and altitude from which the AI will break out of its attack pattern. ReleaseRange is the distance to target at which the AI will try to fire its rocket/missiles. SecondPassRange and SecondPassAlt are the parameters for an eventual second (or subsequent passes), useful if you want to have a first pass at long range but don't want to wait for the AI to go all the way back to do another pass if the missile can be launched at closed range. ReleaseCount is the number of missiles launched per attack run, ReleaseInterval is the interval between each release. AimPitchOffset is for dumb rockets, and the number of degrees above or below the target the AI should fire (to attack for gravity and the pitch angle of rocket attachments), it's mostly useless for guided missiles. In the example above that means the AI will try to be 8km away from its target, at an altitude of 1400m, then will dive toward it, aiming 0.6° above and firing 16 rockets, 1 every 0.08 seconds when it is 2km away from the target. I can't remember if the PullOut values are the limits after which the plane disengage or a target to reach after firing. Once disengaged from it's first pass, if the AI still can fire the same ordnance it will try to get 4.5km away from the target, at an altitude of 750m and repeat the process. What happens in your case is probably that the plane tries to use the default, suited for dumb rockets, attack profile, meaning by the time it tries to fire the Maverick, it's already closer than the MiniLaunchRange for the missile, hence the passes without firing. The slamming into the ground might be solved by changing the PullOut parameters. The failure to call Rifle though is a bug that probably can't be solved that way and is probably tied to the number of sound voices playable simultaneously and their priority.

Congrats guys on this well deserved recognition.

Won't help, the WW2GunnerCB model is facing backward at the LOD level. We have a handful of these and even fewer facing right or left, but that means not a huge choice of pilots and you're stuck with the orientations set in the LOD, on the plus side, they have animated heads, provided they use the right node names. The rear gunner entry is to animate the gun (or whatever, but a node of the plane LOD) and the limits of its animation, this has no influence on the pilot model. Some modders get away with it by making seats and pilots part of the plane LOD (but if you are working at that level, using a custom properly orientated pilot LOD is a better choice with greater flexibility and reusability, but less flexible skinning options).