Gunrunner

Gocad, My Settings -> Profile -> Manage Ignored Users, add the pseudonym of the culprit and you won't have to suffer his worthless epistolary diarrhea ever again...

Ace888, as Wrench said, you'll need 3DS Max for planes, and yes, all skinning and decals are raster based but you can use Inkscape for the initial work and GIMP for the finishing touch, in some cases it might make for a faster and cleaner workflow (even though it still requires more patience than I have). Wrench, Inkscape is a vector drawing app, it is the perfect complement to GIMP for skinning and making decals (vulgarisation : you work with shapes you can resize and deform at will without loss of quality rather than pixels, then you export as pixels when you're done, giving a crisper result than working only in pixels, and it makes alpha channels work for edges easier too).

*Trying hard not to laugh at the suggestion of Dave (and others) working with Capun*

The mods go there : [C:\users\][user_name]\saved games\Thirdwire\StrikeFighters2 Europe Download all the parts for NATO Fighters 4+, and copy the content there (you might want to read the readmes though, and be aware that there is still some adaptation bugs, especially when it comes to effects). The same goes for other mods, it's the only place you have to touch, you might have specific problems when trying to use SF1 mods, but most are relatively easy to solve.

All installers you get from TW site are patched up to date already. And since the policy of the store is "buy once, download anytime", if you have a hiatus and want to reinstall later on, you can just get the latest installer instead of reinstalling from scratch and patching. If you don't start over, you just get the patch, it's the most efficient in all cases.

The SF series has a gentler learning curve than LOMAC, it is also easier to get quick fun from it than from LOMAC. LOMAC is more centered on 90's/00's while SF is more centered around 50's to early 80's. If eyecandy is your thing, then LOMAC can't be beat. If missile lobbing is your thing, then LOMAC is probably the best choice. If the only real kill is a gun kill, then SF is your cup of tea. If you like to spend as much time creating as flying, then SF will delight you. If you want to play online, then LOMAC is your only option (or SF1 games). As for which one to get if you decide to go for SF, it's all up to you. SF2 is probably the lesser choice, it is fictional, with an uninspired terrain, however it has ressources the other games have not AFAIR. SF2V has terrain and a planeset for the Vietnam war, and the 3rd party Air & Ground War Expansion Pack takes it to a whole other level. SF2E is for an hypothetical WW3 in Germany, with possible dates between the 60's and 80's, once again you can make it even better with a 3rd party effort, NATO Fighters. SF2 uses an "open" structure, making it easy to create and install mods, some have installers, but for most it consists of copying directories, most mods these days are pretty straightforward to install and come with readmes, and the community is always here to lend a hand. Mods range from skins to complete changes (with new maps, new planes, cockpits, skins, weapons, tanks). You can browse the Downloads section to get an idea of what the community offers.

Start here : All hail the Knowledge Base Anyway, with SF1 games you might want to bypass the default install path and install the whole thing out of the "program files" directory, it's in my opinion a better method than starting to mess with rights.

Have you tried removing the line completely, or simply removing the TRANSPORT role from every transport plane ?

MigBuster, it's not a CPU issue anyway, SF1/2 run on almost anything out there, the limiting issues are GPU and above all, once you start cranking up graphic quality and adding enviro mods, memory, both graphic and system (it easily gobbles up to 2Gb of video memory and all available system memory). I would also suggest deactivating Aero if it isn't done already, it greatly reduces available graphic RAM and power.