Trotski

I think that was why the dummy gun was added to the gunbus if I remember correctly, think some of the Farmans have it too.......dunno if it could be adapted to other 2 seaters or bombers........a little out of my league doing a mod like that though, maybe Stephen 1918 or Geezer may have an idea on getting that to work ?

None that I'm aware of, think it just racks up as a personal kill, but dont quote me on that, it should show in the log after though then x amount of rounds were fired by x gun , I hadn't really thought about it before truth be known.

Yeah a nice HE51 would be really good stuff, Rata or Chaika would be nice too as the ones available are getting a bit long in the tooth. oh and an up to date BF109 B is pretty desirable as well

Ohhh someones been a busy lad !! lovely work as per usual mate, love the Breuget !!

Yes there is a relaxed and happy atmosphere on this site, very little petty bickering, and some knowledgeable folk on here as well, plus tons and tons of add ons and mods, most of it very good indeed.

ahhh there you go, glad to have been of some help, if you need any other assistance , please feel free to contact me, and I will help as much as I can, or I may know who would be able.

Yup, I assumed you have that dont you ?

OK, I fired up SF today, now bearing in mind I have all 5 SF titles merged, I just flew a mission as a mercenary in Vietnam, flying a Mirage F1, Granted the mercenary markings were not showing, but as I said, that is most likley because I dont have a merc squadron in my squadronlist.ini for the Vietnam scenarios, I then did the same with SF Europe, and again was able to fly as a Merc, all be it sans merc markings. So I reckon your issue is you are only using SF Vietnam, you need at the very least, to have the Base SF installed, and the Vietnam merged over the top of that , I am unsure if you need any of the other titles as well, but as I said before, there is no downside to owning all the titles anyhow mate !! plus the DLC's I assume when you used the Campaign editor, you mean the fly as merc option at the bottom of the selection page was greyed out, if so, then for sure it is because you dont have the base game and 'Nam merged.

That would explain the random nature of the thing indeed

OK, well it maybe worth your while investing in the other titles in the series as well, a full merge of all the titles adds a lot more options, and flexibility, it's a case of more is better with Strike Fighters. SFNA in particular adds a lot better carrier support and operations, I have all the titles , including First Eagles, I just like the flexibility of the Sim, yes its maybe not as refined as more up to date ones, but it has the advantage of being extremely modifiable and accessible, I have other more accurate and up to date sims, but I generally only play the Third wire series, as I find the likes of DCS, though superb, and realistic, too much like hard work, if you get my drift. Also, as I previously mentioned, getting the DLC aircraft is a good plan too, even though they are not 100% needed for day to day flying, but they are nice to have , just because. The other side of the coin is also, the satifaction you can have doing some of your own modding and tweaking, 4 years back when I first started with the SF/FE series I knew nothing at all, but with help and guidance from the community on this site, plus the knowledge base, and some very very good modders, I have learned a lot. So I do skinning , as I am not really able to do anything else as I don't have 3DS MAX so I cannot cockpits, or new aircraft etc. but I actually enjoy the skinning, so all is good eh ! Anyhow, food for thought there, and again, if I get the chance I will have a play around and see if I can get a merc mode up and running in Vietnam, no promises though it may not be within my sphere of knowledge.

are you playing the Vanilla WO?V, or are you playing the add on campaign ? also do you have SFNA merged with your set up, or is it the base WOV only ? I am sure it is not an insurmountable problem, if I get time next week I shall try and have a look and see what can be done.

SF does random stuff like this at times, but its usually for some innocuous reason, never had this particular issue myself, so its a bit odd to say the least, is the skin you are using, the default skin for the Dornier, or is it an extra add on one ? We need to establish that first off, second, do you experience the same issue with any other aircraft ? and finally, are you fully patched up. I have never flown the Alpha jet in game yet, so I have not seen if the issue repeats on me.

I wouldn't say it isn't. I would have to have a look see at it, and acertain if it is feasible, I would imagine as long as you add your Merc Squadron to the Squadronlist.ini it may enable the option, but like I say I would have to play around with it to see if I can get the option up and running, maybe the Merc option would also need to be added to the Nations.ini as well, and as I haven't had the sim running for a couple of months, I would have to fiddle around and see.......Do I not think the Merc option is compatible with Vietnam......hmmmm.....It isnt an option I personally would entertain, I would prefer that option in a hypothetical Middle East, or African scenario, however, far be it from me to criticise, you play the sim how YO?U wish to play it, and good for you mate ! I was merely curious, hence the question.

maybe the merc option is only on the paran Dhimari front then, I dont know as I have only ever used it on burning sands campaigns, just a query, why would you want to fly Vietnam as a merc ? also in the vietnam scenarios, they dont have any mercs set up in the Squadron lists or nations ini's so maybe if you add a merc squadron to the Sqadron list ini, it may work, like I said never done it outside of Paran / Dhimar as if I play Vietnam, or Nato fighters etc. I fly as the expected airforces.......Thats the beauty of Burning sands campaigns, you can pretty much do whatever you like, especially if you have a fully merged install, with North Atlantic so there are carriers available as well, I also like it because the default aircraft for Burning sands 1 is the super sabre, and I prefer to fly either Vampires/Venoms, or Hunters or even Meteors, I'm ex RAF after all, I got my pride ya know lol

hmmmmm.....dunno, try unistalling that aircraft, then re downloading it, and putting it back into the sim, is it always on that one skin ?

YES !! the campaign customiser, mission editor is just that, for editing single missions, please re read my previous post and go to Thirdwire, in the downloads and look for DLC 11 , like I said. it will cost you a couple of quid but thems the breaks, take a look at the DLC aircraft too, some of the skins and add ons on this site need certain DLC aircraft to work correctly, Mirages mainly, but if you have a few spare bit o' change burning a hole in your pocketsesssss, you may get them.....I have them all now worth spending the money.

it maybe the skin you are using is set up differently, the templates may be different, and do not work with the model you are using, or they may be named differently. you need to go into the skin folder for the aircraft, and ensure it is firstly compatible with the aircraft model you are using, and you need to see if the skins are named the same way as the default aircraft.....Sorry, I'm having trouble being clear, in a nut shell, some skins dont work with certain models, as they may have been made for an older model of that aircraft, or they could be a first generation skin for SF 1 so the format maybe different.

Yes mate that is correct, but the Campaign editor allows you to change your aircraft etc, you can even fly for the Paranis as a merc using it I assume you can do it in all of the different titles as well, not tried it to be honest, only on Paran/Dhimar campaigns, as generally those are all I fly

No its DLC 11 you need to purchase it from the Thirdwire site, called the campaign customiser, it allows you to change pretty much everything in the campaign setup, I must admit I don't know why it is a purchaseable item, in my opinion it should have just been part of the sim , the DLC aircraft I sort of understand, but this seems a bit daft to me, however there it is, grab that matey, and you will be up and running.

Aye you are most probably right

if you have the mission editor, you can fly as mercenary anytime mate

Hmmmm the sound of silence, I would have though more peeps would want to jump on the bandwagon here, maybe the sim is losing pilots to shinier and prettier stuff........C'mon guys 'n gals ( are there any gals ? ) surely more than just a couple of us want more from the sim here !!

My dream for the TW sims, is to port FE over into SF, I dont know how difficult it would be, certainly the FM's would need to be adjusted, as I have converted a couple of aircraft to work in SF, however the formation keeping and AI behaviour is a little iffy, not my sphere of knowledge, it involves mathmatiky voodoo and calculationz 'n other such arcane and heretical jiggery pokery, but I am sure it is "doable" a big job maybe, but one worth investigating maybe ? As for SF itself, it is super well served by campaigns, and aircraft, a few must have airframes maybe missing, or only available on the Arse Team site. The main problem I see is that the sim needs to be kept in line with up to date operating systems and graphics, but I am sure this has all been discussed elsewhere at some time.

I would be up for whatever keeps the series going, I still think the SF/FE series is one of the most accessible and enjoyable flight sims around, yes there are more accurate ones, such as DCS etc. but to be honest, as wonderful as DCS is, I dont enjoy it as much as these sims, half of the enjoyment here is the modding/skinning, and it will be sad to see it fade into oblivion.

You will find both of them in the maps and terrains section of SF2 downloads, not so much missions as terrain specifically for bombing and ground attack you just make your own missions to suit, it goes into better detail on the read me files for the 2 terrains.