33LIMA

Wow! these are SUPERB! Must have!!!!!!!!

Very nice! Now, that plane has CHARACTER! an interesting contrast to the sleek lines of the Rumpler, too. Great work!

Depends on what people mean or understand by 'patch the game'. In the statement quoted, TW was likely meaning 'patch, in the same sense as the other SF2 titles'. But that's NOT what's being asked for, methinks - which is a limited patch, that specifically does NOT break most mods, but does stuff like restore variable campaign weather and somehow support naval ops; adding seasonal terrains back in would be another relatively easy item, since the FE(1) versions work fine in FE2. Agreed a mod-breaker, SF2-stye update is a VERY bad idea, but that's not the sort of patch people - at least some people - are asking for. Anyway, like I said it's probably not gonna happen either way.

It's all likely academic anyway, as there's probably no chance of a patch; either a limited one designed to (eg) restore campaign weather variability or better facilitate naval ops, or the sort that Panama red rightly fears. I would have hoped that TK would have known better than to issue a patch for FE2 (in particular, and notwithstanding what happened with the 'mainstream' SF2 sims) that seriously risked breaking many mods. If - IF - that was the sort of patch we'd have got, likely better no patch at all. But FE Gold/FE2 is a truly great WW1 sim as it now stands. What more it needed, beyond the original patches, the modders have mostly already provided, and are still adding to, at a rate which keeps it fresh.

A new, watery theatre complete with watery planes trumps even a BE2c :)

It's a pity if the understandable fall-out from the 'Op Kratos' police (head-)shooting in error of that unfortunate guy on the Tube a few years back, put the police off treating these two as if they might also be suicide bombers. One or both of them might be the 'basically decent blokes turned into monsters' that one of them tried to portray in his recorded rant, and I for one am not at all convinced of the wisdom (quite regardless of the morality) of combatting global terrorism by sending troops to places like Iraq or Afghanistan, when other methods were not only avalable but might have been just as effective (or possibly just as ineffective, eg the Bad Guys creep back into power after we've gone). But really, it's just a pity these two guys were not shot rather more effectively, when the opportunity presented itself.

True, provided the observer had restricted arcs of movement, and held the Lewis like he would if it WAS mounted - and didn't fire from the hip, with ammo belts draped around his shoulders and a bandana around his head :) To make this less obvious, perhaps put a 'crossbar' mount between the rear interplane struts, and a 'candlestick' mount on each side of the front cockpit, near or at the left and right traverse limits. They are simple strut-like structures and with them in place, you might have to look very closely, to notice the Lewis was not actually connected to them. Low traverse rates in the data file could simulate switching the Lewis between mounts. Either way, to adapt the proverb about the comparative value of birds in the hand or in a bush, I would suggest that a 1915-17 BE2 with necessary compromises soon, is better than a 'perfect' one in six months, maybe never. Along with a 1917-18 German general purpose 2-seater and a 1916-17 French one like the Dorand, this is probably the biggest gap left in FE's planeset, at least for the most important period of the air war (from about the appearance of the Eindekker).

Can't check myself till after I get home from Spain but from memory and as Ojcar's screenies show, Capun/A Team got around this problem by putting the Lewis on a non-authentic Scarff-like ring mount which put the Lewis Gun's barrel on a level just above the pilot's head, and so able to traverse through a reasonably realistic arc from maybe 4 o'clock to 8 o'clock, 'ghosting' thru interplane struts if necessary, and with correspondingly limited elevation/depression. Forward pilot view is of course restricted, no getting (or seeing!) around that really. It might be possible to improve on this by having a ring mount which is mostly unextured and see-through. Or something like a small set of soccer goalposts behind the front, observer's cockpit, but with the crossbar in an arc (in plan view), something short of a semi-circle, with the Lewis on a pintle mount that is able to slide left to right along the curved 'crossbar'. The 'crossbar' could perhaps be fixed between the rear interplane struts, as some real BE2c gun mounts were, tho that might limit traverse a bit too much, even for a BE2. The observer figure might well block much of the forward view but that's less important. You can always fly pre-combat in the exterior view, which I do anyway, and for most players, most of the time, the major benefit of a 1916-17 type BE is likely to be as an AI-flown target that is more realistic for that period than the 1914-15 configurations we have now. Beimg able to be flown by the player is a bonus. I would forget about modellng a BE2d with a rear gunner. Despite reports that this variant reversed the crew positions, I think the reality is that the 2d introduced a form of dual conrtrol, with a crude removeable joystick for the observer, but was not routinely flown this way or armed accordingly. I know the A Team do a variant with a rear Lewis and I'm open to correction, but think this is not accurate, notwithstanding that it may have been tried by somebody, somewhere and was actually adopted on the Belgian Hisso-engined BE2c's. A 'rectractible' gunner whose amination can be controlled - eg to deploy and able to fire at a given key command and 'retract' again (and hold fire) on command, using some of the spare animation keys FE seems to have, would be ideal. However, as the BE2 gunner/observer did (according to some reports) have to kneel on his seat and face backwards to man the Lewis when mounted to fire rearwards, pilot view obstruction was a reality, even with the observer seated. It's probably not worth worrying about trying to simulate the multiple gun mounts BE2s often carried. What WOULD perhaps be useful is two versions of a 1915-17 BE2 (the 'c' version is probably best, 'e' version next; the important things are to have the V-strut undercart with no skid and the sump fairing beneath the engine, with either straight or curved top fins). One with an observer, suitable for all roles except fighter, and one with NO observer OR gun, for bomber use only. The latter should be a simple variant - no need to fair over a cockpit, just leave out observer and gun - would reproduce the practice, common at least until mid-1915 and maybe into 1916, of leaving the observer behind on bombing missions - real 'Fokker fodder', as in IIRC Immelman's first victory. The OFF BE2c gets around the issues with a fixed, seated observer and an (unsynchronised) Lewis fixed to the outer fuselage, like the RE8's Vickers, but this is a pretty unsatisfactory compromise, minimising obstruction of the pilot's view but leaving the BE with no rear protection whatever, not to mention a extremely rare armament fit. Screenies have been posted showing the new BE coming with OFF's next release but these show so far only an observer with a Lee Enfield rifle (an inaccurate WW2 No.4 version). This appears to acknowledge acceptance that a fairly badly-blocked pilot view is the lesser of the various alternative evils available.

You want rockets, and here I am, trying to re-locate the old mod from arcade WW1 airwar game 'Wings of War' that DISABLED those darn rockets - yes they were fun until the AI blew YOUR wings off, instead! :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKRz7QTs9DE As has been said, thanks to the modders FE has a much bigger planeset than RoF or OFF, with very few planes missing. And lots of ground objects, tho you will need a user-made campagn which uses the, to see them in action. Yes it would be neat to have balloon observers bailing out (or even balloons under attack winched down, which RoF now has) and some of the other stuff you've described. I'm not sure there's ever going to be a serious simulator of being a zeppelin gunner, because if only to be realistic, you'd spend 99.9% of yout time staring into the darkness, very cold and hoping for nothing to happen, and the rest either jumping or burning, after being shot down by a plane you were maybe unable to see, let alone hit, till it set your ride on fire. The CFS2 mod package 'Combat Aces' had a flyable zep and at least one mssion that involved hunting one over London in a BE2c which IIRC mostly involved flying around in the dark and wondering where the h*ll you were and whether or not you were the right way up. Probably that was quite realistic. As for the FE view system, each to his own, and if you prefer to fly and fight in FE using arcade 'over the shoulder' views that's fine of course. In the Strike Fighters sims from which FE evolved, I liked the 'floating over the shoulder' view for surface attack runs, as it looked good and sort off compensated for the limited bombing aids that SF provided. But why not try a more realistic approach with FE, and see if you like that. My own approach is described here; basically fly in the external view, fight in the cockpit view, padlocking your targets but cutting over the front cockpit view from time to time to make sure you're not about to become a lawn dart: http://combatace.com...otary-propwash/

+1 on all the above. Installing all the stuff you need and fixing any lttle issues (like some decals not showing) can be a big effort but it's very worthwhile - just backup your 'mods' folder onto a DVD when you're done! Fly with all settings on 'Hard' but use Peter01's FM mod as some user-made planes only fly right on 'Normal'. You might want to hand-edit gunner settings for 2-seaters tho, to restore them to stock, as this FM mod also much reduces their effectiveness. Turn off the targeting cone/box and wayoint indicators (Hard setting plus hit ctrl+D till they disappear) plus you can hand-edit a file to turn off the little aeroplane icons on the in-game map, leaving just your route and waypoints showing. I find that one of the things that sets FE above the other current WW1 sims is that it is significantly more amenable to flying, navigating and fighting without visual aids, in part becasue of the very effective way that flak bursts are portrayed, the fact that you can actually see other planes at a reasonable distance, and the good Strike Fighters style view system. Small points but they are part of the reason FE is best at WW1 air combat and patrol work. I find it helps if you fly in the 'external view' pre-combat, which compensates for lack of peripheral vision, and the fact that you don't have your wingmen's eyes working with yours. Pan around from the external view, to scan the skies around your formation. Have joystick keys assigned to: - cockpit (F1) - external view (F5 IIRC) - padlock toggle (F4) - NEAREST air target - NEXT air target - NEAREST ground target - NEXT ground target ...but do NOT use padlock until you have identified enemies and are engaging, so that you are only using it as a quick way of keeping 'eyes on' enemies close to you and not a 'magic target radar'. Used this way, the FE padlock system is a great asset. It doesn't break lock when an enemy is screened by a part of your airframe but this is in part compensation for the fact that in real life you can move your viewpoint about quite a bit eg to look over or under your wing or over the side, in a way I don't feel head tracking systems do so well. With joystick keys assigned as above, I stay in external view until I locate enemies, switch to cockpit while manouevring my flight into an attack, turn on padlock and lock up the closest enemy (or other chosen target) for my own attack, toggling padlock off and back on from time to time - especially if I'm close to the ground - to help me maintain orientaton (mainly with the horizon and altitude). I can't recall if FE supports a 'check six/over your tail' view, which would be a useful addition to the joystick setup - but have managed without that so far. If rounds start hitting me - and again, FE is good at indicating this, without the 'sniper effect' that in some other sims would make this too late to do anything about - hitting 'closest enemy' with padlock still on, will usually show me when my six ISN'T clear, and why. I suppose flying 'external' rather than cockpit only is one of those controversial things amongst simmers, next to padlock, but howls that one or the other isn't reaslistic don't bother me in the slightest. Sitting at a monitor isn't exctly a very realistic depiction of what you can see from a plane, either, unless you do so with your head in a cardboard box with a rectangle cut in the front! But my approach doesn't involve fighting from outside the cockpit, or from a no-pit view or 'over the shoulder' arcade-style view. And I like the sense I get of being in my own movie, able to admire the aircraft externals.

This is looking pretty amazing. Stephen! Wil get some stick time with the Rumpler as soon as I get back from home sunny Spain. '...some entente planes' coming'...I wonder if this means the long-awaited BE2, as well as the Spowith Baby for the seaplane theatre?

It appears it's also incorrect to say that there are 'certainly' more (in the UK, anyway) who disliked Margaret Thatcher than didn't. For example, a recent YouGov poll showed 50% thought her 'good' or 'great', compared to 33% 'poor' or 'terrible'.

Did you try deleting soundlist.ini, so that the game will revert to the one in the compressed .cat file?

I suggest that before flying each campaign mission, you go to the 'Roster' screen and select the pilots you want to be in your flight. Pick the same names each time, if they survive - I choose three, from the bottom of the roster. Try to get these men through the campaign, and help them build their own scores as well as your own. Remember their names. Watch out for your flight, during each mission, just as a real flight leader should. Don't just fight your own battle and forget about the others. If you see one in trouble, get over there and shoot the bad guy off his tail. If one is chasing an enemy, do not just steal his kill, stay above and cover him while he makes it for himself. FE does award you medals - the extra medals pack recommended for Armchair Aces improves this a lot - but it doesn't have simulated newspapers or intelligence briefings. however, FE is better than the other sims at recreating the role of a patrol leader and the air combat itself. By using FE's squadron roster you can enhance this, so that you begin to care about your flight-mates and try to look after them. I'm not sure exactly why it is but in FE it seems a lot easier to fly the missions as I have described, to apply some teamwork and patrol-leading skills. Newspapers and similar things are nice to have but they are no substitute for weaknesses in more important areas.

Re the Nieu 27 'French Air Service', I don't know where I got Peter01's FM from - but I think it comes with the plane itself - as the intro implies, on its download page: http://combatace.com/files/file/5453-nieuport-27/ Open the file N27_FAS_data.ini with Wordpad and see if it says : // Alternative FM for EmID's Nieuport 27 models //Peter01 Feb 2010 if it does, I reckon you're all set.

Hi Redwolf and I'm glad to hear you've been persuaded to give FE a spin! Re the SE5 first, it's certainly player-flyable. See the screenie - this is the plane I get (listed as 'RAF SE5' in the drop-down plane list in-game) and here's what my folder for the plane looks like. It's basically the stock SE5a Viper tho with no headrest, and suitable data files. My SE folder has some redundant files so I must have tinkered with it at some point. The only thing I can think of is the cockpit. As you may know, adding a 'pit to an Strike Fighters AI plane is usually all that's needed to make it player-flyable. There's no *cockpit.ine file in my folder so I'm guessng the sE5 pit is 'aliased' to the stock SE5a cockipt which in turn is in one of the compressed data files. Have a look at your SE5.ini (not SE5a.ini) file and see if the first few lines look like mine, which reference the SE5a cockpit .ini file - if not, change it so that it looks like this: [AircraftData] AircraftFullName=RAF S.E.5 AircraftShortName=S.E.5a AircraftDataFile=SE5_data.ini LoadoutFile=SE5a_loadout.ini UserList=SE5a_UserList.ini CockpitDataFile=SE5a_cockpit.ini HangarScreen=SE5a_hangar.JPG LoadingScreen=SE5a_Loading.JPG AvionicsDLL=AvionicsWWI.dll AvionicsDataFilename=SE5a_avionics.ini EDIT - missed Panama's post - that looks like the right answer!

FE2 includes the Albatros DIII (early and late versions) so you don't need to install one. There are really only two Albatros aircraft you really want to have: http://combatace.com...ros-dii-2-pack/ http://combatace.com...-albatros-ciii/ Some campaigns may use earlier models of the DII but these are best replaced by the newer ones - you can edit campaign files with Wordpad to change the plane names to the new versions. Read the FE2 install instructions with any of Stephen's planes, like the two I mentioned above. Stephen's instructions describe how it's done. You can then apply these to planes made also for FE(1). If you play with the Flight Model on the 'Hard' setting - and it is not too difficult, and more realistic to do this - you should probably install Peter01's Flight Model set. Some planes made for FE(1) do not fly correctly, unless you use the 'Normal' flight model setting: http://combatace.com...4-fe2-fms-2010/ Installing mods in FE2 can be slow and confusing at first but you will soon get used to it and it is very worth while, as the attached screenies - taken over the Flanders terrain, with both stock and user-made planes - show!

Yes Bloody April will work in FE2 - that is what I play. I play Armchair Aces, too. The most important thing is to understand the different install instructions you need to follow, for a mod that is designed for FE(1). In FE(1), you install planes, campaigns, terrains and other mods into the normal game ('root') folder - for example, Program Files/ThirdWire/First Eagles. But in FE2 - like all 'second generation' third Wire sims, like Strike Fighters 2, you need to install these things into a 'mods' folder. This is a separate folder in a different place. The 'mods' folder's location depends on which version of Windows you have. I have Vista 64 and my FE2 mods folder is at [my user name]/Saved Games/ThirdWire/FirstEagles2. When you first install FE2, this folder is created for you, and your main options file is held there too (Options.ini). You may need to add subfolders to the 'mods' folder - some of these subfolders are created when you install FE2, but not all. One thing to be careful of is that in FE(1), extra terrains - like the Flanders terrain that Bloody April uses - go into Program Files/ThirdWire/First Eagles/Terrain (terrain - singular). But in FE2, new terrains go into the folder [your user name]/Saved Games/ThirdWire/FirstEagles2/Terrains (terrainS - plural). Edit - here's a screenshot showing my own 'mods' folder

Was that first shot really the top of an attemped loop? It looks VERY low for that!

In case I'm missing something (not for the first time)...am i right in thinking that there is no easy way, short of the original modder making the change, to do things like swap the observer's Spandau MG on the A Team Roland and Aviatiks for a Parabellum? I recall you could 'move' the MG ammo drum out of the SE5a cockpit (which I followed a tutorial to do, to provide a 'pit for the RE8) but I'm assuming no such mod can be made in these cases? The data.ini files both name the correct model of MG (7.92MM_PARABELLUM_MG14), but this evidently has no impact on the 3d model.

Thanks for trying, it was worth a go. Hope it didn't delay the BE2c TOO long tho...! :)

Hi Nakedyanick and welcome aboard! Another campaign I would recommend is this one: http://combatace.com/files/file/4860-bloody-april-1917/ It only covers a short period but it is the probably the most famous one of the air war and it features a good variety of planes and units, which complement the later 'stock' campaigns nicely. Actually I think the basic First Eagles concept of campaigns based around major battles is quite a good one. As Padraig said, they may not be long but they are hard enough to survive. Also you can choose a set of flight-mates from the roster and try to get them thru the campaign as well, as Mick Mannock or the like would have done. It can add a real new dimension to the stock campaigns, especially after a bad mission or two, as you see your squadron burned away in the fires of war, wondering if replacements will arrive before you've all 'gone west'. As for comparing the 'big three' WW1 air war sims, you may find my and others posts and my mission comparisons of interest, here. http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3686260/17

Gorgeous! Looking forward to these!!!

Welcome to flying WW1 Armchair Aces style, Don! Pamama's right. My particular bugbear was getting roundels and plane numbers to show in some aircraft made for FE(1) like the excellent Skunkworks FE8. IIRC I had to create the plane's entry in the (mods) Decals subfolder AND edit a path or two in an .ini file. Once you have everything working - and it's well worth the effort - I would strongly recommend burning to DVD a backup copy of your complete 'mods' folder, zipping it first if necessary. This can be a life-saver if you have to reinstall Windows or something gets messed up. Even if you have backed up all the planes and other mods individually, the saving in re-installation work can be a Godsend.

Looking good - really good!