33LIMA

I always liked the EAW-style campaign mission briefings. Yes they were short and simplified but they really helped the immersion factor. While you studied the map there was a murmur of voices which died out as the CO got into his stride... So I was thinking, maybe the same could be done for FE, by replacing the 'CampaignScreen' wav file with a verbal briefing. As you can't make it mission-dependent as in EAW, it would have to be a bit generic. So to avoid boredom after the first time, you would need multiple versions (plus a set for each nationality you could swap in or out manually or using maybe the JSGME mod editor). It could start with some EAW-style murmering, then something along the lines of "Right, chaps, pay attention now. The names for today's show are on the roster, so find out who you're up with. Don't forget to mark up your own map with the route. Note the bearings, speed and altitude for each leg - anyone who gets lost will be buying the drinks in the mess tonight, if the Huns don't get him! And I hope you have checked your belts are clean and properly loaded -the Armourer's life doesn't depend on your Vickers working but yours will! See you outside in 5 minutes - and good hunting!" You can see how it would be possible to produce multiple variations of that sort of thing, maybe with a bit of banter between pilots - a bit like you got in Crimson Skies, which did that unusually well, with a good deal of tongue-in-cheek banter between Nathan Zachary and his air pirates, which brought them to life! So, does anyone know if you had, say, six different wav files in the Menu folder, all called "CampaignScreen.wav", would FE (a) crash (b) play just one or © pick between them more-or-less at random, so you got the variety? I suppose I could experiment and find out. But I daresay somebody has already tried this sort of thing and knows the answer already. Another possibility, requiring just one track (for each nationality ideally) would be something to replace the pilot record screen music. Maybe based on the EAW nissen hut concept, where you had radio music, bedsprings creaking, and a bloke coughing, with a flypast engine sound every so often. Scratchy period gramaphone music, or maybe an RFC singsong like "The Only Way" in 'Aces High', some tinkling of glasses and other background noise or banter like you were in the Mess with the boys, an engine starting up from a test run outside, just something to give you the impression you are on a WW1 airfield, not staring at your monitor.

Personally I think FE, on balance, is at least as good as OFF, comparing OFF Phase 2 (and what I have seen of Phase 3) with FE1 patched. Both have a very limited range of 2-seaters. Neither has great AI but FE's AI is rather better, seeming to cope better with slow WW1 planes than does OFF/CFS3 eg no crashing on/after takeoff, slightly better formation flying, somewhat better evasive action (hate those low-level up-and-down antics in OFF). Patched, FE's planes look a LOT better, complete with dynamic shadows, animated pilots and guns/engines, and high-resolution textures; in particular, the FE Camel's external and internal models must be among the best seen in any 'survey' sim. I totally disagree that the FE planes are 'toy-like'; they are superb, beautiful to look at, in cockpit or external views. The FE planes 'decals' look a LOT better than the IL2 equivalent and give squadron planes a unique identity. The OFF clouds and scenery are somewhat better than stock FE's but FE's fog and lighting effects give the FE world a quite beautiful appearance and it has good mods for clouds and terrain. FE's rendition of roads, rivers and to a lesser extent, towns or villages is generally better than OFF's CFS3-based equivalent. FE's inflight and planning maps aren't great but they are better than OFF's map, based as it is on the truly appalling CFS3 low-resolution crud. The OFF WW1 world has a better ground war environment, tho FE's isn't bad. Both have flaws in damage modelling. FE has a great range of free addon planes, terrains ond other stuff. OFF's limitations on 'warping' may have been reduced in recent versions but FE's is not speed-limited. The OFF SP campaign has some nice features; FE's reminds me of EAW's; a few less trimmings to be sure, but somehow just as engaging. Speaking as someone who has just got back into simming, it's evident that FE has come a long way since the original release. On balance, I think it now has a strong claim to being the best all-round WW1 sim currently available. What it may lack compared to OFF and RoF in some areas, it makes up for in others.

I'm just getting back into SFP1, WoE, WoV and FE (plus have just got 'WoE2' for comparison) and have naturally acquired some 3rd party planes. Now sone addons like the NATO fighters series seem to feature extra campaigns with add-on planes which is great but many add-on planes, while showing up as choicesand flyable in Single Missions, don't seem to appear in campaigns (amybe they do but I've just not seen one yet). Now I'd not necessarily expect adding a plane to make that plane usable by the player in campaign mode, as that would need squadron and base data to be associated, but I was sort of hoping they would show up as AI planes. Especially in First Eagles, where the selection of enemy (and friendly!) 2-seaters is especially limited - one of the things I enjoy in good old Red Baron 3D was seeing FK8s and FE2s in the air as well as BE2s, that sort of thing. But I suppsoe AI planes in SFP1/FE maybe need base and squadron date too, not just the plane available for Single Missions. Tried searching here but can't find the answer, so can anyone help? Is there a way of getting extra, third-party planes to show up in campaigns, short of d'l ing a campaign which features them?