Stephen1918

After several days of trying everyhing I can think of, I've concluded that - in FE Gold anyway - the ground units will not fire on units placed in the target.ini. Thanks for all your suggestions. I will place them on the map and keep the space between them level so maybe they'll work in FE2 when it's done. I have been thinking about the ground units hitting each other too soon - try setting their min and max extents (MinExtentPosition and MaxExtentPosition found in their data.ini) to a lower height. These two numbers define a box (x,y,z values of two points) which is the collision target for the bullets. If you set the last number of the max position to be around 0.5, it will make a short box which the others should usually miss, but you should still be able to hit it from the air. I haven't been able to try this idea, but it seems like it should work. For artillery, try putting an enemy balloon a couple of kilometers down range of the gun. That worked well for me when I did the rail mounted artillery units. You have to place the balloon carefully to make sure it's in front of the gun. My artillery never seemed to hit the balloon, so the guns would fire continuously, and they would elevate up like a real long range gun.

Here's a question for those of you who have been using FE a while. I'm trying to get me ground units placed in the target.ini to fire at each other. Reading in the Strike Fighters forums and in the Thirdwire forums, there was an indication that one of the patches in FE1 broke that feature, but nobody seemed to know for sure. TK was surprised that it was ever possible at all since he didn't design that into the game. But Quack obviously has it working in FE2. And earlier threads talk about it happening in FE1. I'm trying to figure out if it's the way I'm writing my types.ini, or if it just isn't possible. So here's my question: Is it possible to get ground units to shoot at each other in FE Gold?

I'll keep playing with it. They fire when there's an army cooperation mission, but not when I place them using the target.ini. Maybe it's an FE1/FE2 thing.

Quack - that's encouraging, at least I know there's a solution. What target types do you assign them?

I have the terrain pretty much finished and I'm starting to place the targets. I've been experimenting with battle lines. Has anyone figured out how to make them shoot at each other? It would be nice to fly over a battle in progress, but even 300 meters apart, they don't recognize each other as targets. If I put an AAA gun behind the line, they shoot at that until it's destroyed, then stop shooting. but anything placed as a ground target doesn't register as a target. Even if I could get them to fire randomly it would be an improvement. Does anyone have a solution?

I always chalked it up to evasive action. The flight seems to break formation and go into a zig-zag weave when you get close to the front, when you start getting flak, or when enemy planes are in the vicinity.

View File Airfields for Large Planes This replaces the stock airfield for both FE1 and FE2. The planes are spaced 25 meters apart instead of 15 and arranged in two rows, 10 meters apart. For smaller planes, like the Morane Saulniers, they will seem pretty far apart, but the larger planes, like the Farman F.40 and the Caudron G.4, can now take off without colliding. In your Terrain folder, make a backup of your WW1_Airfield1.INI and replace it with mine. It will change all the airfields to the new configuration. All the parked planes and all the other spacing is the same as the stock airfield. Submitter Stephen1918 Submitted 03/26/2015 Category First Eagles - WWI and Early Years - Terrain and Environmental Mods

I've been playing with the Airfield ini since 33Lima's post. This version seems to work pretty good. The planes are spaced 25 meters apart instead of 15 and arranged in two rows, 10 meters apart. For smaller planes, like the Morane Saulniers, they look pretty far apart, but the larger planes, like the Farman F.40 and the Caudron G.4, can now take off without colliding. I noticed that the Airfield.ini indicates a "[Runway001]" I tried for several days to make a "[Runway002]" but could not get FE to recognize the second runway. Make a backup of your WW1_Airfield1.INI and drop this in your Terrain folder. It will change all the airfields to the new configuration. All the parked planes remain the same. I will also put this in the Downloads section for Terrain and Environmental mods. AirfieldForLargePlanes.zip

Let's not forget quack74 who has made an incredible contribution with all the skins he has made. I would also like to acknowledge ojcar who made all the FMs for my planes, and who has made a huge number of wonderful campaigns.

Thank you Crowford! I would like to pretend that I knew all that... but I didn't. I've gone back to working on the Galicia terrain, and I was using the F.40 as a stand in until the F.30 gets built. When I uploaded the revision, I accidentally included the Russian skin with it. I knew the Russians had some, (but I didn't know how many,) so rather than repackage it, I just let it go.

I just uploaded a new version of the F.40 (still awaiting administrator approval.) This version corrects the problem with the wing wires and includes a Russian skin. I also added a note about the wide wingspan causing collisions on the runway.

Sorry about that. The wingtips touching is something I knew about, I suppose I should have warned everyone. The Farman has a wingspan of 17.6 meters, First Eagles lines up planes on the runway 15 meters apart. The only way to correct this is to change the airfield ini in the terrain folders. You can stagger them front and back (y axis) about 10 meters so they don't sit in a straight line. Quack made an airfield for large planes some time ago. The Galicia terrain had an airfield for oversize planes, but only for some airfields used in the campaigns. The Caudron G.4 will have the same problem (17.2 meter wingspan.) The Voisin just barely makes it at 14.7 meters. The clean edges on a broken wing are just the way I make the planes. I would rather put the file size detail into things you can see all the time. I have never put detail into the damaged parts. The wires hanging out after the wing is clipped is an embarrassment to me. I will look over the data file and upload a correction. I don't know enough about FMs to comment on the take off issues. I have not encountered the problem, but all the airfields in the terrains I fly most often have been leveled to be absolutely flat. Could a slight incline be causing the problem? The Farman has 4 wheels, I wonder if the extra drag causes a problem in certain situations.

Late last night I uploaded the Farman F.40, a two seat pusher style fighter/bomber/recon plane introduced in late 1915. It features two skins, some decals, and has a loadout for p10ppy's Le Prieur rockets (which are included in the download.) It also features ojcar's dummy machine gun, which makes the AI pilot a little more aggressive in a dogfight. My thanks to ojcar for making the FM and for help with organizing the weapons for installing in FE2. My thanks also to peter01, for his machine gun data, to p10ppy for the rockets, and to Crowford for help with the cockpit details.

View File Farman F.40 The Farman F.40 was a joint design by the two Farman Brothers, Maurice and Henri, combining features of the MF.11 and HF.22. Like the other Farman designs, placing the engine in the rear gave the gunner an open field of fire. The F.40 was used for reconnaissance and as a light bomber and was widely used by most of the Entente forces. The long wingspan gave stability, but made it slow to maneuver. French squadrons began replacing it in 1916. My plane includes loadouts for a light bomb load and for Le Prieur rockets. I have included three skins, French, Belgian, and Russian. Decals and my skinning templates are included in the download. I have included ojcar's "DummyMachineGun" data, Peter01's Lewis Machine Gun data and P10ppy's Le Prieur rockets with this download. Warning The Farman F.40 has a wider wingspan than First Eagles expects so if you start on the runway, your wings will be touching the wings of the planes next to you. This will cause an immediate collision and you or other planes in your flight may lose their wingtips as soon as the game starts. Best to start in the air, or modify the airfield.ini in the terrain folder to space out the planes on the runway. Credits Thanks to Ojcar for making the data file for the Farman F.40 and for making the data for the dummy machine gun. And for helping me with the installation package for FE2. Thanks also to P10ppy who made the Le Prieur rockets, and to Peter01 who made the data for the Lewis Gun. Thanks also to Crowford who provided resources for the Farman cockpits. ----------------------------- Installation Instructions For FE1 - Unzip the file. Move the folder named "FarmanF40" into your FirstEagles/Objects/Aircraft folder. For FE2 - Unzip the file. Move the folder named "FarmanF40" into your FirstEagles/Objects/Aircraft folder. Then in the FirstEagles/Objects/Decals folder, create a new folder named "FarmanF40". Move the folder named "D" from your Aircraft/FarmanF40 folder into the Decals/FarmanF40 folder you just made. You may not need to install the guns or rockets, they have been used on other planes and you may already have them. Instructions for installing the guns and rockets, if you should need them, are in a separate file included in this download. Submitter Stephen1918 Submitted 03/17/2015 Category Other Entente Aircraft

The Eastern Front campaigns using the Galicia terrain only use the planes and skins available at Combat Ace. There are only three campaigns so it won't be as immersive an experience as Armchair Aces, but it's something. As for redoing the A-Team planes... don't hold your breath, there are still a lot of other planes that haven't been made yet...

Yeah. In First Eagles, the gunner is really part of the gun so he will only Pitch and Yaw with gun - no animation at all. In some of my other planes, the gunner was two pieces so he could elevate without his knees coming through the fuselage - that distorted his torso a bit, but since he was in the gunner's pit you couldn't really see it. This guy sits right in front of the pilot so two pieces isn't an option here. I've got him working fine, but only with severe limits to his field of fire. I keep thinking that I can increase his angles of motion, but I haven't found the solution yet...

I'm very close to finishing the plane, I've begun to rough out the skins. But the cockpit still needs some work. I'm still not satisfied with the gunner so I haven't started the cockpit skins yet.

I'm glad you got it working. I really need to understand the difference between FE1 and FE2 better. In my installs of FE1, all the guns in the Weapons folders have MaxRounds set to zero, but they all fire in the game... But if it works... don't change anything!

Verdun - I am not that familiar with FE2, I use FE1 - Since the gun shows up in the game, you must have it installed in the right place. My angled gun is really an angled version of the "8MM_Schwarzlose_M07/12" You might need to check that that gun is installed in the gun data as well. Can someone who knows more about FE2 Weapons help us out here?

I want to thank everyone who contributed their screen shots and support to my presentation last night. The event was sponsored by the local chapter of the International Game Developers Association and by the local chapter of ACM SIGGRAPH. It was a week long event, I presented on the last day. It was a pretty good crowd, a lot of them were students. I spent some time showing screen shots of how I build planes in 3D Studio and what goes into getting the plane to work in the game. Then I spent about 20 minutes showing screen shots of the planes in the game. With the slides that were contributed and my own screen shots, I had more than 300 screen shots. There were a lot of questions about First Eagles. At the end I showed a slide with the names of everyone whose work was included and I showed a slide with the URLs for Thirdwire and for CombatAce. I gave credit to: Screen shots by: 33Lima, Quack74, Geezer, StephenM, and Ojcar. Terrains, skies, ground tiles, objects, etc. by: Gepard, Gterl, PanamaRed, JanTuma, Quack74, Wrench, and Geezer. Skins by: Quack 74, Gambit 168, Whiteknight06604, Sinbad, and Geezer And I mentioned that Ojcar has done all the data files for all my planes. My thanks to everyone who helped. Stephen1918

Thank you Ojcar. I like the cloud effects and the flak.

Thank you StephenM - Good shot of the DH 5. Ojcar has made the FMs for all of my planes...

Sweet.