Stephen1918

This is amazing! Thanks for all the hard (and tedious) work you must have put into this.

Nice work Ojcar! Thank you, these are a great addition to First Eagles! I look forward to seeing them in campaigns and I will add them to my naval project. And thanks Quack for the formation info. It will be great to see them in single missions, too.

We need more model builders around here! I have a Be2 and an LVG CI started. I also some that I made before I started doing stuff for First Eagles. Those need pretty extensive conversions before they can be used here, and it will take time. I'm focused now on seaplanes and naval missions and I'll be working on that for now. But, as I did for the Eastern Front, I will take some time out now and then to do things for the rest of you. I think it's a good idea to have a wish list, so let's keep this going. It would help if you could provide links to the specs for each plane, and links to any plans you may know of, especially hi res top and side view drawings. Photos of the cockpits would be a great help too.

Yep, I've been starting to make ships to act as targets for seaplanes. That's where all my recent questions about ship movements came from.

I uploaded the Albatros W.4, the float plane version of the D.II. It will take off and land from a regular airfield, but it looks better if you begin the mission in the air. I included a full set of number decals and my skinning templates. Thanks to Ojcar for the data file, to Nix for the sound, to to Quack for getting me started on sea planes.

View File Albatros W.4 (Early) The Albatros W.4 was a float plane version of the D.II. It used the same fuselage, engine, and armament as the D.II, but had a wider wingspan and tail. The W.4 was used for recon and spotting missions in the North Sea, the Baltic, and by Austria-Hungary in the Adriatic Sea. I have made an early version of the W.4 with the radiators mounted on the sides of the fuselage. I have included a complete set of number decals, and three skins - a basic wood and linen skin for Germany, one for Austria-Hungary, and an early hex camo skin. I have also included my skinning templates. The skins for the early Albatros W.4 are interchangeable with the late version skins. My version includes a loadout for a light bomb load, even though the W.4 was not used for bombing. You can delete the loadout file if you want more historical accuracy. Since it's a float plane, the W.4 works best in the Flanders, Gibraltar or other terrain that has a lot of water. The plane will actually take off and land from a conventional airfield, but it looks strange to see the floats going under the ground. It would be best to start the missions in the air. The plane will show up occasionally parked on an airfield, but its availability is listed as "Rare" so it shouldn't happen too often. Credits Thanks to Ojcar for making the data file for the Albatros W.4. Thanks to Nix for providing the sound for the Mercedes engine. And thanks to Quack74 for giving me the idea for a float plane. Installation Instructions For FE1 - Unzip the file and move the folder named "AlbatrosW4" into the FirstEagles/Objects/Aircraft folder. You also need to move the sound file "mercedes160m2.wav" into the FirstEagles/Sounds folder. For FE2 - Unzip the file and move the folder named "AlbatrosW4" into the FirstEagles/Objects/Aircraft folder. Then in the FirstEagles/Objects/Decals folder, create new folder named "AlbatrosW4". Move the folder named "D" from the Aircraft/AlbatrosW4 folder into the Decals/AlbatrosW4 folder you just made. You also need to move the sound file "mercedes160m2.wav" into the FirstEagles/Sounds folder. Submitter Stephen1918 Submitted 03/12/2013 Category Albatros

This is looking very cool. I admire your dedication. I know that it's a lot of work, and we all appreciate the effort you're putting into this.

Thanks guys. I actually started these back in December and I've been working on them off and on since then. Quack and I have been thinking about naval missions and airships would be more appropriate for them. I have a naval terrain started and I started making some ships too.

I've uploaded a set of five airships for First Eagles - a new Zeppelin, as well as four other common types of dirigible. They are all identified as balloons and they all have machine guns, so they should make for more challenging balloon busting missions. You can install by simply dropping them into your GroundObject folder. I've included alternate skins for some of them so you can make copies for different nations.

View File Airships Dirigibles were used by both sides on all fronts during World War I. Early in the war, they were used for recon and bombing, but were soon replaced by aircraft. However, because they could stay aloft for long periods, and their ability to hover, airships continued to be used for naval operations, especially for scouting and anti-submarine patrols. I have created five different types of airship. They are all identified as "Balloon" and they are all armed with machine guns. Drop them into your Ground Object folder and they will show up over the battlefields for more challenging balloon busting missions. I have included alternate skins for some of them so you can use them for different nations. Historical Notes The R23 and L32 are relatively accurate models of actual airships. The Type M, Type PL, and Type VZ are more or less generic representations of popular airship types which were used by different nations. I have averaged out the national and manufacturer variations, but the overall size and shape is relatively accurate. I have taken liberties with the gondolas and simplified the rigging in order to keep file size down and frame rate up. Installation Instructions Unzip the file and copy the folders you want into your FirstEagles/Objects/GroundObject folder. Submitter Stephen1918 Submitted 03/10/2013 Category First Eagles - WWI and Early Years - Object Mods

I've also noticed that single missions have a lot more troops (or tanks) on the ground. I think that sometimes the formations are doubled. For the campaigns, if changing the formations doesn't work, all I can think of is adding more strategic nodes really close together. I haven't tried it so I don't know if FE will populate more than one node at a time. I think that campaigns use the nodes instead of the movement.ini.

Thanks for the convoy set up. I'll use that for now. It's frustrating that some things carried over from SF, but other things didn't...

I've been playing with the Formations.ini and I remembered this post. In my campaigns, the Infantry use the "Tank Spread" formation. The tank spread only has positions for 4. You could probably edit the formations.ini to get more positions.

Back in August, Sinbad uploaded a corrected version of the Morane N in the skins section - "IRAS Morane N Skin Set" under "Other Entente Aircraft" - It included the sound fix and Peter01's FM. The download has Russian skins, but you can use the other skins with it.

Thanks for your help Wrench. It looks like FE does not recognize a "shipping" route. If I define a ship as "Cargo_Shop" it will show up on a truck route, but the game ignores it if I make the same route into a shipping route. I'll keep playing with it.

FE seems to have most of the naval stuff in it, including the ship wake and several bombs hitting water effects. There's a ship convoy formation in the Formations.ini, and a Naval Object in the Object List.ini. I've been playing with the Flanders terrain, which has a lot of water in it. I've noticed that when machine gun bullets hit water there's a different effect than when they hit land. And when a plane crashes in water there's an oil slick. So FE "knows" the difference between land and water at some level. I've managed to get ships moving on water by identifying them as "Transport" in the data.ini and setting up a truck route on the water. I can set up a Shipping route, but I haven't been able to get a ship to use it. (Things show up at 0,0 because the game gets the LOD, but doesn't know where on the map to place it. That also happens if you get the Position numbers wrong.) In SF, how are the ships that follow the movement identified? I've also been playing with the Albatros, I would love to have a wake effect when it takes off and land. Has anyone managed to do something like that in SF? I've heard that the original FE1 had a dust effect when the plane landed, does anyone know how that was done? What was the effect called and where in the data.ini was it placed?

Sorry to hear about your system crash. I know how frustrating that can be, and no matter how determined we try to be, somehow backups don't get made. If I can help by sending you any of my stuff, let me know.

Great screen captures of the plane Quack. I'll make some flying boats when I get more time. Over at SF, Suicidal has a U-boat which I put into the Flanders terrain. I had to change the guns and the service dates in the Data.ini. It's GroundObjectRole is "Warship". In the Flanders Types.ini I gave it a target type of "Misc". It shows up as a target in some of the missions, and it does fire back at you. It doesn't move though. I have FE Gold, there is a NavalObject.dll in the Objects folder and the ObjectList.ini lists a naval object. So at least some of the naval stuff is in there, but I don't know how to access it. SF has some float planes in the download section, how does the game engine handle them? Maybe someone who's worked with naval objects in SF can figure out how to get them working in FE.

The terrain looks great, and the area will be perfect for the Italian campaigns that Quack made. I started some seaplanes a while ago. (Quack was test flying them.) I also started some ships. It is going slowly because the real world is taking up so much of my time these days. Has anyone worked with naval objects in First Eagles? I've just started to look into it, but haven't gotten very far.

These are great! Thank you!

Your Italian terrain looks great so far! Thanks for taking on this important project.

I haven't done any new skins yet. I just made new decal ini's for some skins I already had so people could see what the insignia look like. I don't even remember where those skins came from. I hope some of the modders around here will start posting more accurate skins for the post war period.