baffmeister

File Name: SF-2 Runway Center Line Fix File Submitter: baffmeister File Submitted: 25 February 2012 File Category: SF2 Patches and Tools This file fixes the runway center line issue in SF-2 Desert. I think the same textures are used in the other titles as well but your on your own. The runway edge lines still have issues but they aren't as obvious as the center line so I left them alone. Click here to download this file

I think it should work with SF-2I + expansion but there are some much better hi rez runway textures available without the center line issue. Not sure about SF-2 Europe which uses some different textures for the red side. I did this fix because the issue annoyed the hell out of me but probably best to check the downloads for some of the hi rez runway textures available. Would only recommend this package for those with a really low end system.

I mentioned in a different thread that I was trying to make a Battle of the Bulge terrain using the TW GermanyCE terrain but was having problems getting the tiles and tods to show in the target area editor. Turns out I just had to add dedicated TFD and HFD files to get Starys' Hard Winter jpeg tiles to show up. Here's my first attempt at making a small town using some WingWhiner building objects. Some of the buildings are a bit modern but most will probably fit the WW2 era quite well. The buildings were arranged using the Target Area editing feature. There are about 70 buildings showing but I plan on doubling that number and rearranging the layout. I plan on keeping this project simple. It's meant for the single engine fighter bomber types so will just have small airfields. Some new forward airfields will have to be leveled for the allied forces. The Luftwaffe can use existing airfields on the east side of the Rhine but some ini editing will make them non-targets. Target areas will be limited to allied airfields and areas in and around the Ardennes region with no targets east of the Rhine and no targets in the larger cities.

This project is in a summer slow down [better things to do ] but will try to get a beta version released some time this summer. The final version with a campaign will be a project for this winter. I was wondering what kind of targets to place in some of the larger cities surrounding the Ardennes region and decided to keep the focus very narrow and concentrate the action in the actual Battle of the Bulge area. The exceptions will be allied airfields and a couple of German airfields in the south east. Some of the German cities such as Bitburg that were close to the action will get target objects as well. Other large cities that may be overflown on route to target areas will get some of the larger building objects, some destroyed building lods, and AAA defenses but no target objects. I don't plan on doing a lot of work on the larger cities but here are a couple of examples. Bitburg, with some warehouses, communication buildings and HQ buildings. Liege, with various building objects and AAA defenses but no target objects. The cities modeled in the TW GermanyCE terrain are probably about 50% too large for WW2 use so I'm just adding the objects to the middle of the cities and moving along.

With the Battle of the Bulge tank and artillery situation more or less under control I'm taking a closer look at the available AAA pieces for the different countries. For Germany, all I have are a couple of versions of the 88mm flak gun [MontyCZ and Geo], a static 20mm gun[MontyCZ and Geo], a mobile 20mm gun on a half track[Geo] and another half track with a machine gun that I've been directly placing on the map and does engage air targets. For the US all I've got are a 90mm and 120mm flak gun, both adapted from other models, a 50cal quad mount on a half track[Geo], and another half track with a machine gun set up for direct map placement like the German version. For Britain, I'm still looking things over but don't think there is much available except maybe a static bofors gun and a larger gun for higher altitudes. I've had a look through the SF-1 and SF-2 downloads but haven't found much so would appreciate it if anyone is aware of AAA objects I may have missed. I would also be interested in any British vehicles with machine guns that could be set up for direct placement similar to the US and German half tracks. The German 88mm and US 90mm are all I need for high altitude flak on this narrow focused project but would really like to add more mobile AAA. Any post-war models that would make convincing mobile AAA for WW2 use would be of interest as well.

I would like to add some artillery positions to the Battle of the Bulge terrain I'm working on but I'm having a hard time finding equipment. Many of the old SF-1 WW2 uploads have lost their screenshots and many of the files available don't have much of a description as to what they actually are and the date range they are good for. Some objects might just be described as BTB-152 Mk3. [i just made that up but hopefully you get the point.] Anyway, I would like to install some U.S. and German artillery in the 100mm range as well as a couple of pieces in the 50-75mm range. Any ideas suggestions? Re-tasking some other objects might work as well. I'm interested in the most common guns in the 1944-45 time frame.

Still working away on towns and attack routes. It has been quite tricky setting up the artillery with the attack routes but once things are working right it's a bit like watching a war movie. Most of the attack routes along the front line favor the German side with no counter artillery or AT guns on the US side. However, at a few US strong points I've been adding artillery for both sides. Here's a screen shot of a one sided battle with German artillery in Dasburg engaging US tanks on the outskirts of Marnach.

I had some issues with the directly placed AAA not showing up on the in game map as well as not being able to target the AAA with the "E" key so I'm just going with the standard AAA setup. I expect a lot of folks have a good WW2 AAA collection but mine's been a real mess until now. I'm going to include a half dozen or so AAA pieces with the package but they will be optional. The time fuzed flak with realistic warhead weights is useless so I've put together a generic flak gun for the 80-90mm range that's being used by Germany, the US and Britain. It's been set up with a very large warhead weight similar to the flak guns used in the Vietnam SE Expansion pack. Even with a 200kg warhead and three flak zones in range it took about four circuits at low airspeed to get this result:

I did a few more tests but still not sure whats going on with the artillery targeting. I directly placed a truck, tank, artillery piece, fuel tank and com building in range of some German artillery. The objects were all placed closer to the German artillery than an AAA piece and the artillery fired on the AAA piece. Tried blocking the view of the AAA with a building but that made no difference so I guess the only way to hide objects is using terrain. There's a chance the artillery is following some kind of priority list in the game engine but I've had enough with the testing. I might get a few more clues while targeting the Bulge terrain.

I actually saw some artillery engage some flak units on the Battle of the Bulge terrain and it was during a recon mission so it seems the artillery in SF2 must work in a similar fashion to FE2. The flak units were placed using the standard AAA set up in the types ini. I'm going to place some tanks, trucks and a ground target like a fuel tank or whatever to see what happens.

Geezer has made some great looking building objects for this terrain and they will be made available to others once the terrain is released. I'm still doing some work on them regarding damage modeling and matching them to various destroyed lods but once I get things sorted out I will upload a package. Many of Geezers vehicles I'm using as eye candy or static targets only but some will be motorized eventually so will upload those as well.

An "artistic representation" of Clervaux, Luxembourg. It's also known as Clerf, in German, I think. KJakker posted a photo of this town so you can see what I mean by "artistic representation." On the hill behind the town there is a walled Abby. Off to the left towards the horizon is the town of Trois Vierges.

Geezers' PanzerWerfer in action, supporting an attack on Krewinkle. At this point it's hard to say how the artillery is going to work out in a campaign. I've started to set up some attack routes along the front line that will be similar to the first day of the Battle of the Bulge so hopefully will learn something. Present plan is to release a beta terrain for single missions only then try and work up a campaign and final version of the terrain.

Things are taking longer than expected. After getting the front line towns more or less finished I've started adding some towns behind the front line along the various attack routes. There are a lot of them! Here is the town of Houffalize, on the road between Bastonge and Liege.

It might be that I didn't set things up quite right so will run some more tests. I expected the artillery to engage directly placed objects and have a vague recollection of that happening in the past, possibly with directly placed tanks engaging other objects.

I did quite a bit of artillery testing in SF2 and so far, I haven't seen the artillery engage tanks or other artillery that are directly placed as ground objects, just the tanks that get generated as part of the CAS mission. I was a bit surprised to see artillery engaging some directly placed objects on one of the FE2 terrains so I wonder if the coding might be a bit different between the two games, or maybe I'm not using the proper entries in the types ini for the directly placed objects. Regarding artillery accuracy, I was testing some quite low accuracy settings and it seemed to effect the range mostly, not much effect on azimuth. Also, it seems the artillery will engage the nearest target until it's destroyed then move on to the next nearest etc.

Thanks!

Back to Bastonge. With the object count at 200 and more vehicle objects desired this is probably as good as it gets. Some towns are more or less impossible to model and they get the impressionistic approach. Echternach is on the Sauer river and has a big four steeple church with another twin steeple church nearby as well as some old monastery buildings and some old city walls. Without the Sauer river it's a bit pointless to spend a lot of time on the town so I just threw a bunch of objects together and moved along.

Vianden, in Luxembourg, is on a river and doesn't actually look like this but there is a quite large castle nearby so I get to use one of ThirdWires better looking objects. Getting more German AAA in place with some 88mm and 20mm quads visible. Also a half track with a single 20mm and another half track with just a single machine gun. The large Wingwiner building to the left of the church I usually use as a hotel but in this case, it's a local HQ building. [and a target.]

After seeing so many great looking terrain mods for FE2 I finally bought the game. Not disappointed! First FE2 victory. City scene. For any other newbs that are checking out Gterls' Vosges terrain you will want to check this thread to see how to get the tods to work properly in FE2. [Gterl uses FE Gold.] http://combatace.com/topic/89674-vosges-complete-rework-of-vogesen/page-3 That fix works for Jan Tumas' Verdun and Cambrai terrains as well.

I've actually seen all those town photos but unfortunately, the stock TW Euro terrain doesn't have enough terrain details to make very convincing town sites possible. None of the rivers that were involved in the Battle of the Bulge are modeled, the area covered in forest is far less than in real life, the stock height contours don't seem very accurate, and the towns have to be built on whatever tiles happen to be in the area. Also, some of the towns that have actual period photos I haven't even included in the terrain because I have to simplify things quite a bit for a campaign. Best I can do is replicate some town shapes and sizes to a certain extent. The locations aren't very realistic either, with locations being very relativistic and some further apart than real life, done to hopefully avoid some potential campaign issues. A new terrain would have been nice but would have taken years instead of months to complete. However, I have been keeping a close eye on the Europe-Total War terrain as a possible candidate for a Battle of the Bulge re-work at some point. From the map screens, it looks like it may have at least some of the rivers included, as well as winter tiles and better height mapping. Time will tell!

Thanks for that observation. Not sure how I'm going to address the exploding shell situation for the larger guns but the more contact fused guns the better. Could you post the data for your 40mm Bofors set up?