column5

Great pic! Thanks for posting it.

There are some great FPS "sims" out there. Vietcong is another excellent example.

I don't play MP so I voted for the Campaign+Map. IMO stock campaign is ultra-weak and I'm loking forward to yours. Can you reveal whether you've added many new ground objects and if strike mission diversity is improved over the stock campaign?

The first two are A-7Es, the third is an A-7D.

Actually, those stripes were painted on Navy aircraft deployed in the region during the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979/80. Because the Iranians had a lot of US supplied aircraft--particularly F-4s--it was decided that a distinguishing marking was necessary. Here's another A-7 trivia question: Although equipped with Sidewinders and internal canon, the A-7 never scored an A2A kill with these weapons. The A-7 is "credited" with one kill, though--what type of aircraft was downed and what "weapon" was used?

Thanks! That longer plane is an F-8 Crusader. The A-7 had the same basic shape, but they were completely different aircraft.

Close, but wrong crisis.

Just a bit of trivia: In Ranger's second A-7 photo, who can guess what the black and orange stripes on the wings represent?

Here is the latest screenshot for you guys, taken just moments ago! The decals are basically finished, but I'm trying to take the base skin to the next level...

Thanks, Sony! :D

The GeForce2 is probably limiting you a bit. Try turning off the rear-view mirrors and shadows for starters. But don't worry because I only get 20-30 fps on a P4 2.53 with Radeon 9700 Pro.

That's an E model in navychief's pic.

Here's a new shot for you guys. I spent a lot of time today putting detail textures in the main gear wells and re-dooing the wheel hubs on the main and nose wheels. Getting reeeeal close to being done with the basic skin now...

It would be cool to have a T-2 in SFP1 just to tool around in...

To answer questions 2 and 3, no, the air to ground radar will not lock onto targets. A2G radar of the day could only provide ground mapping and terrain avoidance modes, although SFP1 simplifies these modes. To fire a Shrike, just point your aircraft towards the radar site and fire. The Shrike will guide towards it automatically, but there is a chance that it will miss. This behavior isn't entirely correct, as I think I read that Shrikes emitted a tone (similar to the way a Sidewinder does) when they were 'locked' onto a target. Basically, you are dealing with 'dumb' weapons where pilot skill and luck are the determining factors in the success of a strike, just as it was in RL.

EDIT: However strongly I feel about this I must admit that my original comments bordered on inappropriate. I still do not feel that this is something worth complaining about, and I think that nit-picking the TV coverage cheapens the entire event.

BUMP

TK, It looks like you hit the nail on the head! (That's why you are the developer, eh?) Through trial and error, I believe I've found that the string following "FilenameFormat=" can be up to 32 characters long, INCLUDING the decal numbers and file extension which are not explicitly typed out. For example, the following works: [Decal021] MeshName=vertical_stab_ant DecalLevel=2 DecalFacing=LEFT FilenameFormat=F-4busnvf111vf111vtl Position=-5.05,1.2 Rotation=0.0 Scale=5.25 DecalMaxLOD=3 There are 22 characters after "FileFormat=", plus seven more characters making up the actual file names (001.tga, 002.tga, 003.tga, for example) which makes for a total of 29 characters in the actual path. My testing shows that 32 is the max. Hope I described that clearly. :?

Thanks!

Odd1, The uninstall only removes the SFP1 "native" files. Any other files such as add-on skins will be left behind. To completely uninstall, you should manually delete the Strategy First folder under Program Files after you have run the uninstall.

TK, I've already put another version up on the website. Here is a direct link to the original version with the decals in the skin folder: http://www.column5.us/skins/sundowners_1.zip Props go to Tiwaz for discovering that we can put paths in the FilenameFormat= line, and thanks for the compliment on the skin!

Hmmm. I'll shorten the file names and see what happens. Thanks!

TK, Here is an example of what I was doing: [Decal006] MeshName=vertical_stabilizer DecalLevel=2 DecalFacing=RIGHT FilenameFormat=f-4busnvf111decalsvf111_tail_right Position=-5.05,1.2 Rotation=0.0 Scale=5.25 DecalMaxLOD=3 The above worked great before the patch. Then I tried the following: [Decal006] ... FilenameFormat=usnvf111decalsvf111_tail_right ... This worked for some decals, but not others. So, I just went back to the old method of putting all fo the decals in the AIRCRAFT folder.

Just wanted to say that with one exception, my skins seem to work fine with SP1. My new VF-111 skin is incompatible because of the non-standard way I was storing the decals. This has been fixed and a new package is available for download at my site. Thanks!

Just posted on Strategy First's website: http://www.strategyfirst.com/en/games/ Click on the downloads link under Strike Fighters.