peter01

lol a statue! thanks Tooner, glad you like them, and letting me know.

Just uploaded some alternative Albatros FMs, should be available here http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autoc...amp;showcat=213 TKs Alb D3, D3OAW, D5, D5a and an extra, 160hp AlbD3 version. Can be very challenging AI, but more importantly nice to fly and fight in as well I think. Spent loads of time on these. It won't be obvious, I guess, but I wanted them just right, tried many many different things, and wanted them somewhat different to one another. Hope you like them :).

I'm sure they are worth making available. I'm interested. But it was a guess, based on "wwiPilotNewF".....

Nice one P10ppy. Works a treat. Great gun sound effect and of course all that smoke!! And keen to see if I can hit something with this! Any chance of the seeing a new french pilot?

More accurately, skins not showing... Are others experiencing this problem with the Expansion pack? Many addon skins don't show up, and its weird. I've d/l'ed hundreds I guess for previous version and never ever had a problem. Its weird because, its not all, for example, and these are just not sinbad's, as in examples below (sorry sinbad using your skins as an example, but I d/l all of yours, they are so good): - hanriot skins in initial d/l all worked. Additional skins don't show. - recent AlbatrosD3OAW, that I installed in one go, and most are fine, two are not - the Sworls I've done various things over past weeks to no avail. Sometimes as a result even the default skins don't show up, then I retore my old ini etc etc?

My MSFF2 just packed it in. 7 years of intensive flying, they made them pretty well. i've put in a couple of eBay orders, one as a spare, so hopefully I'll have one till 2020 - they don't make them anymore. Now this is going to sound naive... and I guess it is. Tried a Saitek X52 (not FF) I bought a while ago, and got a huge shock flying planes in FE. You don't get that "feel". Its completely different. Tried all of TKs, all just so different. Then tried out various versions of FMs I have done of the same plane, and couldn't tell any difference, other than turn, climb, roll etc. But I don't usually change those things much after initial version, its the way the plane feels that is tweaked, not just with the EP, previous version too, and to me at least with FF, the different versions can be like chalk and cheese. Its pretty hard to explain if you haven't used a good FF stick. Then flew IL2, and although its quite different using a non-FF stick, it ain't so bad, if I really had to I could get used to it, as the planes are more bland/smooth in terms of feel. The only major difference are the gun vibrations. I'm assuming most have a non FF joystick? Do some of you have FF sticks? Am I missing something here, or with the game?

I've downloaded thousands of plane skins in my time, and do some myself, but we are pretty lucky in FE, we have a number of great skinners. Amongst others, Gambit and Sinbad spring to mind. But have to agree that these skins are superb. The decals are as you say, the whole look is very natural and real, and the wings look as if they are made of real material. Yeah, probably the best I have seen in any game. Well done.

I have pedals and like them - together with a good joystick, sound, TiR it makes the world of difference, feels like flying rather than playing a game on the computer. Problem with pedals however is that I have a comfortable computer chair that has rollers, and you need to be fairly stable as the pedals require both feet naturally and some pressure to use. End result is I move around a bit, so don't use them as much as I'd like. Tradeoff between chair and pedals. This may be just the pedals I have, and of course the mobile chair! So in the scheme of things this wouldn't be my top priority. A good FF stick is easily top tho. Perhaps others have views.........

Thanks Sinbad, that did the trick. It also fixed a couple of the extra HD1 skins I had trouble with as well. BTW, I'm not sure if I did something wrong, but the Dva skins didn't work initially for me. When I looked at the folders the addon skin bmp files were named "Albatros_DVa_1" etc, whilst the stock ones I had that worked were called "Albatros_DV_1" etc. Didn't post as I thought as nobody else had a problem, it must have been something I did. But when renamed them they worked fine. I assumed its because TK calls the files "Dv", for both new Dv and DVa, to distinguish from the old Dva model (which I have in my EP game too) bmp files which are "Dva", if that all makes sense. Thought I'd mention it just in case......... Anyway thanks again for all the hard work - must be 30 skins!! And fantastic job too.

These skins are really good sinbad. The historical accuracy as well as the quality make them must have ones IMO. And of course the German/Austrian skins are what make WW1 flying so interesting. Keep up the good work.

I think thats a good point. Plus, it seems some sticks are way better than others. The x52 for example probably isn't that good.

well thanks guys, I'm glad I posted had been wondering why anybody would even play FE without FFB, but obviously, theres more to it than that... "joysticks ain't joysticks" some of the replies explain why I was so surprised..... "stirring in hot air" is about as an accurate description to describe what I experienced as could be possible. Also glad you mention Il2 - it does seem okay with this stick in comparison. Yep, obviously the x52 isn't so good for some games. it doesn't have enough resistance as you say Actually I bought and use the X52 as a second control - it has a lot of buttons. So use this for things like autopilot, level flight map, acceleration, waypoints, reloads etc etc (even editing commands like copy, paste ) while main flying controls are on MSFF2. Have TiR too..bit spoilt I guess. Only trouble is with all these controls I can hardly get to the keyboard! Do want to say tho...if possible get a MSFF2 - its great in all flight sims, but especially the prop ones. Only prob is limited buttons. Maybe someone should collate recommended joysticks for FE - really it was so different for me (admittedly, I hardly use non-FFB sticks), but it seems others have experienced this as well. I would have deleted FE from my computer within a day of purchasing it if I had been using the X52 at that time.

Excellent skins Sinbad. Thanks very much. Edit: Forgot to mention - to me, the red is the best red I've seen, well done. Its great just watching it fly around. PS. Did the Austrians fly the Pfalz D3? just kidding....

Hi Don, You can't use the ATeams data ini for TKs model, as it is. You need to do a conversion, bit complex to explain or do if you are not used to it. In any case, it will be too sluggish for the Expansion Pack environment - its changed considerably and FMs from one version don't work that well for the other. Attached is a quick mod to TKs FM eliminating the autotrim, & couple of other things. Its certainly quite smooth, no see-sawing, but not "hands free", none are. If too smooth reduce the line PitchDamper=0.4, to 0.3 or less. Converse if you want it smoother. FOKKERDR1_DATA.zip

Glad you like it Tooner. You must fly the D7s a bit, the differences are pretty much as you wrote.

Like Tailspin, assumed this didn't work. Sure I tried moving my gundata files from the previous version to the new without any result, but as you say it does work. Thanks for letting us know.

I know I said I wouldn't be updating these FMs for a while...but there you go. Posted another Fokker D7 FM. Bit different to last. Have been working on this a while, and a few things fell into place on the w/e, so feel its good to release now ( but a bit of bouncing on takeoff for the player only in Hard FM). So it needs a bit more work, but it will stay pretty much as is... powerful smooth solid capable (excellent AI too), but still jaunty and I'd say with a good feel. Its a combination that wasn't easy to achieve.... as i said before, tweaking, tweaking!!!

Good its working Tooner. for those that have tried following NeverEnough's great and simple instructions, but didn't post, I think there is one thing further that needed to be done for the spad 7 (150). After doing as described it the post, open the spad_150.ini, and change the following or similar lines AircraftFullName=Spad VII.C1 (180) AircraftShortName=Spad 7 AircraftDataFile=SPAD7_180_data.ini to AircraftFullName=Spad VII C.1 (150) AircraftShortName=Spad 7 AircraftDataFile=SPAD7_150_data.ini The last line is important - without pointing to the correct data ini the game won't recognise or show the plane.

There is a few things that can be done, but the FM is very finely tuned (it and the camel are the money ones for TK), and any change makes it less ... well, less nice. I fiddled with this early to give it better rudder, and realised that if you were to make any changes, it would need to be extensive, its so highly tweaked for its design, there are no easy or quick improvements. But if you are keen to eliminate the tail heaviness...the easiest change is to comment out AutoTrim. That is replace the line AutoTrimLimit=0.0 with //AutoTrimLimit=0.0 and then try it. I'm not sure what you mean FC, I didn't release an Alb Dv or Dva. They and D3s and a few others in late 1917-1918 are next on my list. They probably were not that good in this period, but I'd agree with you comparatively they are getting the short end of the stick - TK seems to have something about Albs. Thanks for your comments about these tho, and hanriot etc (ah, long story, but I think its okay), I'm always interested in views about the comparative performance of planes, in the game, and how they actually performed in real life.

Good work, by the time you finish the FE environment will be a mighty dangerous place

Excellent addition - the hilly/mountainous terrain is amazingly good, as are the villages, castles, barracks (?) and other landscape items. Well done.

Actually, Peter, it is reasonaby simple, especially as it has all been done for you by P10ppy.....exactly as NeverEnough states in the case of the Spad. But more generally to make AI planes flyable, people use the spad 13 or fokkerd7 cockpits, sometimes others - I use the Aviatik cockpit by the Ateam for the DFWC, for no particular reason. So heres how you do it for these and other planes - try the salmson, its great to fly too, probably TKs best after the camel. Sometimes TKs AI-only planes are very good. He just made the decision not to invest the money for a seperate cockpit design, is all, therefore can't really pass them off as the full plane. Step 1: extract or get a cockpit.ini from somewhere. I have included the Spad 13 here so you don't have do any extracting (sounds painful). Place it (or a copy) into the plane folder of the plane you want to make flyable, eg salmson. You don't need to rename it or anything. SPAD13_COCKPIT.zip Step 2: extract the ini files for the non flyable planes as P10ppy states. Included here is the Re8, Salmson, spad7s, DFWC5 inis so you don't have to do this yourself. AI_Ini_Files.zip Step 3: put the ini file ( "salmson.ini"), into the plane folder (eg, salmson), and modify the file by inserting the cockpit line in the following place/section at top of file (using salmson as example), [AircraftData] AircraftFullName=Salmson 2 A.2 AircraftShortName=Salmson 2 AircraftDataFile=Salmson2A_data.ini LoadoutFile=Salmson2A_loadout.ini CockpitDataFile=Spad13_cockpit.ini <---------- This HangarScreen=Salmson_Hangar.bmp LoadoutImage=Salmson_loadout.bmp LoadingScreen=Salmson_Loading.bmp step 4: open the cockpit.ini and play around with the cockpit postion so that it "fits" reasonably well, this can take some fiddling around, but you can quickly get something acceptable eg change these values and test by flying the plane, then readjust. It takes about 10-15 mins. Position=0.0,0.09,0.74 <--------- this mainly Offset=0.025,0.00,0.00 where values are x, y, z. And x is left/right, y is forward/backwards, z is up/down. Negative numbers can be used, for example in x direction, to move further to left than 0.00, of course. In this case P10ppy has done this for you. I believe if you look around the CA D/L section you'll find one done for the Salmson about one year ago, maybe DFWC5. Or perhaps others can post what the numbers they use? hope this makes sense. welcome to the world of FE modding!! cheers

Sublime. Good idea, very nice skins.

That was quick If you remember the early days in FE, its amazing how TK has transformed the AI. They were barely acceptable initially, and now are about as good as it gets.

Been a bit of a schizo week for me ................moving constantly to and fro from Expansion Pack to previous release, undecided. No doubt, in all ways, the new version is a far better game. Main thing to me, may have found a solution to the AI issue. So I'm really happy and enjoying the new game thoroughly. TK should still fix/improve, but whether he does or not, its probably okay. I'm sure most of you like me, are keen to see all the great addon planes working well in the Expansion pack. So my efforts will focus solely on Expansion pack FMs. Started looking at this, and there are some difficulties or challenges. Mainly timing, time, learning about the new flight model, deciding the best way to go forward. Heres a quick rundown. Timing - probably best to wait till after patch before doing to much, could be some major changes. Time, because its not that simple. And the learning curve in the newer way of doing the FMs. I'm also still finishing the N27 (reworked what I did/posted before considerably - the expansion pack flight model is just so different). The options, now looking at it more, are to do quick conversions, partial conversions, or full conversions. And likely to be a combination of all three, depending on the FM. Whether that then changes over time, not sure There is a lot of benefit in doing some planes in some ways and others in other ways - a mix. On the one hand quick or partial won't work well for some FMs, and yet because of the way TK has done his, if you do them in a similar manner they will feel very much the same as his. TKs under the hood, so to speak, are very similar. Long story, but its one reason I think the FMs may change in the patch or later. And a quick conversion isn't that quick (and has major other drawbacks too for some, not all), partial conversion takes as long as full, and is better for some planes than others (and different ways of doing partials). Finally a full conversion isn't that difficult, but the planes will feel quite different to before (some lots better of course), but mainly all FMs will start to feel very similar. I don't like that personally, they should feel different. So, in a way, having options/different ways of doing things is good , there will be greater differences between planes than before. Its not all that complex really , tho it sounds it, just takes time. But I thought I better explain a bit.