Menrva

Terrain package updated to Version 1.03.

View File Libya, Central Mediterranean (1980-2011) Libya, Central Mediterranean (1980-2011) Terrain February 13th, 2018 (1st Release) by Menrva >For Strike Fighters 2, Recommended Full-5 Merged This is a complete remake of the Libya terrain made by Dave and further tweaked by Wrench during the years. The entire terrain has been retargetized and hand-tiled to a great extent using a different, more complete tileset; Sicily, Greece and Tunisia no longer are barren, deserted lands as seen in the original. Major rivers have been added and mimic Real World courses as accurately as possible. Numerous target areas have been added in order to expand playability, targets of opportunity and year range. This terrain features a fresh new 250m resolution heightmap (instead of the stock 500m resolution), allowing for greater details and precision in elevation changes; overall it provides the whole terrain with a better look. The terrain spans from June 28, 1980 to October 31, 2011 (the official end of NATO's Operation Unified Protector); it is designed for Operation El Dorado Canyon, the Gulf of Sidra incidents of 1981 and 1989, Operation Odyssey Dawn and the subsequent Operation Unified Protector. Also, a specific Red Side target has been added inside Tunisia (Blue Side) territory, meant for Operation Wooden Leg. Targets reflect Real World events as accurately as possible; for instance, some airfields won't be available after a certain date and/or will change name according to historic changes. Off Map Airbases have been added and long range AI flights can be generated from them, if you have SF2NA. All main targets have been placed accurately in their Real World locations. Expect to see temples at historic sites! Ground Objects are not included. It's up to the user to find and obtain anything that can be useful for the proposed terrain's scenarios. >Credits (in no particular order): -Dave, who had the idea of recreating such an important scenario in the Strike Fighters world. -Wrench, who kindly allowed me to improve upon his work by giving me a blank cheque and trusting my capabilities. Thank you, sir! -swambast, who provided me with invaluable help in tracking and fixing common and uncommon bugs. -gerwin, whose TFDtool has proved to be essential in today's terrain making. If the terrain is pretty accurate to RL it's also because of him. I included his very nice Airfield 7+8 Addon Pack, too. -mue, for the improved shaders he made, which I have included and reworked for the terrain, and for the tools he made for SF2 modding. -luk1978, for the waternormal bitmap he shared at the SF2 screenshots thread. Your mods are very interesting! -MigBuster, I have included some of his great hi-res textures for runways. -Gepard, for his great tutorials about terrain making, in the SF1 Knowledge Base at CombatACE. It's a gold mine! -tiopilotos and Stratos, who supported me during the terrain's development. Thank you, guys! -krfrge, who has produced a tutorial for recreating SF2-like planning maps, which prompted me to work on templates and my own high quality planning maps. Thank you very much! -comrpnt, for his Approach and Airfield Lighting Pack mod packages for SF1 series, which I reworked and included. Because the original terrain was born from Dave and was tweaked numerous times by Wrench, I included the ReadMe files from the original packages, to the end of giving proper credit to everyone involved directly or not. >Disclaimer: This is a freeware; yet it can be redistributed ONLY in other CombatACE mods/mod packages. Any changes to the terrain package's files and/or any copy-and-paste attempts of their contents are NOT authorized if you plan to release them in other mods. But permission might be granted to those who request it to me at CombatACE. This terrain may NOT in any way, shape or form be used in any payware additions. >My Terrain Packages: NovaLogic Terrains Outer Space Terrains Hawaii, Central Pacific (1959-2028) Timor, North Oceania (1950-2018) Ecuador, Northwest South America (1981-1998) Texas, American South Central (1968-2018) Sweden, Baltic Rim (2004-2018) Sweden, Baltic Rim (1952-1994) Libya, Central Mediterranean (1980-2011) Madagascar, Southeast Africa (1977-2018) Iraq, Western Asia (2003-2018) Alaska, Bering Strait (1955-2018) Iraq, Western Asia (1980-2003) >My Miscellaneous Packages: Ace Combat Nations Nations & Medals Expansion Speech Enhancement Wings Over World Menu Screens realSKY Environment Submitter Menrva Submitted 02/13/2018 Category Full Terrains  

Terrain package updated to Version 1.03. Check the Changelog for full details.

Terrain package updated to Version 1.05. Check the Changelog for full details.

View File Iraq, Western Asia (2003-2018) Iraq, Western Asia (2003-2018) Terrain August 13th, 2017 (1st Release) by Menrva >For Strike Fighters 2, Recommended Full-5 Merged This is a complete remake of the IR2003 terrain released long time ago by Wrench. The entire map has been retargetized and retiled using a whole new tileset, combining tiles from JSF_Aggie, Stary, Centurion-1 and my bad transition tiles. All major water bodies, lakes and some minor rivers have been hand-tiled. The Caspian Sea coast had to be hand-tiled as well. Numerous target areas have been added in order to expand playability, targets of opportunity and year range. This terrain features a fresh new 250m resolution heightmap (instead of the stock 500m resolution), allowing for greater details and precision in elevation changes; overall it provides the whole terrain with a better look. The terrain spans from May 2, 2003 (the day following the end of major combat operations of Operation Iraqi Freedom) to December 31, 2018; it is designed for fictional clashes between US-backed Iraq and Iran. It's the perfect playground for the fictive Operation Darius scenario created by the CombatACE community. Iran is Enemy, Iraq is Friendly, other countries are Friendly as well. Targets reflect Real World events as accurately as possible; for instance, certain Iraqi airbases will be abandoned by 2004 or by other dates (some airports were converted to simple U.S. Army FOBs), etc. Some airfields won't be available after a certain date and/or will change name according to historic changes. All main targets are in their Real World locations (I tried to be as accurate as possible, to such a level that even surpasses ThirdWire's stock terrains). Shiraz Int'l Airport and Prince Sultan Airbase are beyond the Wall. However, if you have SF2NA, long range AI flights can be generated from such airbases. Ground Objects are not included. You can obtain most of them from Wrench's original Iran-Iraq terrains, or from other mod packages. >Credits (in no particular order): -Wrench, who reworked the original terrain and provided the CombatACE community with plenty of mods and scenarios to play with. He gave me invaluable advise, the tools I needed and introduced me to the beautiful, exhausting world of terrain modding/making. Thank you, sir! -swambast, who offered to build two high quality 3D models (Mosul Dam and Mosul Grand Mosque), featured for the first time in this terrain, it's an honor! He also provided major help in tracking and fixing common and uncommon bugs. If the terrain is stable (no CTDs), it's his merit! -Nyghtfall, for creating 3d models of the Kuwait Water Towers and Kuwait Freedom Towers. -tiopilotos, for providing reworked .tga tiles with new alpha channels. Much appreciated! -Spudknocker, who helped me complete the 1980-2003 beta version of the terrain, providing additional target areas. -gerwin, whose TFDtool has proved to be essential in today's terrain making. If the terrain is pretty accurate to RL it's also because of him. I included his very nice Airfield 7+8 Addon Pack, too. -MigBuster, I have included some of his great hi-res textures for runways. -mue, for the improved shaders he made, which I have included and reworked for the terrain, and for the tools he made for SF2 modding. -luk1978, for the waternormal bitmap he shared at the SF2 screenshots thread. Your mods are very interesting! -Crusader, who provided me with the info I needed about ODS and other stuff related to targets. -JSF_Aggie, for his high quality DS tileset, which I have expanded with my horrible transition tiles. -7eleven, who directed me to a website filled with Desert Storm related info. -Centurion-1, since I used some tiles from his Desert 4 Mountain Regions+ Addon. I tried to contact you for permission, but it seems RL got in your way. Your WIP mod about the Iran/Iraq war gave me the motivation to complete this terrain. The least I can say is thank you. Best of luck, mate! -Stary, because his tilesets are pure art. I borrowed a few TODs and tiles from his excellent IsraelME tileset. -Gepard, for his great tutorials about terrain making, in the SF1 Knowledge Base at CombatACE. It's a gold mine! -Stratos, who supported me support during the terrain's development. -krfrge, who has produced a tutorial for recreating SF2-like planning maps, which prompted me to work on templates and my own high quality planning maps. Thank you very much! -comrpnt, for his Approach and Airfield Lighting Pack mod packages for SF1 series, which I reworked and included. I am totally sure I missed someone, especially because the terrain was born from Wrench's original ones. So I also included Wrench's original readme files from his IR and IR2003 terrains to the end of giving proper credit to everyone involved directly or not. >Disclaimer: This is a freeware; yet it can be redistributed ONLY in other CombatACE mods/mod packages. Any changes to the terrain package's files and/or any copy-and-paste attempts of their contents are NOT authorized if you plan to release them in other mods. But permission might be granted to those who request it to me at CombatACE. This terrain may NOT in any way, shape or form be used in any payware additions. >My Terrain Packages: NovaLogic Terrains Outer Space Terrains Hawaii, Central Pacific (1959-2028) Timor, North Oceania (1950-2018) Ecuador, Northwest South America (1981-1998) Texas, American South Central (1968-2018) Sweden, Baltic Rim (2004-2018) Sweden, Baltic Rim (1952-1994) Libya, Central Mediterranean (1980-2011) Madagascar, Southeast Africa (1977-2018) Iraq, Western Asia (2003-2018) Alaska, Bering Strait (1955-2018) Iraq, Western Asia (1980-2003) >My Miscellaneous Packages: Ace Combat Nations Nations & Medals Expansion Speech Enhancement Wings Over World Menu Screens realSKY Environment Submitter Menrva Submitted 08/13/2017 Category Full Terrains  

Terrain package updated to Version 1.06.

View File Alaska, Bering Strait (1955-2018) Alaska, Bering Strait (1955-2018) Terrain April 13th, 2017 (1st Release) by Menrva >For Strike Fighters 2: Europe, Recommended Full-5 Merged This is a complete remake of the DBS terrain made by Major Lee and further tweaked by Wrench. Wrench kindly allowed me to improve upon his work; the entire map has been retargetized and retiled using a whole new tileset, combining tiles from Brain32 and Stary. Some water bodies, lakes and rivers have been hand-tiled. Most of the terrain has been hand-tiled to a great extent. Numerous target areas have been added in order to expand playability, targets of opportunity and year range. This terrain features a fresh new 250m resolution heightmap (instead of the stock 500m resolution), allowing for greater details and precision in elevation changes; overall it provides the whole terrain with a better look. The terrain spans from June 22, 1955 (the date of the first known Cold War incident in the Bering Straits between the U.S. and the Soviets) to December 31, 2018. I didn't bother to add all of the possible RL airports. However, when compared to the original DBS terrain, this one has a lot more to offer, especially on the Blue Side. The Soviets (Red Side) only have two flyable airfields. Don't even try to fly Red Side long-range bombers from said small airfields. Reason for this is that the original DBS terrain was rather fictional and included airbases which in reality didn't and don't exist. I made major researches and what I am providing here is a realistic representation of the area, given the terrain engine limitations. Anyway, I added some Off Map Airbases for both Blue Side and Red Side; if you have SF2NA, you can benefit from this addition, as long range AI flights can be generated from such airbases. The area in reality is pretty barren, so don't expect a terrain with much targets. Still, you can enjoy CAS missions at St. Lawrence Island and Lopp Lagoon being invaded by Soviet forces, and the usual dogfights over the Bering Straits. Ground Objects are not included. You can obtain them from Wrench's original DBS terrain release. Only very few of them should be needed anyway. >Credits (in no particular order): -Major Lee, who came up with the idea of recreating such an interesting scenario in the Strike Fighters world. -Wrench, who kindly allowed me to improve upon his work by giving me a blank cheque and trusting my capabilities. Thank you, sir! -swambast, who provided me with invaluable help in tracking and fixing common and uncommon bugs. -gerwin, whose TFDtool has proved to be essential in today's terrain making. If the terrain is pretty accurate to RL it's also because of him. I included his very nice Airfield 7+8 Addon Pack, too. -mue, for the improved shaders he made, which I have included and reworked for the terrain, and for the tools he made for SF2 modding. -luk1978, for the snowy runway textures he made for his Korean terrain repaint (unofficially released) and the waternormal bitmap he shared at the SF2 screenshots thread. Your mods are very interesting! -MigBuster, I have included some of his great hi-res textures for runways. -Brain32, for the original hi-res DBS tileset he made and which I have expanded with my bad transition tiles. -Stary, because his tilesets are pure art. I borrowed a TOD and few tiles from his excellent Kamchatka tileset repaint. -Gepard, for his great tutorials about terrain making, in the SF1 Knowledge Base at CombatACE. It's a gold mine! -krfrge, who has produced a tutorial for recreating SF2-like planning maps, which prompted me to work on templates and my own high quality planning maps. Thank you very much! -comrpnt, for his Approach and Airfield Lighting Pack mod packages for SF1 series, which I reworked and included. Because the original terrain was born from Major Lee and was later tweaked a number of times by Wrench, I included the ReadMe files from the original packages, to the end of giving proper credit to everyone involved directly or not. >Disclaimer: This is a freeware; yet it can be redistributed ONLY in other CombatACE mods/mod packages. Any changes to the terrain package's files and/or any copy-and-paste attempts of their contents are NOT authorized if you plan to release them in other mods. But permission might be granted to those who request it to me at CombatACE. This terrain may NOT in any way, shape or form be used in any payware additions. >My Terrain Packages: NovaLogic Terrains Outer Space Terrains Hawaii, Central Pacific (1959-2028) Timor, North Oceania (1950-2018) Ecuador, Northwest South America (1981-1998) Texas, American South Central (1968-2018) Sweden, Baltic Rim (2004-2018) Sweden, Baltic Rim (1952-1994) Libya, Central Mediterranean (1980-2011) Madagascar, Southeast Africa (1977-2018) Iraq, Western Asia (2003-2018) Alaska, Bering Strait (1955-2018) Iraq, Western Asia (1980-2003) >My Miscellaneous Packages: Ace Combat Nations Nations & Medals Expansion Speech Enhancement Wings Over World Menu Screens realSKY Environment Submitter Menrva Submitted 04/13/2017 Category Full Terrains  

Terrain package updated to Version 1.07. Check the Changelog for full details.

@russouk2004 Mate, it just occurred to me that the bugs you mentioned about my TexasASC terrain were actually solved already. I usually update my packages, and most likely you're using an older version of the terrain. Anyway, just wait for next week, I'll re-upload sligthly updated versions of all my terrain packages.

Which product have you bought? When the SF2 Complete Edition was available, I bought it and the download link was given soon after checkout via PayPal. I also received the download link via e-mail.

Actually, I disagree. The terrain as a LOD is just plain horrible under many aspects, poor optimization and framerate unfriendly. The only good thing about the LOD terrain is the water shaders, but TK could make something similar for the TOD terrains. Also, another disadvantage of LOD terrains, you would have to manually add hundreds of thousands of 3d models of city buildings and trees. Not only it is incredibly time consuming, it also worsens the framerate by a lot. The game would have to deal with too many 3d models on screen and with huge LOD chunks of the terrain's land and water. If only we had a TOD editor with a user-friendly interface not prone to crash countless times, we would improve the TOD terrains to new levels.

Also, he seems to judge a terrain solely by its tileset. Some terrains have good tilesets, but their geography and locations are utterly wrong. Others are very accurate to the Real World, but use older tilesets. Vietnam is an example, we have good-looking tilesets for it, but it's one of the most inaccurate terrains I have ever seen, and it's even a stock product. PS: good terrains don't grow on trees, they can require months of (unpaid) work, and eventually such works are released for free here. I could quickly make something that barely resembles Syria, with zero accuracy and zero details but with the Syria name on it, and with a very good looking desert tileset. As always, it seems mediocre products would pay off better than quality ones (quality is what I would always aim for in all of my projects, no matter what).

I had started a huge rework time ago. It's still far from being finished, I am afraid. But the number of changes made already is incredible. The original Vietnam terrain of SF2V is completely messed up and unrealistic. Here you can see more details about my rework and some overview screenshots of the terrain (check my latest posts of the thread): https://combatace.com/forums/topic/94432-myth-of-north-vietnam-abs-info-needed/ Beware, it's the Vietnam War version being shown there. I have the Indochina version of it as well.

So true, the lockdown will necessarily have to be prolonged. And as you say, Lombardy mismanaged the situation with swabs. The outbreak is not under control over there. It's scary to think that number of deaths are even much higher than the ones reported, for the reasons you explained. Here in the Marche region we're rather stable. We have deaths and new cases every day, but the rate is slow, fortunately. What's even worse in Lombardy, a lot of doctors died. They don't have the means to protect themselves, and are doing the impossible to save lives. I consider myself lucky to be at home. They are not, and are putting their lives on the line for the health of others. Hang in there and stay safe!

"Magic to Warwolf Leader, bogies are confirmed hostile on a direct course to Miami. You are cleared to engage and destroy."

Grazie @paulopanz. Un abbraccio, dall'altro lato della nostra penisola. In other news, you may want to use my Nations & Medals Expansion mod. I already added the Irish Air Corps to it, with historically accurate decals switching in 1955. The nation name is different in my expanded nations.ini; if users add EIRE to it, they would end up with two different Irish Air Corps. Given the amount of changes and even bugs I fixed from the stock game's nations.ini, I highly suggest to use it. EDIT: noticed by chance; for the Irish skin, "Serial__013" is misspelled, should be "Serial_013". EDIT n°2: I found some references: Saudi Chipmunk: https://twitter.com/oldaviation/status/942647179591733248 Irish Chipmunks (using the correct, pre-1955 decals included in my mod): http://irishhistoricflight.com/the-restoration-projects/chipmunk-168/ http://irishhistoricflight.com/the-restoration-projects/chipmunk-169/ http://irishhistoricflight.com/the-restoration-projects/chipmunk-170/

It's a bit early to define such news as good. Yes, we might have reached the peak a few days ago, when we had 800 deaths and almost 5000 contagions. Yesterday we had 600 deaths and more than 3000 contagions. It could be we reached the peak, or it might be a fluctuation, only future days will tell. Even if numbers are dropping, it's far from being manageable now. The hospitals in the north collapsed, there are field hospitals taking new patients in. Doctors have no masks and proper protective equipment, and are in danger of contracting the disease themselves. They are true heroes in these dark days. Fortunately many people made it through, survived the virus. But there are news of cases in Asia where a few contracted it again. So we are not even 100% sure they'll be immune.

New updates on recent progress. First of all, apologies to keep you guys waiting. Unfortunately, RL is a toll for everyone. The add-on will be ready when it's ready. From time to time new things that need improvement are found, but we're almost there. @yakarov79 has been instrumental in making the new cockpit 3d model; me and him have constantly worked together to bring you a nicer, more realistic Raptor cockpit; by realistic, I mean that MFDs have got a new layout to better resemble what the real Raptor's cockpit has got, within SF2 engine limitations of course. Julhelm has been very kind to allow yakarov79 to improve upon his previous 3d model. Here below a few comparison shots: Old cockpit 3d model by Julhelm, avionics by Crusader New cockpit 3d model by yakarov79, textures by yakarov79 and yours truly; avionics update by Crusader, reworked by yours truly. Since the package will keep you waiting some more, I added new extras to it; the skin pack will feature the below skin, directly inspired by Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War. Such a Raptor skin was part of a DLC of Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation.

@Dysko I live in the Marche region, luckily to the south. We have a number of cases, a couple even in my little town, but it's nothing compared to what you guys are experiencing to the North. The images of the convoy saddened me so much. And there are people in the EU still not realizing this is a serious matter... Well, we have our own problems now, we must resist. Divided we stand, united we will rise again. Andrà tutto bene.

Hi, everyone. As some of you know, I am working on a huge revamp of the stock VietnamSEA terrain which is a complete mess to say the least. I have moved numerous airbases and cities to their correct Real World locations, and fixed much of the tiling throughout the various regions. I found real info about most airfields that TK added (even with some mistakes, there's no such thing as a Hue Airbase, for instance). However, I have been unable to find anything useful on two North Vietnam airfields, which are shrouded in mystery; Khe Phat and Ben Loi. By googling Khe Phat airfield, I only found the following: https://books.google.it/books?id=A4W2AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA4&lpg=PA4&dq=khe+phat+airfield&source=bl&ots=IuFDTnJJy5&sig=ACfU3U0Gy-xoTdk9ksldZkzm7oZzBez8_g&hl=it&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiY2cnX3sbnAhUOT8AKHb9xDIkQ6AEwDnoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=khe phat airfield&f=false This confirms that Khe Phat existed, being under construction in 1972. The link also mentions Ha Tinh airfield, but there's no such thing in TK's terrain. Looking for the other "mythological" airfield, Ben Loi, I have found nothing at all. Ben Loi either is invented, or is the Ha Tinh airfield mentioned above, or even is a mis-spelled Dan Loi airfield, as featured in this overview chart I found by chance: I am aware that most users do not care about details such as accurate target area coordinates or correct runway headings. However, I really want to feature those two airfields (Khe Phat and Ben/Dan Loi). The above chart is not enough for me. Most of the airfields I corrected in my revamp, I was able to find them on Google Earth; wiki gave me correct coordinates for them, so I could easily see where those bases are/were. Even if Quan Lang airfield no longer exists, I was able to find its remains through some photos of the Vietnam War period. But Khe Phat and Ben/Dan Loi are a complete mystery. I would like to have info on those two airfields, so I can pinpoint their location in the Real World, and hopefully see which heading their runways had. Any help is much appreciated!

Here's a list of all US Army ranks: https://www.military-ranks.org/army

@gerwin I am not claiming that the virus is deadly all by itself, but it is indeed speeding up the deaths of hundreds of elderly people each day (and by elder people, I mean those who are more than 50 year old). You see, my dad was diagnosed a rare blood disease last November. He's prone to get ill. If he ever gets the virus, I know what will happen to him, but I do not want to even think about it. Of those 300 that are dying everyday, many could have lived for years to come, even with their own previous diseases and conditions. The virus is not so light as others still make it believe. Just to provide an example close to me; a municipal employee in my province went to work with fever. He had the virus, and with his recklessness he infected lots of colleagues. A colleague of his infected his own father, and the father died. Last I have heard, the employee who started it all was in resuscitation. My grandma is 89 years old. Of course she has got some conditions with her age, but she is healthy nonetheless. With the virus, she'd be a goner. I hope that clarifies things. I am not willing to let old people die (and my father is not even that old, he's in his 60s)

Couldn't agree more with you, @Erik We Italians warned our neighbors as much as possible, but other EU countries did not want to listen. They preferred to keep activities open for money and economy. Now they'll have bigger trouble than us in a matter of weeks. This is what happens when you care more about money and less about health. The EU leaders thought they could get away with it, let Italy go into recession while they could grow their own economies. They didn't realize everyone is going to suffer from the consequences of the outbreak. And don't get me started about the "herd immunity" crap from UK's PM; I also read Netherlands wants to do the same, but not sure if it's true. Be ready to see your hospitals being overwhelmed, without remaining ICUs. Number of deaths will increase because of such horrible, Hitler-like decisions. A strong government will protect the weaker, a weak government will only let the "strong" live. For once, I am proud to be Italian. Our government took its time, but now is dealing with this very seriously. At the moment, we have more than 300 deaths a day, at this rate we'll have 2,000 deaths by the end of the week. The Northern regions' hospitals are collapsing due to ICUs being full. My town just got hit yesterday by the virus, with the first contagion. Me and my loved ones are all in lockdown, we have enough supplies for this week. PS: China is helping Italy by sending lots of medical supplies. The EU was somewhat mocking us and even blocked our orders of masks our doctors need. We payed for those, but we haven't seen them. So much for solidarity in the EU, pfff. Rant over, from the guy who believed in the EU.