Menrva

@toro The campaign is like this by design, just like the campaigns of Strike Fighters 2 Vietnam. Naval fleets ala SF2NA only work in so called naval campaigns, but naval campaigns remove night-time missions and force the enemy aircraft to find and attack the opposing naval fleet, which is not proper for the Gulf War scenario. We cannot have the best of both worlds, so the campaign won't feature fleets. One possible workaround I'm planning for a future update is to add other ships as terrain objects, they'd be static but at least would populate the Gulf during the campaign.

An hot-fix has been uploaded and it requires admins to approve it again. Wait until the mod gets approved again. If you downloaded all four split parts of the ISO of the mod before January 19th/20th, after installation you're advised to manually install the hotfix. If you did not download all parts before the latest reupload, I'm afraid all parts need to be downloaded again, old ones cannot match the checksum of the new split ISO. Apologies for the mix-up and thank you for your patience and understanding.

An hot-fix has been uploaded and it requires admins to approve it again. Wait until the mod gets approved again. If you downloaded all four split parts of the ISO of the mod before January 19th/20th, after installation you're advised to manually install the hotfix. If you did not download all parts before the latest reupload, I'm afraid all parts need to be downloaded again, old ones cannot match the checksum of the new split ISO. Apologies for the mix-up and thank you for your patience and understanding.

@Muesli Disregard what EricJ said, please refer to this post for the issue you're having: https://combatace.com/forums/topic/95630-operation-desert-storm-30th-anniversary-edition/?page=8&tab=comments#comment-810329 I'll be updating the mod's page to include the following more complete info about the installer: The installer will automatically detect your installation of the required Strike Fighters 2 games by reading through the registry keys. Pirated copies and/or game folders that are manually moved from where they were originally installed are not supported. You need all three aforementioned Strike Fighters 2 games and they must be installed with their original installers by ThirdWire, not manually copied from other sources nor moved elsewhere after installation to other folders or drives. If you do not meet any of these requirements, installation cannot proceed and you are on your own. If you install all required games properly, the installation of the mod will proceed correctly as intended. The installer then lets you choose where to install the mod folder; you can even install the mod on a different drive or partition than the one where Strike Fighters 2 is installed. No further user input nor manual edits after installation are ever required; the installer takes care of creating all proper links to your desired path for the mod folder. After installation is over, simply run the mod by using the created Desktop and/or Start Menu links. I have to hope users read all that I write, though.

@MurmanskPrPr I'm sorry to see you posted a 4-star review for something you couldn't even play. If you need assistance, this is the right place to ask. The installer of the mod looks for where your games are installed by reading through the registry keys. You need all three Strike Fighters 2 games I mention and those must be installed with their original installers, not manually copied nor moved elsewhere to other folders or drives. If you own all required games and you install them with the official installers by ThirdWire, the installation of the mod should then proceed correctly as intended. Game folders that are manually copied from or moved from where they are originally installed are not supported.

That's weird, I'll have to double check. EDIT: @mono27 It pains me to see that there is a mistake, the cockpit.ini file has the position that's used on the A-6E. I focused on fixing so many bugs and this slipped through, argh! Here's the fixed file: EA-6B_ICAP_COCKPIT.INI

Yes, but that's something I feel most users wouldn't like to hear. So my main suggestion is to find a balance between the graphics settings of the game and what your hardware allows, so that you can run consecutive missions without major issues. My second suggestion is to give the DXVK wrapper a try, apparently it makes the mod playable on weak integrated GPUs (given that they are Vulkan-compatible) whereas without it the mod wouldn't work on such hardware.

No.

I think Easy equals unlimited fuel. I never play with Easy settings, but they literally turn it into an arcade flight combat game.

It has been discussed already in the past, the start from ramp is an incomplete feature from SF1, it never got implemented properly. It can be made to work for the player only by manually editing mission files, but it won't work for the AI aircraft:

Transport missions are generated for any campaign since SF1. We have them working also on ODS.

I once saved a campaign generated mission of the ODS 30AE mod and discovered that it somehow assigned a Transfer (not Transport) mission to a cargo plane. After further investigations, it seems it's a valid mission type that can be assigned to AI-only aircraft in ThirdWire's Mission Editor. Just add Transfer to the roles of the aircraft in its data.ini file, and it'll appear in the Mission Editor. I don't know the exact differences between Transport and Transfer, but on the campaign generated mission it seemed to make the aircraft take-off from one airport and land on another. I want to reiterate that this is an AI-only mission type, so it won't appear for the player, regardless of the aircraft type.

I was surprised to find this out, I've been modding the game for so long and noticed about it only now. The secret was all about saving a campaign mission. I think that without saving, most of us would have thought a cargo plane was doing a mere Transport mission. I don't think there are any other hidden features, mission type wise. Also, I don't think it's related to SF2NA, I think it existed before it. In DLL files, the extra mission types of SF2NA are called after disabled ones from First Eagles 2 (balloon busting and the likes), while Transfer is before those. Moreover, my ODS campaign is not a Naval one ala SF2NA, thus SF2NA's extra mission types don't work in it.

Nope, these others don't seem to work, they do not appear in the mission editor at least.

@bazillius You were credited in the Thanks page of the ODS mod, it's not like I'm taking credit for the work done by other modders. Anyway, I had already decided to remove your MiG-29UB from the next version of the mod. I'm not comfortable with featuring the work of someone who condones piracy and the violation of intellectual properties. Not to mention that I seriously doubt you made that 3d model from scratch yourself. Thank you for your understanding. PS: if you have a beef with me, just say it and insult me in private, I prefer it. This thing has dragged on for too long. When I posted the topic, I simply wanted to advise other respectable modders that their work was being shared without their permission and/or without them knowing. It seems it hurt you in some way (maybe because you like to download stuff from dubious sources) and now you're persecuting me. You want to impose your view on intellectual properties on everyone. You had the right to notify the admins that you didn't want me to include your aircraft in a package, I genuinely didn't notice you were not in the freeware licensing agreement. Just because you don't care about your own works, it doesn't mean others shouldn't care about theirs. But you don't want to understand it, this has been a pointless conversation. From now on, every time I want to post anything, do I need to send you a PM asking for your permission and blessing to do so? It seems so.

@Sundowner Agree to disagree. I'm not losing my sleep over such issues, but when they involve my works (and those of the modders I closely work with), I want to do my part to try and prevent that they are shared without permission. I may fail at it, but after spending months and even years in making terrains and other mods, I think I have this small right of pointing out where mods shouldn't be downloaded from. It's bad that some others repackage stuff as their own without crediting the original authors, especially since it doesn't take much to do so. I'm like this, like it or not. I won't be silent when things like this happen. You're entitled to being passive on the matter, but I certainly did not expect that my post is being called out more than those pages of piracy. It seems to me things are starting to become the opposite over here as well, and I truly hope it's just a wrong impression.

@PeacePuma I admit I might have been hot-headed in my post (I'd say reasonably once you see your mods worth months of work being stolen), but my point stands. UllyB confirmed that such page distributes a pirated copy of SF2NA. Of all those 500+ followers, for sure there are some who were just interested in seeing screenshots this hack posted; nothing wrong with that. However, his page still exists, which means that when he uploaded a pirated copy of the game, none of the 500+ followers did a thing about it. There are users who didn't notice and soon unfollowed him once they got aware of what happened, alongside reporting the page. Those may have felt offended by my post and if so I apologize to them. Now that the page has been exposed, to follow a group or account that condones piracy is a deliberate action to my eyes. I want to precise I'm not referring to users who started following that account long ago and even forgot about it. Of all 500+ followers, I feel safe to assume some are still active and condone piracy. One of the reasons why TK left was piracy, and I think it happens to a greater extent than we'd think if pages like this exist on FB.

While not publicly shown, the previous release of ODS 30AE offered reworked hit boxes and collision points for all of the over 140 aircraft of the mod; some aircraft required major fixes, others only needed small improvements. Referenced model node names have also been corrected in many cases. This (boring and time-consuming) work improves the hit detection of bullets and missiles and of crashes into the ground; overall it puts all of the aircraft of the mod on par with each other, for quality consistency's sake. Another detail that is often neglected regards landing lights. After several days of work, I'm happy to announce that the next release of the mod will offer standardized brightness and range values of landing lights for all of the flyable aircraft of the mod (not player-flyable aircraft will get the same treatment at a later time). Previously, many aircraft were missing landing lights or had broken values that caused rendering issues of landing lights. Each of the over 80 flyable aircraft (sub-variants included, not counting AI-only sub-variants that were also fixed) has been tested carefully to make sure that quality consistency on landing lights is kept throughout the entire roster of aircraft.

Don't be sorry, because you should be ashamed of this comment. This isn't the place for it, but since you bring the matter up, let me explain why it is not comparable. His site is open to everyone, it does not require accounts to access the info, and on top of that no one here is taking credit for the work he has done, I certainly won't. Yesterday's matter was about one guy taking credit of the work of multiple modders (mods that are not freely available without an account and that usually come with ReadMe files detailing explicit wishes not to share them elsewhere), sharing it elsewhere without any permission nor crediting to the original authors. Just because you're fine with someone taking your stuff and share it as their own doesn't mean that it should be fine for me and everyone else.

I told some dear friends of mine, one contacted the Internet Archive so that they can store his website, the other has dumped it all and now it can be browsed offline. Baugher just passed away, I don't feel comfortable about sharing it now, especially since his website is still available. Just wondering what would be a respectful approach, I admire the amount of work Baugher has done over the years.

Sad news. His site (Joe Baugher's Home Page) is a gold mine of references of military aviation history. My deepest condolences to his family and relatives.

@EricJ Also found a separate F/A-18 mod uploaded by another user, I think it's based on your work: F/A-18A mod for Strike Fighters 2: Europe - ModDB Most likely the same F/A-18 that SandMartin once uploaded over here (I think he got banned from CombatACE for it). Then we can assume that even Capun's stuff is being ripped-off. It's just best that we get rid of this guy's page and account ASAP, though who knows which is his account on CombatACE. Just FYI, I sent a PM to the admins of ModDB. I hope not to bother them. I guess they get tons of such posts every day, it's a huge website after all. Don't worry about seeing the ODS 30AE mod listed on ModDB, I posted news about it myself in the past. The mod itself is only available at CombatACE at this time.

They are the legends as well. I certainly have done my part in the mod (and I'm not done yet, some stuff will be reworked after the release due to time constraints), but without them the mod wouldn't look nor be as great as it is. Thank you for the kind words, posts such as this are pretty rare and mean a lot to us modders. Due to the heavier quality of textures and 3d models, requirements are not the same of stock SF2. I tried my best at finding a compromise between quality and performance. Fellow @guuruu optimized all sound files and this has even shortened loading times very noticeably. Sometimes I get reports of crashes to desktop, sometimes Nvidia drivers mess things up, reinstalling them seems to work (at least for one member of the development team). I'm currently running the mod on a mere Intel UHD integrated graphics card, but with the DXVK wrapper (Vulkan rendering for DirectX games). Without it I'd experience crashes to desktop as well. The wrapper made my experience smooth and stable. So, I will post instructions on how to download and install DXVK for use on SF2 at the mod's download page once it's released.

No. I would have liked to include YEYEYE's Su-24 cockpit, but I don't have it and I cannot ask YEYEYE anymore for permission. I also wish we had proper cockpits for the Su-20 and the Su-22s (Stary had made some as shown in rather a decade old screenshots), but for now we do our best with what we have. I can only hope the community will work on such additions in the near future.