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Speaking of gameplay, these sims are rather bland and arcadish to some extent, but campaigns are particular, while not really dynamic since each mission is scripted, if you or the AI destroys something (buildings or air assets, SAM sites and so on), you will notice these changes in the next missions. F-16 MRF and MiG-29 Fulcrum use old Glide hardware acceleration/rendering, while F-22 Lightning 3 has now received a recent beta patch that you can find at Novalogic's site (i discovered it by chance) which adds 1080p resolution and improved hardware rendering. F-22 Lightining 3 also has some missions with nuclear weapons, and unlike the first two titles (F-16/MiG-29) it has background music during missions, although it's always the same. Voice-acting is also much better than the other titles. MiG-29 could be interesting since it has full Russian voice-acting, but with the option of enabling English audio. If they don't cost much, the three titles are indeed nice for an avid old school gamer, campaigns are scripted with nice briefings and mostly believable/enjoyable storyline. I only criticize the fact that sometimes in missions you encounter enemy Rafales, Typhoons, Tomcats (well the Iranians have those), and aircraft that in reality were never so largely exported to other countries. These games shouldn't support online features anymore, but the beta patch for F-22 L3 recently bug fixed multiplayer functions, and there is a site that still plays it online, the link is below: http://www.f22lightning3online.com/index.php All in all, wait for other reviews as well, it depends much on the gamer's likings. Novalogic's sims are nothing particular but they are simple to play and good for some quick action, singleplayer could be boring after a while though. Of the three, F-22 L3 is IMHO a better product (it was made in 1999, the others in 1998). However the three games are so similar that I wonder why Novalogic didn't make a single title with the option of selecting the aircraft or something like it. Regarding the damage model, you always survive the first missile hit IIRC, not the second though. You can eject from the plane. In F-22 L3 sometimes when hit by a missile you can have radar, weapons systems, countermeasures, gear and flaps faults/failures. During a mission if you need more ammo or repairs you can land at allied airbases, it's arcadish since as soon as you make a full stop, the plane is repaired and refilled with ammo instantly. In all three games you always have a wingman and you can give him orders (this option is a must to complete difficult missions). In addition, F-22 L3 has a rather smart auto-pilot, it can land your plane at the nearest base, follow the next waypoint, etc.

Hey Viper, have you received my PM? I've sent you the new cockpit textures.

PM sent, Paulo.

Sure thing, then I'll try to send you via PM the new files in the next hours. Check your inbox later.

Now I'm pretty busy with university studies, but at the end of the month I can resume my work at it. Of course if you want a new Taiwan campaign you'll get it, your new RoCAF birds are waiting for it. Maybe later I'll try to send you a PM with a link to a site I need to re-find, it included a lot of info regarding the RoCAF and their Sabres during those years.

I made some new cockpit textures, I've merged LeL's, Viper's, and another texture made by someone I don't remember. If you guys want to have a look at them, I can send PMs to both of you. Some details and the unuseful photos from LeL's textures are missing, all in all each cockpit is now different and better looking, but still not perfect. I still have to rework the F-111A and other variants cockpits, but for now I've done the F-111D/E/F and the EF-111A EDIT: BTW I've found the textures that I used to rework your pit skins, this is the link: http://combatace.com/files/file/11834-re-textured-f-111a-cockpit/ Anyway I have updated them with your changes, that pit repaint is for a generic F-111 cockpit

Awesome, long time ago I started creating a fictional campaign based on the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis, using JonathanRL's Formosa Freedom campaign package as a base. I might complete it and release it in the future, but we also need the F-86 Sabres of the RoCAF units.

Viper, I've just noticed that you may have updated the skins by using an old version of Slick Cowboy's skinpack, or so it seems. Not long ago he updated his skinpack (maybe re-download the package to see if there are any differences) to correct the nose section of the F-111s, in fact it is different than in yours F-111E/F. Anyway I'm not criticizing, it's just that I'm a perfectionist and so happy to see old aircraft being re-worked for the better. I noticed what you did to the cockpits, I've actually merged your new skin for the cockpit with an old reskin I've found here somewhere, as of now I failed to find the link. If you want, I can send via PM the new textures so you can have a look at them. Just let me know. Moreover, there should be a way to remove some nodes in the .LOD model through some .ini edits, so we can remove the sight/hud from the 3d model to better represent the EF-111A cockpit.

Great! They may be useless aircraft, but like Wrench usually says, they add to the 'eye candy'. Keep up the good work, the helos you've made really added a new atmosphere to Strike Fighters.

Great job, viper63a. Maybe Slick Cowboy will update the EF-111A skin like the F-111 ones he made, but your skins are already a huge improvement.

Interesting analysis, so the 'Saeqeh' two-seater is reality, I didn't know Iran had F-5Fs in its inventory. The F-313 is strange, it seems to be a combination of both the Boeing X-32 and the Lockheed F-35. Answering to the topic question, I would call it a bluff but that needs to be taken into account in the future; the Saeqeh is no way comparable to the Super Hornet (IIRC Jane's analysis reports that this is a claim by the IRIAF) and even the cited avionics upgrades from Russia are not going to be so effective atm.

One of the most anticipated mod releases of the year, my congrats to the team!

Well said Stratos, but I think we can mock Russian weaponry, as long as we mock the F-35 obviously (F stands for Failure, but you know that).

Thanks for the info, much appreciated. BTW I think I can fix those runway bugs in NorthCape, if you PM with me a list of the ones affected by such problem, tomorrow I might take a look at them.

First of all many thanks for another great package, it's nice to see that other terrains are being used now. I have a few questions; why is your El Dorado Canyon campaign fictional? Isn't it based on the real world operation? Anyway I have no problem with fictional stuff, just asking because I love history. Have you discovered any bugs in the terrain? As you might remember, time ago I sent you an updated TFD and a small correction to an airfield position, I was wondering if I could do anything to improve it. Baltika really showed his skills with this terrain, tiling the fjords is no easy task.

Thanks for the update. Regarding what I told you about the nuke's effects, I think I got that info from a SF1 mod (check link below). I guess it includes a ReadMe file with the changes that need to be made in the FlightEngine.ini file. http://combatace.com/files/file/5271-update-13-300t-30mt-nuclear-weapon-effects/

5 stars for this one. BTW there was a thread about the nukes' effects; someone explained that to show them properly, one has to adjust some distance clip values in the FlightEngine.ini IIRC. Hence why some mod installs have bugs with such effects.

"Ass-backwards", made me laugh a lot, you're right. I've just seen another post you made before in the Wings Over Korea mod thread about the B-29, so my wondering was somewhat avoidable. Thanks for replying, I hope your eye health gets better.

So Wrench you managed to solve the water humps using Gerwin's Tool? Or did you use the Adjust Sea Level thing in TE? Just asking because like Stary said, I've always thought that Gerwin's Tool could do some HFD work very well. FRPignon, since I'm not working on that damned terrain of mine, I could make some time-consuming tiling work on this one (with Wrench's permission of course, the original terrain is his work), since all areas near The Wall miss a proper representation of the land (for instance the north of Great Britain and the east of East Germany). However the HFD will remain flat in such areas, unless we make some serious work to it, and it's not advisable, after all we are not meant to fly near the corners of the map.

Especially considering your eye problem, Wrench. Nice update btw, I'm wondering if this could be useful even for the B-29 package for KAW, maybe at a later time.