Menrva

Hi, Heberth! First of all, thank you for creating such 3d model. Good to see you're still around. We found the 3d model in the modders' arena time ago, and we're working on it. I'm in the process of adding decals to the aircraft, and I am making some fictional skins for it as well.

Not really. They most likely tend to spawn more on Naval terrains, alongside the AWACS aircraft; with no fleets on the terrain, certain mission types are surely avoided by the engine, such as Cruise_Missile (I might be wrong though). Other than that, stock terrains have no limitations on allowed mission types. Mission types can be limited for both Blue and Red side. This allowed some of my custom terrains not to CTD anymore. If a certain mission won't work (due to missing large runways for bombers, etc.) I disable that mission type. NavalMap=True affects single missions only! You can have a NavalMap=False, yet you can create a working Naval Campaign for it via NavalCampaign=True in the campaign's .ini files. That's great because in campaigns you have to specify the coordinates of fleets on the terrain. So even when a terrain has limited water areas, you can have fully working fleets not sailing over land. Single missions are "broken" when there is not much water space. So I usually set NavalMap=False. Naval maps are meant for huge fights between carrier groups. Sorry for the little off-topic. Keep us posted with your findings, Crusader!

Windows 10 is okay though; TK's TerrainEditor works just fine.

I will not repeat myself again; Dhimar and Paran do NOT exist in the original _nations.ini from SF2. Dhimar and Paran are created in the desert_nations.ini file, in fact they are not flyable, they are AI only. AI planes are using the correct decals on my install, as long as you have not edited the original desert_nations.ini file from SF2. I have not changed anything to Paran or Dhimar, so this is not my issue. You must be doing something wrong with your installation, because eveything works fine on my end. You must install all that is included, not just the Flight folder, but also the Menu and Objects folder. If you're using modded terrains and/or other files, there's nothing I can do. My mod is simple, unzip and play it. It has no bugs on a clean SF2 installation. EDIT: if you do not believe me, here's the screenshots. The planes are using my hires decals. If you're using a modded Desert terrain, it's your issue, not mine. Attached here the stock desert_nations.ini file extracted from the SF2 game, this is how it has to be: DESERT_NATIONS.INI I will not provide more help than this. Your issues are due to your custom mod folder. Nobody else has reported such a bug to me, and I cannot replicate it with my own, clean mod folder. For over 100 users, this mod seems to be fine.

Not my problem. This mod does not change stock nations, Dhimar and Paran exist as in the stock SF2 game, they are not flyable. If you want to fly for Paran and Dhimar, you'll have to make your modifications to it. This file is an extension of the stock _nations.ini, it does not remove anything.

You can still play it, it's available here: https://community.combatsim.com/topic/20202-f-22-total-air-war-230-final-released/ It's a community updated version, with many custom missions and modifications to improve it. I recently rediscovered it and I am also making a small mod for it. It works on Windows 10, thanks to included codecs and glide wrappers. The concepts of that game were interesting indeed. The dynamic campaign system was much promising, although it was unfinished and unpolished (due to Atari pressing DID to release the game). The F-22 is exported to Egypt and Saudi Arabia for the sole reason that the US needs strong allies in an area which saw economic growth and new regional powers arise. In a twist of events, the F-22 becomes an opponent in some of the proposed scenarios (for instance, Egyptian F-22s against Saudi Arabia and/or the US forces).

Fictional skins are in the works for this beautiful plane. Have a look at the following thread for some screens.

The following story background is from DID's F-22 Total Air War game, dated 1998. The fictional skins are based on the F-22s appearing in DID's Total Air War scenarios. Skins and 3d model are still subject to updates. In the mid-1990s, most of the military might in the Red Sea region was found in only three countries; Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. All of the other nations, dealing with constant internal pressures and sporadic social unrest could ill afford any concentrated efforts at modern militarization. So the rest of the area’s nations would bide their time and wait for their opportunity to field a national army that could stand against the might of any one of the “big three.” Although there weren’t any formal declarations of war within the region, there were also no real alliances. Each nation was kept busy dealing with internal problems of various sorts, so much so that any external issues were usually left unresolved. Border disputes erupted from time to time and were usually settled as a result of some form of military stalemate with each side claiming to be the victor. An American F-22 wing forward deployed to Djibouti, still sporting the YF-22 paint scheme, 2007 Another factor within the region stemmed from the major cultural and religious differences between the peoples of the Red Sea area nations. The population in the southwestern part of the region was largely agrarian. Trading mostly foodstuffs and other essentials for survival, farming groups clustered into tribes and lay claim to several hundred acres of land. When arguments arose between neighboring tribes, the result was often bloodshed, as tribal land holdings sometimes crossed international borders. Cities and towns within the region were often defined by the religious beliefs of the residents. Rarely, were there populations of mixed beliefs. Only the largest trading and commerce centers could tolerate such religious diversity. Religious beliefs also played a major role in state and national rule, often affecting the decision making and negotiating thought processes of the country. American F-22s in their Pac West camouflage, executing an Air Interdiction mission over the Ethiopian highlands, 2018 With all of the diverse people and religious beliefs within the area, tension was an everyday side effect. Although no formal declarations of war had occured in the recent past, that did not mean that nations haven’t fostered ill will towards each other. Outright hostilities had not developed in the past because of the lack of either a credible military force or the capital required to support it. As a nation in the Red Sea area, you were either a “have” or a “have not” in the national forces department. But all of that was soon to change. New fortunes, created by the discovery of precious metals and oil reserves within the Red Sea operations area have lead to regional unrest. International power struggles for the control of these precious natural resources now bolster nationalism and strengthen each countries desire to fight. With the new regional income, formerly poor countries now can afford to train and equip national military forces. All armed forces within the region are ready and willing to test their newly purchased hardware. It is a very dangerous time. Saudi Arabia's F-22s, with their unusual Grey camouflage, crossing the "Empty Quarter" into Yemeni territory for a strike mission, 2022 While on an international antiquities excavation in southern Sudan, a professor and his archaeological team discovered unexpected oil reserves within that region. The oil deposits extended from within southern Sudan well into northern Ethiopia. Sudan and Ethiopia exploited the oil reserves and grew rich, becoming members of OPEC. The excitement over the discovery of new oil fields gave rise to new searches throughout the area for other oil reserves. Another series of large oil deposits were found in the coastal region of Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia. Although not quite as expansive as the fields discovered in Sudan, it was sufficient to provide these three nations with a 11% control over the world’s petroleum market. As the oil reserves along the Somali coast were being mapped out, researchers stumbled upon new gold deposits. As the initial gold strikes were quickly exploited, more were found. There were some days when the coastal nations ceased to function because almost every citizen was out with a pickax and shovel, looking for their share of the fortune. The nations of Somalia, Djibouti and Eritrea became wealthy practically overnight. After much bargaining, Egypt acquired a few F-22s; here's one in its Woodland camouflage, conducting BARCAP over territorial waters in the Red Sea, 2015 To support the new military, the old infrastructure which had supported the former way of life had to be updated. Airfields had to be modernized to allow strategic and tactical aircraft operations. A large anti-aircraft network had to be established to provide warning and protection from invading hostile aircraft. National landmarks and governmental assets had to be protected from attack and reinforced to help repel any air strikes that might get through. Across all of the Red Sea theater area, nations prepared themselves for any outbreak of hostilities.

What the title says. What a twist of events down there... Here's the info: https://www.janes.com/article/88109/libyan-national-army-identifies-mercenary-pilot And here: https://www.janes.com/article/88421/second-mercenary-pilot-identified-in-libya

As Wrench has said, short answer is no. Baltika's North Cape terrain is for a Cold War and post Cold War scenario. Wrench is humble and forgot to mention that there is this WW2 terrain he released time ago, it contains a bit of Norway, and you might want to have a look at it: https://combatace.com/files/file/14545-sf2-ww2-northern-europenorth-sea-terrain-v2/ Also, an update for said terrain is here: https://combatace.com/files/file/14547-sf2-ww2-northen-europenorth-sea-fix-it-pak/

I've been updating Heberth's Raptor mod with new skins, loadouts, sounds, etc. The model had been released in alpha stage here: https://combatace.com/forums/topic/66398-wip-mega-thread/?page=3&tab=comments#comment-645422 The aircraft's 3d model is very fine. I also added all released updates shared at the WIP thread, including russouk2004's new normal maps. However, the 3d model misses external pylons! Heberth said he would have released the .max files, but only Modders have access to the Modders Round Table. I would need the help of a 3d modeler to create those, either completing Heberth's shared .max files, or by creating the pylons separately, to be added via Fake Pilot method or as weapons. An FM guru would also be needed; it seems thrust vectoring is modelled, but the animations won't work on the engine nozzles. Here below some screenshots of the work I've done; I added reworked decals from viper63a's Raptor pack (the one using the old, lower poly model by Dels), and I created a fictional YF-22 paint scheme for it.

Take your time, I look forward to it! Oh, BTW, I noticed from your screenshots that some Sukhois are still using the old Soviet Red star insignia. Since 2010 the Russian Air Force is using a new one. With my decals mod, stock SF2 aircraft dynamically change the Soviet star insignia according to the chosen mission year. However, third-party aircraft might use fixed decals, hence why you see the old Soviet star on them. Might be worth looking at.

Yes. Use NAVAL_CAMPAIGN=FALSE in the campaign's .ini file, and add carrier stations as in the SF2 Vietnam campaigns. The terrain's ini can still have NavalMap=TRUE, it affects single missions only.

@paulopanz Something I noticed, the main .ini lists the following: [LOD001] Filename=Canberra_B-I-Mk8.lod Distance=120 [LOD002] Filename=Canberra_B-I-Mk8_002.lod Distance=400 [LOD003] Filename=Canberra_B-I-Mk8_003.lod Distance=800 [LOD004] Filename=Canberra_B-I-Mk8_004.lod Distance=2000 [LOD005] Filename=Canberra_B-I-Mk8_005.lod Distance=12000 However, the other distance LODs are not included. This applies to other Canberra packages based on the Canberra_B-I-Mk8.lod as well. Apart from this "bug" reporting, much thanks for completing the Canberra series!

Mod package has been updated to Version 1.2; unimportant changes to some menu strings.

I just released the mod. By no means it is complete. I have decided to upload it now rather than never. I will make updates and improvements in the future. For now, enjoy it as it is.

This mod is by no means complete. It was sitting on my HD for quite a while, so I have decided to upload it now rather than never. Future updates are to be expected, as I have plans to improve and expand it even more.

View File Nations & Medals Expansion Nations & Medals Expansion April 13th, 2019 (1st Release) by Menrva >For Strike Fighters 2 games This mod is an extension of the stock ThirdWire _nations.ini file. It adds new nations and respective national decals, missing from the stock game, and it adds numerous medals (made by Capitaine Vengeur and Charles) for the stock countries. Here below a summary of the changes: -Added a number of new service markings decals, for the added nations. -Remade decals for the fictive countries of SF2 to match the default 256x256 resolution of other national decals. -The Mercenary decal no longer shows Dhimari colours; now it's generic and adapt for various scenarios involving mercenaries. -The Soviet Air Force becomes the Russian Air Force since 1992, with proper new decals showing up since 2010. -The Soviet Naval Aviation (Russian Naval Aviation since 1992) has been added as a separate service. -The (Free) Libyan Air Force has been added and becomes active in 2012, in place of the Libyan Arab Republic Air Force. -Biafra and Katanga have been added and are active for a short number of years, as historically accurate. -The Rwandan Air Force has been added, active since 1962, with later finflash showing up since 2002. -The Niger Air Force has been added, active since 1961, with alternative insignia in use since 1980. -The Djibouti Air Force has been added, active since 1977, as historically accurate. -The missing post-Yugoslavia nations, namely Montenegro and Republika Srpska, have been added. -The missing ex-Soviet Union nations of Belarus, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have been added. -The Irish Air Corps has been added, with alternative decals in use since 1955. -The People's Liberation Army Naval Air Force has been added as a separate service, active since 1953. -The Somali Air Force is known as the Somali Aeronautical Corps before 1960, as historically correct. -The Burkina Faso Air Force is no longer active since 1964, now it's active since 1985; it shows up as the Upper Volta Air Force before 1985. -The Bahrain Amiri Air Force becomes the Royal Bahraini Air Force in 2002, as historically accurate. -Created and added low-vis insignia and finflash textures for the Pakistan Air Force. -Fixed a stock bug in SF2 with the Sultan of Oman's Air Force not being selectable since 1959, as it should be. -Fixed a stock bug in SF2 with the Republic of China (Taiwan) Air Force not using the old roundel as it should be before 1992. -Activated unused low-vis finflash included in stock SF2 for the Canadian Armed Forces. -Other very small changes here and there to other stock nations. -Added new medals for the following nations and respective services: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Egypt, East Germany, West Germany, France, Finland, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, North Korea, South Korea, North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Russia, Soviet Union, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States. Modders and users are advised to tweak their _userlist.ini files and _data.ini files for aircraft and ships, to make use of the new naval aviation services added by this mod. >Credits (in no particular order): -Capitaine Vengeur, for his Modern Russian Federation Medals and Modern Ukrainian Medals packs. -Charles, for his Medals Pack v2.0 addon for SF1, which I have improved and updated to SF2 standards. -mue, for sharing info about the functionality of the alias.lst file. -paulopanz, for creating decals for Rwanda and Niger, which I have further tweaked. -eburger68, for few decals I borrowed from his huge campaign mods. I included the original readme files from the mentioned mods, where available, 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. This mod may NOT in any way, shape or form be used in any payware additions. Submitter Menrva Submitted 04/13/2019 Category ini File Edits

Exactly. Also to remember the NavalMap=TRUE statement inside a terrain's .ini file, which affects the behaviour of single missions, particularly those involving strikes and bombings. IMHO there is no advantage in not merging SF2NA with the other titles. It's actually a loss. To merge SF2NA with the older titles gives more features at your disposal, which can be used or not.

That's what I wanted to hear! Thank you for sharing the info. It what Pensy says it's confirmed to be true, I think there are a number of stock aircraft and weapons that need fixes.

Wow, that's very informative, actually. What I do not understand is that it happens on stock SF2 with stock planes and weapons! It's an annoying bug TK never fixed. Actually, I doubt it existed in SF1. I don't recall it happening to me in my WOE days. But, I don't think it has to do with FIGHTER or ATTACK profiles; planes assigned to the strike mission sometimes do not engage, they just fly over the given target area and keep flying forward, not even following waypoints.

It's a bug that happens on stock SF2. Replaying the same mission works most of the time, they engage their targets instead of flying on. What Major Bloodnock mentions is another problem that exists with third-party weapons. But in that case you'd see planes diving to attack the ground targets, yet they simply won't drop modern bombs unless they are dumb, unguided versions.

As Happy308 said; in particular the Unlimited Effects setting uses the TWPOSTPROCESS.FX file which adds a horrible bloom effect in the stock game. Some mods (by Stary or even my realSKY mod) provide an alternative TWPOSTPROCESS.FX file, but I think the latest drivers simply hate those DX10 shaders used by SF2. I strongly suggest to set Effects to High. The Unlimited setting just eats FPS without adding anything that is worth. I am lucky as my low-end PC is stuck with older NVIDIA drivers. I am not able to play with effects set to Unlimited in any case.

Great, they were really needed for the Ecuador scenario! @paulopanz FYI, decals are missing.