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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Dynamics_F-111C Second picture down shows the scheme in 1981. Just wondering the date range on that. Was thinking about that myself. Adding ARDU to the SQUADRONLIST.INI should be interesting as it can be applied to multiple airframes (like VAQ-33).

Due to reasons of intellectual property, the A-6 Superpack doesn't include cockpits. These have to be purchased, extracted from WoV, or downloaded from any number of mods in the SF1 section here. Once you add the cockpits, you will need to enable them in the a-6a.ini file (as well as a-6e.ini, et al). Instructions are in the readme.

Thanks, guys. I'm planning to keep the roundel near the intake on the A models because of the speedbrake on the rear fuselage (I don't know the mesh name, and it would look weird to have the roundel partially cover the brake anyway). However, I just figured out how to get the roundel on the rear fuselage and keep the national flag on the tail (I was having decal issues before). I'll do that for the E variants, which don't have fuselage speedbrakes on the LOD. For the tropical grey, I am planning on doing that as well. I assume it's Sea Grey overall; do you have any information on when it was in use. As far as the tropical green camo, I know it was in use in 1981, but I was wondering how much time on either side of that year the scheme was in use.

Yes. RAAF. I may play with RAN as well; I'll see if the A-6 can be launched from the Melbourne. Should be fun.

I still need to look at the F-4 stuff you sent me. I'm trying to get to a good stopping point with my What-If RAAF A-6 before I look at that.

DA, I'm all for leaving as much as we can blank up to 1000. My thoughts were to add squadrons starting at 1000 that we know won't need decals (e.g. squadrons already represented by mods that have skin-specific decals, or Army Aviation and non-tactical squadrons like transport and AEW). Do the placeholder thing again from 8xx-999 and start the entries at 1000. Also, I would like to add a couple of RAAF Squadrons: 1st Squadron and 6th Squadron. Both flew the F-111, and I'm doing a what-if A-6 that uses both squadrons (the A-6 was considered by the RAAF when they opted for the F-111). From what I understand 6th Sqn is more of a RAG type squadron (as opposed to operational). We could at least put one of the squadrons in one of the 809 dup entries, and the other where it makes sense to do so.

I've uploaded a hotfix for version 1.51 that brings the campaigns and Squadronlist.ini in line with the latest DLC. You can still install this even if you don't have DLC 18 and 21, but it will utilize them if installed. A-6 Superpack 1.51a Hotfix.7z (mediafire)

There are some good A-6 cockpits in the SFP1 section, or you can extract the A-6 Cockpit from WoV. Likewise, you can purchase the RAZBAM A-6 pack for SF1 and use that cockpit with this pack, which is the most immersive option.

@DA, Another observation: Royal Navy 809NAS is duplicated in entries 580 and 591. Probably my own entries combined with your culling of other files. Frees up another spot. Also, are you planning to add transport, AEW, and Army Aviation units to 1000+, or is that for a follow-up version?

No problem, DA. With 716-728, I at least know which numbers correspond to which squadron for decals. I just installed the new DLC last night, but haven't had a chance to look at the skins in game yet. That will be today. Thinking of your post-Vietnam squadron decals, approximately what year or range of years are those? My thinking is that if we can put the SQNAME and number files in a consolidated folder (I use Num_LVG, Num_White, et al) and assign the tail decals to a timeframe (e.g. 1975) then we set a foundation for ourselves or others to build on. The concept is similar to the suggestion I made on the 3W forum, in which we assign decals to years, though without the engine doing it automatically per my suggestion in that post, we can assign it manually via different variants. This is actually what I do with the A-6 Superpack. For example, if you have phantom specific decals for 1965 and decals for 1978, you would put them in folders like F4_1965 and F4_1978. Then have your skins for the F-4C_65 pull F-4 specific decals from F4_1965 and the F-4E_78 pull decals from F4_1978. This way you could have era-specific decals for different variants, or even skins within the same variant if you want to go into that detail. While you may have one set of decals now, if you're putting them in a separate folder anyway, this offers you the flexibility for future expansion by yourself or others. Don't worry about the grunt work: I have a concept of how to do this that I have implemented in the A-6 Superpack and have refined for version 2.0 (though that's still at least "three weeks" out). I can take care of it from my end, but since it is your mod I would like permission to do so (along with a year that you recommend as a placeholder if nothing else).

@DA, Are you planning on adding your Phantom mods and decals? I would love to get an integrated pack.

I'm thinking that with weapons, we should triage them into the following categories: 1) Which weapons should be included with the Realism Pack? My thoughts: Stock weapons that can be improved Non-stock weapons that will be utilized Weapons that fit our timeframe (exception: modern weapons that are part of a pack that overlaps timeframe, in which case we may want to include the entire pack. Example: AIM-54 variants). 2) Which weapons should be included in the Community Pack? Again, my thoughts: Cool to have weapons (Mk77 fire bomb, which is part of realistic loadouts, but not all that useful as far as the game goes per malibu's comments) Useful weapons that are more modern than the stock period (i.e. 1981+) like the AGM-65 or AGM-88 Weapons that are used in multiple mods (again, AGM-65, modern AA missiles, JDAM/JSOW/modern PGMs) 3) Weapons that we should pass on completely. A particular weapon made obsolete by a better weapon mod A weapon whose improvements are obsolesced by a 3W patch Weapons that are more exotic than useful (e.g. original daisy cutters), or only serve to clutter the menu (e.g. inert loads). These can be added by individual mods if required.

Off the top of my head, I can't think of any broken stock weapons, though I'm not the guy to ask. I was thinking more in terms of adding weapons that aren't included in the stock layout, but that would be good for realistic loadouts (e.g. AGM-123 Skipper II for the A-6E_79, Mk77 Fire bomb for the Marines, nukes). I think the updated AIM-54 series are worth adding as well, but I'm open to suggestions beyond that. My thoughts are that the RP should include the "must have" mods and tweaks to make SF2 enjoyable without further tweaking, which also means that if we're going to tweak the original campaigns we should include the mods used by the tweaked campaigns as well. From there, people can decide in which direction they want to mod their install, and the CP can help fill that niche.

DL, Just so you know, malibu43 has included instructions on how to make the campaigns non-NA compatible as well. The campaigns will also be available in the upcoming SF2 Realism Pack, though there's no release timeframe yet.

Rgr that. Follow-up question: If I allow export of the B-61, but just have USAF and USN attachments, does this open it up for any nation with US exported aircraft to also be able to use the B-61? If that is the case, I'll just make a B-61N. Speaking of weps, I just downloaded a bunch of packs, including KillerBee's Ordnance Pack II. I'm honestly overwhelmed and can't sort through it all. Since you've been through this before with AGXP, could you send some pointers my way about what to include, avoid, et al?

Any ideas?

I'm trying to create a black and white display, and I have tried replacing GreenTVFilter.bmp with images of different shades of grey. It seems as if the only thing this does is occlude all colors based on the luminosity of the grey used, and the image still displays in full color. Is there anything I can do to make it like a black and white TV instead of a green screen?

They'll be the only WAV files directly in the common\Speech folder (the Hawkeye speech files will be in SF2NA\Speech). You can just choose to omit them.

Malibu, I'll have to respectfully disagree with your second bullet. I think the Renegade/Retrograde speech pack is incredible, and I find that when I test with an otherwise vanilla install, the bubba pilot comms are like nails on a chalkboard in comparison. I don't mind bubba so much for approach/departure, especially since these will be a separate set of voices anyway. Hopefully more people will chime in, but from the traffic I've seen it appears that I'm not the only one who feels this way. And you're right about CV-59. It's not bad, but it's no CVA-63 either. Removed. I'll be going through some weapons packs to determine what should be put in. The way I see it, there are two easy ways we can go about this: Cherry pick the weapons we want/need and don't make any modifications to the weapons themselves. If people want the whole pack, they can install it separately without overwriting any improvements. If any weapons are tweaked (e.g. allowing B61 for export for USN use), then include the entire pack from which the weapon originated. This way people who want the whole pack have it without having to worry about overwriting any improvements. EDIT: There is a third way of cherry picking and improving weapons for the RP, then including the balance of the weapons in the CP, so people who want the whole package can get the CP. Of course, the fourth way of cherry picking and improving means that we will need to document the changes so people who want everything know what not to overwrite. Or we can just provide instructions to install the entire weapons pack prior to installing the RP (a solution I dislike). Speaking of weapons, is there any way to control which countries weapons are exported to (again, thinking of the B61)? It seems the only control I have is by limiting the attachment type. BTW, I think you'll like some of the changes I made to the A-6 loadouts. Nukes, Skippers, and ASR loadouts, oh my!

That was a big hang up with me for the FC2 mission editor. How freakin' hard is it to have multiplayer aircrat assigned to the same flight? ADF and TAW were doing that back in the mid '90s; the only thing I had to do to make a single player ADF mission multiplayer compatible was to add a player number to an aircraft ID, which was a simple text edit. Also one of the reasons I love Falcon for multiplayer; you can just hop into a campaign or TE without any drama, and without unbalancing everything.

Thanks, malibu. I was planning on looking at CV-59 to see for myself before making the final decision. I may pull the approach/departure pack as well; I like it better than Bubba, but it can be distracting so this may be a case of less is more. Spectre's Hawkeye voice, however, is a huge improvement over the default Hawkeye voice. I actually prefer it to Skatezilla's speech pack (which itself is excellent and a major improvement). I don't know of any Red Crown speech packs, though.

DL, malibu43 has also done some very nice updates to the original SF2 campaigns that will use carriers if you have SF2NA installed. Those campaigns are a blast, and are a great improvement over the originals.

I have a question about DCS of late: I know that with FC2, I couldn't create a multiplayer mission with both players in the same flight. In order to make a co-op mission multiplayer, I had to make a separate flight of the same aircraft, plug in separate waypoints, et al, which also meant that not only was it a serious pain to convert SP missions to co-op, but in order for it to work you really needed the exact amount of players (since the AI being in a different flight wouldn't follow your lead or orders). Has this been fixed with newer versions of the mission editor?

I've since incorporated my A-6 and EA-6B datafies (standard, EXCAP, ICAP I), though I left the avionics files out since those are better served with their respective superpacks. I also incorporated a mod I started a while back, but had abandoned since I couldn't properly test it at the time. It's a graphic and INI file to award the Naval version of the Medal of Honor to USN/USMC pilots, and I just added the proper shading and edge work to make it match up with the shadow box. It has now been tested, so it works and is included. Finally, I added the E-2C upgrade pack and Dave's VAQ-134 skin for the EA-6B ICAP I. I know that skins are normally out of scope for the RP, but I made exceptions for these because they were made specifically to enhance the SF2NA campaign, and there this is the best way to get the properly marked aircraft into the campaign. Next up is to add the EA-6B to the Linebacker II campaign (which should be easy enough since I did it for the A-6 superpack) and add my tweaks to the stock campaigns (e.g. adding Ramat David as the default base graphic in the SF2I campaigns, replacing the A-6E with the A-6E_79 in SF2NA, which was historically accurate as far as the VA-35 deployment goes, etc.). @DA, did you add any Belgian or Danish squadrons to the squadronlist.ini? If so, do you know which ones flew the F-104? I would like to be able to add them to the appropriate textureset.ini files if possible.