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The first thing I always do is make a copy of the folder in which I am working, just so if I screw something up I can always go to my originals. When using the command prompt (and no safety net), it's very easy to screw this up. open up a command window (i.e. DOS prompt) in the folder you want to manipulate. Little known technique: shift-right click on the folder you want to open the prompt in, then select "open command window here". at the dos prompt, you can do wildcard renaming conventions that (AFAIK) you can't do straight from windows. For example, if all of my A6 tails (filenames A6TailL000.tga and A6TailR000.tga) were 451-480 (they were), and I wanted to change them to 551-580 (I did), then I could enter the following command at the DOS prompt: ren A6Tail?4??.tga A6Tail?5??.tga Since the question mark is a single character wildcard (as opposed to the * which is a global wild), the existing numbers will remain intact, with the only things changing being the difference in arguments (e.g. 4 to 5). You'll even notice that I was able to wildcard the L or R part of the file, which means it works for both sides of the tail art. Just for best practice, I spell out the entire filename except for the desired wildcards just to make sure that I only rename files I'm targeting. If you want to do jumps of something like 50, you will need to do them 10 at a time instead of 100 at a time (like my last example). To renumber from the 00 series to 50 series, the line would look like this: ren A6Tail??0?.tga A6Tail??5?.tga Note the two question marks in front of the middle digit. The first wildcard is again for the Left/Right tail, and should not be confused with a 4 digit number. Next line would be ren A6Tail??1?.tga A6Tail??6?.tga and so on until you renumbered your files. Hope this helps.

Hopefully my renumbering didn't screw up your plans. BTW, if you can move things by a factor of 10 or 100, you can use the "ren" command in a DOS window to do your dirty work. Obviously, if you can change 5?? to 6??, you can do 100 TGAs at a time, which is why I renumbered the way I did.

DA, Here's the latest squadronlist.ini. In addition to squadrons I've used, you'll notice the 3 RN FAA squadrons (entries 578-580). These are the Harrier squadrons from the Falklands mod. I don't have decals for these yet, but was adding the entries for future flexibility. If it helps to sort your grouping better, please feel free to move these in front of 551, as it won't affect any of my level 1 decals. Also, if you catch any fat-fingering errors in the file, please let me know so I can correct it on my end as well. SQUADRONLIST.zip

Ok, I'll upload another squadronlist.ini later, then start renaming my TGA files at 501 to cover down. If you start with mine as a baseline, that will ensure compatibilty and safety from fat-fingering initial entries. EDIT: on second thought, I'll start my entries at 551 instead of 501. This makes for a much easier effort for renaming a bunch of files, and also reduces the likelihood of screwing up the order. Feel free to fill up 501-550 as you see fit.

I know. Once I got out of the NAV, I got into Defense acquisition. When I was doing JCIDS, I used to joke that my job was to be part of the problem.

It's good to be the king.

Ok, mal, I'll drop the upper-case at your request. In all seriousness, I was covering down on what I saw. I'll refer to calling you malibu at your request.

DA, As you can see from my squadronlist.ini, if you add the placeholder and leave it blank, you don't even have to do the zulu units. Then updating the squadronlist.ini after a patch is as easy as overwriting the existing placeholders without having to rename entries or TGAs. BTW, if you want to change things from 450 to 500, please let me know ASAP. I'll need to redo all of the A-6/EA-6B TGAs as well as the other level 1 decals (CAG birds, CVW wing codes, etc.) before I release the next A-6 Superpack (sometime this week).

Mal, I'll update the A-6 datafiles as well. I've since modified them to add proper nav/position lights. I'll go ahead and put them up once I release 1.5 of the superpack; at that point there should be no surprises. Here's a philosophical question for the realism pack: do we want to incorporate pilots, seats, and fakepilot items? I tweaked a Mk4 seat to look like a Mk5 for the A-6A, and I have a Mk7 for the A-6E. We can also use the TMF F-14 seat for the EA-6B. Likewise, I have the additional nav lights on the A-6/EA-6B via fakepilot. Personally, I think we should include this stuff as it isn't a skin, but rather it affects the entire aircraft.

TK has plenty of room to grow on the front end (402-450). Any padding at the end should be for mods that are so good they might as well be stock.

Here's a start. I've enclosed the squadronlist.ini I'm using for the A-6 Superpack. I've added the prowler squadrons as well as some additional intruder squadrons (VMA-332, all 3 RAGs, 2 res squadrons, and VAQ-33 for the coolness factor of skinning multiple airframes in the same squadron) and 3 RN FAA squadrons (the RN needs some love too). I also allow left 402 through 450 blank to allow for official expansion (so we don't need to rename our level 1 decals every time a patch comes out), and my entries finish at 480. I think we should also include the 12 Dhimar squadrons to allow for custom skinning in the SF2 desert campaigns, though I haven't done that yet. We should probably leave a pad on the back end in case somebody adds a plane so cool it just has to have its entries added. I think stopping at 900-950 is prudent. Other than that, the more the merrier! EDIT: One other consideration: I agree that squadrons with stock planes should take precedence, but if there are recognized top notch packages that should have corresponding units added (I'm thinking Viper Team, Ravenclaw's Bucc, etc.) those should be added just because they are in such wide use. EDIT2: obsolete attachment removed for version control.

Guys, Now that we're cooking with gas, we should consider something like Box.net as a collaboration site. We can just upload things as we see fit, make edits, and see what everybody else is doing. Edit: Box.net links rescinded to minimize confusion.

daddyairplanes brings up a good point with the changing of unit designations. I think we should treat the squadronlist.ini as a database in the sense that we get just one entry per squadron in the database. For example, we know that the VF-84 Jolly Rogers decommissioned, and the VF-103 Sluggers became the VF-103 Jolly Rogers, then became the VFA-103 Jolly Rogers. We should keep one entry as the VF-103 Sluggers, but we can update the art to the skull and crossbones accordingly based on skins and aircraft variant/service life. We could even implement period folders akin to my suggestion to TK, though without requested code modification we would need to add them manually to the aircraft. That said, this is very doable and requires very little work to maintain if done properly. For example, if someone wants to do the VF-103 Jolly Rogers tomcat, he could create a 1991 folder (when they switched over) and add the level 1 decals that end in 133 (the entry for VF-103). Likewise, someone who does the F/A-18F and wants to do the Jolly Roger details, could add a 2005 folder and do the same thing. Just have the decals.ini files call the appropriate date folder and we're good with period markings. I also like Grinch's idea a lot. This way, a patch doesn't require full coordination of everybody, but rather just the people in charge of their sphere of influence (datafiles, aircraft, ground units). I would even say to add the squadronlist as a fourth entry into the downloads just because due to its potential for dynamic expansion we want it to be a smaller download and also not require the attention of the team dealing with more stable datafiles.

I agree about the weapons. Keep to major variants, along with blocks if they have something to add to gameplay. I welcome this, as it will keep my combing the existing weapons folder to a minimum whenever I add a new mod. We should also (as a community) cover down on the best LODs and weapon skins while we're at it. It may increase the download size, but these are things that will allow consistency and standardization and reduce the download size of future addons that use the pack. On the topic of squadronlist, right now I'm up to 476 on my version for the A-6 superpack (I just added VA-304 last night, and added VAQ-33 for grins and giggles). I think we can safely expand this to 900 or so without cramping anybody's style or need for expansion (this will still allow 99 squadrons on the back end, and still allows TK to add another forty-some squadrons). Due to the size potential (decals for every custom entry for each aircraft type), this could become a huge download. I think we should have the initial squadronlist.ini and decals included in the realism pack, and release a new update of the squadronlist separate from the realism pack when there is a patch or somebody needs to add a new squadron.

Having an integrated squadronlist across all installs (as opposed to theater specific squadronlists) would allow people to create common decals across multiple skins, all without conflicting with others. For example, if we know that the Prowler squadrons are 455-474, then we could add level 1 decals that can be used across the board. This could be separate from the realism pack (especially since it is by its nature a dynamic datafile), but this seems to be a good place to discuss its standardization.

Thanks for the assist, Wrench. Got everything working using the architecture similar to my previous post.

Ah, 1985. You'll appreciate the upcoming prowler pack; you'll be able to use the EA-6B ICAP II Block 82.

Another candidate for quote of the day!

Actually, I'm taking another tack at this. Rather than having one master A6SP folder with subfolders for dates, I'll do my dates off the main (e.g. A6SP, A6SP1976, A6SP1981, A6SPBuno), then just do my existing folder structure from there. I won't have to throw everything into the same folders so I can keep things organized, and reducing the nesting tree by one is all I need. Examples: [Decal011] MeshName=vertical_stablizer DecalLevel=1 DecalFacing=LEFT FilenameFormat=A6SP1981\LVG\A6TailL Position=-9.76,1.90 Scale=4.4 DecalMaxLOD=4 [Decal021] MeshName=vertical_stablizer DecalLevel=2 DecalFacing=LEFT FilenameFormat=A6SPBuno\A-6E_LVG\USNA6BUNO Position=-9.15,1.14 Scale=1.2 DecalMaxLOD=4 The applicable folders will still be identifiable for removal during manual uninstall (they all start with A6SP). Not quite as neatly bound, but equally functional.

Thanks, Wrench. Not the answer I had hoped for, but certainly one that I expected. I was hoping I was missing something fundamental. I take that the "Decals" folder isn't represented as a nested level by the game engine, which in fact restricts me to two levels. I'll do something like this: \A6SP \1976 \1981 \1981_LVB \1981_LVG \1981_CAG \Buno_A6A \Buno_A6B \Buno_A6E \Buno_EXCAP \Buno_ICAP This also means keeping all of my custom decals (e.g. fuselage and drop tanks) in with my tails, and keep all of the CAG files together (I changed the bunos to level 1 on CAG birds so a Buno corresponds to the squadron rather than the modex).

Word!

Dave, This might also be a great opportunity to consolidate a community SQUADRONLIST.INI. While the SQUADRONLIST.INI file has been updated in the last two patches, the beauty is that you can assign blank placeholders for patches. For example, I did a Squadronlist that includes new A-6 squadrons, all of the Prowler squadrons, and a few other squadrons for expansion. I started them at 450 (back when 397 was the max) and just put in blank placeholders for 399-449. This has the potential to get everybody on the same page while still allowing for maximum flexibility at least for the next 45 or so officially added squadrons.

Roger that. I'll be sure to add my prowler ini files when they're ready.

DanW, I've posted some recommendations on the 3W forums (one of which was put in a patch ), but one of my ongoing themes is that realizing that 3W is a small operation with a small budget, TK would make us all happy by adding hooks to the code. Even if he didn't attach anything to the hooks, we're a dedicated enough community that we'll run with it. 3W could use us as a force multiplier. For example, I recently added suggestions for the ability to have multiple RWR sounds (something that has been long requested), as well as allowing additional folders for squadron markings by period. Both of these suggestions would require no work beyond the initial coding, and the modding community could run with this to create sounds for every emitter and desired air wing we wish. While other things may take priority, using these types of suggestions as a philosophy (unlock things for modders without requiring rework of existing data files) should be on 3W's radar. I agree that there's too much negativity and it's to the point where the passion has turned into counterproductive venom. Something like this would do a lot for the goodwill of the loyal community, which would then in turn improve SF2 even more. Win-Win.