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That's the nice thing about doing decals versus putting the stuff directly on the skins. Once you get past the initial pain of decal placement, adding another is simple.

Guys, I just added the request on the 3W forums for tweaking mil depression on the loadout screen. Please add your support if you like the idea.

Got your PM, Dave. If you have any more, I'll gladly take them, as they can only improve what I already have.

After posting my last, I actually found a pic of an EA-6A with a nice tail profile. Here's what I was able to do for VAQ-309. Low vis to follow, and if you have any CAG examples I would love to see them. Otherwise, I'll just use the existing hi-color graphic.

I'd love to add the axemen, but I haven't seen any pictures of their prowlers from the side. I don't know their tail logo, letter codes, and though I know they flew the prowler, the only pics I've seen for 309 are the EA-6A. If you have any pics of the tail (preferably hi-color) I'd be happy to incorporate them.

Lately, I've been putting Wrench's EA-6B templates to good use in creating Prowler skins, but the lion's share of my work has been creating the logos for each of the EA-6B squadrons (USN and USMC). I have created Hi-color as well as low visibility (dark and light) insignia, along with CAG markings that differ from the standard Hi-color markings. All of the squadrons have been added to SquadronList.ini, with EA-6B entries starting at 455. This leaves plenty of room for other add-on squadrons or TK patches. All of the following birds use the same skin; any variation is in decals only. This keeps with the modular nature of the A-6 Superpack. You will also notice the use of canopy decals in a number of cases as well. Here are the squadrons in order, from VAQ-129 through VAQ-142, and VAQ-209. The USMC squadrons have been completed, but are not displayed here because the skins are still in the works. I'm particularly proud of this one (VAQ-140) Finally, you may notice the implementation of Russouk's lights via Fakepilot, allowing for additional nav lights. The white tail light has also been added to the rudder, with the A-6 retrofitted with this light as well. Now if somebody can hook me up with some working slimers, I'll really be in business. That, and if anybody can provide assistance with adjusting the ALQ-99 in the data.ini files to account for each variant then release of the EA-6B pack should be within a couple of weeks. The EA-6B pack will require that the A-6 Superpack be installed.

Awesome. It's all clear now.

Thanks, guys. The Bomb/Rocket settings actually make this infinitely more useful, though certainly more of a complicated program as well. I could still do a basic program where you enter the desired mils for each, but adding features like reverting to defaults, checking for avionics70, saving datafiles for quicker loading, etc will take a bit longer. The thing is that there is no reason to do just the base program without the safeguards, because then that will create issues with the new program. It should be a project for this weekend. Thanks for the links, SupGen. Malibu, could you send me the charts? I could incorporate those into the program as well, either as a viewer or in a linear interpolation routine.

Might be worth asking for in the 3W forums as well (i.e. a mil setting option in the loadout screen). I'll knock out a basic program tonight. If you have the algorithms or tables for determining mil depressions, I can incorporate that as well.

I was just thinking about this some more, because this is something I would love to have in SF2. I could write the code for that program in VB6 in a few hours, but it doesn't fix the primary issue, which is that you need to know how you're going to bomb before you even know your mission. Since you have to set your values before you load the program, the only way you'll know what you need is if you fly a canned mission. The problem is compounded in CAS missions with cluster bombs, as your dive angle and release altitude are a factor of how much or little dispersion you want with your submunitions. The thing to do would be to create something of a cheat engine that would adjust the value in RAM on the fly. You could then assign hotkeys to increase/decrease the mils my a certain increment, with a third hotkey reverting the value to 250 (which seems to be a default max). In fact, the Cheat Engine software should be able to help find the addresses and make the program. Unfortunately, this is outside my area of expertise, other than knowing it can be done (similar things were done with Total Air War to allow NVGs while zoomed into MFDs). Downside of this is that the program may be obsolete with a new patch.

Gunsight depression is in the cockpit.ini. Here's an example: [GunsightFront] HasGunsight=TRUE GunsightMilSize=100 GunsightName=A-6A_sight.tga MaxDepression=250 DefaultDepression=50 It appears to be a fixed amount based on whether you are using guns or missiles (default), or bombs/rockets (Max). Your program would be doable by using the following values: Desired Aircraft (you could get the cockpit.ini filename from the aircraft.ini by looking at the CockpitDataFile= entry). Desired Max Depression (you probably shouldn't tweak the default depression, as that tends to be the "boresight"). When changing the text value, you could easily rem (//) out the existing line, along with tagging it so that it is easily identifying it in a text search (e.g. //exemod_MaxDepression=250). This way you could change the value from one modded value to another without adding rem lines to your file every time you did something, and you would have an easy search string for finding the line when you want to go back to your default value. It appears that the depression values are in mils. If you wanted to make the depression value a calculation of factors based on desired airspeed, altitude, and dive angle, you could do that too. EDIT: you may want to have the program check the existing aircraft_avionics file for the existence of avionics70.dll or CCIP, both of which will make the entries moot.

And your work is greatly appreciated. I'm making some nice tweaks to the prowler templates you did.

First, I'd like to give a shout out to russouk2004, who came through with my last request for a 3D ventral anti-smash light for the A-6. Those of you who downloaded my A-6 Superpack may have noticed it. The great thing is that now that I am working the Prowlers, I was able to use these lights (including a blue-tinted one) for the EA-6B nav lights behind the inner pylons. Now that I have the bug, I'm asking a similar favor with the slime lights. I would like to convert these from being part of the skin to being a FakePilot object for a number of reasons: Skin placement means that it is behind the decals, instead of in front (as is historically the case with the A-6 and the NationName. I couldn't get it to work as a decal because the number of decals per surface on the aft fuselage is maxed out. A 3D object would look better, and could be made in a bright color to illuminate at night like a real slimer. I'm hoping to at least get the fuselage slimers, but I would be overjoyed to get the wingtip slimers as well. Here is a profile shot of an EA-6B that shows both in good detail: Likewise, relative dimensions can be pulled from the skin files using the following jpg images (reduced for bandwidth): As always, full credit will be provided with the superpack. Thanks in advance! EDIT: Photo switched.

Thanks, Fubar. I was wondering what the proper nomenclature was for it; now I can put this in for the D and later.

Nice, Gocad. I need to find out (probably from 3W) if there's a way to assign squadron entries/decals in SQUADRONLIST.INI based on date (as can be done in NATIONS.INI). That would be one way to fix it and also evolve tail logos with time.

Ah yes, the weapons database. Was too busy thinking in objectland... Thanks. I'll give it a look.

Roger all. I actually reviewed that Kb thread just after posting my reply, and was thinking the same thing about implementing a combined jammer for the ICAP II, or possibly putting the ICAP III (or ICAP II Blk89A) back on the table. EDIT: While we're on the subject of HOJ, I couldn't find any entries in the FanSong or BarLock data files, nor any of the SA-2L datafiles. Is there a particular entry I'm looking for?

I'm not an EW expert by any stretch, but I would find it hard to believe that the ALQ-99 was limited to noise and barrage jamming. In fact, later variants of the 99 are considered "smart" jammers, which would indicate to me that they would vary modes and hop frequencies to prevent against HOJ missiles. My supposition was only based on how I envision that 3W simplistically models ECM. I figure the game models it like this: If you have a deceptive jammer, the ECM system will put its entire strength into jamming the highest priority threat within its frequency range. This makes sense from a tactical defensive perspective without unbalancing the game. If you select a noise jammer, the ECM system will apply its full strength over the entire frequency range (something physically impossible, but it keeps the algorithm simple and works for gameplay). Of course, you bring up an excellent consideration, MigBuster. What if the later model ALQ-99 consisted of two ECM systems, with deceptive and noise jammers. If the gameplay would be affected, this could protect the prowler tactically as well as provide EW suppression for the package. Definitely some questions to ask at the 3W forum.

Problem with modern subs is they have no keel, and therefore less stability on the surface. Newton's third law would likely cause the submarine to capsize upon firing the projectile.

I've started work on the EA-6B Prowler variants for the next A-6 Superpack. So far I'm planning on doing the following: EA-6B_71 (the original prowler) EA-6B_73 (EXCAP) EA-6B (3W default, which assuming the 1979 timeline corresponds to the ICAP I) EA-6B_84 (ICAP II) EA-6B_05 (ICAP III) The toughest part of this equation is determining the values for ECM. This problem is complicated by the following: The 3W Prowler has a jam strength of 120 and jams freqs 1-20. The ICAP II Prowler by Hawker/Agemmenon & 331KillerBee has a jam strength of 90 and jams freqs 0.1-10. FastCargo's EF-111 Raven has a jam strength of 90 (no frequency range listed). I realize that both the EF-111 and the Hawker/Agemmenon & 331KillerBee prowler were released before SF2NA, and SF2NA added ships with search/track/FC radars in the 15 freq range. However, 120 seems too strong for the ICAP I. At the same time, I don't want to nerf the default 3W prowler by 25% and possibly upset any balancing, especially since the Iceland campaign is hard enough as it is. The other question I have is the level of ECM modelling in SF2. I'm assuming that the game engine compares jamming frequencies to platform frequencies, and if they overlap then the jammer strength is linearly compared with the radar strength with burn through distance depending on the differences in strength. Could somebody confirm or clarify this for me? Finally, many of the ALQ-99 upgrades were in the form of being able to simultaneously jam additional frequencies. Is this modeled with any fidelity in SF2, or does the game engine assume barrage jamming of all frequencies at full strength? Could the increase in simultaneous jamming be modeled with slightly increased strength to abstractly represent the ECMOs being able to barrage a narrower frequency band? Here are my proposed values for the prowler variants. Please provide your inputs and/or spitballs. EA-6B_71 [ALQ99] SystemType=ECM_JAMMER JammerType=NOISE_JAMMER JammerStrength=65.0 MinFreq=2.0 MaxFreq=8.0 CanJamCW=FALSE I don't want to go less than 2-8 (the A-6B ECM freq range), and strength 65 seems a fair increase over the A-6A/B ECM EA-6B EXCAP [ALQ99A] SystemType=ECM_JAMMER JammerType=NOISE_JAMMER JammerStrength=65.0 MinFreq=1.0 MaxFreq=13.0 CanJamCW=FALSE The ALQ-99A on the EXCAP reportedly covered twice the frequency range of the original; this isn't a 2x increase, but it's fairly close without being able to cover some of the ship radars introduced in SF2NA. EA-6B ICAP (3W Default) [ALQ99C] SystemType=ECM_JAMMER JammerType=NOISE_JAMMER JammerStrength=120 MinFreq=1.0 MaxFreq=20.0 CanJamCW=TRUE Here's where it gets trickier. For reasons specified earlier in this post, I'm hesitant to reduce the strength or frequency range of the default prowler. However, a near 2x increase in jammer strength seems too much. Likewise, the ALQ-99 didn't expand its frequency range again until the D model used with the ICAP II. EA-6B ICAP II [ALQ99D] SystemType=ECM_JAMMER JammerType=NOISE_JAMMER JammerStrength=120 MinFreq=1.0 MaxFreq=20.0 CanJamCW=TRUE Identical in its entry to the ICAP I, though this time the values seem more representative of reality. Of course, we now have an ICAP II with a strength of 120 comparing to the strengths of 90 for both the Hawker/Agemmenon & 331KillerBee prowler and FastCargo's EF-111. The ICAP III entry would be identical to the ICAP II, as both use the ALQ-99D. I'm considering scrapping the ICAP III variant altogether, as the tactical updates for the ICAP III seem to focus on mission planning and communications jamming, neither being of particular importance in SF2. Please provide your comments and suggestions.

It may be iterative and take a while; it's a matter of not only sorting through the 400 entries in SQUADRONLIST.INI but also seeing which numbers correspond to which aircraft in the different Object CATs.

Likewise, because level 1 decals call the squadron by their entry in SQUADRONLIST.INI, yet the decal format themselves is aircraft dependent, you can have multiple tails for the same squadron. For example, VF-111 (above) has tails for the F-4 as well as the F-14, and VA-34 has tails for the A-4 and A-6. Adding a squadron tail database to a wiki isn't a bad idea, either. I'll start a page to which people can contribute.

Good loads here using UEP, SARCASM, SF2 Reloaded effects, as well as many of the effects used by the more popular mods.

If you're new to the series, we'll give you a pass just this once. Welcome to Strike Fighters and CA!

That's about right. The bullpup is a manually guided missile where the pilot eyeballs the missile into the target by keeping an eye on the emitter flare on the back of the missile. I'm sure you can imagine how difficult this would be while flying a plane in peacetime, much less while getting shot at. This was especailly true with single seat aircraft, where the pilot would stay behind the missile so he could see it without losing his SA, but after a while the NVA figured this out and started shooting at the other end of the smoke trail. As unreliable as the Walleye was, I'm sure there were plenty of songs being sung in its name when it finally replaced the bullpup.