PFunk

Oh, what fresh hell...

The Shadowcat looks more like what you'd expect a low-observable Tomcat to look like.

Unless I can shoot something with it, warbirds aren't much fun.

It's a game, guys. It's a game.

I'm just now returning to the world of SF2 after taking a couple of years off from it. I'm going to focus on mostly eras of flight that the engine knows how to handle, like Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, etc. I might play around with some of the newer aircraft, but I know the game doesn't really mimic modern combat very well. But, I have some questions. A.) Does the game engine still refuse to generate night missions in campaign mode or has someone figured out how to force that? B.) Does the AI still have problems using chaff/flare pods (the external ones, I know it can use the internal ones as well as external ECM jamming pods)? Thanks for any help you can give me so I know how to proceed.

First, I like it. But, I think a meddlesome China wanting mineral claims in Africa makes for a better benefactor to the Angolans. I'd have a coalition of African nations (including the Algerians, perhaps) backed by China fighting the South Africans who are getting help from French naval forces and possibly Brazilian or UK military assistance.

Thanks. So, as long as I'm land-based, I can fly at night? I can work around that. Night carrier traps give me hives, anyway. I'll alter my Tornado GR1 files to have chaff/flare dispensers in the aircraft itself. I can always turn the BOZ-107 pod into like a datalink or somesuch. Sure wish TK would offer a patch to fix the functionality issues, though I know he's done with it. There used to be a mod that reduced your red or blue targeting boxes to the size of a couple of pixels. Anyone know where it is?

You know the instructions for those 'all-in-one' mods that eburger68 assembles for us? You know how they say you're supposed to delete the entire Objects folder before dropping the mod into the folder? Whenever I light the sim back up, the default object folder for the stock planes and ground objects are no longer re-populating. Any stock aircraft that it might use is now unavailable. This has never happened before. Is this something that Win10 does now?

It's kind of handy in the sense that I can see everything that should be in that particular mod, there's no extraneous folders confusing me.

Graduate school is done, got out on the 19th of last month. Ready to return to some simulation gaming, and DCS is just not at a functional point for me. I'm watching CAP2 with great interest (I bought the EA version and am helping out with testing of that title), but I'm ready to go fly some stuff. That leaves SF2, which while some of the idiosyncrasies will make you want to throw something, at least it is stable and functional. I can fly anything almost anywhere, including some places that don't exist. So, I have some really stupid re-familiarization questions, stuff I probably knew at one point but have forgotten after two years of not touching my gaming PC. 1.) In the difficultly settings, does the setting for Weapon Use affect only MY weapons, or do they affect everyone's. Here's why I ask. If I choose the Easy setting, I know my missile shot is essentially almost an insta-kill. Does that mean that the enemy also has that advantage? Or, if I choose Normal, are both enemy and friendly weapons balanced? 2.) I know some of the non-flyables can be made usable with the substitution of a stock or 3rd party cockpit. How do I hide the friggin canopy rails suddenly appearing in my cockpit field of view? 3.) Is there a mod to make the stock Kiev carrier usable? I remember that Forgers still pretty much fell off of it on takeoff. 4.) Is the game essentially abandoned by ThirdWire? Are there any planned updates for stability or new graphics drivers? It runs on the most recent GeForce drivers and I don't see as many flashing textures anymore, but I was just curious. I have forgotten so much.

Okay. That's just so weird, because I was almost certain that the game would re-populate those stock objects when I lit it up.

I'm using the latest one and it works just fine. No flashing textures, no stutters. Alienware Alpha with the somewhat vaguely named "GeForce Chip". Seriously. That's all the device manager describes it as.

Nah. Grad school. Haven't done a lot of any kind of gaming for the last two years. Finally finished up, though. Flew around a little last night. I've determined I need a better HOTAS than the Thrustmaster HOTAS X I have.

Thanks, guys. Good to see you, Kevin.

I think as long as their wings can be periodically replaced/upgraded, they should fly for a while. The question becomes how much life the fuselages have left in them.

I would love to play SF2 again, but the AI is just so maddening. DCS is even worse, but it isn't AI, it's that it feels more like work than a game. Been flying around in FSX for now, but even that's getting boring.

Yeah, you're dealing with the AHM 'bug'. The ThirdWire avionics dll files only handle RWR launch tones with SAHMs like Sparrows and Alamo-class missiles. There's a couple of things you can do: 1.) Use the Weapons Editor to change all AHMs to SAHMs. This can be a real immersion killer, but it makes it possible to be a little more survivable. Otherwise, you're blown out of the sky without warning. Not cool. 2.) Do not fly after 1992. This is when the AIM-120 was first developed. The only AHM up to that point is the AIM-54 Phoenix. Good luck if you're on the Red side. 3.) My personal solution, use only SAHM missiles. There are some advanced ones you can use that are still used today. The AIM-7P is still in service, as is the AA-10C. So, it is possible to have modern combat beyond 1992 simulated in SF2, but you just have to limit what your forces can carry so that everyone has an equal footing. My personal weapons set is simple. a.) Let's say you want a working R-73 (AA-11) missile. I go into my Weapons Editor, clone the AIM-9L. b.) In the details of the weapon, I specify I want it to use the AA-11 .lod file c.) Save. Now I have a working AA-11 missile that has a lot of the characteristics that I want, but the AI can use it and survive. It's essentially a Sidewinder missile that looks like an AA-11. It's not realistic. It's not pretty. But, I'm playing SF2. I'm not after elegant. I'm after something that works.

I've pretty much decided to handle this the same way I handled Jane's F-15, USAF, F/A-18, etc., when I moved over to Windows XP. I'm tired of fighting a losing battle with this stuff, so I've pretty much decided to move over to DCS World. I have the Steam version of FSX for civilian stuff and I'll just have to re-learn something new for combat. At least CFS3 and the Firepower mod still work on WinX, so WW2 is covered. I'll miss the F-4 in SF2, but if TK and ThirdWire have lost interest, then so have I. I suppose I can wait on a driver update from nVidia to fix it, but I'm not holding my breath.

What factors affect units upgrading to new aircraft? Player or AI? Is it just the date or what?

Do not fly in any year beyond 1992.

For the life of me, I cannot get my AI B-47's to drop their ordnance on their targets. As it is, they fly over their intended target and do absolutely nothing. Anyone have any ideas?

The only payware I've bought for SF2 was the YAP carriers and Razbams F-102. The -102 was worth every penny.

The YAP Enterprise is actually quite nice. The F-14 that comes with it...not so much.

SF2 with all the bugs worked out. Maybe with the ability use the ground radar to target stuff added.

I'm trying to figure out how to make working Tomahawk missiles that will hit ground targets. Like turning them into anti radar missiles to hit enemy radars.