PFunk

Thank you. Works for me. Don't care much if they can't use external chaff/flare pods. I can fix that with a quick .ini file editing.

OK. That's what I thought. I'm going to have to start editing some .ini files to give some aircraft a fighting chance. I don't understand incorporating something into a game that it cannot use, but okay.

The team responsible for YAP and Rising Sun did payware, so we know that barrier has been broken. Like someone else noted, I enjoy the all-inclusive campaigns that bring so much to the table. So much could be done, so much really needs to be done. SF2 is the last flight combat simulation that I still play. DCS World is of no interest to me. I have it, but it doesn't have even the most rudimentary of single player environments. Just loosely coupled single missions strung together. SF2 has the best balance of realism and fun.

Uh-oh...

I've got a modern Russian naval campaign in Dhimar. Against Paran.

Better question, Dave. Where do we put the DID progress threads?

I'm up for it.

Can AI use external jamming pods?

Here's another little trick I do to make my modern air combat more survivable and easier to deal with. My modern weapons are essentially copies of the Third Wire stock weapons. I think I have a little over 250 go-to weapons in my install. I erased the rest of them because I never used them. Here's an example: 1. Go into the Weapons Editor and clone an AIM-9L. Just make an outright copy. 2. Now, where it asks for the Model Name, type in the LOD file name for the AA-11A. In the description, type in whatever you want to see in the Loadout page. I think mine says "AA-11 'Archer-A' AAM". 3. Edit the country to 'SOVIET' and add whatever other nations you think might use it. Adjust the dates to be correct. 4. Voila. You now have an Archer AAM that the engine knows exactly what to do with because it behaves exactly like a stock weapon. It doesn't get confused. My AA-10A Alamos? They're just AIM-7Fs wearing the Russian skins. My AA-10C is an AIM-7M. My Russian ARMs are either stock Shrikes or Standard ARMs. My Russian GBUs are American laser-guided bombs. My Russian RBKs are American CBUs. The only AHM I still use is the Phoenix. Everything else is a SAHM. The AI gets deadly enough with these, so it levels the playing field for me.

This is STUNNING. Fits right in with my current Cold War kick I'm on.

Yes. AI will ripple fire AHMs. Which makes it even more maddeningly unfair given the limitations of the engine.

Something to remember, the SF2 engine doesn't account for the use of active radar homing missiles showing up on your RWR. They're essentially an insta-kill for the enemy because you never even know that one is inbound or even where it's coming from. The maddening thing is that AI knows that an AHM missile is coming at them and knows to jink/dump chaff in an effort to evade. You have no such ESP. There are some solutions. 1. Go into the Weapons Editor and convert all of the AHM missiles to SAHM. That way, they show up on the RWR and you know the vector they're originating from. This is what I did/do if I decide I want to fly modern aircraft. It's not realistic. It's not pretty. But its a lot more fair in gameplay. 2. Don't fly modern combat. This is easiest. 3. Nerf the AHM missiles in the Weapons Editor to make them easier to evade. Again, not the ideal solution, but it IS more realistic. Keep in mind that most of the Real Life BVR shots don't hit anything. We keep forgetting that BVR was a great goal for aviation combat that has never really materialized. Most of the A2A kills in modern conflict have been with shorter-range IR-seeking missiles like the AIM-9.

Any recent news on the F2J? I'm kind of back on a Cold War kick.

That sequence is one of the most spectacular rail-shooting things I've ever played. I would LOVE to have a decent game (even arcade) with those kinds of visuals. I have HAWX 2 and still fire it up every now and then, just for the graphics. Give me HAWX 2 graphics in the Strike Fighters engine and I wouldn't play anything else.

If your definition of 'victory' is the enemy accepting our terms and acquiescence to our authority, then, no. We did not 'win'. Our troops were victorious in every battle. They were not defeated. Ever. They did everything they were asked to do and more. Trouble is, we keep asking our troops to do some really dumb stuff. Foreign policy is the useless yappy Schnauzer of American politics. It's loud, stupid, and only responds to a smack on the nose with a rolled-up magazine. Our response to 9/11 should have been carpet-bombing Riyadh. With all the respect I can muster for our friends across the oceans, there is not one nation worth sacrificing our blood and treasure for. I'm tired of helping people who turn around and bitch endlessly about our help. We spent billions of dollars and thousands of lives to build a nation and a military with tanks, guns, and airplanes that folded like a cheap suit at the sight of thugs in Toyota mini trucks. Attention all Iraqi males ages 16-44, fight for your damned country. It was not worth what we lost and I strongly propose we never do it again. The bet thing we can do for our veterans is to make fewer of them.

What determines which AAA are placed, and how many of each individual model of AAA, in a campaign? Is it the UserList.ini files, the terrain's nations.ini file? What? Here's why I ask. I'm working on a campaign on the original Desert terrain. There have been about ~300 total examples of the Tor M1 AAA tracked vehicle made in RealLife™. Paran seems to have bought every one of them. There is literally one in every AAA spot in the terrain, throwing up a wall of SAMs the AI simply cannot deal with. I need a realistic number of them. How do I do that?

Yeah, I'm letting the game engine pick and choose the AAA, because when you do, everything functions the way it's supposed to. I'm just trying to figure out how to get the proper mix of AAA as what you'd really encounter. SF2 recently was reinstalled on my HDD after what I have determined are an excessive number of game-breaking bugs in DCS simply prevented me from enjoying it. Gas tanks with the weight of being filled to capacity, but no actual gas inside to use, for example. SF2 will at least let the fast single mission creator start carrierborne aircraft on an actual...well, carrier. This implies a greater level of functionality. Now if TK would simply fix the avionics.dll files to accommodate RWRs picking up AHMs, Every time his site is under maintenance, I keep hoping there's going to be an update or something to the PC game.

It looks like the product of a torrid and illicit love affair between a Hun and a Crusader. And I like it.

What is this beautiful thing?! And when can I fly it?

Don't you dare stop work on my Sea Flanker.

I'm waiting on the official one, but until then, I just said "screw it" and flew SU-27s off a carrier.

They are a total immersion killer. You literally are blown out of the sky with little warning. You get the tone that you're being watched. God help you if you miss the verbal cue from your wingman to let you know you've been fired on. You cannot tell if you've evaded it. Is there any, ANY way to add an RWR tone to these things? Otherwise, I'm about to make everything that isn't an IR-guided missile a semi-active radar homing missile.

It begins and ends with Glenn Frey joining the cast for Smuggler's Blues. Which was the inspiration for the passable movie starring a well-cast Jamie Foxx and a completely miscast Colin Farrell.

No, I was serious, I wasn't trying to be a wiseass (you'll know it when it happens) I was really thinking I need to remember this game highlights Cold War era planes.

Yeah. I probably shouldn't be flying the more modern stuff, should I?