Eagle114th

Everyone, it is released! Here is the link:

Hello everyone! I am back after have been gone for over a year after having gotten my new gaming laptop and new job in Tokyo, Japan! It have been my lifetime dream to work and live here in Japan. I finally managed to get my first job here and it have been keeping me very busy! However, it is great to be back and I managed to finish what I was working on D-188 project. I am unable to expand it as way I would wanted for it, so if anyone can expand it further, that would be great! I am posting the updated information here. The D-188 projects mod are currently being tested with help from my long time best friend FalconC45. At once the mod is all good, I will upload and release it in here. I am really looking forward sharing the mods with everyone here! Here is the updated information: Bell D-188 (XF-109 / XF3L) “What if” Projects for Thirdwire Strike Fighter 2 I am big fan of Bell D-188 projects and when I saw XF-109 for SF2, I got inspired to expand XF-109. I quote the statement from author of XF-109 mod for SF2: "Had it been built, the Bell D-188A project would have been one of the most unorthodox aircraft to fly, and certainly the most unusual in the US Air Force inventory." - Veltro2k, creator of XF-109 mods for SF1 / SF2. I want to give Bell D-188 the opportunities to be flown by anyone virtually in simulation, no matter how flawed she may be. I decided to work on both Bell D-188 (XF-109 for USAF) and D-188A (XF3L for US Navy). I want to give my big thank to Veltro2K for creating XF-109 in the first place and Wrench for upgrading XF-109 mod for SF2, especially for sharing his updated files with me. I, too, want to thank Combatace community, all of you are reasons why I worked on this project. And at the same time, please keep in mind that there are several files that are from other mods, I am giving credits to all modders who created each materials that is used in Bell D-188 projects: CREDITS: Note: If it is required that I must take any of the files off from D-188 Projects, please let me know. I will fix it ASAP and I intend to respect everyone’s work, especially giving credits to everyone who is involved with D-188 projects. To my friends and Combatace community: I truly thank everyone who got involved with D-188 projects, all of you are reasons why I am able to finish this project. All of you rocks! Bell XF-109 for SF2: I give my big thank to Veltro2k for creating XF-109 (D-188) mod for SF1 and SF2. ( http://combatace.com/files/file/13169-bell-xf-109/ ) He is the reason why I have the opportunities to work on mod projects for SF2, along with Combatace community. Bell XF-109 updates: I express my many thanks to Wrench for being very involved with D-188 projects. He has helped me lot with the mod, especially sending me his updated data.ini files for XF-109. ( http://combatace.com/topic/74104-f-109-tweeks-pak-for-sf2/ ) Sound effects: J85-GE.wav and J85-GE_AB.wav are directly from Macelena’s F-5E mods for SF2 ( http://combatace.com/files/file/10446-mirage-factory-f-5e-for-sf2/ ), I truly thank him for the sound files for J85-GE. Note: J85-GE.wav and J85-GE_AB.wav are renamed from F5Engine.wav and F5AB.wav. The reason why I renamed the files is because there are so many sound files from different mods for SF2. I hope that renamed files will make it easier to find in sound folder, just for in case, if anyone need to find them. Afterburner effects: Afterburner came from Mirage Factory F-8 Crusader Superpack for SF2. ( http://combatace.com/files/file/10646-mirage-factory-f-8-crusader-super-pack/ ) and I truly thank to everyone who is involved creating F-8 Crusader Superpack for SF2. To everyone who helped me: Wrench à Thank you for the help with feedback involved, it helped lot with D-188 projects. 76.IAP-Blackbird à Thank you for your help with D-188 projects. FalconC45 - Thank you for helping me with testing D-188s project mods! Instruction: 1) Extract D-188_Project and you will see 4 folders: a. Effects b. Sounds c. STOL Versions d. VSTOL Versions (Note: For F/A-109B (USMC), I highly recommend V/STOL version for taking off / landing on USMC ships. There are still STOL version, for in case, if you still prefer to go with STOL method. 2) Drop Effects and Sounds folder into main Strike Fighter 2 mod folder. 3) There are two different versions of Bell D-188 (F-109s and F/A-109s): a. STOL version – All of aircraft have all 6 jet engines operation, especially when you are in STOL mode. Because all engines from rotating engines and main fuselage engines are running at the same time, it is impossible to performance VTOL mode. b. V/STOL version – All of aircraft only have rotating engine operation. I divided the thrusts from main fuselage engines and added them to rotating engines, to make up for main fuselage engines not having any thrusts. (See “Flight model” for more information about flight model for VSTOL version) This enable you to be able to performance V/STOL and VTOL mode. However, I removed afterburner effects from main fuselage engines (except for exhaust smokes). It does not look right if you are in VTOL mode with afterburner running from fuselage. But you still can re-enable afterburner for main fuselage engines with few steps. Look at bottom of README for the instruction for re-enabling afterburner effects. 4) For your information, XF-109s / F-109s are USAF version, XF3L / F/A-109s are US Navy and US Marine Corps version. 5) Go into either STOL or VSTOL version of folders, drop Objects folder into main Strike Fighter 2 mod folder. Information: 1) XF-109 is based on D-188 project which is historically designed for US Air Force. F-109s variants aircraft are fictional “What if” if US Air Force decided to accept XF-109. 2) XF3L is based on D-188 project which is historically designed for US Navy. F/A-109s variants are fictional “What if” US Navy and US Marine Corp decided to accept XF3L. 3) Configuration/Upgrades for XF-109 / F-109s (USAF): a. XF-109 (1961) i. Prototype version ii. Powered by J85-GE-5 iii. Role: Interceptor b. F-109A (1964) i. Role: Interceptor ii. Upgraded engine to J85-GE-5A c. F-109A (1969) i. Role: Interceptor ii. Upgraded engine to J85-GE-13 iii. Counter measure equipment implemented 1. Chaff / Flare d. F-109B (1969) i. Role: Fighter and bomber ii. Upgraded engine to J85-GE-13 iii. More capable of delivering air to ground various ordinances iv. Counter measure equipment implemented 1. Chaff / Flare e. F-109B (1973) i. Role: Fighter - Bomber ii. Upgraded engine to J85-GE-21 iii. Upgraded with capable of carrying laser guided ordinances iv. Upgraded counter measure 1. Increased numbers of chaff / flare f. F-109B (1976) i. Role: Fighter - Bomber ii. Upgraded with more advanced avionics in cockpit iii. Capable of carrying more advanced air to air / air to ground ordinances iv. Upgraded counter measure 1. Increased numbers of chaff / flare g. F-109C (1980) i. Role: Multi-Role ii. Upgraded with more advanced avionics and cockpit h. F-109G (1971) i. Role: SEAD “Wild Weasel” ii. Upgraded engine to J85-GE-13 iii. Counter measure equipment implemented 1. Embedded ECM 2. Chaff / Flare iv. Capable of delivering various air to ground ordinances, especially for role of SEAD. i. F-109G (1976) i. Role: SEAD “Wild Weasel” ii. Upgraded engine to J85-GE-21 iii. Upgraded with more advanced avionics in cockpit iv. Capable of carrying more advanced air to ground ordinances 4) Configuration/Upgrades for XF3L / F/A-109s (USN): a. XF3L (1963) i. Prototype version ii. Powered by J85-GE-5 iii. Role: Multi-Role b. F/A-109A (1969) i. Role: Multi-Role ii. Upgraded engine to J85-GE-13 iii. More capable of delivering air to air / air to ground various ordinances iv. Counter measure equipment implemented 1. Chaff / Flare c. F/A-109A (1973) i. Role: Multi-Role ii. Upgraded engine to J85-GE-21 iii. Upgraded with capable of carrying laser guided ordinances iv. Upgraded counter measure 1. Increased numbers of chaff / flare d. F/A-109A (1977) i. Role: Multi-Role ii. Upgraded with more advanced avionics in cockpit iii. Capable of carrying more advanced air to air / air to ground ordinances iv. Upgraded counter measure 1. Increased numbers of chaff / flare 5) Configuration/Upgrades for F/A-109s (USMC): a. F/A-109B (1972) i. Role: Multi-Role ii. Upgraded engine to J85-GE-21 iii. Capable of delivering air to air / air to ground various ordinances iv. Counter measure equipment implemented 1. Chaff / Flare b. F/A-109B (1976) i. Role: Multi-Role ii. Upgraded with more advanced avionics in cockpit iii. Upgraded with capable of carrying laser guided ordinances iv. Upgraded counter measure 1. Increased numbers of chaff / flare c. F/A-109B (1984) i. Role: Multi-Role ii. Upgraded with more advanced avionics and cockpit iii. Capable of carrying more advanced air to air / air to ground ordinances iv. Upgraded counter measure 1. Increased numbers of chaff / flare EXTRA: 1) Re-enable Afterburner effects for STOL version: a. For anyone who want to re-able afterburner effects for STOL version, open aircraft data.ini file and find this line of code: // Engine - Fuselage ---------------------------------------------------------- b. Under both [FusEngineLeft] and [FusEngineRight], you will see this code: //AfterburnerEmitterName=F8AfterburnerEmitter c. Remove “//” from the code, so it looks like this: AfterburnerEmitterName=F8AfterburnerEmitter d. Now you have working afterburner effects back in main fuselage engines, even when you are hovering in V/STOL version of aircraft. Texture / Skins: For now, D-188 (F-109s/F3Ls) projects do not have any additional skins for each aircraft, so if anyone have plans to create skins for D-188 projects, please let me know. Any more skins for F-109s / F3Ls are always welcomed. Flight model: I am not expert with the flight mode. If anyone can help with flight model, the helps are always welcomed for D-188 (F-109s/F3Ls) projects! I did the basic flight model tweaking, in order, to make F-109s/F3L feel more realistic when flying them in SF2, theoretically. The flight model is originally created by Veltro2K and updated by Wrench. Here are following features I tweaked in flight model: 1) Slow roll rate = With two engines being mounted on each tip of wings, it means lot of weights. And at the same time, with small wings from D-188s aircraft like F-104, in my opinion, it means slower roll rate. However, as I stated, I am not an expert with flight model and any helps with flight model overhaul is always welcomed. 2) Fixed sensitive rudder = The rudder was very sensitive so I reduced it lot, in order, for D-188s to have small movement when using rudder. 3) Engines overhaul = I have done lot of works on each engine powers for each aircraft. This is the math I used to convert lb of thrust to Netwon: Note: XXX is any given numbers. XXX lb (thrust) = XXX lb x 4.45 = XXX (thrust) Newton And keep in mind that STOL / VSTOL version of each aircraft engine have different thrusts. STOL have accuracy thrusts in newton for each six engine while VSTOL have increased thrusts for four engines. Here are example: XF-109 (STOL version) Engine #1: 2,400 LB (DRY) 3,600 LB (AB) Engine #2: 2,400 LB (DRY) 3,600 LB (AB) Engine #3: 2,400 LB (DRY) 3,600 LB (AB) Engine #4: 2,400 LB (DRY) 3,600 LB (AB) Engine #5: 2,400 LB (DRY) 3,600 LB (AB) Engine #6: 2,400 LB (DRY) 3,600 LB (AB) XF-109 (V/STOL version) Note: Because Engine #5 / #6 which is main fuselage engine having no thrusts, I divided them and moved to engine #1 to engine #2. Engine #5 + engine #6 = Total engine thrust divided by four, then add them to each engine. Engine #5: 2,400 LB (DRY) 3,600 LB (AB) Engine #6: 2,400 LB (DRY) 3,600 LB (AB) Total Engine thrust: 4,800 LB (DRY) 7,200 (AB) / 4 = 1,200 LB (DRY) 1,800 (AB) Engine #1: 2,400 LB (DRY) 3,600 LB (AB) + 1,200 LB (DRY) 1,800 (AB) Engine #2: 2,400 LB (DRY) 3,600 LB (AB) + 1,200 LB (DRY) 1,800 (AB) Engine #3: 2,400 LB (DRY) 3,600 LB (AB) + 1,200 LB (DRY) 1,800 (AB) Engine #4: 2,400 LB (DRY) 3,600 LB (AB) + 1,200 LB (DRY) 1,800 (AB) Result: Note: Engine #1 to #4 is rotating engines while Engine #5 to #6 is main fuselage engines. Engine #1: 3,600 LB (DRY) 5,400 LB (AB) Engine #2: 3,600 LB (DRY) 5,400 LB (AB) Engine #3: 3,600 LB (DRY) 5,400 LB (AB) Engine #4: 3,600 LB (DRY) 5,400 LB (AB) Engine #5: 0 LB (DRY) 0 LB (AB) Engine #6: 0 LB (DRY) 0 LB (AB) V/STOL version have fuselage engines thrust moved to each rotating engines, to make up for having no thrusts in fuselage engines. Here is the date about engines that each aircraft uses: Aircraft (Service Date) Engine Thrust in LB (Dry / AB - Afterburner) XF-109 (1961 - 1964) J85-GE-5 2,400 LB (DRY) 3,600 LB (AB) F-109A (1964 - 1972) J85-GE-5A 2,450 LB (DRY) 3,850 LB (AB) F-109A (1969 - 1976) J85-GE-13 2,720 LB (DRY) 4,080 LB (AB) F-109B (1969 - 1976) J85-GE-13 2,720 LB (DRY) 4,080 LB (AB) F-109B (1973 - 1979) J85-GE-21 3,600 LB (DRY) 5,000 LB (AB) F-109B (1976 - 1982) J85-GE-21 3,600 LB (DRY) 5,000 LB (AB) F-109C (1980 - 1996) J85-GE-21 3,600 LB (DRY) 5,000 LB (AB) F-109G (1971 - 1976) J85-GE-13 2,720 LB (DRY) 4,080 LB (AB) F-109G (1976 - 1982) J85-GE-21 3,600 LB (DRY) 5,000 LB (AB) --------------------------------------------------------------------- XF3L (1963 - 1969) J85-GE-5A 2,450 LB (DRY) 3,850 LB (AB) F/A-109A (1969 - 1974) J85-GE-13 2,720 LB (DRY) 4,080 LB (AB) F/A-109A (1973 - 1978) J85-GE-21 3,600 LB (DRY) 5,000 LB (AB) F/A-109A (1977 - 1982) J85-GE-21 3,600 LB (DRY) 5,000 LB (AB) --------------------------------------------------------------------- F/A-109B (1972 - 1978) J85-GE-21 3,600 LB (DRY) 5,000 LB (AB) F/A-109B (1976 - 1982) J85-GE-21 3,600 LB (DRY) 5,000 LB (AB) F/A-109B (1980 - 1988) J85-GE-21 3,600 LB (DRY) 5,000 LB (AB) Feedback: Feedback are always appreciated for improving D-188 (F-109s / F3Ls) project. I aim to keep improving project through time when I get the chance. Message for everyone: I truly hope that everyone enjoys the project I created for Thirdwire Strike Fighter 2 communities with the help from my friends and Combatace communities. Eagle114th / ChaoticDragon - http://combatace.com/user/843-eagle114th/

Everyone, I am back! Here is the link to updated information about this project:

I am happy you bought this up. I thought about this last night after discussing with my friend FalconCAF. I realized that F/A-18 is multi-role and since F/A-109 is multi-role too, so I thought that, by alternative history, F/A get introduced earlier from XF3L program before F/A-18 was born. But I would like more feedback on this idea. This is why I want to keep brainstorming and see more perspective about aircraft naming. I like either F-109 series or F/A-109 series for USN and USMC. And to answer your question, F-109 goes into USAF service first before USN and USMC. Good suggestions and may I ask you about XF3L: 1) Why is XF3L not used after 1962 for further testing for aircraft carrier operation? Makes sense and that is good point. I will update the year service for USN and USMC being lot shorter than USAF version. Thank you for bring this up, I learn new things from here. No need to apologize and I especially appreciate critical feedback. As I stated in my first post that I intend to keep all aspect of 'what if" aircraft realistic as possible. For example, F/A as name of aircraft for USN could possibly come earlier before F/A-18 due to the nature of F/A-109 being multi-role, like F/A-18 was. (Correct me if I am wrong about F/A-18 being multi-role) but again, I am waiting for feedback on that. However, at the same time, as you stated about the pressures and other factors that causes USN and USMC version of D-188 projects to have shorter lifespan than USAF makes completely sense. And that is something I plan to do with D-188 projects. I intend to keep project evolving into better project, so any kind of feedback, especially critical feedback are always appreciated. I was thinking of something similar to this. And I want to add another factors, the performance of F-109s is inferior to F-15, F-16, F/A-18 and other aircraft from late 1970s to ahead of that time, except for Harrier (theoretically ???). Even though F-109 would be nightmare to maintain, she is supersonic that goes faster than harrier, but again, as you stated, harrier are easier to maintain. So i want more feedback on USMC possibly having extended service for F-109s along with harrier with their V/STOL capabilities. There could be far fewer F-109s (being very rare in the service after 1980s) than harriers in the service for specific purposes? And about NATO, I would like to start working on NATO version after USAF, USN, and USMC version is completed and released as beta. And when that happens in near future, I will need more information and feedback for NATO version.

I am not entirely familiar with ODS, can I ask you to explain me more about ODS?

I recently updated the list of aircraft name, service years, and engines. I give credits to daddyairplanes for posting great ideas about aircraft name for USN/USMC and service years. XF-109 (1961 - 1969) J85-GE-5 2,400 LB (DRY) 3,600 LB (AB) F-109A (1964 - 1975) J85-GE-5A 2,450 LB (DRY) 3,850 LB (AB) F-109A (1969 - 1978) J85-GE-13 2,720 LB (DRY) 4,080 LB (AB) F-109A (1975 - 1986) J85-GE-21 3,600 LB (DRY) 5,000 LB (AB) F-109B (1969 - 1979) J85-GE-13 2,720 LB (DRY) 4,080 LB (AB) F-109B (1973 - 1984) J85-GE-21 3,600 LB (DRY) 5,000 LB (AB) F-109B (1976 - 1990) J85-GE-21 3,600 LB (DRY) 5,000 LB (AB) F-109C (1980 - 1996) J85-GE-21 3,600 LB (DRY) 5,000 LB (AB) F-109G (1971 - 1984) J85-GE-13 2,720 LB (DRY) 4,080 LB (AB) F-109G (1976 - 1996) J85-GE-21 3,600 LB (DRY) 5,000 LB (AB) --------------------------------------------------------------------- XF3L (1963 - 1970) J85-GE-5A 2,450 LB (DRY) 3,850 LB (AB) F/A-109A (1969 - 1980) J85-GE-13 2,720 LB (DRY) 4,080 LB (AB) F/A-109A (1973 - 1986) J85-GE-21 3,600 LB (DRY) 5,000 LB (AB) F/A-109A (1977 - 1996) J85-GE-21 3,600 LB (DRY) 5,000 LB (AB) --------------------------------------------------------------------- F/A-109B (1972 - 1982) J85-GE-21 3,600 LB (DRY) 5,000 LB (AB) F/A-109B (1976 - 1990) J85-GE-21 3,600 LB (DRY) 5,000 LB (AB) F/A-109B (1982 - 1996) J85-GE-21 3,600 LB (DRY) 5,000 LB (AB) As always, any feedback are appreciated.

I was testing F3L-2 (1972) today with Vietnam map from Vietnam war mod. And I was starting recon mission in F3L-2 hoping I would get to take off from aircraft carrier. After loading up the missions, to my surprise, I was on small ship deck that is meant to be used for helicopter. I decided to have fun with it so why not try taking off from small ship? It was tricky but at the same time, F3L-2 is somehow forgiving to take off vertically and then fly straight with rotating engines. I was being locked by SAMs while being jumped by MiG-21s, that's when I dove toward ground and turned hard to the left to break from missiles. While MiG-21s were diving toward me at nearly mach one, I slammed on air brake and pulled hard to force MiG-21s to overshoot. That was when I turned toward MiG-21s and fired Sidewinders. I got forced into dogfight with next MiG-21s. Knowing that F3L-2s is not good at close range dogfighting but the MiG-21 was front of me. It was very deadly gambits because if MiG-21 were wise pilot, pilot would have taken advantage of their agile to out turn my F3L-2s. Fortunately I managed to shoot down MiG-21 right before pilot would had the chance to change the situations in dogfight. That is an excellent ideas! I haven't thought of that and I will rename EF-109s into F-109Gs. And about US Navy aircraft name, that makes sense. I will rename F3L-1 to F/A-109A for USN and F/A-109B for USMC. Since they are multi-role, it makes sense to use F/A-109 and we will be able to tell which F-109s are for USAF, USN, and USMC. What do you think about the new names for F3Ls to F/A-109s? However, about the service years ending in 1990s, I agree with you due to several reasons: 1) As you stated, aircraft structure start to wear down from 1970s. 2) F-109s and F/A-109s become completely obsolete during 1990s. 3) There are alternative aircraft that can do better job than F-109s / F/A-109s, especially with JSF programs during 21th century. What do everyone think about this?

I am happy that you liked the idea. I am looking forward to release the beta version of D-188 Projects for SF2 when it is ready.

Hello everyone, I have been working on expanding Veltro2k's Bell XF-109 (http://combatace.com/topic/74077-bell-xf-109/) to have afterburner in each of XF-109's rotating engines. I have been trying everything to solve the strange side effects after adding afterburners. Here is screenshots: XF-109 flying with engines on level: XF-109 engine rotating to 45 degree down: XF-109 engine rotating to straight down: When XF-109 engine rotates, both smoke and afterburner effect moved out of engine's nozzles. I am still scratching my head after many attempts to correct it. So I am wondering if anyone had similar experiences when modding their add-on aircraft with vector thrust and engine effects (smoke and/or afterburner).

logan4 and Snailman, Thank you for the information. And Wrench, I sent you PM.

Thank you for the head up! I will check it out.

Raven, I am sorry about the news but no matter what, we are with you. There is one thing I can do and that is sincerely wishing the best with your health through any situations. Let's kick it's ass as other said.

Welcome back PFunk! Good to see you back and have fun flying!

Welcome back Russouk2004!

May I ask, can you provide us the link you downloaded mods from? I want to see if I am able to extract it and if I do, I will share my methods of extracting compressed files. And besides, I have lot of mods to download for my SF2 too.

Hello everyone, I am just wondering how everyone manage each of your own SF2 installations. I am wondering if it is good idea to simply merge all mods into single huge SF2 installation or is it better idea to divide SF2 into different installations. The reasons why I ask this: 1) Does it take longer to load SF2 if installing all mods into single SF2, compared to dividing them into separated SF2 installations? 2) What is pro and con about single SF2 installation vs multi-installations (Does SF2 load up all data when starting simulation or does SF2 only load required files for running SF2?) 3) Since I am running Dell Latitude E6530 with Geforce NVS5200 and Intel i5 dual processor, I have very limited hardware to run SF2. I am running SF2 from an external hard drive while it is plugged into my laptop. So I want to ensure I have good performance with SF2 for now until I get my new gaming laptop that will be able to handle SF2 with new up to date hardware. ------------------------------------------- I have learned so much about installing and customizing SF2 installations and tweaking each mods that I install into SF2 installations. I plan to clean my SF and install SF2 from scratch again and this time, I will completely install each mods more carefully instead of dumping many mods and overwrite everything I can see. So that way I don't accidentally overwrite Soundlist.ini and other files which I did. For example, I did not realize that some mods have their own soundlist.ini and I kept overwriting it several times without realizing it until now.

Good evening Fuber512, It is great to see you again! I am not sure if you remember me before. I am known as Eagle114th / ChaoticDragon16 / Chaoic16 from different forum, including Column5 forum when it used to be open. By the way, my external HDD is Western Digital 1.5 TB (7,200 rpm) external hard drive and I am connected to it using 3.0 USB directly from my laptop. By the way, thank you for the answers, I will wipe all separated installation and pour all mods into SF2 carefully without accidentally overwrite any important .ini files. And for now, I will only use default SF2 terrains until I have newer laptop. (My goal is to have new customized gaming laptop from Origin (or other companies) with either nVIDIA Geforce GTX 980 or newer 1080 (whenever they come out for laptop.)

Hello everyone, I am back after being gone for several years. It is good to see everyone here! :) By the way, I have been organizing five separated installation of SF2 after setting them up in my external hard drive. I did lot researches and experimenting to ensure everything works. I am using Dell laptop so I am unable to have huge folder with many mods in SF2, so I installed SF2 and mods in an alternative methods with an external HDD. I did it in this methods: 1) Installed all SF2 titles and patch it to latest version 2) Configured option.ini file to have it changing mod path to external HDD 3) Tested add-on mods in external HDD and everything worked. 4) Spend each days installing 5 mods into 5 different installations, they look like this: - Strikefighters2 US - Strikefighters2 Russia - Strikefighters2 Asia - Strikefighters2 Europe - Strikefighters2 Israel And the rest (SF2:V and SF2:NA) are not used because they are in these 5 different installations above. When i was flying in any one of these titles, I noticed that when I go beyond mid 1970s, I no longer am able to select any years beyond that when selecting modern aircraft. For example, I selected F-16I in SF2:Israel, I am only able to select 2004 instead of different years around that. I went to option.ini to change this specific lines of codes and it look like this: (Note: I edited opinion. ini from this file path --> C:\Users\ --- names --- \Saved Games\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2 Israel) [SingleMission] AircraftType=F-8H_69 Service=USN MissionMap=VIETNAMSEA MissionType=STRIKE MissionTime=NOON MissionWeather=CLEAR AirActivity=RANDOM AirDefenseActivity=RANDOM FlyAll=FALSE LoadMission=FALSE LoadMissionFilename=G:\_My Files\Games\Strike Fighter Series\Mods\_ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2 Israel\Missions\640802_TONKIN_GULF_INCIDENT.MSN MissionDate=1975 StartYear=1900 <--- changed this to 1900 EndYear=2100 <--- changed this to 2100 EditMission=FALSE And then I used CAT extractor to extract IsraelME.ini and created folder in SF2 I mod folder. The path folder path look like this: G:\ --- (several folder paths) --- \Strike Fighter Series\Mods\_ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2 Israel\Terrains\IsraelME And then I changed the lines of codes in ISRAELME.ini: [Terrain] TerrainFullName=Israel, Middle East DataFile=IsraelME_data.ini TargetFile=IsraelME_targets.ini TargetTypeFile=IsraelME_types.ini MovementFile=IsraelME_movement.ini NationsFile=IsraelME_nations.ini LocationMap=IsraelME_Location.bmp WaterMap=IsraelME_Water.bmp BriefingText=IsraelME_briefing.ini DogfightFile=IsraelME_dogfight.ini DogfightOnly=FALSE Longitude=34.80 Latitude=32.08 MagneticVariation=-5 LimitedNations=TRUE GroundObjectTexture=tan [Map] FilenameFormat=IsraelME_Map%d.bmp Width=1000000.0 Height=1000000.0 NumZoomLevels=3 [WeatherChance] ScatteredChance=25 BrokenChance=25 OvercastChance=4 InclementChance=2 [AllowedDates] StartDate=1900 <-- Changed this to 1900 EndDate=2050 <-- Changed this to 2100 I launched SF2: Israel and went to single mission and selected F-16I and realized that I am still stuck in 2004. I am still unable to select any years to before and after 2002. I am still confused and is not sure what to do next to solve this. So i am wondering if any of you have faced similar problems and have solved it.

Yes, I went there many times to find solution for modding. I have found your two threads on it and that is how I found two of possible solution as posted at my first post. However, my SF2 acts little strange because at first, it did not work. And then after several attempts of starting SF2 fixed the problems. I am able to select years for each SF2 installations. By the way, Wrench, it is good seeing you again! I am your big fan of your works long time ago for Jane's Fighter Anthology modding, especially wingman series. I don't think you probably remembered me from past and I was so excited that you joined SF series community. I, especially enjoy your mods you created for SF series, including "What if" mods. By the way, with my current modding going on, there is one additional question I will have to ask. It is not related to spreading the years in SF2, instead it is related to changing IR growling sounds for some aircraft so they have their own unique IR growling sounds. I am unable to find information on it. As usual, I will look again in knowledge base to see if I can find answers there before posting new thread about it.

UPDATE #1: It look like it actually work for SF2: Israel but not my another SF2 installations. I will keep digging and see what I can do to make it work for other SF2 series. UPDATE #2: I think I might have solved problems for all my SF2 series and custom installation. (Crosses my fingers) By the way, it is good to be back. It looks like I have lot of catching up to do here.

Hello everyone, I have not flown SF2 for so long time, so I decided to blow the dusts out of SF2 installation and installed it. I installed all SF2 series, along with expansion packs and ran auto update and it updated my SF2 to July 2013 version. Every time I tried to run quick mission or start mission, it get stuck in black screen. I can't think of any problems, except for my sound card. my SB X-FI (PCIe) sound card is dead now, so I can't play any sounds. So hence, I am thinking that black screen may be related to it. So my question is, how do I completely disable sound in SF2, so I can test and see if it works. (There is no point for having sound anyway, due to my dead sound card. I searched for answer, there is no right answer to this issues just yet. However, it is great to see everyone again! It have been very long time.