WACOwaco

I am planning on modifying the Red Hammer campaign (copying it first) to emulate a USAF that would have bought the F-5 in numbers for front line units...lets face it, the US could stand to buy cheap fighters for a change... Sounds like the F-5 was 1/4-1/5 the cost to buy and operate than the F-4. I was thinking of using the F-5E from here even though 1968 was before the F-5E. My justification is the F-5E probably would have come about pretty quick if the USAF opted to field the F-5 on the front in strength. To emulate the change in operating cost, I was thinking changing the maybe 1/4 of the F-4 squadrons to F-5Es, upping the squadron sizes to the size of a typical Soviet one (24 if I remember right). Then add a bunch of new squadrons with the F-5E (probably = to 1/4*# of F-4 squadrons). The F-5Es will be of a lower skill level with the F-4s going up in skill. F-4s would switch to an air-to-air focus and F-5Es multirole without doing escort or interception missions and keeping them short ranged. What do you guys think? Maybe use something closer to the 'Skoshi Tigers' which I think is the CF-5A or maybe something closer to the F-5N? I am toying with the idea of applying the F-5 in-force to the rest of the NATO forces. Probably not the French or British...I imagine they would not buy a US aircraft in numbers. Replace all the F-100s and Korean War era subsonic fighters. Also toying with making it 1/2 instead of 1/4 of the F-4s. I'm at work right now and cannot remember if the F-105 is in Red Hammer...if so, 1/2 would be replaced too. Thoughts? Suggestions? Tailwinds, WACO

Finished a test campaign! F-5s make a big difference. The seem extraordinarily vulnerable when doing strategic strikes, but the small size allowed them to sneak through some pretty heavy fire. SAMs were the big killer. Proved to be better in CAS and dogfighting than the F-4 (no surprise there). Losses were about even or in many cases LESS than the F-4Ds! Fewer allied ground assaults were getting repelled and the MiGs were getting slaughtered frequently like they do in the Red Lightning campaigns. The F-5E is just too good of a dogfighter! The MiG-17 was the only one that could turn the tables. Most air-to-air losses were attributed to those. Got more tweaking to do but: F-5s forever

So I went through the 2 campaign txt files in a new campaign folder (just copied and re-numbered the Red Hammer one). Changed the 100's, Hunters, 84, F-4C, and G91 squadrons to F-5Es. Then added 10 more F-5E squadrons. Clearly I am not doing this right... No new squadrons show up on the map, none of the previous squadrons mentioned are flying the F-5E, and none of the F-5E squadrons with pilot and aircraft max's set to 24 are at 24 (they are still at 16 in game). I also updated the F-5E's user list. I followed this to edit the campaign: http://combatace.com/topic/44798-adding-aircraft-to-campaigns-in-sf2/ Any ideas? ***EDIT*** Really stupid simple...forgot to make sure the DataFile called for in the campaign ini was the right one. It was still pointing to the other Red Hammer campaign! Applogies, I'm learning.

Sheriff, do you know if the F-5E/F-5 was always intended to just carry 2 sidewinders? Could you comment on what roles it was envisioned to operate in with a scenario like that? I read it was designed from the beginning as a day air superiority fighter of low cost (like the original YF-16). I replaced all the subsonic NATO fighters used in the campaign with the F-5E. Still to early to tell how that is working out. I am realizing that I should not have large squadrons but rather MORE squadrons so that the sim generates more sorties...or am I mistaken?

Cool thanks Sheriff!

Sorry Wrench had no idea I double posted! Derk the F-5N is/was the US aggressor with a tweaked LERX, updated RWR, radar, and some other changes so I think that is the ultimate F-5. I know the NF-5A has some pretty nice features in SF2 like chaff and flares. I would like this to be usable with what we got as-is on here. If I remember right, the F-5E has a better radar and more thrust than the NF-5A/CF-5A. Am I wrong? I hope the end result is to simulate the hi-lo fighter mix concept in its purest form.

Is there a way to toggle the display of enemy aircraft icons on the in-game map? I updated my NF5 installation and noticed that the 'Snoopy' blue aircraft now appear on the map but no red enemy aircraft icons appear on the map.

Got it figured out. I just had to pull out the 'MAPENEMYICON' TGA file from the Flight folder in the NF5 savedgames folder.

Thanks Wrench, I figured it was on purpose...I guess I just like to cheat! They are not showing up on the map even after I am right on their tail in gun range hence why I wanted to turn them on. Well the labels are showing up correctly now, just not the icons. I will be doing some digging. Thanks for the direction guys.

Thanks for the suggestion. I changed the FALSE statements on enemy labels to TRUE (normally they are false it seems) now I have at least labels. For some reason the little red plane icons are still missing from the in-flight map.

I tried the unmodified SF2 Europe and the in-flight map does show the red aircraft. Still the NF5 version does not. Does anyone know where the icons for the in-flight map are defined and/or where the definition for this map is in the files?

Hola gents, I am trying to modify the 1953 campaign in NF5 to fly the MiG-15bis. Trouble is, no matter what I do and no matter what squadron or aircraft, they all end up starting from the Kryzwan Airbase. This is the modified entry (just added the 'player unit line at the top) from the "campaigne6" DATA file: //----- Player Unit [AirUnit119] AircraftType=MiG-15bis UnitName=85 GvIAP Sebastopolskyi ForceID=2 Nation=SOVIET DefaultTexture=SovietSilver1 StartNumber=1 BaseArea=Merseburg Airbase BaseMoveChance=10 RandomChance=100 MaxAircraft=24 StartAircraft=24 MaxPilots=24 StartPilots=24 Experience=80 Morale=100 Supply=100 Intelligence=50 MissionChance[sWEEP]=50 MissionChance[CAP]=70 MissionChance[iNTERCEPT]=70 MissionChance[ESCORT]=40 MissionChance=0 MissionChance[CAS]=0 MissionChance[sEAD]=0 MissionChance[ARMED_RECON]=0 MissionChance[ANTI_SHIP]=0 MissionChance[RECON]=0 UpgradeType=NEVER Here is the corresponding entry in the "campaigne6" file [sovietUnit001] UnitName=85 GvIAP Sebastopolskyi ForceID=2 UnitID=119 StartDate=06/20/1953 DescFile=WOE6Start.txt StartText=WOE6Start2.txt AircraftType=MiG-15bis Notice the base area is Merseburg. Any ideas? This is driving me nuts! I cannot see how SF2 keeps placing the redfor squadrons at Kryzwan no matter what squadron is selected! Thoughts? I do not know if this is an error or just a characteristic of the mission type selector but this squadron is also doing mostly air-to-ground missions despite the mission chances being "0" for such missions.

Thank you Gepard. Guess I had it wrong!