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By individualizing the aircraft in SF2... It could not be helped... Doing a lot of .ini modding is a meditative times for me. After asking for the advice about it in another thread, I stayed with the rules by not dividing aircraft from user lists into a unique aircraft folder for each nation. It could not be helped, because doing many .ini dancing made me feel relaxed. I just simply love to learn as I mod aircraft. Each time I study about each nation briefly, in order, to find the right abbreviate for them. To my surprise, I never knew that Central America nations had P-51s. I learned the same thing about another specific nations operating certain aircraft. Since I also could no longer stand seeing aircraft name with incorrect nation's aircraft. For example, seeing an Egyptian Mig-23s with (VVS) MiG-23s instead of seeing it with the proper nation's abbreviate. Hence, I would rather to see (EAF) MiG-23s for Egyptian MiG-23s. I had to break my self rules and started individualizing each nation's aircraft. It was done several times over as the lesson are learned about tweaking the .ini files. However, I was doing it slowly, gracefully as a fun hobby when taking a short break from modding SF2 screen and real life situations from time to time. I thought it might, would take me over a year, when in fact, it took me a few weeks to achieve it. I learned the tricks of using Windows 10 search function, PowerShell (Cmd), and other tools, to make my task much more effective and efficient. Not only it was fun doing it, I got to learn about the structure and the pro / cons between individualizing Nation's aircraft and using userlist. This is what I learned: Individualizing nation aircraft vs combined nation's aircraft (Userlist) method: NOTE: I applied the individualizing only on essential flyable aircraft (Example: P-51s, Vampire, MiG-21, Su-9, F-4s, etc.) . I do not apply it on non-important aircraft, such as An-12, C-47 and other transport aircraft. Individualizing nation Method Each an individualized aircraft that is deviated from core SF2's aircraft benefits this advantage: - Having their own customized weapon load (For example, I am able to make a specialized version of EAF MiG-21s and configure their _data.ini, so they can carry both Russi and NATO heat seeker missiles. - Nationalized weapons - I am able to mod any specific ordnance and make it only available for certain nations. With that, I can use an individualized aircraft to use that ordnance. - Less chaotic camo list - I was tired of seeing combined nation's skin for one aircraft, so by dividing them into nation aircraft, I am able to just select any skins by default quickly. - More dynamic way of learning about nation's aircraft - Because of that, I am able to experience the living library of learning about nation's own air force / naval force aircraft historically. - By keeping userlist (Even with one nation included), SF2 will still detect and use them in terrains. I get to see many aircraft with proper nation abbreviates, makes my SF2 much more enjoyable dynamically! Combined nation's aircraft (Userlist) Method This method benefit from this feature: - For any aircraft that you do not want individualized, will save you a lot of time. By having multi-nations list in USERLIST.ini, SF2 will automatically use exported aircraft in mission. However, there is a disadvantage to this, for anyone who are like me who prefer having organized aircraft list: - However, there is con about this feature: It will not work well with specific nation abbreviate tags. - There are no ways of telling me which aircraft have certain nations in the list. For example, if I select MiG-17F, and then I select on "nation", it give me a list of all nation, instead of limited nation list. I could select USAF for that MiG-17F. Note: I have not experienced any CTDs (Thank goodness!) and by studying ODS 30 mod, I realized this: As long I keep the core aircraft there, it won't ctd. So it means I can specifically use the cloned core aircraft being nationalized and placing them in the specific SF2 installation that covers the certain theater geographically. For example, I would move nationalized MiG-21s EAF / SyAAF / IrAF / etc to Sf2 - Middle East, while moving F-4Es ROKAF, F-104s ROCAF, etc. to SF2 - Asia. Same thing applied to a different SF2 installation. At the another hand, I made sure all SF2 installation have all core aircraft files. This is done on one of SF2 installation with the purpose of individualizing all essential, flyable aircraft. From there, I can use it to copy and pate into specific theater (geographically) version of SF2 installation. Here are the screenshots: (NOTE: I only installed a few add-on aircraft. I will install add-on aircraft in another SF2 installation later. Just taking it slowly in an enjoyable way.)

Hello everyone, It has been a hectic week for me. I am still working on new SF2 menu project slowly. At the same time, since I got a new external SSD as an alternative storage for my external HDD. 1 TB external is affordable now. To my surprise, it is small and doesn't even require me to plug into power outlet, unlike an external HDD. I could just hook it into my gaming laptop's USB 3.1 T Type-C. Oh boy, it made a huge difference. I am able to load SF2 much faster now. I just wiped my old SF2 multi-installation, in order, to have a fresh start with SF2. I spent weeks installing many mods for SF2, in order, to make up for my lost SF2 files. I decided to work on aircraft sorting list for my preference ways of sorting the list by nation first, then aircraft. I started with default SF2. (Note: I bought SF2 complete Edition since it is on sale. It is a perfect time to get it before the time runs out.) Here is what default list looks like: Now with a new sorting list (by nation), it looks like this: NOTE: When you see [Export], it means it have a multi nations skins included. I am very pleased with this. With the new sorting list, I am able to quickly tell which nation specific aircraft belong to. It has been an educational day for me about the nations and aircraft versions. If anyone wants this, I could post it in combatace download section. I modified All the aircraft .ini in a clean SF2 (Without mods). That way anyone can build the mods on it. I am still brainstorming about what to do with [Export] tag. Should I replace it with '*" or any certain symbols to the end of the aircraft name? Feedback are appreciated, as always. Plus, I also can add updated HUDDATA.ini with both RWR and RADAR being included on upper right corner. I modified it this way, so I can easily scan my eyes between both RWR and Radar while padlocking around. (Note: Either RWR / Radar will only show up if aircraft have either. For example, if you fly aircraft that doesn't have either RWR or Radar, it won't show up on the screen.

Hello everyone, It has been a long time since I have flown SF2 series sim. I am now back after seeing the news about SF2 being updated for Windows 10. I also missed flying SF2, I have been going through a very busy life. Now that I am balancing the times between hobbies, work, and living. I am wiping whole SF2 series installations and start over from scratch. I am truly overwhelmed by steer many amounts of mods available for SF2, especially with the fact that the modders are still enjoying modding and flying SF2. It is truly awesome to see that here! It has been decided that --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here are the questions. (QUESTIONS #1) I want to know how people manage the aircraft list for a multi nation in a multi-SF2 installations? I'll use F-15s as an example, it has F-15s for USAF, USN, HAF, IDF, and another countries. Since there are no features I am aware of in SF2 that would filter the aircraft list based on the nations yet. So if I install over 100+ flyable planes in SF2, i would have to scroll through a long list trying to find out which countries have the specific aircraft. I am thinking about doing this way: 1) Rename each aircraft in .ini to start with each nation's military branch abbreviation. Let's use F-15 as an example. [Regular SF2 aircraft list] F-15A Eagle F-15B Eagle F-15C Eagle F-15D Eagle F-15E Strike Eagle F-15I Ra'am (Thunder) F-15K Eagle etc... I am considering re-naming all F-15's ini file, in order, for all F-15s to appear as this way: JASDF F-15DJ Eagle JASDF F-15J Eagle IDF F-15I Ra'am (Thunder) RSAF F-15S Eagle ROKAF F-15K Eagle USAF F-15A Eagle USAF F-15B Eagle USAF F-15C Eagle USAF F-15E Strike Eagle etc... That way I can easily scroll through the list sorted by nations, then aircraft. What is your opinion about this? Questions #2: I have noticed that with the add-on aircraft, there are many multi-nations skins for the specific aircraft. For example, MiG-21F; I saw the skins for multi countries for one aircraft. I am planning on making the copies of MiG-21F (And edit their nation and ordinance in aircraft's data.ini) and rename the folder as: MiG-21F_RU MiG-21F_India MiG-21F_Syria etc... Then divide the skins into unique MiG-21Fs, that way I can easily load a specific nation's MiG-21F with their own default skins, along with their additional skins. However, I still am wondering how SF2 handle multi-national aircraft. Would my method be obsolete if there is a better way? How do people handle multi-national skins for any aircraft? If There is a way to filter the list of specific national aircraft without having to make copies of specific aircraft, please share here. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am planning on making a multi-SF2 installations this way: SF2 (Default - For backup / reference purposes) SF2 Asia (This cover Korea War and Vietnam War, along other campaigns and aircraft that flies in Asia) SF2 Middle East (This covers campaigns and aircraft that flies in Middle East) SF2 NATO (This covers campaigns and aircraft that flies in Europe) SF2 WARSAW (This covers Russia / Soviet and other WARSAW nations) Note: In this, I aim to make Russia / Soviet and other WARSAW flyable only while disabling cockpits for NATO + Western aircraft. so I can easily go through list of aircraft for Russia and other nearby nations.) SF2 North America (This covers a huge numbers of aircraft from North America.) SF2 South America (This covers all campaigns and aircraft from South America.) I will do it slowly through the year. My first step is to install the campaigns and carefully merge them (if they cover the same places), terrains, and other mods that expands the SF2. After doing all of that, I will slowly add aircraft for each nation. As stated, before doing it, I want the opinions here. Cheers!