So do I guys... any help?

Majority of terrain links are dead.

The original poster/stickier hasn't been by to update this in quite a while, and after the last SimHQ software rebuild, all the links to previous posts in this forum (the majority) were broken and haven't been repaired, well basically they can't be repaired as there's no way to figure out the correspondence with the old system, and then the older posts were hived off to the archive recently so it's even worse now. Hmm. And the archive seems to be broken today, too.

Pretty much everything regarding the terrain has been updated several times since the list was made, and most have been incorporated into the BDG patches. You get all of it with one patch install, as the BDG patches are always cumulative and comprehensive. The Hurricane Hicken terrain mods listed there were sequential iterations, only the last was ever needed, and that's been superceded by four subsequent iterations incorporated into subsequent BDG patches. The cliff mods would still be viable alternates, as would the sea colourings, as those are all matters of personal taste.

The only aspects of my ground object repaints that haven't yet been outdone by Ben the prodigious object modeller are the London bus and [*Edit*: the warehouse roof - that has now been superceded as of 2.11 by Ben's new warehouse objects, but the bus hasn't been done yet, so mine is still a big improvement on stock], and I'm hoping they'll be occluded soon. Oh, and my hedgerow is also still good, I like it better than stock. These three can be found here

Bus: http://www.a2asimulations.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=5806&hilit=lbus

Hedgerow: http://www3.telus.net/v1ncent/bob/treeline.rar
Unrar, and drop into whatever folder has the like-named file - I think it might be maskmap. Looks like this:



Addendum, friday: I managed to locate my original post for these, as they repaired the archive link today, so I thought I'd put the address here, see how long this one stays valid... http://simhq.net/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1722750/Some_minor_ground_object_tweak.html#Post1722750

Hi Uther: Skin links are dead - is there an alternate source(s)?
Regards,
P.

Uther hasn't been by here to update this thread (or unsticky it, as most of the content is obsolete) for years now. I guess he's too busy with other responsibilities. As to the skins, I don't think any of the individual items are available by themselves anymore. Pretty much everything has been incorporated into the Multiskin package, available at the A2A site, along with the 2.09 patch on the patch release announcement post: http://www.a2asimulations.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=13117&start=0

The multiskin applies correct skins to all the single seat planes, along with correct call letters and emblems (done via a scripting system with layers, so it doesn't require thousands of full skin files). For the relatively imminent 2.10 patch release, as you will have noted from all the posts lately, Aces High has created a prodigious addition in the form of skins for all the heavy bombers. I believe that leaves the stukas and 110s without multiskin, but I may be not up to speed on that.

The 2.10 patch with multiskin update should certainly be out within 2 months, possibly much sooner, depending on how testing goes. It is in the integration and polishing stage now; when that is satisfactory, an installer will have to be built and tested.

If you are only interested in specific skins (say if your vid card can't cope with the full load), you should be able to install multiskin, then disable its running via the bdg.txt variable, and then you can browse the skin texture files for what you want and do some file swapping, or .ms file editing, to get a few skins into your game (this may require some detailed help, best to ask at the A2A forum).

ok, so, the inevitable noob question, as i'll be installing this over the weekend...out of this most impressive list, what are the say 10-15 must haves? (not to tread on anyone's toes, since all deserve kudos for making these, but there are often those mods that are universally considered must haves, such as aeyes cockpit or hi tiles for dear, departed f4, or the ai combat mod for il2 that makes them better resemble human pilots). thanks!

There are none IMHO, for a simple reason: We put all "must haves" into the main package. Luckily we have only one group modding this sim. Multiskin is seperate from the main package as you need a good gfx card - at least 256 MB memory, 512 prefered.

There are still several mods that some see as big step forward while others dont.
Anyway, I suggest you get the main package (and Multiskin depending on your gfx card). Then fly for some time to get a feel and to see which aspects of the sim you like more and which you like less. Then look at mods again. Also by then there might be some mods available that will be rolled into 2.11 once that ships.

sounds good, thanks
my card will have no problem handling multiskin...it's a replacement and better card than the 8800gtx listed in my sig (which is a best of a card, even today)

Your Processor will slow on the large (200+ A/C) missions.

You might want to review the following thread on performance notes and tuning tips:

http://a2asimulations.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=10091

There are many links in this thread that appear to have expired - how do we get at the mods/patches within them? I know this is a very old thread, but it was still stickied, so I didn't see the point in opening a new one.

I didn't know there are missions with 200+ planes! Wow! Will my system run those smoothly at full details?