Rearm/refuel/minor repairs are officially in with Zuti's latest addition!!
>--------Thank you!---------<

*Yawn*

Yet another multi-gigabyte mod package that is probably incompatible with every other mod package out there.

You know what? 4.09m stock/official runs great. Loads fast. Is compatible with everyone else running 4.09m. Doesn't require another 20gigabytes of disk space.

While the mods are great, and I've certainly had my bit of fun with them, I'll happily go back to running stock. And save myself a lot of headaches in the process.

I don't agree with *yawn.*

Up until now I've eschewed the mods except for a very select few individual cockpit updates. I was unimpressed with the early mod packs like the Sound Mod and the first UI bundle.

This pack presents everything very nicely and is easy to install, just hit the button and wait fifteen minutes for all the content to unpack to your game folder. All the mods are active by default but you can toggle some of them on/off through a separate manager pane.

My unmodded 1946 game with the official patches and the new skins pack is around 5.5 GB with no additional skins, mods or campaigns added. The Ultrapack 1.8 patch brings it up to a little over 9 GB.

I don't know if I'll ever fly or use most of the new content provided by this patch, but the cockpit improvements are interesting and it is sort of fun to fly around the F-86, Catalina and B-17s.

I tend to agree with WWSandMan, although this is a very subjective issue. Although I have UI 1.2, I rarely use it. You see, I mainly fly online coops. When you fly online, the #1 issue is compatibility. If the client's version is not compatible with the host's version, they can't join.

Many times I have all my coop slots filled in HL, but when I launch the game, I find that only half of them actually joined...because of compatibility issues. No matter how much I advertise the version I am running, this seems to happen quite often these days. You can have the best mods in the world, but if players are having problems joining eachother's games, what good are they?

With each new Super-Duper Mod Pack that is released, the online compatibility issues get worse.

Of course, if you don't play online, everything I just said means nothing to you. I understand that.

At this point, I host mostly 4.09m online. There are a lot less headaches for everyone involved.

Aviar

Regarding online compatibility, it seems to me that zero mods would be the best way to go. The second best solution is a standardized package (like this one), if everybody knows what they should be using.

There is a toggle in the accompanying General Mod Enabler that reverts everything to "Stock 4.09m[ModsOff!]" among other options.

I realize that there are now several different megapack lines, each with their own version history. I won't pretend to know if one is preferable to another. I decided to try this one out, and my verdict is that it was worth the time to download and install. I don't play online anymore though, ironically because the .SFS files were hacked in the first place.

Anyhow, I noticed that this Ultrapack alters the airfields on the QMB Okinawa map. Some of the static aircraft are clustered in odd places away from the revetments. On one of the Allied airfields, several planes are parked on the taxiway so the AI crashes into them while taxiing. I haven't looked at this map in FMB.

Can I install this with HSFX disabled through the JSGME switcher or do I have to install in with a clean 4.09 only?

you will need a separate 4.09m folder for UP installation...

cheers

after staying with the UI and briefly trying out the HSFX mod package, I have tried out this one and will definitely stay with it!

should one stay offline most of the time like I do, this pack delivers all;
I continued my Darwin campaign yesterday, blasting 2 Rufes low down - what an experience with the turbulence mod and the new (at least for me 50cal sounds)

loading time also is considerably faster using the sfs format but you all know this

a clear recommendation from me and a big big thank you to all involved in creating the mods and the package, no matter which group they belong to!

S!
BL

I may have to check this out.
I had UI 1.1 i believe installed, but a Hard Drive crash cleared that up.
I may have to look into these, Stock 4.09 is great, but i kind of miss being able to add those extra planes that were truly great! (The Swordfish made looks fantastic, and with CanonUK's awesome skins it got even better.)

Interestingly enough this modpack addresses all of your concerns... Yes there aren't a lot of servers running the pack. However in terms of size it's far smaller than you would expect and it basically has stock load times.

I would give it a look before you turn your noes up at it. So far the tesing in Forgotten Skies has been promising.

In terms of 4.09 I'm happy to see that DT released something official however it pales in comparison of the giant list of planes this pack includes. In addition some pretty amazing addons that blow away the stock game.