There was a time where I considered my self a fairly competent virtual fighter pilot. After 20+ years with this hobby, you would think so, right?

Well, last night, I showed myself just how rusty I have become...

1. After my Phoenix exploded an 1/8th of a mile in front of me for some odd reason, I decided to gun a Badger. I saddled her up and got blown out of the sky by her gunners...

2. I did not offset my jet from the bearing of my PDSTT target after firing my Sparrow. I got the kill but, the MiG-23 got it's own SARH shot off right before it exploded.

What does this all mean?

I am so very thankful for this sim. It's so nice to have a game that is so compelling that it makes me have to re-hone my skills.

Thank you, TK and Third Wire

1: That happens if you are not careful. Just because you have missiles does not mean you should fly in a straight line; and that is what you did if the gunners got you. Also, Aim-9 Sidewinder? Regarding the phoenix, the Soviets knew exactly what was waiting for them and installed enough ECM to warm up an entire carriers supply of food ^^

2: Your enemy has some degree of intelligence. They are not Target Drones for you to fly in invulnerable modes.

Furthermore, What virtual Flight Sim did you play in 1990? I am honestly curious

I started with Jet from SubLogic in the 80s, not the 90s. I am old

Moved on to the Microprose and Spectrum Holobyte titles after that. F-15/F-19 and Falcon, respectively.

F/16 Combat Pilot, EF2000, Longbow... so many good sims back in the day.

The era in the SF series (1956 - 1982) is unlike WW2 and the later sims you used - your tactics have to change through out the entire era as different Jets and weapons are introduced.

You certainly wont be depending on missiles - and you will be forced to fire them in parameters to even have a chance of a kill - especially the older types (AIM-7E, AIM-9B , E, H etc)

I would love to see that timeline extended 1 more year to allow for the F-18 and MiG-29

I would LOVE to go on a surface strike mission in NA with something that can carry the Harpoon!

Once CA comes back up, there are outstanding mods for both the Super Hornet and the MiG-29. However, in the meantime the A-6E_79 is the original TRAM variant of the A-6, and is Harpoon capable. You can extract the A-6A cockpit from WoV if you have that, or you can purchase the RAZBAM A-6 for SF1 and import the cockpits. Once CA comes back up, you can also get A-6 cockpits from a few of the mods as well.

EDIT: Unless you have the campaign editor DLC, you will also need to manually edit the NA campaign files to change the A-6E to A-6E_79 (which was historically accurate anyway), and then add the A-6E_79 to the campaignna1.ini as a selectable plane.

If I purchase WoV can't I use the A-6 from that in NA campaign?

Thanks in advance!

Home fries,

I just purchased WOE2 last night and already own NA, as well as the DLC editor. What do I have to do to merge both and use aircraft from both in playing either scenario?

Also, you mentioned era specific modding of the .ini to accommodate the A6E, which I have as well. Matter of fact, can we sticky a FAQ or walk through for newbies and former players that are coming back into the fold again with the newer releases?

For me it seems to auto merge. My SF launcher does not seem to launch either game, it just gives me access to all campaigns. But, Im still very much a noob to the SF world so, I could be talking out of my ass, unintentionally, of course.



I asked for a FAQ and the SimHQ mgmt knocked it down

WoV is series 1 and was replaced by SF2V so it wont merge - you can extract the cockpit from it using a cat extractor - but there is a long list of individual files to get.

The Razbam A-6 pit is the best one out there currently so probably best of getting that instead http://razbamsims.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=51

Sorry, I meant SF2V. And I see now it did not include a flyable A-6.

I was looking for something "official" to shoot Harpoons with but, if I'm gonna bother to start modding my install I guess I will go with an F-18.

I see on youtube there is super hornet out there. I was hoping for an A to keep as close as possible to the NA timeline.

Most things are out there - the recent SF2 Operation Desert Storm mod has the FA-18A and FA-18C

The only links I could find went to CA. Anyone know of any alternate links?

Home Fries has a Super pak in the screenshot section. Home Fries, care to share brother?

I too would like an A6 TRAM to fly around and launch some Harpoons and other minutia.....

I am thinking about putting it up on GameFront, but I've made some 1.11 changes I need to integrate first.

Unless, of course, CA comes back soon.

UTR, in regards to the A-6, you'd be surprised how much fun it is to fly with the RAZBAM cockpit. MigBuster's CCIP mod (which I incorporated into my superpack) allows for accurate level bombing, and flying at treetops at night is a white-knuckle experience. Also, the act of outrunning MiGs rather than turning to meet them takes some getting used to, and there's nothing worse than asking Hawkeye for assistance and hearing "Negative, all assets are occupied", but it only adds to the fun.

If you want to see the RAZBAM cockpit in action, check my blog entry .

Here are some pictures of the A-6 Superpack on my blog, at least until CA comes back up.

Thanks Home Fries. Based on the pics, I will gladly await your release of your 1.11. The current pack looks sweet! Can't wait to see what's new and improved. Please post here once you've updated and released it. I fear CA might be down a while, at least file wise, while they re-install and I so badly want to fly the Intruder.

Hell yeah dude, those Intruders look SWEET!

I'm definitely going to want to hook them up now. Thanks for the sales pitch

LGBs, MAVs, Rockeyes, HARMs.... YEAH BUDDY!

A great place to upload SF material is Avsim. At one time it was a very commonly used file repository for the original SFP1/WoX series. I always used it as a mirror for anything I posted to guarantee access wouldn't be lost if a site went down or went out of business. It never hurts to have mirrors.

There is a superb F-18A by The Mirage Factory out there, so no worries.

http://www.checksix-fr.com/bibliotheque/index.php?page=detail&ID=4003
Click the button above the image to download the file. It will work in SF2: NA, no problem.

I am not sure if I need them but, just in case I just purchased the mission and campaign editors.

DLing the F-18 now. Thanks!

Any ETA on the A-6?

Working on it now, UTR. There are a few things I want to tweak before making another release.

The campaign editor is well worth the $$ for flying custom aircraft. You will be able to add the F/A-18 to the NA theater that way. However, my superpack will update the NA campaign to have the TRAM bird flying off the Nimitz (as it should be, since the TRAM made its first deployment with VA-36 off Nimitz in late 1979).

And the fun part begins

I installed the F-18 mod to:

C:\Games\ThirdWire\Strike Fighters 2

However, when I go into the game and start a new campaign, it is not available.

What did I do wrong or not do right yet?

I read the read me, no hints there.

Thanks!

It needs to go in the following:

C:\Users\yournamehere\Saved Games\thirdwire

Anybody but me having a problem with this? Error code IE8 has stopped working.

Great. The installer said "main directory" and does not have an uninstaller

I will try that path. Thank you!

EDIT: That did not work either. This is why I prefer official stuff. I'm gonna end up hosing my install

UTR, go here http://www.mediafire.com/?4ng6bspu4gn9a19 . If the link isn't active, just copy/paste into your brower. This is the MF FA-18A from CheckSix updated for SF2. Only the file structure is updated, FM's etc. are as SFP1. You will not hose your install.

Thank you.

DL'd and unzipped. Now, where does it go?

Thanks again!

No problem with Mozilla Firefox here.

Okay, assuming you're installed "normally", go to C:/Users/Yourname/SavedGames/ThirdWire/StrikeFightersxxx, xxx being the game you want to install to. Open the game folder and copy/paste Effects, Sounds, and Objects into the folder. Thats it. There are some issues with this plane in SF2, like I said I only updated the file structure. Some of the instruments are not working properly and there seems to be an issue with the canopy frame texture, but if you just want to shoot some Harpoons it should do the trick.

UTR,

Here's a primer on SF folder structure.

For first generation SF (including Wings Over xxx), you added mods directly to the folder structure. Therefore, if you download a mod designed for SF1 or its variants, you will likely get instructions to drop it in your main folder.

For SF2 and its ilk, the main folder is only for official files. For each version you have (e.g. SF2E and SF2NA) you will have an EXE for it in the main folder. Run that EXE and it will create a folder tree under


So for example, if you run StrikeFighters2 Europe.exe, it will create a folder tree called


All mods always always always go in your saved games folder, which is commonly known as the SF2 Mods folder. This is actually a great way to set things up, as you can add mods without risking your original install.

The other thing you can do that is handy is copy your EXE file and rename it to something else. This is great for total conversion type mods like Scandinavian Front and Desert Storm. Just copy the file and rename it (for example) StrikeFighters2 ODS.exe, and when you run the EXE it will create the folder tree


This allows you to have multiple mods that may otherwise be incompatible with each other, and it's a great way to have your cake and eat it too.

EDIT: One more thing: the EXEs are functionally identical, and you can access all stock aircraft and campagigns from any of the EXEs. The only difference in EXEs is which mods are installed to which mod folder.
Hope this helps.

Okay, that makes sense. Thank you very much!