I have a bunch of unrelated questions so I decided to lump them into one post for efficiency.

1 - I have four distinct planesets for the Med upgrade ranging from 1940 to 1943. All of the 3dz models are complete as well as their flight models. I've just got the loadout editor working so I'll be busy the next few days adding some weapons to the planes.

However, I do not understand how the second part of the loadout editor works.


2 - Will all four of these planesets use the same set of weapons?


Ok on to other topics.

3 - Where do you stand with issuing the target upgrade? Are you only going to include it in 1.4 or can we make a stand alone version for player who prefer 1.28*?

4 - With that in mind, where are we with the searchlight addition?

5 - And we never addressed moving the front line in the target set so that there is an Allied airfield within striking distance of Trieste.


And lastly

I cannot figure out the WSP editor. Fortunately there are only about a dozen planes that need fsmplane files. If I send the raw files to you do you think you could get them done?

Anyhow, here is a list of the planes in each planeset. I've also added new hangar screens to about 80% of the planes.

I tried to keep it pretty close to historically accurate groupings while including as many different planes as I could gather. There could be some nitpicking of whether or not a particular plane contributed to the conflict but they were all available and in the general vicinity of the Mediterranean Theater during the time frame.

I also included carrier born aircraft and torpedo carrying aircraft in each planeset.


Plane Set 1

Demon
Fury
Gauntlet
D 510 Free French
Battle
Skua
Sea Hurricane
Hawk 75 Free French
D 520 Free French
Ms 406 Free French
Potez 631 Free French
Amiot 354 Free French
Vengeance
Whitley
Swordfish I
Caudron 714 Free French

109B-2
109D-1
Cr 32
Ms 406 Vichy French
D 510 Vichy French
Ca 310
Br 20
He112
Ju 52
D 520 Vichy French
Potez 631 Vichy French
Br 693 Vichy French
Mb 151 Vichy French
Vg 33 Vichy French




Plane set 2

Swordfish
Fury
Gladiator
Blenheim I
Beaufighter 1c
Skua
hurricane I
Hawk 75 Free French
D 520 Free French
Ms 406 Free French
Potez 631 Free French
Amiot 354 Free French
Vengeance
Whitley
Fulmar
Wellington

109E-4
Cr 32
G 50bis
Ba 65
Sm 81
Ca 310
Br 20
Cr 25
Ju 52
520 Vichy French
Potez 631 Vichy French
Br 693 Vichy French
MB 151 Vichy French
Vg 33 Vichy French



Plane set 3

Blenheim I
Swordfish I
SBD 3
P39D
P40C
Hawk 75 Free French
Maryland
B25C
A20G
Hurricane IIB
Spitfire VB
Martlet
TBD
Seafire II
Fulmar
B24A

G 50bis
Cr 42
Mc 200
109E-7
109F-4
110D-3
Re 2000
HS129B-1
LeO 451 Vichy French
Mc 202
Ju 87B-2
SM 81
Cantz 1007
Ju 52







Planeset 4

Beaufighter VIC
P38F
SBD 3
P39D
A36A
P40E
Baltimore
Hudson
A20G
Hurricane IID
Spitfire VB
Martlet
B26A
Seafire II
Mosquito VI

G 50bis
FW 190A
Mc 202
Mc 205
Re 2000
109G-2
110E-1
Me 210A-1
Ju 88A-4
Hs129B-2
Ju 87G-2
SM 79
He111
Me323


PS - Moggy should be happy since a bunch of the French planes were built for his Dunkirk upgrade.

Good to see your post- I thought you might have disappeared under the snow

A few quick answers

1. The second part of the loadout editor. Is it the actual use of it that is the problem, or how the files that is saves work?

2. As it is not a 30 plane file you can have a "weapons.dat" file in each planeset folder and they can be different.

3. How you want it released is ip to you. However, if you include things that are only 140 compatible such as searchlights then they will not work in a 1.28/1.29 set-up, and they may need to be removed.

4. The searchlight addition could be done, maybe at limited sights such as London and Berlin. I could experiment with the year setting in the TMod.dat file for the ones at Hawkinge.

5. I could easily make a static frontline to allow Trieste to come under allied attack. It does anyway if an airstart is selected for a single mission.

Lastly. Sure- just send me the files

Thankfully we missed the blizzard by the skin of our teeth. Some sleet and high winds but no power outages or wind damage. The dock was covered by a tidal surge of about 3 feet but it didn't come into the back yard.

All in all a big nothing burger around here but my son up in NY got 24 inches of snow. HA! I keep telling him to move south.




Anyhow, back to EAW.

1 - The second part of the loadout editor is quite different from earlier versions. I understood how the old version defined what weapons we available depending on the type of mission assigned. I'm not sure how that works with the new editor.

2 - So would I put the weapons.dat file in the same folder as the FMdir.set and PDir.set files? Sub question:

A - Where would I find the latest weapons.dat editor?

3 & 4 - Personally I don't have a great attachment to the searchlight mod as it means more work before releasing the target upgrade and I've about had enough of that project. Plus I don't want to have two distinct versions, 1.28 and 1.4 so I'd just as soon shelve the searchlights. To be clear, I have no problem with some other modder adding them.

5 - If you would move the frontline as discussed I think that would finalize the project. Then send me the new frontline file which I'll add to the package and upload to the GEN's server. A couple of sub questions:

A - What's the best way to get this mod out to the community?
B - Would 1.28 users just unpack the whole thing in the root or are there subfolders in some of the later 1.28 series?
C - Will you add the the finished package to 1.4?

6 - I'll e-mail you the raw files, thanks

1: It is the same as it always was, apart from the extra mission.

Suppose a plane has 8 different loadouts in part 1 and that for an escort mission loadouts #2, #5 and #6 are appropriate.

Part 2 should have the data on the escort mission line saying that there are 3 loadouts, and these are 5, 2 and 6 with preferential order being used. The five remaining ones on that line are set to zero.

2: Yes- in the "Planeset" folders.
I will find the latest "weapons.dat" editor and put it in your folder.

5: I will do that and get it to you ASAP
5A: I am happy to host it on my OneDrive, which is where people come anyway.
5B: No way! 1.28c and onwards has used the "dir.set" system.
It is probably best set up for 1.28F/1.29 for people who do not have 1.40.

One big question is which planes are going to be used- just the default ETO?
It may be worth sounding out the community re whether they want the 1.40 or an earlier version.

5C: Sure, and we will use it online.



EDIT:
If it is released for something pre- 1.40 then do not forget that the user will need to have a version of the eaw.exe which can handle the large number of TMods and not CTD

With the loadout editor it's not the concept I'm unclear about, it's the execution.

So for example the 110 E looks like this:

Num L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8
Escort 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Sweep 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Bomb 255 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
Intercept 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Interdiction 255 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
Torpedo 255 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0

If you could interpret this number grid I think I'll be good to go.

Also a couple of more Med upgrade related question:

1 - In the Med package that comes with 1.4 there seems to be no 100kg bomb model. When I assign that particular weapon nothing shows up in the game. All the other weapons display normally. While I do see the three torpedo 3dz models, ord21, 34 and 35 in the "Full Malta" folder, where are the rest of the ord**.3dz's?

Also, why three torpedo models?

2 - Do you know how the gun packs are supposed to work? I added the 20mm under wing guns to the 109G and they show up in the game but they don't fire.

3 - There are two torpedoes listed in the weapons inventory. I suppose one is the dummy but I don't know which one.






As for the target mod, it sounds like we need a readme file so that users desiring the 1.28* or 1.29 execs put the package in the right place.

As for your question about the planes, one back to you, why does it matter what planes are being used?

About the only caveat I can think of is that the target set is built around the original EAW terrain set. It will work with other terrain sets but some of the TMODs will look odd because the roads and cities have be changed and quite a few of the TMODs are lined up with the underlying terrain.

The grid.
For an escort mission
2: There are two loadouts possible
0: The first of these two is loadout#0 (usually empty) but as defined in the part 1 file for the 110E
1: The second of these two is loadout#1 as defined in the part 1 file for the 110E
As this has covered the two loadouts the remaining six values for L3 to L8 are all zero

The sweep has just one loadout option which is #0

I need to check Charles' Notes but I believe that the "255" indicates that all loadouts are allowed for that mission type, and anything else in the line is ignored.

If it is missing the torpedo mission is added by the editor and is always a copy of the interdiction mission, ready for editing.

With single missions part two is irrelevant because the player chooses his loadout. In careers the loadout is selected for the squad depending on your rank.

In Multiplayer, loadout selection is limited, and the part two file is critical to the player.

Logically part two probably applies to AI loadout settings.

I will get back to you re- the other questions.

This is how the installation can be done. I used a reasonably recent version of your ETO stuff.

I made a 1.28E folder, bare bones:


There is a "RayETO128Ebeta.exe" OneDrive download in it which I ran:

You can see what was added.

I ran the DSPicker and made the selections:


Screenies:









The only thing missing is the "Sounds" folder which I forgot

Edit - Sorry we're cross posting. Looks like you've got a handle on including the target mod so thanks for that.

I'm still unclear on the part two thing.

Let's try another one -

This is the 109G. Not sure where the load and loadmis files came from but I probably transported it over to my planeset from the one of the planesets that came with the 1.4 download:

Num L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8
Escort 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Sweep 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Bomb 5 1 2 3 4 5 0 0 0
Intercept 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Interdiction 5 1 2 3 4 5 0 0 0
Torpedo 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Bomb and Interdiction have five choices but shouldn't L1 be a 0? Shouldn't ALL L1's be zero?

If I'm correct it might help if the loadout grid said L0 through L7.

Also, if memory serves ( not always a sure thing ) the old editor had a window to indicate what load you were on. With this editor you have to go back to part one and manually count from the zero load to make sure you put the correct number in the part 2 grid.

This is the SPAW Black Widow from the tutorial files showing the first (#0) of 8 different loadout options:


....and this is the 8th (#07):


Note the "Loadout option #" box near the top left with the number in it.
Clicking the "+" and "-" boxes below it lets you see the individual options for a plane.

Making sense of part two:
Escorting needs no other weapons, neither does a sweep nor an intercept, so the default "empty" one is used to maximise speed.
Bombing has six choices. Loadout option #0 would never be used because there is no point in going on a bombing mission with no bombs.
The six chosen in order of preference are loadout options #2, #3, #4, #5, #1 and #6.
Interdiction is the same as the bombing set-up in this case.

Torpedo has just one option selected, #7 with the two torpedoes. In a correct 140 version of this there should also be a torpedo release (or dummy) in this loadout. The presence of one flags that the plane is carrying torpedoes and makes the torpedo related code to kick in. Its code is 8 whereas the torpedoes are coded as 1 (the same as bombs).

EDIT
Weapons code values from the SC

#define WI_NONE 0x00
#define WI_BOMB 0x01
#define WI_ROCKET 0x02
#define WI_Torpedo 0x08
#define WI_FUEL 0x04
#define WI_Gunpod 0x20
#define WI_CARGO 0x10

It is set up like this to allow a weapon to have multiple properties
A number of your SPAW ones are 7 which is 4+2+1.
The 4 = WI_FUEL (drop tank)
The 2 = WI_ROCKET
The 1 = WI_BOMB

Anything coded 7 has the properties of all three.

Ok, I'm closer now. Fortunately most of the planes in DAW are a lot simpler ordinance wise that the ones in Europe or the Pacific.

And yes, I used the #7 code so that drop tanks would explode the way bombs do. In the default game they simply disappear in a puff of dust. They have a small destructive value too. It's all explained in the SPAW readme file.

I finagled a few things like that. For instance the parabombs explode like bombs but they drop like drop tanks. Well they did, but somewhere along the development path of 1.4 that got missed. I reminded you of that when I first tried out SPAW under 1.4 but I don't recall if you fixed it.

Don't remember why we had to have a dummy torpedo though.

When you get a chance would you go back through the question list. There are still some important things I need answers on. Not really a rush as I have to edit the weapons on about 90 planes.

Sailing along until added drop tanks to the A20.

They drop like bombs. They do not float back the way empty drop tanks are supposed to. Again, if memory serves, I experienced this at the dawn of 1.4.

It's not that important with drop tanks as I doubt most users would notice the difference but it is critical to the operation of para-bombs.

I am working on it at the moment.
I did have them working in an earlier 140 and I have just checked 1.28c SPAW to compare.

No rush, just add it to the pile.

I've got the multiple bomb drops working as designed by Ralf. I won't include my version which when combined with Ralf's could be set up to give four individual bomb drops. However, it is a bear to set up properly.

The P-61 in SPAW is the best example of a four drop set up in case you're interesting in how it's done. You should look at the SPAW readme file for the in-game procedure.

Meanwhile back at the 140 ranch....

Yep, that's what they're supposed to do.

Jel,

Neither the 100Lb nor 100 KG bomb show up in game for the Malta/Daw file set. I can't find the ord files except for the three torpedoes in the "Full Malta" folder. I want to see if the two bombs have been accidentally replaced with "empty" 3dz
files.


Edit -

I pulled a bunch of bombs out of the original EAW 3d.cdf file and placed them in the "Full Malta" folder. Sure enough, the 100 lb bomb appears. This proves there's something wrong with the ord files in the "Full Malta" scenario.

I still don't know where the exec is looking for those files though. I can't find them within the "Full Malta" set up.

Edit #2 -

Oddly enough the 100 KG bomb does not show up but the 100 lb bomb does.

The reason a no CDF version is possible is that some time ago Ralf made the exec look for files in the "savedata" folder. The default files are in it. Nothing was lost by doing this especially as there are a heap of slot based files in the CDFs which are not used by 140, and were not put in the "savedata" folder.
Occasionally a converted skin file still looks for a slot based TPC file and when this happens the one it needs is added, either to the "savedata" folder, or to the appropriate theatre folder..

I wish you guys had worked a little harder on your naming schemes back in the day. I missed that particular savedata folder among the various other savedata folders.

The odd thing is that the bomb ord.3dz files are all there but the 100 KG simply fails to show up in the game. I can hear the bomb release and the bomb whistle but no graphic. If I switch to another bomb it does show up both hanging from the wing and dropping so I know it's not a loadout error or an flt file with the weapons drop points out of place.

Can you replicate the problem?

I don't mean to disrupt this thread, but I have a bunch of ordnance files here.
I recall I didn't get all of them , but I separated most from the plane-skin/model folders and moved them to there own folder. Don't know if they will help with what your doing.

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/ep7799i94t8nm/plane-mod-ordnance