Sorry, I just was getting bored with the bland shots I've been seeing of late...

Not too shabby for an 18 year old sim!

Nice screens Mike!

AO

A few more for today...

Great Skins Mike, but this 3dz needs server attention!



It looks like one of Marek's original Biplanes [CR32?] We really need to go through the inventory of early models and make them fit for 2016.

I know, it's a lot of work, but we are not starting from scratch, we have the base F to start from.

If I might.

No point in duplicating the work. There are updated hi-res Cr32's and Cr42's in the 1.4 Mediterranean scenario. There are also updated Gladiators, Bulldogs and Gauntlets.

If you want them for an earlier exec you can pull them out of their folders and convert them to slot specific file names. They were all built with the empty F method so the R/S issues are close to nil.

I've converted about 90-100 planes with this method and many of them are included in the Mediterranean skin folders so check them out before proceeding with a new project.

FWIW, I'm building a biplane plane set for the Med. It will include the planes already listed plus the following:

Fury
Demon
Audax
Hector
He45
He51
Avia BH 33
Fairey Fantome
Avia 354
Letov 231
Letov 331
Neiuport Nid 52
Swordfish I
Swordfish IV
Aero A32

I've picked these particular planes because they all use the same basic set of files meaning the one "empty F" will work for all of them. I just have to break up the model into the correct pieces and they're done.

Hi Mike.

Not seen any of those models except your Glad. I have no idea, which models are updated, and which are not.

I'd just like the best models to be used in EAW, in 2016. A lot of my early stuff looks to my eye, very dated, but still not too bad, in comparison with full LR models, when you consider they are all 8bit 256 textures.

Building the Fw200 has shown me just how far we can push the models using all the available 3dz's joined together.

We used to post our updated models on Sandbagger's Site, so the 3dz model list got updated. Then everyone knew, which were the latest models to skin. In recent years we seem to have all, bar Mike, have stopped posting models for download by the public, and offer stuff internally, and in setups, which might not match the player's likes and dislikes.

I'm as guilty as anyone, at not posting models. The last ones being nearly 5 years ago! I'm going to correct this on my part, and it will give Sandy a bit more work!

Eh, that's me with the already done planes, not Mike.

You're right about not posting new models to Talley-ho. I fell out of the habit around the time we were developing SPAW.

That was a special set of planes that wasn't meant to have substitutions so to avoid compatibility issues I purposely didn't send the individual models to Sandbagger.

Then once 1.4 got going the planes were included with the various scenarios so it became less important to issue individual models. As I wrote above, anyone who wants a plane that is included with any of the 1.4 plane sets can easily acquire it and convert the file names back to slot specific.

In effect, the packages that are issued with 1.4 have become the default repository.

That's not to say we shouldn't get the inventory up to date at Talley-ho it's just that we'd have to put some thought into it. Do we make slot specific models for the 1.28 series AND slotless ones for 1.4?

Oh yeah, about 6 months ago I sent a PBY to Moggy that uses all the available 3dz's. It has working landing gear and movable wing floats which I'd never have been able to do without the new 3dz files. I'm hoping it gets into whatever project he's working on ( hint ).

Hi Ray.

I'm glad you see the problem, like me.

All this in house sharing is all well and good for us, but the new system has rather taken the fun out of the game, now everything is sets.

I have no idea how to slot a model anymore, and I guess off liners are in the same situation. Why do I always fight foe the silent ones?

I'm going to issue models as 1.28, and they can be taken as is, and used.

I'm not doin FM, or cockpits, others used to do them, and maybe new modders will come forward to fill in the missing bits.

I can just hear Tony moaning.

I did this (Cr42) for Jordi (Stratos)... "These 8 bit skins were created by Iron Mike based on the work of Jan Tuma - Flying Tiger. (190A Slot)" It was the best model available at that time.

I am not a model builder, I only bend and straighten the odd element when it messes with a skin. I tend to super detail my projects making all the panel lines and rivets go where they were on the prototype machines. I could be a bit less detailed but that wouldn't be me. I also will use a low rez model over a HR one it it has a better overall depiction of the machine I am doing.

My work is based on y'alls stuff. Mainly John and Rays for the newer models. And, I use Sky Lark's (David) and Flying Tiger (Ade) as starting points for many skins.

No duels at dawn for me. Too lazy...

Hi Tony.

Just one question.

How does that help the offliners?

Nothing new publically posted, on any of our websites, other than via in house forums, gives the impression the Sim is dead.

We know that is not the case, but the new system has it's advantages buildng a fixed setup, but stops the casual player messing around, having fun.

Maybe this would be a good time to talk about something that's been percolating in my brain for a while.

Since setting up the planes and plane sets for the Med upgrade it kept occurring to me that once these planes were added to this particular scenario they could be plucked out and added to any other scenario.

For instance these biplanes I'm adding are really very compatible with SAW and FAW so the originator could very easily add them to the original for a super quick upgrade.

So that got me thinking.

Jel, how far fetched would it be to have a central warehouse of ALL the plane folders and then set up the picker program with an option for a player to literally pick his own planes by clicking on each one he wanted in the mix? It would make total customization possible for the first time and might entice some new players since, to my knowledge, no other sim allows for that.

I'm not advocating removing the planesets entirely of course. Mainly because the online players have to have exactly to same setup to play the game so they would need the ability to select an entire planeset for compatibility.

This possibility would also put to rest the concerns over uploading individual planes to Sandbagger's. A player could download a new model, add it to his personal inventory and go fly. If for some reason the player wanted to use the plane in a 1.28 set up the MogProg program could be offered with some simple instructions for renaming the plane to the desired slot.

Well Tony, I just build things, and I will continue to support the old slot system.

What you do with the models, once I release them, is up to you. I only just got to grips with OAW, and everything changed, new FM's, new slot-less system, and god knows what else. Too much for me to keep up with, for sure!

This is nothing personal Tony, just I have very little time for anything EAW, and what I do have, I will spend modelling.

I have this big ol' planes folder which started out as the planes for Dunkirk with old style FMs. It now has virtually everything relating to all the scenarios I have dabbled in including Tuma's Munich 38, AITW, Dunkirk, Bomber Command 1939-41, Iraq, Syria, China, and Midway - all old style FMs.

As Ray suggests, for any particular setup in 129 I just "perm 8 from 10" i.e. make a pdir/fmdir.set with the Jelly tools.

But recent work with 128C has created a dilemma

Jel,

Ok, as you've shown, it doesn't take much to move plane sets around and I like the idea of dropping different planes into different scenarios but we're still limited to entire plane sets.

I'm not being critical just working a thought exercise. How hard would it be to institute individual plane picking?



John,

I know how you feel. It was very frustrating familiarizing myself with the 1.4 system and I walked away from the whole thing more than once. It took a looooooong time for me to get comfortable with it but there are huge advantages once you conquer the intricacies.
Don't give up.

I would have though the opposite.

I see all these individual plane folders and I think to myself "what if there was a way to just pick my own planes rather than a whole set?"

Tony, this Defrag problem has been part of EAW since 1998, and I don't see it as a problem like you do, when a PC can defag while your running it. Mine does, so that is a bit of a Red Herring in 2016.

We lost Ade because of the non stop run of modded EXE's, never giving anyone long enough to play catchup. The change from 1.24, 28, to 29, in the space of a year or less, drove away several old hands. You might have not noticed them drifting off, but I did, and I joined them, for a while out of shear frustration.

Now, I support a game, I no longer understand, and I bet you, many of the viewers don't have a clue how to mod anything either. Which, stangely, was the reason I got involved with EAW 16 years ago!

We need a stable, level playing field to work with, one can be 1.40, but for the casual off liners who like to mess around, an exe with default read from root as standard.

Two exe's should be enough for everyone, depending on if your off liner, or an onliner.

OK Tony, I knew you'd say that.

It's all become a one way street.

There are two sides to the coin.

On the one side there is the frustration of keeping up with all the changes but that same development is probably what's kept interest in EAW after 18 years.

So, in the end, we make of EAW what we will.

As Jel says, there are enough variations now that both a player and a modder can choose from many different levels of complexity.

I've chosen to stay current but each to his own.