Hello,

Getting back in to EAW after a very long hiatus. Glad to see there are updates and playable versions of this excellent game.

I have installed EAW 150V3. I also installed EAW 1.29 (July 2016) but the 150 seems to be an independent installation.

I'm launching the game through the PSM150 GUI using the Default ETO.

After orienting myself a bit just flying around T/O's and Landings, I went in to some instant action to work on that stuff and I can't seem to target or padlock enemy fighters. I can padlock friendlies, but not enemies. I had the pilot skill set to 'Veteran' in the Difficulty settings. I tried several things, including re-mapping the 'target closest enemy' and 'next enemy' to different button in the eaw.ini, but nothing worked. I ended up setting pilot skill to 'Green' and then the targeting/padlocking of enemies seemed to work.

That is fine if the pilot skill and targeting options are linked, but does the pilot skill also affect the median skill level of enemy pilots? MarkEAW's write up on the EAW.ini indicates that "skilllevel= " is a setting for enemy pilots, but it seems to fit the context of the "Pilot Skill" setting under the difficulty settings.

So, does anyone know if the "pilot skill" setting within the game the same as "skilllevel= " in eaw.ini? Do they both control the ability to target enemies and the median skill level of enemies?

What I want to be able to do is to target/padlock enemies during my campaign, but I also want a normal/stock EAW enemy pilot skill level. I don't want them all to be green just because I want to padlock.

-z

Okay I did some testing and looked at old info again. I've updated that description: Hope it helps.

http://eaw.neocities.org/eaw-inside-the-eaw-ini.html#difficulty

Roughly yes on skill level=

But more importantly to answer AFAIK the padlock code was changed at times by Knegel since 1.28. It may be disabled in various .exe versions and has limited options in most. It may function differently in multiplayer I am not sure. I don't have the details for your version. MrJelly would know that. You just have to experiment. I have never really liked padlock and haven't tried it since 1.2

Also.. Anything that can be controlled by the Game Config screens - settings from within EAW menus can also be controlled by the eaw.ini except for some of MrJelly's stuff, multiplayer or things like setting a planes directory, etc.
In other words most 1 - 1.2 to 1.28 series all the switches in the eaw.ini
That is the way the game normally works.

Further review, I believe these are linked, so there's no way other than source modding the skill level into two separate settings, one new in the eaw.ini.

Padlocking current target uses the multiply key (*) on the numeric keypad.

This is in 140, first flying as "green", and then as "ace" in the same set-up:




The Me-410 I had selected was padlocked in both cases so what is the problem?

The player's difficulty level in the "eaw.ini" does not appear to affect padlocking, apart from in night missions.
It does affect things like cockpit toggle and external views with F9.
The AI difficulty level is not involved.
In an online game the host's difficulty level applies to all players.

The code had not been changed for some time, and padlocking works in both 129 and 150

Your right MrJelly. I don't know where I got the lock limit, I swore it was preventing me from locking. Maybe Zander can explain. But Your Icon Range doesn't seem compromised as the readme suggests.


From the official Manual:
PILOT SKILL LEVEL ... European Air War allows you to adjust the skill level of the computer pilots, both friend and foe. (Sorry�there�s no comparable feature to enhance your own level of play.) Choosing between Green, Seasoned, and Expert, you can select the average level of pilot skill. This is not a guarantee that you won�t encounter airmen of different experience levels. When you check Seasoned, for example, you might still run into the occasional greenhorn or ace.


From the v1.28 readme:
"Players Skill" set in Configure Game/Difficulty/Combat now limits viewing options and icon range
Multiplayer: The "Difficulty" setting limits ingame viewing options and icon range

Thanks for the replies, and thanks Mark for putting together that information page. Very much appreciated. A lot of stuff in there!

I messed around with settings a little more and I it seems that the lock/padlock enemy aircraft seems to be disabled if the HUD flag is set to 0. I thought it was the pilot skill flag but I had that at green and tweaked the eaw.ini to HUD=0 and I once again could not padlock enemies. Went back in to the settings and turned the HUD back on and could padlock no problem.

I must have tweaked both the HUD and the pilot skill settings at the same time before.

I set the pilot skill back to the middle level and with HUD enabled, I can still padlock enemies so all good for now.

Edit: You can also manually turn the HUD displays on and off in game using shft + arrow keys. Turning off HUD displays this way does not seem to eliminate the ability to padlock enemies.

Your welcome for the information.

Just so its not confusing to others, the "HUD" setting I couldn't find in the eaw.ini. Unless I'm missing it?
Oh okay, its DisplayHUD=


and Whats this about arrow keys? You must have moved the default key settings else where?

I think it's part of the stock eaw.ini. I double checked the one I have made some modifications to (in the UAW150V3 folder, the .exe I am playing with) with the .ini in the default install folder.

It's in these lines here:

FLIGHT INFO DISPLAY ON/OFF=SHIFT LEFT
TARGET INFO DISPLAY ON/OFF=SHIFT RIGHT
TARGET DIRECTOR DISPLAY ON/OFF=ALT D
TARGET BOX DISPLAY ON/OFF=ALT O
TARGET ID DISPLAY ON/OFF=SHIFT UP
TARGET RANGE DISPLAY ON/OFF=SHIFT DOWN

Left, Right, Up and, Down are arrow keys.

Yes, I meant DisplayHUD= under the Difficulty settings.

okay, seems those where changed from the defaults. They are usually ALT+something, such as ALT+F for Flight Info.

okay well mystery solved for those issues. Thanks.

Not sure, but I believe the skill level was changed back in 1.28?
I think "Green" was for all-views+target/padlock, "Veteran" was for
all-views except straight back, and targeting is closer, (approx 9-10,000 ft. before you can target.)
and "Ace" is cockpit-view only (No straight-back or external views, no remove cockpit view.)

Originally, "Ace" was set like this for online no-targeting/no-padlock fights, but in my
1.40 and 1.50 installs, padlock/targeting works.....but you use to be able to turn it off.
Is this still possible?
AO

You think 9-10,000 FT? It looks like Jel locked on farther away in his screen shots.

I know Padlock is suppose to disable automatically in spins.

His screenies show 1,000+ and 3,000+ feet.
All targeting is disabled in a spin.

I'm trying to 'bump' if targeting can be disabled?

AO

Yes, it seems that targeting/padlocking of enemies is disabled if you disable 'HUD Display' in Game Set-up > Difficulty > Display, or set 'DisplayHUD=0' in EAW.ini.

Thank you Zander42!
That was it!

Yep.....I remember the white-knuckle days online.....if you saw an opponent you
had to track him with a hat switch or snap-views......

Has anyone gotten one of those head-pieces that makes the view, where you point your head?
Wonder if it works with EAW?
Thanks

AO