Hi there,

recently I’ve bought EAW on GoG. I’m happy I can play it again after many, many years. GoG version works great, wrapped in Glide it looks good. As a consequence I found EAW community and UAW 1.60 mod. I’ve installed it (with July 05 patch and libraries pack), it runs. Nevertheless I have some fundamental problems and can’t find idiot-proof tutorial anywhere. I’d appreciate your help.

1. I have no gunsight in UAW. I tried D3D and Glide – no crosshair on the glass in cockpit in both cases. Maybe it’s some variable in eaw.ini?

2. When I choose “simple flight model” my Hurricane is absurdly fast (almost 1 Mach:))). Both in UAW and in 1.28e, but on GoG’s clean 1.28 max airspeed in simplified model is accurate. Can it be changed in 1.60/1.28e somehow, i.e. easy flight model but with normal speed?

3. I don’t understand how UAW works… It has many .exe files, mission maker… I’d like to play campaign, but with 1.60 improvements. Is this possible? E.g. I started PSM160Multi.exe, chose map, theatre, planeset, launched EAW, but the game CTD in Campaign mode when I clicked “fly mission”. Am I doing something wrong or UAW is just not for campaign mode?

4. What’s the best way to play campaign mode with all the bells and whistles? If not UAW, then what? EAWPRO? 1.28e? Or just GoG?

I imagine all those things are obvious for you, but for someone from outside the EAW community it’s super confusing: so many files, versions… Thanks for all your help. You’re doing great job keeping this wonderful game alive.

1 - its some key , IDK which one

2 - IDK why its like that, but they probably where not concerned with the easy mode.

3- ugh, its difficult and is confusing. I think there are threads for this information on this forum some place. (above)

4- with GOG 1.28 it will still work out. I haven't tested 1.28 my self. Most people I know use 1.2 for campaign mode.

Someone more knowledge able about 1.60 should come along soon to help you. I'd hope.

Heres a page I put together that will brief you a little:
https://eaw.neocities.org/first-use.html
You may want to click the top link to goto the main mape, and read everything there as a new guy. Or maybe not, up to you.

Maybe I can shed some light on your issues.

1. In the start screen for UAW160, go to Game Setup, then Graphics. Make sure Virtual Cockpit Gauges is turned on. The Gunsight is considered a gauge. If this doesn't do it, look in your main folder for EAW.INI. Rename it to something like EAW.OLD or similar. When you restart the game it will create a new ini file with default values, this may correct your problem. You could also try playing with the gunsight settings in the ini file ( I think there are two) and see if that helps. If not, repost here along with a copy of your ini file and we'll see if there is a problem.

2. 1.28 is a heavily modded version of the game. Extensive work went into creating highly accurate flight modeling under the "Realism" switch in the settings. I haven't used the easy version since about 2000 or so, LOL. The mods done to the game may have inadvertently affected this. Not sure if the plain jane 1.28 version would be better.

3. UAW 160 was created primarily with flying online in mind. I haven't used it much, so I am not sure how much the campaign system is supported, though it definitely has the ability to easily switch from one theater to another. In my setup it only works if I use DSP2020MultiplayerV2.exe to set up the theater and planeset I want. When I click on Launch EAW it crashes. But if I go back into the main folder and just click on eaw.exe, I get the theater and planes I wanted. If you want to fly a career, I would suggest you use 1.28 to do so. Back in the day I used to have separate setups for each of the campaigns. Do a clean install of 1.28 and run it once to create the ini file. Then copy all files to a new folder, named for the campaign you want to install. Go to Sandbager's or Mark's EAW and download the campaign you want, install it in the folder, and away you go. I used to have nearly thirty versions of the game back in the day!

4. See the answer to question 3.

I'm sure Mr. Jelly and Rotten50 can give you more info on the way 160 works, it is their baby and is extremely versatile.

In UAW160 Alt G turns gunsight on/off

Thank you for all answers and advice!

I don't know why I haven't tried alt+g for gunsight. Probably my brain told me it must be landing Gear
I don't have any joystick right now, so I thought simple flight model would be better while waiting for new Logitech stick, but now I see that even on keyboard realistic model is so much better.
As for the career mode I'll try fiddling with versions and files.
Now I'm gonna read MarkEAW's page. There's a lot of content there

Thanks again, guys.

ps: is multiplayer alive? I imagine player-base must be relatively small, but I'd be happy to join if you need some cannon fodder

Hi,

the "easy flightmodel" always was more x-wing than Plane. Just made a test in EAW1.2 and the 109E4 dont stop to zoomclimb until it reach the max altitude.

I cant remeber someone ever did use this option!

Use the normal flight model and dissable stall/spin etc, thats probably more what you would call "easy fight model".

For Campaign mode, you can use all EAW versions, i would preffer EAW1.28e for that. There are plenty different setups, good playable in campaign mode around (FAW, SAW, some ETO setups and of course the default campaigns as example)

All depends to your preferences. There are several different flight/damage-models around. The early ones are in general more easy, cause by default the planes had very big hitbubbles. In EAW1.28 the guns convergence got introduced. Because that, the hitbubbles could get reduced to the Planes size, this makes hitting the target more difficult. At same time the damage models got tuned, so its not possible anymore to kill 10 B17´s with 2 x 30cal. .

Since EAW1.28 you can go to the "config screen->difficulty->combatr" and set "realistic gunnery" to "off", then its half as difficult to down a enemy, as long as you hit the target.

Greetings,

Knegel

@Knegel

It explains a lot. Thanks. I remember that shooting down other fighters was much easier in 1999. I thought I just got rusty over the years. Which, of course, is the case, but 1.28 must have a part in it as well.

Kibagami, I haven't entirely followed much about 1.60 in the past year or so. What I'm saying is I don't have up to date info on my site about it, hence I didn't know the key combination for the cross-hair.
But please feel free to browse my site and ask any questions regardless, someone will be able to help.

"UAW 160 was created primarily with flying online in mind."

I reiterate, this is not true.

Unified Air War means just that, an attempt to pull all the various scenarios and aircraft into one package.

Jel and I spent a lot of time working through the various complexities in the functionality of EAW trying to devise a game that worked EQUALLY well online and off.

When you open the frontend program you will find there are some scenarios that are similar in name but with the addition of "multiplayer" in the title. The reason is, there is no time speed up in online play so some targets are moved closer to the front line to keep the flying time down.

Campaign mode is generally the red headed step child in EAW with little attention keeping it functional among all the different scenarios. Some of that is due to the emphasis on multi-player and single mission play but also because it is incredibly complex.

Honestly, we've never had the resources to fully investigate those complexities, however there are some things we do know. Campaign mode relies heavily on the original 30 plane slot system from the "out of the box" version of EAW. Things like aircraft and weapons availability, front line movement, war making resources and a bunch of other stuff are all intertwined.

What I've done to cut down on errors based on those parameters is to assure all of my plane sets included with the latest 1.6 download stick to the format for the type of plane in each of the 30 slots alotted by the exec. This is unimportant for single mission / multi-player modes but vitally important for campaign mode.

So, if the game expects to see a level bomber in a particular slot, it will see just that. Same for single engine fighters, twin engine fighters, attackers and dive bombers. I've also assigned the highest preforming plane in each set to the Me262 slot, so even if it isn't a jet, it will still be the hardest plane to engage. The aircraft also carry appropriate weapons for their mission type. (FWIW, a few of the pre-war sets aren't quite as compliant mainly because of the lack of twin engine fighters but any sets from 1940 adhere to it.)

With that said, since there are a lot of complexities in campaign mode, some of them may cause CTD's even using my plane sets. Could be something as simple as no planes with the range to reach a target. one of the things you can do is once you've risen in the ranks you can reassign the target to try to avoid this particular CTD. BEFORE you reach the appropriate rank you will just need to restart the game and hope the exec picks closed target.

Jel may chime in with more info but be assured, no matter what the conventional wisdom is, UAW 1.6 not only capable of online and offline game play but it is also the most advance and most varied of all the development lines.

Personally, I don't think any one should be bothering with any other version but YMMV.

Hi,

the difference between EAW1.28 and EAW1.28e are not that big regarding the gameplay. The differences are more important for modders, the administration of the planes got more easy and the possibilitys for the EAW world got way better, but if you be in a dogfight or on an intercept, the differences are smal.

EAW1.28e got a way better file system, to understand that you must know the drawbacks of the default file system. One major drawback was, that a Planes FM/DM couldnt get stored as single plane, but only as part of a Plane set of 30 Planes. It was a pain in the a** to create a new Plane set, with the fitting skins.
This changed with EAW1.28e, where we finaly was able to split of the Plane files. If we now talk about plane sets, we talk about a tiny "pointer file", which tells the exe where the files to be used are stored. Before we had to copy /paste hundrets of wanted files into the EAW root and we had to delete them again, if we wanted to use a other setup.

Of course, if you be happy with just the default Plane set and World, or if you have a good working EAW installation, with a tool to load/unload the wanted files (OAW for example), its fine as well.

Greetings,

Knegel

I can't add anything to the advice offered, but just wanted to say hello to Kibagami, and welcome to this forum.

Ray, my comment on 160 being built with online play was from a comment Jel made to me in a text; I haven't flown an actual mission in it, so thanks for clearing that up mate. I'm currently using 1.28e because it has the functionality I need and I can throw stuff in the root for quick tests. If my endeavors are successful, they can then be easily adapted in the 160 universe. Cheers, and thanks for keeping the Old Lady breathing!

This is not a criticism, but an example of why there are some "multiplayer" installations, which may give the false impression that UAW160 is multiplayer based.

The original SPAW was released for 1.28c with several aircraft carriers, some allied and some Japanese.
In offline play you cannot set the bases from which the friendly secondary, enemy primary and enemy secondary planes will fly from.
If you select a ground-started mission and fly it then when they are generated in the game the friendly secondary, enemy primary and enemy secondary planes will be in the air. What you can do is accelerate time and skip to the next waypoint.

In multiplayer you can select the friendly secondary, enemy primary and enemy secondary bases. If you fly a ground-started mission all players, and the AI planes will start on the ground. What you cannot do is to accelerate time or skip to the next waypoint. Because of this you cannot have a ground-started carrier vs carrier battle in SPAW. The realistic positioning of the carriers in SPAW means that even the shortest distance between an allied and a Japanese carrier is so far that players would be flying for hours until contact is made.

So by moving the carriers in SPAW to positions which are within reasonable flying time from each other I made the SPAW multiplayer theatre, which I describe as "multiplayer friendly". You can fly from USS Enterprise or HMS Victorious and intercept planes flying from the IJN Zuikaku and 166- IJN Shokaku.
The theatres released in some of the 160 "multiplayer" packages have enough bases that could be used for ground-started games to be considered "multiplayer friendly"
There are plenty of other releases with a larger number of theatres for general play

No problem Jack.

We just get tired of reiterating over and over again the misinformation about the 1.6 development line.

Another reason to use 1.6 is that most of my models won't work in anything else.

The 1.6 line added a bunch of new 3dz hard codes of which I made extensive use. They won't show up in earlier execs which means that about 700 aircraft are out of reach of those players who chose to play one of those earlier execs.

"Campaign mode is generally the red headed step child in EAW with little attention keeping it functional among all the different scenarios. Some of that is due to the emphasis on multi-player and single mission play but also because it is incredibly complex"

On what factual numbers do you base your point ????? Lol

And just to be factual : Some important campaign (AITW) are not 1.6 compatible.

So the point is that there is many flavour of EAW avalaible and that each one can choose whatever suit him best.

Lolo

PS : I personnally use 1.28c for Campaigns and some specific theaters of operation, and use UAW160 for Online Multiplayer session. That's what is best suit me.

Factually speaking, as an active member of the Code Group for the past 15 years I can assure you that very little work has be done to analyze the complexities of the campaign programming in EAW.

Two reasons:

1 - It works pretty well as is.
2 - Not enough manpower to dig into it.

That said, a long time back we discussed the possibility of improving the campaign function in EAW. As some of you might be aware, it is not really a dynamic campaign, rather it is scripted to move the front lines based on milestones a player has to pass, which also awards promotions and different aircraft. However, the outcome remains the same, the Axis powers lose. This is a simplified explanation but it will due for this discussion.

OTOH, the predecessor, PAW, had a dynamic campaign with the outcome dependent on how the player performed. If you recall, you started out sending your scout planes out in a circle looking for the enemy fleets. Once one was spotted you were ported to a briefing screen and then into the cockpit of your plane. After engaging the enemy you flew home and got a tally of you side's performance. This repeated until you either won or lost.

FWIW, even LucasArts had a dully dynamic campaign in the original SWOTL.

Anyhow, once we acquired the source code one of things we discuss was to see if EAW held the code to activate this feature. It never went anywhere because there were so many other features our brilliant amateur coders wanted to work on and it was probably above their expertise AT THAT TIME (now, with 15 years experience behind them, I'm not so sure), plus the time to build the graphics needed to support it.

There were other discussions over the years. Usually when a member wanted to add a different type of aircraft, like observation planes. The discussion always led to the same conclusion. There's no point putting planes in a game that has no functional use for them. Of course, that led to the discussion of expanding EAW to include this feature, which led back to the discussion about making EAW more like PAW, which did have observation plane functions. And that led to us admit that it would be a huge undertaking.

We've also discussed the possibility of adding active gunners to the game. Usually when someone added a flyable four engine bomber and then realized it's pretty boring game play to sit in the cockpit of a B-17 watching yourself get your a*s shot off. Again, we decided that we didn't have the resources to add such a feature, even though PAW did have it.

Same for paratroopers, cargo drops, gliders, suicide planes and probably some others I've forgotten.

Hopefully those are enough facts to support my position. lol

OK I understand your point of view.

It's based from a modder perspective.

I was discussing the interest of Campaigns from a player perspective.

From a player perspective, and depending of course what you are looking for, Campaigns are much fun, some of them totally immersive including ones which ressort on extra script.

I guess the early years effort to build numerous alternative campaigns is a testimony to how much fun it was (and still is) to play in campaign mode.

Lolo

It is possible for the Axis to win. And there are smacker files which play when that happens.

I know this because once, a few years back, I played the RAF in a Battle of Britain campaign and lost

Ooohhh, Moggy sets the intrigue afoot!

Ray, thanks for the timeline, you have it pretty much straight. One of the greatest strengths of the game is the fact that it install to a single location, and is relatively small. So you can have multiple installs, and do what YOU like, because there is so flipping much available for every version.

There is one thing you got wrong though, I did make a suicide plane, the Reichenberg V1. When I announced it, several people chastised me for making such a morbid mod, and I withdrew it. I have it on my hard drive, though, if anyone is interested.

My current endeavor is to make the cockpit hi res. We can use 512x512 bitmaps for stunning graphics, but I cannot map the gauge needles properly! The mapping is done by the vcg file. It is very simple, each gauge has a number, then two long bytes for the x and y coordinates for a needle, then two long bytes for the x and y coordinates of a sprite, if needed. The last factor is a scaling factor, not really sure what............

Wait a moment...........

I think I've just had a eureka moment.

As you were. I shall return.

Jack,

I worked on an Okha mod with Woody back in the day.

The idea was to have two cockpits superimposed on one another. A Betty cockpit and an Okha. The first would have the weapons release code normally used for underwing rockets set to "0" and the second with the code set to "1".

The player was in the Okha with the Betty model as a highly modified weapon, like a giant rocket sitting on top of it. It looked like you were in the Betty until you hit the rocket release button and then you were ported to the Okha cockpit and you saw the Betty zoom off into the distance.

Then you just head for the biggest capital ship you could find and BOOM!

It worked very well but, as with some other mods I've mentioned, the game play was obviously limited and at the time, EAW had no way to give you a positive score. As far as the game knew, you just flew a perfectly good plane into a ship.

The coder boys could probably get it done now with all the knowledge they've gains but really, what's the point?

Oh yeah, and there's a flyable V1 in the 1.6 aircraft_inventory, not for suicide runs but for bomber intercepts.





Moggy,

Learn something new every day.

Do you know what triggers the victory?

Is there a front line that moves East to West during the campaign?

Also, is there a similar ending for the '43 and 45' campaigns?