Getting confused on airbase.dat file

[Fibber]

:help:Getting a little confused\perplexed here. I am installing Achims airfields into my Airbase.dat file to make one DAT file for them all. I seem to be coming across several fields with the same ID number. :faint:
It was my understanding that several fields could not have the same ID #. Am I wrong on this ? If not, what is the best course of action now?

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Howdy:

You'll have to change the ID numbers yourself as you paste in the airbase data, one up from the last ID number on your list. That is if your last was 7888 the next will be 7889, 7890 etc. Forget what numbers Achim put in, you'll have to use your own and in sequence.

[Oglivie]

I think you may have to be careful renumbering the IDs, because Missions use the ID numbers to locate an airfield. So if there is a particular field that is needed by a mission, it may not show up if it has a different ID number than is in the mission file. But I could wrong.

[Jagdflieger]

Great new bases Achim!

For those of you wanting to keep the remaining 2TAF airfields active, you can leave them on, but you'll need to delete or deactivate the following fields so as not to have Achim's airfields occupying the same general area at eh 2TAF or the original CFS 2 airstrips.

Deactivate:

Abbeville, Athis, Azeville, Boissy-le-Bois, Caen, Calais, Cherbourg, Denain, Etaples, Guines, Guyancourt, Juvincourt, Laon-Courvron, LeHavre

Attached is my updated airfield.dat file that includes the latest airfields from Achim and updates the original 2TAF locations for the new replacement airfields at the locations noted above.

[Fibber]

Shadow;
the problem with that is what Oglivie stated. Any missions that you use won't work because the ID's are wrong from what the designer used. The problem I have is now what is TAF or original.
A question on that is that I see some are marked with a * next to the name. Does that deliniate a CFS1 original field?
I also noticed that one of the Albanian fields is using the same ID as I believe a BENL field. Which one remains and is that just a typo? The fields I see so far with dups are 8028/9019/9002/9068.
Finding this by putting all fields in numerical order by ID. Bored ,with the snow still coming outside and cooooooooold!

[Devildog73]

Which brings us to this:
How about we agree to have airbase.dats that are commonly accepted.
I know that Rami and I, even though we are working with Achim's fields ended up with different numbers for the same fields. This really gets things knotted up when we are passing missions back and forth.

Resolution was to use one airbase.dat in common. Since Rami was also testing the bases for Achim, I deferred to his for the Med. When we uploaded the first sets of missions on the Tuskegee Airmen, we also uploaded the airbase.dat for the MTO.

Now, when we get them all finalized and ready to upload the complete, reworked sets, there will be one airbase.dat that contains all of Achim's wonderfully done airbases, all in the same order, all with the same numbers.

I know that this is somewhat self-serving, but I recommend that we all adopt Rami's and my MTO airbase.dat as the initial standard for one very big reason: Rami has been modding all of the early MTO campaigns and adding to them, so his MTO airbase.dat is probably the most complete and common to several missions that we are going to be flying. I also suggest this for the Ost Front and Western European theater.

Now, this brings us to the Pacific. Just for grins and giggles, I suggest we use Jagd's PTO airbase.dat, 'cause I know his is pretty complete. That way, as we build PTO missions, we will already have everything in proper order.

Suggestions? Conversations on this?

[Fibber]

DD;
I agree, but I had been under the impression that there had already been a agreement amongst the designers to use a already agreed upon base number system.
I am not a designer but I believe a bit of catagorizing would work good on any revamping especially if the original bases would/are to be revamped. This would be like 8000's =UK, 8100=Scandinavia, 8200'-s=Western Europe (France, Germany); etc. I believe this would allow sufficent numbers for any add-on bases within a geographical area and be easier for adding bases without confusion or conflicts.m

[Jagdflieger]

Given the huge number of downloads for the most popular campaigns, I think that the best way to ensure that everyone is using the same airfield.dat file for each campaign is for the author to upload the aifield.dat file he used to make the campaign as part of the campaign upload. That way everyone will be on the same sheet of music so to say. They are easily swapped out as needed.

I have included airfield.dat files for each theater in my mega mission builder pack. They are organized and indexed in a reasonable manner (by country) and they included just about all the bases available for those theaters when made. The ETO file I attached above is updated to included Achim's latest airfields for the ETO and also updates the previous locations for the 2TAF airfields that were changed due to this latest version of his French airfields. The work is done if you want to use them.

Here is the index for the above ETO file:

; 2TAF 0 - 62
; Poland 63 - 82
; Denmark 83 - 89
; UK 91 - 108
; Eurotargets 109 - 139
; France 140 - 154 by Achim with updates to 2TAF aerodromes
; Norway 155 - 169

By keeping the addon airbase packages within their own number ranges, it is easy to add on the next set of airfields when posted. Organizing by theater keeps the file size down, although the PTO with Xavier's airfields is over 400 and that's without Maskrider's airfields which are on a separate airfield.dat if you are using my support pack. The big issue here is with the small number of add ons from authors like Jaxon and DAVMAG. They can easily get lost or forgotten in the mix, yet they are still very useful facilities. Another issue for the ETO is that for some reason, we have very few airbases for Germany proper.

I'm afraid that in the end, any standardized airfield file will be a short lived creature given the decentralized nature of the hobby and the numerous and various airfield addons out there. On the other hand, I keep updating my files and make them available as new airfields appear so there is probably no need to keep reinventing the wheel.

[kdriver]

I believe there should be no duplications in the ETO, MTO, EF and SCW airbase.dat files. There would never be any conflicts whether you have multiple installations or a single installation with every European and North African aerodrome included.

I have a system like Fibber and Jagdflieger are suggesting - grouping the airfields in geographical areas. As well as Achim's airfields, I have ones by Ian Elliott, Cees Donker, Xavier Berdaguer, Steve McClelland and others. There are over a thousand airbases.

In each geographical category I have plenty of spare entries with "xxxx" for the airfield id. I can then just paste any new airfields into the relevant area.

I hope a definitive airbase.dat file can be agreed on soon.

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Good idea Devildog. I never had a problem beecause all but one of the missions I built are launched from carriers or from the water, offshore from a stock base. The one exception launches from stock Henderson which coincides with Maskrider's Henderson within a few feet.

[Fibber]

I think tha Jadg just hit on the crux of the problem "Organizing by theater keeps the file size down". I construe that this means Area of Operation ie; Scandinavia, EMed, Westmed etc. That is where some of the confusion may arise.
I was trying to place ALL of Achims in one .DAT for use by theater (ETO). This would be so that I had a ETO, PTO, Korea AoO. This would be a general THEATER of operations and not a specific Area of Operations. If it is by area, then yes, I can see the same numbers being re-used with no conflict as (in theory) a base in France would not be active in scenerydb if you are flying in, say, the Balkans.
I hope I am not confusing the issue but I do believe that a catagory of areas with upgrade capability built in would really be beneficial and avoid abse conflicts.
I will now go back to my seat and shut-up. :ernae::wavey: Beam me up Scotty!:rapture:

(sorry about bad form of starting each paragraph in first person singular)

[Shadow Wolf 07]

I agree Fibber, then when a author adds new bases to an area, instead of leaving the user to decide what numbers to assign, the author could then add the id and runway numbers and even include a copy of his airbases dat card. This would aid those who have not installed previous bases - behind the curve in installation, so to speak - to keep current for that AO.

Whoever wants to tackle that titanic job would certainly be thanked by all.

[Rami]

Which brings us to this:
How about we agree to have airbase.dats that are commonly accepted.
I know that Rami and I, even though we are working with Achim's fields ended up with different numbers for the same fields. This really gets things knotted up when we are passing missions back and forth.

Resolution was to use one airbase.dat in common. Since Rami was also testing the bases for Achim, I deferred to his for the Med. When we uploaded the first sets of missions on the Tuskegee Airmen, we also uploaded the airbase.dat for the MTO.

Now, when we get them all finalized and ready to upload the complete, reworked sets, there will be one airbase.dat that contains all of Achim's wonderfully done airbases, all in the same order, all with the same numbers.

I know that this is somewhat self-serving, but I recommend that we all adopt Rami's and my MTO airbase.dat as the initial standard for one very big reason: Rami has been modding all of the early MTO campaigns and adding to them, so his MTO airbase.dat is probably the most complete and common to several missions that we are going to be flying. I also suggest this for the Ost Front and Western European theater.

Now, this brings us to the Pacific. Just for grins and giggles, I suggest we use Jagd's PTO airbase.dat, 'cause I know his is pretty complete. That way, as we build PTO missions, we will already have everything in proper order.

Suggestions? Conversations on this?

All of my reworks for ANY theatre that I have done thus far...Eastern Front, Mediterranean, or Europe, will also follow one theatre-based airbase.dat file. I dub this the "Master" airbase.dat file, and include it in all of my campaigns. (at least the ones on my site)

That way, all campaigns and missions in that theatre will work with that one airbase.dat file.

I wouldn't use a single airbase.dat file, it's too problematic. I like my sims theatre-specific.

[bearcat241]

This "universality" would be useless to a old hand like myself who also still uses a wide assortment of "uncommon" scenery by little known or remembered authors from the 2000-2003 period, before Maskrider and his protégés began to blow up. With all the newer, and many seasoned guys, upgrading everything in their libraries, maybe i'm the exception. I already have an extensively numbered arrangement that would have to be tossed or completely revamped.

Even though a lot of the old stuff isn't GSL-based, i keep it in play for the sake of familiarity and my nostalgic inclinations. I'm speaking mainly with regard to the Pacific theater, where a number of my really old missions and camps are based on their locations. Nobody's even begun the massive updates needed in these missions. Just considering the PTO only, Rolf, McClelland, Maskrider, DCG gang and Xavier all have conflicts in locations and flattens. And many older and some newer missions are based on their works, so an old PTO user is constantly juggling between active and inactive sceneries to play one campaign or another. I wonder how many others share my predicament? And no, before you mention it, i don't have the time or inclination to update all these old missions...yet :d

[Fibber]

Not to beat a horse to death here, but I notice that Achim has a airbase.dat file named airbasesUk.(example only!!!!) Is it possible to put the different theaters in their own airbase.dat file in the Info folder at the same time so that the different theaters could call on them as you load them in the Scenerydb? Or is it that I am starting to become lost in the wilderness with the proliferation?
What I am trying to say is if I load, say France, do I have to also change the specific airbase.dat for that theater or what I want? I am now really getting lost ( and it ain't because of age!) in this airbase.dat entries. Maybe a tutorial would be good on this subject

[Fibber]

Rami;
Reading over your post I love your work, but here is where I think we are getting to the crux of the problem. No one in their read me' s delineates what Area of Operations a specific theater should go to. What you call ( for arguements sake) Africa , I may call Mediterrean. The Airbase.dat, I believe, should be annunciated in the Read me's as a suggested Area of Ops for the particular download.

Does this make any sense to you!??? :wiggle::ernae:

[Rami]

Fibber,

His UK airbase.dat simply covers all the bases in the UK. They are to be added to your airbase.dat, replacing or adding to what you already have. Here is my ETO airbase.dat as an example.

You can just copy it into your airbase.dat for Europe, if you'd like.

[Rami]

Fibber,

That is what I do. I provide a "Master airbase.dat" like the one above for a specific theatre that covers all of the bases in that theatre.

For example, my Eastern Front covers Poland, Romania, Russia, and Finland.

My Mediterranean covers the French Riviera, Corsica, Sardinia, Yugoslavia, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, Libya, Palestine, Syria, Spanish Morocco, Malta, Pantelleria, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, the Balearic Islands, and Egypt.

My ETO airbase.dat covers Norway, Iceland, the Shetland and Orkney Islands, Scotland, England, France, (except the Riviera) Austria, and Germany.

[Fibber]

Rami;
Thank you!!!!!!!!!! That is the delineations that I was looking for!
This is the dangerous part, that does include TAF and Achim?

[Rami]

Fibber,

No 2TAF, just Achim.

[miamieagle]

Tips on how to add landing points in CFS2 all over the World. You will still need to install the Airfields corresponding sceneries form the Airfield designer for the Hangars and othe Infrstructure to show up.

I have in one of my install over 600 Airbases entries with XP. What you can do is to add on your backup external Hardrive three or four or perhaps more folders with Airbabes collection inside it from different Areas of the World for your different Installs. Write the name of the area you are covering on the folder. For example Airbases for Western Europe on the Folder that has the Airbases covering that Area with in it.You can repeat this process over and over again. Just copy it from the Folder that has the Airbases that you want to fly from for that day and paste it inside the Info folder in the install that you want to use. Thats it.

You can use this method as many time as you like!

I hope you like this information! :wavey:

[bobhegf]

Fellows Have you noticed that using the stock airbase data entery and putting it in the center of the field the way CFS2 does it causes the planes to takeoff in one direction and land in an other direction? It also causes them to have a longer runout then is needed before they stop rolling.There is a fix for that and it is easy to do.I have posted the fix about four times in the past but got no responce from anyone on weather or not they used it or if they did use it to say if they liked it.Here is the fix that corrects all of thies problems.