CS Weapons Addon

[strikehawk]

I've read the posts regarding this item but they were made shortly after it came out. I have a couple of questions about this pack,

1, Now that the dust has settled so to speak what are your impressions now? Is there "replay" value months later or is it just taking up HD space and your virtual Ordnancemen now looking for work?

2, Can it work on ground and water vehicles like someone asked? Adding it to the Humvee and the like or to a Tin Can has possibilities.

And 3, Can you add more weapons via the SDK as the product info stated or did I missread that bit?

I ask these questions because Capt Sim does not have a good rep for support and I am loathe to part with money for a good idea/bad product. I don't want to make FSX into a combat sim but sometimes you just need to do an interdiction or protect your VA's territory by force.

[HvyEng]

Howdy,<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Question 1) In its basic default setup, it is pretty much a "wash rinse repeat" setup. The auto-install simply adds a 2D hud and weapons panel to whatever you want. In this format, it has limited replay value. However, if you take the time to add additional weapons (Question 3 answer), synchronize the launch points and aim them using the specific VC viewpoints (if included with aircraft, not from CS), then it has a very high replay ability. I haven't been bored with it yet, but I have manually added weps to everything from the S8 F-86 to the CS C-130. It gives new life to the Alphasim F-4 and Iris F-15 freeware while we eagerly await FSX native models, makes sub hunting possible via AI traffic and the Aerosoft PBY or AS PBM, and allows the X-15 to launch from the CS B-52. I created a Vietnam “Timescape” and use Tim Conrad’s Skyraider and the AS Thud regularly. It really is only limited by your own creativity as long as you don't mind getting your fingers dirty with some mod work. In addition, yes, you can arm the venerable Cub with a phoenix and eliminate the annoying AI clogging up the pattern if you want. FYI, the unguided bombs don’t “officially” work, but there are mods to use a rocket rail sans motor to act as a bomb, and both the Iris A-10 and F-16D have a CCIP pip that works great with a little practice.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Question 2) As long as it is AI traffic via a flight plan it can be "blowed up". This mean auto traffic isn't destroyable unless it has a traffic BGL. Static ships won't play either. However, anything generated via a traffic file or AICarrier2 is open game. CS included some AI traffic to hunt, and I have added some using AI Flight planner 2, but they won't "dogfight" with you. I have not been successful in programming air traffic to do anything but go directly between points a and b, if I ever figure out how to make it follow a random aerobatic-like path to follow, you guys will be the first to know.

--Dan<o:p></o:p>

[strikehawk]

Thanks for the reply, the info for the file is what I had hoped for. However, I think I was not clear on question 2, what I meant was could the guns or say the HARM be installed on a ground or water based vehicle? Bruce Fitzgerald's Humvee mounts an M2 and the M60 effect would be close enough, the HUD and armament panel would simulate the CROWS installation fairly well. If someone could get Piglet's LRDG Chevy to work in FSX the 60 could act as the Lewis gun. As for the HARM, unless there is a smaller missile, not the Hydra/Zuni/FFAR's, but a closer substitute, you could replicate a TOW, Milan or HOT AT round.

Waterborne installs would be missile only unless the SDK would allow large caliber slow rate of fire guns. The only boat the I know that would benefit from the guns would be, once again, Piglet's PBR. And that would only be if someone could get it to work in FSX.

Like I said before, I don't want to make FSX a combat sim, but this item opens up a lot of possibilities for aircraft,ground and ship systems. Also missions would have a level of tension not seen until now, for example, in a CSAR scenario while the helo picks up a pilot, a player in a SPAD or Bronco could put fire onto a target. You would not see the result in MP but it would give support pilots a sense of doing something instead of making dry passes.

Anyway something to think about and something for the guru's to contemplate.

[HvyEng]

You can install the weapons on anything you can pilot/drive/sail. Unfortunately, there is no turret capability, weapon angles and firing position is fixed to the vehicle and can only be changed via XML editing. This means you have to change the vehicle position to move aim point, which leaves turrets and gimbal mounted weapons locked to a single position. The firing rate and shell physics are set in the XML file, you can mod it however you like. I built up a 105 setup for the C-130 at about 8 rounds-per-minute. As long as you don't mind the math involved with radians and milliseconds it is easy. As you mentioned about CS support, they are interminably slow with updates and patches; there are a few bugs and many user inputs that have been "on the fix list" for a while, but there is no indication if CS will update the weapons package or not.

--Dan

[fxsttcb]

You can install the weapons on anything you can pilot/drive/sail. Unfortunately, there is no turret capability, weapon angles and firing position is fixed to the vehicle and can only be changed via XML editing.--DanThanks for the clarification on that, Dan. I have also been looking at CS Weapons along with waiting for the VRS TacPack to be released and critiqued.

Not having it, I can't peruse the code or test ideas. A question I have, with the angles, position, etc. being set via xml, is that code being read "real time", or is it fixed upon FSX loading and/or when that plane is loaded?

I ask because, if it is read "real time"(like a gauge is), local variables(L:Var) could possibly be introduced through an additional Turret Rotation / Elevation Angle gauge, and read by the "Weapons" xml and used via an update or other element. I would imagine that the math and code would be similar to the fixed position xml calcs.

I am not a CS support fan either. They really need to communicate with us users more, a lot more...Don

[HvyEng]

Each aircraft has an individual XML file that contains all weapon information, and as per both personal experience and CS SDK warning, if the XML file is tinkered with at all with the selected aircraft loaded, FSX will CTD rather unceremoniously. The mode settings and keystrokes are listed in the same file, but I don't know if it is cached or read continously. My trick has been to work on two aircraft at once: mod, view results, select other aircraft and then tweak the first one while viewing the second, swap and tweak the second while viewing the results of the first. The SDK gives a list of available Lvars for VC/gauge creators, but they all are solely for weapons/hud mode selection and not release point modification. In theory, a developer could build a VC with custom coded switches and natively use the CS weapons. I too am eagerly awaiting the VRS TACPAC, when it is released, I will compare the two. Iris and RAZBAM both have deployable weapons using different methods, I found that it is possible to combine CS and Iris / RAZBAM capabilities for a better-rounded setup, but it takes a lot of work. I'm one of those strange engineering types that spends more time tinkering than flying, but enjoy it just the same. I can definitely understand that for many folks that is too much work for payoff for payware products.

--Dan

[fxsttcb]

Thanks for the insight Dan. I'll probably buy it, but, with the Carenado 337, and SimSaavy occupying the top of my wishlist it may be a while!...Don

BTW: I test like you do, one running, another in the mod shop!

[Navy Chief]

Am hoping the VRS TacPac will be released THIS year. They've certainly made some bucks, collecting money from customers like me who paid for pre-release, but thought it would have been released many weeks ago.....

NC