Must haves for a Battle of Britain install?

[Cees Donker]

I'm a bit rusty when it comes to CFS2, so I thought I'd ask you guys. What are the must have addons to turn CFS2 into a Battle of Britain sim?

Cees

[Rami]

Cess,

It's good to see a veteran back among the ranks! Let's start you with base scenery. All four of Sander's scenery packages are now at SOH. So let's begin by downloading and installing these.

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...45&linkid=2697
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...45&linkid=2696
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...45&linkid=2695
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...45&linkid=2694

A link to my install guide is included on each page.

When you get to installing some of Achim's bases, here is an updated word document that contains working hyperlinks to the objects you'll need.

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...6&d=1281490489

And, instead of using the auto-installer for the BoB airfields, here is a manual version that is far less problematic.

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...45&linkid=2668

While you're doing that, I'll look over my BoB-era reworks and campaigns to see what changes are needed.

[Cees Donker]

Thanks Rami! Good to be back.

Cees

[mariereid]

You're in good hands, Cees!

[Rami]

Cess,

If you run into any problems with the .zip files in the LOD 8 mesh by Rhumbaflappy, have a look at this thread. It should clear things up for you...

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...ad.php?t=43692

[Rami]

Cess Donker,

I went through both of these readmes and eliminated all of the "dead links." (I think...)

The first package is an amalgam of several previous packages, including RussBoB, August 1940, Talon's Battle of Britain conversion from CFS1, Kenley Squadron, and my conversion of the German CFS1 campaign.

I haven't found enough time to do Part II just yet...

With regards to the second attachment, it may not be what you have in mind with respect to the "conventional image" of BoB, but I think it's a cool new twist.

Here's the history behind it...http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/falco_bob.htm

[Cees Donker]

Can I remove the American and Japanese planes safely?

Cees

[Jagdflieger]

Cees,

The A6M2_Zero, the P38F_Lightning, the F4F-4_Wildcat the F6F-3_Hellcat or the N1K2J_GEORGE are most commonly used as sound alias planes. You can still deactivate them, but you'll need their stock folder name as well as their sound file for any downloaded plane that aliases to them. Of course you can delete them and re-alias as needed.

If you do delete them, be sure to remove them from your Info > descrip.dat file.

Example from the descrip.dat file. Remove each stock MS plane that you delet:

# N1K2J_George
Japanese fighter aircraft (CFS2 object). When selected from the Aircraft list, you can add waypoints to make this plane fly from waypoint to waypoint. When selected from the Infrastructure list, this plane is just scenery and won't move, but can be damaged and destroyed. For detailed information on this aircraft, see the CFS2 Pilot's Handbook or Help.


The best way to keep them in the sim, but not have them count against your total aircraft total is to place an "X" in front of the [fltsim.0] in the aircraft.cfg file by doing the following:

X[fltsim.0] <<-- X in front to remove the plane from the menu and total AC count
title=A6M2 Zero 204 Kokutai-Rabaul-42
sim=A6M2_Zero
model=
panel=
sound=
texture=
KB_checklists=a6m2_zero_check

You should be able to remove any plane that aliases its sound to the Zero, Wildcat, Hellcat or P-38 without any trouble, just remove them from you descrip.dat file

[Cees Donker]

Thanks Jagd! Got plenty to do with Rami's list and description!

Cees

[Cees Donker]

I didn't realize this is so much work! But I'm having a great time tweaking, puzzling. Lots of good looking planes these days! Can I do something about the lack of trees and houses?



Cees

[Rami]

Cees,

I can take the layouts I made and give you some ports to view if you wish...

[Cees Donker]

Cees,

I can take the layouts I made and give you some ports to view if you wish...

Layouts? Ports? Drew you're talking a language I dont master yet! I'm interested though!

Cees

[Cees Donker]

Cees,

The A6M2_Zero, the P38F_Lightning, the F4F-4_Wildcat the F6F-3_Hellcat or the N1K2J_GEORGE are most commonly used as sound alias planes. You can still deactivate them, but you'll need their stock folder name as well as their sound file for any downloaded plane that aliases to them. Of course you can delete them and re-alias as needed.

If you do delete them, be sure to remove them from your Info > descrip.dat file.

Example from the descrip.dat file. Remove each stock MS plane that you delet:

# N1K2J_George
Japanese fighter aircraft (CFS2 object). When selected from the Aircraft list, you can add waypoints to make this plane fly from waypoint to waypoint. When selected from the Infrastructure list, this plane is just scenery and won't move, but can be damaged and destroyed. For detailed information on this aircraft, see the CFS2 Pilot's Handbook or Help.


The best way to keep them in the sim, but not have them count against your total aircraft total is to place an "X" in front of the [fltsim.0] in the aircraft.cfg file by doing the following:

X[fltsim.0] <<-- X in front to remove the plane from the menu and total AC count
title=A6M2 Zero 204 Kokutai-Rabaul-42
sim=A6M2_Zero
model=
panel=
sound=
texture=
KB_checklists=a6m2_zero_check

You should be able to remove any plane that aliases its sound to the Zero, Wildcat, Hellcat or P-38 without any trouble, just remove them from you descrip.dat file

Jagd,

The descript.dat is apparently not the only list I have to change. The sim reports all the missing planes I added an X too, and I have them removed from the descript.dat



Cees

[JapLance]

Jagd,

The descript.dat is apparently not the only list I have to change. The sim reports all the missing planes I added an X too, and I have them removed from the descript.dat



Cees

mdlnames.txt is another file where you have to delete them when you want to remove the original planes.

These two tips come from the old forum:

You can delete the stock planes Nearmiss

You need to edit the MDLNames.txt file in the main folder and remove the aircraft entry from there as well as edit the descript.dat file in the Info folder and remove references from the aircraft also.

As stated earlier the qc_plane.qcb file in the Quickcom folder also has to be edited to remove all references to the aircraft - remembering to make sure the remaining all stay in numerical sequence.

I've removed all default Aircraft for my ETO install and it's quite happy and error free if you do the above.
Of course as earlier mentioned, removing default aircraft means the default missions and campaigns wont work so you can remove those if you dont plan on flying them.

To remove the original airfields:

You can easily remove the stock PTO airfields from your other installs. Simply remove these files:

allrunways.bgl and runways.bgl found in SCENEDB\runways\scenery and the file cfs2afd.bgl found in SCENEDB\adffiles\scenery.

With these files removed the stock PTO runways will no longer show up on the Free Flight and Quick Combat lists nor will they physically be there if you fly over that spot on the map. The infrastructure (tents, palm trees, etc.) will still be there as that is part of the GSL. But you can remove that too if it is an issue.

To remove them from the Mission Builder list you need to remove their entries in the airbases.dat file found in the INFO folder.

By the way, removing the allrunways and runways files does not impact the Mission Builder and you can still add and use the infrastructure runways if you need to.

[Cees Donker]

Thank you!



Cees