What can be done to improve CFS2 and how do we do it?

[bobhegf]

This time around lets keep to the subject at hand and land some ideas.

[Rami]

I think we're doing it, are we not? Aircraft, scenery, missions, objects...

If you're referring to AI behavior, Talon and others have made tremendous progress in that regard.

There are many older campaigns and missions for the Pacific that can and should be updated, provided you go through proper channels...

[miamieagle]

I beleive there as been countless improvements already done to this Sim. Thanks to the kindness of many members who have donated their talent to our hobby. The Sim I have today is way superior to the Sim I bought in 2000.

Yes! I would like to see more improvement been done to it as time goes on but I do appreciate all the improvement been done so far.

Now here some of the improvements I would like to see been done to this Sim if possible!

I would like to bee able to shot from gun torrents on a bomber. Better Bombsights on every Bomber. I like to see the Ai Fighters to fly with their corresponding flight training for each Nation and their AC. In other words I would to see the USA planes to fly more or less with the Boom and Zoom Tatics they really used in World war two then the mostly Horizontal tatics they us through the Sim!

I would to see the Bomber hold formation up instead of spliting up when been attack by a pair of Fighter.

I would to bee able to see the Ai Fighter Attack the Bomber on head on attacks instead of always see them attack the Bomber from the stern position.

I woud to bee able to see Cities with their Building without having to place myself throught the Mission Builder.I would like them to have minimal effect on the FR.

I would like have all this city Building to bee GSL and destuctible.

I would to bee able to mimic a fire Raid like the one on Munich and Tokyo.

I would like to have more AAA guns representing all Nations and not having to use the USA or Japanese AAA guns to defend Britain or Russian Air space ect.....

I would like have a speach pack for the Autralian and Russian plus a French and Rumanian and perhaps Spanish and Chanese one as well. Yes I did said Chinese. This would the first Sim with a Chinese speack pack.

Thank you!

[mariereid]

There is NO way of every thanking you all for what you have done to improve our sim. I can barely put a mission together, but I could not even do that without all the work you guys already did. I am always amazed at what you have done, and what you continue to do.:salute::medals::ernae:

[JapLance]

One of the things I dislike most in an old game like CFS2 is to start hunting for the appropriate planes, weapons and sceneries for every warzone, sometimes to find that something was only available in a website that is gone forever.

This is why I'd love to see a common effort to create, for instance, a single MTO pack that, added to a clean installation of CFS2, could be played straight away. There has already been efforts in this direction, with the Fox Four Campaigns or the Aerocrate WWI, but they are all divided in a number of small downloads that later require of a few fixes and patches, which make it a nightmare to the newbie.

I know that this is probably just wishful thinking, because of the massive number of permissions required to be allowed to include all the necessary add-ons, but wouldn't it be great to have CFS2: the Air War in North Africa in a single (and probably massive) download?.

As I said before, just daydreaming...

[Stratobat]

Hi Guys,

How about creating a sticky listing all the must have downloads to enhance the simulator similar to the sticky currently running in the FS 2002/ FS 2004 forum listing all the best freeware aircraft?

I think that once a list has been compiled it would make creating update packages for the sim relatively simple as they could then be split up into various theatres, etc.

Regards,
Stratobat

[Jean Bomber]

"CFS2: the Air War in North Africa"
That is a task in devellopement for this year ,when There will be Afnor I II III completed + desert_scen scenery it will possible to fly from Casablanca to Alexandria with all the coastlines between these two cities and for all the rest I think about sceneries like airfields ,ports ,cities etc... to build on the desert_scen scenery ,the tools to realize them are already existing but there are few users ....fssc ,G2k ,Slarti ,EZlandclass ,Autocoast,not always the most perfect tools for some of them but using and crossing their diverse options ,some still need to be discovered , with a little bit of creativity,for new lines ,objects and textures, and also investigations It's possible to realise some historical and accuratly placed sceneries that few combat flight sims ,even the most recent , could allow to realise.
The desert area is really a place where cfs2 could give its full potential we no need to (ab)use of trees plantations http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/images/icons/icon10.gif....http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/images/icons/icon14.gif

JP

[bobhegf]

What I ment to ask is how can we fix some of the problems in CFS2.

[Jean Bomber]

What I ment to ask is how can we fix some of the problems in CFS2.

To fix the cfs2 AI and other bugs will surely be another good improvement .....for this domain I could say how to .....:kilroy:


JP

[Rami]

Japlance,

Eventually, I would indeed like to do just that for all theatres. The problem is there are so many campaigns and projects that can be converted or updated for CFS2 that it's almost impossible to make it comprehensive.

But with regards to your first point, in any particular theatre I make a determined effort to use the same "core" of aircraft, objects and scenery, so after the first installation, you'll often have many of the components needed for others. This is especially true in Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Eastern Front.

[rhumbaflappy]

Scenery and terrain are areas needing obvious improvement. Although this is a combat sim, terrain is needed for visual refpoints and for having somewhat accurate land-bombing missions.

SDC is making progress in adapting SBuilder output to CFS2 terrain BGLs... along with the mesh I've made, this opens up a new era for accurate positioning of land and water, as well as shorelines, streams and roads. Good times ahead here. :)

Dick

[Talon]

Miami

There already si a fix for the AI bombers staying in formation when attacked.It's been posted several times in the past 3 years.All you have to do is go into the mission file and put a 2 in unit family.

example.
unit_family=2
name=B25D_MITCHELL.

The 2 makes it a bomber.

There is an Australia sound pack in the works and has been for awhile.Erufle is working on it.

Talon

[dvslats]

Has anyone checked into this viewpoint?
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?28587-AI-behaviour

It's true in the fact that there is no joystick input to the Ai. Using AP would be a logical controller, though I'm sure there's many other factors involved. Including the many relations to AP settings in the air file.
I guess getting all of these related factors would be the first step in testing this. Hmmmm

Dave

[miamieagle]

Thank you Talon for your explanation!

[bobhegf]

I worked on the AI stock Zero because it was so easy to get a kill using the 1% F4F.I just got darn tired of people saying that the CFS2 AI were junk and easy kills as well.I found that when you went up against an AI stock Zero flying a stock F4F that almost everytime you pulled up into a zoom climb after a stock Zreo just as you were about to fire it would stall and you were the one taking hits not the other way around.This was true to life. We lost alot of pilots because they followed the enemy in a zoom climb and stalled out allowing the enemy to get on the F4Fs six.Joe Fose stated that he didn`t like the F4F because it was more or less limited to a high side pass and then head toward a cloud.He found out later that he could get inside a Zero at speeds above 200kts but bellow the best was to run or if no other choice turn into the enemy and attack.This is type of flying is written into the CFS2 engine. I have supped up the AI Zero so that when set on ace you are, if nothing else , going to get a real good workout.The stock Zero AI I have worked on will snaproll,spin,loop,rool,and do a few other things I have never seen them do before when set on ace.Still above 200+knts if you are set up right you can turn into them just enough to get a possible kill.I also set up the stock AI F4F the same way and let me say it is fun to watch thies AI fellows go at it, They are doing things that you only see in the movies.

[Ravenna]

"CFS2: the Air War in North Africa"
That is a task in devellopement for this year ,when There will be Afnor I II III completed + desert_scen scenery it will possible to fly from Casablanca to Alexandria with all the coastlines between these two cities and for all the rest I think about sceneries like airfields ,ports ,cities etc... to build on the desert_scen scenery ,the tools to realize them are already existing but there are few users ....fssc ,G2k ,Slarti ,EZlandclass ,Autocoast,not always the most perfect tools for some of them but using and crossing their diverse options ,some still need to be discovered , with a little bit of creativity,for new lines ,objects and textures, and also investigations It's possible to realise some historical and accuratly placed sceneries that few combat flight sims ,even the most recent , could allow to realise.
The desert area is really a place where cfs2 could give its full potential we no need to (ab)use of trees plantations http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/images/icons/icon10.gif....http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/images/icons/icon14.gif


JP

Jean,
You have already done a huge amount for North Africa. To add all the infrastructure and buildings we need to have some basic flat roofed houses and a selection of mosques etc. Over at Zeno's Warbirds there is some footage of a North African based B-24 bomber group. It is worth looking at for some marvelous footage of the coast from Alexandria to Bizerte. The towns and ports all look doable for cfs2, mostly with objects we already have.

Mike

[Jagdflieger]

Theater Specific Installations:

It is easy to make theater specific CFS 2 installs if you have enough hard drive space to store them all.

Just get your MTO, PTO, ETO, or other installation set up and running the way you want it to. This would include:

Theater specific aeroplanes, vehicles, ships, infrastructure and textures
Call signs file
Model names file
Airfield date file
Scenery and airfields
Vehicles
Buildings
Info folder

Once done, just zip it up and store it until you need it again. I keep almost all the theaters of WWI, SCW, WWII and Korea this way and when I decide to get back WW I or the Spanish Civil War, I just install the theater again from my CFS 2 library.

Posting one of these would present a few problems. Firstly, upload and download size (even when zipped up) is huge. Secondly, as you noted above, trying to get permission from all the authors, both freeware and payware would not be practical.

I have posted a Mission Builder Mega Pack that will help you make such an installation. It has theater specific files as well as other files and folders that you can mix and match to fit your installation.

[Jagdflieger]

CFS 2 Stickies:

An ongoing sticky thread of all CFS 2 updates has always been suggested and we tried it for a while. The trouble is (was) that after 10 years of CFS 2 updates and add ons, trying to manage such a thread to where it is useful and organized is just a bridge too far. Unorganized info becomes just another thread that takes up space in the sticky section. To keep the stickies fresh and pertinate, I like to keep the list down to six at any one time.

The thread we finally unstuck was so extensive and long that it was unusable. At any rate, it got lost in one of the server crashes and it's a moot point now.

A couple of members in the past have tried to maintain a data base of all the available CFS 2 aircraft and their attributes, but all have eventually given up. As I add new aeroplanes and ships to CFS 2, I try to take a screen shot of the plane or ship and save it to my screen shots folder. In the title of the shot, I record the author and the frame rates for future reference. Depending on how you save the shot (I now use 640 pixels at 70%), they don't take up too much room and if a question or comment comes up about that specific plane, ship or vehicle, you can post your shot and make a few comments or suggestions regarding its use or quality.

Getting back to the sticky suggestion, my suggestion is to just maintain a "tips" folder in your CFS 2 folder with the info that is important to you. As new info becomes available, just add to it. Then when someone posts a question, you can look it up and usually answer it correctly (give original author credit) and make a valuable contribution for the good of the order. I think this keeps the forum alive and well with lots of discourse over our favorite hobby.

[bobhegf]

Has anyone thought of a way to get carrier aircraft to land on a carrier?

[Talon]

Has anyone thought of a way to get carrier aircraft to land on a carrier?

Sounds like a good project for you to work on Bob.:icon_lol:


Talon

[bobhegf]

Talon I have the answer. I have posted the answer over and over again but no one seems interested enough to give me some help.I need some that can do omdles of aircraft or do ships.

[aceman0x]

im working to update the cfs2 using some files of the cfs3 to update de cfs1 figters and also the ai models and i will rebuilt the cfs1 missions right now im doing it for the cfs2 in spanish but laiter i will do it fo the game in english

:salute:

[Jagdflieger]

Good to see you again Acemax. Keep us posted on your progress.

Es bueno verle otra vez Acemax. Diganos sobre su progresson cuando puedes.

[aceman0x]

yea thats true well right now i have all redy a copule of psd files to make skins for p-51d and 109g this last one in special have multiple ver becaus due the cfs1 is in corect at the campain missions i am upgrating the 109g to make 109F4R1, 109G2 109G2-R6 109G6-R6 also i will modifi the 190 to make the A4 and A8 models with the respective loads
among my plans are
109e-1 rebuilt it to be 109e4/b
improve the flight models of all figters and smal bombers
110c
tempest
p38
ju87
mosquito
rebuilt the missions with new bases (well not exactly new)
upgade the hevy bomber (this ones are not for fly)
and may be and only may be change the efects for emule the il2