Desert Storm SP3 v0.3 BETA reports

MiGster · Post by **MiGster** » 2002-07-03 19:05:00

Finally got ODS installed. I use WinME and as others have reported the required line in the file theatre.lst was missing. Also had to rebuild terrain using SPTinstall.
Am alittle surprised I can't fly an F16 in ODS beta though....why? Just my first thoughts and comments.

MiGster · Post by **MiGster** » 2002-07-03 19:30:00

Is that correct.

In ODS I only have three (red)airfields available and there all with only russian fighters ect...Shouldn't there be airfields for both sides. Did my install not install correctly?

Widowmaker · Post by **Widowmaker** » 2002-07-03 20:17:00

in ODS there are blue and white airbases you can fly if you want to fly for the 'good' guys

and.. ehm.. but
indeed there are no F16 in ODS campaign..

Snake?

Widmak

Ender Wiggin · Post by **Ender Wiggin** » 2002-07-03 20:23:00

correction, there is one F-16 Squadron at Shaikh ISA.

Widowmaker · Post by **Widowmaker** » 2002-07-03 20:25:00

quote:Originally posted by Ender Wiggin:
correction, there is one F-16 Squadron at Shaikh ISA.

pfew....
I was almost sure I flew one before
6th squad
couldn't find it now

thnx Ender :0

Ender Wiggin · Post by **Ender Wiggin** » 2002-07-03 20:33:00

im only having the problem with no flights, all sliders to the right, but hardly any flights at all for hours. Snakeman?

PMC Youtube channel · Post by **Snake Man** » 2002-07-03 20:41:00

Resupply... I have no idea of that but sounds like you guys should use the ATTRITION feature. What you destroy - stays destroyed.

And

Desert Storm 1991 campaign uses historic squadron placement in the theater, this may not necessariy work for the best flight scheduling etc in falcon world.

Black Phoenix however uses such placing that there should be more than enough F-16CG action near the FLOT. I believe King Khalid Miliatry City has 4 squadrons of them.

PMC TFW
Snake Man

Nightmare · Post by **Nightmare** » 2002-07-04 00:20:00

ODS installed with no problems. I also have Korea 2005 installed as well as Europe. Everything workes fine except Europe. Have flown 10 mission in the ODS theater varying from F15C, F14B, F15E, F18C, and F16 with absolutely no problems at all.

Great work.

Will post if I run into any problems or see anything out of the ordinary.

ccc · Post by **ccc** » 2002-07-04 01:17:00

After intensive CAS flights..

yet i got to enable attrition feature, iraqi AF remain the same force level.

ccc · Post by **ccc** » 2002-07-04 02:55:00

few more A-10 flights, fly low, i see US armor battlion moving toward Kuwait city, engaging iraqi troops, fire everywhere.. done.

Alright, my conclusion: current ODS campaign is ok..any chance to have a campaign with more SAM/ground forces-armor, infantry, artillery on both side, say ground force level around 12000-15000 for Iraq?

btw better move su25/su17 Sq to forward AB, maybe activiate few airstrips? their range can't cover coalition targets.

and last, i learn a more realistic ODS campaign needs a fixed, accurate database.. sometimes i wonder why those tu22 and su24 didn't do horrible damage on my bases/carriers, or mi-8 travelling at 320+ kt, etc. DB issue.

PMC Youtube channel · Post by **Snake Man** » 2002-07-04 10:07:00

Other discussion about the attrition thing can be found here: http://www.pmctactical.org/f4/cgi-bin/u ... 3&t=000058

Anyways to skip the reading the line you must add to the CFG file is

set g_bRealisticAttrition 1

PMC TFW
Snake Man

Widowmaker · Post by **Widowmaker** » 2002-07-04 10:22:00

Quote"or mi-8 travelling at 320+ kt, etc. DB issue"

russian helo's are under investigation
within UT, seems metric data (km.h) has been entered for max speed without converting them to knts..
Chuck reported the same for other russian helo's

Widmak

ccc · Post by **ccc** » 2002-07-04 10:28:00

thanx SM.

Wd, no wonder i feel those mi-8 can catch my tomcat or eagle!!

BTW, i try to play ODS campaign as a wargame..just move US ground units' target circle to al kuwait depot. watch they move in 2d map, 64x... see what.. Iraqi armors are pretty good, they take out 60% of my M1 battlions!!

MiGster · Post by **MiGster** » 2002-07-04 12:22:00

Snake Man,
Under campaign ODS I only get 3 red airfields on the regional map. The screen you pick your airfield on. No blue or white airfields. No US aircraft are available except for KC-135 and one other large Tanker. Could my install of gotten cor[IMG]null. I'll try some screen shots to post???

PMC Youtube channel · Post by **Snake Man** » 2002-07-04 12:29:00

quote:Originally posted by MiGster:
Under campaign ODS I only get 3 red airfields

There is more.

quote:No blue or white airfields. No US aircraft are available except for KC-135 and one other large Tanker.

If there are no blue airbases, where do you find the tankers?

PMC TFW
Snake Man

MiGster · Post by **MiGster** » 2002-07-04 13:20:00

Snakeman,
If I could find that utility "raw to bitmap converter" I could put up some screen shots. Tried to get it from Frugal's site but won't let me DL it.

The Tankers are available from MADINAH INTL. which doesn't even show up as an airfield. However, it is listed under the "Choose Squadron" area. It lists: 8th Squadron
2nd Squadron
3rd Squadron
Under "Squadron Strength" it lists:
4 KC-10
8 KC-135
4 KC-10
respectively to Choose Squadron area. But it does not show the airfield on the map, just three red airfields, none highlighted. Hope this helps to describe the problem.

Widowmaker · Post by **Widowmaker** » 2002-07-04 14:28:00

SP3 creates BMP's directly
they are located in falcon4/pictures dir
just hit printscreen and they will show up there

Widmak

ccc · Post by **ccc** » 2002-07-04 16:01:00

cfg realistic attrition --- GREAT!

feel much better now

MiGster · Post by **MiGster** » 2002-07-04 19:28:00

F4 only takes screen shots while in game play and saves them as Bitmaps in the Pictures dir., it doesn't save them as Bitmap files when taking screen shots of the UI pages. In that area F4 saves them as tga files which need to be converted.

Widowmaker · Post by **Widowmaker** » 2002-07-04 19:36:00

ah in the UI .. missed that
yup, you can send tga's with problems
to me or Snakeman. we can handle them

dunno if you got a proggie to view them ?
perhaps that proggie can save it in another format?.. dunno

Widmak

PMC Youtube channel · Post by **Snake Man** » 2002-07-05 01:15:00

The campaign files created with Tacedit TCL scripts, seem to work really well or I'm just very lucky.

I have just successfully completed some 5 hours of 3d action view in the Black Phoenix campaign. No CTD's, not worries.

This new script made campaign uses combined "test package" of squadrons and ground units meaning it has ODS 1991 squadrons for US/Saudi/Iraq and my own stuff for Iranian side. Lot of ground units, at this time only armored brigades of M1A1's, T-72's, T-62's and infantry brigades of M-16's and AK-47's. Cannot remember if there was anything else at the moment, mostly those.

Who knows, maybe I'm just lucky but it doesn't crash on me

What do you think guys, should I make BugFix #2 with these completely script made NEW campaign files?

PMC TFW
Snake Man

ccc · Post by **ccc** » 2002-07-05 01:21:00

DEFINITELY YEEEEEEEEEEEES!

dont forget to add artillery/MRLS, more choppers, and mostly, SAM sites-- defend airbases!

ODS, better a large-scale ODS campaign. be sure to put some patriots around bases!

ccc · Post by **ccc** » 2002-07-05 04:02:00

Cann't resist to post more..

this time i focus on CAS support US spearhead near al Abdalyah, a small town west to Kuwait city.realistic attrition.

on 2D Map, two m1 battlions' moving toward this poor town, guarded by 3 T72 battlions, 1 mech infantry, and 1 infantry i think; plus 4-6 armor battlion rushing to support. other US armors are far behind so.. i hurry to find some A10 flights. no, no flights schedule to help this DANGER situation. time compress 16x.. ok, got 23rd FS.. one flight, TWO SHIPS, oops!

load CBUs/Rockeyes, full throttle to engage zone..WOW! i never saw ground battle in this scale-- 2-3 US M1 battlions are retreating! enemies everywhere, rushing to hold that town, about 6 amour, 1-2 mech infantry, and 1 infantry, and more units' moving smoke at few miles away.

fire, smoke, flame, explore, and tracers everywhere. US and Iraqi vehicles scatter, or mix up within miles around this town, since i didn't turn on label, i got to come closer to identify friend or foe. enemy kept high alert on airdefense, im well treated with SA13 and AAA firenet..

phew..very very exciting experience before down by SA13. tension is high, excitement too. sure, two US spearhead units are ELIMINATED by Iraqi armors!!! :p :p

Atze · Post by **Atze** » 2002-07-05 11:57:00

Did anyone else notice the following problem?
I flew a first few SEAD missions in the 2nd campaign and encountered some iranian aircraft (F4 and F14). In two missions I shot down 4 aircraft and destroyed 2 Fan Song B and 2 airfield radars.
But the kills were not noticed in my logbook. Even my Player rating did not increase!
I had an install of falcon with sp3 and korea before i installed ODS.

carlbr · Post by **carlbr** » 2002-07-05 21:15:00

Hi,
Sometimes if you exit a mission before RTB, you will not get credit for the kills. I don't know if this is the case, but that is what could be happening. Good luck.

RobC_F4 · Post by **RobC_F4** » 2002-07-06 16:18:00

SM

Go for it (the new script generated camp. I mean) with Bugfix #2. Have been flying the original camp. (Bugfix #1 added) without too many probs - I say again, this the most stable Theater I have at the moment and only place I "play". Don't know about all the "realism" things, will leave that to the folk that know best ...

Rob

shaunman · Post by **shaunman** » 2002-07-06 17:53:00

cool
curious to know if the jaquar will be availabe intime for ODS's release.

and if someone is working on a 3d model of a train for a railroad track in vietnam

Nightmare · Post by **Nightmare** » 2002-07-06 23:31:00

Twice now when I am flying in the second campaign when I request help from AWACS, I get a CTD.

ccc · Post by **ccc** » 2002-07-07 07:32:00

wierd, the route to al kuwaiyt depot not linked directly to neighboring installations.. you got capture al kuwayt first then got the depot.

though cleared all iraqi ground troops there, 4-6 US armor battlions wont move to take that depot!

BTW, realistic attrition bug still exists. iraq a/c got their resupply-- to 80% of original strength!! oops!

MadsFuruvald · Post by **MadsFuruvald** » 2002-07-07 17:05:00

[What do you think guys, should I make BugFix #2 with these completely script made NEW campaign files?

Definility.

Noticed that the AWAC goes up without escort, and the MIG21 shoots it down. Not sure if it's possible for the game to always generate HAVCAPS together with the AWAC (thought the game engine did that). Also sometimes when asking for vector to Tanker and I knew there is one 40nm away AWAC send me to another tanker 200nm away. And even if I go close to the closest tanker it still send me to the one far away. The steerpont was not a refuel point so I'm not sure if that causing it. I made my strike with low fuel and got the refuel on the way back home at the scedueled refuelpoint. Missions I have been flying have a average of 3.5hrs and seems stable, so far Just one CTD as reported... post is gone now tho!
M

carlbr · Post by **carlbr** » 2002-07-08 03:03:00

Hi,

I wanted to try flying the A-10 allittle bit, so I selected an A-10 sq and readjusted the sliders so that my primary targets would be ground ones, then put the time compression on 16x. After two hours of game time, no flights were generated and then I CTD. I have Bugfix 1 installed. Is there a way to upload my crashlog or a place to email it? Thanks. Later.

PMC Youtube channel · Post by **Snake Man** » 2002-07-08 05:52:00

http://www.pmctactical.org/f4/odsbeta.php

Web page updated, ODS v0.3b prev 12 bugfix #2 has been added.

Fixes: the ones with fix #1 and now the campaigns have more ground units, air defenses and they should not CTD anymore.

Test, test and test some more. please. Thank You

PMC TFW
Snake Man

Ender Wiggin · Post by **Ender Wiggin** » 2002-07-08 05:55:00

Shaikh ISA is still not straight, and its the only viper base

Atze · Post by **Atze** » 2002-07-08 19:08:00

The setup does not save changed settings for master volume.

I was flying a pre-planned CAS with an A10 loaded with Mavericks(D), CBUs, Sidewinders and a Jammer. With this ordnance I crushed some tanks near Al Abdalyah. When my ordnance was out I switched to external view and all my munition was still visible! After this mission the statistic said that I didnt fire any ordnance and didnt hit anything. Could it be that this has to do with the "*" behind the jammer in the munitions-screen (means it causes trouble)?

I had one CTD in 2d-mode after several hours of playing and using 64 time acceleration, seems the system is very stable now. Only one CTD in flight when two packages bombed two near targets in a good protected area. Before this happened frame rate went down serious.

One short tale from the "Battle of Al Abdalyah": I had it... for some hours. One single battalion including 21 Abrams moved towards the town. Then I realised 2 iraqui battalions with 18 T72 in one and 18 T80 in the other had the same task. I "abused" the 4th aircraft in a flight of F15E on a near strike mission and forced the T72 to retreat. Flying an escort mission in F16CG with AG-ordnance badly damaged the T80 column and my tanks took Al Abdalyah. But several hours later came the counter attack from Al Kuwait: 3 battalions and my Abrams had to retreat, leaving 12 of them intact. I will clean the desert a little bit before two other friendly battalions arrive from the west. And then Al Abdalyah will be mine...

ccc · Post by **ccc** » 2002-07-09 06:43:00

Just for record, DB issue.

AIM7M is totally useless... hit nothing.. no way to reproduce the glory of "wall of eagle"!

Tomcattwo · Post by **Tomcattwo** » 2002-07-09 14:13:00

Beta Test Report #1:
I just returned from vacation. Installed ODS Ver 0.3 Build 12 last night on Win98SE (see system specs in signature) on straight Falcon 4.0 SP3 install with no other theaters installed other than default Korea. I have not installed Korea2005. I do have several skins applied amd they showed up perfectly in ODS.

The install went perfectly, from start to finish, and took approximately 3 minutes (15 seconds to install files, 2:45 to do terrain install). Theaters.lst was properly updated. All went extremely smoothly. Switching to ODS and back to Korean theatre went perfectly. Only issue noted was that the joystick "zeros" (i.e. loses comms momentarily) when making the change, but is restored simply by moving the stick. Had to reset the Afterburner settings after each switch as well.

Next I built a quick "sightseeing" TE, just one F-16 to fly around in and a tanker for stay time. Overall, the TE went together easily, and worked all the way through with no crashes. A2A refueling accomplished satisfactorily (no help, all realistic settings). Tanker relative motion was a bit jerky, but it is anyway with SP3. Tanker TACAN responded properly on 126Y, and I had TACAN hits out as far as 213 miles! Gained radar contact on the tanker in LRS at 96 miles.

The terrain looked awesome. Flew TFR tests all the way down to VLC levels at 90 feet - all perfect. The only thing missing was the rooster tail from the dust! I flew about an hour and a half with no problems whatsoever. A few minor irritants were noted and I will send a seperate e-mail to SnakeMan with those.

Looks like a lot of people are already working on testing the campaign, so I will concentrate on making and testing TEs. Tonight I will load bugfix 2 and begin cranking out and testing some TEs.

Snake/Wid/RedDog et al - you guys have a winner here! Awesome job. We'll continue nailing the bugs down.

RedDog, you can contact me at tomcattwo@comcast.net and I will try to give you a hand with airbase stuff. I'd like to see us be able to get TACAN assignments for as many airbases as we can. I am really anxious to try and get TACAN and ILS support for appropriate airbases and, as a pipe dream to even look at doing new voiceover for the theatre. There is nothing worse than coming in to KKMC and hearing "Kosong Tower". Your maps are awesome, BTW. I intend to "art" them up today and see if I can get printable versions. I am certain people will want a printable version of these maps. Well done all!!!
Regards,
TC2

Tom "Tomcattwo" Stevenson
http://freebirdswing.org/
FreeBirds Virtual Fighter Wing
1.4 GHz T-Bird, MIS AT266Pro MoBoard (VIA Chipset) at 133 MHz FSB freq; 512 MB DDR SDRAM; Visiontek GEForce3 (NVidia) running 1290 series Detonator Drivers; Win98SE; DX8.0a; DVD and CDRW CDROMS; 40 GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive; 17" Flatron Monitor; HOTAS Cougar using 1.04 CCp and 1.07 Firmware; Cable Modem

Bukken · Post by **Bukken** » 2002-07-10 18:12:00

Snake,

I have noticed that flights taking off on the theatermap show up as triangles. It is not possible to "recon" them. After one minute or so they change into jets and recon is possible.

Bukken out

WraithNine · Post by **WraithNine** » 2002-07-10 22:37:00

I don't think I saw anyone mention this, but this ILS won't work. I tried tuning in by the backup panel but no results. I'm flying out of the F-16 base (can't spell it), I think it's in Bahrain.

Is there a list of the TACAN stations, or should I go into Tacedit?

Atze · Post by **Atze** » 2002-07-10 23:21:00

Well I expierienced a problem:
I flew a sortie over AHMED AL JABER and north (very near) of the airbase is a bridge over a small dry wadi. I think the bridge is false at that location.

My campaign crashes several times when a battalion of M1A1 tries to capture Ali Al Salem Airbase. I flew a BARCAP over the region and this solved the problem. The Base was heavily destroyed and only a few SA2 and ZSU's where located at it. Did anyone experience the same? I have already taken AL JAHRA and some battalions are moving towards AL KUWAIT.

Why did try everytime only one battalion of M1 to take AL JAHRA? There where at least 3 others located nearby. I needed 3 trials to take it and one time 17 Abrams and 3 Bradleys withdrew from 1 ZSU23 which stood behind a building.

I have a AMD Duron 750 MHz and a GForce 2 Ti, 40 GB hard drive and 360 MB RAM.

I have very few missions AG but very much AA although I try with the sliders in the priority screen.

Another problem: I flew with F15E's and had loaded AGM130. My MFD showed ordnance of this missille "-1" but I could fire both of them (DB isue?). These were my last experiences but I really enyoy ODS for SP3 although its only Beta. The best thing I like is the new AI. It seems is not so aggressive like in original Korea Campaign (which is now more realistic) and I can fly my first approach almost undangerous before SAMs lock on when I fly low. I can really use tactics to avoid enemy air defences ... great!

ccc · Post by **ccc** » 2002-07-11 00:04:00

yes, AI sends only ONE M1 unit toward Kuwait..it seems only ONE route to that city.
wierd, that route go north first, then SE, then back NW to Kuwait depot.
maybe set few more unit's goal to capture kuwait, and straighten the route link to depot?