OK. Thinking of Taking the Mod Plunge. Recommendations?

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by ACE-OF-ACES

Oh it is true!

Any stock 411.1 server can be joined with the HSFX 6.0 mod enabled..

The only time you can NOT join a stock 411.1 game is when you have the EXPERT mode also enabled, and/or if the server enables the crt=2.

That is the neat thing about HSFX sticking close to the official TD/1C updates

Where as UP decided to go their own way making their own version of the game..

A true fork in the road..

That is to say with each official TD/1C update UP gets further and further away from the stock version of the game..

So it is inaccurate to say that HSFX is over there by its lonesome self..

Because HSFX is on the same side of the fence as the official TD/1C version of the game..

Which IMHO is good company! S!

I tested this out tonight and it is true. 99th_QBall has a thing we do that is a lot of fun with a full switch DF and he uses stock 4.11.1. He uses the stock plane set and I joined tonight with 6.0 with no problem so I got my tiger sounds, my waving flags, and my no map frame and all the stock goodness. Expert mode? No joy. Tomorrow we will check with CRT 2 just to know. I had a ball ....

[ACE-OF-ACES]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

I tested this out tonight and it is true.

Was there ever any doubt?

And know that it is by no accident!

It was by intentional design that the HSFX guys made their mod pack compatible with the current stock version of the game!

Which was no small effort!

It took a lot of work and testing on HFSX's part to do this!

PS As noted in the readme, HSFX's expert mode mod is it's own version of the game, and thus not compatible with the current stock version of the game. That is to say you will only be able to join HSFX 6.0 Expert Mode servers when you enable Expert Mode mod. Which I highly recommend you try sometime! The new HSFX FMs are 2nd to none! They are done by an actual aerospace engineer who is currently working as an aerospace engineer for a large airplane company in Europe.

[fruitbat]

At the moment there is a small bug joining a few maps with HSFX in standard mode and 4.11, of the top of my head, Ardenne, Balaton and Stalingrad.

This has been addressed in the upcoming bugfix patch, and i have checked and it now works fine.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by ACE-OF-ACES

Was there ever any doubt?

And know that it is by no accident!

It was by intentional design that the HSFX guys made their mod pack compatible with the current stock version of the game!

Which was no small effort!

It took a lot of work and testing on HFSX's part to do this!

PS As noted in the readme, HSFX's expert mode mod is it's own version of the game, and thus not compatible with the current stock version of the game. That is to say you will only be able to join HSFX 6.0 Expert Mode servers when you enable Expert Mode mod. Which I highly recommend you try sometime! The new HSFX FMs are 2nd to none! They are done by an actual aerospace engineer who is currently working as an aerospace engineer for a large airplane company in Europe.

Yeah I have been using EM since it came out.. It is pretty nice.

[Treetop64]

What exactly is "Expert Mode"? What does it do, and what is expert about it? How does it differ from HSFX standard mode, and from the stock game itself?

Thanks.

[Asheshouse]

Expert Mode - First introduced in HSFX5. This is from the HSFX5 Readme

  EXPERT mode

  
  Highly recommended that you try this.
  
  Developed for SEOW but the same changes should be universally applicable.
   
  This Switcher Option activates Aachens  FULL FM's. (see full explanation below)
   
  Custom ini's (see below, Ground and Ships) reduce load and we believe, make the ground and naval war more realistic. Tanks, Guns & Infantry perform more  efficiently and historically in relation to each other. Outcomes of Naval battles are more as you might expect them to be, naval AAA uses effective rather than maximum ranges.
  Ranges are usually less and reload times longer, so you can have more objects in missions or you can turn up the RoF settings.
   
  The blast radius of larger Kilo bombs are equalized out so that IJN and Soviet bombs display similar blast characteristics to LW ordinance. (Not sure why they should have been so radically different, the power is similar, but the blast radius were radically different for the same amount of explosives.
   
  Because this is its own unique net version we were able to enable a few extra opening Canopies for this option as the incompatibility that creates the smoke bug should not arise.
   
  This is NOT compatible online with the Stock Game (you will not be able to join), it effectively turns HSFX into its own Net version. You will not be able to join Stock games with it, and stock games will not be able to join you. Host and Client both have to be running this Option with its own HSFXv5.0 net version to use this compatibly Online.
   
  This Option allows us to explore a lot of new options without compromising the stock game, Oleg's FM's or the online community.
   
  ( note : If you drag the buttons or other files from this into your stock game version piecemeal because you like a specific FM etc, you will get a no boot. 
  This is deliberate.  )

  Aachens Flight Models

  

  A little Background:-

  

  Aachen is a professional Aircraft design engineer,  we were not sure if we wanted to go in this direction at first, but were so impressed by how much closer to what we have read flying some of these aircraft and fighting in them has come, that it was inconceivable to go back.

  

  We hope that you share the views of the many 'test-pilots'.  You retain a choice still anyhow. Using the full work is strictly optional.

  

  Note:- 

  In Stock Configuration Oleg's Flyables are all Stock (by Oleg or TD) although all new aircraft * that Aachen has worked on have his FM's also.

  

  In 'Expert Mode' All of the aircraft below use Aachens FM's. 

  We have altered the Netcode and the encryption for this mode, so that players cannot use the modified ‘Stock’ FM’s on stock servers.

  

  Those that play online require very reasonably that everybody is playing with the same. 

  Expert mode is to protect this desire.

[zoomar]

I've been modding with the HSFX series as well, and 6.0 works fine for me. I also am primarily an offline player and HFXS seems to work just fine for offline play. No knock on the other modpacks, but HSFX also is a very easy install. I am by no means comfortable messing with the innards of programs and I've heard the others require a little more effort and...courage. Just make sure you make clean backups of your stock 4.11.1 in case something messes up. You can also use the backups to try out the SAS packs and DBW, which I believe are a bit more complete than HSFX. I will probably do that sometime myself.

[MOH_Hirth]

I strong recommend the DBW super-pack, is the biggest, fantastic and complete colection, here the torrent, torrent is the best way to download big files and dont have problems with corrupted files:

http://koti.mbnet.fi/raukorpi/DBW_SuperPack.torrent

is very simple to install: IL-2 1946 4.07 > to latest DBW171

http://www.sas1946.com/main/index.ph...c,21514.0.html

I am in mod since 2004 and believe me, this is the best mod packs in all times.

[fly_zo]

... learn mod structure , edit via gimp or PShop and you can have game exactly as you like it .

Even with mod packs you can revert "default" mods simply by reverse modding process ( place original "vanilla"/customized files in MODS or #SAS# or UP folder ... respecting game files order)


Get "sfs_extractor_v2.0_beta_11" ... extract all sfs files (found in main vanilla game root folder) anywhere on your hdd ... and you'll have most of the default files editable with respected file structure. Also for tga's - get TGA converter so you can edit them in PS/Gimp.

None of graphic editing is crt2 sensitive ( only hashed files are ...those which look like this 00A5F952A58045D8 )

cheers
Z

[Bearcat]

Hey Zo how"ve you been? Good to see you.