[VFS-214_Hawk]

Spud is that runway layout WIP? Looking at the photo I have, I didn't realize the runway itself was so wide. I just figured it was a wide area. For some stupid reason I never thought about them departing in Flights as they did in Europe on "normal" runways.

Do you have some not so published photos of Barakoma? There is one nice one on Pacific Wrecks taken from the south looking north. I was sent to them as a photo copy so the quality is not good. I would love to have an original from that angle.

[ex_RAAF_Elecfitter]

hock: from what I can tell from the screenshots, this is an absolute stunner. Awesome comes to mind, better than any map that came with the game and as most people have stated, the most requested TO. If Oleg had any decency he would contact you and ask to include it in the next official patch, and pay you for it, its that damn good. Cant wait to its released to us plebs not in the test team. Any chance you could do the north of New Guinea when your done with this?

[spud]

I slammed that out for the taxi test, didn't even look at a picture, just want side by side landing for a test

[spud]

Actually, the strip was 3600x150' according to the map, though the coral makes it hard to tell.
The seaward trees all need to go.

I think for a real one I will use clear plates and coral textured ground. I'll dump the trees on the beach, too. I used the sand runways cause I could lasso the whole thing, copy, and paste it as a test.

tater

[VFS-214_Hawk]

3600x150 Now that is info I always wanted. I guess I missed it somewhere huh?

I was looking at a pic the other day and noticed the steal plates, forget the name, and they had turned coral sand color...lol I guess they were covered with the muddy coral sand and stained huh?

[VFS-214_Hawk]

Oh it was this pic!

[spud]

The coral look is going to be very hard since there should be forest right up to aircraft parking along side the runway, ideally (love that look from the cockpit, too). The problem is that the field runs right along the textures in such a way that it makes a sawtooth line with green from the forest texture, but no trees.

tater

[panzerkeil]

I can't wait to make a campaign on this baby!!
I found a good reference source (don't know if this was posted before) for the Guadalcanal campaign:

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA ... index.html

It contains maps, pictures and eye whitness stories: About Japanese bombing raids on Henderson airfield:

Almost daily, and almost always at the same time-noon, "Tojo Time"-the bombers came. There would be 18 to 24 of them, high in the sun and in their perfect V-of-V's formation. They would be accompanied by 20 or more Zeroes, cavorting in batches of 3, nearby. Their bombing was accurate, and they would stay in formation and make their bombing run even as they knew the deadly fire from the Grummans would hit any minute.
There was a routine of noises at Tojo Time. First the red and white flag (a captured Japanese rising sun) would go up at the pagoda. That meant scramble. Every airplane that would fly would start up immediately and all would rush for the runway, dodging bomb craters. Often through the swirling dust the ground crews would see a wing drop. That meant another plane had taxied [into] a dud hole or a small crater, indistinct in the tall grass. The first planes to the runway took off first, and two at a time, whether . . . Grummans, dive-bombers or P-400's.

The formations would join later in the air. The P-400's and dive-bombers would fly away to work over the Jap territory. The Grummans would climb for altitude, test-firing their guns on the way. The whining of engines at high r.p.m., the chatter of machine guns, and settling dust.

On the ground the men would put in a few more minutes' work, watching the pagoda all the while. Then the black flag would go up. It was amazing how fast the tired and hungry men could sprint .... In a moment the field would be deserted.

Then the high, sing-song whine of the bombers would intrude as a new sound, separate from the noise of the climbing Grummans. Only a few moments now. The sing-song would grow louder. Then: swish, swish, swish. And the men would pull the chin straps of their helmets tighter and tense their muscles and press harder against the earth in their foxholes. And pray.

Then: WHAM! (the first one hit) WHAM! (closer) WHAM! (walking right up to your foxhole) . . . WHAAA MM! (Oh Christ!) WHAM! (Thank God, they missed us!) WHAM! (the bombs were walking away) WHAM! (they still shook the earth, and dirt trickled in). WHAM!

It was over. The men jumped out to see if their buddies in the surrounding fox holes had been hit. The anti-aircraft still made a deafening racket. Grass fires were blazing. There was the pop-pop-pop of exploding ammunition in the burning airplanes on the ground. The reek of cordite. Overhead the Grummans dived with piercing screams. And the Jap bombers left smoke trails as they plummeted into [the] sea.

In a little while the airplanes would return. The ground crews would count them as they landed. The ambulance would stand, engine running, ready for those who crashed, landed dead stick, or hit the bomb craters in the runway. Then the work of patching and repairing the battered fighters would start again..

[Thrud]

Just a neat little feature i added to the Ai routines for taxiing.
On some of the figther only strips, the AI will taxi from side to side. (proper taxi procedure for tail draggers)

[spud]

Hehe, I posted that in another thread, T, I did the same thing. I have weaving waypoints. Looks very cool. Great minds think alike

The F4Us in the last shots I posted do that after landing. I only thought of it tuesday night, you probably beat me to the punch, hehe.

tater

[stansdds]

Ohhhhh, the anticipation is killing me!

[VFS-214_Hawk]

panzer, here ya go!
http://www.pacificwrecks.com/airfields/s...tland.html

[panzerkeil]

Thanks Hawk!
Great site. Added to my favorites! :wink:

[VFS-214_Hawk]

This was/is my website. Been so long since I have done anything with it, I forgot my password! At least two years since I messed with it. I lost interest when Oleg abandoned Pacific Fighters.

http://www.geocities.com/vmf_214_blacksh...hters.html

[panzerkeil]

Me too! I am currently still at 4.04 merged because the landscape couldn't impress me.
What is flying without a good view?
Superb campaigns like AVG had to be (partly) made on Russian maps because to many important theatres were missing and most maps are just grassy hills with way to many and way to large rivers. Maps like Guadalcanal and Singapore are to poor and inaccurate to convince. It seems they were hastily created.
But then I discovered this site. I made most of the mods working on 4.04 although I miss too many files to make all of them work. I really like the sound mod. That really adds to the atmosphere.
But after seeing shots off the slot I ordered my copy of 1946!
I find the pacific theatre fascinating: brutal battles in a paradise-like environment (at least visually :roll: )
It was also one of the few air battles (at least untill the "Mariana Turkey shoot") where the odds were fairly even. Most historical battles are not nice to simulate because one side is much stronger then the other.