[Triad773]

~S~

I saw a post recently where, being the land (and air) lubber that I am, I realized that I may be missing out on some of what carriers now have to offer-- and with great planes like the F9 Panther, I find myself wanting to know a lot more 8)

So since I know about some, but by no means all of what could make my experience on a carrier more immersive, I thought I would ask those more experienced to share what works and doesn't work for them regarding modded carrier operations!

I know that Fireball's Carrier Catapult mod works very well, but there are others that I know of but am not sure how it fits into the larger experience- like the wind mod, some mod that places static ac on the deck and others that could prove valuable for those who may not know the scope of mods available for carrier ops.

I welcome all to share what works, or doesn't work for you

Special thanks to Wrench11Bravo for the inspiration 8)

Triad

[JG14_Jagr]

Triad,
I posted something similar in the F9F thread and the basic answer was the "Wind mod" and the "Carrier Takeoff Mod" The Wind MOD enables you to add wind over the deck for obviously better takeoff performance, and the takeoff mod allows you to spot up to 16 aircraft on the deck.

There are some issues to be sorted out with the Carrier Takeoff Mod and one of the AI Mods, so I believe a new version is in the works.

I haven't had time to mess with the mods yet other than the catapult (which works very well)

[JG14_Jagr]

(The link is inoperative)

viewtopic.php?t=6120

[JG14_Jagr]

Ok.. I installed the other two mods and made up a mission and quite simply its AWESOME

The MODS are very straight forward.. I installed them both into my MOD directory and made up a mission with 12 F9F's off the USS Intrepid attacking the Air Defenses around the Taipingwan Dam near the Chinese border.

I setup a Co Op mission with 12 F9F-2's. The ONLY mods I have are the UI 1.1, the KTO BEta Map (which is awesome BTW) the F86 and the Mig Frankenplane by Ranwers. I then added the Catapult mod, the carrier takeoff mod, and the wind mod. After placing the objects and setting the takeoff of the 12 Jets to the carrier and both carrier waypoints to 56kph for the ships speed I closed the full mission builder and opened the Mission file I had created in note pad.. per the directions in the Wind mod I added the following..

[Weather]
WindVelocity 20
WindDirection 10
WindTop 1800
WindTurbulence 4
WindGust 5

to the bottm of the mission file.. the direction of 10' was selected because my carrier was steaming north.

I had set the AI to veteran and 6 HVAR Rockets and 75% fuel all around.

I used the catapult and hauled 6HVAR and 2 500lbs with no problems.. the AI rolled normally and had no issues at all with that loadout..all 12 rolled ok.

On startup the F9F's did NOT have their wings folded but that may be because the carrier takeoff mod isn't set up for the F9F yet, or that I only used 12 AC not 16.. but either way the mission worked very well..

Those mods in conjunction worked without any issues and made CV ops a reality..

I also used the skins for 209 Brubaker and 00 "Doublenuts" and I don't think Il2 ever looked so good..

[JG14_Jagr]

Just a note..after you EDIT the weather with the eind mod..if you open the Mission in the editor it deletes the added wind numbers so you lose the effect until you manually edit it again.. So create, edit, then fly..if you re edit after you save you need to manually re edit to add those few lines..

[Triad773]

Cool Jagr! That sounds great 8)

Sometimes I will make a coop with lots of stuff, then play it as a single player with lots of choices as to what I can fly and let the AI do the rest.

I am going to give this a try the next time I get some time soon. Just so I understand, the wind values would only change if I open the mission on the FMB, correct? Meaning that I could play the same mission multiple times and the wind won't change just from playing it?

Thanks for your input- it sure is getting my imagination fired up

[JG14_Jagr]

Yes, the manual edits are removed if you open the FM Editor.. you can play it over and over as far as I know with no issues..

[Wrench11Bravo]

Cool Thread!

[Triad773]

Thanks Wrench again for the inspiration!

I set up a nice carrier launch with the F9 and 2x 500 lbs bombs for some 'bridge work,' it worked great with a 20 MPS headwind and the Essex humming along at 30 kts!

Now that Fireball has combined the Catapult and Carrier takeoff mods with AI, this will all be even better!

Never was a carrier guy -- until now 8)

Flakiten, Fireball, PeterD, DixieCapt, and many others made this leap possible!

Thank you

~S~

Triad

[VT-51_Razor]

Triad,

With the advent of Fireball's Wind, carrier takeoff and catapult mods (the latter two now combined) this game has finally become what I'm sure Illya and Oleg really had in mind, but didn't have the time or inclination to pursue, when they brought out Pacific Fighters. The windconfig mod allows the mission builder to put wind into the game that makes carrier operations very realistic (both in coop and DF missions). You can set the max altitude of the wind up to 9000m and max speed of 50m/s. 1 m/s is equal to approximately 1.9 knots, so 10 = 19 knots. In real life back during WWII, as well as today, the ship's captain will turn his carrier into the wind for flight operations and set his speed to achieve a target relative wind over the deck of about 30-35 knots. So now, is is quite possible to conduct flight operations off of the baby flat tops (CVE's) given their max speed of 19 knots. Landing aboard ship is also a much more realistic, and rewarding experience with this wind. It also allows you to have the lousy weather conditions without the jittery simulation Oleg put in to resemble turbulance. :roll: which is really nice. With the wind effect extending to the max altitude of 9000m, you have, in effect, created wind throughout the map that the virtual pilot has to contend with for his navigation. This is a HUGE deal for those "blue water" ops that took place during the five major carrier vs carrier battles during WWII.

The Carrier Takeoff mod allows the mission builder to put a full strike package together on the deck of a single carrier now. And Jagr, it's a whole bunch more than 16!! :lol: I have put 16 Hellcats and 8 TBMs on the deck of a CVL with this mod. The Panther is now added to the mod, so it will spawn on deck with it's wings folded, which allows for twice the number of planes to be put on deck (just like in real life )

The catapult mod is also coop/DF friendly, and adds a very immersive experience to those of you who enjoy coming off a Jeep carrier in a Corsair loaded for bear. But it also provided the much needed key to conducting flight ops off the carriers with jets! In Fireball's latest version (v5), the AI have been trained to use the cat as well.

In essence, Flakiten's Panther would just be another pretty face in this game without these incredible mods. Anyone who is even slightly interested in experiencing the challenges that naval aviators had to overcome while plying their trade should download these mods and get busy 'hitting the boat' !!