Pappystein

Well that is a new building for me. I have had three campaigns and never gotten that building (mind you I only survived to the end once but still....)

Call this a dumb question if you must but since I have never used the Fury (Built one and then got the final mission so I skipped using it.) If a Fury takes on a Fighter or Heavy Fighter do you not get the 1x alien alloy?? If so re-purpose that code to cause an un-useable but unique to the new ships item to drop to trigger entries. If not well then it was a dumb idea.

Guys, I was just reading through this. A Few thoughts. 1) How am I going to be-able to differentiate on the main map WHAT KIND of ship we are dealing with to determine if I send a Fury or a different ship? Currently it just says X sized target. 2) Isn't the point of the Destroyer to ESCORT larger ships? Why not make it the next tier after Heavy fighter for escorts? Let it keep it's roll ability and downing it has a nicer prize than 1 alenium or 1 Alloy.... Take away a "Capitol" level weapon and instead equip it with point defense and Anti Missile/Torpedo weaponry 3) If UFOs are to be re-named I would suggest focusing on the Battleship and the Dreadnought. In RW they are the same thing (A Dreadnought is a Battleship with a uniform primary armament, not mixed calibers as primary armament.) Suggest Battlecruiser (Replace Battleship) and Battleship (Replace Dreadnought.) This is more thematically correct (The current battleship is smaller and faster than the proposed Dreadnought but has an analogous level of fire power.) 4) Is there any way to eliminate the AUTO COMPLETE for the Fury? IE make Super Heavy weapons not insta-kill? I would love to use the Fury as a Torpedo Bomber in mixed squadrons where I control it. I realize that Xenonaughts has very little to do with Real Life but thought maybe these were things worth mentioning before heavy coding hits this mod.

The only question is does it make sense to lawyers, Judges and Juries.

That is how the real G11 fired. The 3 round burst has less accuracy effecting recoil than two SINGLE SHOTS before the last bullet leaves the barrel. It's 3 shot burst Cyclic ROF is over 2000 rounds a minute. Compare that to say a M-16A2 or later at a measly ~680 Cyclic ROF. The G11 however is LESS accurate in FULL AUTO than any other mode (as it should be.) Check out this article on HK pro if you want the a quick synopsis of the details. http://www.hkpro.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=23:the-g11-caseless-military-rifle&catid=11:rare-prototypes&Itemid=5 I should mention that one of the G-11 Prototypes made it into the Movie "Demolition Man" as the Ack-Mag (unsure of the movie scripts spelling) A MAGNETIC rail gun that had a ROF of 1/Minute.

1st) let me say I am NOT a lawyer, just a guy who has some experience in this due to a different game system and some magazine articles I have written (published and web) That and I think I have a pretty good grasp on logic... or is that just my ego talking :> Any Images based on official US Government photographs or descriptions are free and clear. Thus, My suggestion to use the F-16XL is not a major issue. There are literally thousands of photos of the two F-16XL Prototypes out there due to their years of service in NASA post failed attempt at what became the strike eagle. Now if you were to try to make your own F-16 based on anything but those very exterior photographs, you could run the gamut of design Copyright infringements. As modders, we are not trying to sell anything there-for "free use" or "fair use" or whatever the legal term is should apply. If there are Copyright lawyers on the list it would be nice to hear from the experts (we realize that any statements they say will not be legally binding, just like my statements are not legally binding.) If just using a Name or likeness caused Copyright infringements then wikipedia and any other published web source would be illegal. Let alone any books that do not expressly get permission from the manufacture.

There are (at-least were) Airshow audio mp3s/cds out there that are pretty clean and free of copyrights. It would be a good place to look for the various engine sounds you want. Please note, the F100-PW-220E in a F-15 does NOT sound like the same F100-PW-220E Engine in an F-16. Likewise the F110-GE-100 in the F-16 does NOT sound like the F110-GE-400 in the F-14B/D Tomcat. There is a lot more to the sound of an aircraft engine than the core engine itself. I would suggest recordings of HIGH SPEED passes. They won't be supersonic but they should howl appropriately. And if you really want a howl, look into the Vulcan B.2 SLOW SPEED passes. The Vulcan (A RAF strategic bomber for those not in the know,) could really screech and howl when flying low and slow. Noisy and unique in her sound. I have, what is for our purposes un-useable (Copyright) a CD with the Su-27S Flanker-A, the Vulcan B.2, the Tornado F.3 and various piston aircraft and helicopter sounds. I know the stuff is out there. I will try to look in the interim for some non copyrighted materials.

Since the various member nations of the world are at-least some-what co-operating, the missile interfaces would be easy to swap around. NATO/US forces have been using STANAG 3910 Interfaces (US Mil-Std 1553B) for years on their military aircraft (STANAG =STAndard NATO AGreement) Even most Russian interfaces will inter-connect, via a simple adapter to Mil-STD 1553/STANG 3910 interfaces. After all, not much goes into swapping a R-73 [AA-11 Archer] for a Python 5 missile on the modern Flankers, it is a case of at most HOURS not weeks of major work. A lot of the infrastructure for this was developed at the end of the Vietnam war with North Vietnam "acquired" literally tons of US made missiles and aircraft. The USSR started to develop its next generation of aircraft (MiG-29/Su-27) based on what they learned both in the sky and on the ground in Vietnam. That explains the aerodynamics as well as the weapon systems on both of those aircraft. Heck, All versions of the AA-2 Atoll Missile are basically direct Copies of various AIM-9 Sidewinder family members (with a lot of cross pollination, taking the best of the various Sidewinders.) That is good to know. I am just now "getting under the hood" so to speak. I am kind of playing with both vanilla and your XNT mod to see what I can and can't do without re-coding a whole ton in the EXE. Good to know. I was playing with the XNT Aircraft.xls and wondering why some changes I made worked and others didn't. In my play-throughs the Mirage 2000 is the only 'Real world' aircraft that lasts past the Corsair III. Others, might hang on only because I have not recovered enough alien materials or am having cash flow issues at that moment. It's radar FAR outweighs the lack of effectiveness it has vs enemy multi ship formations. MiG-31D is likely the best Foxhound Designation to use. ESP since it was a late 1980s Anti-Satellite interceptor/Ballistic Missile Defense Interceptor concept. It is the closest fit. HOWEVER could I suggest putting an Mirage 2K level Radar on her? The MiG-31 in real life is used as a substitute AWACS in Russian service. The Radar is THAT powerful and that GOOD! MiG-31D was last variant programed with the GSh-6-30 Gatling cannon. In real life that gun will DISTORT the actual MiG-31's airframe if used for too long! (Lets not talk about the MiG-27s that it was also used on!) F-17 'condor' Would likely be the F-16E or F-16F. Could I suggest changing the graphics to the F-16XL? The in game performance is roughly analogous with the XL variant (faster Speed, longer range, at the cost of a slightly lower turn rate.) F-16A through F-16D designations were already ordered or at least programmed by 1979. Name should revert to Fighting Falcon... Oh the F-16XL airframe has room for 4 AMRAAMs, 4 Sidewinders AND 3 fuel tanks.... Oh and it still has 4 un-used pylons (the XL was the failed competitor to what became the F-15E Strike Eagle.) Anyway, I hope that is helpful.

Sometimes it is best to not even worry about them. Honestly is it worth not having coverage of your lost fighters for the possibility of 1 allenium and 1 alloy per escort? The numbers just don't add up for that to be a worthwhile trade. Blow the Primary and the escorts become a non issue

WOW this hand me ROFL so hard! and to think I thought when I made my base in England and named it the Holy Hand Grenade I thought I was honoring Python! One problem. When your Avatar lives by the rule of two, how can you build three bases? to the original bases question: I actually run the full 9 bases. I start in either Newfoundland or Michigan unless I am doing the Holy Hand Grenade schtick. I routinely start multiple bases at the same time and build multiple identical bases slowly. My first base is always my research base, It only gets the initial Manufacturing stats from game start, I build it to 5 hangers and everything else is research, I think that leaves me a max of 15 squaddies I can have with how it builds. I NEVER have 3 radars at my first base (it almost seems to attract the base assaults to it. My 2nd and 3rd bases are always manufacturing bases and eventually have LOTS of hangers. I could care less about the vehicles (I loose them quicker than I loose squaddies the way I play,) so I just load them down with Hangers (7 or 10 total) and everything else is Manufacturing capacity and ancillary items (3 radars, Stowage, Defense turret (ONLY EVER ONE) etc...) I ALWAYS try to intercept bogies with 3 aircraft, even if they are small or V Small. Prevents issues if you are ambushed. But I have found it completely depends on how you play as to what is right FOR YOU! Kind of like Opinions. Everyone has got one and every one of them is RIGHT for the holder of that opinion.

First off, I always pay attention to target(S) as they are listed when they first pop up. Theirfor I would never end up with two Foxtrots and one Condor vice two enemy fighters + the corvette. Others have already mentioned the tactics to best use once you are engaged in such a situation (I get it mistakes happen, I have been known to have a few per engagement myself...) It really depends on orientation to me. A trick I do is, Follow the UFO, wait 5 seconds, Click on my squadron, Select the squadron and then click the engage button. It almost always puts me BEHIND the Corvette. Then slowing down the foxes and letting the condor ahead gives me a bit of a safety net. If you NEED to put down the Corvette, do this tactic, and once you are behind the corvette, Engage afterburners on all three birds. As soon as the Foxes launch, kick off their afterburners so you can turn faster and EGRESS! The Condor can do OK by itself vice the two fighters. Hope this helps. I won't say you wont loose one or two foxes in this situation but you will have successfully shot down the Corvette, and lets face it that is sometimes more important than 2 foxes.

1st, as I have already stated in another reply I am running XNT on one of my computers at this moment. It is OK for air-combat but still left me wanting more. Re the Designations/names) I should mention that Modified aircraft should have a version iteration, NOT a new designation (New Designation means it is a completely different aircraft, not just a modification.) EG my suggestion to use the un-used (Canceled) F-14C designation for the Super Tomcat, Or the MiG-31D Designation (which was briefly used for an Anti-Satellite version of the Foxhound that was never actually produced beyond prototypes and was not even prototyped until the late 1980s.) 2nd) Technology kind of drib-drabs and over saturates the player for Ground side but there is very little actual tech research for either ground vehicles, or aircraft. Part of my goal is to see Air-combat become more like Ground combat, IE much more research to GET TO the Sci-Fi stuff. I want the Corsair III (F4U/AU Corsair I, A-7 Corsair II,) I want the Marauder, and I want the Saracen in game, but I want balance with them. Currently I see NO BALANCE in the game be it stock or modded for Air combat. I do not know how many times I have won air combat when the computer was giving me less than 20% chance of success. I can tell you it is on the order of 70% of the time. So to sum up these points into a cohesive whole, If additional early tiers of air combat research are included in a large conversion mod, I, the player, can choose what path is most important (General/balanced tech run, Air tech run or Land tech run.) This gives me the player more choices and in the end adds a more immersive feel to me the game. Yes this would mean all techs would have to have research costs adjusted. I am not saying it isn't a lot of work but for a conversion mod, It just might make this great game MUCH better than it ALREADY is!

That is in-part the problem I am trying to overcome. Currently my GUN is more important than my MISSILE. Now don't get me wrong, in online flight sims my call-sign is often "guns" because it is my preferred weapon. However even *I* the student of advanced maneuvers and un-predicitble flying, realize that the ability to reach out and touch someone with a missile is sometimes advantageous. That being said, Guns need a major nerf, Torpedoes need a major nerf and 'winders need to actually LOCK ON and guide!

Are you not able to mod the Warhead strength? After all that is part of the reason the whole "MiG-32" got nerfed during Beta. Just make the weaps weaker.... But give the weaps more utility. Eg 'winders right now are nearly useless as everything small can juke them and everything big can soak them. My dumb M61 Vulcan does more damage on an average mission than my state of the art 'winder. NOT COOL. I have played a few mods (Currently running XNT) and I see potential. But to me it is still not 'there.' But that is my take on things.

I know that this will likely not be addressed by anyone but modders themselves. That being said, I am not going to try to mod this game myself (I have too much time invested in other games dealing with air-combat at this level of abstraction where I have a direct impact on the actual rules of that game.) This is a rather long post Given the height of technology, given the breadth of the invasion, and given what was actually out there, Air combat leave a lot to be desired, even in a turn based game like this. Mind you I LOVE this game, I am just voicing things that I would like to see improved by the modder community. 1) AI, The Game engine seem to think the best thing to do in combat is run right into the enemies primary fire arc. In USAF parlance (and US Navy Project Bumblebee nomenclature) this is called Pursuit Course or Collision Course guidance. It was the primary form of guidance for the 1st Generation of Surface or Air to Air Missiles (SAMs and AAMs.) It suffers from a) being wholly in-efficient in use of fuel and b) you always end up in front of your target or directly behind your target where you have a lower percent probability of kill. I doubt that anyone can change the AI but it will be something that will bug me until the end of time. 2) Using non copyrighted names for aircraft that actually existed. I can't speak for Mikoyan i Gurevich (the i is a Russian abbreviation for 'and' hence MiG not MIG nor Mig design bureau or OKB,) but the USAF is who sets the designation of US fighter planes. Therefore no copyright exists on any official USAF Designation (which includes the popular name.) It is considered public domain. RE Russian Aircraft, All fighters are ODD NUMBERED, ALL BOMBERS/Transports etc are EVEN NUMBERED... This applies even today with the Su-34 Fullback (sure it is an Su-27 derivative but since it is a ground attack aircraft first it has an even number.) Of course with the Russian Aircraft, the VVS is the final owner of any Designation and any Popular name (there are rarely popular names assigned so calling a MiG-31 a Foxhound, a NATO code word, is completely legit.) It gets messy with the post Soviet Aircraft designations as very few of them are "Official" (EG there is no Su-35, just the Su-27M or the new production Su-27BM, There is no Su-30/no Indian Su-30MKI. Rather per the VVS the Su-30MKI is the Su-27PUKI (who wants a plane with a designation of pookie or pukey!) I would suggested that 4 Aircraft be available to prior to alien tech aircraft, US F-16C Fighting Falcon or alternatively the F-17C Cobra, Soviet MiG-29D Fulcrum for the close in aircraft. Long Range hitters should be the US F-14C Tomcat (which can also double as a regular fighter by swapping Torpedos for Sparrows) and the Soviet MiG-31D Foxhound, which should have 4 "Torpedoes" and two "Aphids", with no ability to swap but fastest speed for all fighters. Turn speed should be F-16, MiG-29A/F-17, F-14C, then MiG-31. Max Speed should be F-16/F-17, then MiG-29/F-14C, then MiG-31 (MiG-31 being the fastest of course.) 2a) Setting aircraft to un-realistic values. The non-copyrighted MiG-31 Foxhound only has two weapon pylons? Not 4 on the Fuselage + 4 on the wings! Mind you the 4 wing pylons are for Drop Tanks + R-60 [NATO AA-8 Aphid] which is like a smaller faster shorter ranged sidewinder. The Non-Copyrighted F-16 Fighting Falcon only has 2 weapon pylons and a Gatling gun that is more damaging than the missiles will ever be?! I figure I better give some good feedback here, however I am the first to admit I have not taken a look under the hood as it were to see how the game actually dose any of the below... so this is just a generalization 1) Lower the strength of all the Weapons, ESP the later upgrades! 2) Add the following additional standard missiles, AIM-9J Sidewinder (US), AIM-7F Sparrow (US), R-60M, R-27R [AA-10A Alamo MR], and replace both the Phoenix and the R-33 [AA-9 Amos] with a highly modified "Torpedo." 3) Greatly lower the amount of damage each shot out of the Gatling gun does 3a) Greatly increase the lock/guide chance for the AIM-9 Sidewinder and the R-60M [AA-8 Aphid] from the stock in Game Sidewinder, Lower damage by 15% 4) AIM-7 Sparrow and R-27R are both Radar Guided and must be guided all the way in flight. Give them a long lock on range but make it easy to break the lock (IE the Very Small scout will likely not get hit unless the player is firing from multiple angles. Make it so 10 Sparrow/Apex would bring down a corvette, and 1 hit would bring down a regular fighter 2 for a Heavy fighter light scout, 4 for a regular scout etc.) 4 sub topics)On the F-14C Super Tomcat, the 4 of the 6 Sparrow locations could be swapped for "Torpedo" when they become available (Don't get them from the start.) 2 Wing locations would always be Sidewinder and 2 Wing locations would always be Sparrow. On the MiG-29, Two pylons for R-27R 4 Pylons for R-60M 5) Evolve missiles to AIM-9L Sidewinder, AIM-9M Sidewinder, AIM-9R Sidewinder as new warheads developed (That traces Real World Development through the 1990 as far as the Designations go.) AIM-7 would go, AIM-7M, AIM-7R, AIM-7S, R-27 would go R-27ER [AA-10 Alamo D ER], R-27ERE, and then R-27M. Torpedo designations would stay the same. Damage would be reduced on each step, as currently it is too easy late in the game to take down a Battleship with 2 Marauders and 1 Corsair/Saracen (straight or modded.) 6) Greatly reduced effectiveness for guns. Currently Late game guns for air combat are WAYY to OP. Each stage of improvement should increase damage, range and accuracy but in much smaller steps. Currently It is too easy to take down big ships with just Corsairs.... That isn't right in my mind. 6a) Create new Gun, the Russian GSh-301. Most accurate Gun, Has 140 rounds, each round does fair ammount of damage and has more range than the Gatling gun. This should be allowed for a replacement on the F-16, The F-17 and the MiG-29, The F-14 and the MiG-31 are more literally built around their guns so they are harder to replace. 6b) Create new Gun, the Russian GSh-6-30. This is a 30mm Gatling gun for the MiG-31. It should only have 4 or 5 shots but they should do as much damage as the entire 140 rounds from the GSh-301. Drawback number 2, It damages the aircraft each time it is fired(This should be mentioned in the text for the encyclopedia. Tech Tree for early aircraft development: Start of game, Player gets basic either F-16 or F-17 Cobra. Weapons at this time are Gatling gun and AIM-9J Sidewinders only. Tech 1) Radar guidance and the UFO threat Unlocks AIM-7F for the F-17 Cobra only, unlocks next Tech (even if there is no F-17 Cobra.) Tech 2) Beyond Visual Range combat with the UFO Threat Unlocks the R-27R, the AIM-7F (if no F-17 Cobra in game) and the F-14C Tomcat and MiG-29A Fulcrum MiG-29 is faster turning, F-14 has decidedly longest range so far (at a slight loss of turn on the MiG-29) People forget the F-14 is actually maneuverable! Notes: Both the F-14C and the MiG-29 entries should allude to future roles for both aircraft. Tech 3) Unlocked after first Medium contact is intercepted (need not be shot down.) Large Caliber weapons for Larger targets Notes: Unlocks Torpedoes for the F-14C and unlocks the ultimate Human only tech fighter's research Tech 4) A longer ranged method of bringing Torpedoes to your target UFOs. Unlocks MiG-31D Foxhound. Issues I do not know enough to answer on my own- I do not know how evolved the actual Air Combat routine is in this game but it seem that different aircraft have different turn radii based on set speed. If this were to include speed Bleed-off, that would be awesome as we could actually replicate the faster INITIAL turn rate of the F-17 Cobra over the F-16 Falcon, but the F-16 easily has the best SUSTAINED turn rate of any of these aircraft at most speeds. If game models Ps energy bleed in game then we could successfully model the ill named Pugachev's Cobra (Viktor Pugachev decidedly did not develop this maneuver even if it IS under contention if it was a Sukhoi or MiG OKB pilot who came up with it and it's uses.) I do not know if there is some sort of run-time to determine if a target is "locked" beyond the simple forward counter for arming weaps.... This would be important for Radar guided weapons on nimble targets Sorry if this rambles. Sorry if my formatting did not make this easy to read (I spent a lot of time trying to get things to line up and they don't appear to do so in the forum itself Please feel free to provide feedback. Please feel free to rip the ideas off for any mod you may be developing. Just please let me know if you are using my Ideas (I could care less about the credit, I just want to play with these ideas used.)