Zephyr Net

Hello. JJ here. Despite the fact that I have very little lime left before my move, I can't stop libbing I'm about half done with "Fighters Anthology Advanced V1.1" that will feature mostly the same aircraft, but the existing ones will have modified flight characteristics and better hardpoint maps.

I've been straining my brain trying to understand the settings, and I'm doing better than I thought I would, except for one thing.

For example, let's consider the A-6E. It works fine as it is but I wanted to add ONE more hardpoint so I did. I added some moderately heavy ordnance, but nothing that would even come close to maxing out the max takeoff weight.
Then, I made a test mission and placed the A-6E on a runway. (I know they take off from carriers, but I wanted to see if there was any effect from adding the hardpoint.)
The A-6E simply could not gain enough speed to take off! It kept falling to the ground and I could hear the landing gear slamming on the deck over and over. Why is this happening? According to the toolkit, this plane can carry thousands and thousands more pounds than this, but it's already dropping like a cinder block?
"Wow, this is weird" I thought to myself. Then, quite by chance, I tried making the A-6E computer controlled - you know - just to see what would happen....Oh No problem?!
It takes off fine from even a short runway and flies around the sky like it has a hidden afterburner somewhere!
Do computer controlled planes ignore the aircraft specs? And if not, how is it flying? And if so, doesn't that mean that as human players we have a majorly unfair disadvantage?

If someone could shed some light on adding hardpoints without the cinder block effect, I'd appreciate it. The only thing I could think of was to either keep the stock hardpoints (boring!) or add power to the engines...

Thanks!

JJ

Autopilot takoff is a hard coded written procedure and has nothing to do with the specs of the aircraft...

Question, what operating system are you using? If you are using XP its quite easy to corrupt the PT file when editing it, thus damaging the settings of the file...

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Oh! Right, so basically "computer controlled" is more or less "autopilot" so the planes can get away with it so to speak.

I'm on XP...not too sure what a "PT" file is. I only edit from within the toolking if that helps....

Thanks for the reply.

JJ:

The toolkit stores the FA items that you edit as files with different extensions. If you look in your FA Toolkit project directory (in your FA install dir) and locate the particular dir for your FA Advanced project, you'll find it full of these item files. The extension indicates the type.

.PT = aircraft
.JT = weapons
.NT = vehicles
.OT = scenery
.SEE = seekers
.ECM = ECM devices

These are all plain text files and can be edited with a plain text editor like Notepad.

You'll also find binary files which can only be edited through the toolkit (or other add-on programs):

.SH = shape files
.HUD = HUD files
.PTS = aircraft icons
.PIC = graphics file
.11K & .5K = sound files

Your problem A-6E is stored as A6.PT.

Best,

Eric L. Howes

Hi Eburger,

I see! I've seen those extensions everywhere but I didn't clearly understand them.

Now I just have to make the choice whether or not to just up the engine power, or stick with the original hardpoints!

Thanks again,

JJ

Doesnt anyone ever read the FA Tips and Files section on the FARC?

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Yep. Read it all three times. Didn't understand it. Thought I'd get a new angle on it.

Have you goofed with the drag or loaded drag numbers for your A-6?

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Yes I did. With other planes it doesn't seem to be as big a deal, but with the A-6 and the A-6e, even the slightest increase in drag makes them fly like bathtubs full of cement.

Maybe I'll just install six Pratt & Whitney F119 afterburning turbofan engines with 35,000 pounds of thrust each. That'll get that heavy slug off the tarmac!