Real Plane Mod

mod. The stock planes (with the exception of the B-17 concession outlined below) have been modified to match reality as closely as I could make them. I have also incorporated single player ONLY (will work in Co-op as well) modified maps that feature more planes and add the B-17. Both the new 20mm cannons and all machine guns have more appropriate muzzle velocities and loadout values for each plane now. The 20mm cannon shells are visible in the air. Pilots called them "flaming softballs". The cannons are activated with the secondary fire key. You lose the bombs in the Spit, BF109, Yak and Zero, but these planes were all lightweight point source interceptors anyway - bombs weren't their thing. The high lethality cannons more than make up for the loss - they are more of a challenge to use and more fun to me. B-17: Ten (was eight) 1,000 lb bombs, .50 caliber machine guns. I didn't add any more, just set muzzle velocity and lethality to more appropriate values, and believe me, this plane is lethal enough now when the existing gun locations are occupied. At one point I added more guns, but the Ai are just too good at shooting. I had to tone down the lethality settings - I was getting shredded if I got anywhere near the plane. Note: My one concession to unreality is here: the B-17 also now functions as a moving paratroop spawn point, with up to eight paratroops at once. This isn't real, of course, but I really wanted a C-47 in the game. The B-17 is dual purpose for now until I can get this done. Besides, it's a really cool effect. BF-109E: Two 7.9mm machine guns added in the engine cowling above the engine, two 7.9mm machine guns in the wings, and one 20mm cannon added, firing through the prop spinner. Many E's had the 20mm either disconnected or removed (due to jamming problems), this one doesn't, because it represents the typical cannon mount and size used in most later versions. The cannon is fired by the secondary fire command. The icon for the bombs is now a cannon shell icon. Corsair - Six (was two) .50 caliber machine guns and two 1,000 (was 500) pound bombs, now located at the proper hardpoints under the wings. Mustang - Same armament changes as the Corsair. SBD - Two forward firing .50 caliber machine guns and two rear firing .30 caliber machine guns. No changes other than lethality adjustments for the different caliber guns. Spitfire XIV - Two .50 caliber machine guns and two 20mm cannons (added) in the wings. Val - Three 7.7mm machine guns, two forward facing and one rear facing. No changes other than lethality adjustments. Yak 9 - Two engine cowling mounted 12.7mm machine guns and one 20mm cannon firing through the propellor spinner. Existing wing guns removed. Fixed the annoying camera offset so gunfire lines up correctly on the centerline of the plane. Zero - Two engine cowling mounted 7.7mm machine guns added and two 20mm cannons mounted in the wings to replace the original machine guns. Planes get added hitpoints needed because of the more realistic gun placements and lethality. The B-17 has the most, followed by the big air-cooled Hog (Corsair) and SBD, and then the liquid cooled planes (Mustang, Spit, Yak, 109). The Japanese planes had no armor changes, well, because they had no armor and blew up if you breathed too hard on them. They believed that planes should be lightweight and maneuverable enough that another plane couldn't get a shot at you. That strategy worked until about 1942 ;-) Instead of one generic plane gun model as used by the stock game, I have incorporated damage values appropriate for the type of gun. The 20mm cannons and the six .50's used in the Corsair and Mustang will now damage tanks and ships. The other guns will not, but will have varying lethality against other objects that is now defined by the size of the gun. Both Corsairs and Mustangs sank numerous ships during the war with machine gun fire only. You won't be sinking any battleships or carriers this way, but destroyers and smaller can be severely crippled or taken out if you put enough lead into them. I reassigned the AI for the bots so they will strafe tanks with the cannon and six fifties and watched them perform impressively in action; I haven't seen them strafe ships yet, though they should. One thing I couldn't fix is the AI occasionally will press their attacks so closely that they will crash into their target (target fixation). This usually just happens when they attack the B-17. I tried resetting the minimum firing range setting, so they wouldn't get too close, and they just ignored the setting. I reset the value to the original since it didn't seem to help. Since this happens to me flying a plane sometimes, I guess it's something I can live with. Also, cleaned up some bad references I found in the original game code that seemed to make the game more stable for me. Other small changes I don't remember... Single player level changes: Bocage: Added 1 - B-17, 1 - 109 and 1 - Stuka Gazala: Added 1 - B-17 (at the NW open base) El Alamein: Added 1 - 109 and 1 - Spit at each airbase Operation Market Garden: Added 1 - B-17, 2 - Mustangs Midway: Added 1 - B-17 that only spawns at the airbase when the Allies control it. Iwo Jima: Added 1 - B-17 (yeah it's supposed to be a B-29, I know) that only spawns at the airbase when the Allies control it, and the Corsair that normally spawns there is now the correct plane that flew from Iwo airbase - a Mustang. Feel free to incorporate any of this mod in other mods, but please give me some credit. It took a hell of a lot of testing to get this stuff the way it is. Thanks. My credits and inspiration: Seabees BF1942 Construction Battalion (object placement and spawn tutorials), shrp77 (gmakeRFA program), moseley (rfa extractor and rfa maker that gmakeRFA is based on), and especially Colonel Slaine, who's Plane Gun mod was the original inspiration for this mod. I thought he had a great idea, and just wanted to take it farther based on what I'd learned digging through the .cons.[/quote]
[quote]****RealPlane version 1.0**** Goal: To create a more realistic depiction of the planes used in Battlefield 1942. Where information was available, real loadouts were incorporated in the