PC Action 1996 April

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ PC Action 1996 April / PCA0496.ISO / gtarchiv / 02960007 / aoedit.txt < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1995-04-12 | 38KB | 824 lines

AOEDIT version 1.0 (April 12, 1995) Introduction ~~~~~~~~~~~~ AOEDIT is a simple hacking tool for Dynamix's ACES OVER EUROPE. It will help you change many characteristics of AOE without having to resort to using a hex editor like we did when we did AOEREAL. It is only a tool, however. In some cases you will still have to experiment with the values you plug in to achieve the results you are after. Since there is no direct relationship between many AOE data values and real life aircraft/weapon performance, much of the change in AOEREAL is relational. Of course when we could use a stop watch or observe a gauge in the cockpit, we did. To assist you in using AOEDIT, I have designed it so that when editing one aircraft's flight model, you can also see the data for two other aircraft. Necessary Disclaimers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Use of this program is at your own risk. I assume no responsiblity for your use of this program. The program does not directly edit your original AOE files, but it doesn't hurt to have a backup of AOE when you do this editing. This software is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. WARNING: System Lock-up may occur when entering new values which AOE considers out of range. This lock-up occurs when you accept the mission parameters and the sim portion of the program attempts to load. Unfortunately the same value which is out of range on one plane may not be on another aircraft. I don't want to give you the impression that this is a major problem, but I don't want you to be surprised if it does, either. If you have done any hacking on any program you know what I am talking about. System reset is required when this happens - a 3 fingered salute (cntrl-alt- del) won't work. Depending on how full your hard drive is, constantly working with small files can really make a "mess" of your hard drive, so I recommend using "defrag" and "chkdsk /f" or "scandisk" frequently. Distribution and Donations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AOEDIT may be freely distributed by any means, methods, or media. However no fee may be charged for this software, nor may its contents be altered or added to. AOEDIT package must consist of the following files: AOEDIT.EXE AOEDIT.TXT AOEFILES.ZIP (contains original, unmodified files for you to edit) REAL.ZIP (contains modified files from AOEREAL for your use) AOEDIT is in reality public domain software, ie "Freeware", but I'd like you to consider it "Donationware." If you use AOEDIT and find it useful, please consider making a small donation of $2-5.00 to: Nicholas Bell c/o RW Thomas Construction Management Co. 252 West Swamp Road, Ste 24 Doylestown, PA 18901 Many of you are probably thinking, "Yeah, right. Why should I bother?" Well, your donation will support my efforts to continue adding modules to AOEDIT, like a Pilot Editor, a Campaign Editor, and a Mission Builder. I am also considering an Aces of the Pacific Editor. Plus think of all the fun you've had for free with AOEREAL & AOEFIX, not to mention all those AOTP patch files <g>. Acknowledgments ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This editor is based on data resulting from a lot of hard work done by Grant Senn, Larry Grill, Brian Sanford and myself back in late 1993 and early 1994. I certainly could not have figured it out by myself. Do not bother these gentlemen with problems or comments regarding this editor, however. They all have real lives and were not directly involved in its creation (although Larry had many good pointers on improving the interface). A Request ~~~~~~~~~ There are many unknown factors in the FMD files. In fact much of the labeled data may not be correct (they are marked with a "?"). If you determine what an unknown byte does or find that a "?" marked factor is incorrectly identified, please contact me. Installation ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copy AOEDIT.EXE into the AOE directory in which you are going to perform your editing and testing. Dynamix's programs search the directory first for required files when it is loading. Therefore it is possible to have additional files in the AOE directory which are easily edited without having to modify the original AOE data files. AOEDIT only edits these single data files stripped out of the the various *.DYN files. Therefore you must have these files in order to use AOEDIT. If you have AOEREA.ZIP or AOEFIX.ZIP you are already have necessary files available, albeit already edited by me. If you want to start with the original AOE data, unzip the included AOEFILES.ZIP into the same AOE directory. Or unzip REAL.ZIP for files which have already been modified for improved realism. You need to have the *.FMD files to edit the flight models; the *.GL files to modify the aircraft armament; the *.DMG files to edit the damage capacity of aircraft; and the BULLETS.MEC file if you are going to change the weapon characteristics. Here is a list of the files required: P38_J.FMD P38_J.GL P38_J.DMG BULLETS.MEC P47.FMD P47.GL P47.DMG P51.FMD P51.GL P51.DMG SPIT_IX.FMD SPIT_IX.GL SPIT_IX.DMG SPIT_14.FMD SPIT_14.GL SPIT_14.DMG TYPHOON.FMD TYPHOON.GL TYPHOON.DMG TEMPEST.FMD TEMPEST.GL TEMPEST.DMG MOS_VI.FMD MOS_VI.GL MOS_VI.DMG MOS_18.FMD MOS_18.GL MOS_18.DMG ME_109G.FMD ME_109G.GL ME_109G.DMG ME_109K.FMD ME_109K.GL ME_109K.DMG FW_190A.FMD FW_190A.GL FW_190A.DMG FW_190F.FMD FW_190F.GL FW_190F.DMG FW_190D.FMD FW_190D.GL FW_190D.DMG ME_262.FMD ME_262.GL ME_262.DMG ARADO.FMD - ARADO.DMG B25_D.FMD - B25_D.DMG B26.FMD - B26.DMG B17_G.FMD - B17_G.DMG B24_J.FMD - B24_J.DMG JU_88.FMD - JU_88.DMG If you are unhappy with the results of your editing, you can simply delete the offending files and the program will automatically use the original data located in the *.DYN files which you haven't touched. How to use AOEDIT, or what do all these numbers mean? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Okay so you've got the files unzipped and the editor functioning. So where's the mph, degrees per second, feet per second, rounds per minute, goodies you're expecting to see? Well, read on to find out. First, if you're unfamilar with this stuff, start off easy by just changing the aircraft armament. Not hard at all. Then try modifying the weapons. Plenty of info below to make that easy too. Modifying the flight models looks horrible at first, but becomes easier once you get the hang of it. First, read the explanations below, adjust some data values based on what you read, and then go into the sim and test out the change. Then start over, fine tuning your change. Test and test again. Don't just look for the changes you've supposed to have made. Watch your wingmen for odd behavior. Don't just fly the planes you modify - fly against them and see if they perform as you might expect (keeping in mind how the AI cheats - see below). Now don't be grumbling yet. It's not that bad - you don't have to work in hexidecimal like we did before <g>. Plus all the important flight model data is explained - we were working in the dark before. Well enough of this light stuff, let's progress to the real meat of this document. IMPORTANT: The position of the "time scale" and the horsepower of your computer system has major effects on adjusting AOE. Changing a plane's roll rate on a 486/33 to 6 seconds won't result in the same roll rate on a P90 with the same "time scale" setting. I. AOE Flight Model Data (FMD) Editing ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (a) SPEED AND CLIMB Aircraft speed and climb are controlled by the relationship between the Power Factor, the aircraft's altitude, and the Drag Factor. Increasing the Power Factor will increase the aircraft's speed, acceleration and the climb rate. Decreasing the Power Factor has the opposite effect. The Drag Factor works against the Power Factor effecting aircraft speed. The Drag Factor does NOT seem to affect the acceleration or climb rate (if it does it is a small effect). The greater the Drag Factor the lower the speed. A smaller Drag Factor will increase the speed. In fact, if you lower the Drag Factor too far the plane will accelerate to an uncontrollable speed in a climb and self-destruct when it hits the structural integrity limit - even though the throttle is only set to 10% max power. As is evident on the Speed & Climb editing screen the Drag Factor depends on the altitude of the aircraft. You can find at what altitude the aircraft reaches top speed by finding the lowest Drag Factor. Note that if you are looking at the unmodified orginal AOE *.FMD files, the drag factors have been altered so that aircraft reach top speed at lower altitudes, presumably for playability. The REAL *.FMD files have been corrected. NOTE: The Altitude Bands displayed on the Speed & Climb editing screen (and others) are based on testing and observation. Thus I cannot say with abso- lute certainty that they are correct - although I am confident of the 19,500' break. Altitude band breakpoints may possibly vary by up to 1000'. If you can confirm or deny the accuracy of the displayed bands, please let me know. Comparision of aircraft FMDs is the best way to understand how this all works. Note how the P-51 has a low Power Factor, lower than the ME-109G. This makes the P-51 accelerate and climb slower than the ME-109. The P-51 is neverthe- less faster than the ME-109 because it has lower drag factors. When making AOEREAL I decided that the P-51 was too much of a dog in the original sim, so I increased it's power factor. This made the P-51 more powerful, but also made it too fast. So it was also necessary to increase the plane's drag factors (at all altitudes). Note that there is not a one-to-one relationship between Power and Drag Factor. A less pleasant note: The climb rates in AOE are greatly magnified. Dyanmix did this for playability and I'm not sure this is a fixable problem given my knowledge of the FMD's. Hopefully more experimentation with what I have labeled "Lift" and some of those "Unknowns" may help resolve this problem. One solution that is not feasible (at least for me) is to lower all the power and drag factors. Without a formula for doing this, this would be a nightmare. Just adjusting the aircraft to get the correct speed at the proper altitude took me weeks when doing AOEREAL. Master Power & Master Drag Factors: In ACES OF THE PACIFIC, these had general effects on the overall power and drag of the aircraft. In AOE I have been unable to replicate this phenomenon, but that doesn't mean I have been putting in correct values or seeing the correct result. The other possibility is that these two data integers may have been relocated in the FMD file, and that these are new data integers totally unrelated to power & drag. Summary of Speed & Climb ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -Increase speed: Decrease Drag Factor at given altitude. -Increase acceleration & climb, keep speed same: Increase Power Factor Increase Drag Factor -Increase acceleration, climb, and speed: Increase Power Factor Decrease Drag Factor (if required) -Increase acceleration & climb, decrease speed: Increase Power Factor Increase Drag Factor -Decrease speed: Increase Drag Factor at given altitude. -Decrease acceleration & climb, keep speed same: Decrease Power Factor Decrease Drag Factor -Decrease acceleration, climb, and speed: Decrease Power Factor. Increase Drag Factor (if required) -Decrease acceleration & climb, increase speed: Decrease Power Factor Decrease Drag Factor (b) ROLL Initial Roll Rate: How fast the aircraft reacts to aileron input, ie left and right joystick input. A higher value equates to a faster initial roll rate. To model an unresponsive/high inertia aircraft, use a lower value. Roll Recovery: How quickly the aircraft stops reacting to aileron input. The smaller the number the longer it takes for the plane to stop rolling once you relax left/right joystick input. When this value approaches the Sustained Roll Rate, there will be little feeling of inertia and the plane will stop rolling immediately when you release the stick. Use a low value for a more realistic feeling of "slop" in the controls. Sustained Roll Rate: Exactly what it says it is. Higher numbers equate to faster roll rates. Lower values model slower roll rates. Dihedral Effect: Makes the plane roll back to a normal attitude with zero degrees bank. With a value of 0, if you bank the aircraft, the aircraft maintains the bank even though you relax aileron input. With a positive value (200 works well) the plane with slowly roll back to zero bank. This seems more realistic to me. Unfortunately the plane will also roll itself out if you relax aileron input in an INVERTED bank. Hmmmm.... Aileron Lock Effect: The speed at which aircraft starts having difficulty with rolling. In sim terms, the initial and sustained roll rates seem about divided by two or three. This is a bit harsh to happen all at once. Actually most aircraft gradully experience higher control forces as speeds increase, but AOE doesn't simulate this gradual reduction in roll rates. It's all or nothing. Aileron lock is also compounded by Compressibility (see below). For values to enter here see SPEED VALUE TABLE below. Aileron Control Effect ?: This entire section is questionable. It is based on the AOTP FMD file work that Larry Grill did, in which he was able to improve the "feel" of the controls by altering the Aileron Factor at various alti- tudes. By comparing various planes, one might guess that 1024 is the highest value and represents the best aileron response. Perhaps this data controls or interacts with the Turn Rate? (see below) Perhaps it has nothing to do with aileron controls, since my limited experimentation to date demonstrates that if the Aileron Factor close to the Master Aileron Factor I cannot get the plane to take-off! Ailerons have nothing to do with that. Have fun experi- menting <g>. And as food for thought regarding accurate roll rates, here is a shortened message from the Flight Simulator Forum of Compuserve. Thanks Richard! #: 377453 S7/Historic Air Combat 09-Jul-94 14:25:12 Sb: #List of Roll Rates Fm: Richard Ordway 74473,1664 To: ALL Hi, Following is a list of roll rates already in print. The list shows the time to roll 360 degrees. It has Viet Nam, World War 2, World War 1 and Pitts Special airplanes. Sources follow each related group. P-51D Mustang 4.8 sec. to right/5.1 sec. to left (230 mph/1g/10,000 feet) P-51D Mustang 6.8 sec. to right/6.5 sec. to left (253 mph/3g/10,000 feet) P-51D Mustang 9.2 sec. to right/9.2 sec. to left (landing configuration) P-47D Thunder. 4.9 sec. to right/5.9 sec. to left (230 mph/1g/10,000 feet) P-47D Thunder. 5.9 sec. to right/5.5 sec. to left (253 mph/3g/10,000 feet) P-47D Thunder. 9.2 sec. to right/9.2 sec. to left (landing configuration) FG-1D Corsair 4.5 sec. to right/4.9 sec. to left (230 mph/1g/10,000 feet) FG-1D Corsair 7.3 sec. to right/6.2 sec. to left (253 mph/3g/10,000 feet) FG-1D Corsair 9.2 sec. to right/9.2 sec. to left (landing configuration) F6F Hellcat 4.6 sec. to right/5.9 sec. to left (230 mph/1g/10,000 feet) F6F Hellcat 8.0 sec. to right/7.5 sec. to left (253 mph/3g/10,000 feet) F6F Hellcat 9.2 sec. to right/9.2 sec. to left (landing configuration) * These figures are from a flight test in the book Classic Warbirds by Jeffrey Ethell, Motorbooks International, 1991. P-51H Mustang 6.4 sec. not known if to left or right(300 mph/?g/10,000 ft) P-51H Mustang 8.0 sec. not known if to left or right(360 mph/?g/10,000 ft) P-51H Mustang 10.4 sec. not known if to left or right(400 mph/?g/10,000 ft) * These figures are from a copy of a book page 121. The book was about Mustangs. It had a painting of a silver Mustang with a yellow nose and blue trim I believe. If anyone knows the name/author please tell me. Me 109E 32.0 sec. not known if to left or right(400+mph/?g/10,000 and below) * This figure is from a 1940 test in the book Messerschmitt at War by Armand Van Ishoven, Scribners, 1977. Me 109G- longer than 4.0 sec.(/?mph/?g/? altitude.) LA-5FN(Russian Fighter) 4.0 sec.(280 mph/?g/? altitude) * These figures is from the book Luftwaffe Test Pilot by Hans- Werner Lerche,Janes, 1980. Me 262(jet) 3.8 sec not known if to left or right(400 mph/?g/5000 feet) *This figure is from the book Wings of the Luftwaffe by Capt. Eric Brown, Airlife,1993. The next quotes are comparisons from flight tests. To find the actual roll rates, you will have to compare the findings with the roll rates listed above to which they are referred. "The Mustang could not roll as quickly as the Spitfire Mk 9 or Mk XlV at normal speeds, but the aircraft were comparable in this respect at very high speeds" "The Mustang's rate of roll was better than that of the Tempest" "The Mustang's rate of roll was similar to that of the BF 109G" (However, below is a quote that states that the BF 109G had a superior rate of roll to that of the P51D Mustang's at low speeds). "The Mustang's rate of roll was far inferior to that of the Fw 190A". * These quotes are from a 1944 flight test in Wittering England by the Air Fighting Development Unit in the book Flying the World's Great Aircraft edited by Anthony Robinson, Crescent Books, 1982. "Above 250 mph however the 109s roll starts to heavy up and up to 300 mph or so and is very similar to a P-51." "The roll rate of the 109 being much better than a P-51's in a slow speed dogfight." This is from a flight test by Mark Hanna, "Flying the 109", Air Review, Challenge publications, Fall, 1991. "The latest Fw 190 had a roll rate of almost twice the P-51". This is from that same untitled book listed above about the Mustang, p.117. "At low speeds the bigger-winged Spitfire could roll faster than the BF 109E." "Rate of roll for the Zero was equal to that of the Corsair at speeds under 230 mph(200 knots), and inferior above that speed due to the high control forces" "Rate of roll of the two fighters was equal at 184 mph(160 knots) (Zero/FM2 Wildcat) and under. The Zero became inferior at higher speeds dure to heavy stick forces." *The Great Book of World War ll Airplanes, Jeffrey Ethell et al., Bonanza, 1984. "The new airplane(Fw 190D long nose) lacked the incredible roll rate of its close-coupled radial-engined pedecessor."(Fw 190A) *JG 26:Top Guns of the Luftwaffe, Donald Caldwell, Ivy Books, 1991 (c) PITCH Pitch is the aircraft's response to elevator input - either pointing the nose of the plane up or down. In sim terms this effects not only how quickly an aircraft can get into a climb or dive, but also how fast a plane can turn - since most turns in the sim will be of the "combat turn" variety with the stick pulled all the way back and the plane banked at near 90 degrees. Pitch variables are similar to roll rate variables: Initial Pitch Rate: How fast the aircraft reacts to elevator input, ie forward and backward motion on the joystick. A higher value equates to a faster initial pitch rate. To model an unresponsive/high inertia aircraft, use a lower value. Pitch Recovery: How quickly the aircraft stops reacting to elevator input. A low value will give the plane a bit of an inertia "bounce" when you pull back on the stick and then release backpressure. Higher values will make the nose of the plane stop moving immediately when you release stick pressure. Sustained Pitch Rate: Exactly what it says it is. Higher numbers equate to faster pitch rates - faster loops and break turns. Lower values model slower pitch rates. Did you know that the Me-109 in the original AOE has the highest pitch rates, enabling it to out-turn the Spitfire in combat turns? Not very realistic implimentation of pitch rates. (d) YAW Yaw is the aircraft's response to rudder input. In sim terms it moves the plane to the left or right without inducing any roll. In its original form AOE makes the rudder far more useful in a dogfight than it ought to be. So consider dropping these values way down. -Level Bank Yaw Rate Self-explanatory. High values equate to faster -Yaw Rate in Banked turn yaw rate, and lower values means slower rates. (e) TURN The Turn Rate value changes how quickly the aircraft will turn left and right when in a banked turn without any stick backpressure or rudder. Probably more important in considering the computer controlled planes. Ever notice how tightly the enemy planes turn without being in a steep bank? Well, one way to cut down on this cheating is to decrease their turn rate. A higher value equates to a faster turn rate. No planes are modelled in the original AOE with a greater turn rate to the left or right. Must be a left over from Red Baron <g>. Here's a bit of information you might find useful: The Me-109 F could complete a 360 degree turn at 1000 meters altitude in 18 seconds. The Me-109 E took 25 seconds to complete the same turn. The A6M2 Zero could complete a 180 degree turn in 5.6 seconds at a speed of 230 mph. I suppose that means the Zero could complete a 360 in 13-14 seconds. No matter, check out how fast the aircraft turn in the original AOE. Yeah, they're all better at turning than the Zero. Didn't know we had any planes that could do that <g>! I guess that was more play balance stuff by Dynamix to make the sim more "fun." From "Battle over the Reich" by Alfred Price, quoting from a British wartime evaluation turn rate of captured aircraft: Comparing the P-51B to FW190: "Again, not much to choose. The P-51 is slightly better." However"...Dog-fighting is not altogether recommended." Comparing the P-51B to ME-109: "The Mustang is greatly superior." (My question is, is whether the ME had underwing tubs when they conducted the test. The Me-109 (w/o tubs) had a wing loading, fully armed and fueled, of about 39-40 lb/sq ft. The P-51 when loaded had a wing loading of 43-51 lb/sq ft.) Here's some wing loading (aircraft fully loaded, ie fuel & ammo) information: Aircraft Pounds/Square Foot ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Me 109 E-2 33.28 (with half tank of fuel: 25 lb/sq ft) Me 109 F-4 36.74 Me 109 G-6 40.11 None of these German planes have Me 109 K-2 39.27 underwing gun tubs figured in. FW 190 A-3 44.00 FW 190 A-8 49.03 FW 190 F-3 49.23 FW 190 D-9 48.12 Me-262 60.26 Ar-234 65.00 Spifire II (with 1/2 fuel) 24.00 Typhoon 47.49 Tempest 44.70 P-51 43-51 (Depending on Fuel load) P-47 42-45 (Depending on Fuel load) P-38 47 P-39 37.8 P-40 36 F4F 28.4 F6F 35.89 A6M2 22 A6M3 24.2 A6M5 26.3 N1K2 34.9 J2M2 32.8 J7W2 49.1 Ki-27 19.75 Ki-43 I 19.0 Ki-43 II 28.0 Ki-44 37.7 Ki-45 KAId 35.2 Ki-61 Ib 30.2 Ki-61 I KAIc 35.1 Ki-84 35.1 Ki-83 53.7 Ki-100 35.8 Of course there are a lot of other factors involved in determining turn rate, like speed, altitude, actual weight (who's got the least amount of fuel on board ??), type of bank, willingness to lose altitude, power loading, how many G's can the plane handle, etc. I'm sure there's even more to consider. There are a lot of factors more difficult to model: In a medium speed dogfight the Me 109 E could perform a tighter break turn because it could pull more instantaneous G (8.1) than a Spitfire (7.1). Of course in a prolonged turning match the Spitfire would gain the edge (Deighton, "Fighter"). The FW 190 A-3 could do everything better than a Spitfire V except tight turns. Yet the FW could perform "Incredible aileron turns were possible that would have torn the wings from a Me 109 and badly strained the arm muscles of any Spitfire pilot trying to follow." (Brown, "Wings of the Luftwaffe") So the FW could out-turn a Spitfire? And if the wings of the Me-109 would have gone their seperate ways in a turn that tight, why is the wing loading of the ME less than the FW? I guess this is one of the reasons I did AOEDIT - so you can model the planes to your interpretation of the facts. (f) LIFT ? Here's another area which needs a lot of investigation. This data field follows the same format as the aileron effect factors. Adjusting either the Master Lift factor of the Stall Factors introduces many interesting effects like stalls which occur based on wing angle of attack instead of speed. Limited experimentation leads me to believe that this data may hold the solution to reducing the climb rates and perhaps introducing accelerated stalls. (g) CEILING Enter ceiling in feet above sea level (or in sim terms, ground level - since there is no difference. The world is flat). (h) COMPRESSIBILITY The speed at which compressibility kicks in - that point when the aircraft controls barely respond to input because of high speed. This is on top of aileron lock. A great feature which the original AOE didn't implement. They actually had the structural integrity speed set lower than the compres- sibility speed, so your plane would fall apart before you would feel the compression causing the structural failure. Well, that was fixed in AOEREAL and now you can change it to suit your own interpretation. See SPEED TABLE for values to enter. (i) STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY The speed at which your plane falls apart. Note that shaking will occur prior to this, but that this is either controlled by an "UNKNOWN" or the .EXE file. See SPEED TABLE for values to enter. (j) RAKE ANGLE Controls the attitude of the aircraft in the air and on the ground. Positive value means the plane will fly nose high. Value of 0 means no angle. Negative values drop the nose angle. Radically changing this can make your line-up on the runway before take-off look pretty funny. (k) TAKE-OFF AND LANDING Use SPEED TABLE for following two factors: Tail-Up speed: Speed at which aircraft tail lifts when taking-off. Tail-Down speed: Speed at which tail will drop when landing. Tail Wheel Drag Effect: How much drag the tail wheel causes. This will lengthen take-off but shorten landing distance. Higher value increases drag. (l) LANDING GEAR Landing Gear Drag Factor: Slows the aircraft down in the air. Larger values increase amount of drag. Landing Gear Damage Speed: Speed at which landing gear become jammed down. Use SPEED TABLE. (m) FLAPS Flaps Drag Factor: Slows the aircraft down in the air. Larger values increase amount of drag. Half flap and full flap effect controlled by .EXE (?). Flap Damage Speed: Speed at which landing gear become damaged. Use SPEED TABLE. Dive Brake Drag Factor: Slows the aircraft down in the air. Larger values increase amount of drag. However, if an aircraft does not have dive brakes in the original AOE (ie value is 0) then you cannot add dive brakes. Perhaps an "unknown" value switches this on? (n) UNKNOWN Data which hasn't been labeled because I haven't been able to observe any change in aircraft performance. That doesn't mean they don't control some- thing important. Who knows what these integers control. Please let me know if you discover any secrets and I will update AOEDIT. SPEED TABLE *********** Use the following values to control the functions which occur at various speeds. Interpolate as required. It appears that the relationship is approximately 1:12. These values are based on actual tests. For Speed: Enter Value: 75 mph 800 100 mph 1200 180 mph 2100 225 mph 2700 300 mph 3360 375 mph 4500 400 mph 4900 425 mph 5200 450 mph 5400 475 mph 5500 500 mph 6000 540 mph 6360 II. AIRCRAFT ARMAMENT EDITING ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is pretty self-evident when you look at the editing screen. Let me remind you that the ammo load is important if you are interested in ever having the computer controlled planes disengage. They will only leave a dogfight and head for the next waypoint if they run out of ammo. Computer controlled planes will not disengage if they are damaged or out-numbered. In AOEFIX I have offered *.GL files which have a greatly reduced ammo level for the "other" side. The reason for this is that sim automatically doubles the ammo level of all computer controlled planes - a play balance gimmick they didn't need. It was left over from AOTP and Dynamix forgot to take it out. Because of this the enemy rarely runs out of ammo. This makes escaping from them when you're hurting impossible. By reducing the ammo level to 30-50 rounds (which the then computer doubles) I have found that a fairly balanced engagement can be realistically modelled. I have fought large combats where only one or two planes total were shot down. This is obviously much more realistic than the "all or nothing" battles found in the original AOE (Unless you enjoy air-combat DOOM style;). Of course it would be nice of Dynamix to fix this bug (in the .exe file) since they admitted it back in early '94. NOTE: The bomber aircraft are not available to edit armament. It is much easier to edit the weapon characteristics than edit the armament files. All Allied bombers are armed with .303 cal MGs (another "playbalance" feature) except for the B-26 which has 2 positions with .50 cal's (an oversight?). The Ju88 is armed with 7.62mm MG. Simply edit the weapon. Only the Spitfire IX has .303 guns other than the bombers. Give it the same armament as the Spitfire 14 so that when you change the .303 for the bombers you don't make the Spitfire IX more or less heavily armed. No German aircraft other than the Ju88 have 7.62mm. Regarding the odd B26, I have included in REAL.ZIP a B26.GL which has the "normal" .303 cals like the other bombers. III. REBUILD GUN TEXT FILES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You only need to use this if you change the armament of a plane. It builds new files which will give you the proper text description when you change weapon selection while flying. It does NOT change the text description in the pre-mission "PREFLIGHT" screen. For example, if you change the armament of the P-51 from six .50 cal's to 4 20mm cannon, if you DON'T rebuild the gun text files, when you are flying and you attempt to select 2 cannon instead of 4, you will still be reading the text which talks about the original .50's even though you are firing 20mm's. Not a big deal, but a nice touch IMHO. IV. WEAPONS CHARACTERISTICS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DF is DAMAGE FACTOR. The larger the value the more damage the weapon creates. Here is some information you may find useful regarding the DF: Weapon User Projectile Weight ~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .303 cal RAF .344 oz .30 cal USAAF .34 oz 7.62mm LW .45 oz .50 cal RAF/USAAF 1.71 oz 20mm FF LW 4.82 oz (explosive) 20mm all 4.82 oz (explosive) 30mm Mk 108 LW 11.22 oz (explosive) 37mm USAAF 21.44 oz (explosive) AOE has inaccurately lowered the DF values of the 13mm and 15mm weapons. ROF is RATE OF FIRE. RPB is ROUNDS PER BURST. The ammo counter decreases by this amount for each burst fired. To set the rate of ROUNDS PER MINUTE (RPM) use the following table which is based on tests of actual AOE data. Interpolate the values and test them to achieve the RPM required. Check out actual RPM below to see how inaccurate Dynamix's AOE data is. ROF with RPB equals RPM AOE WPN ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~ 210 1 400 210 2 800 210 3 1200 13mm, 15mm, .50 cal 210 4 1600 7.62mm, .303 cal. 315 1 288 315 2 630 20mm 315 3 952 420 1 225 420 2 450 30mm 420 3 681 1260 1 80 37mm, 57mm 1260 2 160 1260 3 240 1260 4 320 ACTUAL RPM ~~~~~~~~~~ 7.62mm MG17 1100-1200 rpm (synchronized RPM is 1000) .303 cal. 1200 rpm 13mm MG131 900-930 rpm 15mm MG151/15 750 rpm (Armor Piercing Ammo) 680 rpm (High Explosive Ammo) .50 cal 800 rpm 20mm US M2 650 rpm (introduced 1941) 20mm US M3 800 rpm (introduced 1944) 20mm MG/FF 520-540 rpm 20mm MG151/20 800 rpm (Armor Piercing Ammo) Synchronized rate for both 750 rpm (High Explosive Ammo) 550-750 rpm. 30mm MK 103 420 rpm 30mm MK 108 650 rpm 37mm US M4 150 rpm MV is MUZZLE VELOCITY. Notice how AOE has practically all weapons with the same muzzle velocity. Although I am not sure of the actual correlation of the values against real muzzle velocity, one might guess that it is 1:2 feet per second. (Try setting the MV real low and watch the tracers crawl out of the cannon <g>) Here are the actual muzzle velocities (in feet per second) I have. Difficult finding any two sources which agree. Weapon Muzzle Velocity ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 7.62mm MG17 2450-3000 fps .303 cal 2600-2660 13mm MG131 2370-2461 15mm MG151/15 2715-3131 .50 cal 2810-2850 20mm US M2 2850 20mm US M3 2750 20mm MG/FF 1800-1900 20mm MG151/20 2300-2920 30mm MK 103 2820 30mm MK 108 1650-1705 37mm 2000 RANGE is observed to affect the range of tracer burn out. I haven't done much with this except to observe that one can change the distance. When firing a weapon while sitting on the runway, the tracers don't even get a third of the way down the strip. However, finding out any reliable information on "effective" range is a problem. Looks like Dynamix felt the same way and gave ALL the weapons the same range. NOTE: The weapon firing sound effect is not controlled by the BULLETS.MEC file. For example, if you should use the 37mm cannon (not used by any planes in AOE) to represent a new weapon, it will still have the same "thump-thump" sound when fired, not matter what the ROF/RPB/RPM is. V. AIRCRAFT DAMAGE CAPACITY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I have worked over the DMG files alot in AOEREAL. Of course I'd recommend starting with them instead of the original AOE DMG files, since a lot of the work is done for you. AIRFRAME DAMAGE: This represents the overall capacity of the plane to take damage. The lower the value the more difficult the aircraft is to destroy. ENGINE DAMAGE: The lower the value the more difficult it will be to get the engines burning. In-line engines should have higher values since they are not as rugged as radial engines. The bomber engines should have higher values (even though they are usually radials) so that you can damage them enough so that they fall out of formation. If you don't, you won't be able to get them to fall out of formation. FUEL TANK PROTECTION: Making them unprotected will result in the planes exploding easily like many Japanese planes do in AOTP. VI. CONCLUSION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There will no doubt be updates to this editor. I hope you will be a part of that process as I again ask you to forward any comments, corrections, or insights (and your $2 :) you have on AOE and this product. Contact me, Nicholas Bell, at Compuserve, 72162,1667. eof