Some news from the Project 1: Strike Fighters front.
First of all, ads have started appearing for a Strike Fighters Gold version. This version will install a version of Strike Fighters patched to the Service Pack 3 standard. Beta testing of SP3 is in progress. This patch will also be available as a free download and will, according to the beta-testers, address most show-stopping bugs with the sim and introduce the F-4J and A-4F as flyable aircraft. More news on this patch will be posted here when it becomes available.
Secondly, a new theatre for Strike Fighters is available for download. Danger: Bering Straits has been developed by MajorLee with the help of several community members. As the name suggests, it is set in the Bering Straits. There are no campaigns for this theatre available yet but these are already in production.
After Carl Norman's announcement that he would no longer act as an online spokesperson for Eagle Dynamics, developer of Lock On: Modern Air Combat, whilst still working on unnamed projects with them, questions were raised about the future of Lomac, which were promptly answered by Igor Tishin, Director of Eagle Dynamics (ED).
The near future will see 2 LOMAC add-ons. The first release, expected in fall 2004, will model the SU-25T ground-attack aircraft. The second product, scheduled for release in early 2005, will introduce the KA-50 attack helicopter as a flyable aircraft. The choice for these platforms may have to do with the fact they share various avionics and weapons systems in real-life.
These add-ons will integrate with ‘foreign’ versions of LOMAC and will be available as downloadable products from ED’s website, which will shortly be revamped. The price is unknown at this time.
More information can be found in this thread on the
Ubisoft forum
Hustler announced at the FF forums that the 1in2 hotfix is ready for download. Some of the things that were changed or fixed:
- Added SP4's F-16 FM data to our non-FM data (Simdata.zip) - Modified Campaign\Save Falcon.aii and Validac.dac to add the F-16 HAF into the campaign. - Disabled BDA mission in Korea 2005 campaign. - Lowered Max Flap speed so AI can land trhe AV-8B without crashing. - Added ALQ-131 to F-16AM-B&N - Removed ALQ-101 from A-10 since the flaps hit the end of it when deploying. Only has the ALQ-131 now. - Tweaked squadron stores for MiG-23 so it now favors the use of the AA-7R on the winglet pylons and the AA-8 on the fuselage pylons. - Increased damage value of AGM-154A....JSOW-A CBU type after getting feedback on FF Forum. - Reworked A-A missle loads on JA-37. It actually was never finished. - Fixed the chaff/flare ejection location on various US aircraft. (SImdata.zip) - New SeasonSwitcher.exe (by Jam) - Read SeasonSwitcher-Readme.txt for changes.
On August 28 2004, the T2 function centre inside the Virgin Blue domestic terminal at Sidney International airport will host the Australian Flight Simulation Expo. Aside from seminars and a LAN-meet, a number of companies will be presenting their products. These include already available products like Lomac and FS2004 and flightsim hardware, but also Ubisoft's upcoming Pacific Fighters. Entrance is free for children under 14, adults pay $5 (Australian)
More information on competitions, accessibility, events and exhibitions can be found
HERE
Hailstorm has just released his F-15 skinpack for Freefalcon 3. These skins are based on the work of Ron 'Red1' Nair and include 3 Israeli airforce schemes for the F-15A/C/I, a Japanese self-defense force scheme and a USAF compas ghost scheme.
More details, some screens and a download-link can be found at the
Freefalcon forum
Blueprint, with assistance from Zaggy and Baldeagle, has just released version 1.2 of the L2-terrain elevator. This program raises the terrain of the Korean theatre by a factor of 1.4, better approximating the elevation of the real terrain better. Version 1.2 fixes bugs like non-moving ground units found in the first release and streamlines the installation process. This program is compatible with every version of Falcon and high-res tiles. It may also be of interest to Freefalcon 3 users that the terrain of "Eurowar" and "Korea 2005" is also updated by this version. Other theatres, like Balkans, do not require this elevation change since they were correct to begin with. Work on a next release with more features is already underway. More information, instructions and download-links can be found at Blueprint's site
HERE
