F/A 18 Super Hornet for Arma 2 OA

[Wiki 1558]

I think what you're looking for is very difficult - and nothing like that has already been released for ArmA 2.

to me, your configuration is very good now, nothing to change at all.

I'm just waiting for the HD tetures, nothing more.

[John Spartan 89]

@Wiki, bonsua mon ami. No FA18 E/F wont change function wise, maybe I might remove a thing to get better UI for loadout selection, but if someone is up for hevy challenge we can do separate FA18 G [electronic warfare aircraft]. HD textures are on the way.

Also since you are one of our mission guru's can I ask you help me out and create mission or two as a sample mission. like Carrier Ops. I am a poor mission designer to be honest. If you have time of corse.

Also here is a bit of attempt to create Chernarus WARFARE [Carrier Ops] with FA18 - DOWNLOAD HERE

[Wiki 1558]

well, I'm currently in a hurry:

-Nam campaign

-updating all my French army missions and campaigns

-templates for CWC²

-maybe an operation serval campaign with RWO

-real life business

but yeah, I think I do owe you one for your beautiful addon, so as soon as I finish my Nam campaign, I'll make one or two SP mission with your aircraft.

[John Spartan 89]

I understand, and appreciate your help on this one Wiki. I am in similar position.

BTW can't wait for your NAM campaign, I really enjoyed Six days in Fallujah mission set, I am Iraq veteran myself so kind of nostalgic with this stuff.

[Wiki 1558]

just an idea:

maybe you can ask GLT to add his computer to you plane.

OFrP added it to their planes: dunno if you know what I mean.

it's a computer to mark laser position on the map to use GBU-12 or JDAM. Meatball used it too, but it was GLT Missile Box dependant (I think), whereas OFrP did integrate it directly to their planes.

maybe you can do the same - if it's not too much work of course!

[John Spartan 89]

@Wiki, you mean GPS/INS targeting system by GLT Myke? If so then in the same mod you are using to play with this FA18 add latest [3.5] version of GLT missile box, and such option is already there, just needs one small addon. I did not want to create any dependencies' but compatibility is kept in mind. Please see readme for details.

[Wiki 1558]

ok, it's just I didn't use GLT/INS with your plane so I didn't catch you already make it work...

my mistake

[John Spartan 89]

Once GLT missileBox installed your loadouts and functions will change - it's an optional thing since some people like it more, or missions are designed with this addon in mind.

[Joshwall 10]

Hi Spartan, first of all GREAT ADDON. I've been playing around with it on JDog's Nimitz carrier for a couple of days now. One thing I've noticed that I don't thinks been mentioned here is an issue with the carrier landing. I keep landing correctly (though every now and again I need to go around) and when I land and i'm stopped by the arrestor wires the gear of the F18 decides to automatically go up without input from me. Is this me landing a bit retardedly or is this an actual bug? OR is it to do with the carrier?

Anyhoo, onto a couple of other points. I'd like to see the self-designator work in the future, I think you said you were working on it a few pages back. Blake's PINs had a similar function which was fantastic when used with the GBU12s, perhaps he'd be a good guy to talk to? Oh and will you be releasing a version with Mk82s (dumb bombs) with the ACE CRRP/CCIP capability at some point?

Thanks for your time and once again, great addon you've got there, keep up the good work!

[evil_brownie 17]

(...) Is this me landing a bit retardedly or is this an actual bug? OR is it to do with the carrier? (...)

In a blunt and simple answer, it's your flying :p

It's rather "easy", use full flaps, slow down as much as you can without losing altitude control, and watch your angle of approach, try to avoid steep angles. Compared to several other planes i've tested, JS's F-18 rates rather well for carrier landings.

[Wiki 1558]

agree with evil: I land perfectly well on Nimitz and never had this problem.

[Joshwall 10]

agree with evil: I land perfectly well on Nimitz and never had this problem.

Yeah, I believe I was actually using the blue 'Tailhook down' option rather than the green 'in built' option from John's F18. I feel that may have been an issue. It wasn't my flying per se as the gear would automatically retract for some odd reason. BUT, all is fixed now and it works. Though I still hope John can answer my other comments etc.

[Wiki 1558]

@Josh:

yeah, it's because of that.

[John Spartan 89]

One thing I've noticed that I don't thinks been mentioned here is an issue with the carrier landing. I keep landing correctly (though every now and again I need to go around) and when I land and i'm stopped by the arrestor wires the gear of the F18 decides to automatically go up without input from me. Is this me landing a bit retardedly or is this an actual bug? OR is it to do with the carrier?

Anyhoo, onto a couple of other points. I'd like to see the self-designator work in the future, I think you said you were working on it a few pages back. Blake's PINs had a similar function which was fantastic when used with the GBU12s, perhaps he'd be a good guy to talk to?

Oh and will you be releasing a version with Mk82s (dumb bombs) with the ACE CRRP/CCIP capability at some point?

- carrier landing indeed has this issue, I have seen it happen myself. Lads are right on their coments. Also If I am not wrong then there is a section where two parts of Nimitz model are joined together, if bay accident touch down is on that line it might behave like that. So its a bug within both addons, maybe fixable.

- ALTFLIR, is still on my to do list. Its more of a MP compatability issue at the moment. Idea is simple, as a gunner switch to optics zoom/find target, "designate target" useraction is avilible all this time, onece used it must place a targetable laser target on map. So after you will see that spot marked on radar and with "tab - lock" can be targeted. It is more or less working in SP, MP is the issue. It will be updated and maybe I'll use your advise to contact Blake for advice. Maybe a compatibility might be worked out since there is no point creating a bicycle again.

- ACE CCIP/CCRP, we tried that and the only way we managed to get it to work was messing up rest of the hud. At this moment this option is disabled, and since my attemps to contact author of script sets for particular ACE function failed, I decided to leave this option out. But the same time I am still loking for alternative to create more or less accurate unguided bomb "targeting" hud componenet. Will that be implemented can't promise mate.

[shadeops21 170]

Back again. It's ok about the G. Was just curious about it though.

Question regarding the Buddy Tank loadout. I've read the PDF that came with the mod, and I don't exactly see how that would work. I put the exact line of code into the F's init field, but when I tested it (Both SP and MP), it loaded with the Multirole layout. Are there any other steps? Or have I missed something?

Can't wait for the PSDs to be released. I want to try mocking up some textures from Ace Combat and some custom textures for some friends.

[[aps]gnat 28]

- carrier landing indeed has this issue, I have seen it happen myself. Lads are right on their coments. Also If I am not wrong then there is a section where two parts of Nimitz model are joined together, if bay accident touch down is on that line it might behave like that. So its a bug within both addons, maybe fixable.

Its gaps in elevated ground that caused this in the past. Common problem from my past addon making. Not a great deal that can be done about it, the auto retract is triggered by the game engine detecting no ground (yes a little weird).

For the Su33 I got around it by a "fully manual" animated landing gear (gearRetracting = 0; ). But there are disadvantages, eg you have to script gear up and down for AI, based on height above ground. One advantage though is its much harder to damage the gear.

Edited May 11, 2013 by [APS]Gnat

[John Spartan 89]

@ShadeOps21, in case you are using ACE then maybe try using a trigger for calling a script. Since I noticed that within ACE, the core init scripts sometimes might interfere with some addon init scripts.

- So place your FA18F in the editor, name it somehow [fa18_tanker_1 for example]

- place a trigger

- in trigger time delay fields set some slight delay like 0.5 seconds

- in condition instead of "this" use "true"

- on activation put following code - fa18loadoutscript = [fa18_tanker_1,"FA18F_TANKER"] execvm "js_fa18\scripts\FA18_loadouts.sqf";

start up your game this works even in MP since script is run serverside and every client machine has updated info about this unit.

Another option for mission makers is to spawn a whole plane with deley, after ACE core is run, and with custom init.

Let me know did this works for you man.

[shadeops21 170]

I'm not using ACE. ACE, while it is great for infantry and land-based combat, tends to overcomplicate aerial combat. So I am just using the mod and GLT. I use the GLT version of the line for the init. I'm copying and pasting from the PDF direct, to make sure there's no typo errors. I also had the name of the unit set as 'tanker'. I have it set so the F/A-18F is already flying in configuration.

I'm planning to set up an endurance-style mission for my friends and I, and having to land for fuel every time is somewhat time consuming. Just can't get the buddy pod system to work.

Here's what the unit looks like when I've set it up.

Image Link - http://gyazo.com/88ed628c0a920c9f31bc22e935f72d8f

[John Spartan 89]

@ShadeOps21, try this line instead, since you mentioned you use GLT missilebox

fa18loadoutscript = [this,"FA18F_TANKER"] execvm "js_fa18\scripts\FA18_loadouts_GLTmissilebox.sqf";

[shadeops21 170]

@John, I've tried that as well. Didn't work. Did you have to set it up in a fully scripted mission or can you just drop it into editor and fly it as is?

[John Spartan 89]

@ShadeOps

that's unusual issue then. Since everyone else got it working.

I use it as a simple unit in editor with these lines in init. See the sample/test mission here

Place this mission in your documents/arma 2 other profiles/yourprofile/missions/

There is a set up FA18F with buddy pod on deck and onother one circling around the map. [Jdog's Nimitz must be installed]

Let me know is this working for you.

Edited May 11, 2013 by John_Spartan

[Joshwall 10]

Hi John, thanks for responding to my comments. Its a shame about the ACE CCRP/CCIP, I would have thought they'd be rather open to get it integrated into other aircraft, it would seem not. I hope you keep pestering them though, it'd be great to see it in other well made aircraft such as your F18. Also good to know you're still hoping to get the FLIR camera / targeting pod to work, I would definitely suggest talking to Blake about it, I believe he's still about doing things every now and again.

I have found a slight issue with the F/A18F variant that I haven't seen in the E, its to do with the Service Menu. I have a rather decent carrier deck (using JDog's Nimitz) now with a few different aircraft (though the majority of them are F18s) but I can only get the service menu to work with the E model, not the F.

Is there something I'm doing wrong?

[shadeops21 170]

@John. When I tried to load that mission, my game crashed and gave this message:

Include file C:\Users\[username]\Documents\ArmA 2 Other Profiles\[profile name]\missions\NAVY_FA18_TEST.utes\JS_FA18_service_menu.hpp not found.

Not sure if there's a bug with the mission, the version of the jet (from armaholic), or both.

[John Spartan 89]

@ShadeOps21, my fault, delete description.ext file from that mission folder, so you have mission file only. It's my test mission in development, so that's why some stuff is messed up.

@Joshwall, from what I know that's a F model script error, I am still working on MP compatibility and with next release we will get rid of this issue. work in progress.

[shadeops21 170]

Well, I tried the mission. Still no sign of the buddy pod system. I can't think of anything that is hampering it.