Something's missing...

[kelticheart]

Hello everybody!

Following up the add on SimViation Home page about the latest for CFS2, I downloded the Pearl Harbour Arena mission from simviation/cfs2/missions16.htm. Unfortunately, (should I say as usual?...) after the installation was completed, I discovered from all the errors I got while trying to play it, the player's aircraft is missing, including some scenery files and other background objects like static planes and so on. I always thought the Pearl Harbour attack was THE missing mission in CFS2 and I was very excited I could finally re-live the simulated experience of trying to defend the Hawaiian base against the attacking planes or viceversa! The disappointment!
To make a long story short, can anybody be so nice as to tell me where I could find:
1) the P-40B in 1941 USAAC livery (they all seem to come in Flying Tigers colours!) required by the mission;
2) an ALPHA_B25B_Mitchell (I guess static object) as required by the initial error message;
3) Wheeler field AAF files (scenery?).
So far, these are the things I discovered missing. I hope I won't find more as I go along.
Although I am immensely grateful to all of the folks out there that are contributing to enrich CFS2 more and more, I just wish that what's missing from the download, and where it can be found, would be clearly indicated in the description box more often.
Please, excuse my petty request, and accept a zillion thanks to everybody, including Pearl Harbour Arena's designers for their hard work.

Stefano Denti aka kelticheart

[Hagar]

Hi Stephano. I just downloaded the mission to check it out. (I redirected the auto-install to a Temp folder & did not install it to CFS2 or try to fly the mission.) As you say, the ALPHA_B25B_Mitchell & P-40B are not included & I wonder if part of the package is missing. The mission could easily be edited to use the default B25D_MITCHELL instead. No P-40B is defined in the mission itself & the Player aircraft appears to be the default F4F4_WILDCAT.

[kelticheart]

Dear Hagar,

thank you for your quick reply!That's it, I forgot to say the user's default plane is the stock F4F-4 Wildcat. I went back to check the scenery and you're right: Wheeler Field appears in CFS2  free flight airfields list. I will try to edit the mission and correct the missing B-25 with the stock one.
One question remains: what about the USAAC P-40B? I already downloaded the excellent Phil Mehard/ Pascal Auterive/Bruno Duffort's P-40 (BR2-P-40B_47.zip) that I currently fly in Yoshi's Flying Tigers campaign. Highly detailed, very friendly frame rate, but I just can't bring myself to fly a Flying Tigers plane in the Pearl Harbour scenario. Am I too historical accuracy minded?
Do you know if perhaps there's a repaint available somewhere for this plane?

Thank you again.
Best regards,
S.D.

[Hagar]

Hi again Stephano. You seem to know what you're doing so I'm sure you will be able to fix it. If not, maybe the answer is to bin the whole thing. It seems to me that the missing aircraft might be from payware packages. I'm wondering if the mission was properly beta tested before uploading or if it was uploaded by a 3rd party.  ::)

There might be a suitable USAAC P-40B or repaint for the existing versions posted somewhere. I haven't seen any myself but I don't keep up with CFS2 downloads these days. The alternative would be to try repainting that Flying Tigers example yourself.

[kelticheart]

Thank you again Hagar!

Mmm....If I only were proficient in repainting I would follow up on your suggestion!
I am better at doing other modifications, like, for example, I not only changed the B-25 in the P.H.Arena, I also succeeded in turning it into a real Pearl Harbour attack intercept mission. Very first time I toyed so extensively with the editor mission! The only problem I had is my PC, which doesn't have enough "muscle" to handle more than 30 aircrafts at a time. So, I can't reproduce a convincing "Day of the infamy" with the different attack waves and so on...but I'll live with it...and fly an AVG P-40!

Until next time,
best regards and Happy Easter to you and all the simpilots out there!

S.Denti