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1.28 features. European Air War Readme!

The Code Group is proud to release patch 1.28 and trusts online and offline players will enjoy the new possibilities it offers.

INSTALLING EAW PATCH 1.28 We recommend placing the patch into the EAW root directory and installing it from there. So that players may still enjoy the thousands of EAW models and many game scenarios available, this patch is designed to work with most older EAW versions once it is installed. The CDFs and d3d.dll files created in the install must be used. They are backward compatible, and also contain new files and routines which the new exe needs.

FEATURES OF THE NEW EXE Some you will only find in gameplay: Updated Flight / Damage modelling for the 30 default planes utilising the new exe's improved gun damage routines. This corrects the relationship between small mgs and medium mgs/cannons Gun convergence set at historical ranges Gunsight reticule size adjustable from ini value Dust on the runways F9 view available almost down to ground level Extended field of view in 1024 x 768 mode "Players Skill" set in Configure Game/Difficulty/Combat now limits viewing options and icon range (also see Difficulty in multiplayer section below). "Realistic Gunnery" amended, and now the only difference is the bullet damage gets increased by a factor of 1.5 when "off" New individual sounds for each aircraft, with added Doppler effect and an increase in volume during dives Separate sound ini's and related "Sounds" folder Glaring sun including nicer sunsets, great for hiding planes in no icons games! Improved, more aggressive AI behaviour, and Escorts that really escort! Damaged flight controls (with explosions) will increase drag, but are still partially effective Falling debris from cannon hits on aircraft Destroyable tailgunners in bombers New engine temperature handling Combat flaps for most fighters New take-off and landing routines, be careful with that rudder or the undercarriage will break! New aircraft parking routines New explosions, dustclouds and craters Ground object damagemodel updated and ground vehicles (train, trucks etc) resized Moving ship convoys Wrecks for crashed plane Fixed load-outs Improved cockpits on some aircraft including nicer rearview graphics Bullet smoke trails Gun flashes from muzzles, visible from inside/outside cockpit Improved contrails with adjusted appearance altitude Adjusted altitude bands for missions Frames Per Second now printed on screen with "Ctrl G" Accelerated time even close to the enemy is possible Up to 255 TMods (objects types) are available there are allied and axis vehicles and trains Improved AAA, be careful around enemy airfields! More people on the ground and birds in the air Baled pilots become 3D Parachutists with corrected decent rate Night fighters get a form of radar during night missions on Ace setting Four engined bombers are flyable from groundstarts, and individual engines can be started or stopped "Bomber stream" night bomber formations Correct pre-decimal currency in UK/US leave passes Alternative Quickstart missions available with ini toggle Ability to make fighter sweeps over friendly territory Giant shadows bug that appeared at low levels is fixed Fully ungarbled cockpit fix Many bugfixes to the default game ...and probably some more that we have forgotten about.

Others are obvious from the outset: A two aircraft selection screen option, Axis and Allied, with the colour of the text being changed by left-clicking at the bottom of the screen and selecting from the popup colour palette Any flyable plane except for the V1 is listed for selection in single missions Interdiction missions allow you to select the type of convoy and the size There are a number of improvements to multiplayer: The host can set the target, friendly and enemy bases, types of AI planes, whether you respawn after dying, whether your squad includes AI plane, and several other things The "Difficulty" setting limits ingame viewing options and icon range Interdiction types and sizes can be set, as in single mission mode Multiplayer settings can be created in a text file and loaded by the host

NEW INI FILE ADJUSTABLE ENTRIES Under "EAW" section "HudFontSize=0" Toggles the HUD Font Bold, to improve legibility at high resolutions "0" is off, "1" is on "GunSightSize=1024" Sets the Gunsight Reticule size. Valid values range from 800 to 2100. Note: "1550" is the maximum that fits nicely on the current Spitfire gunsight. Using this value, the wingtips of a fighter fit into the circle at a range of about 150 yards. "OldStyle=0" "0" activates the new 2 screen plane selection option, "1" selects the original 3 screen layout "ColourAxis=10" default colour of text on new Axis plane selection screen "ColourAllied=3" default colour of text on new Axis plane selection screen "BirdSeed=5" a value 1 (more) to 5 (less), to change the occurrence of birds ingame "QuickVersion=0" default Quickstart (random mission type) "QuickVersion=1" very small battle size + random mission type. "QuickVersion=2" very small battle size + last selected mission type (single mission setup) "QuickVersion=3" very small battle size + Figthersweep "QuickVersion=4" very small battle size + Escort With QuickVersion > 0 Bombers only will get interdicts Under "Netoption" section (also adjustable from Online prebriefing screen) "StartOnGround=0" Multiplayer mission option, "0" = airstart, "1" = groundstart "NoAI=0" Multiplayer mission option, "0" = with AI in your squadron, "1" = no AIs "AllowRespawn=1" Multiplayer mission option, "0" = No automatic respawn, "1" = Allow Respawn

IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS FOR MODDERS Data Tables: External TMod tables can be made and saved in a "TMod.dat" file External ship convoy waypoint tables can be made and saved in a "convoys.dat" file External formation tables can be made and saved in a "Frmation.dat" file These files can be made by editors. If any of them are present in the EAW folder the new exe will use the file in preference to the built-in table. Some subtle things: To solve a frontline problem in FAW we discovered that the exe uses a particular "TCode" as a reference to determine the friendly and enemy sides of the frontline. Previously we thought it was based on the Capitals set in campaign files. If the value is contained in a file named "CapSet.dat" in the EAW folder it will be used in preference to the one hard coded in the exe. Previously unused values in "Planes.dat" can now be utilised, and a plane can be set as a seaplane, do a carrier landing, or have a fixed undercarriage. There are some other possibilities where several different nationalities can be displayed when read from an external file, in preference to the standard ones. CAUTION While most existing addon mods should be compatible with this patch, some mods e.g. Flight models, will disable some features and produce minor gameplay problems. The normal rules apply about online compatibility.

PLEASE NOTE This is intended as a brief outline. Contact any of us via SimHQ if you need to know more.

DISCLAIMER A necessary evil these days We accept no liability for any damage this might do to your system. By installing this patch you accept full liability for installing this to your own computer and do so at your own risk. Having said this, it has been fully play tested with no resulting problems on our computers.

CREDITS This patch was made by the cooperative efforts of the EAW Code Group, ably assisted by a dedicated bunch of testers. Thanks to everyone involved. We hope you enjoy it!