Starting CFS2 Again

[podunkpete]

Cleaning up the home office closet I discovered my old CFS2 discs and it brought a smile to my face. Having for now grown tired of FSX, I want to reinstall CFS2 but have no idea what improvements/enhancements this community has brought to the game over the last several years. So if you don't mind, what add-ons would you install after a clean install of the original game? Staying for now in the Pacific theater, what would you add as far as scenery, missions, aircraft, whatever? All opinions valued, and I appreciate the help.

PodunkPete

[Captain Kurt]

Whoa, where to start? There is so much.

To get you off to a fast start might be to download my campaign, The 9th Fighter Squadron, 49th Fighter Group in WWII. Anything that is not stock is included in the download and it is an auto loader.

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...tid=44&id=2561

Description: A historical campaign starting in March 1942, the CFS2 pilot will get to fly a total of 106 historical missions with the 9th FS as it moves from Australia to and through New Guinea, to Biak, to the Philippines and finally winding up at Okinawa in August 1945. The pilot will transition through the P-40E, P-40K, P-38F, P-38H, P-47D razorback, P-38J and P-38L.

Another choice if you want to stay with the Navy would be my campaign VF-19 Satan's Kittens. It is not an auto load but in addition to the necessary campaign files included, it has a long list of add ons with links for the campaign which will get you well started on customizing your Pacific theater CFS2.

Description: A historical 31 mission campaign for USN fighting squadron VF-19 "Satan's Kittens" aboard the USS Lexington CV16 during the last half of 1944. You'll fly the F6F-3 and F6F-5 Hellcat against Japan over Guam, Okinawa, Formosa, the Philippines and Leyte Gulf.

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...id=44&id=17356

After you whet your appetite on that you'll probably want to begin going through the Warbirds library here and begin downloading all the add ons that grab your interest.

Welcome back

[No Dice]

Welcome Back podunkpete,

Anything created or suggested by the Capt. would be where I would start.

Plus then check out all of Rami's great work, That will take you 4 months of
weekends at least.

Dave

[Fibber]

....so much to catch up on and where to start?! Don't feel lonely though. After all these years in CFS2 and with oddles of mods stored I finally got everything running amazingly perfect! Then the gremlin struck and my hard drive crashed!. Running WIN XP -sp3 on two SATA HDs that were Raid 0 I ( I know, I know) figured NP. That is when murphy hit My external HD I used for backup ALSO failed! So now no back-ups, no main comp! Double whammy and FUBAR!!!!!!!!!
Comp hunting I have to go(HP or Lenovo?) and figure out what to do from there. Temp using a old portable for this.

Any ideas for recovery? Anyone know if I copy the remaing HD to a external remove the RAID and reinstall in the old comp. if that will work?

[shphawk]

....so much to catch up on and where to start?! Don't feel lonely though. After all these years in CFS2 and with oddles of mods stored I finally got everything running amazingly perfect! Then the gremlin struck and my hard drive crashed!. Running WIN XP -sp3 on two SATA HDs that were Raid 0 I ( I know, I know) figured NP. That is when murphy hit My external HD I used for backup ALSO failed! So now no back-ups, no main comp! Double whammy and FUBAR!!!!!!!!!
Comp hunting I have to go(HP or Lenovo?) and figure out what to do from there. Temp using a old portable for this.

Any ideas for recovery? Anyone know if I copy the remaing HD to a external remove the RAID and reinstall in the old comp. if that will work?

Not sure if that will work, but I recommend Raid 5 in the future. Then you can rebuild your data with the remaining 2 drives.

ShpHawK

[Devildog73]

Cleaning up the home office closet I discovered my old CFS2 discs and it brought a smile to my face. Having for now grown tired of FSX, I want to reinstall CFS2 but have no idea what improvements/enhancements this community has brought to the game over the last several years. So if you don't mind, what add-ons would you install after a clean install of the original game? Staying for now in the Pacific theater, what would you add as far as scenery, missions, aircraft, whatever? All opinions valued, and I appreciate the help.

PodunkPete

Pete,
I would definitely look into MaskRider's scenery offerings. The Pacific has come a long-LONG way. Then, Pacific Blues water with UncleTgt's darker tropical textures.
Most of MaskRider's newer scenery works with Rhumba's (Richard Ludowise) mesh, which I would also install on a clean CFS2.
Follow both Rhumba's and MaskRider's installation instructions to the letter and you will really enjoy the results.

*Please realize that most if not all of our add-on campaigns require added library objects and trees, as well as new airfields.
Some of the auto-installers with the Capt's and others' campaigns and missions install those library objects, some do not.

Also, before doing anything to a fresh pristine install, I would copy the entire Combat Flight Simulator2 folder and place it in two other locations, i.e. C:\Combat Flight Simulator2 and C:\Games(or whatever)\Combat Flight Simulator2.

If you get back in the seat and like flying your old hobby as a new one, you will eventually want another install as well as a pristine one.

**ALSO**
If you are no longer running XP, I strongly suggest downloading a "NO CD" program for your CFS2(d0t)exe.
Windows 8 and Windows 10 will like that much better than a straight install.

Welcome back!

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Podunkpete:

I am currently working on updates/revisions to my "USS_Essex_CV-9_Campaign" and "USS_Saratoga_CV-3" campaigns with new ships, aircraft and scenery. I am waiting for the release of a new TBF Avenger to complete them. Hopefully They will be released, one way or another, in a couple of months.

So much has come out in the last few years it is a new game! Many new and improved aircraft and ships. In the Pacific theatre, you have a choice of scenery installs and add-on scenery: stock coastline based and alternate coastline based.

[No Dice]

You may also be interested in some Utilities, old and new:

http://www.thefreeflightsite.com/Utilities2.htm

And if you dabble in design:

http://www.thefreeflightsite.com/Design.htm

[podunkpete]

Cleaning up the hard drive, installing CFS2 fresh, looking for downloads and - an email shows up dropping a project on me that guarantees many long days ahead! Sigh. I guess my return to the Pacific skies will have to wait a bit. Many thanks for the answers so far though, and if any more ideas crop up please post them!

[No Dice]

Yes it sucks when you have to stop and make some money to keep food on the table.

I keep waiting on one of My Nigerian Uncles I never new about to send me the $34 million that the email promised
was in route to me.

Still waiting.

Dave

[MaskRider]

Yes it sucks when you have to stop and make some money to keep food on the table.

I keep waiting on one of My Nigerian Uncles I never new about to send me the $34 million that the email promised
was in route to me.

Still waiting.

Dave

LOL! Good one!

[Fibber]

....we must be cousins, I have been contacted by him at least twice! Still awaiting his arrival of the funds in my bank account!