This is the first part of the mod. This part includes 7 new aircrafts, new weapons, such as 3-inch and 5-inch (HVAR) rockets, and new 57-mm, 0.5- and 0.3-inch guns. However, the emphasis of the mod is not on new models of planes but on an improvement of their behavior and making air-attacks on U-boats more dangerous because historically significant part of U-boats were lost to an aircraft. NYGM team did a good job on that but not to the extent I would like it to have.
The important feature of this Air-attacks mod is that even when there is no bomb ordnance carried or the aircraft has run out of bombs, it will still make an attack run on the U-boat and strafe in most cases and then will return and attack/strafe again and again and again ...
AIRCRAFTS
Included are new models of
Mosquito (model by Bruno "brunosk" Escaravage, Coastal Command texture by Brian Hill/RobH. I had to reduce the model polycount down to about 4000 in accord with recommendations by SH3 Devs. Finally figured out why I could not make "proper" glass for the cockpit of this plane. If I followed the Devs recommendations accurately, the problem would never be encounted.)
Mosquito Tsetse with 57-mm gun (texture by Morten)
British Beaufighter (the model is from AvHistory 1% project, Coastal Command texture by C.Muir. I had to reduce the model polycount down to about 4000 and do some small adjustments in UV mapping)
Australian Beaufighter (texture by C.Muir)
Wildcat (model by Mauro Giacomazzi, texture from a download by Bob Chicilo. I re-did UV-mapping of the model to use the above texture)
Martlet (texture by Bub)
Hurricane MkIC (model by Mauro Giacomazzi. I did small adjustments in UV-mapping).
Planes come with specific/characteristic engine sounds and carry historically-correct armament. Distribution of the bomb ordnace and respective nodes had to be differently adjusted for each plane to make them return and attack again.
ROCKETS
Possiblity to have rocket weaponary is added to the game. 3-inch rocket ordnance become available to British planes in late 1942. They start to carry rocket racks under the wings. The rockets have the proper characteristics and When fired can be seen flying in 3D (if you are fast enough). Wildcats start to use 5-inch HVARs in the end of 1943.
GUNS
New guns are added to the game, such as 57mm cannon (for Mosquito Tsetse), 0.5" and 0.3" machine guns. All the aircraft guns have a historically correct amount of ammunition. For fixed guns (the ones which are not in turrets) the same trick is used as in the NYGM mod to make aircrafts strafe more often. Although, I started to use such a trick long ago, I now use angle values as in the NYGM mod because found them best suitable for the purpose. Therefore, Der Teddy Bar and the NYGM team should get credits for that.
However, the difference in my mod is that the guns will, whenever appropriate, fire simultaneously (say, all the four 20mm cannons fixed in Hurricane wings will fire altogether whenever the pilot decides to strafe) which how it was in RL. I actually like how Wildcat uses its guns. During the war, pilots prefer to use only four out of six guns and save the ammunition of two outermost guns just in case due to relatively low total amount of rounds. And in the game, Wildcat mostly fires four guns throughout the strafe run, only briefly employing outermost guns in the end of the attack.
20mm shells were somewhat strengthen specifically for aircraft's 20mm guns to emphasize the danger of strafe attacks. The shell damage properties are set nearly the same as used in the NYGM mod so that credits should go to Der Teddy Bar and the NYGM team.
Download is available on my site.
A few screenshots below
Hurricane Mk1C carrying rockets in racks under wings
Coastal Command Beaufighter with visible rocket racks mounted under the wings
Australian Beaufighter
Coastal Command Mosquito
Mosquito_Tsetse with 6pdr cannon and two 0.3" guns above it in the nose
Wildcat carrying HVARs under wings
Martlet
Rocket attack by Beaufighter
Rockets are coming
