homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation Air Combat - General Modern Era What would you like to see in MiG Alley?

As per my earlier thread about the MiG Alley Development Group, The SilkMan asked if I would start a thread asking simmers to post what they would like too see added/fixed and improved in MA. Originally I was going to make four different threads, but instead I think it might be easier just to have one starter thread, and let everyone reply here. It would make it easier for the MA Development Group to find and so no ones request gets lost or scattered on this sub-forum. Just start your reply with whatever your request might be. If your request is for improved game models or improved terrain, start the post with GFX, if it's game bugs, just start with GAME BUGS, aircraft skins and nose art can just be AC SKINS, etc. It would be really great to give these guys feedback as they really want to improve MA for all who still enjoy this classic.

No one interested? 19 views and no comments on improvements or fixes you would like to see implimented in MA? I understand a lot of simmers interested in a up to date , dedicated Korean War flight sim are looking to SoW: Korea, (if that ends up being the title), me included. But really ask yourself just how long will you have to wait for it, a year, a couple years, maybe more? Sure there are a few Korean War flight sim mods out there based on other flight sims (I have most of them) but they are what they are, just mods and IMHO no one has surpassed MA yet in capturing the feel of the air war over Korea, discounting GFX of course. This post and my other post are in no way attempting to steal any bit of SoW:Korea thunder. That's just silly to even think that since MA is how old? Even if MA get a major overhaul and face lift it will be obsolete the second SoW:Korea hit's the shelfs. But right here and now is a golden opportunity to get a classic Korean War air combat sim updated and improved, even if all it does is just ties people over till SoW:Korea is released. It's well worth it to participate, and when released won't cost a you a dime if you already have MA. I'll leave this post up for a few more days and if there isn't any real interested shown I'll remove the post and just let SilkMan know that there really isn't any appreciable interest seeing MA improved (at least at SimHq).

I'd certainly like to see Mig Alley get some attention, particularly with the graphics and of course, to squash any bugs.

I just dug out my CD and was pleased to find it installs and runs well on Win 7 64-bit.

i haven't tried Mig Alley, only seen some screenshots and reviews, and believe that MA has decent graphics and physics etc.
i have tried (briefly) many flight sims including Nova series(F22 Mig29 ...), DID series(EF2000 F22), Graphsim F18 series, Falcon4AF, IL2 series, Flanker Lockon series, Strike Fighter series. generally speaking IL2 & LOCKON come closest to my expectation for their physics engine and capability of recording replays, plus quite good graphics and sound effects. but they still lacks something in the physics department (i am a hardcore game physics "critic" since the era of NFS1 )
some maneuvers just can't be done in any flight sim today - you can find out what i mean if you know well about the maneuvers in stunt flight competitions. if a sim can't realize real-life maneuvers, how can it be called a sim? the answer is that, these sims are not physics simulation, they are decent packages of different elements.
as for Mig Alley, it should have some outstanding element in order to stand out as a great game or great sim, either it be stuning graphics, physics, or game modes, or an enjoyable storyline, or millions of online players ...
if it is special in something, it will be regarded specially.

MA has excellent flight modelling, great immersion and I believe the campaign is great (could never get it to work without crashing myself). Plus, there are no other good Korea sims.
But, they'd have to fix graphics, stability, terrain, multiplayer, new objects, new cockpits, and then it would be up to standard of Il-2 mod (which I've only seen videos of, given).
I thought this was being done two years ago, and I happily would have paid for a MA makeover, but there was a couple of hints and then nothing, sadly.
I really hope SoW: Korea is as good as MA was (plus carrier ops!) and I'll wait for it- at the moment there's several good flight sims to play, so if it takes three years I can cope. Don't know if it's worth the MiG Alley Dev Group putting a lot of hours in, then having SoW come out a month later.

Understand guys a lot has already been done to MA. If anyone has joined the MA Development Group you already know of the numerous fixes and improvements (via update emails). I have been a member of MA Development Group for years and have read most of the update emails describing what they have added or fixed in MA. It's an impressive list that has grown year by year. But like all MA fans that went to the MA Development Groups site it got pretty frustrating because while it was being talked about, there was never any of these patches or mods to download at the site. It was only very recently that I finally asked SilkMan where are all these new improvements? And where can I get them because there's never no files to download at the site? His answer was in the two emails I posted earlier that finally explained the mystery and the reason behind it. And honestly it makes sense, one big fix instead of ton's of small one's. Followed by improvements to the GFX. But look I'm not here to argue, if you want your voice heard then speak up if not then do nothing it's really no skin off my nose either way. SilkMan asked me a favor and I did it, the rest is up to the community.

OK - I'll start with basics for my own experience:

1. Stable XP performance on modern Nvidia graphics cards and drivers.

2. Reliable co-op online.

I have an old computer, so I have no clue about how it performs in newer systems. I hope it supports 16:9 widescreen resolutions, newer CPU/GPU/TIR/OS/Drivers. Graphical improvement as much the engine permits. Adding on that new planes(flyable/AI)/ground objects would be nice. If it is possible to include additional campaigns on carrier operations with new flyable planes like Corsairs/Skyraiders/Panthers then I would like to see that too in the new upgrade.

I'm just in the process of trying to install some of my old sims on a new system running Windows 7 64 bit. I have had success with a good few. I would love to see this classic sim enhanced and although it has been a while since I had it installed, I seem to remember the ground environment could do with bringing more up to date.
I am struggling to complete an up to date install as the 1.23 patch will not currently install. If I can overcome this then I could post more comments, however, my current gripe would be Win 7 64bit compatability. Another thread suggests the sim works with the Pro install so I haven't given up yet.

I just installed it on my win xp machine and got it working.
I tried a few things to make it work so im not really sure what i did to get it going.
Im very exited about it since i have never played the sim and im at the beguining of the learning curve but man it looks and feels great. of course im using track ir4 with it and works great.

can anyone tell me how to fallow my way-points?

what i like to see?
COOP MODE hehe

is the BDG team still works on this?

sad is that most mig alley sites are gone, having a hard time trying to find a manual
or instrauctions on how to fly the missions.

Here's some stuff that may help you papote. The first link is for some MA files and the second is for the Spring Offensive guide. As far as I know BDG team is not doing anything with MiG Alley. The MiG Alley Development Group are the ones currently working on fixes and upgrades. If I'm wrong anyone reading this please feel free to correct me.

There are several ways to follow your way points
1). From the in cockpit view hit the F4 key and your view will shift to the direction of the next waypoint (sort of like a padlock) Shift F-4 will padlock the previous waypoint, Ctrl F4 will reset the view.
2). The M key will bring up the map and from there you can see your aircraft icon and where your heading, there are also several selections you can make there also like advance to next waypoint.
3). Hitting the R key will bring up a drop down box for the radio, I do believe from there you can ask the tower for the heading to the next waypoint, among other things for combat, pre-combat, return to base etc.

http://www.filefront.com/user/Falco250 (MA files)
http://www.combatsim.com/memb123/htm/dec99/mig-offensive5.htm (Spring Offensive Guide)

I don't know what kind of MiG Alley copy you have, but if it's the jewel case one I think the game card and manual are probably on a .pdf file somewhere on the disk. If you have the original boxed disk but are missing the manual and game card I know there are sites out there where you can download the manuals and stuff, try a Google search for it or maybe a kind sole will post it here for you.
Just checked that files link, there are .pdf files there you can download for the quick referance card and the game manual

thank you so much, thats all i needed.
i actually bought mig alley it when it first came out and i remember reading the manual
but for some reason that manual didn't really help haha. so i kept playing
flanker 1.5

thanks a lot for those good links

Gentlemen,

Most of the MA sites I remembered from days gone by are gone. I'm delighted to find one that seems to be somewhat active in the summer of 2010. I was as disappointed as everyone else when the BDG MA experiment was shut down by hackers. OSRAM and Stickman are old pals of mine from way back when the BDG started on the BoB source code and we had just started HWH on this forum.

I have just gotten MA reasonably stable and running again on XP. It ran great for several years on an older SE system but when that crashed I had trouble getting MA to run on a new system under XP. It cranked up OK but there was no joystick control. I had installed a USB stick since the crash. Not knowing the BDG patch would have fixed that' I never installed the patches and just uninstalled it. IL2-1946 and BoB2 have more or less filled my needs for some time and I never got back to reinstalling MA until yesterday.

Perhaps someone else may benefit from my experience in getting MA to run under XP?

Even though I installed it with Win 98 compatibility mode and patched it up to the BDG 85F patch; when I started it I got an error message "Not enough virtual memory". OK thanks to my little book that I enter all my computer changes in I remembered that I had increased my page file size a year ago. Once I switched that back to the original size alles gut. Then I found that it took up to 4 minutes to go into 3D. I sorted that out by trying several things any one of which may have done the trick. I do not know which. One thing I did was that I found I had set the MA shortcut to run in compatibility mode for some reason and I switched that.

I installed several mods and everything was good except for the polygonish dull looking F86 skins. And the fact that although I have the deadzone maxed out the joystick and rudder seems mighty skittish and difficult to control. I have an inexpensive Saitek 290 Pro stick. Anyone know of a utility that I can use to increase the size of that deadzone that will work with a USB? I cannot find anything to change in the BDG text file. I'd like to see fine control adjustments in the game more like that in IL2.

I lost all my mods in the crash so I've been combing the net for mods and tips and although I thought I'd checked the SimHQ MA forum I missed this thread altogether.

If MA were upgraded to present state of the art it probably wouldn't even run on my P4 1 GHZ system. IL2-1946 is about as far as it will take me. Even the last BDG BoB2 patch left my GForce 4 128 MB card in the dust as it is no longer supported.

I would love to see the MA planes appearance improved and upgraded. I've found some more polished and silvery mods for the US planes except the F86. There is one out there but I've missed that somehow. Having more single player scenario options available as in BoB would also be nice. Some sort of mission maker similar to Mission Mate would be great. Adding carrier opps with the Panther and or Cougar Navy jets would be magnificent.

I just found something on this thread that helped. I was not happy with the hat switch views. By setting views to fixed and pan to keyboard that sorted it out and even improved the padlock view for some reason.

When it comes right down to it I want something that is stable, looks better, is more flexible, has more control options and in the end will still run on my older system. One can but dream.

MEDITOR (Mission Editor).

As folks know who own Rowans Flying Corps Gold (FCG), it came with its own robust mission editor,MEDITOR.exe. The mission editor can create/edit new single missions and campaigns.

When Rowan released the Mig Alley Source Code, they also included the MEDITOR source code. My hopes has always been 4 things:

FCG: total revamp as was done to Rowans BoB. Get the thing upgraded to work minimum with medium muscle single core, non-sli 2g ram pc's with at least WinXP, DX9c (or Opengl?) and graphics cards. Higher res 16bit/32bit textures, more detailed 3d model aircraft.

MA: same as above plus and firstly, get the MEDITOR to work with Mig Alley.

BoB: get MEDITOR to work with both original version BoB and the newer BoBII. Note: the BoB source code was released at or near the time of the MA sc release.

jimb

On my MiG Alley XP Installation, trying to go to the Map immediately crashes the game.

Any ideas on this or known workarounds?

Folks,

juvat:

I have FCG running now along with MA BoB2 and IL2-46. The game runs well enough but it is a bit unstable and subject to the occasional freeze up but not often. The new WW1 sims require far more power than my older system offers so it is the best I can do.

Were it not for the fact that their site was hacked I think the BDG (who salvaged BoB of whom I am an honorary member), would have continued to work on MA. It is my hope that one day OSRAM and his boys will turn their bright lights on MA once again. I'm not exactly sure who has started this hopeful thread. There may be a connection to the BDG?

The release of the MA code was some time after that of BoB. Rowan was bought by Empire and forced to drop PC work for more lucrative efforts creating titles for consoles. We were a mixed group on the BoB forum at that time and many were playing with both sims. Amidst the euphoria attendant to the release of the code for BoB we filled the forum with requests for the source code for MA. Contacts were made and legal issues resolved and it finally came to pass some time later.

Recluse:

I am running MA under XP SP3 and I have had a couple of CTDs when going into 3D but no problem with the map. I probably need to increase my virtual memory. The map and radio commands seem to work fine and using the map cheat gets me home fast after combat. I assume the game runs OK except when you access the map?

I licked my difficulty controlling the F86 in auto padlock view by dropping flaps, if anyone is interested. That stabilized the plane enough that I can roll right over onto the padlocked enemy with ease. I had completely forgotten that I used to do that when I had MA running on another computer under Win98 SE.

MA was completely stable then without any problems. It was much more stable than FCG ever was. I had less trouble getting Rowan's BoB to run well than many who had newer systems. The Rowan code favored less powerful systems at the time.

I just tried it again. Now my memory is refreshed about how I got it working. The late Kevin Speichts (aka PositiveG) had created an Application Compatibility Toolkit .sdb file which helped get into the 3D world. Also, had to set the affinity to both cores of a Dual Core processor using some Affinity Assignment program (I used the Toms Hardware Group SetAffinity).

So I can get into the menu, get into the 3D world.. Fly around etc. but when I hit the M key for map, I hear a Windows Critical Fault tone and everything locks up except for the mouse cursor. Have to do a hardware reboot/reset to get out of it. Hmm i forgot to check the radio commands but I will do that.

(I am using the latest patch and the BDG 0.85)

Folks,

Recluse:

Mine is patched to the BDG 8.5F. Without the BDG patch there would be no hope of running MA with a USB stick. I tried it once and it wasn't pretty. I have managed the 'NoCD' fix and MA runs smoother with that ditto for FCG. The only time I have had a CTD in MA has been going into or out of 3D and that doesn't happen often. When it has happened I do not have to reboot. I have a much less robust 1.6 Mhz system with 2 HDD and only a gig of ram.

IMHO if everything else works you could easily get by without the map, certainly in instant missions. You can use the next waypoint padlock as needed.

You might try here at the A2A BoB2 forum:
http://www.shockwaveproductions.com/foru...018e62a36ab206c

Post a question and maybe OSRAM or one of the other BDG chaps can help. Many of them also worked on MA and they may have come across this map CTD problem before.

I think my problem is due to some missing textures/bitmaps or incorrect pointers. I installed long ago, did some hackery for the NOCD functionality and god knows what else.. and haven't been able to locate my original CD.

Thinking of purchasing a cheap Ebay copy and doing a complete reinstall and using the CD (at least initially) to see if that fixes things. I'd sort of forgotten about this sim until seeing some episodes of the old series DOGFIGHTS about MiG Alley and reading THE HUNTERS set in the Korean war era. Messed around with some Strike Fighters Korean War mods then remembered MiG Alley to get a little fix. I wish Frugalsworld forums were still up as there were some discussion I had with +G leading to the fixes that let me fly in XP. At that time, the affinity fix was necessary, but I am told that it shouldn't be. That and the map crash lead me to think my installation is just too non-standard to really be used as a barometer.

Folks,

Recluse:

I found this in the BDG pdf manual that came with the patch, I guess. This was part of the FAQ in that document.

"When I enter the map (M) the game crashes..."

BDG Suggested Solution:
During the 1.23 patch installation let the tt2 window finish. You
should see �TT2 finished� displayed in the DOS-window.

It seems too simple but I hope this will help.

I really would love to see someone take off (no pun intended) with this old sim and make some improvements on what Rowan and the BDG started. It has potential.

I have considered "Strike Fighters" and the Korean mods. The graphics of the planes I've seen do put MA to shame but in every instance I have also read that those who are familiar with SF and MA feel that the fully patched MA is superior in all other categories.