Fellas...
OK, nothing heard on the Smokes or Panels, so moving that to the backburner. However, last night, in a Skype session with JIMI.. had a few revelations about flight controls and how to make even more crucial, closer-to-real world adjustments in the .AIR file. The next few nights, I will be working exclusively on this, as it will HIGHLY impact the next Sludge release.
To Date:
1- I moved ALL FLAPS back to MANUAL. I loved the LEF (leading edge flaps) in AUTO during UA (up-away) flight, as during high-AoA, they would extend as needed during BFM/ACM. However, during approaches, they would change position too much and make solid approaches harder to accomplish. The jet would fight you more than necessary to stay ON-SPEED and ON-G/S. As well, it was harder to maintain good pattern speeds and final rollouts, as the changing AoA/LEF made the energy management too burdensome.
2- CLEANED UP most of the XMLs. They now are NOT KEY FLOODers. You should get very few stutters and hangups with the Sludge gauges now, with the exception of the effects, such as G-Vapor or Exhaust Smokes.
3- Working on newer, updated flight dynamics/flight control responsiveness curves (FA-18.AIR) and changing the [Flight Tuning] scalars (AIRCRAFT.CFG) back to 1.0 (for the most part), to normalize behaviors. Starting to lean more on the .AIR file, vice the AIRCRAFT.CFG, for flight dynamics/control surface changes from here on out.
For everyone: Do you want me to put the fixed XMLs in a .ZIP file here, so you can test them out? Or would you rather wait 'til I get everything done and upgrade as whole?
Also, I'm considering REMOVING the AUTO-COORDINATED Rudder... but will wait to hear from everyone on that, as I'd like some input from others that have flown and what their experience has been, good or bad? If you dont have the updates and would like to help... when you are flying carrier patterns, enable AUTO-COORDINATION (FSX default CTRL-SHIFT-U). Do several, take a few notes on the handling and how well you were able to maintain pattern integrity. Then DISable AUTO-COORD, fly some patterns and let me know of your personal differences. Easy way to tell if AUTO-COORD is enabled IN FLIGHT is: bring up the ADI screen on right/left DDI. Below the heading/attitude "ball", there are THREE rectangles above ONE rectangle. This is a digital turn-slip indicator. If you have AUTO-COORD ENABLED, the ONE rectangle will stay centered in turns, and obviously, if DISABLED, it will lean into the direction of turn.
Thanks in advance for the people that do this and help me out.
If you have any suggestions, send them my way.
Later
Sludge