VarkLib version 1.5 changes
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The following changes have been made from VarkLib version 1.0:

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Callsigns
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   Okay, so I'm vein. :) When you start a new campaign, there's a new callsign you can choose on the list (complete with a sound file): "Vark".

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Campaigns
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   All 3 campaigns now have new default aircraft and weapons. The list of the weapons available in the campaigns is quite long, so I'll just leave it to you to play a campaign and see what's there. I will tell you that *all* of the campaign aircraft have their cannons available (finally!).
   Each campaign has a slightly different flavor of ordinance. The Egyptian campaign is the easiest of the three, but it is heavy in the low-tech weaponry area. The Vladivostok campaign has about the same mix of weapons as the Egyptian campaign, but the enemy is much better equiped than the Islamic Egyptian's were. I haven't played the Baltic Campaign yet, but it seems to me it will fall somewhere between the other two in difficulty. The Baltics is a "High-Tech" campaign. The enemy is very well equiped, but then so are you. It is heavy in the "smart" weapon category, and the A-A weapons are only top-of-the-line.
   Here is a list of the aircraft that are available in each campaign (all 3 campaigns have F-117's and a B-2, also):

Egypt Campaign
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F-4E Phantom
F-16C Falcon
F-15E Strike Eagle
F-22 Rapier
EF-2000
AV-32 ASTOVL
F-31 Demon II

Vladivostok Campaign
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F-5E Tiger
F/A-18F Super Hornet
F-15E Strike Eagle
F-22 Rapier
F-29 Hellcat II
AV-32 ASTOVL
Su-30M Flanker ***

Baltic Campaign
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F/A-18F Super Hornet
F-22 Rapier
EF-2000
Mirage 2000D
Rafale
Gripen
Su-35 Super Flanker ***


*** - Both of the Flankers can carry the advanced AA-9D 'Amos-II'. That weapon is available in the campaigns, and if it is fired at an 80% pk, I can almost gaurauntee you'll kill the bad guy. That's why there's only a relative handfull of those weapons for each campaign. Use them wisely.

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Weapons
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AIM-200 AAAM
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   New designation is AIM-59. The missile itself is unchanged. Also has a new icon.

AGM-88 HARM
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   Added smoke to the motor and fixed the "dead launch" problem.

Mk-20 Rockeye & MERs
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   New icons.

B61 Tactical Nuke
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   New icon.

GBU-12, GBU-16, GBU-10, GBU-28, KAB-500, KAB-750, AGM-62
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   All of these weapons are guided glide bombs. I reduced the weapons' turn rates so that it is possible to lob-toss them on to a target now. 
   They used to be killable weapons, which meant they could be collided with if the launching aircraft was jinking around. However, with the reduced turn rates, the weapons don't egress from the aircraft fast enough, causing a collision with even an auto-pilot level flight path. There are two ways to fix this: one way is to make the weapons non-collidable (which also makes them non-killable), another is to lower the hardpoints on all the aircraft to accomodate the slower egress of the weapons. This version of my lib has the weapons non-collidable. Version 2.0 (which will include a full re-working of all the aircraft) will have the lowered hardpoints, and the weapons will again be collidable.
   These weapons have also been uprated to "full envelope pk". This means that the weapon will be at max pk at max range. This makes lob-tossing a far more attractive idea because the weapons can now be released at maximum range with a good chance of hitting the target.

Newer A-A missiles
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   These missiles have had the flight envelopes upgraded. The hit % has not changed on any of them, but the new cruise envelopes they follow make them much more accurate. These include: AIM-120 AMRAAM, AIM-9X Sidewinder, AA-11 'Archer', AA-12 'Adder', Mica radar, Mica IR, PL-13, and AIM-132 ASRAAM. The S-225 and AIM-200 (now -59) already had a cruise envelope, so this upgrade doesn't apply to them. The new flight envelope makes the missiles either climb or drop to the altitude of the target before turning towards it.

AIM-120, Mica Radar, AA-12
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   Because the upgraded cruise envelope makes these missiles more accurate, they have had their chaff susceptibility increased slightly (i.e. they are now easier to decoy with chaff). The upgraded IR missiles already had significant flare %'s, so those haven't been increased.

Radar guided SAMs
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   All radar guided SAMs have the improved attack envelope. The SAMs chaff % has *not* been changed.

AS-34 Kormoran II
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   This missile has been replaced with the Sea Eagle. See the following entry (Harpoon) for the reason.

AGM-84C Harpoon
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   This missile has had an internal flag set so the computer thinks it is a gun. This has three effects; two minor drawbacks, and one major upgrade:

>>>Effect 1 - The missile now has the "fip-fip-fip" sound of a gun when it is loaded rather than the "ka-chunk" sound of a missile. This is a very minor annoyance at worst.

>>>Effect 2 - The HUD symbology has changed. No longer will you see a range bar with the arrow head. You'll get the percentage and flashing "IN RNG" message, and an LCOS circular sweep clock. This is another minor annoyance. As long as you have good tone, you can fire the weapon.

>>>Effect 3 - This is the reason I made this change: The AGM-84 Harpoon is now salvoed 2 at a time. You tell your wingman to attack a ship, and if he's carrying 2 Harpoons, he'll fire both at the target. The Sea Eagle (which is almost identical to the Harpoon in range, speed, pk, and damage) has been added for engagements that require an ASM that's fired one at a time by your wingmen (i.e. against numerous smaller ships).

AA-11 'Archer'
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   This missile, in addition to the upgraded flight envelope (see above), has had an internal flag set to make the computer think it's a gun. The first 2 effects listed above for the Harpoon also apply to the Archer. The third effect is different, however. When EA upgraded the game's engine to Nato standard, they eliminated one capability: missiles can no longer auto-slew, only guns. To maintain the rear-firing capabilities of the Su-30, Su-34, and Su-35, the Archer had to be 'disguised' as a gun so the game would slew it.

AGM-137 TSSAM
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   Maximum range has been increased to 200 nm. This will come as welcome news to those of you who know how to target things beyond 150 nm.

Sea Eagle
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*New Weapon*
   The Sea Eagle is in many respects almost identical to the Harpoon. It's fired only one at a time per target by the computer (as opposed to the new Harpoon which is fired two at a time per target).

400mm Gun
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   This weapon is used on the Iowa and the M-1975 Artillery. It had a problem in the flight envelope, however, that prevented it from hitting the target. This has been corrected.

Rocket Pods
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   All of the rocket pods have had their numbers significantly changed. In conversing with Warship100 (a fellow military weapons enthusiast), we decided that a couple of things could be assumed about rocket pods: The one's in my library weren't nearly powerful enough (it took one entire 18-pod of 70mm just to kill one APC). And secondly, almost every rocket pod in the world can have multiple types of ammo in it at any given time. In fact they could even have multiple types of ammo in one pod (for example 9 HE and 9 API in one 70mm 18-pod).
   To simulate this, the rocket pods now do an equal amount of damage to all targets. I also increased the blast radius of each rocket making it easier to use them. They're still a little underpowered compared to my guns, but then my guns are actually a little overpowered. The whole point of this is that Rocket pods are *supposed* to be a better choice than guns alone, yet not as good as cluster bombs. That wasn't the case before, and it still isn't the case, really, but it's closer than it was in version 1. Version 2.0 will have the proper proportions.

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Aircraft
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   In version 2.0 of the library (to be released after the shape editor is available), all aircraft fuel weights will be adjusted according to the following formula:

Fuel = MTW - (EW + WL)

where:
MTW  = published Maximum Takeoff Weight
EW   = published Empty Weight
WL   = published Warload

   If 2 of the 3 factors are known, I will make an educated guess on the third. However, if only one of the factors is known, I will leave the aircraft with version 1.x numbers.

   All aircraft that have been modified in this 1.5 update for other reasons have also had their fuel updated to version 2.0 compliance. So don't be surprised if one variant of an airplane has a different fuel amount than another.

A-10 Thunderbolt
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   The A-10 is now a tarmac-available aircraft.

B-2 Spirit (NST)
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   The nuclear strike variant of the B-2 was using an F-18 HUD. This has been corrected.

EF-2000
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   The EF-2000 has a second variant now: the CAP variant. 4 S-225s, 4 AIM-120s, 4 AIM-132s, and a 400 USG fuel tank. The original EF-2000 is now called the CAS variant and carries 4 AIM-120s, 4 Mavericks, 2 Mk-20 Rockeyes, 2 AIM-132s, and the Pave Spike.

EF-111A Raven
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   Has had its weights changed and hardpoints removed to correct the overweight (14,000+ lbs) problem.

F-14B Tomcat
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*New Aircraft*
   Many people had complained to me that the F-14F, while nice, was a bit too advanced for their tastes. I tend to agree. All the OpFor aircraft have a nice spectrum of older, newer, and futuristic aircraft. The US aircraft, however were lacking in modern planes. There were plenty of older aircraft, and plenty of futuristic aircraft, but the "current" aircraft list was rather slim. The F-14B was added to help with this gap, as was the F/A-18C and F/A-18D.
   The F-14B CAP I variant has 4 AIM-59s, 2 AIM-7 Sparrows, 2 AIM-9L Sidewinders, and 2 240 USG fuel tanks. The CAP II variant has 4 AIM-7 Sparrows, 4 AIM-9L Sidewinders, and 2 240 USG fuel tanks (my references tell me this is the "standard" Tomcat load). The F-14B does *not* have a built-in IRST, and it has very little air-to-ground capability (actually, the real one has none at all, but that's not possible to simulate in this game).

F-22 Rapier
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   The F-22 has had its hardpoints completely revamped. The belly bay (which used to be 2 double bays) is now incorporated into one internal bay double hardpoint, and also allows the AIM-120 x 2 MER to be mounted (which it couldn't before). The side bays have been reduced from 4 missiles to 2. This results in a reduction of the F-22's internal weapon capacity (4 + 2 instead of 2 + 2 + 4). The gun has also had its ammo reduced from 1250 to 480. However, the biggest change is also the most dangerous to employ for the player: the F-22 now has 4 external wing hardpoints. Should you decide to load up on A-A missiles, you'll actually have an incresed weapon load from the original (4 + 2 + 2 + 2 instead of 2 + 2 + 4). *BUT* utilizing the external wing hardpoints *will* increase your RCS to roughly the same RCS as the Rafale (still reduced, but by no means stealthy). So beware of using the wing hardpoints on a regular basis. Another nice effect with this: if you *do* carry weapons on the wing hardpoints, you can reduce your RCS back to normal F-22 levels by jettisoning (or firing) the ordnance that's on those hardpoints.

F-4 Phantoms
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   Several F-4s (F-4E CAP, and all 4 F-4Fs) had weapons or fuel tanks on the outer wing pylons that were too heavy for those pylons. The fuel tanks have been reduced in size, and the weapon MERs have been reduced in size (the weapons remain the same).

F-5E CAP I & II
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   The wingtip hardpoints used to have (mistakenly) a single AIM-9L (x2) MER. This has been adjusted to (correctly) a pair of AIM-9L singles.

F/A-18C Hornet
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*New Aircraft*
   See F-14B Tomcat for the reasons that this aircraft was added. The F/A-18C carries 6 AIM-7 Sparrows, 2 AIM-9L Sidewinders, and a 400 USG fuel tank. The F/A-18C does not have a built-in IRST.

F/A-18D Hornet
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*New Aircraft*
   The F/A-18D Strike variant has 3 Mk-82 HD AIR (x6) bomb packs and 2 Mk-82 HD AIR (x3) bomb packs (for a total of 24 Mk-82s), plus 2 AIM-7 Sparrows, and 2 AIM-9L Sidewinders. The F/A-18D CAS variant has 2 AGM-65 Mavericks, 12 Mk-20 Rockeyes, 2 AIM-7 Sparrows, 2 AIM-9L Sidewinders, and a 400 USG fuel tank. The F/A-18D has no built-in IRST.

JQ-1 (both variants)
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   Has been renamed to JQ-5. The reason is that Chinese superstition makes their industry start numbering their aircraft at 5. In the Chinese language, the word for the number 4 and the word 'death' are very similar sounding -- hence, 4 is an unlucky number in China. So rather than *skipping* the number 4, they just avoid the whole situation by starting thier aircraft numbers at 5.

MiG-23 Flogger
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   The MiG-23 was overweight. Bringing the fuel weight into 2.0 compliance fixed the problem.

MiG-25 Foxbat
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   The shape of things to come! I used the toolkit to export the *old* MiG-31 shape (which looked a lot like a MiG-25) and then I imported it into this library. Now the Foxbat looks significantly different than the Foxhound. There's only one problem, and I can't seem to pin it down: when the MiG-25 is far away, it still looks blue (like the new MiG-31).

Mirage 5 (STR)
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   The Mirage 5 was seriously overweight. Bringing the fuel into 2.0 compliance and reducing one pair of Durandals x 6 to Durandals x 2 fixed the problem.

Mirage 2000 D (STR I)
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   The Mirage 2000 D is now a tarmac-available aircraft.

Q-5 Fantan (STR)
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   Was carrying far more than its published warload. Reduced the weaponry to: 4 x FAB-250 LDGP bombs and 4 x AL-25-50 rocket pods.

Rafale (all)
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   The Rafales' fuselage hardpoints didn't have enough clearance to carry 4 R.530s. Now they do.

Sea Harrier
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   Is no longer a 'flyable' aircraft. Nobody flew it much anyway, but it is still flyable via the "Fly All" command. The space on the Tarmac screen can be better used. If a customized pilot had this aircraft for a campaign, it will still be available in that campaign, with the proper icon.

Super Etendard (all variants)
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   All the SuperET's were overweight. The ASM variant now has: 2 x Exocet; 2 x ALE-44 Chaff/Flare pod; 120 USG fuel tank. The STR I variant has: 4 x Durandal (x2) MER (a total of 8 Durandals) and a 120 USG fuel tank. The STR II variant now has a Pave Spike; 2 x GBU-16; and 2 x GBU-12.

Su-24 Fencer
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   The Su-24 was carrying a single FAB-500 x2 MER on it's outer wing pylons. Now it carries a pair of single FAB-500s.

Su-25 Frogfoot
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   The Frogfoot was seriously overweight. It was fixed by bringing the fuel into version 2.0 compliance, along with replacing the Kilters with Swingers.

Jian-11 Flanker
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   The J-11 was only carrying a single PL-10 on it's centerline. It was supposed to carry 2. I increased the weight tolerance of the centerline to allow for 2 PL-10s.

Su-33 Flanker
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   The Su-33 was overweight. Adjusting the fuel weight to 2.0 compliance fixed the problem.

Tornado ECR
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   The ECR now carries it's jammers internally. The outer wing pylons now have a chaff pod and a flare pod (rather than the original jammer and single chaff/flare pod)

Yak-141 Freestyle
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   No longer a "flyable" aircraft. It is still available via the "Fly All" command, but the Tarmac icon has been removed. If you made a custom pilot for a campaign that uses this aircraft, it *will* still show up on the tarmac with it's proper icon.

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Reference materials
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   All of the aircraft now have correct and complete *.INF files. In the Janes Reference Screens, you can look up the stats on the newer aircraft, plus you can look at any aircraft and see what the default weapon load is for all the variants of that aircraft. This will come in handy when you're making a mission and want to know exactly what a specific aircraft is carrying.
   The reference materials for the SAMs, AAA, Tanks, and Ships have also been updated to show the weapons on those items. There are no weapons on the other vehicles or structures, so the reference materials on those weren't updated. The reference materials for the weapons have *not* been updated. Those won't be updated until version 2.0, because it will require me to exchange 'slots' with a few weapons to make all the ones available that I want to have appear on the reference screen.