

FROM:    KEITH HEITMANN   (GVXV90A)

I tried installing more planes in SWOTL quite a while ago by
hexing them into the mission file. I'm afraid you are stuck
with the 16 plane limit. The program will crash if you try
to add more to it. The problem is that the program will not
recognize and will not know how to handle more than sixteen
aircraft at any one time. To make it handle more the entire
program code of SWOTL would probably have be rewritten.
The reason you are limited to 16 planes is for a similar
reason you relimited to 32 trains and 32 stations in
Railroad Tycoon, which is the type of programming the author
used. Most programmers do a 16 bit program. They can use one
of the 16 bits your computer can handle to hold information
about each aircraft. Since most computers are of a 16 bit
nature other than 486 that have a 32 bit architecture you
just won't be able to do it as far as I know.
You may ask why can't we have 32 planes then since RRT can
have 32 trains? I suspect that the reason is that in RRT
less info is retained in each bit. There are 16 bits on
both sides of zero, positive and negative numbers. These two
sets of positive and negative numbers added together give
you 32. However, I have a feeling that SWOTL uses both the
positive and negative numbers to store info about just one
aircraft so instead of 32 you are restricted to 16.
The only way I have found to give you at least the "feel" of
 more planes is to construct missions where each plane is a
"group" or, in other words, each group only has one plane.
You then set the "waves" function to the appropriate number.
If you load BODEN.MIS or AIRRAID.MIS that I created into the
Mission Builder you will see what I mean. You start with
8 planes against you. However, each enemy plane is a group
all by itself. I carefully set each plane on the map using
maximum zoom so they fly together in formation to their
identical waypoints. This keeps them from wandering off on
their own to start with. As you engage this enemy group and
shoot down the first enemy and start after the second, the
first plane's replacement aircraft is already on its way
into the battle.
Normally, the new planes are not created until all the
planes of the group are shotdown. This creates lulls in the
battle as the number of enemy planes gets less and less.
However, since you only have one plane in a "group" as soon
as he gets shotdown his replacement is created. So instead
of having to shootdown  3 or 4 enemy planes and have 3 or 4
new ones finally created and sent into battle you only have
to shoot one down and his replacement is on its way. This
has the effect of keeping the pressure on the player. He
will rarely face less than 6 or 7 aircraft at any one time
in the battle and the combat should be nearly continuous
until the "waves" run out.
This is the only way I've been able to simulate large air
battles in SWOTL. I tried hexing in more planes, but like I
said the program will crash. The entire "logic" of SWOTL
would have to be changed, because everything in it is geared
towards 16 planes maximum.
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