USNFUTIL (c) George "Redshift" Sobala 1995

A set of utilities to fly any planes in USNF, and to adjust the pilot 
files.

Still in beta. Please report problems back to me. Use at your own risk.

Make SURE you read the whole docs, including the bit about "Hard Death 
(tm)". Although I suspect that FLY-CAMP is perfectly safe, I am not 
responsible for what might possibly happen to your hard disk if you are 
running caching software or DBLSPACE equivalents.

INSTALLATION
============

Copy all the files to your USNF directory. If you already have a pilot 
file called PLT100.P it will be over-written. Best to rename it first 
e.g. PLT101.P. The extremely cautious amongst you should back up the 
USNF files 5.LIB and 6.LIB to e.g. 5.OLD and 6.OLD. However these files 
are on your CDROM anyway in uncompressed form and are easy to restore.

DEINSTALLATION
==============

Delete the following files from your USNF directory: FLY.EXE, FLY- 
CAMP.EXE, ZERO.EXE, MISSIONS.EXE, PILOTS.EXE, USNFUTIL.TXT.

FLY modifies the USNF file 6.LIB.

FLY-CAMP modifies the USNF files 5.LIB and 6.LIB.

They should still work normally for all other purposes. To restore your 
USNF files to normal, copy 5.LIB and 6.LIB back into your USNF directory 
from your CDROM.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. FLY v1.00
============

FLY ANY PLANE IN USNF! Use for Quick and Pro missions.

You can now fly any plane or helicopter in USNF, Mig-29, B-52, whatever, 
in Quick and Pro missions.

You get the correct flight-model, external views, weapons, radar, IR 
capability. You get the cockpit art and HUD of the YAK-141.

This utility

(a) creates a new edited mission file for you containing the plane of 
your choice.

(b) patches the USNF file 6.LIB to allow the new plane to work.

To restore your original file 6.LIB simply copy it back from your CD, 
or the cautious amongst you may wish to make a backup copy. The patched 
copy of 6.LIB will work without problems for normal USNF gameplay.

This utility does not alter any other files.

N.B. You will only be able to launch carrier-capable planes off the 
Eisenhower.

How to use it.
--------------

(i) Create a mission using the Pro Mission builder and save it - e.g. 
call it CAS-1. Don't bother enabling the "choose a plane" button - this 
would prevent you flying the plane of your choice, and so FLY will 
automatically detect this and delete it from the mission file.

*** OR ***

you can use the Quick Mission Builder. USNF will create a mission file 
called $QUICK.M.

(ii) Exit USNF and type FLY mission-name plane-type

e.g.

FLY CAS-1 A10
FLY $QUICK MIG29

The plane names are obvious (no hyphens).
You can get a complete list by typing FLY on its own.

The utility will save the altered mission as 1FLY.M. Your original 
mission file is unaffected. 

(iii) Start up USNF again and load up mission 1FLY using the "Load 
Single Mission" button -and away you go!

Hint: you can quickly jump to mission 1FLY past all the built-in 
missions by pressing the 1 key.

To switch planes, exit USNF and go back to step ii.


------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. PILOTS v0.01
===============

Lists pilots, missions & failures.
Run from USNF directory.

E.g.

PILOTS

------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. ZERO v0.01
=============

Sets mission failures to zero in a pilot file.

E.g.

ZERO PLT604.P
ZERO PLT604
ZERO 604

------------------------------------------------------------------------

4. MISSIONS v0.01
=================

Adjusts mission count in a pilot file

E.g.

MISSIONS PLT604.P 32
MISSIONS PLT604 32
MISSIONS 604 32

will all set PLT604.P to 32 completed missions.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. FLY-CAMP v0.02
=================

Fly any plane in a campaign! This always uses the special pilot file 
PLT100.P (which has been doctored to add all extra weapons).

E.g.

FLY-CAMP B52
FLY-CAMP F15

Typing FLY-CAMP on its own will give a help screen.

You will find the extra plane towards the left of the Ike's deck.
(On the plane selection screen it will look like a YAK141.)

Only some extra planes are "carrier capable" and behave entirely as you 
would expect. These are the AV8, A6, EA6, E2, F18C, SU27 and YAK141. In 
addition the KA50 and SH60 will operate from the carrier, but your 
wingman will not follow you.

For all other planes: BEWARE OF THE FOLLOWING:

* When you try to launch from the carrier, the carrier moves out from 
under you.  (kinda unnerving <g>). Have your afterburners on full as you 
start the mission.

* Your wingman never launches.  He just dives into the soup and sits 
there.

* You can't land on the carrier as no hook is available.  Anyway, you 
just crash.

And best of all.......

* 'Hard Death (tm)' - when you die, your computer dies. Perhaps you will 
treat ACM with more respect from now on? You get a big error message and 
then BOOM.  Nothing.

* The mission may also terminate abruptly just as you complete your 
objectives. You will need to reset your computer at this point.

This is an unavoidable feature - USNF just doesn't like these non- 
carrier planes and bombs out. I THINK this happens safely (i.e. not in 
the middle of a disk write), but God knows what this could do to your 
hard disk if you have SMARTDRV write-caching enabled, or are running 
DBLSPACE or equivalent. I certainly don't.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Have fun!

Problems, flames, laurels to:
George "Redshift" Sobala
Compuserve 100255,262
Internet gsobala@cix.compulink.co.uk