A German Campaign without Brits?

O

OldCrow

Charter Member
I've been playing 2 campaigns(1 vanilla and 1 custom) as a German lately and have noticed that after a long time (6 months campaign time) I've yet to encounter any British fighters or bombers.

Is something wrong with my campaign? Is this normal? how do I check and or fix this?
 
BTW...I do see some Brit aircraft at Brit airfields and also see them on the Airfield's squadron list's. I've yet to encounter any of them in the air. I've tried all types of missions, especially Fighter Sweeps over British airfields.
 
It's normal. CFS3 is built to only spawn American aircraft in the air when you're flying as a German. The airfields, however, are assigned nationalities and the aircraft on them represent those nationalities.
 
greycap.raf said:
It's normal. CFS3 is built to only spawn American aircraft in the air when you're flying as a German. The airfields, however, are assigned nationalities and the aircraft on them represent those nationalities.
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Thanks my friend. As the last poster said...is there a way to fix it? That's a pretty lame shortcoming.
 
there is....... it's called Martin's nationality swapper.....thread missing in the crash....but I think it's the same genius who gave us the multi install tool......try looking in "Martin Wright Graphics"......I may be wrong here so do chime in fellas.......but there is a fix
 
A better fix is to make an AI of each British aircraft, and set its nationality to USA. If you modify the .air file to aircraft type = 2, then they won't show up in your QC menu in the wrong place. If you download pretty well any of my skins, there'll be a tutorial in there on how to do it.
 
ndicki said:
A better fix is to make an AI of each British aircraft, and set its nationality to USA. If you modify the .air file to aircraft type = 2, then they won't show up in your QC menu in the wrong place. If you download pretty well any of my skins, there'll be a tutorial in there on how to do it.
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It worked perfectly. I just copied all the brit planes I wanted to encounter into a temp folder, made them standalone with names like "Spitfire_ixc_AI" and made them AI only in the .air file. I didn't have to mess with the DDS files since they use the existing ones. I put them in my Aircraft folder and added them to the list of aircraft in the Campaign file. They don't show up in QC and do spawn in and fight against the German player...me.:wiggle:

Beautiful. Thanks for your help ndicki!!!
 
And if you want to be really sneaky, you now tweak the xdp files of the AIs with a permanent pylon in the loadouts section ( = adding weight, so you need to create the pylon first) to simulate the extra weight of fuel, pilot and ammo, which AI aircraft do not carry. Another point where MS could have done it better.

It isn't worth it really with the stock aircraft, but if you're using AvH stuff, especially the new 4.00.xx ones, it's a step in the right direction.
 
As far as I know, yes, so you need to work the same way. Be careful, however, because you'll end up with inappropriate spawning if you aren't! Finnish aircraft over London, etc, etc...

In PTO, Australia is the spawning Allied country, and Japan_AAF the axis one. I've added Britain to the mixture, but spawning AIs have to be Oz or Jap AAF.
 
mmmmhhhh... please correct me if I'm wrong : the ai aircraft are only spawning during a campaign not during a stand alone mission
 
ndicki said:
And if you want to be really sneaky, you now tweak the xdp files of the AIs with a permanent pylon in the loadouts section ( = adding weight, so you need to create the pylon first) to simulate the extra weight of fuel, pilot and ammo, which AI aircraft do not carry. Another point where MS could have done it better.

It isn't worth it really with the stock aircraft, but if you're using AvH stuff, especially the new 4.00.xx ones, it's a step in the right direction.
Click to expand...
Holy Crap...that's a great idea! I always hated how the AI can just out climb and out turn me at 25,000+ft. no matter what.
 
There is a "pylon_null" in the pylons folder, but I've always had trouble with it. So I tend to add a droptank as follows (for the stock Spit)

In your xdp file, go to loadouts:

<Loadouts>
<Loadout Name="Clean"/>
<Loadout Name="(2)250lb Bombs">
<Hardpoint ID="1" PylonType="pylon_Spit_c_3" PayloadType="B_250lb" Quantity="1"/>
<Hardpoint ID="2" PylonType="pylon_Spit_c_4" PayloadType="B_250lb" Quantity="1"/>
</Loadout>
<Loadout Name="(1)500lb Bomb">
<Hardpoint ID="0" PylonType="pylon_Spit_c_0" PayloadType="B_500lb" Quantity="1"/>
</Loadout>
<Loadout Name="(1)1000lb Bomb">
<Hardpoint ID="0" PylonType="pylon_Spit_c_0" PayloadType="B_1000lb" Quantity="1"/>
</Loadout>
<Loadout Name="(2)250lb Bombs+(1)500lb Bomb">
<Hardpoint ID="0" PylonType="pylon_Spit_c_0" PayloadType="B_500lb" Quantity="1"/>
<Hardpoint ID="1" PylonType="pylon_Spit_c_3" PayloadType="B_250lb" Quantity="1"/>
<Hardpoint ID="2" PylonType="pylon_Spit_c_4" PayloadType="B_250lb" Quantity="1"/>
</Loadout>
<Loadout Name="(8)Rockets">
<Hardpoint ID="1" PylonType="pylon_Spit_c_1" PayloadType="b_rocket" Quantity="15"/>
<Hardpoint ID="2" PylonType="pylon_Spit_c_2" PayloadType="b_rocket" Quantity="15"/>
</Loadout>
<Loadout Name="(8)Rockets+(1)250lb Bomb">
<Hardpoint ID="1" PylonType="pylon_Spit_c_1" PayloadType="b_rocket" Quantity="15"/>
<Hardpoint ID="2" PylonType="pylon_Spit_c_2" PayloadType="b_rocket" Quantity="15"/>
<Hardpoint ID="0" PylonType="pylon_Spit_c_0" PayloadType="B_250lb" Quantity="1"/>
</Loadout>
<Loadout Name="(8)Rockets+(1)45gal Drop Tank" MissionType="Search_Destroy,CAS,Anti_Ship">
<Hardpoint ID="1" PylonType="pylon_Spit_c_1" PayloadType="b_rocket" Quantity="15"/>
<Hardpoint ID="2" PylonType="pylon_Spit_c_2" PayloadType="b_rocket" Quantity="15"/>
<Hardpoint ID="0" PylonType="pylon_Spit_c_0" PayloadType="B_45gal_Alt2" Quantity="1"/>
</Loadout>
<Loadout Name="(1)250lb Bomb+(2)45gal Drop Tanks">
<Hardpoint ID="1" PylonType="pylon_Spit_c_3" PayloadType="B_45gal_Alt2" Quantity="1"/>
<Hardpoint ID="2" PylonType="pylon_Spit_c_4" PayloadType="B_45gal_Alt2" Quantity="1"/>
<Hardpoint ID="0" PylonType="pylon_Spit_c_0" PayloadType="B_250lb" Quantity="1"/>
</Loadout>
<Loadout Name="(1)500lb Bomb+(2)45gal Drop Tanks" MissionType="Strike">
<Hardpoint ID="1" PylonType="pylon_Spit_c_3" PayloadType="B_45gal_Alt2" Quantity="1"/>
<Hardpoint ID="2" PylonType="pylon_Spit_c_4" PayloadType="B_45gal_Alt2" Quantity="1"/>
<Hardpoint ID="0" PylonType="pylon_Spit_c_0" PayloadType="B_500lb" Quantity="1"/>
</Loadout>
<Loadout Name="(1)45gal Drop Tank">
<Hardpoint ID="0" PylonType="pylon_Spit_c_0" PayloadType="B_45gal_Alt1" Quantity="1"/>
</Loadout>
<Loadout Name="(2)45gal Drop Tanks" MissionType="Escort,CAP,Intercept,Sweep,Nothing,Bomber_Intercept">
<Hardpoint ID="1" PylonType="pylon_Spit_c_3" PayloadType="B_45gal_Alt2" Quantity="1"/>
<Hardpoint ID="2" PylonType="pylon_Spit_c_4" PayloadType="B_45gal_Alt2" Quantity="1"/>
</Loadout>
</Loadouts>

That is a bit unnecessary, so the trick is to make it a bit shorter:

<Loadouts>
<Loadout Name="Droptank">
<Hardpoint ID="0" PylonType="pylon_Spit_c_0" PayloadType="B_45gal_Alt2" Quantity="1"/>
</Loadout>
</Loadouts>

You'll note that I've removed everything, including the "clean" entry, and left only the single centreline droptank option (usually hardpoint 0.)

That means that it will always spawn with the droptank, which it will drop as soon as you have a go at it. But the pylon stays.

Now you need to clone the pylon in question, both the physical m3d and the corresponding xdp. Rename the new pylon pylon_Spit_c_0_AI.m3d, and the xdp to the same name. Open the xdp file with notepad and change the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<UnitData>
<General Allegience="" LongName="" ShortName="pylon_Spit_c_0" ModelName="pylon_Spit_c_0_AI.m3d" BlastDamageScale="1.0" ImpactDamageScale="1.0" FireDamageScale="1.0" Priority="2" Type="weapon" EnteredService="03/01/1943" BlastDamageMod="0" ImpactDamageMod="0" FireDamageMod="0" Category="weapon" Country="usa" AllowSpawn="n" Mass="1750">
</General>

Adjust the mass to suit the weight of the appropriate fuel load, etc.

Then go back to the AI aircraft xdp and alter the name of the pylon used.

<Loadouts>
<Loadout Name="Droptank">
<Hardpoint ID="0" PylonType="pylon_Spit_c_0_AI" PayloadType="B_45gal_Alt2" Quantity="1"/>
</Loadout>
</Loadouts>


Before anyone gets over-excited, I didn't think of this myself - it's the result of a great deal of though by many of the Desert Rats.

And if you can't get it to work, check and check and check, because 9 times out of 10, your syntax, etc, isn't correct. You'll be missing a tag or something in one of the xdp files.
 
wow!

N...........now that's a comprehensive reply.....will implement!!! Many Thanks!!!
 
ah, I think if you open up the campaign files in the eto you will notice that the proper nationalities have been defined for the correct campaigns and eras. Kudos to Led Zeppelin who created the campaigns and the campaign spawns for the intial release of the ETO.

cargomann said:
is it the same into the new ETO ?
Click to expand...
 
ndicki said:
And if you want to be really sneaky, you now tweak the xdp files of the AIs with a permanent pylon in the loadouts section ( = adding weight, so you need to create the pylon first) to simulate the extra weight of fuel, pilot and ammo, which AI aircraft do not carry. Another point where MS could have done it better.

It isn't worth it really with the stock aircraft, but if you're using AvH stuff, especially the new 4.00.xx ones, it's a step in the right direction.
Click to expand...
I tried something that seemed to work a bit also.
First I lowered the pilot station weight to "1" instead of "180".
Then take that 180 and add it to the clean weight of all the fighters. That way, I figure all the AI at least have the added 180 lbs and you plane does too...well 181 lbs.:wiggle:

I'm pretty sure I noticed the difference @ High Altitude.
 
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