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"Desperate Battles" has arrived!

I finished the last mission and set up the campaign. When I tried to load it I got an immediate error. I think I know what it is... Mission file names must be continuous for the CMG to properly read them. ie: there can be no spaces between the words. Underscores and dashes are okay but not spaces. Example: E Solomons Ent Scout_1 won't work but E_Solomons_Ent_Scout_1 will. A dumb mistake, sure, but a fairly easy fix. I have to rename all the mission files and the mission names on the cmg. :running:

Note: I dood it! The campaign loads and I'll start testing tonight :)
 
I have flown 5 missions of the campaign so far. made some changes to mission 4 - increased the spacing of USMC and IJN aircraft to have all arrive at the first (WP 2) waypoint at the same time as the player flight. You have to take off at Henderson and climb to 12,000 feet in 15 miles to engage the incoming Japanese bombers and fighters.

Everything else works fine so far. I'm getting the hang of attacking those Emilys, but those stock IJN subs when attacked by an SBD are deadly! My next mission has me and 3 wingmen in TBF Avengers, attacking the light carrier Ryujo with the rest of the Saratoga strike force.

Screenshot from the E. Solomons Henderson Defense mission (FDG2 F4F-3):
 
Dumbing Down Sub Gunners

Shadow Wolf 07 said:
...I have flown 5 missions of the campaign so far...those stock IN subs when attacked by an SBD are deadly!...
Click to expand...

Shadow, I'm prolly telling you something you already know here, so bear with me.... :salute:

You can adjust the accuracy of a ship's guns the same way we make aircraft gunners bad too - just go into DPEdit, select the particular ship, then wander into the [GUNS] section and start tweaking.....

HINT:
Setting a ship's minimum horizontal firing angle to 10 - 15 degrees above horizontal MAY give you a slight advantage when coming in low for a torpedo run.... heh heh heh

SC
:kilroy:
 
Thanks for the tip SC. I may give it a try. :icon29: I never noticed anything unusual with the IJN subs before, (ie: Stock USN campaign) but this time, they put up FLAK like a DD! Maybe resetting their skill level to novice would help too...

Note: Missions 6,7 and 8 completed with no problems noted. On to the mission 9 furball...

"Greyhawk: Take off immediately and climb to 12,000 ft, on a 320 heading - Do not Warp. Your mission is simple... intercept and destroy or turn back the incoming enemy bombers! You will have all the support we can vector your way. Follow the Combat Information Center's (CIC) instructions.

"objective_string"=Saratoga just launched a strike on a Japanese light carrier. Our force has been spotted early this afternoon by an IJN float plane and our scouts just spotted the Japanese fleet carriers - 200 miles north of our position. Our strike against them will launch as soon as you take off
.
"intelligence_string"=Our radar has spotted an enemy strike force, inbound at 88 miles on a 320 heading. We are launching all available fighters and vectoring our CAP to oppose the intruders. Expect moderate clouds at 8-9000 feet with visibility at 15 miles.
"player_aircraft_name_string"=FDG2 F4F-4 Wildcat VMF-221"
 
Mission 13 gave me some problems in getting the water takeoff to work right but I fixed it. I found the enemy TF and managed to launch a couple of torpedoes in the dark at a light carrier - I missed and took a bit of FLAK damage. I managed to limp my Catalina back to Espiritu Santo with 20% fuel to spare. The mission was a 66% success.


Mission 14 had me launch at dawn in an SBD on a scouting patrol. Other scouts spotted the IJN TF and while the CAP was chasing them off, I led my wingman in for an attack. It was one of my best divebombing attacks - I wish I had filmed it. I ordered my wingman to attack, lined up a mile astern of my target and winged over into a dive from 12,500. I placed my sight right on the forward elevator of the light carrier Zuiho (Usio's CVL Ryujo), held it and released at 800M, pulled out and hit WEP to get away. I looked back and saw my bomb had hit and was greeted by the message "Zuiho Destroyed." I recalled my wingman and we ran for home. In the actual battle the Zuiho was crippled by the 2 scouts and left unable to conduct flight ops, so this result is satisfactory in my eye.

I have only the 3 missions for attacks by Enterprise and Hornet, followed by 2 defensive missions remaining. I've made only a few spelling corrections and fixed the above mentioned water takeoff and hope to have the campaign uploaded by the weekend.

SW
 
Progress Report:

I completed 2 more missions today. 15 is a standard ship attack mission - random chance had me in a fighter, escorting. FLAK was heavy and the CAP opposition was tough.

In 16, I was again in a fighter for a ship attack mission but with a difference. Historically the Enterprise strike group passed within sight of the incoming Japanese strike force. The Japanese peeled off a few fighters to attack the Enterprise group. I set up a random choice of spawning the IJN strike group east or west of the US force at the first warp waypoint - 70 miles out. You have to fight them off and if you use up too much ammo, you can alternatively abort and return to your carrier. If not, you continue on with the strike force to the target and probably will have to engage enemy CAP over the TF.

Both missions worked well and all I had to fix were a few typos and adjust some timing in events. On to mission 17!
 
Finished? Yes, but...

I flew the last two missions in the campaign yesterday. :applause: Everything worked well and the campaign closed out as it should. I made a few adjustments to the skill levels and aggressiveness of the Japanese escorts and some bombers to make the missions more challenging. I also added warp to enable you to get back to the carrier after the skies clear without having to fly 30+ miles.

I'm going to double check the downloads list for content and and completeness and will probably upload the package later today or tomorrow. Also included is a short historical narrative and a list of the missions as well as my mdlnames file and an alternate callsigns.dat file. Alternate dps for the ships (by Pen32Win) are included to save you time in downloading and installing them.

Throughout the campaign you will fly a variety of planes: F4F-3, F4F-4, SBD-3, TBF-1 and a Catalina. There are random spawnings of enemy fighters, friendly fighters and one enemy convoy, so the campaign can fly quite differently each time. Victory conditions are tough but attainable and vary according to the random spawning events.

I salute Rami and Talon for their technical assistance and all of you for your patience and ideas. :salute:

SW
 
I have been Having porblems being able to upload anything from this pc. I was untill this thing screwed up playing around with missions flown by VMF223 VMF224 VMF212 VF5 and the 67TH Fighter group flying out of Henderson Field durring this time period. I thought I had Lost all the info I had when the other pc I was using crashed.I forgot I had put all the info on a CD that I found last night.It is a detailed account of not only what the attack on Henderson Field was like but also an account of what the too fleets went through along with all the pilots names that flew thies missions. It makes for a very interesting read.It also includes the weather at the time.
 
Reply...

Bobhegf,

If you have trouble uploading anything, you can always sent it to another SOH member who can upload it for you. When I approve it, I can made sure that it goes under your name.
 
Reply...

Good afternoon,

Shadow Wolf,

I approved the upload for you, and figured we'd use the same thread because you provided a lot of background information already. :icon29:
 
tobob said:
Thanks Shadow Wolf!!! :salute:

Bored? Japanese side?

tobob
Click to expand...

Sorry, I don't do the Axis sides. Maybe I'll go back through the missions and make them tougher? I could also update my USS Saratoga and USS Essex campaigns...

I forgot to mention: Comments and feedback will be warmly accepted.
 
Shadow Wolf 07 said:
Mission 13 gave me some problems in getting the water takeoff to work right but I fixed it. I found the enemy TF and managed to launch a couple of torpedoes in the dark at a light carrier - I missed and took a bit of FLAK damage. I managed to limp my Catalina back to Espiritu Santo with 20% fuel to spare. The mission was a 66% success.... SW
Click to expand...

Oh, I forgot to mention in the mission briefing that if you take battle damage and/or run out of fuel before you get back to Espiritu Santo, you can land on the water anywhere 65 miles south of the Japanese TF and be rescued by a submarine with mission success. Mission = Santa Cruz Recon Patrol 1D.

SW
 
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