Battle of France - Part I has now been released!

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Congrats!

It has been a long road hasn't it? I'm happy to hear that the hard part is done. Thanks for all your efforts on this an everything you do for SOH, Rami.

 

[Rami]

Reply...

It has been a long road hasn't it? I'm happy to hear that the hard part is done. Thanks for all your efforts on this an everything you do for SOH, Rami.

Greg,

Many thanks. Good thing I finished the missions in the nick of time, it looks like I'm going to be quite busy this semester!

 

[Rami]

FYI BoF beta testing...

Hey guys,

I uploaded a new copy of the Battle of France (with auto-installers, of course) to my box.net site (in the beta testing folder) that is about 99% complete; there are some final adjustments to be made, such as the AA guns, and a couple of minor changes to a couple readme files, as well as two pieces of GSL scenery. (These don't affect the missions themselves)

Other than that, I'm just waiting on the release of The Netherlands airfield package, and the completion of pages on the Free Flight Site, and we should be good to go!

Anyone who tests it, please post screenshots and provide feedback. Thanks!

 

[Rami]

I have a “Eureka” moment, now I need to understand WHY!

Hey guys,

One of the things that has been vexing me is that during Stuka missions, some of the AI would attack and some would not.

After throwing my hands up in frustration several times, it turned out to be a payload issue. I use Wolfi’s Stuka with the Dbolt .dp weapons profile.

To vary the payload effect, I chose to use SC500 and SD500 bombs, and have two flights equipped with one and two with the other. The all AI Stuka flights laden with SC500 bombs attack with no problems and those laden with SD500 bombs don’t, they simply fly on to the next waypoint.

So...why? Is the SD500 bomb an anti-shipping weapon or something?

I’m glad I cracked this nut, but I want to know more now!

 

[_486_Col_Wolf]

Is there some difference in the DP files for these weapons in "objects_DP" folder? I've looked at mine and have a few different bombs labeled SC500 and SD500 with various prefixes, but they all have the same family, category and type.

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Hi Rami: I'm just fishing, but could the SD500 bombs you are using be somehow designated for hard targets like ships and the bombers are not on an anti-ship mission?

 

[Wayland]

German bombs

Rami, according to the WRC website, the SC series were GP thin case HE bombs, while the SD series were drawn steel SAP bombs. there were various wall thickness es Signified by a suffix letter (i.e. SD500 A, or E). the C used straight braces between the fins, while the D used a ring brace.Per Wikipedia,The SC series used a ringkopf for anti-ricochet purposes and could be fitted with a standoff extension on the nose to give greater fragmentation effects.

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/bombs.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SC_500_bomb

Hope this helps.

Wayland (Steve)

 

[Rami]

Reply...

Hey guys,

Thanks for all of the helpful suggestions. Here is a page right out of the "boy, I feel stupid" category. It turns out the SD 500 .dp file from the weapons package went missing from my install's OBJECTS_DP folder. Once I copied the .dp file over from another installation, the problem was resolved, and AI behavior returned to normal.

 

[skylane]

I have a similar problem: Three flights of three Stukas each attacking targets in the same area. The first flight refuses to drop their bombs, while the other two do attack. All three flights carry the same payload.

I just had the thought that maybe it has something to do with the assigned target?

Right now I‘m not at home, so I can‘t give it a try, but as soon as I have time I will assign a different target to this flight and see if anything changes.

Another problem I have with the AI Stukas is that, after attacking a target, they do not proceed to the next waypoint. Instead, they mill around the target area forever.

Any ideas how to make them leave the target area after the bomb run?

 

[Rami]

Reply...

I have a similar problem: Three flights of three Stukas each attacking targets in the same area. The first flight refuses to drop their bombs, while the other two do attack. All three flights carry the same payload.

I just had the thought that maybe it has something to do with the assigned target?

Right now I‘m not at home, so I can‘t give it a try, but as soon as I have time I will assign a different target to this flight and see if anything changes.

Another problem I have with the AI Stukas is that, after attacking a target, they do not proceed to the next waypoint. Instead, they mill around the target area forever.

Any ideas how to make them leave the target area after the bomb run?

Skylane,

It depends on how you want to set up the mission. I like setting up my Stuka missions with you being a wingman, rather than a lead. The advantage is that the AI attack the target automatically, (assuming of course that you aren't missing a weapons .dp file, like my dumb mistake) and as a Stuka pilot, you still get credit for your kills.

If you fly as a player lead, I'm not sure how that would work. One thing to check is to make sure the aircraft_type is listed as "2" in the mission itself; CFS2 has a bad habit in listing bombers as fighters, even if the information is correct in the MISC_DATA section of the aircraft .dp file.

One way to "split the difference" here is have yourself assigned as a solo flight, and use smaller units of AI (two or three plane formations) to hit multiple targets.

As far as leaving the target area, I usually have no issues with this, but I use a relatively long IP to target (usually between 7.5 and 15 kilometers) and then the same for a withdrawal before returning to base.

A couple of other things I've found in the course of creating Stuka missions...

1) Aircraft kills on the ground still count as aircraft kills. (Important information for getting medals)

2) When attacking ships, only use "anti-ship" mission designation IF the ships are moving. If they are stationary, designate the mission as a "strike" or "close air support."

3) If you set up moving ship attacks based on individual ship health, (in other words, sinking the ship is a mission goal) you can get credit for other AI units scoring hits on and sinking ships, even if it's not you.

This allows you to loiter over the target and act as a "vulture," hitting additional mission targets.

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

If the aircraft are just milling around, hit the R (regroup) or H (help) key and see what happens.

 

[Ravenna]

If the aircraft are just milling around, hit the R (regroup) or H (help) key and see what happens.

I'd be surprised if this worked when you are not the leader.

The good thing about mistakes like yours, Rami is that they turn out to be an opportunity to discover something you might otherwise not have known.

 

[skylane]

Thanks for your input, guys!

However, I think I didn´t express myself clearly enough. I was talking about strictly AI formations.

I am working on a mission where I escort a Stuka raid, flying a Bf-109. If you have to protect them against enemy fighters, it is quite annoying, if they stay around the target after dropping their bombs (or not), instead of heading for home asap!

I still have to test my theory about the type of target having an influence on wether they drop their bombs or not. Btw, I had this Problem occasionally also with other types of bombers.

 

[Rami]

Reply...

Skylane,

In that case, I have not had that issue. Perhaps it's because of the way I establish the waypoints near the target for the AI flights?

 

[_486_Col_Wolf]

Skylane,

Is it possible that the Stukas are not dropping their entire payload on the first pass and the "milling around" is finishing with another run on the target?

 

[Rami]

Fear not, I am still here...

Hey guys,

You may notice I am not posting a lot lately. This is not due to a lack of interest in CFS2 at all; I am doing final mission testing for the Battle of France, and am correcting missions as I go. Because I'm working on this so intensely, I'm kind of leaving the forums to you guys except for specific threads where I think I can help. I am under 100 missions left to test, so I'm about two-thirds of the way there.

So don't think my interest has fallen off or anything.

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Rami:

We are all eagerly awaiting the results of all your hard work.

 

[Ravenna]

And here I was thinking that you were omnipresent!

 

[Rami]

Reply...

Good morning,

I am pleased to report at out of 338 missions tested, only five need to be redone due to CTD errors or other issues. I don't think they're related to corrupted files.

 

[CFS2 BoB Team]

This is Part Ia of the Battle of France - Part I campaign package. The contents of this package are in four parts, and contain therein nearly all of the aircraft, ships, objects, scenery, sounds, and other items required to fly these campaigns.

In the first package, you will find nearly all the aircraft, sounds, and repaints required for single-engined aircraft used for these campaigns. Please note that I also use in numerous other Early-era ETO campaigns. The aircraft included in this package include the aircraft & repaints of Aeroplane Heaven, Beepee, Brunosk, ChrisN, Allen, Dombral, JD_Tinballs, Ian Anstill, Kelticheart, Martin Wright, Ted Cook, Fde_Bressy, Moparmike, Oldwheat, Paul Rebuffat, Krystof Malinowski, Peperez, Bismarck13, Sopwith Chameleon, RobH, UncleTgt, Morton, The Groundcrew Team, Psullykeys, Thicko, Sandydog, Jim Jacobson, Wolfi, Baldy, and Padbury Aircraft. Engine sounds by Lawdog2360, OBIO, Gary Jones, and Aeroplane Heaven have also been included.

All the aircraft in this package have been modified, when necessary, to include the appropriate repaints, when possible, for the aircraft. I have also included modified .dp files for each aircraft which correct information in the [MISC.DATA] section that was in error. To lessen issues with frame rates with many waves of aircraft in the sky, all exhaust effects have been removed, if they were included in the original models.

Additionally, all weapons required for the aircraft have been included. This should eliminate the need to hunt down many of these hard-to-find weapons that we all, at one time or another, have spent a good deal of time looking for.

Due to the amount of aircraft used in this Battle of France project, it has been separated between single-engined and multi-engined aircraft models. This package only contains the single-engined models. The gauges in this package are only used by the single-engined models, but it would have been both laborious and time-consuming to do through each .dp and separate the weapons packages, so when you install both aircraft packages, the weapons will overwrite. No harm should come of it.

The auto-installer package, though large, is intended to greatly lessen the workload of the user, thereby allowing them to install the numerous parts needed for these campaigns with the minimal amount of downloads possible, and also to minimize the risk of any objects being left out.

As an added bonus for those who may have other Early ETO campaigns of mine installed, the files included in this package may help to fill in any missing items for people who have installed those campaigns.

The CFS2 BoB Team