Kursk VVS Campaign Released!

[skylane]

I would suggest separate fighter and bomber campaigns.

[Roxane-21]

I vote for separate fighter and bomber campaigns as well.

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Okay, I started a dynamic campaign for the fighters last night. It is kinda complicated with north and south sector missions and I decided to branch it off with north and south missions that merge and randomly split at the offensive-counteroffensive border. That is, at the start (50-50 chance) you may fly either on one sector or the other and then when the campaign reaches the mid point (July 12th, when the Sovs launch their counteroffensives) you may or may not "be transferred" (again, a 50-50 chance) to the other sector.

I also have to double check the start dates and times from the mission files. It would not do to fly a mission at 1300 hours and then the next one at 0830 on the same day.

In addition, I want to recheck all the missions I previously completed 8-9 months ago back to the first ones for errors and add in some of the new features that have been added to our library since then. There are a few mission building tricks I have learned and remembered since I started.

[Shadow Wolf 07]

I finished the all-fighter and the all-bomber campaigns yesterday and now I am creating the intro videos for each. Next I will take a look at the auto-installer software that Deathwind recommended and maybe create two campaign packages - 1 for manual and the second an auto-loader... maybe. I will probably upload the results by next weekend.

[scoobyman32]

Salivating already pal. I've been stuck in the Med for too long. Your exhausting effort and research on this one is so appreciated.

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Salivating already pal. I've been stuck in the Med for too long. Your exhausting effort and research on this one is so appreciated.

Scoobyman32:

I would dispute the terms: "...exhausting effort and research..." It has been fun, but sometimes tedious. I plan now to re-fly some of my early missions and make changes as necessary - there are a few changes that may need to be made.

[scoobyman32]

I imagine that happens a lot when you're attempting such a big project. Something else works better or looks better in a later mission, and you want to go back to the first missions to apply to them as well.

Might be exhausting, but I hear ya, must also be tremendous fun. Wish I had the skills!

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Scoobyman32: You are right about my motivation and need to re-test at least some of the missions. I have done about ten of them so far and have only had to make changes in three. Two were only spelling errors in the mission briefing text, and the third, which I am editing now, had too many collisions between friendlies.

I did manage to get a screenshot of the first pass bombing results though. I'm about to fly my next try on that mission and if I get the same frame-rate performance as we approach the target area, I will convert some of the nearly 300 stationary objects into a gsl. As it stands, I will still have this package uploaded by my goal - before my eye surgery, April 3rd.

Cheers:

SW07

ScreenShot = Caption needed:

[Rami]

Shadow Wolf 07,

Your screenshots look great, I know you worked really hard on this!

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Thank you, Rami. And may I say it is great to see you back in the forum again.

I am almost finished with the missions for part 1 = the opening offensive in the north. My only hang-up right now i getting these darned Pe-2s to work right. My CRS is kicking in... . I will move on and come back to those 4 missions later.

[Deathwind]

Scoobyman32: You are right about my motivation and need to re-test at least some of the missions. I have done about ten of them so far and have only had to make changes in three. Two were only spelling errors in the mission briefing text, and the third, which I am editing now, had too many collisions between friendlies.

I did manage to get a screenshot of the first pass bombing results though. I'm about to fly my next try on that mission and if I get the same frame-rate performance as we approach the target area, I will convert some of the nearly 300 stationary objects into a gsl. As it stands, I will still have this package uploaded by my goal - before my eye surgery, April 3rd.

Cheers:

SW07

ScreenShot = Caption needed:

If you can get the troops from having a weenie roast that might help out the framrates. I'm certain you couldn't have made one pass in that dinky Soviet fighter and dropped that many bombs that spread out unless your testing a mission and have help from the AI not visible in the screen shot. As always missions run best when you keep the infrastructures to a minimum especially if your gonna have that kind of smoke and fire as all those things are frame rate eaters. Now we have gmax to make stuff with that wasn't availble when CFS2 was born but still it's hard to go hog wild like we want to and keep our computers running it smoothly. I've seen the game run so slow it was unplayable . I remember when USio first started putting ships out and i redid the Japanese fleet but the screen would pause for a minute then run 5 seconds before freezing again. Now imagine them on fire and you would have a locked screen for sure.

[Hiede]

Scoobyman32: You are right about my motivation and need to re-test at least some of the missions. I have done about ten of them so far and have only had to make changes in three. Two were only spelling errors in the mission briefing text, and the third, which I am editing now, had too many collisions between friendlies.

I did manage to get a screenshot of the first pass bombing results though. I'm about to fly my next try on that mission and if I get the same frame-rate performance as we approach the target area, I will convert some of the nearly 300 stationary objects into a gsl. As it stands, I will still have this package uploaded by my goal - before my eye surgery, April 3rd.

Cheers:

SW07

ScreenShot = Caption needed:

Shadow Wolf

You know Talon did a post on attacking gsl targets?The AI will not always attack them and fly away and attack something else.This also is in the tutorial he did for mission building.My son uses both the Cody tutorial and Talon's.

Hiede

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Framerates is no prob, just a temporary glitch. My problem is the Pe-2 by Thicko. I've tried 3 different models and each, once I hit the "fly now" button, crashes cfs2 - when I try it either from MB, Single Missions or even Free Flight. When I use it as only AI in a mission, there is no problem, only when they are player aircraft. Solutions or ideas are welcome.

[Deathwind]

Geeze that’s the way CFS2 is. Once you think you know how to beat the system it comes back like another version of the same virus and wipes you out. You would think if no problems with the AI then no problem for you right? There could be things like the panel causing it to crash when you try looking around but those things won’t crash the game as soon as you hit the fly button. I’m betting it’s a glitch in the Mdl. Somewhere. I know the overall stock of planes had to be reworked a time or two for glitches. It probably doesn’t effect everybody but the ones it does it does. Are those the only choices in that aircraft modal you have? If all else fails use the p39 instead.

[Deathwind]

Sorry my mistake I haven’t flown for the Soviets as much as the others so sometimes I get their planes mixed up. Most be a glitch in my noggin somewhere but not the brain as I don’t have one of those goodies everybody else carries around so my head is best used as a hat rack only. Thìcko does good work and that plane has been out a long time and folks have even converted it to fly in some of the Microsoft flight sims and those folks are more picky than us about the looks because they only fly and look at the scenery below. I don’t know what the issue is but just double check everything the sound panel weapons etc. are your beta tester’s having the same issue? Oops my hat fell off. I’m totally useless at the moment but no fear the expert is near and he will help you dear only after I clear from hear. Bye see ya next year.

[Deathwind]

Sorry my mistake I haven’t flown for the Soviets as much as the others so sometimes I get their planes mixed up. Most be a glitch in my noggin somewhere but not the brain as I don’t have one of those goodies everybody else carries around so my head is best used as a hat rack only. Thìcko does good work and that plane has been out a long time and folks have even converted it to fly in some of the Microsoft flight sims and those folks are more picky than us about the looks because they only fly and look at the scenery below. I don’t know what the issue is but just double check everything the sound panel weapons etc. are your beta tester’s having the same issue? Oops my hat fell off. I’m totally useless at the moment but no fear the expert is near and he will help you dear only after I clear from hear. Bye see ya next year.

[scoobyman32]

I was recently flying a mission from Rami's awesome Balkans campaign, in which the player flies an SM-84 to attack the British fleet.

I had never loaded up the SM-84 available here at SOH, but I knew I had it, as it was an AI aircraft in an earlier mission.

When I loaded it up, the plane looked fine in the aircraft menu, but as soon as I started the mission, I would get a CTD. Tried downloading the plane again fresh and re-installed, but still the same result.

After some tinkering (ok, a lot of tinkering, but i hate to lose), I found a problem with missing gouges for the virtual cockpit portion of the panel configuration. I removed all of these gouges from the configuration, and finally got results. Surprised I never read about any issues with that plane, but it may be so long ago that I just don't remember. So many tiny yhings that can cause a plane not to function. You just have to look everywhere.

By the way Rami, if you read this, first time I've played through the Italian side of the Balkans campaign, and it has been a blast. Great missions and particularly enjoyed flying
the one mentioned above. For an old model the SM-84 is very well done. Got shot down about 15 seconds from letting my torpedoes go, but I'll definitely be giving it another go. Easily my favorite of your many great campaigns.

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Don't feel bad, Deathwind. It's all good. To answer your question; no, there are 3 versions - all Thicko's - of the Pe-2, all pre-2010. The funny thing is, it flew for me (the series83) when I initially tested the mission, early last year. Now, all 3 variants/series cause a crash as noted.


Scoobyman32, I will go back to the Pe-2 after I finish retesting/modifying the rest of the missions. Thanks for the tip, I will look for such problems with its gauges and cfg. YES there are many reasons for a plane not to work. The most common being sound - she's aliased to the Zero, so that is ruled out. I'm like you, I hate to lose or quit.

[Deathwind]

Don't feel bad, Deathwind. It's all good. To answer your question; no, there are 3 versions - all Thicko's - of the Pe-2, all pre-2010. The funny thing is, it flew for me (the series83) when I initially tested the mission, early last year. Now, all 3 variants/series cause a crash as noted.


Scoobyman32, I will go back to the Pe-2 after I finish retesting/modifying the rest of the missions. Thanks for the tip, I will look for such problems with its gauges and cfg. YES there are many reasons for a plane not to work. The most common being sound - she's aliased to the Zero, so that is ruled out. I'm like you, I hate to lose or quit.

Heck I don't mind being wrong it brings out my sense of humor. Did you make any modification to the missions themselves that might cause a crash for example for example you might had the payload set at 4 and now you only three payloads. Seems like I have flown without all my gauges before but that might be the problem. One way to find out if it's the plane is subsitute it with anything a avenger, or stuka, val for testing purposes only and if it works then you can narrow it down to a plane issue and not the mission itself that would help. You sound like a smart fellow so no doubt you will have it fixed in short order.

[Deathwind]

another thing does it crash free flight or just the missions. if it does in free flight then likely there is something up with the plane itself but sense it worked before but not now you will need to figure out what changed.

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Yup, when I hit the fly now button in Free Flight, it cashes, which leads me to believe the problem is with the plane, not the mission.

I pulled n all-nighter this eve watching movies and working missions I tested 3 and made some minor changes. I only have about 20 left to double check, then I'll devote my attention to the Pe-2. I hope to finish up by the end of the weekend.

[UncleTgt]

Greg,

Just downloaded & installed Pe-2 series 83 & everything looks OK to me.

But, I suspect its the 2D panel bitmap being 1024 x 768.
I'm using Blue Devil's ACM mods, so I'm always starting in VC rather than 2D panel mode...

Try this quick & dirty resized 2D panel bitmap (1600x1200)...

[kdriver]

Greg & John,

That 1024X768 panel isn't causing any problems for me. However, if you have Morton's Pe2 panels which have two 1024X768 bitmaps, it's another story with Windows 7.

Here are Morton's rear gunner bitmaps reduced to 800X600.

[scoobyman32]

DW, you mentioned above that you have flown planes with missing gages, and I immediately remembered myself a few times that they still worked and did not CTD. So dug back in to tinker more, and I can confirm, you can have gages missing from your main panel, but not the virtual cockpit. That is what was causing the crash with the SM-84.

I'll do a little looking on the Pe-2's, wanted to brush up on a few Russian planes for a cool campaign I hear is coming soon. 😉

[Deathwind]

DW, you mentioned above that you have flown planes with missing gages, and I immediately remembered myself a few times that they still worked and did not CTD. So dug back in to tinker more, and I can confirm, you can have gages missing from your main panel, but not the virtual cockpit. That is what was causing the crash with the SM-84.

I'll do a little looking on the Pe-2's, wanted to brush up on a few Russian planes for a cool campaign I hear is coming soon. 

You could be right. I wasn't disputing what you said because I really don't know. I have flown with missing gauges before but I'm not sure if any were in the VC or not but I feel like it's a good chance since often the panel mimics with the VC in original form. That's what makes me unsure what your saying applies to every plane or not but you could be right I'm not picking on anybody there is plenty I don't know like tying my shoes since I never had any it's something I'm struggling to learn.