Long nose Focke-Wulf - Eastern Front 'offline' campaign released

[dflion]

I have just released this 44 mission campaign on Mission4Today - see link below

http://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads&file=details&id=3371

The campaign is 'semi-historical', roughly based on the operation tour of Maj.Gerhard Barkhorn with JG6 on the Eastern Front during 1944/5. During the campaign JG6 is quite often helped by JG52 and his good friend Erich Hartmann.

I have particularly enjoyed making the missions in this campaign using the new Slovakia and Bessarabia maps. Both these maps have added realism and immersion to the campaign and the storyline. The Slovakia map is a fantastic effort and tribute should be made to the whole team that produced it. I will update the campaign when the the final Slovakia map version is released in 4.09.

This is the second campaign I have made flying the Fw190-D9 'Dora'. This is a great plane to fly in IL-2 and once you get used to its characteristics, it will be very hard for your opponent to beat you - even at 'Ace AI' settings.

DFLion

[Spinnetti]

Cool!

[Eckhart]

Do you need BOE to play this campaign? I started it but the planeset doesn't follow the briefing?

Cheers,

Eckhart

[dflion]

Do you need BOE to play this campaign? I started it but the planeset doesn't follow the briefing?
Cheers,
Eckhart

Hi Eckhart,
Could you give me some more detail on what happens with your 'planeset' when you start the missions. I included all skins in the 'click' download, so you should have the right 'planeset' for each mission. You do not need to have BOE to play the campaign.
Before starting each mission, you have to check that you have the right skin and markings are on or off.
Cheers,
DFLion

[Eckhart]

On the second mission the briefing mentions flying a G6 to Slovakia and the mission actually puts you in a 262 flying around Berlin as for the first mission...

I thought this might be problem with some missing BOE items (map?)

Cheers,

Eckhart

Ps: Perhaps this is related to the EnjoyrPatch I have in my configuration?

[dflion]

Name Long nose Focke-Wulf Eastern Front (1)
Short Ordered to Berlin to test-fly the new Me262 'Swallow' jet fighter\n
Description Date: 16th Jun 1944\nTime: 0900\nWeather: Good\nCloud height: 1200m\nLocation: Lechfeld\n\nYou have temporarily 'stepped down' as Kommodore of JG52 due to wounds received in battle.\n\nYour Jagdgeschwader has been recently withdrawn from the Crimea, losing most of its ground equipment and is now based in Slovakia.\n\nThere is no rest - while you are healing your wounds, Gen.Galland has summoned you and your leading Ace, Leutnant Hartmann to Lechfeld near Berlin to test fly the Me262 jet fighter.\n\nGen. Galland will soon be forming a new jet fighter Jagdgeschwader (JV44) consisting of expertens - he has invited yourself and Leutnant Hartmann to join this elite group.\n\nMission notes: After successfully test flying the Me262, you receive an urgent message to return to your Headquarters in Slovakia. The US Airforce, based in southern Italy, have just commenced a high-level bombing campaign over the Ploelsti oil fields in Romania and every man is needed to defend them.\n\nGen.Galland is advised of the urgent situation and gives you permission to take two Bf109's and fly directly to Romania via Slovakia. He will get back in touch with you later to give him your decision.\n\nGame notes: Select skin - Me262A1_JV44_Galland.bmp\n\n \n

Hi Eckhart,
Not sure what is happening with your mission order? - I have tested the missions and the briefing for mission (1) is shown above. In mission (1) you fly the Me262, after you complete this mission you begin your flight to Romania in a Bf109G-6Late, which is mission (2). Both mission (1) and (2) are made on the 'Berlin' map.
DFLion

[Ctrl E]

dude - your mission doesn't work.

first game is in a me262. and the second game doesn't work at all.


sounds promising though.

[dflion]

Hi Ctrl E,
Sorry to hear you are having problems. I made the campaign in ver.4.09b1M which is the 'beta' version of the shortly to be released final ver.4.09M.
I have downloaded the files automatically into my directories and am now playing the campaign for the third time to see if I can 'tweak' any missions to work better - I have had no problems with any missions?
I have also checked the .mis files of missions (1) and (2) and there appears to be no problems.
This campaign is an 'offline' campaign and should not be put into your DGEN folder within the IL-2 program structure. The download 'click' file will automatically put the campaign files into your default IL-2 folder - Missions, Campaign, DE etc

If you can send me some more details of your game version, we might be able to sort things out.

DFLion

[Eckhart]

dude - your mission doesn't work.

first game is in a me262. and the second game doesn't work at all.


sounds promising though.

Same problem for me.:confused: In mission two the game puts you in a me262 and not in a G6....completely stuck with this and besides that everything is as you specified (4.09b1m, mission in the campaign folder etc.)

Hope you find out how we can change this because the campaign sounds interesting.

Cheers,

Eckhart

[dflion]

Sorry to hear that mission (2) puts you in the wrong cockpit Eckhart.

With the 4.09b1M beta version there were some new extra master skin files that changed the default paint schemes for all the Messerschmitts - could this be the problem? Did you load up these new paint scheme files? The Mission files may not be recognizing the new skin files for the Bf109G-6Late and defaulting back to the Me262A-1a files?

Has anybody else on the forum got a possible explanation?

DFLion

[blottogg]

I'm having the same problem. Going into the FMB, the Me-262 flight is initially not checked as "AI only". Checking this, and that the desired Bf-109G-6Late flight isn't checked as AI only, and that the first 109 only is checked as "Player Aircraft", gets the mission to work out of the FMB (selecting "Play"), but the error still occurs in the campaign. Deleting the 262's from the mission in FMB results in the player being placed in Hartmann's aircraft in the campaign (number 2), despite no other changes to the mission. Only by reducing the number of 109's to "1", can the player fly the intended aircraft in the mission from the campaign screen. None of the misassigned plane problems occur when flying the mission as a stand-alone from the FMB, so I'm not sure where the problem lies. Just to check, the same thing happens in the next mission in the campaign (I'm flying in Hartmann's aircraft in the airstart over Slovakia.)

I don't know where the problem lies, but this campaign isn't quite ready for prime-time. Hopefully some of the campaign maestros will stop by and point out what we're doing wrong. I'm also running EnjoyR's DGEN mod (v4.0), which might be part of the problem. Keep at it, this looks promising, if I can actually get to fly the intended aircraft.

P.S. I'm also running v4.09b1m of the game from the '46 DVD.

[dflion]

Thanks for your feed back blottogg. I have been testing the missions in the FMB to try and simulate the problems you are having - I think I have found the answer!

If you go into your FMB then open Mission (1) - click on the Me262 route (the route starts flashing and an object box appears) In the object box change the 'Army type' from 'German Army <none> to Jv44 (scroll down to find Jv44). Do the same for Mission (2)

I think what has been happening is that I had 'German Army <none>' checked for both the Me262A-1a and Bf109G-6 giving them either flight 1 or 2 under the 'German Army <none>' check box. Somehow the program is then puting you in the wrong aircraft?

By changing 'German Army <none>' to an actual Jagdgeschwader (JG or Jv) this puts you in the correct aircraft for each mission. Each flyable aircraft type must have a different JG/Jv number for some reason?
There appears to be some type of programming problem, though somehow it has not caused an issue in my system?

Let me know how you go? If the problem is fixed, I will go through the campaign and change the JG numbers and issue ver.1.02

DFLion

[Eckhart]

Hi dflion!

It works:mrgreen:. Once you assign the right squad to the Me 262 and the G6, the game puts you into the G6 driver seat!

Great campaign! Those 4.09 maps are really great!

Cheers,

Eckhart

[dflion]

Thanks Eckhart - we have a fix.
Glad to hear you are enjoying the campaign. I will check all the missions and change any where required, then issue ver.1.02.
DFLion

[blottogg]

dflion, that fix works for me, too. One other question, are you supposed to start the campaign with a specific rank? I started the first time at Oberfeldwebel, which is what caused my problems within the formation. Starting again as a Major seems to have fixed this, at least for two-ship formations. Maybe something mentioning starting rank more prominently in the ReadMe for dimwits like me who didn't read the short campaign description.

[dflion]

Thanks blottogg, glad to hear everything is now working ok.
You select the highest rank in this campaign 'You are totally in charge of your Jagdgeschwader'.
Let me know how you are going with the campaign, especially flying on the Slovakia map.

DFLion

[Ctrl E]

i will give this method a go too. so far i've only been able to get into some missions through the full mission builder. others won't open. it looks promising though. love the new skins for the spits, p-51s and tempests.

[Ctrl E]

hmm - can't see a jv44? tried changing to another and still couldn't get working? maybe i'm a bit slow?

[dflion]

Ctrl E - Jv44 is very easy to miss when scrolling down through the German (Squadrons) - it is not with the (JG's).

Anyway, I have solved all the problems you have been having - ver.1.02 should appear very shortly on Mission4Today.

In this version, I have allocated the correct JG number for each Schwarm for all missions in the Campaign, so this should fix everything up.

I have just flown mission 19 (over Hungary/Austria) for the third time (you are up against La-7's, including 1 Ace) -I am getting better with each mission - 'nailed' a few more, flying the great 'Dora'.

DFLion

[blottogg]

There's a similar problem with mission 24. Both the 109G-14's and the 190D-9's are assigned "German Army <none>" in the mission. You'll need to go into the FMB and reset them to "II/JG52" and "I/JG6" respectively, or else you wind up being put in the G-14's by default.

[dflion]

Thanks blottogg,
I have just checked my amended ver.1.02 and mission 24 has been fixed -
Fw-190D9's -1/JG6
Bf-109G14's - III/JG52
Have you downloaded ver.1.02? - I have fixed all the problems in this version.

How is the campaign going with the new maps? They certainly have increased the immersion for me and no doubt are a sign of 'things to come' when Oleg releases SOW BOB.

I hope to soon release an 'updated version to 4.09b1m' of 'The Big Show'. I have updated all 52 missions with many new ground objects and new aircraft skins. The missions involving D-Day are now much more realistic on the ground around the ALG's (Advanced Landing Grounds) and beach head. All flyable aircraft have their correct Squadron assignments.

DFLion

[Ctrl E]

were you the one who created the big show campaign on mission4today?
bloody fantastic. i just finished reading the book only recently and was mighty impressed by the effort put into the mission. have since ordered on amazon his second book, fire in the sky. have no idea what it's about, but if it's half as good it will be great.

congrats and thanks for your hard work.

[dflion]

Thanks CTRL E,

I created 'The Big Show' campaign in honour of Pierre Clostermann who was my boyhood hero. His book is undoubtedly one of the best, if not the best narrative written on WWII aerial warfare - I first read it when I was 12 years old?
The other book you mentioned is 'Flames in the Sky' written after the war by Pierre Clostermann. This is another excellent book with a series of stories about individual actions by various pilots - allied and axis. This book is again superbly written by Clostermann who had the knack of puting the reader 'right in the cockpit'.
I should be posting 'The Big Show' upgrade within the next two weeks on Mission4Today and for all the IL2 French fans on Check Six (missions translated to French).
DFLion

[blottogg]

Ditto mission 29. Both flights of F-8's will need to be assigned (I picked I/SG3 and II/SG3, don't know if that's historically accurate), and Stab/JG52 for the 109's (all checked "AI only"), as well as I/JG6 for the 190's (check that #1 is assigned as the Player's A/C).

[dflion]

Thanks again blottogg - I have released V1.02 with all these problems fixed, though I know once you have committed to the original V1.01 you can't get out of it without losing your score and rank progression - you virtually have to start again.

In mission 29 I allocated -
I/JG6 to FW-190D9's
III/JG52 to Bf-109G14's
II/SG3 to FW-190F8's
SG2 and SG4 were operating in Czechoslovakia at the time - not sure which unit was operating in Slovakia, so allocated SG3.

DFLion