Suggested Fixes for P-40B Single Missions

[JacksonsGhost]

I’ve noticed that the P-40B mission 20_PHW1 ‘Pearl Harbor Defense 2’ in the US Navy Single Mission folder has become sadly broken at some point. I know this isn’t uncommon, but maybe I can help in this case by sharing some suggested fixes that I’ve worked out.

I’ll list the issues, then my suggested fixes.

These are the issues:

1. If the player actually manages to get off the ground and make enough of a fight of it that his AI buddies live to complete their waypoints there is a problem. The current automatic landing circuit for AI aircraft at the selected end of Bellows airfield places waypoints for the P-40s inside the mountains. So any AI P-40 fortunate enough to still have wings at that point will simply fly around until it runs out of fuel or otherwise crashes, even if previously undamaged (I tested with no enemies).
2. The player will automatically be awarded a successful completion of the mission even if they do nothing but walk out of the room to watch their favourite re-run of “Baywatch” for ten minutes while the clock ticks over and the P-40s get blown to pieces! This is because the mission defined Target radius is too small, and the vehicles the enemy are set to target move outside the Target radius before they can be destroyed. The amount of destruction required is also set too high.
3. Both P-40B missions in the US Navy folder should actually be in the US Air Force folder, as the mission briefs clearly identify them as relating to the historical Air Force squadrons, not Navy. In fact I’m pretty sure the P-40 was never in squadron service with the Navy. The Air Force ones transported on aircraft carriers don’t count!

These are my suggested fixes:

1. In the .mis file for 20_PHW1, change the Landing Waypoint coordinates for both P-40 Wings from 288446.72 32682.60 to 289215.09 34013.48. This makes them land in the opposite runway direction, but I think that’s better than crashing.
2. In the .mis file for 20_PHW1, change the Target text from 6 0 1 10 750 288807 33316 800 to 6 0 1 11 250 288807 33316 3000. This will do three things; greatly decrease the amount of destruction the enemy is required to do at your airfield, slightly increase the time they have to do it, and keep your moving vehicles in the target radius for longer. This gives the best balance I can find which generally forces the player to do something to win the mission while still keeping it winnable.
3. If it’s not too much trouble to get the two US P-40B missions permanently moved from the UN folder to the US folder in the next patch that would tidy things up nicely!

Of course all these changes can be done by individuals without a patch. I’ve already done so with mine. But if they can be easily included in a patch I feel that would be better for everyone.

[Fhechene]

It's not the only mission that has some issues
http://www.mission4today.com/index.p...wtopic&t=22312
but any user with a little knowledge can fix them. For example, I don't like flights appearing in airfields from nothing, as in, start time not zero, so instead, I change the takeoff delay times.

And if, instead, the flight starts in air after the start of the mission, I just make them take off from an airfield, and make them be at the corresponding waypoint at the specific time they should be.

[JacksonsGhost]

Originally Posted by Fhechene

It's not the only mission that has some issues
http://www.mission4today.com/index.p...wtopic&t=22312
but any user with a little knowledge can fix them.

Agreed, as I said. We have a wealth of players with the knowledge to provide fixes as I have done, but it all takes work. The point is, by sharing this fix here Daidalos now has the option to fix this broken mission for everyone with presumably minimal effort to themselves. Maybe there should be more of this. I think it's a reasonable expectation that the provided Single Missions should work in a way that makes reasonable sense, without user editing. I'd be interested to hear what Daidalos think about it.

[Fhechene]

I super agree with you in regards of having good single player missions. Like for example, the He-162 mission in which almost all your squadron hits a hill that's near your airstrip. You have to take off in pairs in order to make your mates not exploding. But while DT doesn't patch those missions one can do it without much effort. I may sound like a conformist, but I'd prefer DT making new maps before changing missions.
Everyone can change missions. Not many can make mod planes or maps. Maybe we could check for every mission that has issues and upload them in M4T or something like that, and hope DT makes them official and whatnot.
There is the P-40B mission, the soviet P-47D mission and the He-162. I don't know if there are more.

[JacksonsGhost]

I agree that the heavy time should go into other things. That's why I'm offering the fixes ready made. I think with the fixes already worked out they should only take minutes to add to a patch, and then everyone has them. Am I wrong?

[Fhechene]

Originally Posted by JacksonsGhost

I agree that the heavy time should go into other things. That's why I'm offering the fixes ready made. I think with the fixes already worked out they should only take minutes to add to a patch, and then everyone has them. Am I wrong?

I'm agreeing with you.
Now the issue is distributing the fixes via official patch or via 3rd party. If official patch is the way, then the developers would still need to troubleshoot them, if we screw something and we don't know, or there is a distribution trouble or anything. 3rd party means that someone scans for viruses and maybe makes sure that there is a .mis file inside, so there is less stuff for DT to do. In time, these fixes may be made official, even.

[JacksonsGhost]

Originally Posted by Fhechene

the developers would still need to troubleshoot them

This is minutes, not hours ... if the fixes work. If they don't work they give us a kick in the toosh and ask us to fix it properly this time! I really think my method (requiring a simple cut and paste of two lines in this case) is more direct and time efficient than the M4T upload option, but hopefully someone from the team will read this thread soon and share their wishes in this regard.

[wheelsup_cavu]

The way the patches are created moving the P-40B folder from the UN to US folder is somewhat problematic. DT uses WinRAR for their update patches but I have never seen them or the Maddox team for that matter use the remove feature of that program. The existing file is just overwrote to update it.

Updating the mission and leaving it in the same folder wouldn't be much of a problem and I suspect any fixes would be along those lines although I do agree the missions should have always been in the US folder.


Wheels

[JacksonsGhost]

Wheels, I think I understand what you're saying.

A normal patch would overwrite an existing file in an existing location, or create a new file in a new location.

So I think you're saying that a patch could easily place the amended mission file in the US folder but the old faulty mission would still exist unchanged in the UN folder as well because they can't delete it.

If that is the case I would get around that by having a prominent note in the Readme file of the patch asking players to delete the old file in the UN folder manually. And if players don't read that note, well, no harm done. Those people just have two versions of the mission ... one which works the way it did before, and the other that is fixed ... and the rest of us have the fixed one in the correct folder!

Same for the other US P-40B mission.

[wheelsup_cavu]

Originally Posted by JacksonsGhost

Wheels, I think I understand what you're saying.

A normal patch would overwrite an existing file in an existing location, or create a new file in a new location.

Your assesement on both counts is correct.

Originally Posted by JacksonsGhost

So I think you're saying that a patch could easily place the amended mission file in the US folder but the old faulty mission would still exist unchanged in the UN folder as well because they can't delete it.

I know that WinRAR is capable of deleting the folder and files but I have never seen it done by DT or Maddox. Any and all files and folders that need to be deleted must be deleted first by the program and then any files being added must follow after those deletions.

Originally Posted by JacksonsGhost

If that is the case I would get around that by having a prominent note in the Readme file of the patch asking players to delete the old file in the UN folder manually. And if players don't read that note, well, no harm done. Those people just have two versions of the mission ... one which works the way it did before, and the other that is fixed ... and the rest of us have the fixed one in the correct folder!

Same for the other US P-40B mission.

You are also correct that there would be two version of the missions under current patch conditions if the corrected missions were to be placed in the US folder. The old unaltered missions would still be in the UN folder and the updated versions would be in the US folder.

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I suspect another reason they only update the files in their current locations is that they only need to have the updated file in the patch and not all the associated files. Updating the .mis file and putting it in the US folder will also require having the .properties files added to the US folder. For this update that would require having one .mis file and the three .properties files for each mission.

A fix to the UN folder would only require this file.

• 20_PHW1.mis

(141 KB)

A fix adding a P40B folder to the US folder would require these 8 files and one folder.

• P-40B folder
• 19_PHW1.mis
• 19_PHW1.properties
• 19_PHW1_de.properties
• 19_PHW1_fr.properties
• 20_PHW1.mis
• 20_PHW1.properties
• 20_PHW1_de.properties
• 20_PHW1_fr.properties

(287 kb)

I know from a file size comparison this fix is not that bad but if you start doing multiple fixes the same way it could add a lot of bloat to what are already, in most instances, pretty large patches.


I like what I see and I am definitely not trying to discourage input since I want the Single missions to work better also. I am just pointing out what I think might be hindrances to a total fix versus a partial fix.


Wheels