Suggested Fixes for P-40B Single Missions

[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.

--------------------------------------------------------

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

[JacksonsGhost]

Hmmm ... 141kb or so of download per fixed mission ... I can live with that.

And the extra 146kb for the folder fix is a one-off issue I think, so I can live with that too.

Anyway, the fix is there if TD want to use it. If they consider it to be bloat that's ok too. Individuals can still cut and paste from here as a half-fix if they want to.

Now I have a Chinese I-16 mission waiting for me to fly so I'll be off!

[Fhechene]

Then again, for some patches you have a separate download for skins. So, you could have a separate download for these missions. In this way, you could also have those missions available for people who don't want to upgrade to the latest patch; for example, most people who have mods. And now that' I think of it, troubleshooting wouldn't take too much time, so you're right in that regard, but we'll still need to test balance. For example, for correcting the Soviet P-47 mission I had to change delayed start time of a flight to a delayed take-off, so now this flight is a sitting duck for like 8 minutes. And the corrected He-162 mission now has some taxiing. So, you could have planes crashing during taxi under certain circumstances. Is that better than the original take-off in pairs solution I provided at the beginning? That would need a balance check.

Besides, deleting files may be counterproductive, because people may have done modifications to their own files and that would mean loosing those changes. You could have a readme file, but there is a chance people wouldn't read it.

By the way, you making this post means that you care enough about the community that you are willing to offer some fixes, so kudos to you. At the risk of sounding repetitive, I could send you my missions or you could send me yours, in order to upload them to M4T. If I send them to you, you could check for balance for the taxiing and taking off in pairs versions of the He-162 mission. We could also upload them here as in a separate post, so people can test the balance of every mission that has issues and other missions both of us hadn't notice. So we make a big pack before uploading it somewhere.