Mod Lesson 1

[KingAlbert]

I am working at a WOE campaign for a couple of weeks now. However since a few days I noticed that none of the AI - controlled aircraft (expect those of my flight) had no weapons.

 

Initially I thought this had to do with me editing an existing campaign and setting it in 1989. Since the stock campaigns don't go further then 1979 I figured out that most aircraft had no matching weapons in the loadout file. Only when I started meddling in the loadout files adjusting the weapons to match 1989 I discovered that the problem persisted.

 

I spend three days rewriting the load-out file of the F-15C to be 100 % sure that it would be correct. But the problem was not solved. So now I got the sneaky feeling that somewhere the mods that i already installed were messing with eachother (I guessed the weaponsdata files since I had merged bunyaps pack with the MF pack).

 

I had kept track of each mod installed and most changes I made, but I also had removed mods some somewhere deep inside WOE some files were messing up and I had no backups to retrace my steps. So the only solution that remained open was restarting all over, carefully checking each mod.

 

I spent this entire evening reinstalling the basic mods that I needed (effects packs, weapons pack etc) and finally started rebuilding the actual campaign. But as soon as I ran the first test, the dreaded problem re-appeared: AI aircraft without weapons.

 

Since I had tested each mod installation, I knew that they could not cause the problem. The only thing that had changed was the campaign itself. Initially I thought I had edited a parameter by mistake, so I started comparing the campaign files with the stock campaign file that i used as basis.

 

finally I found the culprit: i had deleted the startdate in the campaign data file. After banging my head against the wall, I inserted the startdate again and lo and behold, AI aircraft have weapons again.

So what are the modders lessons I learned:

1. ALWAYS BACKUP

2. TEST EACH MODIFICATION YOU MAKE

3. THE ERROR IS ALWAYS CAUSED IN THE LAST PLACE YOU WILL LOOK

4. THE ERROR IS ALWAYS A SINGLE STUPID LINE YOU MESSED UP

 

Perhaps some other would be modders will learn from my mistake

[+Brainless]

Perhaps some other would be modders will learn from my mistake

 

Yes well I guess a lot of us have 'done a Brainless' at one time or another. Welcome to the club. Good advice by the way.