Lessons learned about Scrambles

[HomeBoy 1]

My latest pilot is 5.5 hours into a campaign and beginning his seventh mission with two confirmed kills. He files with the Lafayette Escadrille and the date is 11May16.

 

Our sixth mission came up as a Scramble. I have read here on the forum how bad those things are (i.e., difficult to survive) and because I am a "hot shot fighter pilot" I was eager to take a crack at this and risk losing the time invested in the campaign. What I discovered will make me skip over any future scrambles that will come along.

 

I was only given one wingman (the others were on leave or hurt). I thought "This is perfect. Let's see how I can do!" When the mission started, I quickly looked around to see what we were up against (we're flying N11s) and counted eight E3s right overhead. Gulp! This is going to be a challenge. I started my engine and roared down the field while sending my wingman the "attack" command and veering off so as to get as much separation from my wingman (attempt to split the attack) and the attackers. I stayed low and built speed.

 

First problem.

Every now and then, I will fly a mission and then land successfully at my home airfield and exit to discover that I have recorded ZERO time in flight. Sometimes I will fly an hour and a half and get absolutely NOTHING for it. This is really infuriating. It doesn't happen all that often else I probably would be giving up on doing campaigns. I have this little theory that if I religiously follow ALL the waypoints and linger over the target for well over the specified time that I stand a better chance of having my flight recorded. I really don't know if this is true or not but something certainly causes my missions to get "Goose Egged" sometimes. Why am I telling you all this? Well, one of the first things I do when I start a mission is to check the map "m" and see what the waypoints are so I make sure and follow all of them. Well, I had second thoughts about that with a Scramble mission because really there should not be any waypoints but mostly out of habit, I pressed the "m" key. When I did, the game crashed and I was left with the pop-up window asking me if I want to send a report off to Microsoft. That was pretty frustrating but I figured it was just a fluke so I rebooted (just to make sure) and repeated the mission again. I tried bringing the map up again and BOOM! CTD once again! Apparently, since this is a Scramble mission and there is no waypoints, there must be a bug in OFF here as it tries to access a map that doesn't exist and the code runs off in the weeds. I tried it once more to make sure and that definitely is the case.

 

So, lesson #1 about doing Scrambles, DO NOT TRY TO BRING UP THE MAP WHILE FLYING SCRAMBLE MISSIONS!!!

 

Second problem.

I started the Scramble mission once again (fifth attempt or something close) and found that only three attackers were overhead this time instead of the eight I'd been seeing before. I thought "Piece of cake! I'll blast these guys in no time!"

Well, it was much tougher than I thought! Way harder than when I do something similar in QC. Cool! It took a while but I finally finished all three of them off and I directed my wingman to "rejoin" and headed for the airfield (which was only a mile or so away as all the fighting took place very close to the field). I came around and landed nicely and shut off my engine and coasted to a stop. I'm thinking "This is great! I can't imagine not getting three confirmed kills on this one as my wingman was right there to witness them and there is simply no controversy over these kills! Well, guess what, when I exited, I did not get a claim form, my flight time was ZERO, my number of rounds fired was ZERO, the number of kills was ZERO, the whole mission was ZERO! When I went to the flight review, I watched each kill I made and the messages that my pilot "Shot down an EIII", and counted all three kills just like they happened. But, it was all for nothing!

 

Lesson #2: NEVER DO SCRAMBLES AGAIN!

 

Well, I don't give up easy. I decided to just skip the obviously flawed Scramble mission and accepted the next "CAS" mission and flew it and recorded a 63 minute flight, not encountering any enemy and therefore not getting to claim any kills. So, I'm still sitting with just two kills where there should actually be eight. But I'm not bitter. The kills will come. I guess I'll just have to learn to "game" around the "game" a little better.

 

Lesson #3: The more boring the flight is, the more likely it will not get Goose Egged!

 

That last lesson is similar to the one I've learned about eating and dieting: "If the food tastes good then it's bad for me!"

 

Ok, I feel better now. Thanks for listening. Sorry for all the whinning. Excuse me while I go get me some more cheese. [Yikes, cheese tastes good!]

[Olham 164]

Yes, UncleAl - and in the best of all cases, it's all three together!! Lol!

[77Scout 3]

I have used the map on scrambles in the past with no problem, so I suspect you might have a problem with your particular install, or maybe just that mission was screwy?. The only caution is that I haven't had a scramble since the latest patch, so if the latest patch changed something in this regard then my conclusion is wrong.

 

Also, as far as I know there is no need to hit all the waypoints to have your mission recorded. I have flown many missions missing the waypoints and got full time credit. I think the source of the goose-egg thing is more random than that. I have had it on very rare occasions but could never see a pattern.

[Condor44 0]

I wonder, how many others flying campaigns see failures of their missions to be recorded? I was having that problem consistently a week or 10 days ago. Winder suggested I reset my CFS3 files wich I did. After creating new pilots, because the earlier ones were lost due to the reset, and resetting my custom graphics settings, I flew three campaign missions and the flights and flight times were recorded. Great! Problem solved!

But last night, deja vu all over again. I flew a lone wolf mision that lasted an hour and a half. I shot down two enemy aircraft and scored hits on three others. I returned home and landed before completing all of the waypoints because I was out of ammo. No claim form. No flight time recorded. I went bsack to the campaign and checked the briefing. It was the same lone wolf mission I had just completed on the same date at the same time. It was as if the mission had never happenend. So is there something I need to fix or is every campaign mission a bit of a crap shoot with respect to whether it will be recorded?

 

Are Homeboy and I the only ones experiencing this?

[Olham 164]

Yup, Condor - when things turn that bad, a reset of CFS3 can help.

All pilots will be lost, but after that it may be way more fun!

[Condor44 0]

Yup, Condor - when things turn that bad, a reset of CFS3 can help.

All pilots will be lost, but after that it may be way more fun!

 

 

But I just did the reset last week for the same problem. It's not much fun to have to do it every 3 or 4 missions.

[Bullethead 12]

"Anything that we really enjoy in this life, other than the companionship of your spouse or offspring...

 

What if the only thing you enjoy about your family is when they give you a few minutes' peace?

 

But back to Homeboy's lament about scrambles. I flew 1 of them, long ago, and never again. A scramble, realistically, is taking off to chase something your early warning net has picked up a long way away from where you live. That's what I thought this was. But Noooooooooooo...... It was an MMOFS-style vulchathon. And Homeboy and I both know how those things go...

 

In real life, nobody with more than 1/2 a brain took off with enemies right on top of his base, and only a very few people with only 1/2 a brain were savvy enough otherwise to get onto flight duty in the 1st place. Hence, while vulches did happen in real life, they were somewhat few and far between. Most folks had the sense to watch the show from a trench until the enemy turned for home before they thought about taking off.

 

So, unless you're one of those dweebs I used to kill 6-8 times in as many circuits of your field in AW, WB, or AH, you've got no business accepting scramble missions.

 

And if you are that type, consider this. I've read several reports here of folks who've kicked butt on scramble missions in OFF. I submit, however, that the OFF AI goes wonky when that close to the ground, so it doesn't floss its teeth with your entrails the way any human with enough stick time to pull the trigger would, and as you deserve for giving it the chance. So, while accepting a "scramble" mission in OFF isn't as stupid as doing the same thing against humans (real life or MP), it's still historically unrealistic AND exploiting an AI weakness. How proud does that make you feel?

 

Bottom line: I agree with Homebody's 2nd point: never do scramble missions.

[77Scout 3]

Yes, the lone-wolf missions seem to be more prone to the 'no mission data recorded' problem than most. If someone knows what the cause or cure is for this random occurence, I haven't seen it mentioned. I am still getting a lot of missions with only partial time credited...a related problem? Don't know.

[Canvas Wings 1]

I have used the map on scrambles in the past with no problem, so I suspect you might have a problem with your particular install, or maybe just that mission was screwy?. The only caution is that I haven't had a scramble since the latest patch, so if the latest patch changed something in this regard then my conclusion is wrong.

 

Also, as far as I know there is no need to hit all the waypoints to have your mission recorded. I have flown many missions missing the waypoints and got full time credit. I think the source of the goose-egg thing is more random than that. I have had it on very rare occasions but could never see a pattern.

 

 

I can say the same. I have used the map during a scramble with no ill effects... as a matter of fact, just last night, so the latest patch is not the culprit. And you definitely don't need to hit all the waypoints to clock time. I can't remember a mission ending as if it never happened - but I have seen the rare occasion when I don't get a claim form for E/A which I have definitely downed, according to the on screen alerts.

 

And it's not often I have to disagree w/Bullethead but I love the scramble missions; if the odds are reasonalble, I'll go up after them. They're dog tough, but fun. I've gotten the worst of it a few times, but when that happens, I often manage to get down in one piece. Historical - yeah, probably not so much.

CW

[HomeBoy 1]

Well, I (and apparently Condor) appear to be the only ones with this problem.

 

I just flew a mission five times in a row and flew the opposite way from where the waypoints are and came back around and landed. Goose-egg all five times. Not a trace that I had ever taken off. I just don't have much more heart for this. I am not going to risk flying off for an hour or hour and half just to come back to a goose egg.

 

I tried updating my nvidia drivers to 190.38 which caused my cfs3.config settings to get wiped out (I had forgotten about that). No big deal, I simply reset them but that has not seemed to make any difference at all.

 

Oh well, thanks for trying to help me fellas. I really do appreciate it. I think I'm going to give up on this game for a while. Maybe when the superpatch comes out things will be better and I'll try again then.

 

regards

-mark

[Broadside uda Barn 0]

I just had this happen to me. moving airfields, first mission for the new pilot.

got a couple kills, finish mission, no record of it.

then it had the audacity to give me the same mision 2 more times.

I kept dying.

next pilot, same mission, it recorded. tho the next mission I flew, my engine died. I landed at less than 5 mph, and died.

nice.

 

You're not the only one HB and condor.

I've not had this happen till today a few mins. ago.

[Duce Lewis 3]

I just had this happen to me. moving airfields, first mission for the new pilot.

got a couple kills, finish mission, no record of it.

then it had the audacity to give me the same mision 2 more times.

I kept dying.

next pilot, same mission, it recorded. tho the next mission I flew, my engine died. I landed at less than 5 mph, and died.

nice.

 

You're not the only one HB and condor.

I've not had this happen till today a few mins. ago.

BuB, the Transfer repeat is a separate and known issue

A lot (including me) have this problem

Simple fix is to Time Advance when the 2nd Transfer pops up

 

Bullett, Scrambles are my all time favorite mission

You see, after having dozens of graveyards named after me, I've finally learned to stay high, let em dive

Scrambles are like a reset to those old wild days, chase the 1st guy down to the deck

Homeboy has it right, stay low and go fast ...gain height where you can

Immelmanns, and stalls are hair-raising down on the deck

Squirt, turn, turn, squirt, turn, turn, turn

Whenever one pops up there's a thrill of excitement and a chill up the spine at the same time

It's near impossible to come outta one unscathed but a wobbling deadstick in a beehive of HA is quite an accomplishment

I don't care if they're not 100% realistic, to darn exhiliarating to miss

 

Homeboy, I use the map in Scrambles with no issues

I have had cfs3 crash when changing views but the OFF Manager still runs

Sounds like a different issue but so rare it's not a bother

Probably do a Manual Install and/or Reset cfs3 when this pilot klinks off ...or to put it another way - SOON!