Difficulties with the BE2 (c?) - known ?

[Wels 2]

Hello.

 

just started a campaign with the BE2c (i think), in early 1917. Now i can start, and fly (also shot down a Halberstadt D.II lol), but i will always hang back from my wingmen sooner or later, regardless how i tune my engine (lean mixture etc.), and after a while (mostly happens above enemy territory) the revolutions begin to drop, and i will have to land, and the engine conks out. When i have landed, i start the engine (automatic start), and it will often not even start, and if i will never again reach the speed for take off.

 

Additonally, above the target i have no possibilities to drop my bombload. There are bombs visible below the Quirk's nose, and they were mentioned in the mission briefing (bomb a railyard), but i cannot drop them. The original buttons do not work, and the other which i assigned to the joystick, do not work either.

 

What am i doing wrong ? Hmm, have there been changes in the last patch ?

 

Thanks and greetings,

Catfish

[Siggi 10]

Wrong mixture leading to over-heating and busting the motor?

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

Wels, I'm quite sure Siggi has hit it. I have flown the BE2c a fair amount and it is very touchy when it comes to the fuel/air mixture, (which BTW was typical of the early war planes). Too lean and you will overheat, too rich and you will foul out. If you catch either situation soon enough you can correct your settings and get power back. But if you don't you will conk your motor. As to the bombs, the normal weapons controls should do the trick Sir.

 

Cheers!

 

Lou

 

.

[77Scout 3]

As far as the Bombs go, we're talking ONE key on your keyboard, if that doesn't work. Your joystick is useless. I'd go into controls and re-bind one control

 

Dropping bombs is actually a 2-button process, as you have to select the next payload first (backspace) before the drop-ordinance button (enter)will do anything.

[Wels 2]

Hello,

 

first thanks, so engine damage due to wrong mixture is really implemented in the sim ? I have never heard of this before ... and it sure does not affect the Roland C.II "Walfisch", or any other plane. Engine problems due to enemy fire happen, but ...

 

2nd problem, i realized that the file that is responsible for "which button does what", "mine.xla", has misteriously vanished. This has happened before, but it has been a year - I sure did not delete it, and i am also sure it was not deleted by my Antivir software. As well my graphics settings decide at some point to "reset", or change their values ? What is going on here ??

Now i do not know which other files have vanished, but this begs for a complete re-install, and i hate this. This sim seems to have some strange features.

 

Greetings,

Catfish

[77Scout 3]

Now i do not know which other files have vanished, but this begs for a complete re-install, and i hate this. This sim seems to have some strange features.

 

More likely your computer has some strange features. If OFF had a habit of losing files we would probably all be experiencing it. I myself have never had so much as a glitch in many years flying Phase 1 to 3

[Siggi 10]

Dropping bombs is actually a 2-button process, as you have to select the next payload first (backspace) before the drop-ordinance button (enter)will do anything.

 

Eh? I have one button mapped on my keyboard (B) to "Drop Ordinance" and that worked in QC testing. I hit R after that to watch them go (I've re-mapped most keys, so don't be confused).

 

Strangely though, in a campaign mission yesterday I hit the B key, then the R key and nada. I'm going to double-check.

[Wels 2]

Hello Siggi,

 

would you pllease be so kind and look into your \programs\OBD\Over Flanders Fields directory, whether a "mine.xla" file is still there ?

 

Re 77scout. there have been numerous posts dealing with disappearing files in the past, be it CFS3 alone, or OFF, so even if it certainly IS my computer or software that makes them disappear HERE, it seems this error is reproducable, and happens now and then. If we could find out what is responsible for this strange behaviour (UncleAl, like me, also experienced graphic setting changes without actually changing anything by hand), it would sure help a few people.

 

Maybe it was because i once switched to desktop from the OFF manager, and then back ? The original CFS3 did not like this if i remember right - could it have something to do with that ?

 

Thanks and greetings,

Catfish

[Siggi 10]

Hello Siggi,

 

would you pllease be so kind and look into your \programs\OBD\Over Flanders Fields directory, whether a "mine.xla" file is still there ?

 

Re 77scout. there have been numerous posts dealing with disappearing files in the past, be it CFS3 alone, or OFF, so even if it certainly IS my computer or software that makes them disappear HERE, it seems this error is reproducable, and happens now and then. If we could find out what is responsible for this strange behaviour (UncleAl, like me, also experienced graphic setting changes without actually changing anything by hand), it would sure help a few people.

 

Maybe it was because i once switched to desktop from the OFF manager, and then back ? The original CFS3 did not like this if i remember right - could it have something to do with that ?

 

Thanks and greetings,

Catfish

 

Nope, I have no such file there. Should I?

[Wels 2]

Hi Siggi,

 

thanks - well up to the last patch there should be this "mine.xla" (or *.xca (?)) there, because this is where your keyboard commands are stored - would explain why some of your keys don't work anymore, as it is the case with my game.

This is unfortunately one of the files that sometimes vanish -

 

But maybe this changed with the last patch ? No more mine.* file necessary ? Maybe one of the devs could say something about it ?

 

Thanks and greetings,

Catfish

Edited November 3, 2009 by Wels

[+Winder 32]

Hi Siggi,

 

thanks - well up to the last patch there should be this "mine.xla" (or *.xca (?)) there, because this is where your keyboard commands are stored - would explain why some of your keys don't work anymore, as it is the case with my game.

This is unfortunately one of the files that sometimes vanish -

 

But maybe this changed with the last patch ? No more mine.* file necessary ? Maybe one of the devs could say something about it ?

 

Thanks and greetings,

Catfish

 

Yes I can say something about 'it'

 

It has not changed.

 

It has not got files that sometimes vanish.

 

Your PC on the other hand is another story.... be sure!

 

HTH

 

WM

[Wels 2]

Hi,

 

Yes I can say something about 'it'

It has not changed.

It has not got files that sometimes vanish.

Your PC on the other hand is another story.... be sure!

HTH

WM

 

"HTH" ? No it doesn't.

Is there still a "mine" file with the key commands stored ? Or better, should there be one ?

That the graphic settings sometimes "automatically" change has also been observed before, not only by me.

And if eventual MS updates or whatever can screw up the OFF installation, it should be probably mentioned ?

 

Well maybe not, if it helps you.

 

Greetings,

Catfish

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

Catfish,

 

You can find your mine.xca file in your C:\Documents and Settings\***\Application Data\Microsoft\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields directory. Note that this is a separate directory from your game installation folder. One of those CFS3 quirks, I guess.

[Wels 2]

Hello,

 

ok, found it out after a de-install and a new installation. If you save your own control buttons as the suggested "mine" in the control settings menu, the settings will be stored at :

 

C:\Documents and settings\insert your username\Application data\Microsoft\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields, the file name is "mine.xca" here.

 

It was not there before ... will try whether i can now drop some bombs with button 3, or Enter.

 

 

Edit: Mr. Prop-wash, thanks you beat me to it !

The pre-installed keys also seem to reside in this directory, named "CFS3.xca".

There's also a key config file at C:\Programs\OBDSoftware\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields directory, called "Flight Simulator.xca"

 

What's strange is that with the last install i could change certain buttons, and save it as "mine", but this file would not appear in said directory, and those re-programmed buttons would (logically) fail to work in the sim.

 

Greetings,

Catfish

Edited November 3, 2009 by Wels

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

Glad you are sorted. Now, back to the skies!

[+Polovski 440]

Glad you are sorted Catfish. What WM is saying as we do not magically delete important files randomly. I have never had that happen to "mine.xca" and neither has WM or most other people who own OFF, so something odd went wrong on your PC.

 

This is the first thing I think of, if I have something odd happen with ANY program. Do not assume it's the program instantly and therefore affects the world - PC's are too flaky and different to assume that.

 

Sometimes disks or files can become corrupt for many reasons. Failing hardware from old age, or bad power supplies, or been mistreated at some point, or just because they can - whatever, scrambled files from a crash in memory sometime, corrupt files from turning off the PC before it's finished, and so on I won't bore you with the 10000 other reasons

[Wels 2]

Hello Pol,

 

thanks for taking the time. I did not say the dev team magically deleted files, it is just that exactly this has happened to me before, on another PC prior to the one i use now. Some buttons re-assigned by me did not work one day, and even if i tried to change some assignments back to the ones i usually use in the control settings, it would not work. Since this xca file is stored in the user-dependent directory (yes i was logged on with the same username) below documents and settings there is a faint chance that some system re-organisation has dumped or deleted it (?). There is usually a directory "CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields" with subfolders, but all files in the upper one along with those sub folders were gone.

 

"This is the first thing I think of, if I have something odd happen with ANY program. Do not assume it's the program instantly and therefore affects the world - PC's are too flaky and different to assume that. "

 

Amen to that, i just thought that there is someone who might have any far-fetched idea of what's going on - Winders remarks are sometimes a bit "corrosive"

 

I thought about Spybot SD, or maybe an M$ update to screw things up, i never said it was the sim - the idea of an OFF update that might have changed anything, was just a question. Anyway it is all working now, after a de-, and reinstallation.

 

 

But since you are here, could you please tell me whether an engine quitting in the BE2c may be due to too lean mixture, or revving too high for too long, or in a dive ? Maybe i am beginning to see things, but my BE2c aircooled engine did die twice under me, and trying to restart it with full mixture. magnetoes on, battery on did not work. Anyway reading about this bird and its career it seems this might be modeled quite accurately lol.

 

Thanks and greetings,

Catfish

Edited November 4, 2009 by Wels

[+Winder 32]

Hi,

 

 

 

"HTH" ? No it doesn't.

Is there still a "mine" file with the key commands stored ? Or better, should there be one ?

That the graphic settings sometimes "automatically" change has also been observed before, not only by me.

And if eventual MS updates or whatever can screw up the OFF installation, it should be probably mentioned ?

 

Well maybe not, if it helps you.

 

Greetings,

Catfish

 

Graphics settings changing are part ofthe CFS3 auto optimistation routine - it has done this since MS made it.

If you try to set the settings higher than what CFS3 believes you can run it with your hardware, CFS3 'sometimes' decides to reset them...

 

There are a few provisos...

 

1) It depends on the hardware that you are running

 

2) It depends on your CPU load when you launch CFS3

 

Finally by setting your configsoverride.xml file to 'read only' stops CFS3 from ever changing it!

This has been a well documented CFS3 issue back in that day but assuming you are a newbie its worth mentioning again.

 

Still HTH (but I offer absolutley zero guarantee)

 

WM

[Wels 2]

Hello Winder,

my answer was a bit rude, and it indeed read as if i blamed OFF for this - sorry, my apologies

 

You wrote:

 

" ... If you try to set the settings higher than what CFS3 believes you can run it with your hardware, CFS3 'sometimes' decides to reset them... "

" ... Finally by setting your configsoverride.xml file to 'read only' stops CFS3 from ever changing it! ..."

 

Now this really helps, thanks ! And no, i did not know this ...

 

" ... This has been a well documented CFS3 issue back in that day but assuming you are a newbie its worth mentioning again. ..."

 

touché lol

 

I am no newbie with OFF or so i thought, but i never entered the higher degrees of the CFS3 Zen masters, i really was not interested in the original CFS3 . As long as i did not run into problems ...

 

 

Thanks and greetings,

Catfish