1916(1) Mod

[Bletchley 8]

I have posted it in the downloads section, it should be there now:

 

http://combatace.com/files/category/353-maps-missions-and-campaigns/

 

Have fun :)

 

Bletchley

 

1916(1) will have the same flak files as 1915, but the missions are changed to bring back flight-strength patrols (particularly for the Allies, as in January 1916 Trenchard ordered that all recon. flights across the lines should be escorted by scouts or other machines of the same type). From my reading, the German scouts continued to fly in mostly single or paired flights up to their reorganisation in August, so solo missions will predominate (with a few full-flight missions starting to appear), and due to the increasing numbers of Allied aircraft (and the introduction of the new Allied types) the German air service was feeling outnumbered in this period, and was using two-seaters for barrage patrols and escort - so I have included lone-wolf line patrols for the Roland (sometimes 'escorted' by E.IIIs or other Rolands, although the 'patrol' and the 'escort' rarely appear to co-ordinate). There will also be some lone-wolf art.obs. and long-range recon. missions for the Roland (sometimes 'escorted', sometimes not). There will also be missions for the French scouts, still aggressive in this early period (Battle of Verdun), but becoming more defensive. The 'German' players should feel outnumbered and pushed back in this period, in Flanders if not so much against the French, culminating in the battle of the Somme in July 1916...but in August 1916 this will start to change again :)

[Morris 2]

Thank you.

 

m

[Olham 164]

This sounds so good, it makes my mouth water for a 1916 Campaign.

I will download it, start a new Campaign pilot in early 1916 soon, and report about it soon.

Thank you for your works, Bletchley!

Edited March 28, 2011 by Olham

[CaptSopwith 23]

Bletchley - your continued service to the community knows no bounds - and is highly appreciated! You have refined and fine-tuned an already fantastic campaign engine. I'm greatly looking forward to adding yet another Bletchley folder to my MOD directory. Well done, mate!

[Bletchley 8]

Thanks :)

 

Much of credit should go to British_eh as well, for the groundwork done in producing the SIA-RSS settings - I have been taking the 'missions' part of that, and making these mods from them (with a few further modifications added on). 1916(2) to follow within a day or so, then on to 1917...

 

Bletchley

Edited March 28, 2011 by Bletchley

[Hasse Wind 46]

Excellent news! I don't have any active pilots flying in 1916 currently, but if my Quirk pilot from 1915 survives I'll be using this mod when the time comes. That may happen sooner rather than later, as I should transfer him for home front duties soon and then a few months later back to France (in practice advancing time by editing the pilot files).

 

Are you going to cover the whole war with these mods? That would be great.

[Olham 164]

As I will upgrade my rig as far as getting a new mobo, CPU, memory, SSD drive plus Windows7,

all my recent pilots will all be lost again.

That will be a good point to start a new Campaign in 1916.

 

And yes: thanks a lot to you, British_eh. I have been thinking about a new name for your SIA-RSS thing,

and the best I have found so far, is just a "Label" for it, which may not contain so much description in

it's name, but is probably more memorable than your shortage:

 

Bletchley & British_eh: "The Reality of the Air War"

 

I will carry on thinking about it though, and I won't mind, if you're not gonna use any.

Edited March 28, 2011 by Olham

[Morris 2]

well done Olham.

 

 

 

m

[Bletchley 8]

"Are you going to cover the whole war with these mods?"

 

Yes, 1916(2) is done, just needs testing and possibly tweaking a bit. I am working on 1917 now, and intend to take it through to the end. Think of it as the 'missions' part of SIA-RSS, so it should replace the rather confusing set of instructions regarding 'exception' missions and the like (no 'scramble' missions now, for example, and 'Transfer' mission has been 'lone wolfed' to remove the automatic enemy a/c spawn). Also, there should be no problem with using this mod concurrent with HPW's damage mod (they can both be 'activated' at the same time, as they effect completely different files), and the same should be true of the tracer and sound mods.

 

I have also found a way to reduce the level of aircraft activity in campaign, if anyone is interested in a 'light touch' campaign mod - this uses a slight modification of the weather files that doesn't effect the weather itself but would significantly reduce air activity when the 'light activity' setting is used as a workshop setting: the downside of it is that air activity would not then fluctuate with changing weather conditions but would instead remain constantly low, sun or rain. It would be for those who feel that, historically, there is currently too much wham! bam! action! and want more uncertainty with respect to encounters. It is already a feature of the 1915 mod, but not 1916 onwards :)

 

Bletchley

[Wayfarer 5]

Dumb question time. This is the first OFF mod I ever downloaded. I have found a number of threads with instructions - which is fine but ... where did the downloaded file go? Sorry if this is covered somewhere else - I just couldn't find it. I'm running VISTA by the way, in case that makes any difference

Edited March 28, 2011 by Wayfarer

[Bletchley 8]

You first need to install the JSGME mod manager. You can download it from here: http://www.users.on.net/~jscones/software/products-jsgme.html

 

It must be installed into the CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields folder - on my PC this is in the C:OBDSoftware directory (next to WW1Scenery)

 

Once you have JSGME in place, you should see a JSGME exe file and a MODS folder - on my PC the JSGME exe is between 'jpeg.dll' and 'JSGME'(configurations settings), and the MODS folder is between 'missions' and 'objects'. You unzip the 1916(1) download : inside this there is 1916 ActiveSector January-July folder, 1916 QuietSector January-July folder, and a Readme file. Copy and paste the ActiveSector and QuietSector folders into the MODS folder. Click on JSGME exe to open up the mods manager - you should now see the ActiveSector folder and the QuietSector folder listed as 'Available'. If your current campaign is in a 'quiet' sector, click to highlight the QuietSector folder and click on > to move it into the right hand of the JSGME panel (to 'activate' the mod). Click on 'Close' to exit from JSGME. Exit to desktop, fire up OFF and away you go - the changes should show up as soon as you re-enter your campaign. To de-activate the mod, click on JSGME exe to open up the JSGME panel, click to highlight the 'active' mod and then click < to move the mod back into the left hand side of the panel. It is then deactivated, and the original OFF files will be back in place. If your campaign sector becomes an 'active' sector, deactivate the QuietSector mod in this way and then 'activate' the ActiveSector mod. But do not 'activate' both QuietSector and ActiveSector at the same time (allways one or the other). I hope this all makes sense :)

 

Bletchley

 

Bletchley

Edited March 28, 2011 by Bletchley

[Bletchley 8]

Creaghorn has convinced me that the 1916(1) mod should end at the end of June 1916 (the death of Immelmann and the 'grounding' of Boelcke) :) so 1916(2) will now cover July-August 1916, with 1916(3) covering September-December 1916.

In the July-August period the E.IIIs appear to have been mostly held back by a combination of the lack of leadership and example (the death of Immelmann and the temporary grounding of Boelcke), problems with the synchronisation gear of the gun (thought to be the reason for Immelmann's downfall), reorganisation, and low moral as a much reduced number of Fokker pilots were faced with the Allied build up to the Somme offensive. During the first two months of the battle of the Somme the Allies gained almost complete control of the air above the battlefield, until the tide started to turn again at the end of August with the introduction of the new German scouts, a new influx of pilots, and reorganisation of scouts into the more effective organisation of the Jasta system. 1916(2) will therefore present a two-month hiatus for the 'German' player, with mostly 'lone wolf' and solo defensive patrols over friendly territory (still one or two line patrols, but not as many).

 

Bletchley

[vonOben 55]

Well done Bletchley!

 

Thank you very much!

 

 

Cheers

 

vonOben

 

 

[Wayfarer 5]

Bletchley, thanks for the instructions. Wife and daughters are in computer frenzy tonight so I will try installing later in the week!

[Wayfarer 5]

I managed to grab a few minutes and seem to have downloaded both mod manager and mod ok (curiously my previous hiccup was with downloading the mod, I kept losing it somehow, but this time had no problem), and have activated Quiet Sector, which is appropriate at the moment.

This is actually the first mission with a new pilot so I am not re-entering a campaign as such. Is there any obvious way to see that the mod is active. I do have reconnaissance mission over an enemy airfield, which I have never had before - would that originate from the mod?

Edited March 29, 2011 by Wayfarer

[Bletchley 8]

Yes, possibly. I tweaked the general recon. missions towards airfields and railway sidings. I guess you are flying British? If you were flying German, the recon. would be a 'lone wolf' mission, and you will be advised to fly them as high as you can. The big giveaway is the 'lone wolf' missions - if you see one of these come up, you know the mod is active. Also look at the text briefing - a British photorecon. will give you instructions on the altitude you must fly at, and the use of the inclinometer (but as these are over the trenches, your's must be a general recon. behind the lines), and art.obs. missions will give you some instructions on signalling with flares: but I have not been able to get flares to work with the BE2, so you might have to ignore that bit )

 

Bletchley

[Olham 164]

I have started a German campaign with FA 62, Douai, on 1 May 1916. Have flown one mission,

and as you say, Bletchley, it was a "Lone Wolf" mission.

I guess I was right choosing "Active Sector" for the area Douai? At least we met one flight of

4 BE2c; and on returning, we sighted 3 Airco DH-2 crossing behind us, high.

Here is my full report:

 

http://combatace.com...post__p__487333

 

It was fun to fly, cause it brings some change into OFF, as I knew it.

I guess, the devs may also create more such variety for P4, once they have more planes done.

Thank you for your working out of all this, Bletchley and British_eh.

Edited March 29, 2011 by Olham

[Bletchley 8]

"I guess I was right choosing "Active Sector" for the area Douai? At least we met one flight of

4 BE2c; and on returning, we sighted 3 Airco DH-2 crossing behind us, high."

 

The OFF campaign manager tells you if the sector you ar in is active or quiet - as you enter your campaign it will say in the introductory screen "the battle of the Somme is raging in your area" or some such, or "everything is quiet currently" (can't remeber the exact wording). Once in-campaign you can also get the same information by clicking on the 'Inteligence' briefing.

 

Your report highlights one 'problem' with the mod - although it changes the size of the player's flight to 'lone wolf' it doesn't seem to do the same for other AI-only flights : these seem to be controlled by some other part of either the OFF Manager program or CFS3 itself. I have not been able to change this.

 

Bletchley

[Olham 164]

Alright, Bletch - thanks for the info.

Well, the DH-2 flight was uncommonly small with 3 craft. Never seen so few before.

What I noticed was, that the flightpath in the ingame map was much longer, and totally

crazy, than in your briefing map.

[Bletchley 8]

Yes, it is - that is what happens when I merge the 'Lone Wolf' mission type with other types - just a crazy spider-web of way points, although the briefing map remains OK. I can't do anything about that.

 

Bletchley

[Wayfarer 5]

Yes, possibly. I tweaked the general recon. missions towards airfields and railway sidings. I guess you are flying British? If you were flying German, the recon. would be a 'lone wolf' mission, and you will be advised to fly them as high as you can. The big giveaway is the 'lone wolf' missions - if you see one of these come up, you know the mod is active. Also look at the text briefing - a British photorecon. will give you instructions on the altitude you must fly at, and the use of the inclinometer (but as these are over the trenches, your's must be a general recon. behind the lines), and art.obs. missions will give you some instructions on signalling with flares: but I have not been able to get flares to work with the BE2, so you might have to ignore that bit )

 

Bletchley

 

I enlisted a German pilot just to test, and there was a 'Lone Wolf' mission so it seems to be activated ok. Thanks for these mods, they've come in very timely as I have just reached 1916. Back to the other side of the lines now to carry on the 2 RFC campaign.

[Wayfarer 5]

Just carried out a photoreconnaissance over the trenchlines. The minute's straight level flying is absolutely nervewracking! Excellent, thanks once again Bletchley.

[Bletchley 8]

Yes, you need to concentrate so much on the bubble of the inclinometer that you can't keep a lookout! (and can't dodge the flak!!). And if you have wind gusts set to "on" it becomes even worse - 55 seconds in, and a gust of wind bounces you around and spoils the run, so you have to start all over again :)

 

Bletchley

[Wayfarer 5]

Perhaps I shouldn't have downloaded the mod after all! After my first pilot lasting over 50 missions, the reduced effect AA punctured the fuel tank on my new pilot's 2nd mission, despite his zigzagging. The engine cut out at about 9000', behind German lines. He couldn't clear No Man's Land, but actually made a good forced landing, and for several seconds I thought we'd got away with it. The balance of probabilities reasserted itself, however, the old BE folded up and poor Rawtenstall was killed with less than 1 hour 40 minutes flying time. I feel may have been getting a little complacent about AA. This has certainly cured me of it!

 

 

[Olham 164]

A rare hit is still a hit.