Bletchley's Mission mods

[+elephant 36]

The topic description says it all...

I'm using Bletchley's Great mission edits.

I'm having IMO too many Lone Wolf missions.

OK once in a while such a mission is wellcome, can be fun also!

But five Lone Wolf missions in a row is just too much... don't you think?

Is it a way to come around this "problem"?

[Olham 164]

Elephant, as far as I understood Bletchley's mods, they are made differently for the various phases of the war;

plus they are for active or passive zones.

If you have many "Lone Wolf" missions, I bet you are flying in 1915 or early 1916.

In that time, they patrolled alone or with two aircraft.

The Squadrons or Jastas as we know them, came only later.

On the German side, Boelcke was asked to form such Jagdstaffeln (Jasta), but that only happened in late summer 1916,

as far as I know.

 

So early on, "Lone Wolf" missions should be most of your daily flights.

[Hasse Wind 46]

Like Olham said, that's how they mostly flew in the early part of the war - alone. Bigger formations became common only from 1916 onwards. The large formations of Quirks, Bristol Scouts and Eindeckers you meet in the OFF default careers in 1915 are completely ahistorical, and this mod changes it.

 

Of course if you are flying in 1917 and 1918 and still get mostly lone wolf missions, then something is indeed wrong.

[Bletchley 8]

Hello Elephant,

 

If you don't like a mission, just back out from it and 'advance time' by one notch - you will then get a new mission generated (but it might be the same as the old one, if there is a high chance of this mission being generated by the program). As Olham has stated, 'Lone Wolf' missions are mandatory in 1915 and frequent into 1916, and even after that they are still frequent for two-seater missions - but there are many different types of 'Lone Wolf' mission :)

 

If you are referring just to the 'Lone Wolf' mission type that tells you to do your own thing (test the rigging or engine, have a look around, or hunt a balloon), then just look at the number of such entries there are in the log book extract in the 'Picture of a british Recon. Pilot's Log'! From the logs that I have seen, this extract is fairly typical, even for fighter pilots - many flights were of a non-combat nature.

 

13/11/17 : Engine Test

18/11/17 : Travelling Flight / Tour of Area

23/11/17 : Engine Test

17/12/17 : Engine & Rigging Test

 

The program seems to select mission types randomly, and I have skewed it to make common mission types come up more frequently than non-common ones (in the stock version, every mission has the same chance of being generated), so it is quite possible (but a little unusual, in my experience) for exactly the same mission type to be generated five times in a row - but also, sometimes, just a counter-intuitive quirk of real randomness, like throwing a 'six' five times in a row :(

 

Bletchley

Edited May 16, 2011 by Bletchley

[Olham 164]

Elephant; two more points to regard:

 

1. If you have several pilots in different times of the war, it might be useful to only activate the mod

for that specific time period and to remove the other mods from the right back into the left window.

 

2. If you want action different from "Lone Wolf" missions, fly in 1917 or 1918 - there they would be rare.

[+elephant 36]

Well, as a matter of fact I'm in Feb. 1918, with Jasta 23b...

 

 

I started the Campaign in the Summer of 1917...

We were flying Alb. D.III and switched to D.V a bit later that summer.

I'm using the Quiet Sector files as recommended by the OFF Campaign, according to Bletchley's ReadMe file...

I was having reasonable number of Lone Wolf missions in '17, no problem.

Now I have enabled Quiet Sector 1918 Jan-Apr mod accordingly and the majority of the missions are Lone Wolf ones with small interims of other types...I tried to advance time manually but the Lone Wolfs keep coming!

[+elephant 36]

Oh, I was just replying to the first post by Olham and several others have arrived meanwhile...

 

To Olham: I'm using only one pilot at a time...

 

To Bletchley: Indeed, the Lone Wolf missions generated are of different type but...

[Bletchley 8]

Hello Elephant,

 

I have had a look at the mission file for German fighters (Quiet Sector) for that period, and the 'Quiet' time in that period in Flanders would be January to end of March 1918 I think (the first German Spring offensive started on 21 March?). This is from my notes that come with that file:

 

"During this period Jagdgeschwader 1 was joined by two new German fighter wings, JG2 and JG3, to give the German air service a numerical superiority for the first time. But they were remaining quiet, for the most part, trying to conceal the extent of the build-up of air units in this sector" This is from Henshaw, commenting on this period (The sky their battlefield): "Large engagements with enemy formations were not common - the German Air Force had reason to conserve and conceal its strength, but on occasion these [Allied fighter] patrols did draw them out"

 

6 out of the available 11 mission types are 'Lone Wolf' missions of various different types, so this should give a 55% chance of a 'Lone Wolf' mission being generated by the program - so, statistically, over a long-ish period just over half of the missions will be 'Lone Wolf'. This was done to reflect the information that I had above, that the German High Command were 'holding back' on their fighter units in this 'quiet' period before the Spring Offensive, not wanting to reveal the build-up that was taking place here. Once the sector goes 'Active' you should see nearly all of these lone wolf missions disappear.

 

But if people think that I have got the balance wrong here, I am happy to re-adjust it by turning some of these 'Lone Wolf' patrols back into regular flight-size missions (?). It is easy to do, and I could release it as a 1918(1) v.2 - but let me know, in that case what proportion you think should be 'Lone Wolf' (currently 55%) :)

 

Bletchley

Edited May 16, 2011 by Bletchley

[+elephant 36]

Thanks for the answers Bletchley!

I'm sure you've done your research, no doubt on that!

 

"- but let me know, in that case what proportion you think should be 'Lone Wolf' (currently 55%) :) "

 

Well I don't know...I'm not that expert...

30% would feel OK... or better, if possible, to make some of these Lone Wolf missions for a pair,Player and Wingman, instead of solo.

 

 

And some more from my current pilot's Log Book:

 

 

As you may notice I skipped/advanced the morning, (Lone Wolf), mission of 22/2 but afaik...

Edited May 16, 2011 by elephant

[Hasse Wind 46]

Maybe you should try to enjoy the quiet months before the storm, elephant? As you know, the rest of the year will be quite busy and dangerous for the German air force.

 

I'm now flying a British career in 1916 and the balance between lone wolf missions and others seems to be quite good. But then I expect the majority of missions to be of the lone wolf type in that year.

[Bletchley 8]

Elephant, here is a v.2 of this 1918(1) mod (Elephant!) for you :)

 

I have reduced the Lone Wolf type missions to 4 (reduced to 35%). Replace your current 1918(1) OFF MOD with this one, and give it a spin.

 

Bletchley

[+elephant 36]

Wow, what an honor!

Thanks so much!

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

Modders at your service!

[DukeIronHand 8]

Modders at your service!

 

S!

[DukeIronHand 8]

If you are referring just to the 'Lone Wolf' mission type that tells you to do your own thing (test the rigging or engine, have a look around, or hunt a balloon), then just look at the number of such entries there are in the log book extract in the 'Picture of a british Recon. Pilot's Log'! From the logs that I have seen, this extract is fairly typical, even for fighter pilots - many flights were of a non-combat nature.

 

13/11/17 : Engine Test

18/11/17 : Travelling Flight / Tour of Area

23/11/17 : Engine Test

17/12/17 : Engine & Rigging Test

 

Bletchley

 

I will admit to giving the number of "Lone Wolf" missions in 1918 a pause originally but the above thought process is right on the money in my book.

At first glance, when customizing the Mission files months ago, I thought of "Lone Wolf" missions as kind of a "Albert Ball in 1916" kind of thing but the above reasoning is quite sound.

Hmmm...I wonder what name I could change "Lone Wolf" to as to more accurately reflect the above plus ""Albert Ball in 1916" kind of things when the mood strikes.

 

Again, nice work Bletchley!

 

EDIT: Grammar...again

Edited May 17, 2011 by DukeIronHand