+elephant 36 Posted May 24, 2011 (edited) I've been playing OFF for 6 months now and never had a night mission...well, not exactly... In my new Jasta 23b Campaign, (third in a row...thanks to Olham's airfield thread), I had a late afternoon mission. We are in the winter, (Dec. '17) and my return was at dusk time. Considering the bad weather conditions, isn't the terrain looking too bright? I had a feeling that there were floodlights illuminating it! The objects on the other hand look pretty dark all right...(look those tents in the backround they're almost black!) Is this "terrain illumination", for playability reasons? What do you guys think about it? In an Airfield defence mission, our flight encountered an attacking flight of Strutters, (nothing weird so far). When I got close I saw they were British! In our sector, (Verdun area), there were no Brits... The colours of the Strutter looked like those of RNAS 4, (I fly with them on my British Campaign). I turned the labels on, to realize that the planes were supposed to be of a French Esq.(26?) If that's the case, why they were not wearing a generic French livery, if there wasn't a special skin for that Esc. available? Is this a bug? It was kind of immersion killer when I realised it... Talking about immersion killers another thing that haunts me, is the AI formation flying and landing procedure. The pilots in formation don't follow the leader as normal but just keeping up with the mission waypoints. When the FL reaches a waypoint and turns to the direction of the next, the rest of the flight doesn't turn with him, (as supposed to, in order to keep formation), but continues straight flying till the waypoint is reached and then turns! I find this behaviour totally unrealistic... Also the landing procedure for the AI is a bit weird too. When they reach the final waypoint at the airfield they don't loiter over it and start landing one by one as normal, (may be more than one there is enough space, but anyway), but instead they turn and travel to another direction for several miles and when they finaly come back they land as if tied by an ivisible string, one behind the other at the edge of the airfield and stop there... I skip the landing procedure as I land first and end the mission, let the others wonder about.. but that formation thing is a real immersion killer. What to you think about these? Any chance to see them "fixed" in P4? Edited May 24, 2011 by elephant Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Polovski 460 Posted May 24, 2011 Night missions are what they are we haven't done anything specific for them, I think CFS3 is mimicking moonlight and for playability but Winder would be best to comment - I'm not sure there are options for it etc. Aircraft have a default skin when the correct one isn't yet available. It doesn't have several defaults. AI does usually follow the leader sometimes they take their time to turn etc. Try the aggressive AI if you changed it to the passive one. Landing never was part of OFF, and CFS3 didn't land properly anyway. Ignore it for now it won't work properly. Just land yourself exit mission job done, or exit near your field whatever. Yes for Phase 4 we are working on AI we have said several times. How it all pans out we shall see. To get a sim perfect will take 20 years I reckon - but we'll probably be long gone by then :). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+elephant 36 Posted May 25, 2011 Thanks for the answers, guys... I understand... and I don't have a wish to fly at night uncleal, just the "moonlighting" effect looked a bit weird to me.. About skins now Pol, is there a way to asign a skin to a certain Sqn. ,(lets say a generic French to the Esq. in question), or it's hard coded? Any chance to have personal skins assigned to squadmates as an option in P4? That would be great! Thanks again! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Polovski 460 Posted May 25, 2011 You'd have to look at the mission file, see which model name that one was specifically, then find a skin you like in the skins folder, and try copying it into the aircraft\<model name>\textures folder as the default_t.dds and probably copy again over the other *_t.dds would do it, but not recommended unless you back up well. We haven't released other P4 info yet so we will see. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+elephant 36 Posted May 25, 2011 (edited) OK, got it...I have made a generic French Strutter skin by editing already existent skins in the skins folder. I can enable the new skin as default, via JSGME and revert back to the original default in a second, no problem. Thanks! PS where I can find the mission file though? Edited May 25, 2011 by elephant Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Polovski 460 Posted May 25, 2011 OK good, in OBDSoftware\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields\campaigndata\mission\historical Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+elephant 36 Posted May 25, 2011 OK, you probably mean: OBDSoftware\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields\missions\historical The last Campaign mission is in .xlm format there, right? If I named my skin after that unit in question, following the OFF naming format, would the game recognise it as a valid skin and use it instead of changing the default skin? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Polovski 460 Posted May 25, 2011 Yep correct Elephant sorry I made a mess of cutting and pasting. Yes indeed if you made a skin for the squad and carefully name it following the conventions of other squad skins in skins folder, it will be chosen when that squad flies (if there are available craft for it). Skins go in \OBDSoftware\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields\campaigns\CampaignData\skins Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+elephant 36 Posted May 25, 2011 OK, that's fine, what I wanted to hear! May I ask something more...(Sorry, I'm exausting you with my Q!)... Can I edit, in some way, my squadmates in the aces folder and thus assign them personal skins? Is such "cheat" feasible? If so possible, will my squadmates skill be automatically set to ace? 'cause I don't want this... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted May 25, 2011 Try a "Quick Combat" flight at dusk or dawn, elephant, they look great! Second screenshot is superb! Maybe airfields are so bright. But I tried a night mission from British_eh (see: downloads), and it was pretty blueish-dark everywhere, and very believeable. I could just see where I was going. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+elephant 36 Posted May 25, 2011 (edited) My French Srutter problem, may be different than an Esq. with a missing skin for a given period, after all... I encountered again "British" Strutters in my Jasta 23 Campaign. This time when I turned labels on to see which Esq. seemed to be the "problematic" one, I realised that the planes this time belonged to another Esq. (Esq.13, which is definately skinned)! May be, my problem is of different nature and the French Esq. skins, are not shown in general... Any ideas on this? Edited May 25, 2011 by elephant Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shredward 12 Posted May 25, 2011 I wondered that myself. Esc 26 is an Escadrille de Chasse, and never even had two-seaters, let alone a Strutter. The fact that the skin you saw was an RNAS 4 machine points to some ghosts hanging about from your previous campaign. Unfortunately, I'm a technoidiot, so I wouldn't have the slightest idea of where to look for the problem. Cheers, shredward Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+elephant 36 Posted May 25, 2011 (edited) That was probably my mistake, as I'm not at all familiar with the French Esq. , that's why I did put a question mark after that. It's most probable that it was Esq. 28 and my memory betrayed me... Yet, I'm quite convinced that the French skins are not showing up on French Strutters in my Campaigns... I'll try starting a new French Srutter Carrer to see what's going to happen... Edited May 25, 2011 by elephant Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted May 25, 2011 One thing that often repairs everything is to "Reset OFF Manager" - but you'd loose all your pilots that way. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+elephant 36 Posted May 25, 2011 Not necessarily, if I back them up first...isn't it? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted May 25, 2011 It's a tricky thing - not sure if it works. But make sure to also save this folder: (your computer name) > AppData > Roaming > Microsoft > CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields If you have Windows XP I don't know where it was. I have no knowledge, if it will work, but it's worth a try. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+elephant 36 Posted May 25, 2011 Thanks, I have W7 all right...no problem. I started a new French Strutter Campaign, with Esq.28, August '17, in the Verdun area and the skins show up normally! I guess I have to change sides once more and check it out from a German point of view... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+elephant 36 Posted May 25, 2011 (edited) OK, I revisited St. Mard, Verdun, as Uffz. Walter Lang... and miraculously the problem was solved! :yes: The French Strutters were back on their own Esq. livery. Here are a couple of "shots" on Esq. 28: (ironically they bare the emblem of an elephant!) I double checked it, and other Esq. too feature now their own skins. PROBLEM SOLVED ! I didn't get an answer to my question about the possibility to edit your squadmates as aces in order to assign them personal skins... Anyone? Edited May 25, 2011 by elephant Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted May 25, 2011 St.Mard - another airfield I have yet to fly from. Was that Jasta 23b? I don't believe you can edit your squad mates as aces, elephant. Seems, that CFS3 offers one ace flight, and one "player flight". But who knows - perhaps someone with better programming knowledge can find a way? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
