SF-1 Final Patch Battle of Britain

[+baffmeister]

I think I have become a Prop Head. After wrestling through multiple CTD's and assorted other issues that can only be described as "Bizarre" I have a sort of functioning Battle of Britain install at the SF-1 final patch level. I have seen some quite impressive AI behavior in the dog fighting realm but when attacking bombers the AI is extremely unimaginative and just goes into a trail position and shoots away. I am quite doubtful whether the AI can be made smarter when attacking bombers but maybe it's possible to make the gunners on the bombers dumber? I haven't tried to adjust the gunner behavior on bombers before but suspected the AI for bomber gunners is contained in the AIRCRAFTOBJECT.INI. It's in the AI section of said .ini and looks like this:

from aircraftobject.ini

 

GunnerFireChance=80

GunnerFireTime=2.5

GunnerAimOffset=0.0050

 

I have been trying a few different settings to reduce the accuracy of the gunners but it doesn't seem to have much affect. Anyone have any ideas or suggested settings? Considering the rather primitive defensive armament on the early bombers I would like to see a lot less accuracy!

 

Another thing I noticed is the lack of incendiary ammunition on the Hurricanes and Spitfires. What I did notice was a setting in the gun section of the A-Team He-111:

 

[RearGun]

SystemType=FLEXIBLE_GUN

GunTypeName=7.9MM_MG17

MuzzlePosition=0.0000,-1.8872,1.4181

TracerLoading=5

BurstAmount=50//..........................WHAT?

GunnerID=1

MaxAmmo=1000

 

I didn't know you could edit gun behavior outside the gun editor but it seems to work. I edited two of the guns on the Hurricane and Spitfire to try and replicate the incendiary loadout that was used at the time but using bursting shells and it seems to generate more wing fires etc. on the targets. Example below:

 

[GunL04]

SystemType=FIXED_GUN

GunTypeName=303CAL_Browning

InputName=FIRE_PRIMARY_GUN

MuzzlePosition=-1.75,1.76,-0.479

AimAngles=0.3342,0.0,0.0915

BurstAmount=100

MaxAmmo=334

EjectShells=TRUE

 

So, the next question is, are there other settings I can use such as "Incendiary" that the game will recognize?

It's going to be a long road.

[+SayethWhaaaa]

Burst amount is just the number of rounds a gun turret fire in a single burst, it's not applicable to the pilot's guns. As for incendiary, to the best of my knowledge, incendiary isn't recognised unfortunately. Someone may have figured a work around though... maybe.

[+baffmeister]

Burst amount is just the number of rounds a gun turret fire in a single burst, it's not applicable to the pilot's guns. As for incendiary, to the best of my knowledge, incendiary isn't recognised unfortunately. Someone may have figured a work around though... maybe.

 

Thanks for explaining that. I noticed some of the bombers running out of ammo after extended battles with fighters so it may be a good area for editing. Also noticed the A-Team bombers have some fire suppression settings for the engines and fuel tanks so will try eliminating those and see what happens.

[+SayethWhaaaa]

I think quite a few aircraft have something like HasFireExtinguisher=True, depending on the specific type and era. I don't know how effective it is or if it works at all, but more often than not, I'm using cannon, not MGs, in a gunfight. Cannons are ruthlessly efficient in the TW series make armor somewhat redundant. If you're using MGs though, you might see extinguishers come into play more effectively, assuming of course that it's working. Have a look through the engine spec in the DATA.ini of different aircraft and you see if it has that capacity. I'm pretty sure more modern multi-engine aircraft, particularly transports will have these in their engine specs.

[+Wrench]

FireSupression=TRUE

 

is the correct statment

 

also, and this is not really well known, a LOT of the bombers have their hit boxes "not quite right"

[+baffmeister]

I have been wondering if the German bombers had engine fire extinguishers but haven't found any information yet. If they didn't have them I would remove those statements from the bombers. Likewise for the fuel tanks. I think they were self sealing but as far as fire suppression, the only system I ever read about was the Russian filtered exhaust/inert gas injection into the fuel tanks. On the flip side, I have seen quite a few bombers crashing out of control with minimal damage which may be caused by the pilot getting killed. Maybe some more armor protection for the bomber pilots is worth experimenting with. Not sure what to do about hit boxes, is that model related?

[+Wrench]

i think hit boxes can only be set in MAX, but really don't know.

 

i can tell you, however, of reallyodd behaviors on the He-111 -- i've seen it dozens of times, where its smoking, wings broken off, crashed (nose down), and skidded along the ground for dozens of miles without exploding -- still standing on it's head!!!

[+baffmeister]

i think hit boxes can only be set in MAX, but really don't know.

 

i can tell you, however, of reallyodd behaviors on the He-111 -- i've seen it dozens of times, where its smoking, wings broken off, crashed (nose down), and skidded along the ground for dozens of miles without exploding -- still standing on it's head!!!

 

COOL! [but very weird]

[+baffmeister]

...............too much work, project cancelled. I bought Battle of Britain II instead and it will probably work out OK. I say probably because I have been getting lot's of CTD's [surprise, surprise] but they are becoming less frequent as I adjust some settings. The AI seems very good in BoB2 and the graphics I can live with, after playing around with it quite a bit. I think I still prefer TK's flight engine and will probably work away at some SF-2 BoB fighter FM's but will do so at a reduced pace and release them for "do it yourselfers."

 

Streakeagle made some interesting comments about BoB2 many years ago but it is worth a read. Some flight sims have a very long life. http://combatace.com/topic/24141-battle-of-britain-2-possibly-most-underrated-sim/