Trouble with SF1 Solomons campaign

[JollyRogerTwo 0]

IMHO this is a fine campaign.

Question:

Is the "Load Missions" page supposed to be unavailable? I have found what is supposed to be a custom mission for the Solomons campaign (Kill Yamamoto") however there is no way I can see to load it. I'm not sure if it is supposed to be that way or if I've made an abominable error in installing the campaign. There was nothing about it in the Readme.

 

The only other problem I have had was the missing guns for the P-38H and I found a fix for that here. Unfortunately I discovered the problem just after sidling up on the six of an angry Zero. Since every member of my flight had the same problem I went back and re-read the mission instructions to see if it mentioned "suicide" in there anywhere. Since it did not I assumed there was a problem in one of the files. Once I found the answer here it was quickly fixed. Thanks.

 

Now I hope someone can shed some light on the "load mission" unavailability problem. I am new to this forum coming from SimQH where I've been loitering about on the BoB forum for about 11 years. If I have posted in the wrong location forgive my ignorance.

[Wrench 9,893]

if a mission is in the folder, but not available from the dropdown it usually means:

 

an aircraft is unavaliable (for either side) or,

wrong terrain

 

not personally famailar with it, so that's all I can add (safely! -meaning to not steer you wrong)

 

for the missing guns, you might need a weapons pak, as they usually contain guns as well. Which is odd, as the originals Lightnings were all configured for stock 20mm Hispano and 50.cals

Edited September 24, 2012 by Wrench

[JollyRogerTwo 0]

Wrench

Thanks . Your body of work is an inspiration.

 

I have recently sorted the guns problem by finding an answer here. I just changed a few lines in the P38.data INI removing "P38" a couple of times and alles gut. Originally I had _P38_50Cal_M2 and that had to be changed to just _50Cal_M2. Ditto for the cannon. Simple even for me, a relative novice.

 

On the other hand the problem with the Solomons Campaign is that nothing is available on the load mission screen period. All the boxes have NOT AVAILABLE written in them and I cannot even access the mission file folder from the drop down where I had placed the "Kill Yamamoto.mis" file. I'm thinking the options on the Load Mission screen have been purposely denied for some reason. I can fly single missions and the Solomons campaign only. It is kinda like the fact that you also cannot fly "Instant Action" because the default planes are removed in the install. There is no mention of this in any readme file that came with the campaign.

 

I have installed the latest of Rob Bunyap's weapons pack which you have endorsed and installed all required patches. I have 3 separate installs of SF1 all modded from a clean install. I have WOV, The Korean Air War campaign and The Solomons Campaign.

 

I downloaded the Solomons campaign and the "Kill Yamamoto" mission here from the downloads section.

[Wrench 9,893]

the Kill Yamamoto mission requres the PAW1 terrain (I d/led both last night to cross check).

 

So, if using my rebuild of the Solomons map, it won't work, as it's the wrong terrain, which is why that mission is not showing up. It's looking for something that isn't there. The PAW1 terrain is ... well....not up to par, even by 2008 standards. If one wanted to fly it, the mission would have to be rebuilt usinig the Solomons V3 terrain. Relatively easy in SF2, what with it's built-in mission editor. For 1stGens you're kinda stuck with Le Missioner or QMD thingy

[JollyRogerTwo 0]

Wrench,

 

Thank you for your effort. I understand now. Yup. It looks like a tough slog. I have both those editors but haven't much experience with 'em. I can see that getting SF2 would be the better way to go if I had a bunch of custom missions..

 

The "Kill Yamamoto" mission isn't all that important. I guess but I still wonder why I cannot get the drop down boxes to work on the 'load missions' screen. They don't work for any mission. There must be something in the Solomons Campaign that blocks loading any custom missions.

 

I've created several of those for IL2-1946. Still by adding high res cockpits and illuminated tracers plus other mods, SF1 is a lot of fun. I was principally interested in WOV and the Korean Air War. The Korean Air War campaign by Edward, once updated, is superior in many respects to my old pal MA.

 

All the newer games won't run on my system. I'm afraid I'm kinda stuck with an old 1.6 GiG P4 XP rig with 1 gig of RAM and DX 9C. Not much chance of an upgrade any time soon either. I've attached the Solomons Campaign 'Load Missions' screen. So you can see what I mean. I'm not allowed to load any mission. Perhaps something went wrong in the install? Everything else works great. Thank you for your help.

[Wrench 9,893]

when you created the PTO install, did you edit the options ini to adjust the start/end years?

Are there actually single missions in the /Missions folder? A campaign shouldn't change any of that stuff

 

if you rename the solomons campaign stuff (folder), do the single missions come back?

 

if you open the various msn files, they tell you what terrain is required:

 

[MissionHeader]

AircraftType=Ki-61

MissionMap=NewGuinea2

MissionType=CAP

StartTime=12:00:00

StartDate=04/05/1943

 

are the terrains present?

 

other questions would be, do you have the correct Nations.ini and Formations.ini for WW2??

 

speaking of Korea, you ain't seen nothing ... the one we've been working on for SF2 has the single most detailed terrain ever built for this game; anything else is just poseing. (and yes, with minimal editing, it will work in 08 level 1stGens)

Edited September 25, 2012 by Wrench

[JollyRogerTwo 0]

Thanks Wrench,

 

Firstly, that is great news about the KW update being compatible with SF1. The question is will it still be compatible with my old system. I guess it should be. Fantastic! I knew about the KW mod but figured it was only for SF2.

 

Dell Dimension 4400

P4 1.60 GHz

1 GB RAM (1024 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)

Video Card:

GForce 4 Ti4200 AGP 8X

W/128 MB Vid RAM

Direct X Ver. 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)

OS:

Win XP Home Svc Pak 3

 

Just show me the way to edit it when it's available. I've been hankering for a good KW sim after OSRAM and the BDG (I'm an honorary member) gave up on MA to work on other projects. I know SAS and others offer fine KW mods for IL2 but I passed on modding up IL2-'46.

 

I recently acquired SF1 and the KAW mod by Edward. I've enjoyed it and especially the improved graphics that are much better than in MA. My son runs with the after burner crowd so WOV was brought into the fold and then I found the Solomons campaign. I am also a prophead. I was lucky indeed to find Combatace.com. I cannot recall for sure but I either came upon it looking for one of your F4Us or Edward's KAW complete mod.

 

I somehow had overlooked Strike Fighters. And today my wife of 40 years having recently passed away and my son and two grandkids moving in with me; no computer upgrades are in my immediate future. I'd like ROF but that's not happening so I still have Rowan's ancient FCG on the HDD.

 

Everything runs smoothly with just a few minor bumps that I've been able to fix. Exception: The Solomons campaign. I looked in the Flight folder and the Nations.ini is there. There are several left over jet missions in the missions folder for some reason but I have no custom missions for Solomons save for the Kill Yamamoto file . I removed all the jet missions but that made no difference in the screen.

 

Yes, I've learned the hard way to check the begin and end service listings because if they are wrong the aircraft won't show up or if it does when you fly a mission the enemy won't show up.

 

As for Solomons, I have no problem running the campaign or the single missions. They have always run great. The only problem I have is with the "Load Missions" screen as shown in the above JPG attachment. Maybe the problem is there are no Solomons missions in the folder? I gather the KY mission would not run anyway so it doesn't count. If you can direct me to any additional Solomons missions I'll add them and see if that makes a difference. Otherwise I might try KMD or the French editor and make a simple one myself. Of course then I wouldn't know if the problem was my mission or in the game if it didn't change anything.

 

I thank you for going the extra mile to help. With only a few exceptions the willingness to do so is something I have always been proud of in the flight sim community no matter which game or which forum. I know I have always been willing to do the same over at SimQH "Bob WOV" on the unusual occasion when I could help. After all, we've all been helped by someone at some point.