SF2V Exp Pack - Linebacker I - sudden end

[stingray77]

Doing LB I campaign as VF-111.

 

Yesterday I reached July 31 (or so). Instead of CV-43 being located in South Vietnam the "ticker" showed Thailand as location...

I accepted anyway, loaded and - crash! Coral Sea was amidst Thai mountainside and my flight killed instantly.

End of campaign.

 

Is this a flaw in the campaign-data of the Expansion Pack? How can I fix it?

[+eburger68]

Stingray77:

 

I just tested that unit with that campaign with the SF2V Expansion Pack. It worked just fine.

 

I'm going to guess that you've flown that campaign and that unit before. What happened the last time you tried it? What's changed with your installation since then?

 

Eric Howes

Edited July 30, 2013 by eburger68

[stingray77]

Thanks for replying, Eric.

Hm, I know that I was experiencing sth like this before - but if I remember correctly that was the Steel Tiger-campaign back then (with VF-111 and F-8 if I'm not totally wrong)... I'm not fully sure, whether I have finished LBI ever before... (Usually some Patch gets in the way...  )

The only thing that I am aware of having changed to the XP Gold is that I made Sundowner's VF-111-skin standard when selecting this squadron. Might this problem be attached to this maybe?

Something that I might check in some VF-111-"setting"?

 

Thanks again

Oliver

[+eburger68]

Stingray77:

 

The data for VF-111 and the Coral Sea in the Linebacker I campaign is the default data from ThirdWire. It has not been customized. VF-111 and all the other units on the Coral Sea are supposed to retire, with the carrier, at the end of July. Looks to me like the campaign engine is not handling that retirement gracefully. Why I don't know.

 

Changing skins should not affect what's going on. Could be a bug in the campaign engine that was recently introduced, as I've seen no other reports of this problem.

 

Eric Howes

[stingray77]

Ah okay - so at least this reflects the original situation, Coral Sea leaving Yankee Station...

How actually should the game react to that, with the campaign not finished but the carrier and its squadrons no longer "on spot"...?

[+Swordsman422]

Does anyone know whether the tours entries work for the player? Stingray I would imagine that this is a bug never resolved. If a player is with a squadron that has multiple tour dates, there should just ideally be a large date jump between the last mission of the first tour and the first mission of the next period. Best thing for you to do now is to extend the retire date for the carrier and air wing past your estimated end point. So lets say you are flying 1 mission every 2 days for 50 missions, that's 100 days, plus a further 20 or so to add to the line period for the CVW and carrier.

[stingray77]

Yes, might be one way out... But remember: the 100-mission-line was valid for USAF but not USN - USN were flying missions as long as their carrier was on-line...

[+eburger68]

Stingray77:

 

The campaign should just end -- just like any other campaign ends. That's what should happen. What happened in your case, it would appear, is that the campaign engine ended the tour for the carrier but not the squadrons aboard the carrier. So the game engine went looking for an alternate air base for the squadrons, selected something in Thailand, then tried to stick a carrier there based on the fact that these were naval air units.

 

Bizarre, really. I'll take another look at the data, but this is smelling a lot like a bug to me.

 

Eric Howes

[+Swordsman422]

It would be nice if a LOT of things in the SF series worked as reality or even as programmed in the .ini. FACs, Navy/Marine Loose Deuce vs. USAF Fluid Four, MiGs doing boom-and-zoom instead of hanging around and fighting, carrier group line periods, tour dates, airwings changing carriers, ROE restrictions, DIANE, LORAN, TACAN, dates of permissability for targets, AEW and EW allowable in campaigns structured for pre-NA. The list goes on. We have to bend because it isn't perfect and work within the limits of the engine.

 

Eburger, I am sure that is exactly what's happened. I ran into this some time ago and ultimately realized that the deployment period for my carrier was running out before I had completed the number of missions. I just made adjustments. BTW, what you have done with Rolling Thunder is pretty awesome, sir. It is one of my favorites to fly.