Armchair Aces updated!

[vonOben 55]

Hi Nicholas

 

Back with some questions!
I would like to copy my pilot data (kills/missions, rank, medals etc.) and the AI pilots from a finished campaign month to the next campaign month of my Armchair Aces campaign.
There are 12 pilots including myself in the finished campaign.
So between which offsets should I do the copying in  the *Campaign.sav file and Pilot*.plt file?

*Campaign.sav copy from offset 2940 to 7732?
Pilot*.plt copy from offset 6 to 684?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Cheers

 

vonOben

[Nicholas Bell 117]

Hi Nicholas

 

Back with some questions!

I would like to copy my pilot data (kills/missions, rank, medals etc.) and the AI pilots from a finished campaign month to the next campaign month of my Armchair Aces campaign.

There are 12 pilots including myself in the finished campaign.

So between which offsets should I do the copying in  the *Campaign.sav file and Pilot*.plt file?

*Campaign.sav copy from offset 2940 to 7732?

Pilot*.plt copy from offset 6 to 684?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Cheers

 

vonOben

 

Herr VonOben,

 

No need to edit your pilot (you), unless you want to zero out sorties or something.  All player pilot information remains with that pilot until you delete him.  Because of this, it's important to remember not to fly a campaign pilot on single missions or instant action if you want that pilot's record to only reflect his campaign activities.

 

In the campaign save file:

 

If there are 12 pilots including yourself, that leaves 11 AI pilots.  Each pilot record is 436 bytes starting with 2944 (the first byte of the first AI pilot).  Offset 2944 + (11 x 436) - 1 = offset 7739, the last byte of the last pilot record which is a flag - FF hex, 255 decimal (the end of each pilot record ends with FF FF FF FF). The minus 1 is because the start byte is part of the first pilot record.   So copy 2944 through 7739 for your 11 AI pilots into the new campaign save.  Don't forget to set the current date back if you want to avoid losing a mission.

 

Hope this makes sense. What's clear to me is often not to others, so let me know.

 

Nick

[vonOben 55]

Hi Nick

 

That was a very clear description!
I'll try that when my current campaign ends!

 

Which hex editor would you recommend for this kind of edit?
I've used AXE and XVI32 in the past.

 

Thanks a lot for your kind help!

 

Best regards

 

vonOben

[vonOben 55]

Hi Nick

 

I accidentally chose that terrible smiley and now when I saw it I can't edit my post any longer.

 

So please ignore that smiley!

 

 

[Nicholas Bell 117]

Which hex editor would you recommend for this kind of edit?

I've used AXE and XVI32 in the past.

 

There are so many free one's available, I could only say to use the one you're comfortable with.   I'm using Hexplorer and IIRC it's only because it gives a decimal offset and hex value readout in decimal at the bottom frame of the window, without having to go to other menus.

 

No worries on the smiley - made me laugh.  You might be using a much nastier one by the time you get done with this!

[vonOben 55]

Hi Nick

I've edited the campaign file now, it was easy using Hexplorer much thanks to the decimal offset display!
And I've also edited my pilot to show the actual number of missions flown and kills. I've edited the campaign file as you suggested. It should be interesting to see what happens.

Thanks again for your help! 

Cheers
 
vonOben

[Nicholas Bell 117]

Hi Nick

 

I've edited the campaign file now, it was easy using Hexplorer much thanks to the decimal offset display!

And I've also edited my pilot to show the actual number of missions flown and kills. I've edited the campaign file as you suggested. It should be interesting to see what happens.

 

Thanks again for your help! 

 

Cheers

 

vonOben

 

Excellent!  Let us know how your squadron does over a long period with the VonS mods.  I'm not spending enough time playing these days to find out for myself as RealLife is getting in the way.

[vonOben 55]

Hi ojcar

 

A few questions regarding your campaign:

 

When I checked the campaign files I noticed that there are more Entente air units for example in FlandersFront07_DATA.INI:
There are 17 British and French units (12 fighter units and 5 two seaters units) and 8 German units ( 2 fighter units and 6 two seaters units).

 

Is it historically accurate with such Entante air superiority on the Western front in February 1916?

 

I haven't noticed getting any replacements, since I copy the pilot data from one saved campaign to the next I get very few pilots after doing that a few times.

 

The estimated time to fly a mission displayed at the briefing is often totaly wrong, and the missions take much longer to fly. Is that normal in FE2?

 

Cheers

 

vonOben

[+ojcar 157]

Hello!

 

-I don't really know. My campaigns for Armchair Aces Redux (Western Front) are made by copying month by month those in the old Western Front Patch from Red Baron 3D (with some changes here and there). I suppose it's true. There were more planes for the Entente the whole war. On the other hand, my Palestine campaigns are much more researched and (at least in the air units) are very close to the real campaigns.

 

-I don't know. I lose lots of AI pilots and get replacements (but I don't copy my pilots from one saved campaign to the next).

 

-I suppose this is because FE is a "son" of a Jet sim and it maybe doesn't calculate this stuff very well. I didn't notice this before, but I don't pay very much attention to the briefings. 

 

Oscar

[+VonS 1,424]

Hi VonOben,

 

Yes it's "normal" in FE2 that the estimated mission times on the briefings screen are sometimes not precise. I have seen this happen in single mission mode often, where a mission lasted maybe one hour but it is displayed as lasting two or three hours and some minutes. It happens in custom-mission mode too but is not too bad there - there I get estimated mission times of 10 or 20 minutes usually, which is closer to how long the actual dogfight lasted. This is a mystery I have not tinkered with since I assume that the inaccuracy is a part of the game's actual code (not related to the mods or the game's user folders).

 

Happy flying,

Von S

[vonOben 55]

Hi guys

 

I found some figures regarding aircraft production each year.

It's from the book "World War I: Encyclopedia, Vol 1" by Spencer Tucker, Priscilla Mary Roberts

 

 

Number of battle airplanes at armistice:

 

 

And some info here:

 

http://www.theaerodrome.com/aircraft/statistics.php

 

Cheers

 

vonOben

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[vonOben 55]

Hi ojcar

Here is some feedback from my Armchair Aces Redux campaign flying for Fookerstaffel Porcher May 22 1916:
Briefing Map:

 

The in game map doesn't match the briefing map with German airfields far to the west which creates strange way points in escort missions:

 

Is this as intended?

Best regards

vonOben

[Nicholas Bell 117]

Looks like the German offensive is more successful than historical.  The front line drawn by the program may be a little off and does not including the captured airfields used as waypoints in the flight plan.  SF2 also has problems with salients in the front line doing this.  I mean to eventually reduce the aircraft ranges to force missions to be local to the airfield.  Some aircraft data files appear to have total aircraft range instead of the aircraft combat radius which is what I believe the program uses.  Combat radius is usually calculated to be 1/3 total range - 2/3s for ingress and egress, 1/3 for combat.  Also it's important to note that the map scale is reduced by approximately 1/3, and it appears the program makes no adjustment for this.  So realistically the aircraft range should be reduced to take this into account to force historical mission ranges.  Of course the fuel consumption model is based on reality so the aircraft are always going to have too much fuel, which in turn increases weight and reduces maneuverability....

[vonOben 55]

Hi Nick

In FokkerEIII_DATA.INI I edited
MaxMissionRadius=100 (was 150)

Is that what you mean?

[Nicholas Bell 117]

Hi Nick

 

In FokkerEIII_DATA.INI I edited

MaxMissionRadius=100 (was 150)

 

Is that what you mean?

Yes, that should help.  Might need to drop it 70 or 80 if you still get the wacky waypoints.

[vonOben 55]

Ok, thanks Nick!

[jack72 0]

I am just trying to download all the requirements for Armchair Aces.

 

In the read me text, it says to download Vogesen,

But there are two, Vogesen (by Geopard)  and Vogesen 2 (by Stephen1918)

 

Can I use Vogesen 2 with FE2 as it is, along with all the other download requirements (without having to majorly change setting in any ini files?)

Edited July 20, 2016 by jack72

[jack72 0]

I am just trying to download all the requirements for Armchair Aces.

 

In the read me text, it says to download Vogesen,

But there are two, Vogesen (by Geopard)  and Vogesen 2 (by Stephen1918)

 

Can I use Vogesen 2 with FE2 as it is, along with all the other download requirements (without having to majorly change setting in any ini files?)

 

This is for Armchair Aces 1.5 version.

[+Stephen1918 1,473]

Vogesen2 works with FE2, but it does not work with Armchair Aces. The place names in the terrain do not match the names in campaigns. If you are planning to use Armchair Aces, then use Vogesen by Gepard.

 

You can actually install both of them, Armchair Aces "knows" the correct terrain to use when it runs.

[vonOben 55]

Yes, that should help.  Might need to drop it 70 or 80 if you still get the wacky waypoints.

 

This doesn't seem to have any effect.

I'm still getting missions were I have to fly very long distances.

My current settings for the Fokker D.II:

 

NormalMissionRadius=10  //was 50

MaxMissionRadius=15 //was 100

[Nicholas Bell 117]

This doesn't seem to have any effect.

I'm still getting missions were I have to fly very long distances.

My current settings for the Fokker D.II:

 

NormalMissionRadius=10  //was 50

MaxMissionRadius=15 //was 100

I'm sorry to hear this - that's bad news.   It seems to work in SF2, but perhaps is ignored in FE2, just like fuel is ignored.  In SF2 AI will RTB when they hit bingo.  In FE2 they fly and fight until they run out of fuel and then they just land where ever.  No attempt to get to friendly territory.