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lofty_c

why am I exploding when...

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It is not you who explode; this is a collision with one of your wingman. Just change the formation in the FORMATION.INI file in the Flight folder (you may need to first extract it from MissionData.cat)

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I have two installs, a north sea, and a main one for all other fronts.  (I tried to separate the fronts but they wouldn't run then)  My north sea works fine, but for the main install,  all planes, all terrains, pieces go flying!  It worked before, and I can't think of anything I changed recently to have messed something up.  Crawford, I copied my formation file from the good north sea into the bad main, but I still explode; conversely, the north sea still works with the formation file from the main folder, so it isn't that file.  frustrating...

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16 hours ago, lofty_c said:

.  frustrating...

:biggrin:  Well, there is a simpler way. First of all, we need to know which aircraft you are trying to fly when an explosion occurs (you and your wingman start a mission at one point). Then in the  NATIONS.INI file change the number of the formation (this file also needs to be extracted from MissionData.cat). For example, if such a nuisance happens to you with a Nieuport-28, you must find USAS in the NATIONS.INI file. Then change the the fighter formation for this nation as follows:

[Nation001]
Name = USAS
DisplayName = US Army Air Service
Alignment = FRIENDLY
PilotNameList = NamesUS.lst
RankList = RanksUSAF.lst
CallsignList =
Formation.Fighter = Fighter3       <------------------------  instead of the initial line 'Formation.Fighter = Fighter'
Formation.Attack = Fighter
Formation.Bomber = Bomber
Formation.Transport = Bomber
Formation.Tank = Tank
Formation.MobileAD = AD
PilotTrainingStandard = POOR

 

 

Edited by Crawford
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Lofty_c - as I recall, you are running FE2 - since the north sea terrain is working, it may be a problem with how you made the other installs. It might be best to remove the others and remake them. There's a thread that shows how to make multiple installs here:

https://combatace.com/forums/topic/81423-setting-up-multiple-versions-of-fe2/?tab=comments#comment-652121

 

When you have a problem it helps us answer if you can remind us what version you're using, what terrain you're using, what plane you were flying, etc. The more you can tell us, the better we can understand the problem.

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Hi Stephen, 

thanks for all your work, first of all.  As for me, the problem literally was with any plane, AEG through Walfisch, in every terrain.  I originally tried the separate installs as directed in that post; made good sense and was straight-forward enough, or so I thought, but it would only run one theater, and if I put everything together, everything would work (I didn't argue with it; it worked).  It seems quite reasonable to assume that in all the things I put in there that something got screwed up, but it did work.  Then it didn't.  without me doing anything, I swear.   Now, what is really killing me, is that just now, I started up a mission to use as a reference in preparation for trying to fix it.  And it works now.  and I didn't do anything yet!  what the heck?!?!  I didn't change the Nations file (thanks Crawford), or reinstall anything, or remove anything.  I know I wasn't hallucinating, and that the mission would begin with bits and pieces fluttering in the air.  Deep down I know this is why I'm a mechanical engineer, and not a computer person.

Gentlemen, thanks for your concern; I will trouble you no more - I'm off to go look at gterl's Caporetto!

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10 hours ago, lofty_c said:

Gentlemen, thanks for your concern; I will trouble you no more

You did not bother me at all ... With all these mods and addons, one thing doesn't run, then another. As a rule, reinstalling the game solves many such problems...

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dang it, spoke too soon.  I still have the problem, but I know more.  Turns out I am colliding with my wingman, because when we spawn, we share the same point.  Note that we don't just overlap, we actually are in the exact same spot.  I found this by setting collisions to easy, and after starting, I shared textures with my mate until I moved away.  Even more, if there are three of us, we all start at the same point, and the other two stay together.  Kinda weird to see a two tailed quadriplane.  I have modified the formation file as Crawford originally suggested, but that does nothing, since it seems we have been assigned the same slot in the formation.  I've been looking through the mission.ini and aircraft_objects.ini but nothing catches my eye.  What controls formation assignment, how did I screw it up, and can I fix it?

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if it's on the ground, it might be something with the airfield's ini. (I'm assuming FE/FE2 uses them like SF2 does - i don't remember!). I missed it above, but are you using the stock terrains, or 3rd party (meaning both!). Does it happen on ALL terrains?

Just for grins, rename the formation ini so the game reverts back to stock. and test again. I've seen this in SF/SF2 when the airfield inis (we have 6 different airfields there) are mis-matched on to another. Their take-off slots can vary quite a bit based on airfield size. 

Just my idears! I know this may not help on FE's grass fields...

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HI Wrench, thanks for the thoughts; this only happens with in-air spawns; airfield start is normal.  Is there something that controls in-air spawns?  Sure, I can live with it by starting on a field and not jumping to the next event, but it's tough to fly over all the sand in Palestine.  besides, somethings broken, and I'd rather fix it.  maybe that will fix other issues that I haven't gotten to yet, like insanely low fps i cockpit view, or why isn't austria showing up  in the single mission menu?  

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1 hour ago, lofty_c said:

why isn't austria showing up  in the single mission menu?  

Austria is not displayed because it is not in the list of available nations. I already told you: edit your NATIONS. INI file!!!
If you don't believe me that the whole reason is in the formation, conduct an experiment. Select in the "Loadout" menu fly alone (remove all your wingman) and start a mission in the air. And nothing will happen to your plane, it will not “explode”. Because it's not an "explosion", it's a collision!

Edited by Crawford

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Hi Crawford, maybe you misunderstood what I described just above - something is assigning multiple planes the same slot in the formation.  I've attached pics of me and two other planes spawning.  you can see them all in the same space.  I have gone and changed the nations file as you suggested; I noticed that some nations were already modified with a .formation2 or .formation3 already.  After playing around with germany, raf, russia, belgium, and france, I discovered that the ones with a number designation were messing up, but the plain ones were not.  I confirmed this by extracting the original nations file and and placing that in my flight folder, and voila! all the nations with all the different formations are working.  So adding the number to ".formation[x] " is what is causing all my planes to spawn in one spot.  Somewhere along the way I must have added the new nations file with some addon; why are the formation numbers there, and is it wrong to just leave the original nations file?

 

as for the austria thing, I do indeed have austria as [nation005] in my file; I tried setting up a mission in italy with a hansa-B. plane, but no austria in the list.  But, it will show if I swap its number with, say, [nation026]germanypfalz, whatever 'nation' that is.  then austria is there.  just not as #005. ?

 

img00005.JPG

img00006.JPG

img00011.JPG

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No, these are completely different things! During the game, such glitches can really happen, which are on your screenshots. Also, allied aircraft can fly through each other. But this is a banal game engine glitch. At the same time, at the beginning of the mission, the engine does not do such nonsense. Your planes collide and explode. When you change the formation, this garbage disappears. I know this for sure, because I have encountered this problem before.

As for the austria thing, there may indeed be a few Austrias.

For example:

[Nation030]
Name = Austria2
DisplayName = Austrian2 Army Air Service
Alignment = ENEMY
PilotNameList = NamesGerman.lst
RankList = RanksGAS.lst
CallsignList =
Formation.Fighter = Fighter
Formation.Attack = Attack
Formation.Bomber = Bomber
Formation.Transport = Bomber
Formation.Tank = TankSpread
Formation.MobileAD = AD
PilotTrainingStandard = NORMAL
GenderRatio = 0
DebriefSuccessMusic = DebriefSuccess.wav
DebriefFailMusic = DebriefFail.wav
DebriefKilledMusic = DebriefKilled.wav
SpeechFile =
SpeechTextFile =
Medals = MedalsGAS.ini
MedalTextFile = MedalsWWI.str
ActiveDate = 09/01/1918
AlternateDecal = Austria2_Third

[Nation031]
Name = Austria2_Third
ActiveDate = 07/01/1918
AlternateDecal = Austria2_Second

[Nation032]
ActiveDate = 10/01/1916
Name = Austria2_Second
AlternateDecal = Austria2_First

[Nation033]
Name = Austria2_First
 
Check if the nation matches the aircraft in its DATA.INI.
 
Edited by Crawford
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The formation identified in the Nations.ini has to also be identified in the Formations.ini - if you replaced your Nations.ini and it's calling for "Formation.Fighter = Fighter3" then your Formations.ini needs to have a "Fighter3" defined in it.

Also - depending on what Nations.ini you have, Austria-Hungary may show up as " K.u.K. Luftfahrtruppen" which is the Austrian name of their Air Service. In the Nations.ini, check the "DisplayName"  line.

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