Nicholas Bell

Sorry. This is what you get when I write during lunch at my work desk! I meant Experience, not training, which I set to 10 or 20. I know it seems unfair, but my experience is that the difference is not all that horrible. Plus they still get random ace pilots among all the misfits, and they certainly will ruin your day while flying an Albatros.

First, I don't have a good answer. But I feel your pain. I've cut the training level by more than half for the Allies (10s and 20s). Helps a little. But German casualty rates are always too high. Flying for the Allies the casualty rates are more realistic, and with single gun fighters it's extremely tough to even get a kill against the Germans. I've also noted before that the German AI pilots perform maneuvers when I'm flying against them that I don't see when I am flying with them. And those same Allied AI pilots which shoot down my German wingmen every mission, can't score a single kill when I am flying with them. One might think that which ever side the player is flying for is handicapped by the program by making the other side better. Possible? My inelegant solution is to roll a die to determine if the pilot was actually killed, wounded or just fine when shot down. I hexedit his status to reflect "reality". This is standard practice in boardgame or miniature flight wargames which I used to do many decades ago. Although not directly related, I was reminded of this by Pat Wilson's Campaign Generator for IL-2 BOS which allows one to set a percentage value for pilot survival due to dumb AI crashes due to hitting the ground inadvertently. The point being is that just because the computer program kills your wingmen, doesn't mean you need to accept it. And for what it's worth, despite the excellent AI which actually knows when to disengage in WOFF, the casualty rates are also ahistorically high. In some of their "competitions" players have devised elaborate house rules which are self-imposed while playing a campaign. These include capping the number of kills one can score in a mission (no matter how many actually won), and forcing some many days of not flying after scoring a victory, for example. There's been more than one thread over at SimHQ asking about where the bloody is in bloody April - other than for the Germans! Replicating historical results for the Germans seems to be a common problem. Flying for the Allies is perhaps more realistic given the losses they actually suffered.

von Oben, I'd suggest downloading one of Stary's effect packs to find out where the files go.

I certainly respect and am grateful for the talent and hard work of those who have and continue to work on mods for FE2 (and the SF2 series in general). Thank you! This is not a new issue, unfortunately. Wasn't any different back in the mid-90's when I was hex-editing AOTP and AOE. I've always blamed the anonymity the internet provides for enabling the people to behave badly. I firmly believe that most people wouldn't say the things they write in a face to face discussion, where there might be consequences to what one says and how one says it. Then again, the concept of civility in our society seems to be fading memory of the past.

Thanks! Now to make so time available to fly! Fortunately winter is coming.

Would be interested in trying your campaign, if you are inclined to share. Thanks.

I've had campaigns end when I was "killed" when I did a deadstick landing in enemy territory. I've also escaped capture with no delay in days. This usually occurs when I land near the front, albeit behind enemy lines. So perhaps it has something to do with location. OTOH it could be a simple die roll. I have never seen a MIA or POW status for a pilot in FE2 - I'm envious! Obviously this a carry over from SF2 where the possibility of escape, evasion and extraction are a possibility. Have you tried hexediting the POW pilot back to being a POW? Wonder if the program would once again "rescue" him ?

No time to fly much lately, but every once and a while I get a mission in. In the middle of a SPAD 7 campaign and am disappointed with how all the tweaking I did to damage models and guns for late war (ie 2 gun aircraft) simply do not work realistically with single gun aircraft. I can barely get a kill and the AI wingmen are unable to score at all. I presume you are satisfied with your mid-war modifications. Care to share, given mine don't work? Thanks, Nick

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.

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

Interesting point, Wrench. The 3W data files for stock AAA indicate "mobile_AAA" so the Stephen1918 apparently followed that pattern when he did the ini files for Geezer's objects. However, the stock terrain types.ini file only includes an "AAA" type. Although it doesn't make sense, obviously the program reads them as the same and places them. So either way it is not essential to add the new objects to the map to see them. However, the readme file for the added AAA objects has the user add them to the type file of the terrain, which makes it simple to put them where you want them without the randomization.