Nicholas Bell

Not sure if this is what you intended, Peter. The damage model seems a bit too forgiving. Was able to easily land this cripple. I'm thinking that the damage rating of wings might need to be changed to destroyed rather than disabled - at least for me.

I second that request Or maybe just the template so I could give it a try myself...

The MiG-21 cockpits we have make it to appear more like a hole in the glass. Not trying to throw stones at the artist - I certainly don't have the ability do that level of work.

Joke's on you Gocad, I already knew Bunyap's guide says the following: "NormalMissionRateDeviation=120 - Not sure. I think it randomizes the number of days between missions." So that's not much help. And apparently the "knowledge base" does not answer all questions. I asked KA if he knows HOW the deviation value affects campaign, given the fact it is obvious he's been digging and experimenting with the campaign files. And while you seem to think it obvious, and I the fool for asking since I have the mission rate set to 1 per day, do you think it possible the deviation rate might just modify mission rate? An informative answer would be appreciated if you understand how it works.

Pretty sure that the lower supply level squadrons are assigned in the campaigndata file to Soviet squadrons ensures a lower availability rate.

Thanks for the insight, KA! A few questions: In which theatre is your campaign? I don't see any max mission entry for individual squadrons, only in the [CampaignData], this in WOE campaigns. You have any idea of the how these deviation values work? NormalMissionRate=1 NormalMissionRateDeviation=3 OffensiveMissionRate=1 OffensiveMissionRateDeviation=2 I always end up with one mission a day, and would like a missions to vary a bit more, with a variable number of skipped days.

KA, do you think limiting the resupply have an effect on the ground units supply level? Supply level is important in how the ground war is waged.

Interesting, KA. You just explained why all the extra weapons appeared in my current campaign (flying for the Red Airforce in WOE). IIRC correctly this never happened when I played a campaign using just NATO Fighters. I recently "upgraded" my NF aircraft and campaign files to full Weaponspack compatibility, and now I have this problem. So perhaps there is a connection with the Weaponspack and the changes in hardpoint and user settings? BTW, once you start a campaign, all the data concerning the squadrons, weapons on hand, pilots etc is written into the savegame file. Did you try loading any of the non-stock weapons which were listed on the loadout screen but which you had eliminated from the weapondata.ini and the weapons folder? I bet that would cause a crash. But stock weapons you couldn't eliminate since they are maintained in the ObjectData file as you note. You could try extracting all the weapons from the ObjectData and either change the user or availability date of the weapons you don't want to show up as listed in the loadout screen.

TK mentioned you need to have the Weapons set to "Hard".

I've seen something like this with other AI planes doing this using F6 - they normally land way short of the airfield, but eventually "drive" to runway. I realize this doesn't help you solve your problem... Is this with a stock aircraft on a stock map?

The other evening I was flying a D7 and had a Brisfit easily turn inside me and riddle me. I know they were good planes and well-liked by their pilots, but where they that manueverable? They are "fun" to fly, and the gunner is good to have. The cockpit and gunsight work well with the TIR4 - I have to hunch down to look through the sight just as I imagine the pilot might.

Including the H "Hog" I hope (didn't see it listed)

You can: EJECT=SHIFT+ESCAPE I've become quite efficient at quickly hitting these keys

Maybe it's a bug, or maybe it's an interesting feature. Vasily Popkov was shot down on October 29th bravely defending my tail. He shot down an F-100 firing at me, and then was immediately hit by a Sidewinder from first plane's wingman. Popkov was listed as MIA, lost over Fulda. Vasily showed up on the unit roster a few days later on November 3rd, healthy but feeling a bit demoralized. After a few more days rest he was up to snuff and back on ops. Maybe he was not meant to be a fighter pilot, as his plane was battered by 20mm hits from an F-86K and he was shot down again near Celle. For him the war is over, this time listed as a POW.

Now if someone were only working on a Bear model.....

Veltro- Looking forward to your Vucan! Will be a great addition for campaigns (at least mine anyway!)

Thanks, Peter. Will give them a spin in the next week.

Peter, I'd say stick with your original plan and wait until TK releases the next patch. There's plenty of planes awaiting your magic touch regarding AI and basic FM behavior. As far as SF1/WOV/WOE, stalls don't occur as I would expect and experience in other prop sims. FastCargo's post indicates that this may be accurate. For example, pulling max Gs in a vertical bank with a F-100 will rapidly cause the loss of airspeed, turn rate and some altitude. There is a rumbling noise indicating a stall, but there is no nose or wing drop. The plane remains stable but the controls are unresponsive until enough airspeed is regained. Letting off on the stick pressure is usually enough. Going to full afterburner does not help much quickly. Unless highly modified, aircraft do not spin either. I've seen some 3rd party prop aircraft with bizarre stall and spin behavior. Nick

Anyone else seeing odd behavior of the Alb DVa? Something I've never seen before. Shot both the top and bottom right wings off and the plane flew circles at speed of 5-20 mph and descending slowly? At times this contraption was also climbing at 10 mph. Some component have too much lift or not enough drag? Or is this some aberration in the program that I just have not seen?

Unfortunately not. A while back I requested on the Third Wire Forum that TK add a simple text dump of the mission log in the next patch, but no reply. So to help me track my current campaign I'm capturing screenshots of the mission results.

Peter, I fully understand and appreciate where you are coming from. Please don't crash and burn on us all before you get around to it though! A break may be in order given your description of how much time you've spent on this. While I think it wonderful you are doing the hard work to so greatly enhance this sim, I also don't want you to burn out and drop out. Thanks again - your talent and time spent are appreciated!

Thanks, Peter! I hope to be able to give them a spin later this week. You've done some great work on the other planes! Any chance you might be willing to post some definitions and effects of the various AI parameters so we can learn from your experience?

The DESTROYED tag tells the program how to handle the aircraft once that system or component total hit point value (calculated by the volume of the hit boxes determine by min/max extents & modified by StructuralFactor and VolumeStructurePoint). You can change it to DISABLED, HEAVY DAMAGE, or DAMAGE IIRC. These impact the effect of the loss of the component/system affects other nearby components/systems too. With anything other than DESTROYED, the AI will continue to attempt to fly the aircraft. This is not always a good thing, especially with the engine, as the AI will attempt to climb and engage once it builds up speed. Of course this doesn't work so it dives again and repeats the process. Pretty silly looking IMO. Now only if they could attempt a belly-landing.... CoolHand29's post is a copy of a post I wrote over at SimHQ which outlines the many different ways you can toughen up aircraft. Using the mods I mention in that post, it took 5 30mm hits on an F-100 to bring it down. A couple hit the wing and one stabilizer with one shot. The next shot I took hit the fuselage 3 times and that KO'ed the Hun. It did not burn. It took 139 rounds in 4 bursts to achieve this - obviously I'm not the best shot. But without the damage modifications that Hun probably would have died with the first hit. I realize that not all will agree with this - thinking it too strong, but I have many cases still where one shot destroys a plane. It just doesn't happen as frequently.

Since I'm proven myself pretty blind in the past, I thought I better ask if anyone knows of an F-86H add-on. Of course I can fake it, but the plane is visibly more "burly" than it's younger siblings - excepting the Dog of course! Thanks...

I stand corrected. Thanks for the movie - it doesn't look like a recoverable spin. Maybe it shouldn't be in the example shown. Guess lowering the gear didn't help.. Too bad it's not easy to do. Would be nice to have accelerated stalls and spins. Will make do, though with what we have.