Helmut_AUT

Hi all I'm not good at finding historic specifications for how many rounds the Camel was usually carrying. Rise of Flight site states "500 rounds per barrel" so that would make 1000 in total. In FE2, according to the after-mission stats, it only has 500 rounds in total. Albatros has 700. Problem is, contrary to flying the German crates I (and my wingman) are running out of ammo on every flight in the RAF. And then usually have some more random "guests" to deal with. Did TK screw this up, should it be 500 for each gun? Anyone knows what the SPAD13 carries?

Hehe, thought so. I think when TK adds the Aldis back I'm gonna try the SE5a for the first time in a "serious" campaign. At least I can keep one drum in reserve on that one.

Will the "rejoin" command make them reliable hold their fire? That sounds like an option. I mean, we didn't have to waste all the ammo on six AEGs, shooting down half of them would have been fine enough. I've never seen an "AAMG" in the game, only bursting HE Anti-Air. And since it never seems to help against fighters I kind of gave up dragging them to the nearest airfield. On this particular flight, we stayed on our side of the lines, about 3 to 5 miles in, and still got chased. So I need to manage ammo... and find a way to lose those suckers, but the Camel is not a runner.

Thanks. I recon that would require an edit of some terrain .ini to make it one-seasonal.

What file would I need to edit? Loadout Ini? 600 rounds total sounds better... My experience with AI is that they follow me for 20 minutes or more... sucks when your entire flight is out of ammo!

Rename the Exe File, maybe that works?

Thanks, Senior Member ;) Two Books confirming this is better than I could ever find. I do doupt the Rise of Flight data for 500 per gun. Maybe 300 per gun might have been possible. OTOH, the SE5a, if I recall right, has at least four drums with 97 rounds for the Lewis, not? Maybe I ought to change rides. Main Problem is that the AI isn't holding back some reserve for the way home. I can do that, but it's not gonna help in situations like yesterday, where we spent all ammo on six AEGs and then got chased by a mixed Dr1 and Albatri flight. Related question thus: Does anyone know if the AI keeps chasing you miles over your front, or can you reach a point where they turn back?

Hi all I edited one single mission for two Camels to intercept an DFW. Just for fun, I changed the mission time, and suddenly found myself in a most glorious cloudy sunset (screen here: http://forum.combatace.com/topic/53199-fe2-cloud-improvements/) But in my 10, 15 campaign missions so far, and in Single Missions, FE2 always seems to give a start time that is never really at Dawn and never leads to a flight into the Dusk. Is there a way to edit mission generation parameters so we can get "true" Dawn Patrols? Or is that something only TK can do?

I'll put it on the TW boards directly for TK. Maybe there are no answers because there is no way to change this by mods. Thanks for the reply.

Zero Replies, Zero Views? What's wrong with the question?

IMHO, this smoke is too much (even the default one is too much). What you have here is basically a petrol-fueled fire spreading to some wood and canvas. It is a better campfire in size, not an industrial factory fire. In my time at the Fire Brigade I never saw such simple things burn so darkly and oily. I think going in the other direction would be a worthwhile exploration - lighter, grey smoke, but if possible some kind of flames, higher flames.

Hi all. It's been reported to TK as "bug" (more like, a missing but necessary feature) that the SE5a in FE2 lost the Aldis Tube from the cockpit model (which in FEG is incorrectly modeled with a magnifying effect). But instead of simple reducing the magnification, it's now entirely gone in FE2. Problem for me as TrackIR user (and likely others) is that with our heads constantly somewhat offset from dead front center, it becomes really hard to aim with only a single ring sight (no bead) on the left Vickers. In the German AC I can lean behind either gun and line up the sights. In the Camel and Spad, the center ring sight is most often accurate. But in the SE5a, leaning behind the left sight makes no sense since it lacks the bead. Someone suggested modding in an "icon" crosshair, but I'm not liking anything "floating" around in front of my WW1 cockpit, too much like a modern HUD. So what's the consensus? Have people adopted to firing "blind by tracer" without sights? Or would you guys also appreciate either a bead for the ring sight, or a non-magnifying ALDIS?

I posted after that and told TK that I don't know how we're supposed to aim without sight. Maybe that changes his mind? There's nothing Vista/win7 specific that would prevent the sight from working correctly.

Interesting info, thanks. Makes sense since the sight ring was not cockpit geometry.

It's in the Technical Support Section "FE2 Bug Hunt" thread where all Bug Reports go. TK hasn't replied in detail yet what he thinks of it. I'm not sure you could simple drop the cockpit model from FEG into FE2, minimum would be that the texture changes and you lose the new bump mapping effects. I have no experience with adding/modding aircraft, if anyone can tell me what to try I'll do it.

For me it's a bit of personal irony to see it removed, since I heartily slagged RoF for leaving out the Aldis on the Camel and SE5a. Going by SF2 HUD displays, it isn't possible in the engine to have a "colimated" piper present that doesn't "overlay" cockpit instruments. Otherwise it would be sweet to have a fully working ALDIS where aim point is independent of head position.

Hi all. Did anyone already experiment with Cloud/Sky mods for FE2? Right now, the default clouds IMHO are super ugly. And they rotate when you look up at them and then move the head. In contrast to Jan's terrain and the aircraft gfx, they look cartoonish. I see there are a few cloud mods for FEG, but I'm afraid that I can't judge quality from a static screenshot alone. So if there's an accepted "Gold Standard" please clue me in.

Hi all. Navigating in FE2 is a tad too easy for my taste. You always know where on the map your plane is by the "magic yellow line" (even though I have disabled aircraft icons on the map). It would be nice if the map wasn't centered on your AC either, but on the current selected waypoint - with no yellow line. In fact, my perfect navigational aid would be a window to display the highest resolution bitmap from the briefing map in, during the flight. Just rivers, roads, woods and cities to fly by. Has anyone every experimented with modding to make the magic "GPS Function" go away? Everyone who flew IL-2 on hard will know what navigating by map should be like...

I just had a reply from TK on the official boards, he thinks along your lines. I would agree that I could actually fly a mission WITHOUT the GPS inflight map. Just by memory ("west to the trench, then south to the river...cross over...forest to the south east...") Problem is, the briefing map is so cluttered up with ground force icons that it never shows you exactly what village or what forest youre supposed to reach. In general WW1 terms, navigation would be easy: Fly to the trenches, do an hour patrol five miles over, fly home. But the mission engine expects me to hit a pinpoint village without actually showing me which village.

Sorry, but this is a weird argument. I don't have to make navigation hard by manually printing and marking maps - that is not "hard" or "more realistic" that is just unnecessary work. What's wrong with asking for a mod or even TK for a reasonable implemented DIGITAL solution? If it doesn't interest you, just say so. But you can't seriously suggest I have to print six maps a week or such for notating and do it all by hand if the game could easily be set to do it for me?

I just noticed in FE2 the water with these addon terrains doesn't do anything. No shader, no waves, no effects, simple a blue texture. Is there a setting we might change?

The difference would be that on a printed paper map, you have to always by hand transfer the waypoints and bearings over. Which means printing a stack of maps (since you can't reuse them eternally), or trying to laminate them and write on them with a removable marker. And it adds time before each mission. On a "Hard Mode" in game map, all relevant information would already be displayed. It just wouldn't magically tell you where your own aircraft currently is. Also, digital maps can offer you more detail/zooming/scaling than a paper map. And a paper map on modern paper feels "cheap" to me, I can't print to such a standard that it actually looks immersive. I know that Rise of Flight lacks a lot of things, but look at their beautiful and realistic inflight-map. It is "period style", looks authentic, perfectly matches the terrain features and gives you only a realistic amount of information. No self-made paper map will ever be as convenient and good. It would be good enough, for starters, if the current inflight map wasn't centered on your own aircraft, but on the currently selected waypoint. That way you could switch it around (no need to mouse-scroll up/down) and it wouldn't tell you a magic GPS position.

TS, I know that, but in-flight if I need to look something up on the map, I only get the "all-knowing all-seeing magic marker map". If I print the mission briefing map, I would have to place waypoints for missions by hand with a pen. Not very economical either. What I'm looking for is a digital in-game, in-flight map that has no position info, and ideally only the start and target waypoint on it (for bomber escorts, the rendevouz waypoint is also needed).

Answered here. http://forum.combatace.com/topic/53200-new-and-nearly-helpless/

Well, since most waypoints seem to either be above a village, destroyed village or road crossing, it might be doable. That stuff is nicely visible on the 4MB large versions of the bitmap maps from briefing screen, even if the villages lack names (we could maybe add em...). I would print out and hand-fly the damn thing, but it is inconvenient having to note down all the waypoints for every mission. It'd be perfect if the game simple placed the triangular "go here" marker on your objective and you had to figure out how to get there and back.