Hi all

I have perverted the current Instant Action menu to create my own Alan Deere Mission Set. If you are tired of the existing Instant Action missions, why not give these a try? Seven Deere missions and two bonus missions.

DOWNLOAD THE FILE HERE AND READ BELOW http://www.box.net/shared/7vj1gqvh2f (1MB)



Who was Alan Deere?

Deere was a Kiwi RAF ace whose career began with the Battles of France and Britain. By the end of the war he was a Wing Leader, with 18 kills to his name. To fly as Deere in these missions you can fly as Trumpet 2, in Deere's aircraft KL-B, behind 54 Squadron Leader James Leatheart in KL-A.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Deere

What missions does the new mission set feature?

1. Deere over Dunkirk - the first confirmed kill of an Me109 by a Spitfire
2. Destroy the destroyers - action over the Channel on the day of the evacuation of Dunkirk
3. Bicycle boy - shot down for the first time
4. Prop bender - head on collision with an Me109 near Manston
5. Eagle vs Eagles - the dark days
6. Babysitting - teaching two novices the ropes
7. Hornchurch hammered - defending against the raid that put 54 Squadron out of action for the rest of the BoB

Plus two bonus missions

8. Scheiss out of luck - a new take on trying to land a damaged aircraft
9. Alone in the blue - a check flight goes horribly wrong



How do I use the downloaded zip file?

http://www.box.net/shared/7vj1gqvh2f (1MB)

It contains two folders

BFIELDS
and
BFIELDSbak

Just copy BFIELDS into your BOBII directory and overwrite the current BFIELDS folder. This should give you all the necessary files to run the new missions.

When you want to change back to your old Instant Action Missions delete the new BFIELDS folder, copy BFIELDSbak folder into your BOBII directory and rename it BFIELDS again.

I have tried this on two different machines with different installs of BOBII and works for me. Let me know if not OK for you.

How were the missions created?

I found a little beta utility by FredA2A called BOB2 Mission Editor. It never got beyond beta by the look of it, and it is buggy as hell. It has many limitations (see disclaimers below) but is brilliant if you want to play with the existing Instant Action missions and tweak them as I have done. All kudos therefore to FredA2A.

You can try the Mission Editor yourself (arm yourself with some mood altering substance to help cope with its foibles):
http://www.franva.org/download.php?list.2



What disclaimers?

It is very hard to create stable missions in the beta Mission Editor. The Editor itself crashes constantly, meaning a lot of redos. I have only tested these missions on default settings from the default player (usually RAF side). I have no idea what will happen if you try to change any of the parameters or fly from the German side.

Mission Editing seems to be an art, not a science. For example, I could edit a ground attack mission to get the RAF to attack German airfields like Wissant. But I could not force the game to move any of the historic missions over or near France as the editor is not this flexible. Therefore you will see the first Dunkirk mission takes place over the Channel between Dunkirk and Dover. The Prop Bender clash took place over the coast, but in this mission set starts slightly inland etc. Please forgive any geography dissonance.

Not everything that appears in the mission selection screen is kosher. You will see in a couple of missions that British aircraft are listed on the German side, or vice versa. However when you click FLY you will see the correct aircraft listed. I can't help this unfortunately, it is an editing artefact.

On my version of multiskin (2.06), Deere's aircraft (KL-B) does not have the famous Kiwi nose art, while Squadron leader Leatheart's aircraft (KL-A) does. This may have been corrected in later versions of Multiskin.

Enjoy,

WB