You will be transferred. Not nice, I know, but the that was the design descision for an interesting conundrum. If I transfer the historical ace it would be ugly. RB handled it by having two commanders on staff, which I also did not like. I thought moving the player was best.

Hello Patrick,
Thank you most kindly for your continued support, I certainly voted for your mod in the 'favourites poll', it adds such a wonderful dimension to RoF.

Just noticed today that a new version was released at new years, so perhaps what I'll report is resolved.
A 'balloon protection' mission was generated, which upon loading put me and the wingies in the air above a balloon. No trouble there except I do not have 'start mission in air' active. All the generated missions thus far have started on the field except this one. I can email if desired.

Also, this is not an issue per se, but I've noticed now that there seems to be a heck of a lot of enemy activity converging along my flight path --all the time-- to the point where the last few missions have always ended up with me vs 6 or 7 hostiles. You can only do that so often before it ain't fun anymore. Maybe I've just been unlucky, time will tell.

When in similar outnumbered engagements in other sims I try to drag the battle over a friendly airfield to even things up a bit, or have a place to crash and get medical attention promptly
Anyways, how can we get AAA and AAMG at airfields???

Thank you again!

So I guess you cannot fly a campaigm mission as An American?? Not a major problem Just a question.

Thnaks

pawgy

Bandy, the readme says that escort and ballon defense missions are airstart only, that is by design.

Pawgy, after the screen where you select USA, did you set the correct date on the dropdown list to start your career? By default you are in 1916, you need to set a date late enough then the squadron box will fill up with available squadrons.

RS/. that was it. As soon as i moved the date to late in 1918 I move on to the next screen. thanks

You can experiment with the dates, to start early in a N.28, if you want that. I think one or two squadrons are there in late 1917?

Hi Bandy,

I think that I have to make the number of opposing flights (flights that are designed to cross your path) user configurable.

I can also look into putting AA on airfields. It's a good idea.

For those interested (and for those who can come up with improvements), this is how the algorithm works:
Create n number of flights.
Of those "n" there is a 30% chance that a flight will be designed to cross your path.
Other flight paths have their routes generated without regard to your flight.
Keep all opposing flights.
Toss flights that ...
- Are very far away from yur flight.
- Exceed maximum flights allowed.
- Cause too many different aircraft types to appear.

If I had my way I would just create dozens of fligths, no opposing flights at all, and let em fly. I would recreate ground positions too for every mission. it would actually make my life easier. Can't do that due to performance considerations, thus the complexity and need for configurability.

Please keep the ideas coming.

Just a humble suggestion. Is there any way not to show what opposing aircraft you're gonna face? Adds more mystery.

Also, I haven't messed with the mission builder in a long time, so I'm not sure what is possible, but can you make it so the aircraft don't show up in the mission until they are close to the player's flight? Sorta like the existing campaign engine. Would that help performance?

Actually, as I typed that out, I realized that I don't believe that's possible. You'd have to fly over a trigger, and there's no way to "randomly" set one where an enemy "might" be. If the player goes off the beaten (waypoint) path, there would be no triggers. Damn.

Anyway, great utility here, it's really the only reason I still play ROF.

Oops! Thanks, honestly I did read the ReadMe at one point in the past, but obviously that point didn't stick, and I've NEVER had a balloon protection mission till now...

THANKS Patrick for looking into the possibility of placing AAA and AAMG at airfields. They don't have to be perfectly placed at the corners, behind privies, etc., just in near proximity would be most welcome.

I agree with removing the 'airplane types appearing' in the mission briefing. While an argument can be made that squadrons/jastas/escadrilles had intelligence reports, the 100% accuracy of the briefing does detract from the element of surprise at getting the chance to hole this or that bus/crate type when they are encountered... I'm not sure how sophisticated the generator is RE: squadron placement immediately opposing you (and their A/C type), but maybe an 'Intelligence Report' can be included in the briefing that states who is opposite the lines??? This would not necessarily mean they will be in the air that day though.

Having ALL flights (hostile and friendly) with complete flight paths (rather than triggers) is the way to go for the campaign generator IMHO. It means you can wander around a bit, enjoy a sunrise/sunset reflected on a river off the flight path and generally break from the rigidity of the waypoints (HATE waypoints, navigate by the map, it is a lot more fun!). You can't miss a trigger and will never know what can happen in the mission. It is the most real.

On the other hand, it appears to result in no action for the first third to half of the mission, i.e. thus far I have not encountered hostiles during take off (scramble) or behind friendly lines till the later half of the mission. I assume this is because all flights must take off at the inception of the mission?

Suggestion:
Is it possible to start some flights at random points along their flight paths? That could be very interesting and mix things up quite a bit.

tn_prvteye:
Actually, as I typed that out, I realized that I don't believe that's possible. You'd have to fly over a trigger, and there's no way to "randomly" set one where an enemy "might" be. If the player goes off the beaten (waypoint) path, there would be no triggers. Damn.

This is what Red Baron actually did - a combination of flight path calculation and triggers. Aircraft were nothing more than a bit of math (the flight path calculation) until such time as they were within visual range of the player. Then they would materialize. If RoF ever did this their performance would improve markedly, and you could put dozens of flights and hundreds of aircraft in the air.

I can do that for the mission briefing, it makes sense. Replacing it with Bandy's suggestion, i.e., an intelligence report also makes sense.

Bandy:
I do already start some flights along their paths. The problem is that there are not a huge number of flights so the odds of encountering one are not that great. The limited number of flights is also the reason behnd the opposing flight concept. Without that you would never see anything (which is exactly what did happen in earlier versions of RoFCampaign).