So far I've been playing WOFF UE campaigns mostly with the British RNAS-8 flying the Stutter 1/2 and the American 166th Bombing squadron flying the DH-4 but so far I've yet to see a single bombing mission or resuming all missions that I get with both squadrons and aircraft are recon or artillery spotting missions.

Then I decided to take a deeper look at the Workshops options and found the Historical Mission Types which was "ON" and then I set them to "OFF" with the hope that this would solve my problem. However this unfortunately didn't solve my problem and still only get recon or artillery spotting mission types while playing with the American 166th Bombing squadron.

Therefore, I'm asking here for help in order to "solve" this issue. For me getting bombing missions would make the game much more interesting for me, specially when flying with bomber type aircraft such as the DH-4.

Thanks in advance for replies...

You will definitely get bombing missions. With historical missions on, you may not see them if the squadron you are with was historically assigned to reconnaissance or spotting duty. The frequency of bombing missions will increase as the war goes on.

Even scouts will get ground attack missions, although the likelihood increases if you are flying an aircraft that was favoured for "low jobs" like the DH5 or Camel.

Also, you can adjust your loadout to include bombs on any aircraft capable of carrying them. If you are the leader you can then search for and destroy targets of opportunity along your route.

Yes, I imagined that the lack of bombing missions in WOFF UE could be due to the Historical Missions option being set to "ON".
However and in case you missed that my first post, I changed this option (Historical Missions) to "OFF" and I didn't notice any changes at all.

Also yes, we should get more bombing missions towards the end of the war and that's why I played with the American 166th Bombing squadron (whose specialty seems to be Bombing) which starts in August 1918 (which is near the end of the war) and even with the Historical Missions option set to "OFF" I simply can't get any Bombing mission.

I did some further tests about this situation and I'm starting to believe that there's probably a bug/issue here.

What I did was the following:

First, I have the Historical Missions option set to "OFF". In theory this should help spawning bombing missions even if the recon/bombing squadron that I'm playing with didn't or wasn't supposed to perform such missions in a given time/period.
Next, I created a pilot with some different British and American squadrons flying the either the DH4, Fe2B or the Re8.
After this I accessed the mission briefing several times, either by exiting the briefing and the campaign screen altogether and returning back (and thus generating new missions) and also by advancing the campaign (by flight, day and even month) which also generates new missions and I did this countless times but not even in a single occasion a bombing mission was ever created/spawned!

Can someone confirm my findings or do I have to activate/deactivate some option that I'm unaware of?


Oh and by the way, I playing WOFF UE patched to version 4.11

Hi ricnunes, I played around with the 166th for one week and only received recon and spotting missions.

Will experiment more tomorrow.

To my knowledge - no there should be nothing you have to activate/deactivate.
I've not flown a bomber, perhaps since WOFF 2.
I know others have while testing the bomb sight mod.

There definitely are bombing missions in WOFF UE. I'm running a career in Sept. 1916 with 70 RFC in a Strutter and we're bombing left and right. My suggestion is to create a career with this outfit and see if you get any bombing missions to eliminate any technical issues.
I've looked at the enlistment page for the 166th Aero and what stood out for me is that their attitude is defensive all the way to Armistice. Perhaps this is why WOFF is not generating offensive missions? No matter if the historic missions are on or off. Just a guess, since 166th did fly bombing sorties according to Wikipedia. All 13 of them.

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Another way to approach having an historically accurate bombing campaign on a day-by-day, mission-by-mission basis is to use JJJ65's outstanding Mission Editor facility. With this you can go in and adjust the parameters of any and all missions you choose, allowing you to build them along historically documented lines. IMHO this is one of the best mods ever to come along for WOFF, and that's saying something as there are a lot of great ones out there.

I believe this is the most recent link for the mod and for HarryH's well-written tutorial:

JJJ65's Mission Editor

I highly recommend you give it a try.

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@Stache

Thanks for the giving a try. I'll be waiting for more findings on your part and also thanks for the info about WOFF UE options.



@Fullofit

Thanks for the heads up, as soon as possible I'll try running a career in Sept. 1916 with 70 RFC flying the Strutter.
Regarding the 166th Bombing squadron (note the name "Bombing" on that squadron's name) I believe that even having a "defensive role" (whatever that might be for a Bomber squadron) and specially with the Historical Missions set to "OFF" that bombing missions should spawn and like you said even with the Historical Missions set to "ON" bombing missions should still spawn with the 166th.



@RAF_Louvert

Thanks for the heads up, that mission editor certainly looks great! I intend to give it a try once I sort out (or find the reason of) this issue.

Ok, I did some extensive tests running a career in Sept. 1916 with 70 RFC flying with the Strutter and I came up with the exact same results - NO bombing missions ever spawned to me.

The test again involved a combination of getting in and out from the briefing and campaign screens several and countless times (thus forcing the generation of new missions) as well as advancing the campaign manually several and countless times either by flight, day and week and again the result was the same


Really, I believe I'm running out of ideas for further tests. But in the meanwhile I'll see what I can come up in terms of ideas for future testing...

ricnunes, if others are seeing bombing missions OK, then it suggests your install is broken. Remove all mods,remove WOFF UE and reinstall using the FAQ section 17.

I agree with Pol. There probably is something weird with the install. Try a fresh one with no mods.
As a side note, I've enlisted in 166th to see if I can get any bombing missions. I only had patience for the first 14 days, so no definitive conclusions, but was assigned only arty spotting and recon missions.

I doubt it is bad installation - it would bring some kind of errors. IMHO, it can be squad's defensive attitude generating only defensive recon and arty spotting missions. But, of course, I may be wrong.

Thank you, Lou, for such compliment. It is even more encouraging to listen it from WOFF's modding hero as you are.

BTW, happy new year to every WOFFer here .

About bombing.....
Not to steal the thread but I was just assigned my first bombing mission in a morane. I noticed that my wing man bomb from altitude and miss horribly. Do you guys get down on the deck to bomb or do you just fly to the target drop the bombs, miss and go home?

I select a target and hit the "A" Key so my wing man attack different ground targets. But they never hit.

Are you using the bombsite mod ???

No...not one on morane

I never installed any mods in WOFF so my WOFF installation was always unmodded and as such I followed your advise of reinstalling WOFF using FAQ section 17 and after this I run the same/similar sequence of tests as described by me before using a British pilot from the RFC 70 starting from September 1916 and flying the Stutter 1/2 and an another pilot this one American from the 166th Aero (Bombardment squadron) starting from the beginning (August 1918) and flying the DH4 and my finding were exactly the same - Or resuming, no Bombing mission ever spawned.

Regarding other players reporting here that bombing missions do spawn, I must also remind that other players seem to confirm my findings as well.
I can't speak for other players/posters here but it seems to me that by reading the posts from players that "confirm" the spawning of bombing missions are either speaking of careers/campaigns with single seat scouts such as the DH5 (which I haven't played with so far in WOFF UE - so I can't confirm these findings with such type of aircraft) or it seems they are talking about the past - perhaps a previous version of WOFF UE or even WOFF 3? For example I remember that I never had this problem with WOFF1.

I would also like to mention Stache and Fullofit where the later even seems to agree with you that there could be a problem with my installation but the fact is that both still haven't had any bombing missions spawned to them while flying with the 166th Aero.
In particular I find Fullofit's finding (and screenshot posting) very interesting - While he's clearly cautions about drawing a conclusion here (which is understandable) I believe that this by itself is already an indication that something isn't probably quite right here. I would say that in 14 (fourteen) missions that at least a very few bombing missions (perhaps a couple or even more) should have spawned by now.

Even if for some reason I'm mistaken and bombing missions do really spawn with Allied 2 seater aircraft, I would say that Fullofit's finding as well as mine (and as others such as Stache) at least shows that bombing missions should spawn much more often in the current version of WOFF UE with this kind of squadrons and/or aircraft (again like happened in WOFF 1 - which was the last and only version of WOFF that I played).

Anyway, I believe that this issue should at least be investigated and as such I would like to urge other members/players here to find out if Bombing missions do really spawn (or not) with Allied two (2) Seater aircraft, namely the DH4 and the Strutter 1/2 (or even other such as the Fe2b or Re8) while playing with the current version of WOFF - version 4.11 UNmodded.

I am flying German two seaters (Roland CII and Aviatik CI) with almost 50 percent bombing (strike) missions in year 1916. For Entente units I do not have campaign bomber pilot.

Ricnunes, there are 2 separate issues here. First, it's been established that you probably will not get bombing missions in 166th because the squadron's attitude is set to defensive. Second is the actual problem that you are encountering, which is WOFF not generating bombing missions for you in any squad, as you say.
I've created a brand spanking new pilot in RAF 70 to show you that bombing missions are generated. Occurred on the 3rd day of the career (WOFF UE 4.11):



I suspect you are just unlucky and getting the "boring" missions.

May I suggest something? Create a Gotha pilot and see what kind of missions you are getting.



If you won't get bombing missions there, then there is definitely something up and that's probably something that only the Devs could answer. Good luck!

Yeah, I am not sure about the 166th, but I have an old pilot in the 8th.
Fired him up again and he did get a railyard bombing mission.

I created a new pilot in the 8th, he too eventually, got a railyard bombing mission.

First of all thanks for the replies.

@Fullofit,

Yes, recently I created a Gotha pilot and in this case I had no problems in being assigned a bombing mission. I guess that here there's no surprise since the Gotha squadron where I created the pilot had the main role of "Heavy Bombing".

Regarding the RFC 70, no I really didn't get any bombing missions at all. However there's a thing that I done differently from you which is that I haven't actually played the missions. I just generate them, either by getting out and in again from the campaign and mission briefing screens and/or by manually advancing the campaign either by flight, by day, by week and in a couple of occasions even by month.

This is really odd indeed and if this is due to being "unlucky" than I guess that I'm the most unlucky guy in the whole world


By the way and for curiosity what's the rank of your pilot?


@Stache,

Thanks for the reply but that's really weird indeed.
I also played with the 8th Aero and here I played a considerable number of missions but I also didn't get any bombing missions.
Actually the reason why I'm now trying the 166th Aero is that the 8th is called a "Recon" squadron and the 166th a "Bombardment" squadron and as such I hoped to have a better chance to get bombing missions with the later squadron (166th).

Like I asked Fullofit, what's the rank of your pilot?

But that's the thing. 166th is listed as recon or bombing and if the attitude is defensive then it'll probably be recon only, I suppose. I'd give 166th a pass if you want to bomb something.



I've used the default rank, so whatever the lowest one is for the given service.


Now this is strange. You've said you used the time-advance button. I seem to be missing that one and assumed it was removed. I know I used to have it, but now it's missing. What gives?

You need to turn on manual advance in the workshop.

Thanks Stache! Totally forgot about that!

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ricnunes, if you are not successfully completing assigned missions this may be part of your problem. WOFF has a propensity to keep assigning you very similar missions over and over until you get it right. Sometimes it will even tell you in the briefing that because you didn't succeed the last time HQ needs you to fly the exact same mission again as it is vital that you complete it.

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Voila, you need to actually fly, and complete missions - or at least attempt them properly - or WOFF will insist you actually do the damn mission!
You can't skip missions and pretend you don't want to fly those, that's the whole point of WOFF you are a cog in the war not someone who is controlling it or winning it

Before I reinstalled the game (using the tips from FAQ Section 17) I played lots of missions and attempted to complete them (most of the times successfully, I believe) and it was after playing mission after mission that I actually noticed this issue (no Bombing missions).

But I admit that I haven't played actual missions that much after reinstalling the game so when I get some free time I'll try to fly (and complete) the proper missions in order to see if something has changed. I'll report my findings.

Anyway, thanks for the replies, help and heads up.


@Fullofit,

I'll give the 166th squadron "a pass" and play with another one as you suggested, thanks for the reply.

OK, finally a casual Friday and as such finally some free time to play WOFF UE

After patching up to version 4.12 (and after all the steps that I've taken before which were already I posted here) I decided to start a new pilot, this one from the 8th Aero flying the DH.4 and starting from August 31th since after this date this squadron starts to have an "Offensive Attitude" and as per Fullofit's suggestion a squadron having a "Defensive Attitude" could be a reason why so few (or none) Bombing missions would spawn.

So after starting a new campaign with the 8th Aero and of course successfully ending all the missions (or at least trying to) that would spawn in the meanwhile, I finally got a Bombing mission on my 4th mission/sortie!





I don't know if the issue where I didn't have any bombing missions before was "cured" by a proper reinstall and as such it was due to a bad installation or due to other reasons but anyway, thanks for help and for the information that you actually have to end a mission in order to "progress" to other new kinds of missions - Somehow I got the idea that the type/kind of WOFF missions where generated "randomly".


Anyway if I still believe that Bombing missions should spawn more often in WOFF UE - Like something closer to 50%, specially when flying 2 seater bomber/recon aircraft or at least give the player such an option. How's that for a future request?

Nevertheless, I'm happy that I finally got a bombing mission

Oh and as a side note, that Bombing mission was a blast!

The target was an enemy airfield located well inside enemy lines.

On route to target and already well inside enemy territory my flight composed by two (2) DH.4 accompanied by an another flight from my squadron or two more DH.4 and escorted by an escorting flight of 5 (five) SPAD XIII from another squadron (Esc 92) was jumped by a flight of around 6 to 7 enemy Fokker D.VII.

The escorting flight rushed to engage those enemy Fokkers and as such they managed to keep the enemy away from the us (the DH.4 bombers) and despite getting the order (by looking at the Tactical Display) to retreat back to friendly lines I (and as the leader) decided to press on the attack.

Once I got near the airfield I saw a group of 5 (five) enemy Fokker D.VII taking off. Unfortunately I was too high at the time which took me some time to get lower and as such I wasn't able to bomb the enemy aircraft before they took off. However me and my wingman eventually got at a lower altitude (in order to have a better bombing precision) and we were able to hit and destroy at least a few Hangar tents and likely other stuff around the tents.

However the "sh*t hit the fan" once it was time to return to base! When trying to escape away from the enemy airfield and back to base I was jumped by a few Fokker D.VIIs - presumably the ones that I saw taking off earlier - one of them closed me head to head and I was able to hit him a few time before we ended up crashing against each other (despite my best attempts to avoid him) but to my surprise, my plane apparently didn't take much damage apart from stiffer controls, namely on the ailerons thus making the aircraft harder to turn) but the enemy aircraft got some severe engine and/or fuel related damage and then caught fire - Last time I saw it, it was spiralling and burning towards the ground - YAY, one claim for me - The first one by the way!

However the celebration was cut short when more Fokker D.VIIs (at least a couple of them) jumped on me and "sprayed" my plane (which by now it didn't turn that well) with bullets and thus filling it with bullet holes, wounding me and my gunner in the process. All I could do and fortunately managed to do, was to perform an emergency landing (behind enemy lines). I was even able to avoid A FENCE at the last minute (by narrowly flying over it) and finally landed the aircraft.

Since I was wounded, I was sent to (an enemy) hospital where I spent six days recovering. Fortunately in the process I was able to seduce a gorgeous nurse which helped me escape just after being discharged from the hospital and thus in theory I only spent "one day" in captivity.

Here's the mission debrief:

Ricnunes, glad you got your problem sorted out. (Got to love that bombing accuracy percentage - are you trying to win the war by yourself?) As to the bombing mission frequency, I suppose it depends what's happening around you. Is there a major offensive going on nearby? Don't know about 50% but take look at the log below. Nothing but bombing missions.



Good luck and check six (and twelve).

LoL! Hell yeah


I guess I was lucky and hit an area of the airfield with lots of enemy stuff/objects around.

But I also believe that there's and another factor which together with the "luck factor" played an important role in this bombing result - The 230lb bomb! And the DH.4 carries two (2) of them.

Besides also the default bomb load for this mission was two (2) 125lb bombs but "of course" I changed it to two 230lb bombs

This bomb surely looks to be a "beast of a bomb", this of course taking into account a WWI standard.
For example, if I'm not mistaken the Stutter's maximum/"best" bomb load is 4 (four) 80lb bombs, correct?




No, I don't think there is.




Cool!! I hope some day to have as many or as frequent bombing missions like the ones you're experiencing

The 166th Aero arrived very late on the scene, and did not see a lot of action, as reflected in WoFF. However, every bombing raid they made is there, starting on 18 October '18.
Cheers,
shredward

Sure, however I was referring to when the Realistic Mission option (in the Workshops) is set to "OFF".
In this case whatever the squadron did historically shouldn't matter that much or shouldn't affect the missions spawned to that squadron.

What it seems to me (although I could be wrong) is that there doesn't seem to be much of difference between setting the Realistic Mission option either to "OFF" or "ON".

I would also like to add that I can somehow confirm Fullofit's comment/finding that a squadron with a "Defensive" Attitude won't get (or likely won't get) Bombing missions.

For example I started a campaign with the RNAS-8 flying the Strutter 1/2 from the 25th of October where I always got missions such as Recon, Artillery Spotting and Patrol Behind Friendly Lines until the 3rd of November.
On the 3rd of November my pilot was wounded and spent 6 days in hospital.

When my pilot returned to active duty (on the 9th of November), I instantly received a Bombing Mission!


Therefore and having in mind what Fullofit said about the "Defensive" and "Offensive" Attitude of a squadron, I noticed that the RNAS-8 has a "Defensive" Attitude from the 25th of October (the very beginning) until the 3rd of November. After the 3rd of November the RNAS-8 Attitude is "Offensive".

Hi OldHat,

Thanks for the reply and to somehow confirm my "theory" or "findings" about the Realistic Mission option apparently not changing the way on how missions are generated in WOFF UE.

I also had the idea that in OFF-BH&H I could spawn any kind of mission within of course the capabilities of the aircraft/squadron being flown at the moment.

I believe it would be great to have this feature/capability back when the Realistic Mission option is set to "OFF".

As a side note to the quoted part above, I can now confirm that I'm getting more bombing missions (and a very good number/percentage of such missions) while flying for the RNAS-8 with the Strutter 1/2 from November 3rd onwards.