I recently joined L'Escadrille Américaine, and while all the individual elements in the campaign are pretty impressive, I was a little disappointed by some inaccuracies. (I'm a stickler for these kinds of things!)

So I was wondering if the following were possible:

1. Is it possible to mod the starting aircraft for a squadron? (As it stands now L'Escadrille Américaine are starting with Nieuport 10C1s. However, although they did receive one of these for training purposes, all the pilots actually flew Nieuport 11s from the start.)

2. Is it possible to mod the squadron makeup? (As it stands now L'Escadrille Américaine has Capitaine Thenault and Lieutenant Alfred de Laage de Meux as normal squadron mates. They are not in command as they historically were. Instead there are two random Frenchmen in their actual places. I'd like to remove these two generic men and switch them with Thenault and de Laage de Meux.)

I've searched through the files in the program, but the most promising file was encoded by that nasty encoding which keeps preventing me from making other changes to this sim! Is this the file I need (meaning it is hopeless to make the changes I want to change)? Or is there another way to mod the campaign elements?

Thank you! I'd really appreciate any help here.

Thank you, OldHat.

The mission editor "solution" sounds okay, but I want something that will permanently show up in the campaign. Hmm . . .

And I'll see what I can do with the Aces file. Thank you for that tip.

Also, I forgot that I had another question:

3. Is it possible (after having made the skins) to assign different skins to each person in the squadron for the campaign? (As it stands everyone is flying planes with the exact same serial numbers as there is only one skin provided. However, - and this might show how insane I am - I would love to make separate skins with the real serial numbers for each flyer.)

Simply not - all aircraft from your squad (except historical aces) use the only one squadron skin. No individual skins, only you can have personal skin.

.

T3G, if things haven't changed in this regard from OFF3 you may, (and I stress "MAY"), still be able to assign a specific livery to a specific pilot. I went through and did this myself for L'Escadrille Américaine, building a whole gaggle of historically-based skins which I no doubt still have in my archived files. Once you have the skin, and if it does not belong to a pilot who is not already on the list of aces in the sim, you must name the skin for the fellow in question as if he were an ace. You then need to go into the aces files and add the pilot to the list following the exact same convention as used for the other aces. Once you've done this the sim will treat the pilot as an ace and assign him a custom livery if one exists for the plane he is currently flying.

As I say, this is all contingent on the supposition that WOFF UE treats aces the same as OFF did, and if that is not the case then JJJ65 is quite correct. By the way, like you I am a bit of a stickler for such things myself as well as being a longtime fan of N124, as the presence of numerous volumes in my personal library will attest to.

Lou

.

Yes, but with one limitation - you can have max of 5 aces flying the same type of aircraft in single mission (not counting only your squadron aces, but incl. also aces from other squadrons flying the same AC type).

.

If that's correct JJJ65 then how is that I can look down the flight line of Jasta 5 and see nearly every plane with a different livery? The method I described above did not have the limitation.

.

.

Went digging and found a pic of the Nieuport line-up I'd painted for N124 back in the OFF days:

(right-click on image and open it in a new window to view it full size)


That sim looks a tad dated now when compared to WOFF UE.

.

.

And, a bit of nostalgia for me, here's an old action shot of the N11 of Langdon Alberts, my N124 pilot back in the day.

(right-click on image and open it in a new window to view it full size)


.

Really? . That is new to me.
Just why in the mission (ref. to mission file) can be assigned max 5 AC pilots (AC1 - AC5) flying one aircraft type, others are assigned as SQ1. I supposed SQ1 can get only generic or squadron skin.

Lou . . . if all of this is true . . . and I can make the changes you suggested . . . and it works in the sim . . . then I'd like to formally ask you to marry me!

Holy cow! That's exactly what I was dreaming of doing. I want to be surrounded by all the wonderful men I've come to learn so much about. I dream of flying on sorties and looking over and knowing exactly that Thaw or Lufbery or Chapman or Rockwell are right beside me and I'm in the thick of things.

I need to digest all you've said and then start trying to alter things in the sim.

Honestly, thank you so, so much!

Lou,

I have a question then.

Here is George Thenault's entry in the FrenchAces.txt file:



Given that there are already Nieuport 11 and Spad VII skins for Thenault (and I have no idea if these show up since we don't have those planes in our squadron yet) does this mean that if I make a Nieuport 10C1 skin and follow the same naming conventions as the Nieuport 11 and Spad VII skins, that it will show up in the sim (and I won't have to do anything else)?

Is that correct?

All historical aces you have noted have their skins already included. Just I am not sure if in standard WOFF UE or in the freely downloadable historical skins pack.

Just ensure yourself that he does not have assigned Nieuport 11 already, since HAs have usually better and modern aircraft than other, ordinary squad members.

Aces usually have all their various skins. With the official and free skinpack, even way more expanded. So no need to marry Lou for this, since it is like that since day one :-).

I think Lou meant rather the nonhistorical characters. Good tipp btw. Never thought about that being possible :-)

For some strange reason we've all been assigned Nieuport 10C1s, which the Escadrille Américaine never used. I have the official skin pack, but there are no skins for Nieuport 10C1s because of that.

If I want some kind of individual skins for the Nieuport 10C1s, I'll have to make them myself.

I just wanted to make sure that if I did so, they would show up.



Well . . . let's see . . .

Yes T3G, assuming things are still working the same as they were in OFF in this regard, you should not need to do anything else to have your new N10C skin show up.

Now then, as for all this talk of marriage, I am quite sure my current Mrs. will have something to say about it, not to mention my own feelings on the subject.

.

I'm sorry. The longer you are out here on the front, the more confused you become.

Just ignore me. We'll forget this ever happened.

.

Spot me to a pint'a red with two fingers of Aberfeldy along side it and we'll speak no more of the matter.

.

.

Ah yes, nectar of the gods, albeit a bit on the youngish side. Of course there is a war on so one can't be too picky.

.