Welcome to the Wings Over The Reich Zwei Guys Challenge!
See, back in the day, we used to have these things called Rick Rawlings Challenges…according to some people, they put hair on your chest. That is completely unproven, but many people are saying… Anyway, I have been singing that #%&*$# song in my head for two months now, and I figured that if I had the song, might as well have the challenge to go with it…
For this challenge, you will be flying for Germany as a (quite frankfurterly!) underappreciated member of JG 54’s schwarm zwei.
In order to participate in this challenge you must: 1. Declare your interest and intent in this thread on or before Wednesday, January 30, 2019. 2. Create a pilot using the manual squad creation option with a start date of August 15, 1940, flying for Germany in JG 54 as a flieger . 3. Commit to flying 3-6 missions per week with this pilot, but no more than one per campaign day. 4. Report at least every weekend in this topic thread with his current successes or failures. 5. Faithfully communicate to your brethren the falling of your avatar when such event actually transpires. 6. Have a lot of fun!
Please enter your pilot at this link: Pilot Questionnaire Please update this survey after every few missions, or at least once a week!
This is kind of a "Who's Line Is It Anyway" sort of affair where we try to have fun with good people. Reporting can be by any of the following methods: -Text is good -Pictures are better -Videos are what this sim is made for!
There were some great reports and pictures and vids in the previous challenges, so look over them if you want some ideas!
This is single elimination, so one death and you are out. Keep in mind that even if you are not playing "dead is dead" in the workshop, at the end of each mission it will still tell you that "Sadly, your pilot has died" if his injuries were fatal so you don't need to switch your settings for this. Keep in mind that if you land in England or the channel, you may be captured and the war over for you. So be careful up there!
When you set up your pilot, click on "Manual Squad Deployment" in the lower right hand corner of the enlistment page. Set up the following screen so it looks like this:
Scoring:
Missions: +2 point each Time survived: +2 points each week Confirmed kill: +3 points each Becoming an ace: +5 points (only once) Promotion: +5 points each promotion Medals: +3 points each Survive to end of Challenge: +10 points Wounding: -8 points each occurrence
This challenge will have a have a hard end date of Friday, March 1st. (love Februarys!) That gives us four weeks exactly. You can have a maximum of 24 missions total. Then we can tally the points and declare a winner. You are certainly free to continue to fly your pilot after that if still alive, but for point determination, we need a cut-off date.
The Fine Print: (Rules) You may use whatever aids you are used to using. Wind should be set to “On”. Please set your weather to “Historical Weather”. Flight model should be realistic and you should have weapons jams and limited ammo and all that jazz... Feel free to lead your flights if you want!
The point is to have fun and we had outstanding support and sportsmanship from all fliers in previous challenges and we would love to see some new faces!
As far as time advancement, please follow these guidelines:
Allow time to advance as normal except fly no more than one mission per campaign day (time advance manually as necessary) For every promotion, advance five campaign days. For becoming an ace, advance five campaign days
*After each mission, please advance forward to the next day to avoid flying more than one sortie per day. At the end of the challenge, I will tabulate the winning pilot overall and declare him the Zweiest Guy Around! There will be some small prize for winning, look here in the future for more information!
There is a good opportunity here to get your scouts painted up in a fine livery. The system looks similar to what is in WOFF with the addition of needing to make a damage skin overlay to go with it. The damage skin template is in each aircraft folder, maybe Robert or someone would be kind enough to jump on here and give a quick overview.
Here's a link to the Youtube video on WOFF skinning:
Official challenge start time is Friday, Feb 1st: whenever that starts local to you, grab some QC time in your birds and we’ll be off! The prize for the winner will be: a choice between: The Most Dangerous Enemy: A History of the Battle of Britain by Stephen Bungay With Wings Like Eagles: The Untold Story of the Battle of Britain by Michael Korda or Battle of Britain 1940: The Luftwaffe’s ‘Eagle Attack’ (Air Campaign) by Doug Dildy
I will update this area with pilots and scores as the challenge progresses, so you can always check here for the latest info.
List of Pilots: Rick Rawlings MFair carrick58 gaw1 Dark_Canuck Ace_Pilto Stache Trooper117
Strikethrough indicates a pilot's demise or permanent capture, d.n.p. = did not participate, number to the right of the pilot is the final score
Last edited by Rick_Rawlings; 02/27/1903:14 AM.
The older I get, the more I realize I don't need to be Han, Luke or Leia. I'm just happy to be rebel scum...
#4456149 - 01/05/1912:06 PMRe: What's that you say? A Rick Rawlings Challenge?!?
[Re: Rick_Rawlings]
Achtung, Feindliche Kampfer. Count me in ! Ok boys put the ship back together and re paint for the Western Front. Glaus, try not to have screws and parts left over after all the parts are put back.
Last edited by carrick58; 01/05/1906:33 PM.
#4456176 - 01/05/1906:26 PMRe: What's that you say? A Rick Rawlings Challenge?!?
[Re: Rick_Rawlings]
Oh, Hell yes! Nice to see you back Rick....and the Challenge....althought I can't imagine a fray I'd like less to commit to. My appalling record to date with the Luftwaffe makes me cringe for the guys who signed up during the BoB.....my chances w/ the Limeys only slightly better. I'd be astonished if there's anybody left after the first week. Count me in please!!
#4456223 - 01/05/1911:30 PMRe: What's that you say? A Rick Rawlings Challenge?!?
[Re: Rick_Rawlings]
Joined: Mar 2011 Posts: 3,729Rick_Rawlings
Senior Member
Rick, you can count me in IF I can get my rudder problem worked out! Your challenge is always fun.
There is an easy solution to your rudder problem Sir. Order a set of Crosswinds and you will never have rudder problems again. The added bonus is that your shooting accuracy will surely increase, unless you just totally suck at shooting period. CRSWND FTW! These carbon fiber color Crosswinds are the Bomb!
Blade Meister, thanks for the advice, I will look into those. At the moment, since my 5 year old Ch pedals work fine with WOFFUE, I don’t think the pedals are the problem, there is something askew with my system as posted in the technical section. As usual with thieir first rate support, OBD is on the case!
Never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear or a fool from either end. BOC Member since....I can't remember!
#4456310 - 01/06/1904:59 PMRe: What's that you say? A Rick Rawlings Challenge?!?
[Re: Rick_Rawlings]
I am considering this. Should be fun. I am not seeing a "Historical Weather" option in WOTR (like there is is in WOFF).
Hi Mark,
If you are looking for new pedals, I just replaced my 2 year old Saitek Pedals with Thrustmaster TPR. I am really loving these. I always preferred resting my heal on the floor. The precision is excellent. Just do not look at the price...
Last edited by Stache; 01/06/1905:00 PM.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. A. Einstein
Im in. I've wanted to attempt one of your challenges ever since I discovered WOFF (in the middle of your Sopwith Challenge). Heinrich H. Heinrichson reporting for duty.
Last edited by Dark_Canuck; 01/06/1908:26 PM.
#4456330 - 01/06/1908:32 PMRe: What's that you say? A Rick Rawlings Challenge?!?
[Re: Rick_Rawlings]
Joined: Mar 2011 Posts: 3,729Rick_Rawlings
Senior Member
We need some decent skins for this... anyone? lol!
Er, quoting myself here... thinking of giving this challenge a go, and I'm mentioning skins because if we are going to put up reports of Teutonic daring do, it would be nice if we had some individual skins so that we aren't looking at the same boring skin for every report or video that is produced... anyone?
#4456608 - 01/09/1901:47 AMRe: What's that you say? A Rick Rawlings Challenge?!?
[Re: Rick_Rawlings]
Joined: Mar 2011 Posts: 3,729Rick_Rawlings
Senior Member
Yes, take a look at the skinning video I posted in the first thread. Everything is the same for the first skin as seen in the video. Then you have to make a second damage skin which applies a damage overlay to the first skin. Robert was kind enough to talk me through it, I just need some time to try one then I can post hopefully clear instructions. So if you want to work on a skin, just make the regular one and the damaged one is quick to add...
The older I get, the more I realize I don't need to be Han, Luke or Leia. I'm just happy to be rebel scum...
#4456622 - 01/09/1904:01 AMRe: What's that you say? A Rick Rawlings Challenge?!?
[Re: Rick_Rawlings]
It was kinda rough . What with not a lot of bitmaps. Not to mention my files got mixed and some corrupted by a early computer problem. But My Pilot Hans Falke is a Zwei kind of guy
Last edited by carrick58; 01/09/1904:07 AM.
#4456630 - 01/09/1905:47 AMRe: What's that you say? A Rick Rawlings Challenge?!?
[Re: Rick_Rawlings]
Joined: Mar 2011 Posts: 3,729Rick_Rawlings
Senior Member
Ok, carrick, looks great, but how did you get it in the game? What naming convention did you use? I've been working for hours trying to puzzle through this and you just up and did it!
Last edited by Rick_Rawlings; 01/09/1906:29 AM.
The older I get, the more I realize I don't need to be Han, Luke or Leia. I'm just happy to be rebel scum...
#4456631 - 01/09/1906:28 AMRe: What's that you say? A Rick Rawlings Challenge?!?
[Re: Rick_Rawlings]
Joined: Mar 2011 Posts: 3,729Rick_Rawlings
Senior Member
Ok, So it might not look like much, but this represents several hours of trying to get rid of the number and clean up the paint:
Maybe if we cry loud enough, Pol wil release one with the layers so we can avoid all the clean up...
Anyway...so here are Robert's instructions for creating the damage skin: In order to extract the alpha layer from the Damage2.dds file, do the following steps:
1) open it in DXTBmp program 2) In the menu select "Alpha" and in the drop down menu choose "Send Alpha to Editor". 3) when you are in the editor, save the output file as "Hurricane_Alpha.bmp" 4) you now have an alpha layer to put back into the next .dds You create.
To use the alpha layer when creating a new .dds do the following:
1) open your skin .bmp file in DXTBmp 2) in the menu choose "Alpha" and in the drop down menu choose "Import Alpha channel" 2b) you will see the alpha channel displayed in the far right side of the screen labelled "Alpha Channel" if you did it correctly 3) in the menu choose "File" and in the drop down menu choose "Save as" and select "DDS Texture" 4) In the pop up menu choose "DDS DXT1" (make sure not to choose DDS DXT1 No Alpha) and then select "Save" 5) you now have a saved .dds output file with the alpha channel added for the Damage2.dds
I have already done 1-4 for you. In this file is the clean bitmap for the main skin and the damage alpha file for the damaged skin. So just create your skin based on the video instructions, export it as a .dds in DXTBMP once and then do it again adding the alpha layer as described in 1-5 in part 2 above and it should work. For now, you will have to replace one of the existing skins (back it up first!) I have asked Robert for naming conventions if we want to add the skin rather than replace one of the default ones...
Last edited by Rick_Rawlings; 01/09/1906:30 AM.
The older I get, the more I realize I don't need to be Han, Luke or Leia. I'm just happy to be rebel scum...