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We are nearly there...here is the full 'readme' document:
Cliffs of Dover stock RAF campaign: REDUXWelcome to this ‘redux’ version of the stock Cliffs of Dover RAF campaign.
Why a ‘redux’? Well, quite simply because the original plot of the RAF campaign read like it was written by a 20 year old Japanese console gamer and in the developers’ rush to get the game on the market many of the missions were either badly designed or just plain broken.
The user community and 3rd party developers have stepped in and filled the campaign gap with some highly entertaining and professional single player content, but it is still offputting to new players that the stock campaign that comes with the game is just so…terrible.
This mod is an attempt to bring users a simple, scripted, and historically based offline campaign that introduces them to the potential of the single player game in Cliffs of Dover and hopefully gives them a desire for more.
What has been redone?The entire plot of the campaign has been rewritten. The campaign is now inspired by the career of real life BoB pilot ‘Red’ McColpin, one of the first US airmen to serve with the RAF in WWII.
Missions have been rewritten and redesigned by Heinkill, and rescripted by Bolox (607 Sq Hurricane missions) and Gabuzomeu (602 Sq Spitfire missions) to add in-game messages and events, and create more engaging missions and combat opportunities. The missions have been tested and re-tested by our dedicated beta-test team EAF92_Splash, Slot, and W1ndy.
Clear mission success and failure criteria have been created, together with an innovative system that displays the player’s and squadron’s kills and losses during the mission and throughout the campaign, and awards medals for campaign progress.
Regarding historical accuracy, an attempt has been made to recreate a sense of history as the campaign unfolds, with authentic Ministry of Defence RAF Fighter Command campaign combat reports used to provide the player with an end of day summary of theatre wide events at the end of each mission. You will relive the terrible events of summer 1940, just as they happened.
Finally, the landscape of SE England and France has been populated so that the previously empty ports of Dover, Folkestone and Calais, and combat stations Tangmere and Manston have been made into living locations, bustling with activity.
About the campaignThe campaign now takes place during the ‘critical phase’ of the Battle of Britain – August to September 1940, when the RAF was threatened with collapse, and the fear of invasion stalked Britain. You will start the campaign flying Hawker Hurricanes out of Tangmere as a pilot 607 Squadron, just as ‘Red’ McColpin did.
After several missions with 607 Squadron, you will be transferred to 602 Squadron flying Spitfires from Manston airfield. This simulates McColpin’s transfer to Spitfires as his RAF career progressed. Manston was a front line airfield under constant attack at this time, and 602 Squadron was frequently engaged in combat with the Luftwaffe.
Finally, just as McColpin did (though admittedly over a longer timeframe!), you will progress from a rookie pilot, to a flight lieutenant, to finally command 602 Squadron for the epic dogfights of Battle of Britain day, Sept 15.
Mission briefingsMission briefings set both the scene for the missions, and give clear guidance to the player about what their targets are, and how to achieve mission success. Waypoints are marked on the MAP tab in the briefing screen…study them carefully.
But if you need to go back to the mission briefing and read it again, you can always hit ESC>BRIEFING during flight.
If you are playing with less than full realism you can enable the map and icons so that hitting the map key (default ‘M’) in game will show you your position and waypoints. By right clicking on the map (in-game) you can turn on or off enemy and friendly icons etc.
To succeed in these missions you must usually achieve two objectives: achieve a personal kill, and a successful landing. You can’t quit out of flight halfway through a furball and get mission success.
The specific mission goal is carefully spelled out in each mission briefing, and you will be advised with a text message onscreen during the mission when it has been achieved. But mission success will not count, unless you land after achieving the mission objective (successful crash landings on land or water also count!).
HUD messagesA special feature of this campaign is that you will receive on-screen messages for significant events during the mission. During dogfights you will see messages orienting you about the progress of the battle eg ‘Our losses 5 – Our Squadron losses 2’. You will be updated on squadron kills ‘. And when you achieve specific mission objectives you will trigger a mission complete message, eg ‘MISSION COMPLETE’ ‘GOOD SHOW!’ or ‘RECON COMPLETE. LETS GET OUT OF HERE!’ When you see a message like this, you can choose to head for home and land, ending your mission, or you can continue the mission and stay in the fight. Finally, when you land you may receive end of mission messages such as ‘Good Show! You shot down a Bf110’, to confirm that you hit the mission objective.
MedalsMcColpin was highly decorated, being awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) by King George, which is also reflected in the campaign.
Medals are earned both by progress through the campaign, and total victories. If you make it to halfway through the campaign, and have achieved ace status (5 kills or more) by that stage, you will be awarded a DFC. If you have achieved double ace status by the end of the compaign, you will be awarded a Distinguished Service Order (DSO). When you complete the full campaign, you will be awarded the Battle of Britain medal.
Your ultimate goal, the Battle of Britain campaign medal.Mission difficultyThese missions quickly build up to the higher end of difficulty.
All missions are combat missions, there are no ‘training’ missions. At the start of the campaign, you will usually be outnumbered. You will often be out of position, at an altitude disadvantage.
Your AI opponents will usually be equal to or superior in combat experience and skill to the RAF AI pilots. Within the limitations of the Cliffs of Dover AI code, enemy AI settings have been tweaked to make most Luftwaffe pilots disciplined, aggressive and competent opponents. Even unescorted bombers will command your respect – you will not be able to park yourself on the six of a formation of bombers hosing away with impunity. This would have got you killed in 1940 and it can get you killed in this campaign.
You will rarely be able to relax because you could be attacked on your way to, or returning from, your mission objectives. In dogfights, even when you think you are getting the upper hand, new enemy flights may intervene.
In early missions you will be able to follow your flight or squadron leader into battle, so you will not need to navigate, just stay in formation and keep up! Later you will need to lead your men to the target, and for this you will have to study your map, and navigate using either the pre-mission briefing and printed map (if you have it) or the waypoints indicated on the inflight map.
Your home airfield is not a safe haven. Both Tangmere and Manston were front line airfields. So you cannot sit on the apron interminably fiddling with your temp and radiator settings, or spend 10 minutes flying a racetrack over your airfield waiting for your squadron to form up, because you could either come under attack, or fail to hit your mission objective in time. Even when you have completed your mission objective and reached your home airfield, you may still come under attack!
If you fail at a mission, or worse, do not survive it, do not despair, you can always restart (or ignore the result and move the next mission anyway!)
Campaign victoryYou are a part of the larger war. One pilot can rarely change history.
Failure by you in individual missions does not mean the RAF will lose the Battle of Britain, but your actions in every mission matter, as you will see in the end of day combat reports which are shown as part of the Battle Success/Battle Failure debriefing screens.
If you are successful in a mission, the combat report will show that the RAF has lost fewer aircraft, fewer civilians will die, and the RAF will achieve more kills.
If you fail, more RAF pilots and civilians will die, and fewer Luftwaffe aircraft will be brought down.
Actual quotes from historical figures are also featured on the debrief screens, to add a sense of history.
Infrequently asked questionsQ. I liked the original RAF campaign much better, how do I uninstall yours?A. You liked the idea of a campaign where your mission briefings and debriefings bear no relation to what happens in the mission? Where mission success sometimes requires you to shoot down one of your own pilots, and when your CO finds out, he doesn’t courtmartial you, he lets you go off on another mission? And in order to complete the campaign, you have to fly to France, and bail out because if you survive the mission, you get a campaign failure message?
No problemmo. Just go to Steam control panel and get Steam to validate your install and it will overwrite the modded campaign with the original campaign.
Q. This campaign did not totally suck. Do you have other single player content which does not suck?A. You can find more than 50 online missions at the site below, including the heavily downloaded Operation Sealion mission packs :
www.bobgamehub.blogspot.comBolox has also created a fantastic LW ‘Spitfire on my tail’ campaign based on the exploits of Luftwaffe pilot Ulrich Steinhilper who flew with the legendary JG52 fighter gruppe, and which you can find on
www.Airwarfare.com Q. In missions where I need to fly in formation with my flight/squadron leader, how do I know what is my position in the formation?A - The RAF flew in ‘Vic’ formations where a Vic comprise three aircraft with the flight leader in front and the two wingmen on his wings. This Vic formation was known as a section. A Flight had two sections, and two flights comprised a squadron. The aircraft positions are labelled below.
In this campaign, you will find your position in the flight/section listed in the briefing next to your aircraft type eg: Spitfire IIa, position #6. If in doubt, just stay behind the flight/squadron (or if you like, use autopilot until you get into combat).
Q. I don’t like the in-game status messages you have implemented. How do I turn them off?A. In beta testing, one of our testers said they found these messages a little intrusive at first, but quickly got used to them and found them very engaging – we hope you will feel the same. They are central to the concept behind this campaign – keeping track of your kills, letting you know when you have achieved mission success, and awarding you medals. They can’t be disabled.
Q. I was still getting ready for takeoff when my airfield was hit and I was killed. WTF?A. You are based at front line airfields. You can’t sit there clicking switches and playing with the temp on your pitot tube. Get your machine in the air and shoot something down. We are confident that there is no mission in which you do not have time to get your aircraft airborne before the bombs start falling!
Q. I was not able to find the mission objective. EG in one mission I am asked to bring down a specific type of enemy aircraft but I got attacked on the way and never saw it. How can I shoot down what I can’t find?!A. In the original CoD RAF campaign, the reason you couldn’t find a mission objective was usually because the developers had left it out of the mission! Or they gave you the wrong loadout. Or the wrong waypoints. They designed entire missions with no enemy aircraft in them! All that has been corrected in this mod, to give you the best chance of reaching your objective. Every mission has multiple enemy aircraft and flights in the design to give you an opportunity for combat.
But stuff happens. If you are really frustrated, engage autopilot and let the AI fly the mission to show you the way. Or enable icons and check the in game map – if you are in the target area, enemy aircraft will be shown.
And remember this is war. If you take too long getting to a waypoint, or are intercepted on the way, the target may have left the combat area. You can then choose to refly, or accept the result and move to the next mission.
Q. I got a mission failure message even though I shot down three aircraft personally and we stopped the incoming raid from hitting its target. WTF?A. Most missions require you to achieve just one personal kill, and land successfully. But others require that you pass a specific waypoint (eg for recon), destroy a specific target (eg a Bf110) or land your machine at a specific airfield (eg transferring from Tangmere to Manston). If you don’t get a mission success message, you can either refly or just move on. It will not affect overall campaign success.
There is a known bug in CoD which may also prevent you from achieving success: sometimes, especially over water, if the enemy successfully crash lands, the game will not register the enemy aircraft as destroyed. So even though you have shot that seaplane down over the Channel and it is floating on the water with engines torn off and fuselage burning, you might not be credited by the game with the kill. In this case, we suggest you just suck it up, and move on to the next mission. Real life pilots also have claims disallowed which they are certain were theirs!
Q. In some of the later missions, with large numbers of aircraft, I occasionally get low FPS and stuttering during dogfights, even over water.A. It is true some of the later missions involve many aircraft and the final mission now includes up to 70 aircraft in one engagement. Some PCs will have difficulty managing this number of aircraft, but most of these missions are set over water, so as to reduce framerate issues caused by landscape and objects. Here are some tips for achieving higher FPS and reducing stuttering in these GPU intensive missions:
- ensure epilepsy filter is off
- turn off grass and shadows
- reduce trees to low
- turn off clouds
- use ‘original’ setting for textures
- reduce building and object number and texture quality to low
- turn off in-game Anti Aliasing (you can still try to enable directly on your card)
A ‘lite’ version of the campaign will be available soon, which reduces the hit on lower spec PCs through use of fewer objects and aircraft.
Q. I don’t like using the in-game map, I consider it a cheat. So how do I find the objective when I am leading the flight/squadron?A. The preflight briefing includes a ‘MAP’ tab. If you click on this, you will see the mission waypoints displayed. When you are in flight you can use the in-game map. Default key is ‘M’. But you do not have to display all the ‘help/cheat’ information such as friendly or enemy icons. Right click on the map and deselect all the cheats.
Q. I got promoted to eg flight lieutenant, even though I don’t have a single kill to my name. Thanks but WTF?A. During the campaign, you can be promoted to flight lieutenant, then to Squadron Leader reflecting your progress through the campaign. This reflects McColpin’s RAF career experience, but was also done to give the player the experience both of following a squadron into combat, and then leading it. It may well be that you don’t feel you have ‘earned’ these promotions if you have been particularly unsuccessful in combat.
But that’s the RAF for you, and is in fact, historically accurate! In the Luftwaffe in late 1940, Reichmarschall Goering instituted a practice of promoting only pilots who had proven themselves in combat, irrespective of their social background or time in service. By contrast, historians describe the RAF in 1940 variously as ‘class conscious’, ‘xenophobic’, and plagued by a reliance on social standing or length of RAF service to identify candidates for the officer class. There are multiple examples cited in the literature of officers promoted due to their social connections, or time in the RAF, rather than leadership or combat abilities.
Q. I got seven kills, I’m an Ace, but I was not awarded any medals, WTF?A. Firstly, it should be noted the RAF did not have a culture of promoting ‘aces’ during the Battle of Britain, and the title ‘ace’ was not recognised in the RAF at the time. Medals were awarded only for valour in combat, and for ‘meritorious service’. The leading RAF pilot in the Battle of Britain, Josef Frantisek, was not given any RAF medals or recognition until his Distinguished Flying Medal in Sept 1940, by which time he had 17 confirmed kills. He died shortly afterward, and was awarded a bar to his DFM posthumously.
In this CoD campaign, you can be awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) if, by halfway through the campaign (mission 7), you have achieved at least 5 kills. You can be awarded the higher Distinguished Service Order (DSO) if, by the end of the campaign, you have achieved at least 10 kills.
Thus, it is not guaranteed that you will be awarded any medals, nor that you will receive both a DFC and DSO. For example, if you achieve seven kills, but most of them come late in the campaign, and you do not get to the ‘10 victory’ level, you will receive no medals.
‘Ace’ status in itself, did not guarantee any awards in the RAF in 1940.
Q: My wingmen just follow me around like sheep and don’t engage. WTF?A. It is a known bug in CoD that sometimes it requires you to engage autopilot to 'register' your plane with the AI when taking off (does not appear to be an issue with airstarts). When NOT flying as flight leader this isn't too bad- you only need to apply autopilot briefly- as you wait for takeoff. You can then disengage at this point and takeoff manually and fly the rest of the mission by hand. When flying as formation leader it is recommended that you allow autopilot to fly to at least the first waypoint otherwise your Staffel may completely ignore your commands to engage.
The AI radio commands in CoD are highly problematic in use. I find the following command has the highest chance of working though: get an aircraft in your sights, padlock the enemy and hit TAB (for radio) 1-1-5-5. This message says ‘attack the enemy in my viewport’. Sometimes, they actually will! I map it to a joystick button for use in combat.
Q. I updated (or reinstalled) CoD with the latest version via Steam and the Redux Campaign has disappeared. I cannot live without it! My life is now void of meaning!A. Relax, validating your Steam install will overwrite this campaign. You just need to reinstall the mod.
Q. A whole lot of other weird stuff is happening which frustrates me, such as (dot dot dot)A. The developer 1C has openly admitted that CoD is still a flawed product, but they also said there will be no more patches. Therefore there are several deficiencies which the player must now live with and which you may notice playing this campaign. Among them:
- Combat AI is deficient. Even at ‘Ace’ level enemy AI aircraft are poor shots, waste ammunition in long hosepipe bursts, have poor awareness, and have access only to a limited range of offensive and defensive manoeuvres. The AI quickly exhausts its ammunition after only 3-5 minutes of engagement and then turns for home. By trial and error we have identified the optimal AI settings to ensure the best performance by the CoD AI aircraft, but we cannot overcome the limitations of the AI code.
- Wingman AI is deficient. Wingmen will often not engage unless attacked directly and radio commands ordering them to engage do not work consistently. Wingmen often blindly follow their flight leader, without engaging. This also works in your favour – if you have a choice between attacking a Luftwaffe rotte leader or his wingman, go for his wingman! Wingmen will also sometimes follow you down as you are landing and then plough into the ground beside you, and low level manoeuvring is a particular problem.
- Realised FPS is very erratic from PC to PC: a mission that runs well on one PC will have stuttering or pauses on another PC with almost identical specifications. This makes mission design very difficult but missions have been designed to minimise this issue.
- There are many small graphical glitches: Spitfire pilot arm is visible through cockpit ‘wall’, runway lights are visible through objects etc., trees have no collision model. These things cannot be changed now.
- Flight models do not allow aircraft to reach historical ceilings or performance levels: for this reason, all missions in this campaign are at relatively low level.
Q. Hey where is Spitgirl from the original campaign storyline? That chick was hot!A. No, she was just sad. She is back in the Manston mess hall, serving pie and peas. (She does appear during the campaign though – keep your eyes open for this ‘Easter Egg’.) For you Spitgirl fans though, here is a picture of her older (and much hotter) sister.
© Glen Angus, 1970-2007, R.I.P
ABOUT MAJOR GENERAL CARROLL WARREN MCCOLPINThe official US Airforce biography (next page) skips quickly over his time in the RAF but after serving initially with the RAF's 607 Squadron, McColpin joined the second Eagle Squadron, No. 121 Squadron, as a pilot officer and then went to No 71 Squadron, the 1st Eagle Squadron.
No. 71 was formed at RAF Church Fenton on 19 September 1940 with Brewster Buffalos. Appraisal by Royal Air Force acceptance personnel criticised it on numerous points including lack of armament and pilot armour, poor high-altitude performance, engine overheating, maintenance issues, and cockpit controls, while it was praised for its handling, roomy cockpit, and visibility. The aircraft were deemed unsuitable for European conditions Hawker Hurricanes replaced them from November and Spitfires from August 1941.
In November 1941 McColpin was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. In January 1942 he was posted as a flight commander to the 3rd Eagle Squadron, No. 133. McColpin went back to the United States in June 1942 to participate for 10 weeks in a War Bond tour followed by 4 weeks home leave. On his return, being an American, an ace and having served in combat with all three Eagle Squadron, McColpin was appointed to command 133 Squadron.
General McColpin was the only American to fly combat in all three RAF American Eagle Squadrons. His total missions in these Squadrons exceeded three hundred, including missions flown with 607 Squadron. He was a double ace before Pearl Harbor and was the first American to be decorated, in Buckingham Palace by King George during World War II. McColpin was credited with 12 kills, 5 probable, and 12 damaged.
(In this Cliffs of Dover campaign, McColpin's achievements over 2 years, are compressed into missions covering a period of 2 months, for the sake of gameplay.)
US AIRFORCE OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHYRetired Sep. 1, 1968.
Died Nov. 28, 2003.
Carroll Warren McColpin was born in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1914. He participated in civilian flying activities in Los Angeles, Calif., and in 1936 obtained his pilot's certificate. In November 1940, he volunteered for duty with the Royal Air Force and was commissioned a pilot officer (second lieutenant) in the Royal Air Force. He advanced to the rank of squadron leader (major) in the RAF before transferring to the U.S. Army Air Force in the grade of major, at London, England, in September 1942.
General McColpin served in the 607th, 71st and 121st RAF Fighter Squadrons and commanded the 133rd Fighter Squadron in England in 1942. Following his transfer to the USAAF in September 1942, he commanded the 336th Fighter Squadron, 4th Fighter Group. Returning to the United States in 1943, he was assigned duty as assistant deputy for operations, 3rd Fighter Command, Drew Field, Fla., and he subsequently assumed command of the 407th Fighter Bomber Group at Lakeland, Fla. in September of that year.
In January 1944, General McColpin was appointed commander of the 404th Fighter Bomber Group at Myrtle Beach, S.C. and moved that unit overseas to England where he remained in command through the English, French and Belgian campaigns.
In December 1944, General McColpin transferred to the 29th Tactical Air Command as director of combat operations. He returned to the United States in March 1945 and served as deputy and later as commander of the 3rd Fighter Command Gunnery School at Pinellas, Fla., until February 1946, when he proceeded to Germany to command the 335th Fighter Group at Schweinfurt, Germany.
General McColpin returned to the United States from Germany in October 1947, to command the 31st Fighter Group at Albany, Ga., until February 1950, when he entered the Armed Forces Staff College as a student. Upon his graduation from the Armed Forces Staff College in July 1950, General McColpin was assigned to the Continental Air Command at Mitchel Field, N.Y., and later to the Air Defense Command, Colorado Springs, Colo., as director of operations and training. In June 1952, he was transferred to Eastern Air Defense Force Headquarters as the deputy for operations, were he remained until entry into the Air War College in July 1954.
After graduation from the Air War College in June 1955, General McColpin assumed command of the 64th Air Division (Defense) at Pepperrell Air Force Base, St. Johns Newfoundland, Canada. He was transferred to Headquarters North American Air Defense Command, Colorado Springs, Colo., on Aug. 1, 1958, as director of operations and served in that capacity until July 1962.
General McColpin commanded the San Francisco Air Defense Sector at Beale Air Force Base, Calif., from August 1962 to June 1963, before his assignment as commander, Portland Air Defense Sector, Adair Air Force Station, Ore.
In October 1964, General McColpin was named vice commander, 28th Air Division (SAGE), headquartered at Hamilton Air Force Base, Calif.