homepage

REDUX, modded stock RAF campaign: Mission 5/6/7 AARs now up.

Posted By: HeinKill

REDUX, modded stock RAF campaign: Mission 5/6/7 AARs now up. - 10/02/12 08:05 AM



The RAF campaign REDUX

http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17874

Mission design and storyline by Heinkill
Scripting by Bolox and Gabuzomeu
Beta testing by EAF92_Splash, Slot, and W1ndy.


Welcome 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.

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.

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.

The team behind the Redux campaign mod has thoroughly enjoyed working to bring this to you. We hope you enjoy using it, as much as we enjoyed building it.

Heinkill
Bolox
Gabuzomeu
EAF92_Splash
Slot
W1ndy


35MB download here: https://www.box.com/s/qohp1pjtokf4s84a7kgc

or

http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17874
Posted By: EAF_92 Whiskey

Re: Coming soon...modded stock RAF campaign - 10/02/12 09:34 AM

Thanks Heinkill, looking forward to this. Hopefully it will take some of the pain out of the latest patch debacle.

Cheers,

WB.
Posted By: DaveP63

Re: Coming soon...modded stock RAF campaign - 10/02/12 09:39 AM

notworthy
Posted By: theOden

Re: Coming soon...modded stock RAF campaign - 10/02/12 10:52 AM

Since AI no longer roll like a x-wing on tai-fighter fuel, this could be very interesting.
Thanks alot for the effort Heinkill.
Posted By: bolox

Re: Coming soon...modded stock RAF campaign - 10/02/12 02:02 PM

Looks interesting cheers

so you finally got your head round the scripting malarky?
Posted By: bisher

Re: Coming soon...modded stock RAF campaign - 10/02/12 02:08 PM

Sweet! I do like a redux.

Looking forward to this
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Coming soon...modded stock RAF campaign - 10/02/12 02:46 PM

Originally Posted By: bolox
Looks interesting cheers

So you finally got your head round the scripting malarky?


No, still a scripting virgin!

The scripts already in place for the 1C missions are v simple, they just set basic victory conditions. I have left them in place and keep that part of the missions intact. They don't seem to use triggers or spawns ie they don't make use of their own potential with scripts. No surprise there.

T
Posted By: naz

Re: Coming soon...modded stock RAF campaign - 10/03/12 12:05 PM

Nice Heinkill. cheers
Posted By: Chivas

Re: Coming soon...modded stock RAF campaign - 10/04/12 02:05 AM

Thanks Heinkill, I just might start flying again when you release the campaign. My guess is the original campaign builders probably weren't as knowledgeable on the history of the Battle of Britain, not to mention having to work with even more "unfinished" game engine than it is now. It will be interesting to see how BlackSix's Russian campaigns are judged in the Sequel, as he must have a decent knowledge of those campaigns, and a much more complete game engine to work with.
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Coming soon...modded stock RAF campaign - 10/17/12 01:31 PM

Updated with more info on the 'lead character' in the campaign - 'Red' McColpin

http://bobgamehub.blogspot.dk/2012/10/new-modded-version-of-stock-raf.html

In doing the research I came across this very interesting factoid from a later part of his career where he claimed 3 FW190 without a single shot fired! You can read more about him in the link. Interesting guy.



HEADQUARTERS
404TH Fighter Group
APO 595
US Army
28 August 1944
A. Type of action : Combat
B. Date : 27 August 1944
C. Unit : 404th Fighter Group, 506th Fighter Squadron (??)
D. Time of Attack : 14:30
E. Place : Coulommiers
F. Weather : 7/10 at 8000 hazy
G. Type of target : E/A (enemy aircraft) FW 190s
H. Claim : 3 FW 190s destroyed


___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

1. At approximately 1450 just east of Coulommiers, I was flying on a course of 270 degrees heading home, altitude 50 feet, when I noticed 4 FW190s starting an attack on me from my right beam. I did not notice them due to the haze until they were within about 2000 yards. I turned right into their first attack. They split up into pairs, the second pair passing over me then attacking from my left forcing me to reverse my initial turn back to the left. They kept up these attacks from alternate sides for approximately 5 passes, firing on each pass. By this time my speed was well down due the tight turns, and they were forced into a lufberry with my aircraft leading. As this all occurred at tree top height, I used the trees as cover as much as possible during the turns. On about the 2nd circle I passed between two rows of trees, just making the entrance; the No 1. man behind me didn't make it, crashing into the trees. I then started to reduce speed down to approximately 120 m.p.h. using 1/3rd flaps and tightened my turn a bit more. After about 10 more circles, I was beginning to get onto the last man's tail. Just as I was getting deflection on him the E/A in front of him did a half snap roll, stalling out of his turn and hit the ground. Immediately afterwards the E/A in front of me also snapped onto his back and crashed, probably due to the incident in front of him or his hitting prop wash. Some time during this incident I lost track of the 4th E/A. I weaved all over looking for him but with no success. I continued on at tree top height using lots of power, heading for home as numerous other enemy aircraft were still in the area and my gas was a bit low by then. I noticed that after I used flaps and reduced speed below 130-140 mph the E/A started having trouble in their turns, enabling em to out turn them.

I claim 3 FW 190s destroyed.

Carroll W. McColpin
Colonel, Air Corps.

(Pilots who saw him on the way to his debrief had no doubt about his achievement, the Colonel's flying gear was absolutely soaked through with sweat following the challenging flying experience he had been through and he looked absolutely exhausted.)



I also like his orders to the 404th fighter group on D-Day, where he personally flew 4 sorties

McColpin's orders to the 404th on D Day were explicit and precise:-

. . The red-haired, red moustached colonel shifted slowly back and forth, his hands in his pockets, a cigar-stub in his mouth. He took it out of his mouth to talk, as he thought between words it moved erratically up and down. When he looked up, his small blue eyes seemed to look directly into yours, calmly, impressively.

. .. ."The infantry will have trouble enough landing and getting inland," he said, "without being bothered by enemy aircraft. Sixteen pilots and planes, or thirty two, or forty eight, would be a cheap price to pay, to keep the beaches free . . If your plane develops mechanical trouble, come home. If a fight develops you will stay there till the last enemy plane is driven away, even if you run out of gas and have to come down in the sea. If you run out of ammunition, ram 'em . . ."
Posted By: bisher

Re: Coming soon...modded stock RAF campaign - 10/17/12 01:47 PM

That's a good read HeinKill. thanks
Posted By: Trooper117

Re: Coming soon...modded stock RAF campaign - 10/17/12 02:54 PM

You are going to put me straight back in the cockpit when you finish this! Looking forward to it! smile
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Coming soon...modded stock RAF campaign - 10/18/12 05:50 AM

Thx. Currently 'load balancing' the missions so they run smoothly. My theory has always been if they run smoothly at around 30 fps on my mid range rig at medium settings, they will run for most. I am using patch 1.09 plus hotfix as the base. Over the Channel this allows furballs of about 50 aircraft before slowdowns. Over the coast with objects, shipping, this is lower...about 30 but this is still enough to allow for decent ground activity, and engagements. Nearly there.
Posted By: wheelsup_cavu

Re: Coming soon...modded stock RAF campaign - 10/18/12 06:33 AM

Great read Heinkill.

IF they ever get to the Pacific again with one of the expansions or updates you can model something similar for Saburo Sakai.

Quote:
Source: http://www.hotlinecy.com/sakai.htm

Q: How was it flying with a blind eye?

A: I can say that it was difficult. Only twice had I ever been caught unawares by my enemy, and the second time was on 24 June 1944 when we flew from Iwo Jima to intercept an inbound force of American planes. This was also when I first met the new Grumman F6F Hellcat, a very formidable fighter. I shot one down, but I was lucky because I never saw the enemy flight approach on my blind side. My peripheral vision was gone. This was when I took off the straps of my parachute harness so I could turn my head around and see things more. As soon as I did this I saw perhaps six Hellcats on my tail, and I began all of my tricks to throw them off. I was lucky, because I don’t think they had much experience against an experienced fighter pilot. I reduced power, they overshot and I increased throttle and turned right inside them. I was on their tail and I shot down another one, but then there were more on me! I pulled away, rolled over into a dive to get away. Then later I pulled out, but found myself surrounded by fifteen Hellcats, and this was amazing, because these aircraft matched me turn and spiral at every maneuver. No other enemy aircraft I had ever fought could do this, and I learned at that time my old tricks were of no use; this plane could perhaps not turn inside the Zero, but it could pull every other maneuver, and it was faster than our 350 miles per hour and could take much more damage and still fly. What saved me was the fact that these pilots were very new. Had they been the veterans of before I would have been dead many times over. I was in this fight for almost half an hour, me alone against possibly twenty enemy planes, of which I had shot down two and damaged another, but they would not let me go. I must have been something of a novelty to them, given the fact that they had been used to killing inexperienced teenagers. Now it seemed that these were also the same caliber of pilots firing at me from incredible distances. They never had a chance of hitting me. It seemed that they just wanted to keep me in the area, and the law of averages would allow them to win.

Q: How did you get out of it?

A: I headed for Iwo and hoped that the air defenses would provide some cover, and they did, and I headed for a large cloud. I was completely exhausted, and I knew that my days of flying combat were over. Then after I entered the cloud I was in a storm, and this took the controls away from me. I plunged and lost altitude, the fighter falling backward, upside down, and all kinds of crazy positions. Finally I fell below the cloud and was able to locate the airfield and land. When my fighter came to a stop I learned that the entire base watched the battle, and they were certain that I was dead, but when I managed to escape all of the fighters trying to kill me that was when they opened up the anti-aircraft guns. They did not want to run the risk of hitting me by mistake. That was an expensive day for us, despite our victories; because forty of our fighters were lost I battle. But I think that the most ironic thing to happen was the fact that I was in a long combat against all those enemy fighters, yet my Zero did not have a single bullet hole in it. However, the engine was worthless after that. In three battles we were down to seventy-one fighters from eighty and we only had eight twin-engine bombers left. Our force had been wiped out, despite our kills against the American fighters, whose aircraft and pilots seemed to be replaced as if by magic. It was after this that we were given the orders that created the Kamikaze, and those of us who were left were to form these ranks.



Wheels
Posted By: bisher

Re: Coming soon...modded stock RAF campaign - 10/18/12 01:07 PM

I loved reading Saburo's adventures. Another good read. Thanks Wheels
Posted By: Trooper117

Re: Coming soon...modded stock RAF campaign - 10/18/12 01:26 PM

Yes, I have an original 'Kimber pocket edition' of his book, 'Samurai', a great read!
Posted By: FlatSpinMan

Re: Coming soon...modded stock RAF campaign - 10/18/12 01:50 PM

Hilarious reading your comments and improvements over the original campaign that shipped with CloD.
Posted By: W1ndy

Re: Coming soon...modded stock RAF campaign - 10/18/12 04:40 PM

I'll be loading this one up too . Thanks
Posted By: Staniol

Re: Coming soon...modded stock RAF campaign - 10/18/12 05:43 PM

I need this. Looks like a really good reason for testing COD again.
Thanks in advance!
Posted By: Slot

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: update on progress - 10/18/12 08:48 PM

Looking good, can't wait to try.

Heck just spotted final CoD patch is now updating via steam.
Here we go...
Posted By: bisher

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: update on progress - 10/18/12 08:49 PM

steam is updating a new patch??
Posted By: Slot

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: update on progress - 10/18/12 09:00 PM

Looks like RC2 has been pushed out to final now.
There is a readme update on the steam newspage.
I was still testing 1.10!

Posted By: GregP

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: update on progress - 10/25/12 04:28 PM

Just wanted to pop into this thread and say that, as a newcomer to COD, finally enticed into it after the final patch release last week, I can't wait to try out your modded campaign. I'm about to jump into the Sealion missions and really, really appreciate all the work you've put into everything you've released. I'm hoping that the final patch will encourage more people to jump into the FMB and start building more missions!
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: update on progress - 10/25/12 06:35 PM

Me too GP.

I've hit a small snag, maybe someone here can help with.

One of the stock missions, which strangely has no script associated with it at all, seems to trigger some success/fail criteria hidden in the code somewhere. Sometimes I run it and get success, sometimes failure. How is it determining this, without a script to guide it?

I suppose the campaign code could have a default mission success trigger in it somewhere, but I can't work out what that criteria might be. Annoying because it would be nice to be able to guide the player how to succeed in the mission.

Would a script override this 'default' success trigger?

If so, could one of you scripting gurus post a very simple succeed/fail script I could adapt...along the lines of

- if player personally gets >'X' number of kills, player wins

Remember I don't speak C++, so it has to be verrrrry simple. Like me!

H

Posted By: bolox

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: update on progress - 10/25/12 08:51 PM

success/fail of mission can be determined by loss of too many bombers you're escorting for instance.
The fact that there is no script seems to indicate mission builders idea was to use this inbuilt success/fail as the campaign success/fail.

script can overide this if it triggers campaign success is triggered later- for instance 'on player landing'

not played with counting kills for success- it is possible as others have written such things
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: update on progress - 10/25/12 09:12 PM

Thx. So some campaign mission triggers are 'hard coded'? Seems that way certainly.
Posted By: Pooch

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: update on progress - 10/25/12 09:22 PM

Is there any way you could give us a P-47 to go with this? (drools all over himself).
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: update on progress - 10/25/12 09:34 PM

Hah! Sure, you want fries with that? smile

McColpin flew the P47. Would love to do DDay in a P47... One day?
Posted By: Bumfluff

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: update on progress - 10/25/12 09:46 PM

Originally Posted By: HeinKill
Hah! Sure, you want fries with that? smile

McColpin flew the P47. Would love to do DDay in a P47... One day?


calling all modders. yep
Posted By: bolox

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: update on progress - 10/25/12 09:56 PM

sort of.

Just had a look to find an example of counting player kills- think I've found something in Eagle Day campaign which would give something like what you want. would take a bit of work to get it how you want.

An 'easy' way would be to set a 'target group destroyed' trigger to the enemy group at appropriate destruction level and get this to trigger campaign success. This would count kills by your whole group not just player tho
(this is hunting the hunter mission?)
Posted By: gabuzomeu

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: update on progress - 10/26/12 06:05 AM

HI
Heinkill, which mission are you refering to, would be easier to analyze.
In a general way, scripts allow you to do almost everything based on paramters used in the game. Counting kills is simple.
Let me know the mission, and I can give it a try.
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: update on progress - 10/26/12 08:04 PM

Thx bolox and gabuzomeu. Help appreciated. Why dont I just send a link to the WIP campaign. Call it an alpha at this stage. You will of course get your names in the credits if we crack it...

I haven't even touched the old scripts. I was hoping I could delete them and replace with a simple success/fail system based on just 2 scripts

- player gets >1 kill and lands or
- target aircraft is destroyed (x% of target gruppe) and player lands

If you are interested in giving it a try, let me know and I'll pm the download link

Heiny
Posted By: bolox

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: update on progress - 10/26/12 09:42 PM

Yeah, I'm in, and if gabuzomeu wants to join in , the more the merrier cheers
Looks like there's gonna have to be more collaboration on the scripting for campaigns as it does seem to be a hurdle for most (me included neaner )

If you delete the old scripts all the speech triggers/hud messages etc. will disappear- just so you know wink

The 2 criteria you suggest seem good, in 1st presumably you want the landing to be restricted to GB? also how do you want to deal with crash landings/ bail outs?
2nd should be easy- same thing with landing criteria

110 test flight mission- those criteria won't work? you plan on using orig script or something similar- ie just a 'land somewhere specific'. Might be useable for other missions?

gonna need an idea of what criteria required for each mission- maybe a note in mission briefing?
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: update on progress - 10/27/12 11:18 AM

Thx. Ok i will put the desired success criteria in each mission briefing so you know how to work it.

Personally I prefer simplicity. It was a huge achievement in RL to get even 1 kill and survive. Sometimes a mission goal can just be survival.

All missions are in place, with briefings now, but I will update the briefings w notes to you guys on the possible mission goal for each.

Will also pm you both with a suggestion for how to divide the work. This is looking good thx!

H
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: update on WIP Nov 6 - 11/05/12 07:26 AM



Just a note to advise we plan to have this ready in plenty of time for the 'holiday gaming season'! Don't want people forced to spend hours with their in-laws when they could be gainfully hiding in a gaming den flying a new campaign...

The big news is that scripters Bolox and Gabuzomeu have thrown themselves into the project with fervor and added the following campaign enhancements

- scripts previously broken were fixed and improved
- your mission success and personal score is shown on screen at end of every mission
- your personal 'log book' is kept from mission to mission so your total kills are shown on screen at start and end of all missions
- success during the campaign is rewarded by the awarding of medals

Screenies to show work in progress...











We are stress testing now...hope to have it out before December.

H
Posted By: Chivas

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: update on WIP Nov 6 - 11/05/12 07:40 AM

Amazing, have you made much use of Triggers.
Posted By: bisher

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: update on WIP Nov 6 - 11/05/12 05:41 PM

Looking great!
Posted By: Trooper117

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: update on WIP Nov 6 - 11/05/12 06:00 PM

Good work!
Posted By: MikePXP

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: update on WIP Nov 6 - 11/08/12 03:36 AM

I can't wait to try this. Looks really good.
Posted By: FlyingMonkey

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: update on WIP Nov 6 - 11/08/12 04:34 AM

This looks awesome! I look forward to trying it!
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: update on WIP Nov 6 - 11/09/12 07:24 PM

Getting close now. Preparing a release candidate this weekend. Anyone want to try it and give us some feedback?

It's not free of effort on your part. You will get the file Moday and be asked to road test it etc. and report bugs by next weekend.

H
Posted By: Slot

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: beta testers sought - 11/11/12 04:27 PM

Hi HeinKill
I'd love to help out but just in the middle of a graphics card and monitor upgrade this week and heavy 'normal' workload may mean i can't do much before next w/e.
If that's still OK then i would gladly beta test.
best regards
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: beta testers sought - 11/11/12 06:48 PM

Originally Posted By: Slot
Hi HeinKill
I'd love to help out but just in the middle of a graphics card and monitor upgrade this week and heavy 'normal' workload may mean i can't do much before next w/e.
If that's still OK then i would gladly beta test.
best regards


Thx for helping! We are aiming for a Dec release so next weekend is still in time. I will PM you a download link for the beta version toward week's end. Forgetting my mission rewrites, I think Bolox and Gabuzomeu have worked wonders on the script front, with in-mission and campaign level kill tracking, awarding medals...and some nice little surprises!

H
Posted By: Slot

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: beta testers sought - 11/11/12 08:26 PM

Great. Look forward too it.

BTW until Clod i was flying Bob2 and i will be keep an eye on 2.12 developments with interest. Aging graphics and CEM were my main reason for switching to Clod. The Ai and campaign in Bob2 were brill. Looks like i might have to dig out my old cd box.
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: beta testers sought - 11/11/12 09:11 PM

Originally Posted By: Slot
Great. Look forward too it.

BTW until Clod i was flying Bob2 and i will be keep an eye on 2.12 developments with interest. Aging graphics and CEM were my main reason for switching to Clod. The Ai and campaign in Bob2 were brill. Looks like i might have to dig out my old cd box.


Thx for the reminder will post an update on 2.12 progress in the BOB2 forum...

H

Done: see Bader's update here

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3655023/2/2_12_progress.html

Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: beta testers sought - 11/12/12 11:02 AM

Thanks for offers of help with Beta testing. We have a handful of volunteers now so that should be enough to do some good quality control on the release candidate before we put it up for wider distribution.

H
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: beta testers sought - 11/14/12 09:15 PM

Posted a sneak mission preview from the mod on the AAR forum:

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3682120.html#Post3682120

Gives you an idea of what's in store. Also gives you an idea that even with all its flaws, there is still some challenging and hair raising single player action to be had!

S!

Heiny (& scripters Bolox and Gabuzomeu and beta testers Slot, EAF92_Splash, and W1ndy!)













Posted By: 911dan

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: beta testers sought - 11/17/12 09:53 AM

This campaign could end up salvaging the reputation of Ilya and CloD MG team.
Posted By: RedToo

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: beta testers sought - 11/17/12 11:00 AM

Originally Posted By: 911dan
This campaign could end up salvaging the reputation of Ilya and CloD MG team.


Not in my book. Anyone who thinks the story line involving spitgirl was a sensible addition to a flight sim is living in fantasy land.

Rather this campaign cements the reputation of Heinkill.

RedToo.
Posted By: DaveP63

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: beta testers sought - 11/17/12 11:10 AM

Originally Posted By: RedToo
Originally Posted By: 911dan
This campaign could end up salvaging the reputation of Ilya and CloD MG team.


Not in my book. Anyone who thinks the story line involving spitgirl was a sensible addition to a flight sim is living in fantasy land.

Rather this campaign cements the reputation of Heinkill.

RedToo.


Indeed.
Posted By: KRT_Bong

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: beta testers sought - 11/17/12 12:44 PM

The biggest problem with the Spit Girl Mission is you can't see which kinda proves at least there is no reason to believe you could fly a Spit with two people in the cockpit and the canopy closed, a P-40 is a truck compared to a Spitfire so that whole Pearl Harbor movie thing is impossible, not to mention ridiculous.
Posted By: Chivas

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: beta testers sought - 11/17/12 08:57 PM

Originally Posted By: RedToo
Originally Posted By: 911dan
This campaign could end up salvaging the reputation of Ilya and CloD MG team.


Not in my book. Anyone who thinks the story line involving spitgirl was a sensible addition to a flight sim is living in fantasy land.

Rather this campaign cements the reputation of Heinkill.

RedToo.


Really? You do realise that the game engine was designed by Luthier, Oleg, etc so talented people like Heinkill, Bolox, etc could provide the community with decent missions and campaigns. The original COD mission/campaign builders were dealing with an even more unfinished game engine, that said members of the community usually have more historical background and time to do certain missions and campaigns. With all due respect to the community modders, its unfortunate that people down play the developers work, and heap praise on modders, when modders would have frig-al to mod if it weren't for the developers.
Posted By: Nimits

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: beta testers sought - 11/17/12 09:37 PM

Between and the Deastersoft stuff, may finally be time for me to hang up IL-2 and buy COD . . .
Posted By: PV1

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: beta testers sought - 11/17/12 11:23 PM

Originally Posted By: KRT_Bong
The biggest problem with the Spit Girl Mission is you can't see which kinda proves at least there is no reason to believe you could fly a Spit with two people in the cockpit and the canopy closed, a P-40 is a truck compared to a Spitfire so that whole Pearl Harbor movie thing is impossible, not to mention ridiculous.

Seemed to me that the main reason you couldn't see in the Spitgirl mission is the
viewpoint was set somewhere about the middle of the pilot's brain, 1" up and 2" back
from the bridge of his nose, so all you saw on your screen was the inside of his flying
helmet, with a little bit of the world peeking in at the bottom. This pic is a crop
excluding most of the screen and its black leather cave:

http://i715.photobucket.com/albums/ww152/whirlybirda2a/raffinal00075.jpg

Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: beta testers sought - 11/17/12 11:34 PM

Thanks for the interest everyone. The team has been beavering away this week, really fantastic work by all. We have now moved to a beta v1.2 and it is looking good for release early Dec.

I thought I would share a couple of briefing screens:

The briefing screens give you the story on the left, and the mission objectives, very clearly spelt out, on the right.


Repetetive in-game screenshots have been replaced with historical images


The briefing screen shows the mission waypoints on the map tab - if you are playing full realism you will need to note these waypoints and landmarks and navigate manually


Mission success and failure is confirmed on screen at the end of every mission.



The success/failure debrief screens treat you to historical quotes, and give you a sense of the wider Battle of Britain with combat summaries drawn from the actual RAF Fighter Command campaign diary entry for that particular day, with only one variation - if you are successful the number of RAF losses and/or civilian deaths is lower, the number of LW kills higher and if you fail, vice versa.


Posted By: bisher

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: beta testers sought - 11/18/12 02:20 AM

looking really nice HeinKill
Posted By: Bumfluff

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: beta testers sought - 11/18/12 03:02 AM

Luthier and Co should be paying you a contract fee of some sort. Looks like you've made the campaign they couldn't.

If only someone could give the terrain a bit of a tweak to look more like England, adjust some FMs and the weather, and we'd have a truely great game on our hands.
Posted By: Chivas

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: beta testers sought - 11/18/12 04:08 AM

I agree, the Channel Map will realy start to look good once talented people in the community and other third parties can get their hands on the map SDK.
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: beta testers sought - 11/18/12 09:23 PM

Chivas didn't someone say on Sukhoi or somewhere the map SDK was never finished...it's just an unpackaged collection of dev tools with no GUI? Or maybe it was Thomas Voss who told me, I know he had been trying tonget his hands on it and was frustrated it wasn't available. A map editor would indeed be great.

How did people crack the maps on Il2 46? Was that mod work or did they get a map SDK? Maybe there is hope anyway...
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: beta testers sought - 11/18/12 09:31 PM

Originally Posted By: Bumfluff
Luthier and Co should be paying you a contract fee of some sort. Looks like you've made the campaign they couldn't.


Huge credit will go to the folks who came on board in the last few eeks. Bolox and Gabuzomeu have done brilliant stuff with scripts and we have had some tireless beta testing by Slot, Eaf92_Splash and W1ndy. It's going to be a much much better product than I could have put together on my own. But the proof will be in the playing!

H
Posted By: RedToo

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: beta testers sought - 11/18/12 09:54 PM

Originally Posted By: Chivas
Really? You do realise that the game engine was designed by Luthier, Oleg, etc so talented people like Heinkill, Bolox, etc could provide the community with decent missions and campaigns. The original COD mission/campaign builders were dealing with an even more unfinished game engine, that said members of the community usually have more historical background and time to do certain missions and campaigns. With all due respect to the community modders, its unfortunate that people down play the developers work, and heap praise on modders, when modders would have frig-al to mod if it weren't for the developers.


'Game engine was designed by Oleg, etc so that talented people ...' Agree.

'Game engine was designed by Luthier so that talented people ...' Disagree.

Just my opinion. smile2

RedToo.
Posted By: KRT_Bong

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: beta testers sought - 11/19/12 12:42 AM

Originally Posted By: HeinKill
How did people crack the maps on Il2 46? Was that mod work or did they get a map SDK? Maybe there is hope anyway...

It was always there, a few commands in the config and you can edit them.
Posted By: Chivas

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: beta testers sought - 11/19/12 05:33 AM

Originally Posted By: HeinKill
Chivas didn't someone say on Sukhoi or somewhere the map SDK was never finished...it's just an unpackaged collection of dev tools with no GUI? Or maybe it was Thomas Voss who told me, I know he had been trying tonget his hands on it and was frustrated it wasn't available. A map editor would indeed be great.

How did people crack the maps on Il2 46? Was that mod work or did they get a map SDK? Maybe there is hope anyway...


The last word from the development was the map SDK would be finished and made available in the Sequel. Even if the development crashes and burns, I have no doubt talented people will figure out how to amend the maps. The development showed a screenshot of the Map utility years ago, but who knows whats changed since them.
Posted By: Chivas

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: beta testers sought - 11/19/12 05:41 AM

If the Sequel does see the light of day, I'm expecting much better Russian Campaigns. The campaign builders should be dealing with a much more finished and refined mission builder, hopefully much better AI, and very high knowledge of the Russian/German campaigns. Hopefully those refinements will make it possible for Heinkill, Bolox, etc to not only build even better BOB campaigns, but also easily amend the ones they've already built.
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: beta testers sought - 11/22/12 04:03 PM

Back to topic...we are at build 1.3. Tracking well for Dec release. Will post readme in the next couple of days...
Posted By: Taxman

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: beta testers sought - 11/23/12 02:33 AM

Thanks HeinKill.

Looking forward to this release.
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: beta testers sought - 11/23/12 02:48 PM

Hi all

We are nearly there...here is the full 'readme' document:



Cliffs of Dover stock RAF campaign: REDUX

Welcome 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 campaign

The 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 briefings

Mission 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 messages

A 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.





Medals

McColpin 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 difficulty

These 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 victory

You 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 questions

Q. 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.com

Bolox 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 MCCOLPIN

The 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 BIOGRAPHY

Retired 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.
Posted By: Chivas

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: FULL readme! - 11/23/12 07:26 PM

Thanks Heinkill, I'm looking forward to flying the campaign, and want to thank you, Bolox, and Gab for all your hard work.

How are you finding the FMB to work with? Can you envision a time in a few years when all the airfields could be historically manned, and appropriate Triggers assigned. I'd like to see a day where one could run a 24/7 historical Battle of Britain campaign in the background, where you could choose to fly historically with another human wingman etc or fly un-historically, randomly picking and choosing targets from Bomber intercept, to low level jabo runs, where all airfields are populated and there is always a chance these aircraft will scramble against you if spotted. Hopefully we will atleast see a Sequel with much improved AI.
Posted By: PV1

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: FULL readme! - 11/24/12 06:55 AM

Originally Posted By: Chivas
Thanks Heinkill, I'm looking forward to flying the campaign, and want to thank you, Bolox, and Gab for all your hard work.

How are you finding the FMB to work with? Can you envision a time in a few years when all the airfields could be historically manned, and appropriate Triggers assigned. I'd like to see a day where one could run a 24/7 historical Battle of Britain campaign in the background, where you could choose to fly historically with another human wingman etc or fly un-historically, randomly picking and choosing targets from Bomber intercept, to low level jabo runs, where all airfields are populated and there is always a chance these aircraft will scramble against you if spotted. Hopefully we will atleast see a Sequel with much improved AI.


So, just like BoB2, then?
Posted By: Chivas

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: FULL readme! - 11/24/12 07:59 AM

Originally Posted By: PV1
Originally Posted By: Chivas
Thanks Heinkill, I'm looking forward to flying the campaign, and want to thank you, Bolox, and Gab for all your hard work.

How are you finding the FMB to work with? Can you envision a time in a few years when all the airfields could be historically manned, and appropriate Triggers assigned. I'd like to see a day where one could run a 24/7 historical Battle of Britain campaign in the background, where you could choose to fly historically with another human wingman etc or fly un-historically, randomly picking and choosing targets from Bomber intercept, to low level jabo runs, where all airfields are populated and there is always a chance these aircraft will scramble against you if spotted. Hopefully we will atleast see a Sequel with much improved AI.


So, just like BoB2, then?


I liked BOB WOV, but never had enemy aircraft scramble to intercept my joy rides over France. I don't think the game engine supports triggers in its mission builder. In fact if I remember correctly, it doesn't have a user mission builder.
Posted By: godzilla1985

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: FULL readme! - 11/24/12 05:33 PM

@ HeinKill,
Thank you for your work on CLoDs lackluster stock campaign, I'm really looking forward to it's release and finally saying "bye-bye" forever to Spit Girl and rogue pilots thumbsup

@ Chivas
I really don't think a ME is critical in BoB II WoV with it's excellent campaign, but making missions must be possible since Whirlybird has made several excellent ones. Scrambling Bf109's to intercept raiding RAF aircraft would be a nice feature but considering WoV main focus/theme it doen't seem that critical.... to me anyway.
cheers
Posted By: Chivas

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: FULL readme! - 11/25/12 12:25 AM

Originally Posted By: godzilla1985
@ HeinKill,
Thank you for your work on CLoDs lackluster stock campaign, I'm really looking forward to it's release and finally saying "bye-bye" forever to Spit Girl and rogue pilots thumbsup

@ Chivas
I really don't think a ME is critical in BoB II WoV with it's excellent campaign, but making missions must be possible since Whirlybird has made several excellent ones. Scrambling Bf109's to intercept raiding RAF aircraft would be a nice feature but considering WoV main focus/theme it doen't seem that critical.... to me anyway.
cheers


PVI suggested that BOB WOV already had what I was looking for in my post. I couldn't disagree more.
Posted By: PV1

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: FULL readme! - 11/26/12 05:35 AM

You said:

"I'd like to see a day where one could run a 24/7 historical
Battle of Britain campaign in the background, where you could
choose to fly historically with another human wingman etc or
fly un-historically, randomly picking and choosing targets from
Bomber intercept, to low level jabo runs, where all airfields are
populated and there is always a chance these aircraft will scramble
against you if spotted."

All of that exists in BoB2. So then you add in a later post "mission builder",
"triggers", and scrambles from the LW. If you move the goalposts far enough
you can certainly evade BoB2's capabilities.
Posted By: Chivas

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: FULL readme! - 11/26/12 09:04 AM

Originally Posted By: PV1
You said:

"I'd like to see a day where one could run a 24/7 historical
Battle of Britain campaign in the background, where you could
choose to fly historically with another human wingman etc or
fly un-historically, randomly picking and choosing targets from
Bomber intercept, to low level jabo runs, where all airfields are
populated and there is always a chance these aircraft will scramble
against you if spotted."

All of that exists in BoB2. So then you add in a later post "mission builder",
"triggers", and scrambles from the LW. If you move the goalposts far enough
you can certainly evade BoB2's capabilities.



So your telling me that myself and another human pilot can take off together in Spits, fly across the channel, and we would find all the LW airfields populated with aircraft that would scramble to intercept us? When I last flew BOB WOV a couple of years ago they still couldn't get multiplayer to work, let alone populate all the airfields with AI aircraft. If what you say were true I'm surprised their forums are still very quite.
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: FULL readme! - 11/26/12 03:51 PM

So back to the OT again (sorry all smile ) here is the status:

We are giving the final version a good thrashing this week in beta testing. No big issues emerging, so we are on track for a December release.

Book some 'quality time' away from girlfriends, boyfiends, wives, children, cats, dogs and partners folks! If you like single player, we hope you will really enjoy this one.

Heinkill
Bolox
Gabuzomeu
EAF92_Splash
Slot
W1ndy


PS, I love the campaign in BOB2, still, for all its other flaws (incuding lack of online). And BTW 'Whirlybird' is me (just a name I used for no good reason except it seemed like a good idea at the time) and there is a basic mission builder I used to build a heap of missions including a Battle of France campaign, Sealion mini campaign etc, but the BOB2 mission builder never got out of beta, so can't be compared with the FMB in CoD.

The new BOB2 patch 2.12 is coming out soon (last couple of bugs being ironed out) and that will make the campaign game even more compelling because apart from more object and airfield and landscape updates to make it more historical, the Luftwaffe campaign has been given a real workover to give the LW player more data and control over raids than ever before.

Anyhoo I like both sims, for what they are...and I can live with what they are not!

H
Posted By: bisher

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: FULL readme! - 11/26/12 04:25 PM

Way to go gents

this could be a whole lotta fun
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: FULL readme! - 11/27/12 05:44 PM

We darn well hope so! If not, it won't be for the lack of hours the guys have put into it! Apart from translations (which will have to be a future ambition) I'm willing to bet many more hours of research and design have been put into this mod than were put into the original campaign!

H
Posted By: Bumfluff

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: FULL readme! - 11/27/12 09:51 PM

I say again HeinKill - 1c really owe you for this.

If they had any brains they'd open the bloody thing up for modding and let the community - which has now largely demonstrated itself to be responsible in this area - fix this mess.
Posted By: DaveP63

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: FULL readme! - 11/27/12 10:09 PM

I will definitely try it out. That's about the only reason it stays installed.
Posted By: PV1

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: FULL readme! - 11/28/12 08:43 AM

Originally Posted By: HeinKill
We darn well hope so! If not, it won't be for the lack of hours the guys have put into it! Apart from translations (which will have to be a future ambition) I'm willing to bet many more hours of research and design have been put into this mod than were put into the original campaign!

It certainly seems like it, which sure doesn't say much for the guys who
were getting paid to work full time on this for five years when three
hobbyists totally surpass them in six months of their spare time...
Posted By: csThor

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: FULL readme! - 11/28/12 02:10 PM

Originally Posted By: HeinKill
We darn well hope so! If not, it won't be for the lack of hours the guys have put into it! Apart from translations (which will have to be a future ambition) I'm willing to bet many more hours of research and design have been put into this mod than were put into the original campaign!


Now, now HeinKill. That isn't that hard, is it? wink

I mean, given what we can see in the original campaigns (very very little and nothing of it immersive) and the rather ludicrous "single missions" it should be obvious that both parts were bolted on as an afterthought 5 minutes before the final deadline.
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: FULL readme! - 11/28/12 03:50 PM

Sad but true.

Some screenies from the campaign, for a wintry Wednesday...













Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 11/30/12 09:05 PM



The RAF campaign REDUX

Mission design and storyline by Heinkill
Scripting by Bolox and Gabuzomeu
Beta testing by EAF92_Splash, Slot, and W1ndy.


Welcome 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.

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.

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.

The team behind the Redux campaign mod has thoroughly enjoyed working to bring this to you. We hope you enjoy using it, as much as we enjoyed building it.

Heinkill
Bolox
Gabuzomeu
EAF92_Splash
Slot
W1ndy


35MB download self installing .exe version here: https://www.box.com/s/qohp1pjtokf4s84a7kgc

or

ZIP file (also containing self installer) at Airwarfare website: http://airwarfare.com/sow/index.php/down...ed-raf-campaign
Posted By: RedToo

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 11/30/12 10:18 PM

Just flown the first mission - a nice start. thumbsup

Well done all.

RedToo.
Posted By: SlipBall

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 11/30/12 11:35 PM

Oooooooh this is gonna be fun, thanks gents!!
Posted By: bisher

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/01/12 12:56 AM

Cool. It will be nice to get back into this sim.

Good job. HeinKill and gentlermen for your effort I will drink 2 or 3 beer in your honor. Maybe four.
Posted By: theOden

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/01/12 07:27 AM

Originally Posted By: bisher
.. I will drink 2 or 3 beer in your honor. Maybe four.


biggrin
Posted By: Remon

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/01/12 10:07 AM

He, you got mentioned in RPS.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/11/30/the-flare-path-searching-for-the-seeds/
Posted By: SlipBall

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/01/12 12:46 PM

Originally Posted By: bisher
Cool. It will be nice to get back into this sim.

Good job. HeinKill and gentlermen for your effort I will drink 2 or 3 beer in your honor. Maybe four.



that explains your seat of your pants flying style, rock on brother!
Posted By: naz

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/01/12 03:49 PM

Congratulations and thanks guys... Will be downloading as soon as I can

S!
Posted By: ATAG_Snapper

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/01/12 04:30 PM

Originally Posted By: bisher
Cool. It will be nice to get back into this sim.

Good job. HeinKill and gentlermen for your effort I will drink 2 or 3 beer in your honor. Maybe four.


+1

Virtually all my Cliffs of Dover has been online the past year; offline only for testing purposes. I am very much looking forward to trying the Redux Campaign. thumbsup
Posted By: sharpe26

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/01/12 11:34 PM

Nice campaign, but I must be doing something wrong.

12 kills in 6 or 7 missions.
Posted By: W1ndy

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/02/12 02:19 AM

What I like about the campaign is that it requires kills, but there are other objectives too. There's plenty of quirky stuff going on, but at the same time you get a sense of being in that conflict, which is the one thing that was lacking in all the SP.


I finally "get" being involved in that conflict now with this campaign. It's fired me up for BoB WoV and RoF's channel map, but I'll probably just stay with CloD and try the German stock campaign, Wick/Dundas etc
Posted By: bisher

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/02/12 01:17 PM

I'm grounded. Dammit!!

The cable that connects the joystick to the throttle on my x52 is faulty.

So I sit in my cockpit in mission one and watch as the bombers fly overhead and strafe me! Buggers.
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/02/12 04:06 PM

I'd love to see how many kills you can get using autopilot to get airborne and then the arrow keys to bank and shoot...old school!

biggrin
Posted By: SlipBall

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/02/12 04:48 PM

He should of purchased my protective hemp cable jacket ahoy
Posted By: ATAG_Ribbs

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/02/12 06:05 PM

Hey bisher... if you have a spare joystick.. you can use it with your x52 throttle quadrant
Posted By: bisher

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/02/12 07:06 PM

Originally Posted By: SlipBall
He should of purchased my protective hemp cable jacket ahoy


Agreed. Hemp with it's unique qualities would be very applicable here. Though what do you think got me in trouble in the first place, plus the beer.

Originally Posted By: HeinKill
I'd love to see how many kills you can get using autopilot to get airborne and then the arrow keys to bank and shoot...old school!

biggrin


Hey that's a good idea smile


Originally Posted By: 352ndRibbs
Hey bisher... if you have a spare joystick.. you can use it with your x52 throttle quadrant


Darn it I leant my other FCS to my brother. I'd even tried my Ace Egde but there seemed to be a rudder/throttle conflict.
Posted By: bisher

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/02/12 07:08 PM

Originally Posted By: ATAG_Snapper
Originally Posted By: bisher
Cool. It will be nice to get back into this sim.

Good job. HeinKill and gentlermen for your effort I will drink 2 or 3 beer in your honor. Maybe four.


+1

Virtually all my Cliffs of Dover has been online the past year; offline only for testing purposes. I am very much looking forward to trying the Redux Campaign. thumbsup


Snapper! Good to see you

I hope to get on that ATAG server soon and see you there
Posted By: ATAG_Snapper

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/03/12 01:27 AM

Hey Bish! biggrin

Sometimes when scrolling through the Server's Netstats I'll see your name with a couple of online sorties under your belt. It'd be great to meet up on Teamspeak, hopefully you'd see your way clear to fly Red (RAF). I get an hour or so in most evenings. There's a good bunch on, very laid back but keen to help each other out. One of the fellows does amazing voice impressions. It's hilarious to be flying in company with Christopher Walken, Jack Nicholson, or Sean Connery. He's done stand up comedy in the recent past, so he's got the lines to go with the situation at hand -- funny stuff. burnout

See you soon!

Snapper
Posted By: Pooch

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/03/12 02:45 AM

"The United States aint in the war. Get lost!" Lol! That's more like the way it was. I absolutely hate the part of the movie, "Pearl Harbor" where Ben Affleck tells his girlfriend, "I'm going to England. The Air Corps is sending me to the Eagle Squadron."
Yeah, right! The U.S. Air Corps was sending its pilots off to a war that the country wasn't even part of! The government let it be known to everyone that anyone who went off to fight in a foriegn war would lose their citizenship. Of course, once the U.S. entered the arena, all those guys in the Eagle Squadron (it was a wing, really. 3 squadrons) were American citizens again. Very convenient, no? They became the 4th Fighter Group.
Just downloaded this and I'm looking forward to playing as a Yank. Thanks.
Posted By: Pooch

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/03/12 02:48 AM

By the way. Is there anyway we can get an Eagle Squadron campaign one day? Hopping across the Channel to attack instead of defending might be fun. Make the Jerries go running off to their planes for a change.
Posted By: Legend

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/03/12 02:50 AM

Downloaded it, now need to wait another 9 hours before I'm home.

Thanks, Heinkill! Look forward to playing it.
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/03/12 06:20 AM

Originally Posted By: Pooch
By the way. Is there anyway we can get an Eagle Squadron campaign one day? Hopping across the Channel to attack instead of defending might be fun. Make the Jerries go running off to their planes for a change.


Not an Eagle squadron, but...

http://bobgamehub.blogspot.dk/2012/05/1941-circuses-and-rhubarbs-for-cliffs.html
Posted By: Chivas

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/03/12 08:10 PM

Thanks Heinkill, I'm starting to enjoy combat flight sims again, now you have me staying up all hours in the night, fine tuning my Track IR, Hotas, engine management, flying, and shooting. I flew the first mission and shot down one Heinkill, and two 110's, and still had ammo left. I even found my home base, for some reason the map isn't coming up, it must be some realism setting, as the map comes up on other single missions. I have most aids turned off, icons etc, but I guess, now that I'm interested again, I will have to start reading the directions. wink
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/03/12 08:43 PM

Originally Posted By: Chivas
I flew the first mission and shot down one Heinkill...


Freudian slip? For future reference.

Heinkel



Heinkill



Glad to hear you are enjoying it! Credit goes to the whole crew.

cheers

PS the map thing is strange. If you enable it in Options, you can then hit M to bring it up, right click on it in game and deselect friendly and enemy icons etc to make it 'cheat free'

Alternatively you can get to the static map from the briefing during a mission with ESC>BRIEFING


Posted By: SlipBall

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/03/12 10:42 PM

chivas meant Heineken ahoy
Posted By: Chivas

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/04/12 12:20 AM

Not sure what I meant, I just finished a couple of shots of 151 Navy Rum, at my age its like a week of hard drinking. LMFAO
Posted By: Legend

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/04/12 02:11 AM

Played two missions yesterday, great fun! Although it seems AI gunnery is a bit off - normally their first bullet hits something vital on my plane, this time I was left unscathed on the first mission; the second mission my coolant supply was hit - even though I climbed at reduced power and turned towards the coast at 2 miles out my engine seized and I had to bail out.

Next I'll try to learn complex engine management. Any pointers for that?

Thanks Heinkill! cheers
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/04/12 06:46 AM

Hi Legend,

As you noted we toned down the AI gunnery during beta testing because the testing team felt it was too accurate at higher levels. But it is still going to ruin your day if you arent careful.

The challenge with that is that the AI gunnery skill level also determines bombing accuracy... But we worked around that.

H

PS if you got a kill and successfully ditch in the channel without killing yourself, you might be awarded mission success...give it a try instead of bailing out - if you dare!
Posted By: BD-123

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/04/12 11:00 AM

Thanks for this, Heinkill and team.
Due to your efforts and the latest patch, for the first time since release I have actually felt immersed in this sim. (I shelved it for some time after initial disappointments) 2 missions, 3 kills a probable and a few damaged.

I think 1c should recompense you for your efforts, which may have rescued this game from future obscurity.
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/04/12 11:54 AM

Thx on behalf of the team, for the kind words. People put a lot of work into this mod because our hope was that it would become the new 'default' RAF campaign for CoD. Our goals would be realised, if a new player comes to this forum and says 'Installed CoD, now what mods do I need?' and the answer includes '...and make sure you install the REDUX campaign for RAF'.

Maybe that's a bit ambitious, but hey, we gave it a try!

H
Posted By: DoolittleRaider

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/06/12 01:29 AM

Is there any way in any campaign, including this one, to apply authentic historical markings (i.e., Hakenkreuz) to Luftwaffe aircraft/skins? I have gotten a lot of 3rd party authentic skins, and i can select one of those for my own aircraft, but what about all the others?
Posted By: Legend

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/06/12 02:50 AM

The new campaign is really good and I hope to see more - maybe a German version as well? With leather boots.

Having said that, there seems to be a problem with the AI. As in, they're really acting stupid sometimes. Yesterday I returned home after frolicking with a gaggle of Heinkels when I suddenly was notified that we lost one of our own. I did not even have time to mourn or contemplate who had bought a farm, because in quick succession four more followed (incidentally, the price of farms went sky high as well). They had all crashed into the terrain while on approach to the flattest airfield in the long history of flat airfields.

Probably a bug from CloD itself - not from this campaign - but it still saddened me to see so many good friends - FCoM, FCoJ, FCoA and whatshisname - gone.
Posted By: csThor

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/06/12 06:48 AM

Originally Posted By: DoolittleRaider
Is there any way in any campaign, including this one, to apply authentic historical markings (i.e., Hakenkreuz) to Luftwaffe aircraft/skins? I have gotten a lot of 3rd party authentic skins, and i can select one of those for my own aircraft, but what about all the others?


Unlike 1946 CloD no longer offers the possibility to activate the swastika since it's not included anymore. Reason is a law in Russia about "national-socialist propaganda" (introduced a few years ago) which is unfortunately as clear as stirred mud and has caused 1C to remove any swastikas from any games then under development or in planning.

The only way around would be to assign custom skins to each and every aircraft in a mission.
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/06/12 08:35 AM

Originally Posted By: Legend
The new campaign is really good and I hope to see more - maybe a German version as well? With leather boots.

Having said that, there seems to be a problem with the AI. As in, they're really acting stupid sometimes. Yesterday I returned home after frolicking with a gaggle of Heinkels when I suddenly was notified that we lost one of our own. I did not even have time to mourn or contemplate who had bought a farm, because in quick succession four more followed (incidentally, the price of farms went sky high as well). They had all crashed into the terrain while on approach to the flattest airfield in the long history of flat airfields.

Probably a bug from CloD itself - not from this campaign - but it still saddened me to see so many good friends - FCoM, FCoJ, FCoA and whatshisname - gone.


Yes, the famous CloD landing bug, which 1C said they addressed in their final patch but as you have seen, they didn't.

I will add a note to the readme about it, but FWIW what I do to try and avoid it (you can only do this if you are flight leader) is to order the formation to take the widest spacing. This gives them a chance to pull up when you land.

H
Posted By: KRT_Bong

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/06/12 12:50 PM

Originally Posted By: bisher
I'm grounded. Dammit!!

The cable that connects the joystick to the throttle on my x52 is faulty.

So I sit in my cockpit in mission one and watch as the bombers fly overhead and strafe me! Buggers.


I think that's an S-video cable, might work if you can find one with the same connector at both ends.
Posted By: bisher

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/06/12 02:37 PM

Hey Bong. I tried an S cable but it unfortunately is not the same

Going to the saitek website next to see if they can help me out
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/07/12 07:41 AM

SPOILER ALERT

A couple of AARs from the first missions of the campaign. If you haven't played through these yet, of course these will give away some (not all...) events.

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3691599/Six_weeks_REDUX_Mission_2.html#Post3691599



Posted By: W1ndy

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/07/12 08:48 AM

The ground activity is great in this campaign. I remember taking off one time and there were ambulances racing around by the side of the airstrip.

Why, because we were being bombed and they were needed.

There's plenty of quirky stuff.
Posted By: BD-123

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/07/12 10:18 AM

Yes I was forced to notice the ambulances when I ran into one on landing.
Great campaign though, especially the 'Stuka party' in the second mission! Got 4 and killed a few gunners too.
Posted By: Georgio

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/07/12 01:19 PM

After making a pact with myself never to bother with CLoD again, I might have to try your Campaign HeinKill; I need something to wash away the bad taste of broken promises...
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/07/12 04:26 PM

If that is the worst pact you break in this life, you will still go to heaven friend!
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/10/12 08:58 PM

New AAR added.

Mission 3: The Shame

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3696436.html#Post3696436

Posted By: W1ndy

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/11/12 07:43 PM

This AAR reminds me how great it is to fly CloD , and just when the merge has been announced. I do like flying in the CloD skies, with the great FMs.

Superb visuals Hienkill
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/14/12 07:03 PM

Tried my first landing on water in a Hurri...let's just say, Hurricanes are nose heavy...

AAR here

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3698775/Re_Six_weeks_REDUX_Mission_3_S.html#Post3698775

Posted By: Borsch

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/28/12 05:16 AM

I notice that your last AAR is set in the evening, I'm up to the flying the trophy 110 mission and every single one has been set late morning-early noon (when CLoD looks its worst). Could it be a bug, or bad install?

Many thanks for the great campaign!
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/28/12 08:07 AM

I agree with you about the lighting.

We did make a few compromises though because we didn't want the player to have the experience of flying to a waypoint or vector and not being able to see the target(s).

You will see a lot of the missions take place over the channel. That was so that we can keep the number of aircraft and fps higher.

We found that target identification against the ground or sea is very difficult in low light and on a couple of the dawn/dusk missions our beta testers asked for changes. So yes, you will see most, but not all, missions do take place in strong light.

That one, perhaps we did change after I made the AAR, can't remember!
Posted By: Borsch

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 12/28/12 04:36 PM

Thanks for the answer!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! smile
Posted By: Katsai

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 01/04/13 12:35 AM

Redux is BRILLIANT. Thanks and thanks again to all those involved.
Clod is finally playable, if only it was continuing, and Redux makes it immersive

I have told all those in the group I fly with to try it :-)
Posted By: HeinKill

Re: Modded stock RAF campaign: NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD - 01/04/13 06:41 AM

Thx for the kind words. I set out just trying to rewrite the naff story, but then had to fix all the mission glitches, then Bolox and Gab hopped on board with their scripting genius and then w1ndy, slot and splash chipped in with beta testing so it was a great team effort.

For those who would like a preview (warning, this of course contains plot spoilers) the latest AARs are here:

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3709949/Re_Six_weeks_REDUX_Mission_3_F#Post3709949

H
Posted By: calvindmah

Re: REDUX, modded stock RAF campaign: Mission 5/6/7 AARs now up. - 04/12/16 08:17 PM

Hi there.

I can't seem to get the download for the BOB redux for TF. The Airwarfare link shows the download as not available (unless you have to be registered - couldn't find where to register) and the box.com link wouldn't download.

Are there any other places where the mod is hosted?

Thanks for your help.

Cheers! Calvin
Posted By: Sokol1

Re: REDUX, modded stock RAF campaign: Mission 5/6/7 AARs now up. - 04/12/16 08:49 PM

Files hosted in Airwarfare no longer exist...

Look at ATAG forum if the author upload files for there.
Posted By: SlipBall

Re: REDUX, modded stock RAF campaign: Mission 5/6/7 AARs now up. - 04/12/16 08:55 PM

too bad so many files were lost over there
Posted By: calvindmah

Re: REDUX, modded stock RAF campaign: Mission 5/6/7 AARs now up. - 04/13/16 01:26 AM

Thanks Sokol1. Found it: http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17874

Cheers! Calvin
© 2024 SimHQ Forums