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Cliffs-Blitz: Spitfire Girl, where are you???

Posted By: 33lima

Cliffs-Blitz: Spitfire Girl, where are you??? - 05/05/19 09:42 PM

Idle (non-Polish) chit-chat on the RAF Redux campaign Radio Telephone in a recent mission had led me to expect an early encounter with the silliest thing in CloD, the girl you apparently take for an 'air experience flight (!) in your Spitfire. However, instead I got a strange visual recce flight to Calais (accompanied by even stranger R/T chit-chat about another silly sub-plot). As reported in a previous AAR.

Ok....it'll be the next mission, then, that will finally get Spitfire Girl out of the way. So that we can finally get on with flying some serious missions. Missions that bear at least some resemblance to the real Battle of Britain. Right?

WRONG!

The next mission's briefing recounts we 602 Squadron pilots witnessing a battle-damaged Messerschmitt 110 coming in to land at our coastal airfield at Manston. Nothing weird about that. I've just finished reading 249 Squadron pilot Tom Neil's Battle of Britain memoir 'Gun Button to Fire' and he recounts how, in November 1940, they escorted back to Manston a damaged 109 whose pilot had decided to do just that. Only to be shot down and killed in a hasty attack by an inexperienced pilot whom Neil says he would gladly have killed himself had he been able to pick him out!

The weird bit is actually that - apparently because it is suddenly revealed that 'you understand German' - my pilot is detailed to fly the apparently quickly-reparired 110 to North Weald at once, for further evaluation. With no escort. Without the markings being overpainted. 'Everybody' en route has apparently been warned not to kill me, though. So that's all right, then.

Suddenly, Spitfire Girl doesn't seem quite so silly.

Here I am, ready to go. The Hun pilot must have had a Knight's Cross (not uncommon in CloD?) around his neck, for it now adorns mine. As it happens, I have a gunner with me, and as it further happens, he's wearing a Knight's Cross, too.

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Here I am, taking off.

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Here I am, having taken off.

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And here I am, climbing out.

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Bored yet? In which case, I suggest reading no further because this is as exciting is it gets. You might just want to look at the pictures from here on, if only so that visiting this thread hasn't been a complete waste of your time.

Here I am (I did warn you!) crossing the Thames Estuary with dusk closing in. I'm staying low because I think this is the mission they warn you about in the intro to the RAF Redux campaign - where you have to kill some of your own side. Undoubtedly, because somebody, somewhere will cross my path and decide I'm exactly what I look like, a Hun who needs to be shot down.

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But the only excitement comes when I notice my exhausts seem to be emitting rather a lot of burning fuel and my machine has started to shudder and lose power. Having not a clue on how to fly CloD's 110s, I try to troubleshoot the problem with no success. And then let the autopilot take over, at which point all is well again. My auto-self climbs back up though, where I feel even more certain that something bad will happen.

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But no, it doesn't. The worst that happens is that, when I request permission to land (in faintly-audible GERMAN!), I am denied (in faintly audible GERMAN!).

Here I am coming in to land, regardless. Manually, because the autopilot tried to force me to make a circuit and I can't be bothered.

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And here I am, having landed (at which point one of my engines cuts out, the unknown ailment having returned, but just too late to kill me).

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Now, wasn't that exciting?

After the non-appearance of the invisible Hun fighters the boss announced seeing taking off from Calais Marck during our recce mission, I'm thinking the RAF Redux campaign has been damaged by a later update. Such that required planes are not spawning or required triggers are not firing. Still, if they had spawned or triggered, that would only have meant the missions are merely weird, instead of weird AND uneventful.

So Spitfire Girl's next, right?

WRONG.

We are to escort Blenheim bombers on a raid to destroy 'that...thing' we saw at Calais - a radar set, or maybe a transmitter for the Knickebein or X Gerat navigation and blind bombing systems. I hope at least the Blenheims show up, and that we achieve the mission objective, so that I can get back to nice, sensible missions. Like giving Spitfire Girl a joyride.


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Posted By: rollnloop.

Re: Cliffs-Blitz: Spitfire Girl, where are you??? - 05/05/19 10:38 PM

Roflmao, I couldn't ever convince myself to try this broken sim in solo (had some fun in multi 3 years ago though), your reports are surely saving me a lot of time, and providing multiple chuckles. Please keep at it cheers
Posted By: 33lima

Re: Cliffs-Blitz: Spitfire Girl, where are you??? - 05/05/19 10:41 PM

PS I think what has happened here is that for some reason, my RAF campaign has reverted to the stock one, without losing the progress from the Redux one - if that's possible. The Blenheim escort mission briefing makes references to the old 'Fat Cats' squadron plot of the stock campaign, for one thing. And the briefing reads more like the style of the stock campaign. How that happened - if it is what happened - I'm not sure - maybe a Steam update over-wrote it or something, or perhaps using Steam to move CloD from an HDD to an SSD to kill the sound stutter, reset things, I dunno, All very frustrating. I'll probably re-install the Redux campaign and start afresh if progress isn't saved.

Will it get any better? Can it get any worse? We shall see...

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LOOK! HE's got a Knight's Cross, too! They've all got them???!!!

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Posted By: Sokol1

Re: Cliffs-Blitz: Spitfire Girl, where are you??? - 05/07/19 01:46 PM

Originally Posted by 33lima

But no, it doesn't. The worst that happens is that, when I request permission to land (in faintly-audible GERMAN!), I am denied (in faintly audible GERMAN!).


Old bug since the 1st/2nd patch after CloD (disastrous) release (in what none of radio commands work).
I find - by chance, that game logic for the answer for take-off and landing request are inverted.
In a situation in what are a Blenheim in runway and in another in what are debris of crashed plane in runway, the "controller" give permission to land. confused

I have informed this some times... but after all "who cares about CloD Single Player"? blush biggrin

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After the non-appearance of the invisible Hun fighters the boss announced seeing taking off from Calais Marck during our recce mission, I'm thinking the RAF Redux campaign has been damaged by a later update. Such that required planes are not spawning or required triggers are not firing. Still, if they had spawned or triggered, that would only have meant the missions are merely weird, instead of weird AND uneventful.


No, the mission is OK, are two Hurricanes that may find you over Thames estuary - but if you fly in the pre-determined course, speed and altitude in what mission was designed, since the briefing don't tell player what is their flight plan, only in he leave autopilot fly all mission the intercept may happens, or have a very bad luck to be in the wrong place in wrong moment. A combination of game limitations with mission maker lack of inspiration.

Anyway you have luck in fly this mission in REDUX, because in the original mission (default Lw campaign), the mission maker forget that Manston AAA will shot at any "blue" that appear in their range - even on ground, without questions, resulting in a very little possibility of player take-off. In REDUX was set a big delay in AAA, so when "wake-up" the Bf 110 probable are far away.

"It's Clod!". wink

Posted By: 33lima

Re: Cliffs-Blitz: Spitfire Girl, where are you??? - 05/08/19 07:51 PM

Thanks Sokol - so, it could have been worse.

Before reading your post I had inadvertently done something which lost my control settings and my campaign progress so have re-started RAF Redux from scratch. If I can grit my teeth at the jaggy distant aircraft, the unrealistic and/or small scale missions, and sundry and various other irritations - well, the better missions, and even the air fights in the worse ones, can be very enjoyable. For example, I really like the first mission against the low-level raiders...

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Also in the 'better' category is the convoy defence mission...

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Later, cutting off the retreating Heinkels I found a bit of an unconvincing premise despite the improved briefing, but the air fight was engaging. And the CloD AI, as tweaked by the Redux mission builders, taught me a lesson for underestimating the enemy, when I went for one of the escorting 109s and ignored his wingman, relying on the manoeuvres of the chase alone to keep me out of trouble. Which went fine, until there were tracers flying over my canopy. A wingtip was shot off and my pilot fatally wounded shortly after this picture was taken...

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Posted By: Blade_Meister

Re: Cliffs-Blitz: Spitfire Girl, where are you??? - 05/21/19 02:11 AM

Originally Posted by 33lima


LOOK! HE's got a Knight's Cross, too! They've all got them???!!!





Welllll DDDUUUUHHHHHH! Their German! rolleyes Of Course They All Have





Them. Hitler used to throw them out like beads at Mardi Gras when





he reviewed the Luftwaffe Pilots.
winkngrin




S!Blade<><


Posted By: 33lima

Re: Cliffs-Blitz: Spitfire Girl, where are you??? - 05/21/19 08:22 PM

Well, those Big, Bad, Over-decorated Huns don't scare ME!

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Well, hardly ever...

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Posted By: Blade_Meister

Re: Cliffs-Blitz: Spitfire Girl, where are you??? - 05/23/19 01:42 AM

biggrin

S!Blade<><
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