DD_Fenrir

Negative Dave. I can only generate a mission based on those who actually show up and say "I'm in" that evening for 2 reasons: 1. Let's say I run a check-in prior and DangerDog "X"puts his hat in the ring. We all show up but "X" doesn't. We run the mission anyway. In this case "X"s pilot persona and plane get controlled by the AI. If "X" has a lengthy career and several promotions and the AI does something stupid and get's itself deaded, then DangerDog "X"'s pilot persona is gone, along with his score and any medals or promotions accrued. Dangerdog "X" is unhappy. Fenrir get's grief from Dangerdog "X". Fenrir is unhappy. I don't want to be unhappy! 2. There are no detailed information plans/layouts/photo's of the target area, only a general description of the target type, i.e. "railroad targets", "transportation targets", "vehicle column", "front line position", etc. Pretty much as per reality; these guys rarely received the level of target intelligence you are hinting at. They very infrequently got talk on from a forward ground observer but this was the exception rather than the rule, and, particularly during the Battle of the Bulge when front line positions could not be guaranteed, they would often be obliged to descend and do a low level pass to attempt to visually ID the potential target as friendly or enemy before engaging - with all the exposure to enemy flak gunners that entailed. Ergo, it is up to Squadron and flight leaders upon reaching the target to attempt to establish the format of the target and any AAA protection it may have visually and assign what forces they have accordingly.

Thank you to all who attended the test run of the campaign again last night. I am glad to say that all appears functional, we had good to steady performance throughout and not only did (almost!) all of the air kills log successfully (sorry Painless!) but so too did the other events. So to summarise: WE ARE GO FOR THE P-38 CO-OP CAMPAIGN!!!! I will reset the campaign so any scores/deaths accrued from last nights test will be lost but I think a clean sheet start for all is the best way to start. I will also be starting a new thread to officially announce the start of the campaign proper, with a break down of who is assigned to which squadron and all other relevant information and skin links in one cohesive place. I will use this thread to share screenshots of the PWCG interface showing our progress and scores as we proceed. I will be running the campaign on alternate Sundays and Tuesdays to give all the Dogz GBSers a chance to partake, but also to allow for an evening of uninterrupted (ahem!) quick (double ahem!) co-ops every two weeks to keep those parties uninterested in the campaign placated. I propose a campaign start hour of 2130 BST (2030 UCT) - to allow for some D/F and Co-op warm-up prior. This would be a hard cut-off point as I must know confirmed participation prior to generating the mission, else you don't get an aeroplane. The mission should last an hour so ideally we'd be out at 2230 BST (2130 UCT) but with the brief/debrief and other unexpected issues that arise perhaps 2300 on a bad night. That sound ok?

The Good News 485th Skins by Jaegermeister can be found here: https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/61698-scripted-campaign-lightning-strikes-discussion/ Version 8.8.1 of PWCG has reportedly addressed the issue of air to air victories not being logged. The Bad News I can't host ANY Coop missions. Every time I try to Create Server in the Multiplayer Coop menu, either using a PWCG or one of the SYN missions as generated by FT, it starts to load but after 20-30 seconds it fails and drops me back to the Multiplayer menu. *EDIT* - Correction: I CAN NOW HOST! NO BAD NEWS!!!!

Muchos Gracias FT!

Generic skins for all available squadrons, here: I have made the 401st and 485th Squadron skins myself; for now you guys have just a Natural Metal version. Will get to Olive Drab variants of these at a later date. You will need all of these, not just those of your squadron.

Alas it did not Crash. Couple of settings I need to change - currently the maximum injury a co-op pilot can receive is "serious injury" so despite lawn darting PWCG claims you survived, albeit in a pretty poor state. I know where to address this and will change so that should the worst happen to your virtual pilot, it will be reflected accordingly in PWCG and a new personae required to be adopted. As for the claims - it all appeared to be going well, better than the previous attempts as I was able to assign the appropriate type kills to those who claimed this time. However, whilst all air-to-ground kills were logged successfully all of our air-to-air claims were denied by PWCG! I suspect this is a procedural error on my part and there a questions regarding when the mission log files are created, finalised, referenced by PWCG and whether they get deleted as soon as my server rotates to the next mission. I'm investigating. I flew another test mission after as a solo human with a few AIs, changing the way I went about the logging procedure mission finish and it seemed happier. Another test required with more multiplayer participants! I have reset the campaign and all participant details, so no deaths or scores were carried over from last night. On a plus note my new 401st FS to allow for Thor, Hunter, Ovy and TOADs participation has seemed to have taken this time around and at the airfield adjacent Micks 485th Airfield at Le Culot, so some positives from doing this.

Christ on a bike mate, I nearly shat myself just watching the play back!

Picked up this hefty tome, arrived Thursday: https://www.amazon.co.uk/370TH-FIGHTER-GROUP-WORLD-WAR/dp/0764317792 Some seriously eye opening stuff regards tactical fighter bomber operations in the ETO. The losses are sobering yet there are also stories of incredible bravery, downright recklessness and stories of monumental luck, both good and bad. One little gem of note that was of particular interest to me was the discovery of the radio callsigns for our respective campaign squadrons: 402 - "Leakage" 485 - "Zenith" Think you got the better deal on that one Mick!

Hello Dave, saw this and updated earlier. Ran a test mission for myself and an AI and all was well. AAR pushed through cleanly and went to next day, so looking positive. Will try a multiplayer test tomorrow eve.

This chap flew with 401st Squadron:

Some interesting footage from the real P-38s of the 370th FG:

4mm Arthur. Had a few of my very own stud of locos and stock grace the metals of this magnificent layout!

This is the train se... I mean model railway, that I used to play wi... I mean operate regularly:

'Cruise' is something of a misnomer here - and not Siddly's fault either I should add. The fact is it is better to generally interpret WW2 engines to have these discrete power bands: War Emergency Power - Max everything! Generally a very tight limit of time use. In the P-38J this is 3,000 RPM and 60" with a 5 minute limit Combat - a sustained high power output that even in best circumstances generates more heat than the cooling system will be able to dissipate but has been calculated to provide sufficient for typical time periods of combat. In the P-38J this is 3,000 RPM and 54" with a 15 minute limit Max Continuous - the maximal power that you can run the engines at for indefinitely - or as long as you have fuel. In the P-38J this is 2,700 RPM and 46" with no time limit Cruise - a power setting reduced from the above that combines the best compromise between fuel consumption and airspeed. In the P-38J this is around 2,200-2,400 RPM and 35" with no time limit Economy Cruise - a power setting much reduced that priorities fuel economy above all other considerations. In the P-38J this is around 1,800-2,000 RPM and 30" with no time limit The setting Sid quotes of 2,600 @ 44" is more a maximum continuous setting (As an aside you will find you can actually run the P-38 at 2,700 and 46" and not break into combat power, hence the figures I give you above). Now, as single players (non-fomating) that's fine you can cruise at that setting as long as you like. No one to follow, no-one following you. Easy! However, as a flight lead or formation pilot, if you stayed at that no bugger could catch you unless they went to Combat Power. And then, when you eventually did find some trouble, all your wingmen would be buggering off with damaged engines because those time limits are hard in GBS. What this means is, if you use your engine in Combat mode for 14 minutes catching up to your leader, even if you throttle back, you do not get any recovery on that engine. You will therefore have only 1 whole minute using it in actual combat before you suffer some engine damage and are forced to withdraw. Leaders, when cruising to or from target in flight you MUST avoid going to full cruise mode - you NEED to give your wingmen some RPM and Throttle "headroom" to make adjustments without having to resort to combat power. Wingmen, avoid going into Combat Power to catch your leaders at all costs. Use Max Continuous (2,700RPM @46") at the most.

How strange Sid... will check out the settings my end, but can't think of anything that would or even could cause this...

As a rule I orbit the field at much reduced power settings - 2700 RPM, 35-40" Manifold Pressure - in a VERY gentle left hand turn to assist with forming up; this does however rely on those joining to cut the corner properly to rejoin - and I mean properly! You chaps joining up need to put your leader at your 2 to half-past 2 o'clock, not stick your gun-sight on him and try and overhaul him! Otherwise all that happens is you end up with an extended conga line merry-go rounding home base for 20 minutes! Done effectively and with people getting off the ground in good order this can be done in a maximum of two orbits. This should allow everyone to get into a reasonable group before setting off to mission. I agree with Sid on the Whispers. Have the Squadron Leaders certainly but perhaps have the Flight Commanders too for redundancy in case the CO's buy the farm! If they both go down then the individual squadron members just have to do the best they can and/or scoot home.

Thanks all who joined in the stress test last night. Both a success and... not so much! For reasons as yet unclear none of the events last night logged - so whilst I was able to generate the next day's mission, no kills or deaths actually were recorded. I have a feeling I know what caused this but need to run another test. Noted issues 1. Need to increase the idle kick timeout - well done to all for managing to dodge this issue without ground collisions last night! 2. Radio saturation - probably best to segregate the squadrons to separate channels 3.Skins - 402nd squadron: http://www.mediafire.com/file/n8pc4a0ggyon99g/P38J25_402nd_Gen.zip/file http://www.mediafire.com/file/z15z4hnirnp7wrf/P38J25_402nd_E6_T.zip/file 485th squadron: http://www.mediafire.com/file/2am3npm7ftbszm5/P38J25_MY_LITTLE_PIG_V2.dds/file and the official skins: "Les Vin, Les Femmes, et Les Chansons" "San Dot" With a lot more coming soon: https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/56052-370th-p-38-skins/ 4. Icon mods for those who asked: http://dangerdogz.com/forums/topic/13451-gbs-icon-mod/ http://dangerdogz.com/forums/topic/13517-mod-that-removes-all-aircraft-on-maps-except-own/

Object Icons on, map icon on. Engines pre-warmed. No hud instrument except compass is how I have been running them thus far but open to conversation Dave.

Alas, Crash, no such functionality exists in PWCG.