Walkthrough on how to play PWCG

[Bando]

I noticed some people have trouble to get the most out of PWCG.

Do not give up on this great piece of software.

It's totally worth the frustration if you cannot get it to work right away.

 

I'm no PC nerd, but I'll try to explain what to do to get it running and what PWCG is;

 

First of all, download the latest file at Patrick Wilson's website:

http://www.pwcampaignmanager.com/pwcgbos/web/PWCGBoS.html

 

Once you have downloaded the software, make sure it copies tot he right place.

In this picture I copy the content from the zip file (right window) to the root folder of the sim in the left window (in my case: D:\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad).

 

 

Once the files are in the right place, start the program by entering the Boscampaign folder and double clicking PWCGBos.exe as shown here:

 

 

In PWCG, once started, you can choose the planes you have as well as some general options for the program. Choosing planes is pretty straightforward (and must be done the first time you open the program) and the options are for you to play with later, it does not matter too much right now.

Create a new campaign (on the right side) and select it.

You are now in this screen:

 

 

Select mission. You are presented with a mission by the program. You can accept the mission, or, if you want some other mission scrub it and start the process over. 

 

 

Once you accepted a mission it is written by the program to the mission folder of IL2-Bos.

 

Now start the sim itself.

 

Once started you go to missions and accept the mission you created with PWCG:

 

 

Fly the mission to the best of your abilities and try to remember what planes you shoot down.

Once the mission is over I always go tot he main sceen of the sim (the start screen) and ALT-TAB from there, as this gives me no fuzz (ALT-TAB used to give me troubles sometimes when I did it in the sim itself).

Go back to PWCG and click on Combat report:

 

 

You’ll be taken tot he debrief screen where you can claim your victories:

 

 

Then click on Submit report and you’ll be presented by the debriefing screen:

 

 

Click on start debrief to view what happened in this mission.

Debrief completed will close this window and will take you tot he narrative screen where the final verdict of the mission is called (in this case a denied target).

You can also wright the story of this mission down in the narrative section for later reviews.

 

 

If you click on finished reading, you’ll be taken back tot he squadron page where it all started and you can start the whole process again for a new mission.

I realise there’s much more to PWCG in all sorts of options, but this should get all the people not familiar with PWCG started at least.

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

[PatrickAWlson]

Nice description.  Appreciate it.  Being able to write software and writing technical documentation are very different skill set, and I certainly do one better than the other.  Nice to have somebody pick up one's slack.

[Blitzen]

Thanks I think I see where I've been going wrong;hitting the .jar function to start the utility instead of the exe.I'll see if I don't have more luck the next time.Thanks!

[Bando]

You're both welcome  :-)

[Willy__]

Nice post! Just a tiny little thing that you forgot to add, which is VERY VERY important: the combat logs must be enabled inside bos config files, as said on the pwcg readme: 

 

5. Make sure that mission logging is enabled:

- Open ...\Battle of Stalingrad\data\Startup.cfg

- Find mission_text_log 

- Set mission_text_log  = 1

[Bando]

You're absolutely right Istruba, thanks.

 

It is crucial the logs are enabled, or the program cannot present you a debrief.

 

In the left window the folder to open the file, to the right the file opened.

Default is set to 0, so change that to 1:

 

 

 

[Yankee_One]

Thanks Bando for your constructive help!

 

This is very welcome for me.

 

S!