Tactical Air War

[FTC_Prancing]

Event based TAW, think about it, 2 sessions, 1 EU 1 US, easier to balance, easier to get the missions organized for squadrons

[Chivas_Regal]

27 minutes ago, =FSG=FRITZ said:

But let's talk

What is there to talk about?

There are more blue pilots in this campaign than red ones, that's obvious. But this circumstance does not prevent us from playing

[kafa131]

 =FSG=FRITZ  Be a man.

[=FSG=FRITZ]

Ha-ha-ha

 

[Giovanni_Giorgio]

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

[Jason_Williams]

Locked until further notice. Way too many complaints about this thread.

 

Jason

[MisterSmith]

On 2/10/2022 at 1:36 AM, JG4_Matthias said:

Für alle Piloten, die letzte Nacht die Panzer in Ryabinki angegriffen oder verteidigt haben, es war ein schöner Kampf. das ist Luftkrieg, das ist Taw.

 

English in the English forums please.

 

Translation:

 

For all the pilots who attacked or defended the tanks in Ryabinki last night, it was a nice fight. this is air warfare, this is Taw.

 

**********************************************************************************************************************************

 

I have re-opened the thread after quite a bit of cleanup. Accusations of cheating are ban-able and the squabbling/personal stuff is done or the thread will be locked permanently. 

 

You have been warned.

 

Smith

[Norz]

Just to note again - perfect campaign last one, do you have already plans for a next round (Mar 2022 or later?)?

Edited February 24, 2022 by Norz

[=/Hospiz/=MetalHead]

On 2/24/2022 at 1:49 PM, Norz said:

Just to note again - perfect campaign last one, do you have already plans for a next round (Mar 2022 or later?)?

It was planned to start very soon, but due to unfolding of events in the Ukraine, we made a decision to delay it for time being. World situation is a hot topic now and we would like to avoid political clashes on the forum, discord or in game during the campaign. Hopefully things will calm down soon and another TAW will follow.

We will work on the server and gameplay improvements in the meanwhile.

[MisterSmith]

Against my better judgement, I am opening this thread again at the request of =LG/F=Kathlon. It took a ridiculous amount of cleanup to be presentable again.

 

Make no mistake, however, this thread has been locked before and been a major source of headaches for multiple moderators. This is a last chance situation. If it goes off the rails again, it will be closed permanently. Please handle yourselves accordingly.

 

Smith

[SCG_Syn]

Where is the new TAW Website, or is it even up yet?

[FeuerFliegen]

Any plans for a new TAW campaign?  It's been a long time!

[E69_Falke_Wolf]

7 hours ago, SCG_FeuerFliegen said:

Any plans for a new TAW campaign?  It's been a long time!

TAW will star next week probably.

All available information is on TAW Discord.

[=LG/F=Kathon]

Hello and welcome back  It was a long break but eventually we managed to rent, install and configure almost everything needed on the new server.

Thus new western TAW campaign starts on Friday 23.09.22 at about 16:00 UTC. 

 

General changes:

• During registration on tacticalairwar.com you have to provide the password from the last campaign. It's because last time someone created many, many accounts and players were unable to create it for themselves. If you don't remember the password don't worry and just spawn on the airfield when campaign starts and you should get short, temporary password for your account on the chat. Use it to register your pilot. If you've changed pilot's name or haven't flown before forget about it and register normally.
• There is only one (new bigger) Rhineland map. The plane set and offensives/counter-offensives missions changes during this one map depending on date. The campaign last 180 missions or ends earlier if one side exceeds the limits (aircraft or pilots or tanks).
• There are new types of airfields. Sometimes you need to capture one or more nearby cities to make it open for your side. If it's grey it doesn't belong to any side (no one captured all needed cities). To close enemy airfield you have to destroy buildings, fuel etc. Trucks and parked aircraft doesn't count to the destruction (they count as lost enemy trucks and aircraft and give ground kill for the pilots)
• New depots: three bigger for Axis and five smaller for Allies. There is no warehouse target anymore but new depots increase slowly lost limits every four missions. The more enemy depots are damaged the slower limits are increased. Depots also have impact on defense strength, tanks/supply convoy length, supply ratio etc as before.
• New train station targets. There are much bigger stations on the west with many, many trains and wagons. Empty wagons doesn't count (no GK).
• New winning points system. Check Statistic/Score on the website for more info. Destroying enemy depots is more important now.
• Tank convoy closes enemy airfield if is closer than 40km from it. (and 25km from border airfields)
• Supply transport sortie is available between airfields that are separated more than 30km from each other. You will get info on the chat with available destination airfields after spawning.

And one more thing: the new server costs 100 euros per month. We will be able to continue the work on new Normady map and develop the western TAW campaign if we collect at least 100e every month. By donating you just support the TAW server you fly on. I hope it will run as long as possible.  Thank you for your support!

 

Registration is open.

 

Good luck  

 

P.S. We are still working on SSL on the website and other things..... In case of website problems connect with https://217.79.189.12

Edited September 23, 2022 by =LG/F=Kathon

[Coldman]

Western TAW ofc. Kathon is god of coding but he dont recognize world directions  ???

[=/Hospiz/=MetalHead]

Okay, some more explanation about new changes:

1. Airfield/City separation
We split airfield-cities into two separate entities. Each of these new entities inherited some features from the old "City-Fields".  This seems like a cosmetic change at first but it was a crucial one for future changes. It will allow us to move forward and expand with new ideas. Since everything in TAW revolved around these nodes it took a long amount of time (especially for Kathon) and it required creating a new Rheinland map (Eastern Front maps will have to be remade too).

So how it works now?
There are "Cities", that serve as 'nodes', can be captured by tanks, spawn defense positions when attacked etc. They basically took over all the features relevant for ground warfare. On the map found in game, these are marked as a red/blue box around the city. Webpage map has a dedicated "city block" icon to mark them.



Example: A City (Enschede) and a nearby airfield of Twente.

"Airfields" serve solely as airfields now. In that regard nothing changed - you take an aircraft, spawn and fly. The only difference is that they are not identical now. Some of them may be fighter only or bomber only. Some might have both stands. Bomber bases are not that frequent now, and usually placed in the rear.
 
What has changed, is their capture system. In order to capture an airfield, team has to control nearby cities, linked to that airfield. It is not 1:1 system - an airfield may be connected to several cities and vice versa. There are also some gray airfields on the map as well - these are airfields that are not in operation at the moment. Either they are contested and neither team controls all required cities, or these are dedicated for one team only - if the frontline moves, some airfields may be abandoned (turn gray) instead of being captured, while previously unoccupied airfields may become operational.

 

Example: These airfields will turn into operational once terrain around is captured.

Airfields and Cities are listed separately on the webpage. Depots are listed in the "Cities" column as well. Only frontline cities and airfields (only valid targets for current mission) are displayed there to reduce size of these lists.

Such split affected almost every other TAW feature. For example supply mechanics now have to handle two entities (Cities and Airfields)
Supply level is not introduced in towns yet (it will be in the future - major rework of supply features is planned anyways), however, supply columns move towards cities and resupply the defense as before. A city can however spare up to 30% of that supply to aid nearby airfield if needed.

One victim that fell to the rework are the paratroopers. Since Airfields cannot be directly captured, Paratroopers require to be redesigned in a way that makes sense (something different than capturing cities - 60 guys with rifles capturing entrenched town? c'mon!)
This feature will of course return, properly implemented in future editions (maybe with flyable C-47, who knows?).

2. Reworked BIG Rheinland map

New map is much bigger and spans over entire terrain available in game. It has brand new, dedicated airfields, depots, defenses and train stations. We hope you will enjoy extra immersion from having these dedicated targets. Especially the new depots, these are massive. There are eight of them! Along with 24 cities (so 72 unique defense positions) and 34 airfields. A lot of work went into these.

Moreover, we are done with fighting the same map over and over several times. Previous campaigns tested several required features and from now on, each "map" will be a much bigger event. A long fight across entire available terrain. For now it means TAW is a single map event (when Normandy map will arrive it will be two maps per campaign, three for the Eastern Front once it's reworked in similiar fashion). 

Planeset is untied from the map as a result. Instead it follows periods/dates - it changes over time. Same goes for the "offensives" introduced few seasons ago. Instead of having each operation as a separate map and then doing a reset to default with each new map, there is a continuity. Offensives happen as "events" during the single, lasting maps. One side tries to push for some time, then there is a pause, where both teams are tied and spawn attacks more or less evenly and then another offensive starts. 

Think of it as playing several "old maps" in succession, but with each one starting exactly where the previous one ended - it works in similar fashion. What's more interesting is the resource (airfields/pilots/tanks) factor, but we'll get to that a little later.

Spreadsheet with details is presented below.


As you can see, Allied Offensives are more frequent. They start the map with much less terrain however and must use these additional offensives as an opportunity to level that out. In the end victory will be determined by several factors, not only amount of captured cities on the map.

In general this is a prime example of where TAW is going. We are abandoning the mirrored conditions more and more. Such artificial balance never seemed to work sufficiently. Both teams have different tools (aircraft) and have different doctrine/playstyle. We plan to slowly create environment that is asymmetric and allows both teams to play to their strengths.

3. New Depots

First thing about them is their scale. They are much larger now, with many more destructible objects. Their repair rate is reduced accordingly, so while razing them down is time consuming, effects are more permanent.

Second thing is their design. Each one is unique. Some are smaller, other are larger. Some resemble makeshift supply depots, other industrial hubs. There's even one massive seaport! That difference is accordingly addressed in map design. Allies have 5 depots and Axis has 3. The total amount of targets among all depots per side is close to being even. From the gameplay features logic, global damage to all depots combined is what matters.

Third and probably the most important thing about them is their new feature of war material production. Depots replace Warehouses as resource replenishment. As you could expect, merging the Rheinland maps into one longer struggle, required increasing of aircraft/pilot/tank limits. That's where depot redesign and map redesign started to complement each other. Instead of merely raising the endgame limits, depots increase them every couple of missions. Of course depot damage is taken into account - the more effort you put into damaging enemy infrastructure, the less extra planes and tanks they'll get. It adds attrition element to the campaign - sustaining heavy losses and suffering from depot raids at the same time may result in running out of resources to wage the war at some point.

Resource production rate is:
60 planes
60 tanks
150 trucks
30 pilots (not affected by depot)

These arrive after each 4 missions. Depot damage reduces them (except pilots) proportionally, but it never drops to zero (some production is always going on).

At this point I would like to thank @=KG76=flyus747  He suggested a lot of these features and created many of these ideas. It was not always possible to implement them exactly as he planned, yet we did what we could to make it happen at least in some form.

4. New Train Stations

 

If you like train busting, you will definitely enjoy them. They are much bigger now and are much more rewarding to attack. Of course they are much more important to protect now, as they bring twice as much supplies if left unattended. There are some smaller train stations - more like old style ones as well. Again it should add more variety and immersion to the server. 

These new targets are pushing on the limits of what's possible in this game. IL2 is not exactly suited to handle large number of objects and large scale of operations. We are often hitting a brick wall with our attempts and spend considerable amount of time looking for workarounds to bypass the limitation of the game engine. If you like what we are doing, and want to see more in the future, please support us with a donation!

5. Airfield signs

Our new airfields have some extra features that are supposed to bring some more order into aerial operations. Many of these airfields have multiple runways and some of them cross each other, increasing risk of a collision when everyone uses a different one without proper communication and coordination. From now on, every "active" runway has a "T" marker on the left side of the threshold, marking the runway and direction in use. Please stick to using these runways and look around during take off and landing operations. There's nothing more frustrating than getting killed in a collision with someone landing from the opposite direction, or taking off across the airfield right from the stand.



Other runways may be "disabled" and should not be used (unless emergency situation requires to do so). They may be marked with some obstacles however, so it's best to avoid them. Same goes for taxiways, which may be surrounded by some scenery. Airfield signs will guide you from the stand to the correct runway in use.

6. Reworked Victory Points

This is actually quite simple rework, but it was needed to keep up with different features.
Warfare on TAW is currently focused on capturing/holding terrain, fighting the offensives and winning the war of attrition brought up by the new depots.
This is reflected by adjustments in the victory point system.

VP are earned at the end of the map for following achievements:
- each city held + 1 VP
- remaining aircraft, each 50 units, +1 VP
- remaining pilots, each 50, +1 VP
- remaining tanks, each 80, +1 VP

As you can see, it's not only important to gain the ground but to manage losses and keep 'economy' intact in doing so. It is supposed to simulate real conditions, where maintaining ability to fight (via keeping required amount of personnel and vehicles) is as important, if not more, as capturing ground. 

Note:
In the new system both teams will end up getting more VPs at the end of each map and the small differences  of few points will determine winner. It should fix the fault of previous system, where maps often ended with huge gap in score (like 14:2) despite having pretty balanced fight. Now the losing side should get a little more credit and the score should better reflect overall balance as a whole.

7. Minor adjustments

5CP reward after 30 min of flight was changed into 1CP per every completed 10 min.
As analysis of data collected over past seasons shown, average flight time per sortie was very close to 30 minutes, regardless of aircraft type (bombers were the only exception). This observation, along with our own experience strongly implied that players aim for that 30 minutes in order to maximize CP gain, extending sorties that turned out to be shorter, or RTB from patrols to restart the timer.
While the new system might look like a reduction at first, it removes the need to stick with specific flight time and results in more flexibility when planning missions. In the end, real CP collection rate for average player should not change much. It should especially reward bombers and their escorts on long duration flights, or fighters doing patrols, encouraging them to stay in the air as long as possible.

Tank convoy close airfields from 40 km away. This may seem a lot, but it should level out the flight distance for attackers and defenders. Previously, once tanks closed in to attack a city, the defenders gained immediate advantage by operating from safety of nearby, open airfield, while the attackers had much longer and dangerous flight to target. Now, a tank advance on a city, should create a 'contested area' around, with no active airfields, resulting in a more interesting and even fight for superiority over the target area.

That would be all for today. I hope you enjoy that little insight.
From the entire TAW Team I wish you good luck on the upcoming campaign.

See you in the skies over Rheinland!

EDIT:
Added link to updated version of the manual. Should be linked on TAW website soon.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Qfwu8Hm-Whf5TLyjcGHCJz_fUwih73Si/view?usp=sharing

 

Edited September 23, 2022 by =/Hospiz/=MetalHead

[22GvIAD_Asfalot]

Hi! When is the launch of the eastern front planned?

[SCG_Redcloud111]

it's an indeterminate time between campaigns, depending upon how many changes are being made. So, after we finish this campaign, expect a reasonable downtime.

[BubiHUN]

Discord invitation link is expired. also website doesnt work. Cant register, cant play.

Edited September 23, 2022 by -[HRAF]BubiHUN

[=/Hospiz/=MetalHead]

This one should work.
https://discord.gg/yRGZkHT5Rx

Website is also working, just SSL is broken.
Try entering IP directly:
https://217.79.189.12/

You may get a warning about unsecure connection, but just ignore it. 
Kathon is working to fix it.

The same situation with TAW TeamSpeak. Enter IP in the address box.
https://217.79.189.12/

 

[=GW=Hansliu]

Unable to register. It always shows that the account password is incorrect. I wonder if it is the website?

[todeskvlt]

40 minutes ago, =GW=Hansliu said:

Unable to register. It always shows that the account password is incorrect. I wonder if it is the website?

 

On 9/22/2022 at 2:04 PM, =LG/F=Kathon said:

• During registration on tacticalairwar.com you have to provide the password from the last campaign. It's because last time someone created many, many accounts and players were unable to create it for themselves. If you don't remember the password don't worry and just spawn on the airfield when campaign starts and you should get short, temporary password for your account on the chat. Use it to register your pilot. If you've changed pilot's name or haven't flown before forget about it and register normally.

 

[Cpt_Siddy]

[=OPFR=C_DAT]

It's great to see TAW up and running!!  Thanks for explaining how to get a temp password to log in.  A few growing pains but certainly worth getting TAW back into action.  And thank you for the improvements.

 

Is there any chance you could get the mission planner working again? It was really convenient for setting up bombing routes/headings.  When you click on the map on the home page it says "il2missionplanner.com’s server IP address could not be found."

 

Thanks again for bringing TAW back!

[Props]

I too have not been able to access the website (Discord was no problem). I use the Opera browser and get the same unsecured warning, but I cannot seem to get past that and into the site. Tried the workarounds mentioned here to no avail. Looking forward to checking TAW out once I can though

[Rafcio]

Ignore that error and proceed. It's safe!

[=AD=Str1ke]

Some german tanks aren't taken into account, on main page amount of destroyed tanks.

[=/Hospiz/=MetalHead]

5 hours ago, Props said:

I too have not been able to access the website (Discord was no problem). I use the Opera browser and get the same unsecured warning, but I cannot seem to get past that and into the site. Tried the workarounds mentioned here to no avail. Looking forward to checking TAW out once I can though

There should be a barely visible "help me undestand" prompt, below the error message in Opera.
Open that and a wall of text will pop up with something like "proceed to XXXXX (unsafe)" at the bottom - this is the link that will allow you to connect.

 

[E69_Falke_Wolf]

Apparently I'm not smart enough to register on the TAW website with my correct name....
 

Could some Administrator please DELETE the pilot profile "E69_Falke"?
 

E69_Falke_Wolf is the correct one.

 

Thanks and sorry for bothering.

[Props]

18 hours ago, =/Hospiz/=MetalHead said:

There should be a barely visible "help me undestand" prompt, below the error message in Opera.
Open that and a wall of text will pop up with something like "proceed to XXXXX (unsafe)" at the bottom - this is the link that will allow you to connect.

 

Thanks, just tried this and I'm good to go!

[=/Hospiz/=MetalHead]

10 hours ago, E69_Falke_Wolf said:

Apparently I'm not smart enough to register on the TAW website with my correct name....
 

Could some Administrator please DELETE the pilot profile "E69_Falke"?
 

E69_Falke_Wolf is the correct one.

 

Thanks and sorry for bothering.

 

It looks like you are able to fly on the current account.
The other one is not a problem for anyone

Edited September 25, 2022 by =/Hospiz/=MetalHead

[dgiatr]

Hello to all!

 

i am trying to change side from German side to Allies between different missions but i cannot.

 

Just to verify what i understand as different missions....for example until now (26-9-22 , 8:34:13 , Rheinland_North_NEW MAP)  i see that there are 23 different missions...is that right? So i could switch side 22 times until now if i wanted...is that right?

 

i have already created a second account for Allies with the same il2 account but every time i get into TAW, server sees only my first account which is to the German side and will not allow me to fly with Allies. I tried to logout from my first German account and sign in to my second Allied account but when i get into TAW, server sees only that i am logged into my first account. My problem is that i am stuck with my first account and cannot change to the second one between missions.

 

Thank in advance! 

[=/Hospiz/=MetalHead]

14 hours ago, dgiatr said:

Hello to all!

 

i am trying to change side from German side to Allies between different missions but i cannot.

 

Just to verify what i understand as different missions....for example until now (26-9-22 , 8:34:13 , Rheinland_North_NEW MAP)  i see that there are 23 different missions...is that right? So i could switch side 22 times until now if i wanted...is that right?

 

i have already created a second account for Allies with the same il2 account but every time i get into TAW, server sees only my first account which is to the German side and will not allow me to fly with Allies. I tried to logout from my first German account and sign in to my second Allied account but when i get into TAW, server sees only that i am logged into my first account. My problem is that i am stuck with my first account and cannot change to the second one between missions.

 

Thank in advance! 

In general most players fly on one side for the entire duration of the campaign. It adds immersion.

Of course you can switch sides during  the campaign if you want to. In that case you have to have two TAW accounts with DIFFERENT nicknames, one in each team. I see you did that and have "dgiatr" and "dgiatr1" accounts set up properly.
Then you have to switch your in game name (on the il2sturmovik.com webpage) to match the TAW account name registered on the side you want to play. So if you want to play as the Axis, using the "dgiatr1" TAW account, you have to switch the in game name to "dgiatr1" as well.
 

[dgiatr]

5 hours ago, =/Hospiz/=MetalHead said:

In general most players fly on one side for the entire duration of the campaign. It adds immersion.

Of course you can switch sides during  the campaign if you want to. In that case you have to have two TAW accounts with DIFFERENT nicknames, one in each team. I see you did that and have "dgiatr" and "dgiatr1" accounts set up properly.
Then you have to switch your in game name (on the il2sturmovik.com webpage) to match the TAW account name registered on the side you want to play. So if you want to play as the Axis, using the "dgiatr1" TAW account, you have to switch the in game name to "dgiatr1" as well.
 

Οκ now i see.

 

Thank you very much for your time!

[JG27_Snake]

Attention, some Pilots of the =TH= Squadron shoot at Pilots on the parachute!

Unfortunately, I repeatedly had to experience the pilots of the =TH= squadron shooting at defenseless pilots hanging on the parachute! 

Be careful when these pilots are on the server!

[Sketch]

[CountZero]

4 hours ago, JG27_Snake said:

Attention, some Pilots of the =TH= Squadron shoot at Pilots on the parachute!

Unfortunately, I repeatedly had to experience the pilots of the =TH= squadron shooting at defenseless pilots hanging on the parachute! 

Be careful when these pilots are on the server!

You are one at fault here in this server thouse two are doing what server set as one of win conditions, you win by killing enemy pilots , game alowes pilots to be killed in parachutes, players will do that, especialy on this server where its their objective.

Next time read rules of server you play on, and avoid servers with rules you dont like like other players who dont like ppl shoting ppl in parachutes.

[MisterSmith]

After consultations with TAW, there are no rules prohibiting this. The individual pilot's handles have been edited out. 

[Coldman]

Scramble!!! New planeset just kick in!!! New planes just arrived to the front line!!!

[Cpt_Siddy]

On 9/28/2022 at 3:35 PM, JG27_Snake said:

Attention, some Pilots of the =TH= Squadron shoot at Pilots on the parachute!

Unfortunately, I repeatedly had to experience the pilots of the =TH= squadron shooting at defenseless pilots hanging on the parachute! 

Be careful when these pilots are on the server!

*me explaining to tribunal why did i shoot that chute*