"Fire and Ice" - Bf 110 E-2 Scripted Campaign

[Dauntless]

Try updating 7Zip ?

[mpdugas]

Done-and-done.

 

No joy, no decompress.

 

/sigh

[JohnHolmes]

Bravo NETSCAPE what a master piece 

 

I am loving this campaign and am only at mission 6.  You have set everything up to really give that feeling of immersion, all the little details you have included help the world feel real. The story you have written is brilliant and gives life and meaning to each mission. Im playing with realistic setting, no icons. A few times I got lost from my leader and had to use the map to find my way home. Moscow in winter is so hard to navigate, but makes finding home so rewarding. This must have taken you ages to complete, for that I am so thankful for your commitment. 

 

This should be an official scripted campaign, I would happily pay money for the hours and hours of intense fun. I'll go visit your Patreon page because we need more just like this.    

 

BRAVO MR

[NETSCAPE]

1 hour ago, JohnHolmes said:

Bravo NETSCAPE what a master piece 

 

I am loving this campaign and am only at mission 6.  You have set everything up to really give that feeling of immersion, all the little details you have included help the world feel real. The story you have written is brilliant and gives life and meaning to each mission. Im playing with realistic setting, no icons. A few times I got lost from my leader and had to use the map to find my way home. Moscow in winter is so hard to navigate, but makes finding home so rewarding. This must have taken you ages to complete, for that I am so thankful for your commitment. 

 

This should be an official scripted campaign, I would happily pay money for the hours and hours of intense fun. I'll go visit your Patreon page because we need more just like this.    

 

BRAVO MR

 

I just got a notification. Thanks for being the first to take the leap!

[335th_GRphgeorg]

Hello Netscape, thanks a lot for the campaign.

Anybody experiencing the same problem?

I cannot take off with the 110, one engine is always damaged during take off run. Should I let it warm up more?

Will No1 and No2 wait for me at or they are going to leave I'll have to catch up with them?

thanks

[Yogiflight]

1 hour ago, phgeorg said:

I cannot take off with the 110, one engine is always damaged during take off run. Should I let it warm up more?

The engines are warm, when you start them. Let the oil- and water radiator flaps closed, so the engines stay warm until you takeoff. You shouldn't forget, you have prettey low temperatures in those missions.

[NETSCAPE]

 

11 hours ago, phgeorg said:

Hello Netscape, thanks a lot for the campaign.

Anybody experiencing the same problem?

I cannot take off with the 110, one engine is always damaged during take off run. Should I let it warm up more?

Will No1 and No2 wait for me at or they are going to leave I'll have to catch up with them?

thanks

 

I am assuming you opened your rads fully. Pay attention to your temp gauges. There is serious risk of over cooling since the temperatures outside are so cold. When flying I would typically set my rads open to the smallest amount or leave them fully closed, depending on the the temp gauge read-outs. Start your engines and tax as instructed, usually you are number 3 to tax. Line up right behind flight lead on the run way. This should ensure a quick taxi/take off sequence. 

 

And don't forget guys you need to manually reload those 20mm cannons!

Edited July 3, 2018 by NETSCAPE

[4driano]

Hello,

 

I extracted the zip file in the IL2 parent directory/data/campaigns as required but I can not find the campaign. It should be in Scripted Campaigns, is not it? Should I enable mods or something?

I own the Moscow module.

Edited July 5, 2018 by 4driano

[Yogiflight]

On 7/2/2018 at 10:20 PM, mpdugas said:

Done-and-done.

 

No joy, no decompress.

 

/sigh

 

44 minutes ago, 4driano said:

Hello,

 

I extracted the zip file in the IL2 parent directory/data/campaigns as required but I can not find the campaign. It should be in Scripted Campaigns, is not it? Should I enable mods or something?

I own the Moscow module.

Did you open the file 'Fire and Ice V1.1' in your zip program by double clicking on it, and then seperately extract 'Fire and Ice' into the campaign folder and 'skins' into the data/graphics folder?

[4driano]

Hello,

 

right after the 1C Game Studios/IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad/data/Campaigns folder is the "Fire and Ice v1.1" folder.

The skins I copied and pasted in the 1C Game Studios/IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad/data/skins/Bf110E2 since there were no skins zip. It came all together.

 

 

Now it worked!

I had extracted everything under the Campaigns folder and it created the " Fire and Ice v1.1".

Now I did as you said and it creates the " Fire and Ice".

It is fine now. Thanks!

Edited July 6, 2018 by 4driano

[taffy2jeffmorgan]

Hi All, I have been installing scripted campaigns, Taman Bridgehead, Lions of Kalinin, Lost Hope and Fortress Stalingrad and all have installed with no problem,  but i'm having a problem with Fire and Ice

 

Bf scripted campaign, i have followed the suggested installation path [ BoS/data/campaigns ] but its not showing up in the campaign screen, i have tried just installing at the root directory [BoS] and no further. but no luck ? 

 

Some advice would be appreciated 

[Yogiflight]

Open the 'Fire and Ice 1.1' file in your zip program by double clicking on it, and then extract the 'Fire and Ice'and 'skins' subfiles in the folder the 'readme' tells you.

[InProgress]

I can't even open that file i get some missing error thing. Other campaigns works fine but fire and ice wont even let me open zipfile.

[Yogiflight]

1 hour ago, InProgress said:

I can't even open that file i get some missing error thing. Other campaigns works fine but fire and ice wont even let me open zipfile.

While it is still in your zip program, before you unzip and extract it into a game folder?

[Dakpilot]

3 hours ago, InProgress said:

I can't even open that file i get some missing error thing. Other campaigns works fine but fire and ice wont even let me open zipfile.

 

A common problem is using an older version to try and decompile than was used to zip it, I have experienced this and updating to latest version of 7zip or similar has resolved the issue 

 

Cheers, Dakpilot 

[taffy2jeffmorgan]

Thanks All, I have now solved the install problem, deleted all previous downloads, and started from scratch and did exactly as it says in the the installation read me. bingo !!!

[photog95661]

I hate to be a the bearer of bad news.  The release of Version 3.0005 has affected your scripted campaign.  Selection of your campaign from the Campaign screen accesses a mission list. Selection of a mission only causes the screen to indicate working, but returns to the mission selection list.  There is no progress beyond this point.  Is this correctable? I hope so as I enjoy the campaign.

[NETSCAPE]

Files updated to new game version. Please re-download campaign.

 

[photog95661]

Netscape,  Thank you for your quick action.  Impressive!

[PA_Keko_]

On 7/18/2018 at 11:31 PM, NETSCAPE said:

Files updated to new game version. Please re-download campaign.

 

 

Thank you very much!!!!! Its look great!!!!!  

[THERION]

Hi Netscape,

 

thank you very much for this great looking and challenging campaign - very nice!

 

Cheerio

[NETSCAPE]

It's pretty quiet in here - and that's a good thing I think. The campaign has been downloaded almost 700 times and no one has reported a serious issue yet. Perhaps there are minor ones but nothing substantial I assume or I would have heard about it by now. 

[Redglyph]

On 8/14/2018 at 9:58 AM, NETSCAPE said:

It's pretty quiet in here - and that's a good thing I think. The campaign has been downloaded almost 700 times and no one has reported a serious issue yet. Perhaps there are minor ones but nothing substantial I assume or I would have heard about it by now. 

 

Must be a good sign, congrats!

I'd love to go through the missions again, but I'll have to wait for the weather to calm down a bit. Most days, even switching the PC on heats up the room too much, and it wouldn't be enjoyable like that anyway. It's a bit frustrating, I only saw the missions last winter - which already looked great, and I'm looking forward to rediscovering what this campaign has become  

[Semor76]

On 8/14/2018 at 9:58 AM, NETSCAPE said:

It's pretty quiet in here - and that's a good thing I think. The campaign has been downloaded almost 700 times and no one has reported a serious issue yet. Perhaps there are minor ones but nothing substantial I assume or I would have heard about it by now. 

Well..ehhhm. I found one thing to complain ^^  You have set the cruising speeds too high for the Bf110´s. I´m at the 3rd. mission so far and its really hard to keep the pace with my flight. The AI dont care much about engine overheating, but my poor plane is always on step away from blowing up both engines. Especially if the player has little time to warm up the engines enough before start.

 

Cruise speed for the Bf-110 was around 360-380 Km/h IRL,not 420 Km/h

 

Beside of that,the campaign is great! I still enjoy it.

[NETSCAPE]

10 hours ago, Redglyph said:

but I'll have to wait for the weather to calm down a bit. Most days, even switching the PC on heats up the room too much

oh man I know that pain... I almost died from a heatstroke in 2013 that I never recovered from fully. Temperature rules my life now and I avoid anything over 21c. I can't go outside all summer or do any activity that raises body temperature basically. So pushing a GTX 1080 and an i7 is essentially like a space heater in my room...in the summer... yeah that's no good! 

 

3 hours ago, Semor76 said:

Well..ehhhm. I found one thing to complain ^^  You have set the cruising speeds too high for the Bf110´s. I´m at the 3rd. mission so far and its really hard to keep the pace with my flight. The AI dont care much about engine overheating, but my poor plane is always on step away from blowing up both engines. Especially if the player has little time to warm up the engines enough before start.

 

Cruise speed for the Bf-110 was around 360-380 Km/h IRL,not 420 Km/h

 

Beside of that,the campaign is great! I still enjoy it.

It's freezing outside, I don't understand how you're overheating your engine? Maybe you mean't over-cooling? In that case close rads, the extreme cold calls for it. I like to cycle between opening them to a minimum then closing them according to my temp gauge read outs.

 

I set the cruise speed accordingly to ATA settings (ATA noted in mission briefings) when I tested missions. This takes into account loadout, ambient temperature ect. 360-380 kph would be such a low throttle position (taking into account the extreme cold temperatures) players would complain. I always tried to keep the flights reasonable and not too long or players will complain - even if it's only a difference of a flight being a few minutes more or less. If a player flies at 50ish% throttle I believe they think they are moving like a turtle due to throttle position, percentage displayed and lack of audio feedback from the engine being pushed and not necessarily the actual KPH. This sort of psychological effect is what I found at least. One big thing to consider is the difference in speeds when taking ambient temperature into account. For example if you use the same ATA and test a plane in -30c vs. 25c you will note a big speed difference. Another thing to consider is that you use combat setting temporarily to catch up to flight lead.

 

EDIT: All that being said, mission 3 might be somewhat of a push to keep up since it's a big climb. It was supposed to feel like a desperate sort of last minute scramble as the briefing implies but I don't remember falling behind flight lead significantly. I do remember getting shot up by PE-2 snipers a couple of times.

[WWGriphos]

Climbing is tricky. If you’re behind the power curve and not on the step, trying to stay with a group in a climb will cook your engines quickly. Try to build extra speed in the takeoff phase before the climb gets going. Get above the group if possible. Then you can adjust to stay with them with a little excess power. 

[NETSCAPE]

The download link broke for some reason, fixed it. 

[JG1_Labroisse]

NETSCAPE, really a superb campaign.  Thank you!

Ferd

[SwallowFire]

The best scripted campaign I ve ever played. Thanks a lot Netscape.

 

Btw the briefings are so well written that it made me feel like i am reading a novel. Great work!

[Saulemann]

Hello Netscape,

Thank you for this great campaign, I really love it.

Until mission 8, everything went wonderfully, from the 9th mission it happens again and again, freezing the mission. And after some time it goes on in fast motion.
It always happens at different mission times.

At the time of freezing I'm between 75-90 fps,
I have tried it with low graphics settings and again, the mission freezes again.

I do not have these issues with other campaigns or missions.

To my system intel 6700K, 32 gb ram, GTX 1080, SSD and 32 inches WQHD with Gsync.

Do you have an idea why it could be?

Thanks and best regards

 

[FurphyForum]

As above -  Ditto.

[NETSCAPE]

8 hours ago, Saulemann said:

Hello Netscape,

Thank you for this great campaign, I really love it.

Until mission 8, everything went wonderfully, from the 9th mission it happens again and again, freezing the mission. And after some time it goes on in fast motion.
It always happens at different mission times.

At the time of freezing I'm between 75-90 fps,
I have tried it with low graphics settings and again, the mission freezes again.

I do not have these issues with other campaigns or missions.

To my system intel 6700K, 32 gb ram, GTX 1080, SSD and 32 inches WQHD with Gsync.

Do you have an idea why it could be?

Thanks and best regards

 

 

16 minutes ago, FurphyForum said:

As above -  Ditto.

 

It definitely didn't happen when I made it and had people test it. So I suspect it's due to some update. Relative to my old Stuka campaign there is not much demand on the system with Fire and Ice (not large amounts of planes and targets ect)... so this is puzzling. 

 

I will use auto pilot and check missions 8 and 9 after I'm done working. This sounds like a bizarre issue. 

[FurphyForum]

Ok,  at the time of the update to current version I wasn't even at mission 9 and on, so thanks for being prompt and checking it out. 

[FurphyForum]

@Netscape: you manage to test this yet mate? As it still freezes up, then goes into fast fwd  mode - (mission 11- Defend Helmuts crash site).

 

For info; I have re-DL v1.2 and loaded it again.

Edited November 18, 2018 by FurphyForum

[NETSCAPE]

3 hours ago, FurphyForum said:

@Netscape: you manage to test this yet mate? As it still freezes up, then goes into fast fwd  mode - (mission 11- Defend Helmuts crash site).

 

For info; I have re-DL v1.2 and loaded it again.

 

Yeah always use newest version. Old mission files won't work with new game updates. 

 

I just ran missions 9 and 11 on autopilot at x4 speed. I realized both of these missions aren't winnable in autopilot... so I ran mission 9 until the first Katy battery was destroyed (WHICH TOOK THE AI FOREVER...naturally) - that worked fine.

 

However on mission 11 during the taxi I got "the freeze". I was expecting a typical soft or hard lock freeze. What I saw was neither. The snow kept falling but everything else in the game "froze", my curser and the mainmenu could be pulled up.

 

My current theory is the snow fall fx are causing the game to lock up. This is because I think mission 8 and onward is when the snow missions are. If it is snow fall fx causing it we could take the snowfall away as a temp workaround, lame I know...

 

I assume this issue is "beyond the mission editor" and my work within it. These all worked flawlessly before. I tested each mission a minimum of 3 times, some missions 10 times. I also had like a dozen testers test it. This testing was done because originally I intended for this to be an official campaign. Then an update dramatically altered AI attack logic and I had to rework half the missions attack stuff... so I tested, yet again, until things were reliable.

 

I have noticed recent complaints on other scripted campaigns (two by Samson) about sudden crashing/freezing too.

 

EDIT: Hey guys... check this out. I'm not saying it's explosions but maybe we should update our drivers and see if that helps?

 

 

Edited November 18, 2018 by NETSCAPE

[FurphyForum]

Thanks for doing this Netscape. My bad for not giving more info to you on the obligatory comment of ' It just freezes'.  Should of stated that the snow still continues to fall. Not only does it freeze as you stated during taxing, but also in flight or whilst in the attack  and yeah the snow continues to fall. Then we get the unfreeze and it's like the Fast Fwd button has been pushed, and you have control again - but any wrong corrections will see you flying into the deck quick smart.

 

Funny enough Nvidia released the latest GPU update which I receive yesterday, so coupled with the fresh install of v1.2 and the software update, it still didn't make one i-ota bit of a difference. The problem is still there.

 

Sure, remove the snow (btw- I dont think it's a lame idea, it's a solution to what is needed to rectify the problem), maybe decrease visibility via more fog/mist as a substitute for the snow?

 

Anyway good to see your on it.

[Redglyph]

I'm enjoying this campaign again, just finished mission 8. So far it's a pure delight  

 

Spoiler ahead.

 

This last mission 8 I had to redo several times,

- on the first attempt, it took a while to take off and the attacking planes were already gone, the Crane flight just turned in circles above the runway. Since I wasn't sure anymore, I followed the leader for a while, then I gave up.

- on the second attempt, we correctly headed East and were about to catch up when the leader and the two others (so, the AI) decided to RTB. I switched the labels at that instant and saw the IL-2 about 8 NM away.

 

It seems the mission closely hinges on the delay to take-off. With the necessity of starting the engines separately and the AI's uncertain taxiing and flying, the chances it unfolds correctly are not very high  Any idea why the AI would prefer going in circles above the airfield instead of chasing the enemy / follow a preset path?

[Swing]

Just finish to play it, that was so cool......a "must have" campaign......a big thanks Netscape for all your greats works for the community...

[NETSCAPE]

On 11/26/2018 at 11:48 AM, Redglyph said:

It seems the mission closely hinges on the delay to take-off. With the necessity of starting the engines separately and the AI's uncertain taxiing and flying, the chances it unfolds correctly are not very high  Any idea why the AI would prefer going in circles above the airfield instead of chasing the enemy / follow a preset path?

 

I wait to taxi/take off per usual based on my position in the flight/#. Just wait and taxi per normal is the best advice I can give (and timing wise this should give you a couple chances to shoot at IL-2s with your rear gun, timed that for "fun" factor.) 

 

The AI will have mixed results based on the exact situation after becoming airborne. Then immediately attacking enemy aircraft is triggered. There are two flights of IL-2s and German AAA may or may not get the best of them. I give the AI 110s a LARGE radius to attack enemy aircraft, but the MCU is basically centered on the airfield so they engage nearest enemy immediately right after take off, right there. If  they are flying in circles around Dugino they just aren't "seeing" the enemy I guess. 

 

It's been a long time since I've worked with these missions but RTB can like so:

 

-if you run out of ammo

-if all IL-2s are downed

-if you fly "too far" east (this would imply you have been engaging the enemy for quite a long time)

 

Of course you can just land and call it a day whenever you like and the mission will be accomplished. So this can be a very quick mission or a mission where you RTB when you run out of ammo probably

8 hours ago, Swing said:

Just finish to play it, that was so cool......a "must have" campaign......a big thanks Netscape for all your greats works for the community...

 

Thanks. Did you experience the odd time stops glitch/freeze thingy that was described in the posts before yours?

[Swing]

No, no freeze for me......the game was fluid from the first to the last mission.