FORTRESS STALINGRAD - SP scripted campaign [I-16 type 24]

[Zeev]

On 5/2/2021 at 8:07 PM, Vendigo said:

 

Thank you for the feedback; actually I have successfully re-saved the missions via the Editor - at least I didn't get any error messages..

Anyway, I kindly ask you to wait "2 more weeks" till I finish updating this campaign, as due to AI changes many missions do not play as they are supposed to; there's something wrong with AI planes not attacking the ground targets in some missions.

I am sure you will have better experience if you play the updated missions rather than just re-saved missions.   

 

 

Thanks for the effort for updating the campaign.

[Vendigo]

 

Campaign updated to 4.601!

• New mission (No.16 "The Party assignment") - total number of missions is now 27!
• New smoke effects!
• New objects! 
• Many missions have been thoroughly re-worked!
• Armament and modifications variants are now unlocked in all missions!  

Download the patch (only missions, no skinpack) from this link.

 

Important! If you have previously installed "Fortress Stalingrad", I recommend deleting the following two files - they are found in the folder named data - ctreecache and mtreecache 

If you don't delete them, the game will not display the names of missions properly.

 

Hope you have fun!

 

Any feedback is appreciated!

 

 

 

 

Edited May 9, 2021 by Vendigo

[313Jax_]

Thank you, Vendigo, works fine. Great job!

[jg123410]

Thank you Vendigo for reworking and updating the campaign!! Much appreciated!!!
 

jg1234

[ragvard]

Started it yesterday and i did not expect the I-16 to be that fun to fly.

Sure, getting a kill is not easy given the weak armament. But outturning BFs is just yummy ?

Lovely campaign, thank you so much!

[Siv5122]

I'm really enjoying the campaign but have a problem. 

 

In mission 4, when jumped by Germans after taking off, I got shot up and landed because I can't really fight 109fs with an I-16, and the yellow text in game said mission success, but when I left it said mission failed and I can't progress in the campaign. Help?

[Vendigo]

10 hours ago, Siv5122 said:

I'm really enjoying the campaign but have a problem. 

 

In mission 4, when jumped by Germans after taking off, I got shot up and landed because I can't really fight 109fs with an I-16, and the yellow text in game said mission success, but when I left it said mission failed and I can't progress in the campaign. Help?

 

Siv5122, thank you for the feedback! The Primary Objective in mission 4 is always triggered 6.5 minutes after the mission start; but I'm going to change it with the next update then you will be able to proceed if you land/crash land/bailout in the very beginning.

Actually it should be quite possible to evade the 109's by staying close to the ground and slow - you need not dogfight them; at least it worked last time I tried this mission. 

If you land before 6.5 minutes, you just sit in your plane and enjoy the show, you can check whether the game is ready to let you proceed to the next mission by hitting esc and seeing whether the red bar has turned to green without actually exiting the mission. 

I do realize the 109's might shoot you up on the ground before 6.5 minutes run out, so this mission does need some polishing! Thank you for pointing this out! 

   

   

Edited July 1, 2021 by Vendigo

[Siv5122]

15 hours ago, Vendigo said:

 

Siv5122, thank you for the feedback! The Primary Objective in mission 4 is always triggered 6.5 minutes after the mission start; but I'm going to change it with the next update then you will be able to proceed if you land/crash land/bailout in the very beginning.

Actually it should be quite possible to evade the 109's by staying close to the ground and slow - you need not dogfight them; at least it worked last time I tried this mission. 

If you land before 6.5 minutes, you just sit in your plane and enjoy the show, you can check whether the game is ready to let you proceed to the next mission by hitting esc and seeing whether the red bar has turned to green without actually exiting the mission. 

I do realize the 109's might shoot you up on the ground before 6.5 minutes run out, so this mission does need some polishing! Thank you for pointing this out! 

   

   

Alrighty, I'll try that, thanks!

[LF_Mark_Krieger]

Just finished the campaign today (I started it with the old clouds and what a difference!) and I have to say it has been fantastic. With even an epic moment in the mission 22 "Seek & destroy". Thank you very much for your great work!

Edited December 29, 2021 by LF_Mark_Krieger

[Vendigo]

13 hours ago, LF_Mark_Krieger said:

Just finisehd the campaign today (I started it with the old clouds and what a difference!) and I have to say it has been fantastic. With even an epic moment in the mission 22 "Seek & destroy". Thank you very much for your great work!

 

Thank you LF_Mark_Krieger; I have yet to try this campaign with new clouds so I hope they don't affect the missions in an improper way... Blacksix had to adjust the Player routes in many missions because of the new clouds..   

[Billsponge1972]

For the life of me I can't get this campaign to run on 7.02b. tried re saving, deleting the required cache files and still no joy. ?

I can fly the missions it seems although not set up correctly but there is no mission description.

Edited December 31, 2021 by Billsponge1972
Forgot to add something.

[Vendigo]

Campaign re-saved in the current version 4.702b!

I have also updated the primary mission objective trigger in Mission 4 "Pre-emptive strike", now only the successful takeoff is required to progress to the next mission.

But I haven't thoroughly played the campaign yet, so I am not sure how it is with the new clouds so any feedback is appreciated!  

 

Download the patch (only re-saved msbin files and Mission04 file) from this link.

Installing is same as always - simply unzip to the IL-2 root directory and have the files replaced.

Note: as this is only the patch, you must have "Fortress Stalingrad" installed from the first message in this thread. 

 

On 12/31/2021 at 11:54 PM, Billsponge1972 said:

For the life of me I can't get this campaign to run on 7.02b. tried re saving, deleting the required cache files and still no joy. ?

I can fly the missions it seems although not set up correctly but there is no mission description.

 

Billsponge1972, I recommend deleting all msbin files before running the re-saving tool in the FMB, it works fine every time for me.

Anyway, please try this patch - I hope it will solve your problem with this campaign! 

[Billsponge1972]

Thank you for the reply. I will try the patch and the instructions from the first post again. I've gotten so far as to play the campaign but can't get the mission briefings to display. Can't wait to play your campaign! It looks terrific!

[Billsponge1972]

Thanks VENDIGO! I replaced the .msnbin files with yours from the patch, deleted the required c and m cache files and Viola!! 

Will start the campaign tonight after the kids are in bed. ?

[Billsponge1972]

  That I-16 it's kind of hard to fly for me. It takes a really light stick. Flew the first two missions and damaged two planes but shot down none! 

  One odd thing, mission 7 is out of place and has become the first mission. Don't know if it's something I did or not. So technically I flew mission number seven and then mission number one! Great fun though! I would definitely recommend this one. 

A big thanks to VENDIGO and all those campaign and mission builders out there. You guys really make this Sim come alive!

 

[Vendigo]

5 hours ago, Billsponge1972 said:

   One odd thing, mission 7 is out of place and has become the first mission. Don't know if it's something I did or not. So technically I flew mission number seven and then mission number one! 

 

 

I appreciate your feedback Billsponge1972 and this is an odd one indeed, btw you are using the English version, aren't you?  

Maybe you re-named the mission files; actually I am not sure what could be causing it.

If anybody else has this problem, please report it!   

 

[Billsponge1972]

Yes, the English version and yes, I did some extra messing around with the first mission in the ME. Pretty sure it's something I did.

[jeanba]

On 1/4/2022 at 5:47 AM, Billsponge1972 said:

  That I-16 it's kind of hard to fly for me. It takes a really light stick. Flew the first two missions and damaged two planes but shot down none! 

  One odd thing, mission 7 is out of place and has become the first mission. Don't know if it's something I did or not. So technically I flew mission number seven and then mission number one! Great fun though! I would definitely recommend this one. 

A big thanks to VENDIGO and all those campaign and mission builders out there. You guys really make this Sim come alive!

 

I had the same problem, I deleted mtreecache and ctreecache (under "data" directory), and things went back to normal

see below:

 

Edited January 6, 2022 by jeanba
clarifications

[Anbztht]

Thank you !

[Gr3y]

@Vendigo

 

Thanks for the campaign, missions are really interesting so far!

A question though, what is the AAA difficulty level, as I seem to get hit by it quite often, last game (Mission 9) recorded it just to check and it hits me after 3 seconds of targeting me. Quite annoying to be honest.

[Vendigo]

Thanks for your feedback Gr3y; are you talking about anti aircraft artillery skill level? They all must be "normal" as I don't remember changing the default skill level of any flak guns. Maybe the AAA accuracy is too high by default... 

[Gr3y]

Thanks for the reply! Yes, that is what I've meant. Maybe I had bad day then. But could agree that the AAA sometimes (I have a feeling that it happens in certain missions - not just in your campaign) is deadly accurate, as hitting dogfighting plane in first burst doesn't seem "normal".

[Vendigo]

Campaign updated to 4.704!

• Time of dusk/dawn missions has been adjusted.
• In missions where the sky is supposed to be overcast, the clouds layer has been adjusted (I haven't changed the clouds height though).
• Static buildings in map areas far from the action zone have been removed.
• Tactical numbers have been added to all AI-controlled aircraft (they will become visible once the devs make it possible).  
• Mission numbers shown in briefings in different languages have been corrected; errors in briefings have been corrected.
• Logic improved in several missions.     

You can either download the full Campaign from the first post in this topic (it's already 4.704 so no need to patch it) or, if you have installed an older version of "Fortress Stalingrad", you can get the patch (only missions files, no skinpack) from this link.  

 

Important! If you have previously installed "Fortress Stalingrad", I highly recommend deleting the following three files - they are found in the folder named data:

ctreecache

mtreecache 

ttreecache

 

If you don't delete them, the game will not display the names of missions properly.

 

Cheers, 

Vendigo.

 

 

Edited August 9, 2022 by Vendigo

[7bhp_Mk]

Had a lot of fun with this particular campaign in the past. Any reason to jump back in sure works for me. Now, if only we could get those tactical codes implemented by the devs, I would be in literal heaven. Or at the very least, several thousand feet closer...

 

Thanks so much for the update!

[jollyjack]

THanks ... one Q, are the skins important, as most seem 2k, and i would like to stick to the 4k ones i have.

[Vendigo]

@jollyjack, as to the AI planes - I would say the custom skins are not too important, the only reason I added them was to bring a little bit more historical accuracy to the German planes. But after all, it's not very important. 

As to I-16's - the custom skins show tactical codes; if you don't use them then your plane and the planes of your flight will all sport the same generic skin.    

It is really up to you whether to use the attached skinpack or not.

 

Actually, I would like to add 4k skins to this campaign but I don't have them; maybe some day I will make them myself and add them.   

 

 

Edited May 17, 2022 by Vendigo

[jollyjack]

Also the total file size will be much larger .

[Vendigo]

1 minute ago, jollyjack said:

Also the total file size will be much larger .

 

True, although I think it's worth it. Personally I don't notice much difference between 2k and 4k skins but maybe I don't pay attention. 

I think, maybe it's only the Player's plane where the difference between 2k/4k is noticeable. 

On the contrary, you prefer the 4k skins altogether, so it must be the future of IL-2. That's why I think and I hope that one day, finally, 4k skins will come to "Fortress Stalingrad"!  

[jollyjack]

Just tried mission 01, nice one, landed OK with 7 kills, but no mission continue to 02 .... i'll set them to missiotype 0 and put them in my missions folder.

 

The smoke effects IMO take up a lot of GPU power; 2x max Timescale on my system; normally i get 4x with a heavy load. .

But i keep my graphics set to high LoL.

[Vendigo]

1 minute ago, jollyjack said:

Just tried mission 01, nice one, landed OK with 7 kills, but no mission continue to 02 .... i'll set them to missiotype 0 and put them in my missions folder.

The smoke effects IMO take up a lot of GPU power; 2x max Timescale on my system; normally i get 4x with a heavy load. .

But i keep my graphics set to high LoL.

 

On the first mission you landed with seven kills and the second mission didn't unlock? Is that what happened? 

It is strange because the primary mission objective is supposed to be triggered just as you have reached the combat area, so you must be able to proceed to the next mission even if you get shot over Stalingrad...

As to the smokes - yes yes, they are "heavy" but it's Stalingrad burning in the wake of the infamous carpet bombing raids. I really couldn't do with any less smoke than what is already there. Actually, these are the new optimized smoke effects so the mission should run better than before.     

  

[Vendigo]

14 hours ago, jollyjack said:

Just tried mission 01, nice one, landed OK with 7 kills, but no mission continue to 02 ....

 

I checked and the primary mission objective in the first mission is triggered 1 minute after the Flight leader I-16 and the Flight leader Bf-109 get within 1500 meters of each other. Their waypoints are arranged in such a way that both flights always close in, so the second mission is always supposed to be unlocked regardless of the Player's landing at the destination airbase.    

Maybe something odd happened and the two flight leaders didn't get within 1500 meters of each other.. 

I will update the first mission later and make sure the second mission always is unlocked, if the Player arrives to the combat area over Stalingrad. 

Edited May 18, 2022 by Vendigo

[TAIPAN_]

On 6/30/2018 at 5:04 AM, Vendigo said:

 

 

 

DOWNLOAD CAMPAIGN (version 4.704)

 

 

 

Hi @Vendigo

 

When I click the link on page1 I get the error on your google drive.

 

I think the link has expired or has a typo? 

 

 

[Vendigo]

@TAIPAN_ I am going to post an updated version in a day or two - many missions had to be fixed to keep up with the new stuff like clouds, new AI logic etc. 

The old version simply does not run the way it's supposed to - that's why I removed it from the link. I suggest you should wait a little then you can try the updated Campaign. Thank you very much!   

[TAIPAN_]

3 minutes ago, Vendigo said:

@TAIPAN_ I am going to post an updated version in a day or two - many missions had to be fixed to keep up with the new stuff like clouds, new AI logic etc. 

The old version simply does not run the way it's supposed to - that's why I removed it from the link. I suggest you should wait a little then you can try the updated Campaign. Thank you very much!   

 

Thanks, that's ok no worries I'm going travelling a few days and will have a look when I get back. I actually have the old version still but I've been playing it very slow over a year period Busy life. Will look forward to the upgrade next week.

[Vendigo]

 

Campaign updated to 4.707c!

• Railway level crossings added!
• Clouds have been adjusted in the missions where they were obstructing the Player’s and AI’s flight paths.
• New generic 4K skins added for IL-2 mod.1942 and C-47A (created by @jollyjack - you can use Haluter's app to download those skins separately)   
• Some briefings have been corrected.
• Main Mission Objective in mission 1 corrected; overall many missions have been fine tuned.   

 

Download the patch from this link. 

Full Campaign can be downloaded from the first post in this thread. 

 

Important! If you have previously installed "Fortress Stalingrad", I highly recommend deleting the following three files - they are found in the folder named data:

ctreecache

mtreecache 

ttreecache

 

If you don't delete them, the game will not display the names of missions properly.

 

Have fun! 

 

Edited September 9, 2022 by Vendigo

[Skipper-]

3 hours ago, Vendigo said:

Campaign updated to 4.707c!

 

@Vendigo Thank you for your work making and updating this campaign, excited to fly it when I'm done with Ice Ring!

Edited August 14, 2022 by Skipper-

[TAIPAN_]

Awesome! Thanks

[Vendigo]

To anyone who might be interested in trying out "Fortress Stalingrad" these days - I have been updating all missions and found a strange bug when AI-controlled flights fail to gain altitude properly after taking off. The bots are following the waypoints (which are set to like 3 km high) but keep flying at only about 600 meters high... 

The thing is - it used to work correctly and I didn't change anything but suddenly the AI's just fail to climb to high altitude.. 

I am going to look into it, maybe report if it's really a bug.   

[TAIPAN_]

3 hours ago, Vendigo said:

To anyone who might be interested in trying out "Fortress Stalingrad" these days - I have been updating all missions and found a strange bug when AI-controlled flights fail to gain altitude properly after taking off. The bots are following the waypoints (which are set to like 3 km high) but keep flying at only about 600 meters high... 

The thing is - it used to work correctly and I didn't change anything but suddenly the AI's just fail to climb to high altitude.. 

I am going to look into it, maybe report if it's really a bug.   

Does it happen even if you add an AI to a fresh new mission? 

 

I'd think this would break career as well especially if you're not flight lead. Level bombing missions might be hard! 

[Vendigo]

47 minutes ago, TAIPAN_ said:

Does it happen even if you add an AI to a fresh new mission? 

 

I'd think this would break career as well especially if you're not flight lead. Level bombing missions might be hard! 

 

Due to lack of time, I haven't gone as far trying to create a brand new test mission with the same set of waypoints... I was just progressing through the campaign updating mission after mission, and I found that whenever the Player's flight is supposed to climb to high altitude immediately after takeoff (the flight is lead by the AI leader and the Player is one of the wingmen) - they stop climbing at about 600 meters and proceed to follow the waypoints at this altitude (but the waypoints are still at 3+ km high).

This happens in missions such as "New tactics" and "Intercept the bombers".

I feel this is strange because it surely would have broken the generated missions from the Career mode, but it never was reported so I suppose it only happens in my campaign... Btw, I still haven't tried the latest patch to see if maybe things are back to normal.    

 

Anyway, I need to look into this and do some more testing, hopefully next week will have the time!