Why can I not start a mission?

[Skipper-]

I have installed PWCG and it appears to work but when I am on the mission screen, I have no option to start the mission.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,

Toby

 

Edited August 1, 2018 by Skipper-

[Adger]

Click on Pilot selection then accept mission  Skipper HTH

Regards Adger

[PatrickAWlson]

First you have to complete the mission process.  It is a multi page work flow and not a single page.  Select "Pilot Selection" and make any changes that you wish.  The pilot selection is the last part of the work flow. On that page there will be an "Accept Mission" button.  That causes the mission to be written into the BoS data/missions directory where it is available to the game.

 

You start the mission in the game.  Start IL2 and go to the Missions screen.  The PWCG mission will be there (your pilot's name and the mission date will be in the mission title).  When you have finished the mission return to PWCG and submit a combat report.

[Skipper-]

1. Do I need to shut down the engine to complete a mission? 

2. Do I need to land?

3. What happens if I crash on the way back or have to bale out? Does it still count like in real life?

4. Do I miss a mission or two to simulate going back to my base? How detailed is PWCG?

5. Do I have to click 'Finish Mission' in IL-2 and go to the main game menu before I go back to PWCG to claim victories?

6. Where does my narrative get saved? I added a narrative but it doesn't appear in my Reading Journal..

 

Sorry if I'm not getting it but I just finished my first campaign mission, which was great fun, but I was only given the option to claim Air victories and I am in a ground attack unit. My ground kills were awarded to me, I think, as they showed up in the debriefing.

 

Thanks

 

Edited August 1, 2018 by Skipper-
so many questions

[Yogiflight]

1. No

2. Not quite sure, TBH, but I don't think you have to. But I suppose you have to be on your side of the front, or you might be counted as captured.

3. and 4. You will lose an aircraft of your squadron, as soon as it crashes to the ground, so if you do it too often, your squadron will run out of aircrafts. You will fly next day, as long as you are not seriously wounded, which will bring you into hospital for some days, as some comrade of the ground troops will transport you back to your base.

5. Not for claiming, but for creating a new mission. When you stay in the mission screen, PWCG can't write the new mission into the game.

6. Hmm, the journal would have been my guess, too.

 

Ground victories always get awarded automatically, only air victories have to be claimed.

[Skipper-]

Thanks Yogi, appreciate your help. I knew you were always smarter than the average bear.

[PatrickAWlson]

To add to Yogi's explanation:

2. You do not have to land and you will not be captured if you are in the air.  There is an event for crashing.  PWCG looks for a crash event and determines location to further determine captured or otherwise.  If you are in the air there is no crash event and therefor no crash.

 

3. If you are injured or captured you will lose time.  Time lost depends on the extent of the injury.  The extent of pilot injury is recorded in the logs so PWCG knows how badly you were hurt in the mission.  PWCG, by default, is not "dead is dead".  Death and capture are downgraded to serious wounds, causing your pilot to miss time but still be usable.  With a config setting PWCG can be set to "dead is dead" mode, meaning that capture or death end the career.

 

5. I always finish my mission before going back to PWCG, but I don't think that you have to.  As long as the mission logs exist PWCG is happy.

 

6. Your narrative is stored.  Looks like the first section of the combat report is pushing it off the screen.

 

Air to air victories must be claimed. Ground victories are assigned automatically based on logs so no need to claim.  

 

 

[Skipper-]

On my last mission, I was shot down and crashed in enemy territory.

I was hoping that I would still be awarded my kills but when I click 'Start Debrief', nothing happens. 

I can choose the next mission, which is 5 months later. Is this what you meant in 3. above?

 

Regarding 6. narrative, I must have made a mistake because the narrative for the second mission was saved.

 

I looked in the squadron journal to see what has happened and there was a lot of repetition (bug?) and I had also been awarded the red star but did not know as I had crashed. Would it be possible to still have a 'Debrief' even if you crash and are missing for a time?

 

It would also be great if there was a rollover tooltip on the awards, if that's possible?

 

PCWG is just what I was looking for after reading 'Red Star agains the Swastika' so a big thank you for your time and hard work.

 

Edited August 2, 2018 by Skipper-

[Skipper-]

I am slowly getting the hang of PWCG and it is a great addition to IL-2.

I am missing notification of medals though. I just got another medal and knew nothing about it until I checked my Pilots menu and the awards box. I cannot see any notification of when I received it or what for though. As before, the Squadron Journal is just full of pages of repetition making it a chore to click through.

 

Edited August 2, 2018 by Skipper-

[PatrickAWlson]

Keep reporting Skipper.  I appreciate the feedback.  Any issues found will be noted and fixed ... hopefully soon.  I am going to release a fix for "too many ground units" soon.  That bug fix was actually a significant code rewrite.  After that I will do a cleanup round before starting on coop improvements.