Cold starts

[dburne]

@Murleen

 

24 missions into my cold start Spit campaign, everything still working quite well!

 

One observation - you had commented earlier that you noticed the Spit AI taxied pretty fast to the runway.

I have notice, when we are parked near the end we are to taxi to, the AI taxis normal at a reasonable slow speed.

However if we are to taxi to the opposite far end of the runway, then the leader and any planes in front of me taxi at a much faster speed.

Don't know if it is a timing thing for them to get there or what. But of course they will still wait on me  and any behind me to get there before giving the take off order - at least has not been an issue for me.

[dburne]

@Murleen

 

Check out the attached mission file.

The mission was an attack enemy airfield mission, and our Spit flight in Kuban was assigned to fly to the target around 1,000 ft altitude.

The mission actually started with our flight of four in air start around 6,000 ft.

 

I now have 40 missions under my belt in Cold Start version. Every time it has worked beautifully, with the exception of this last mission.

Loving the cold starts, don't think I can go back to runway starts any more.

Have to be careful when learning how to line up once taxied to runway, guess there is sort of a box our plane has to be in to get

takeoff clearance, otherwise the leader never takes off. Think I have that down pat now, so no issue there.

 

 

 

 

Dburne Spit II 1943-05-11.zip

Edited May 22, 2019 by dburne

[Murleen]

I've seen this before, I don't think it's actually related to the cold start option. I think there's a bug somewhere which can cause your pilot to be placed in the mission twice - if you start the mission and then cycle through camera views of friendly planes, you should come across a second you sitting in the parking area. Because it's sporadic, I've not had much luck tracking it down so far.

[dburne]

10 minutes ago, Murleen said:

I've seen this before, I don't think it's actually related to the cold start option. I think there's a bug somewhere which can cause your pilot to be placed in the mission twice - if you start the mission and then cycle through camera views of friendly planes, you should come across a second you sitting in the parking area. Because it's sporadic, I've not had much luck tracking it down so far.

 

Ah ok thanks, I will keep that in mind if it happens again.

[Lezren]

So I have 5.1.3, is cold start available, or do I have to use the 6.0 alpha for this??

[dburne]

6 hours ago, Lezren said:

So I have 5.1.3, is cold start available, or do I have to use the 6.0 alpha for this??

 

You can download the Cold Start stand alone version from the PWCG site, it is using one of the 5.x.x versions.

I have  flown about 40 missions in it without issue - going to start with the version 6 Alpha probably tomorrow, which combines cold start into it.

 

Edit: Have a look earlier in this thread for the download link for Cold Start using version 5:

But really, feedback from as many as can on Version 6 I am sure would be greatly appreciated.

Edited May 23, 2019 by dburne

[Lezren]

Just wanted to say, so far with v6 the cold start is pretty damn good.  I really enjoying the immersive experience that it brings.  Great work from both of you!!

 

The only issue I would say (and this isn't really a cold start issue) is when you're on the runway and starting up.  You can be attacked and wiped out before you ever get a chance to take off.  I would say it's more realistic, but the attack is pretty obviously not random since it happens every-time (even after restarting the mission).  On a normal start, the attack would be timed to around when your squadron is first airborne or in the climb pattern.

 

It definitely seems like the mission is setup to be used with an in-flight or runway start, since the attack happens around the time our squadron finally taxis to the runway.

 

Also, for some reason when I do get off the ground, ditch the payload, and get a kill on one of the 110s I don't get the credit for the kill.  On 2 different occasions (different missions, same situation) the 110 ditched near the airfield after severe damage.  This may be an issue with the game however, if AAA shot him after he landed or something.

 

Mission is in the P40 (126th) and usually a ground attack with 2 bf110s attacking about 10min into startup/taxi.

Missions.zip

[PatrickAWlson]

@Lezren Short version: acknowledged and I will do something about it.

 

Long version: I had code in PWCG that determined enemy proximity to your base and eliminated most of the enemy flights that would spawn right on top of you.  When I went to 6.0 I had to account for many player bases and decided that such an algorithm would cause me to eliminate pretty much every enemy flight.  I disabled that logic for now.  I want to do a better version that will work for both SP and coop and be better than the original.  Worst case I will bring the old algorithm back in for SP only, but I have some ideas that I think will make it better for any scenario.

[Murleen]

23 hours ago, Lezren said:

Just wanted to say, so far with v6 the cold start is pretty damn good.  I really enjoying the immersive experience that it brings.  Great work from both of you!!

 

The only issue I would say (and this isn't really a cold start issue) is when you're on the runway and starting up.  You can be attacked and wiped out before you ever get a chance to take off.  I would say it's more realistic, but the attack is pretty obviously not random since it happens every-time (even after restarting the mission).  On a normal start, the attack would be timed to around when your squadron is first airborne or in the climb pattern.

 

It definitely seems like the mission is setup to be used with an in-flight or runway start, since the attack happens around the time our squadron finally taxis to the runway.

 

Also, for some reason when I do get off the ground, ditch the payload, and get a kill on one of the 110s I don't get the credit for the kill.  On 2 different occasions (different missions, same situation) the 110 ditched near the airfield after severe damage.  This may be an issue with the game however, if AAA shot him after he landed or something.

 

Mission is in the P40 (126th) and usually a ground attack with 2 bf110s attacking about 10min into startup/taxi.

Missions.zip 342.55 kB · 0 downloads

 

When you don't get the 110 kills, do you see the kills awarded to other planes in the PWCG AAR, and are they listed as killed in the in-game after mission map? I've seen some occasions where I've taken out one engine on a plane, and it's then crashed before making it back to an airfield, so the game counts it as "ditched" rather than killed.

 

If this is the case, it might be possible to count forced landings as "kills" in PWCG - if we did, would it only be forced landings on unfriendly soil?

[Lezren]

6 hours ago, Murleen said:

 

When you don't get the 110 kills, do you see the kills awarded to other planes in the PWCG AAR, and are they listed as killed in the in-game after mission map? I've seen some occasions where I've taken out one engine on a plane, and it's then crashed before making it back to an airfield, so the game counts it as "ditched" rather than killed.

  

If this is the case, it might be possible to count forced landings as "kills" in PWCG - if we did, would it only be forced landings on unfriendly soil?

 

I don't remember what the AAR said specifically, but it might just have counted as ditched like you said.  At least one of the instances I spoke of, the 110 soft landed and the gunner was still firing at me as I was circling/observing.

 

I had basically killed the 110 (shot both engines until they froze) but the game itself didn't even count that as my victory, to my surprise of course.  For that one, neither the game or PWCG gave me that victory?.

[I.JG3_CDRSEABEE]

BUG

 

Flying 109's (ground attack) from Karpovo. Second plane in line taxiing got stuck on boxes at the end of runway.

[Murleen]

1 hour ago, CDRSEABEE said:

BUG

 

Flying 109's (ground attack) from Karpovo. Second plane in line taxiing got stuck on boxes at the end of runway.

 

I'll take a look. What was the takeoff direction?

[I.JG3_CDRSEABEE]

4 minutes ago, Murleen said:

 

I'll take a look. What was the takeoff direction?

Taxi to the right from parking.