[MOD] BoBP East - career MOD

[eastriverman]

On 10/12/2019 at 4:40 PM, sevenless said:

 

JSGME is pretty easy. Install it in the root directory of your game and create a folder called MODS. Within this MODS folder place all mods you are using. Important point to have the mod working is that the subfolder of the mod is the data folder like in the pic shown below.

 

What JSGME does, and all it does, is take the contents of the mod folder and copy paste them to the games root folder according to the folder structure in that mod folder.

 

 

 

HiHo Sevenless,

 

I installed your MOD in the way you described using JSGME and it worked. To check it out I startet a new career as german fighter pilot in III./JG 52.

 

There seems to be a problem with the skins of some of the american planes. Normally they should have the default skins and this the case with the planes I saw during the first few combat missions (P-47,P-38, Tempest, Spit IX, not P-51) I flew upt to now.

 

But scanning the neighbourhood with LStrg-F2  for enemies in y last mission I saw weird things going on (see screenshots).

 

It looks as if skins for russian planes were put onto the 3D- models of american planes for some of the russian squadrons. Wrong skin links perhaps?

 

Besides from that I have a proposal/request:

 

Starting the career at the earliest time possible as a NCO means to fly every mission you are assigned to with the plane assigned to you. That mean one has to fly missions in mediocre mid-war planes (Bf 109G-6 and Fw 190A-8) against superior late-war planes like P-39, P-47, P-51, Tempest and Spit IX. That's is, let's say, quite challenging even for a seasoned flyer like me.

 

This is because the newer Bf 109G-14 and the Fw 190D-9 are only available in small numbers in german squadron at the beginning. The Bf 109K-4 isn't avaible at all in the beginning, one can fly it only in later phases of the battle.

 

So, can the availability in german fighter squadrons changed to G-14 & K-4 and Fw-190D-9 only right from the beginning?

 

It woud make my life in that career a lot easier than now, where my main task consists of not being killed in my poor G-6 by allied "uber-planes" ?

 

best regards

eastriverman

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sevenless]

4 minutes ago, eastriverman said:

It looks as if skins for russian planes were put onto the 3D- models of american planes for some of the russian squadrons. Wrong skin links perhaps?

 

Hey thanks mate. I need to check this, because I did not enter any links for skins. But maybe those are the default ones, which of course don´t fit anymore to the BoBP planes. I check that. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

As for your suggestion to start with the high-performing german crates from the start on a given map. I´ll look into it and try to setup at least one squadron per map which features the fancy stuff right from the start. Other solution, of course is, to start as squadron commander to assign the fancy planes to yourself.

[eastriverman]

10 minutes ago, sevenless said:

 

Hey thanks mate. I need to check this, because I did not enter any links for skins. But maybe those are the default ones, which of course don´t fit anymore to the BoBP planes. I check that. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

As for your suggestion to start with the high-performing german crates from the start on a given map. I´ll look into it and try to setup at least one squadron per map which features the fancy stuff right from the start. Other solution, of course is, to start as squadron commander to assign the fancy planes to yourself.

HiHo again,

 

thanks a lot for the quick response.

 

You are right with your remark that starting as a squadron commander is a hotfix for this problem.

 

Unfortunately, my alter ego was downgraded to "Oberfeldwebel" after refusing to assist in a mass execution organized by the SS (no joke!!). Or as we say in Germany: "Er war kein Nazi".

 

Moreover, as a "collector" I'm addicted to starting from the ranks and earning all those promotions and medals ?

 

best regards

eastriverman

[eastriverman]

22 hours ago, sevenless said:

 

Hey thanks mate. I need to check this, because I did not enter any links for skins. But maybe those are the default ones, which of course don´t fit anymore to the BoBP planes. I check that. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

As for your suggestion to start with the high-performing german crates from the start on a given map. I´ll look into it and try to setup at least one squadron per map which features the fancy stuff right from the start. Other solution, of course is, to start as squadron commander to assign the fancy planes to yourself.

Greeting sevenless,

 

I'm afraid I have to bother you with another problem.

 

With your MOD, certain escort missions do not work anymore.

 

These are escort missions for Fw 190A-5s which are labelled as bomber escort missions. Without the MOD in the the original BoK, the A-5 is used by only one german unit exclusively as ground attacker ("Schlachtflugzeug") and NOT as bomber.

 

Investigating further I noticed that the A-5s did not carry any bombs and there were no bomb racks attached, i.e. they flew in a clean fighter configuration.

 

Arriving at the target they, lacking bombs to drop, they didn't attack any ground targets and were just circling over the target.

 

The do it for a long time whilst some of them were shot down by AAA and in the end I got the message that my own fuel would run out in 10 minutes.

 

With the option to stay with the A-5s until my fuel runs out over enemy territory or to return to home base I chose the latter one but after landing the mission was marked as failure.

 

Another hint for a wrong assignment as a bomber was, that the A-5s did not use the typical low altitude attack scheme of ground attackers at an altitude of some hundred meters but he typical bomber attack scheme at an altitude of 2000 meters.

 

Probably the wrong designation as a bomber hindered the A-5 to complete the mission?

 

Up to now I had to fly this type of mission twice with and the outcome was identical.

 

In the original BoK, He 111s, Ju 88s and Ju 87s are bombers, while the Hs 129, the Bf-110, the Bf-109E-7 and the Fw 190A-5 are ground attackers.

 

Additionally, I did not experience these problem flying missions without the MOD.

 

There are clues that this  bomber/ground attacker problem exists for some VVS units as well.

 

Can I ask you to check this issue?

 

best regards
eastriverman

[sevenless]

42 minutes ago, eastriverman said:

 

Can I ask you to check this issue?

 

best regards
eastriverman

 

Hiho,

 

yes that is somehow to be expected and can´t be helped without editing the underlying mission structure itself. In other words, this and other oddities which occur due to simply switching the assigned plane of a unit to another plane can´t be helped by yours truly. I guess you see the same with the Me 262s I assigned to KG 51 in BoS/BoK and KG54 in BoM. And I guess you also see this where former IL-2s have been replaced by P47s, A20s, P51s and Spitfires. In those units it is advised to be the sqd commander and take care of the loadout of your sqd mates. This is a limitation you have to live with.

Edited October 14, 2019 by sevenless

[eastriverman]

10 minutes ago, sevenless said:

 

Hiho,

 

yes that is somehow to be expected and can´t be helped without editing the underlying mission structure itself. In other words, this and other oddities which occur due to simply switching the assigned plane of a unit to another plane can´t be helped by yours truly. I guess you see the same with the Me 262s I assigned to KG 51 in BoS/BoK and KG54 in BoM. And I guess you also see this where former IL-2s have been replaced by P47s, A20s, P51s and Spitfires. This is a limitation you have to live with.

Bom dia, sevenless!

 

Hmmmm, let me see if I understood this correctly.....

 

Can this problem be bypassed by leaving all ground attacker squadrons alone, i.e. let them fly with their original equipment in their original role and switch only the fighter squadrons to american fighters?

 

A change of planes in bomber squadrons seems to create no problems as mentioned in earlier posts.

 

Perhaps even a funny "what if" scenario can be created by switching only some of the fighter squadrons to american planes. Then, as a german fighter pilot you can fight against a russo-american force consisting of american and russian fighter as well.

 

Could this be done with your approach?

 

Sorry, just curious

eastriverman

[sevenless]

54 minutes ago, eastriverman said:

Bom dia, sevenless!

 

Hmmmm, let me see if I understood this correctly.....

 

Can this problem be bypassed by leaving all ground attacker squadrons alone, i.e. let them fly with their original equipment in their original role and switch only the fighter squadrons to american fighters?

 

A change of planes in bomber squadrons seems to create no problems as mentioned in earlier posts.

 

Perhaps even a funny "what if" scenario can be created by switching only some of the fighter squadrons to american planes. Then, as a german fighter pilot you can fight against a russo-american force consisting of american and russian fighter as well.

 

Could this be done with your approach?

 

Sorry, just curious

eastriverman

 

Hiho,

 

yes in theory that can be done. If you take care to only replace fighters with fighters and bombers with bombers, in theory everything should work without hickups, except there is the case when bomber2 needs a different mission structure than bomber1 because, perhaps bomber 2 has a different bomb loadout than bomber 1 has, or fighter2 needs another mission structure for a ground attack than fighter1 which it replaces because of different weapon loadouts. Basically you can only find out with playtesting unit by unit you edited and that will eat up a lot of time.
 

Quote

 

These are escort missions for Fw 190A-5s which are labelled as bomber escort missions. Without the MOD in the the original BoK, the A-5 is used by only one german unit exclusively as ground attacker ("Schlachtflugzeug") and NOT as bomber.

 

 

IIRC I replaced one unit which was equipped with HS129 with Fw190 A5s. Was it in BoK or in another module?

 

I added the Fw190-A5 to II./St.G.2 in addition to the Ju87, so this unit has both planes across the entire timeframe. Are you flying for III./JG52? I guess I`ll delete the 190s there again.

Edited October 14, 2019 by sevenless

[sevenless]

Update v8d - 14/10/19:

 

Another small update:

If you select III./JG 52 in the BoK career, you can fly Bf109-G14 or -K4 right from the beginning and don´t have to use the trusty old Bf109-G6 against the allied planes.

 

Update v8c - 14/10/19:

 

Small update:

Fixed some undesired unit behaviour with II./St.G 2 in BoK by deleting the Fw190-A5 from this unit. II./St.G 2 now only has Ju87 planes available. Thanks to eastriverman  for catching that. Additionally increased the number of units flying the B25D bomber in BoK.

 

updated file attached:

 

BoBP_East_V8d.zip

Edited October 14, 2019 by sevenless

[eastriverman]

On 10/14/2019 at 9:06 PM, sevenless said:

Update v8d - 14/10/19:

 

Another small update:

If you select III./JG 52 in the BoK career, you can fly Bf109-G14 or -K4 right from the beginning and don´t have to use the trusty old Bf109-G6 against the allied planes.

 

Update v8c - 14/10/19:

 

Small update:

Fixed some undesired unit behaviour with II./St.G 2 in BoK by deleting the Fw190-A5 from this unit. II./St.G 2 now only has Ju87 planes available. Thanks to eastriverman  for catching that. Additionally increased the number of units flying the B25D bomber in BoK.

 

updated file attached:

 

BoBP_East_V8d.zip 84.07 kB · 4 downloads

Man, you are really a fast one! ?

 

I'm very much obliged to you for spending some of your private quality time to fix the MOD.

 

The least I can do in return is to act as a tester.

 

I had only time to do 2 missions with the latest fix (V8d) and found the following:

 

(1) Recommendation: Always use JSGME, de-activate the old version first, then ativate the current version.

 

(2) With the latest fix, better start over the career instead of continuing an existing one. Reason is: For example, if you started the career in III./JG 52 at Taman airfield as a squadron commander (rank major) in V8c, you could choose between G-6 and G-14. Continuing then with V8d, you still can only choose between G-6 and G-14. On the other hand, starting a new career  as commander in V8d, then III./52 is the only squadron giving you the choice between G-14 and K-4.

 

(3) Did not notice skins issues anymore until now (good news) in the latest fix.

 

(4) Recommendation: As a german fighter pilot I've already done a complete war time career (BoM, BoS, Bok) in real time, ending up with 500+ aerial victories and using unit transfers to get access to Bf 109 and Fw 190 fighter as well and in the end my choice was the Bf 109 when one learns to become an expert in combat flying and deflection shooting.

 

The Bf 109 has a superior climb rate compared to any other plane, the stalling behavior is gentle and one can still do some careful manoeuvering in the stalling region in order to gain the upper hand. The weak arming of the early types can be pimped with underwing gun pods. The later types, starting with the G-6, have a superior arming when using the upgrade option with a 30mm MK 108, which is a terrifying weapon. One hit on a fighter can blast off a wing or the rear part of the fuselage. Against bombers one or two additional hits have similar effects, reducing the time in the bomber's defense fire significantly.

 

Especially "the flying tank" becomes an easy prey.

 

With the MK108, the Bf 109s arming is superior to that of the Fw 190s. Only the Me 262 with four MK 108s is more heavily armed.  The final queen is the K-4. She conserves the advantages of the earlier variants and she's faster than the D-9 and even faster than the P-51:

 

 

On the other hand, the Fw 190s are more rugged and more heavily armed than the early Bf 109s, but they thave a very abrupt stalling behavior and it's more difficult to get out of a stall in a Fw 190. Both can get  you killed when a stall happens at low altitude. Finally, the Fw 190s have a poor climb rate compared to the Bf 109 and most allied planes as well.

 

Ok, that's all for today.

 

Again, thumbs up for sevenless and his MOD.

 

best regards

eastriverman

 

 

 

[sevenless]

15 hours ago, eastriverman said:

Ok, that's all for today.

 

Again, thumbs up for sevenless and his MOD.

 

best regards

eastriverman

 

 

Thanks a lot for your feedback!

[eastriverman]

5 hours ago, sevenless said:

 

Thanks a lot for your feedback!

HiHo again, sevenless!

 

After 2 more missions with the k-4 there's more info:

 

 

Obviously there's still a partial problem with skins. I saw P-47s doing ground attacks with proper skins (see screenshot). But upon intercepting ground attackers, the marked targets (red rectangles) were P-38s having the "skin disease" (see killshot).

 

On earlier occasions I noticed P-47s and P-38s with proper skins, too and up to now Spit IXs and Tempests always had proper skins. Thus, there's no general problem with the skins of P-47s and P-38s.

 

Probably is has something to do with the designation of the american BoBP planes by the game. If the all are defined as fighters, they can fly occasional ground attack missions but if you put them into ground attack units originally equipped with IL-2s, then a problem with skins may arise.

 

Testing this "theory" I looked through the description of the VVS units active in April 1943 and found that you replaced the russian planes in fighter units (IAPs and GIAPs) as well as in ground attack units (GShAPs and ShAPs).

 

Perhaps the problem can be curtailed by creating a test version of the MOD in which you  replace russian planes by american planes only in fighter units, i.e. IAPs and GIAPs and leave all ground attack units (GShAPs and ShAPs) untouched. Then IL-2s should show up with american fighter escorts and all should have the proper skins if my "theory" is correct. If so, then the improper skins in the current version of the MOD should be IL-2 skins plastered on the american planes......

 

Up to now I saw in my missions no P-51s and no B-25s. Again, if my theory is correct, there should be no problems with the P-51s, since you assigned them to fighter units only.

 

Flying missions with the K-4, I noticed another change. Using auto pilot, all planes follow the mission's waypoints with the defined speed and altitude but the K-4s display some sort of "Befehlsverweigerung" by flying in a much higher altitude. For example, in a recon intercept mission the predefined altitude is 6000 meters , but the K-4 fly at an enormous altitude of 10.500 meters (screenshot). In a mixed flight of G-14s and K-4s the G-14s  follow orders while the K-4s fly higher. So, this is a bit strange but it does not break the mission.

 

So far for my latest findings.

 

best regards

eastriverman

 

[BlitzFromBehind]

Relatively new to IL-2 GB (80hrs). I wan't to fly the G-14 over Moscow but even if I'm the unit leader I can't change to the G-14 and I'm stuck with the K-4. Any tips on how to change that.

Edited December 3, 2020 by BlitzFromBehind

[sevenless]

19 minutes ago, BlitzFromBehind said:

Relatively new to IL-2 GB (80hrs). I wan't to fly the G-14 over Moscow but even if I'm the unit leader I can't change to the G-14 and I'm stuck with the K-4. Any tips on how to change that.

 

Sorry, but I abandoned that mod when BoBP was released. Only supported MOD by me is [MOD] Extended Il2 BoX careers - Mods - IL-2 Sturmovik Forum.

[BlitzFromBehind]

Any chance on giving me tips how to remove planes that are in bobp from this mod? Kinda wanna be op on my part. 

[sevenless]

8 minutes ago, BlitzFromBehind said:

Any chance on giving me tips how to remove planes that are in bobp from this mod? Kinda wanna be op on my part. 

 

Sure. It is actually not that hard to do. You need un-gtp.exe to extract the *.cfg files from the compressed *.gtp files and Notepad++ software to edit the *.cfg files yourself. You can find those apps via google.

 

Once you have extracted the necessary  *.cfg.files (13 is BoM, 14 is BoS, 15 is BoK, 18 is BoBP, per game you need 4 *.cfg files: "skins" "squadrons" "Xskins" and "Xsquadrons") you can follow this rough explanation for swapping a Me 262 for a Fw190 in that Kuban mod Crigby46 ist talking about below. Or you could just take my V12 MOD and start from there and swap out the Bf109E7 in BoM and replace it with a G14. The mechanism for swapping one plane in and another out is the same for every given plane. You could also edit selected squadrons and simply add additional planes without replacing the existing ones. However you need to get familiar with notepad++ and the file structure first, so learning by doing is what you have to do for the start:

 

Quote

 

Look at your data/graphics/skins folder, as the way the aircraft are listed there is the way you'll need to refer to them in the files you'll be modding.

 

 Get notepad++, it's free and it'll open almost anything. Now, copy the 262 over Kuban mod, and rename the copy something like "A5 over Kuban".

 Next is the fun part;

Open in turn each file in your A5 over Kuban mod with notepad++, hit ctrl+F, and click onto the "replace" tab.

 

 You want to replace Me262A in the upper text input field with, at a guess, Fw190a5 (again, you can find out for sure what to put here by copying the designation used in the skins directory). Hit "replace all", and save the file. There should be four files in total, "skins" "squadrons" "Xskins" and "Xsquadrons". 

 

 If those instructions are okay, that'll let you swap the 262 for an A5 in Kuban; 

 

 

Crigby46 also explains some additional stuff here:

 

Me-262 over Stalingrad - Mods - IL-2 Sturmovik Forum

[BlitzFromBehind]

Thanks man!