My Career's sudden demise.

[dburne]

I had a great Career going in Bodenplatte with my Spit Mk IX.

Many missions, many air and ground victories.

 

Just had an attack mission on a railway junction, mission went well with no enemy aircraft around, and we headed back home after missions successful message.

While still no enemies showing on the large map, I set autolevel on and proceeded to increase the speed and relax. Well was looking around as I was getting close to base all

of a sudden I am shot and spinning toward the ground. Quickly hit Pause, then finish mission. Report showed me with a successful mission and all appeared well, so clicked on finish

only to find out I was dead. Too late now to restart the mission. I guess a 190 or 109 followed me all the way back and got caught up to me without me noticing.

 

Guess it would have been nice to have seen what the outcome was going to be before I clicked finish so I could restart the mission.

Ah well, will get a new one started here soon.  I was so enjoying that one though.

[Jason_Williams]

War is hell. At least you're not really dead.

 

Jason

[rowdyb00t]

 A couple years ago I had a Stalingrad career nearly halfway finished when I had three laggs follow me back to Pitomik. I got one shot down running myself out of ammo. So now, I was trying to distract the others from shooting down my squadron while they did there landing thing . Buzzing in front of them and baiting them to fly through the airfield AAA, I got de-winged about 300 m.  Sadly to low to bail. I tried to soften the spin but to no avail. Poor Maximilian didn’t survive. War is truly Hell. 

[ShamrockOneFive]

IMHO, I think the attachment to your virtual pilot in career mode is the peak of what that way of playing IL-2 can offer. I've had a few careers that weren't all that memorable but I have one going right now that I'm very attached to and am trying to really be careful with surviving each and every mission. Francis Hall of No. 3 RAF squadron is currently flying the Rhineland campaign and it's been so much fun. I will be mortified if and when the end eventually comes (I always play 'iron man' mode).

 

Back when career mode came out I flew a reasonably lengthy career with 812 IAP in Yak-1B's until I got a bit sloppy and crashed into the Black Sea during a dogfight. I even wrote about it

https://stormbirds.blog/2018/08/27/il-2-carer-mode-rip-lukyan-bykov/

[MasserME262]

3 hours ago, dburne said:

[...]

I set autolevel on and proceeded to increase the speed and relax.

[...]

well the basic principle of this game when playing against AI: never relax if you want to survive 

[WheelwrightPL]

Don't get too attached. One random high-calibre bullet to your pilot is all it takes. I had two longrunning careers terminated this way, one death right after another. Hundreds of hours invested.  I think pilot sniping needs to be toned down.

[dburne]

6 hours ago, WheelwrightPL said:

Don't get too attached. One random high-calibre bullet to your pilot is all it takes. I had two longrunning careers terminated this way, one death right after another. Hundreds of hours invested.  I think pilot sniping needs to be toned down.

 

Yeah very true. I had moved closer to the front, had many missions under my belt and was looking forward to making it all the way through.

I guess it would have been nice when not playing Iron Man if I had some indication in the summary screen showing number of ground and air kills I had along with objectives met  before clicking finish that my pilot would be dead.

[Lusekofte]

Getting attached to ones virtual life is key to fully enjoy a sp career/ campaign. 
Risk is frustration and quarrel with wife when things go south

[FlyingH]

Even worse though is getting the message "Executet for war chrimes!" as I got with my pilot in my first Moscow career after having survived until beginning of mars 1942! Never got an explenation on the charges. Finally I figured out about screenshots! (took a while)My most sucsessfl pilot so far. Piotr Hedmanski, his sudden and unexpected demise after a very sucsessful career was astonishing. I think there were some false accusations coocked up by the NKVD! 

Edited January 16, 2020 by FlyingH

[Ram399]

My first 4 Careers I never made it past Moscow lol.

Currently 120 hours in on the 5th Career in Kuban and practically suffering from PTSD at this point.
Had my left wing get torn off back in Stalingrad at around 200 meters altitude by grazing head-on collision with an enemy La-5.
I had enough time before it broke to look left and watch my disfigured wing slowly bending upwards. 
Thought I was a goner for sure, but managed to stand enough on the right rudder to survive a hard impact with the ground.
Didn't play again for a solid week after that.

[PatrickAWlson]

If I played actual dead is dead I would never make it past Moscow.  Kind of like my lone excursion into paintball. Outdoors in the woods.  Great fun, but I got shot in the face a couple of times.  Tells me all I need to know about how an actual deployment would go.  

[1/JSpan_Wind75]

I have explained it in several posts. I have been flying "Career Mode" for a long time and at the beginning I flew a couple of them in Iron Man and I can assure you that it is practically impossible to finish such a career.

 

Now I fly them without Iron Man and if I have had to jump or there has been an accident where I am not to blame, I first look at the map of the mission route and only after making sure that I have not fallen into enemy territory (Captured) I give to finish If I don't press the reset button. What I do is punish myself and if I accidentally died or had to jump on top of the frontier border, I stopped flying that day as a penalty.

 

But in Iron Man it is practically impossible to finish a pilot career flying against AI. And it is very desperate to be finishing a career and having to start it again. So I recommend not flying them in Iron Man.

[Fastbikkel]

I always fly iron man.

But yeah, getting killed also gives me mixed feelings, but it is part of the sim.

 

I am actually kind of nervous when i do ground attack missions as well, that AAA intimidates me more than in any other sim before.

And the noise it makes when it hits you!

 

My most vivid memory is a mission i did with the HS-129, attacking a train.

Made a few passes with success. Then when i extended from a pass, i got hit by AAA.

At first it didn't seem so bad, just a scratch i thought.

But then the right wing came off completely. Geeez, the shock!

I was way too low to bail out and died in a huge explosion.

Honestly i was staring at my screen silently for a few minutes, trying to get my head around what just happened.

[MadKerbal]

My most recent campaign was in the JU52. I was evading an entire flight of LA-5s at low level and much to my joy had noticed they were turning away for home, I then looked forward to see a Tree directly in my flight path...

 

Thankfully the crash was survivable, but I was still behind the Soviet lines, so my war ended there in an embarrassing manner.

Edited January 15, 2020 by MadKerbal

[LLv24_SukkaVR]

I shot down 109 over enemy territory and as he bailed out his canopy struck my prop. We parachuted and landed right next to each other. For me plane parts and trees are more dangerous than bullets.

[Fastbikkel]

1 hour ago, LLv24_Sukka24 said:

I shot down 109 over enemy territory and as he bailed out his canopy struck my prop. We parachuted and landed right next to each other. For me plane parts and trees are more dangerous than bullets.

 

Would be cool to have a handgun and shoot the guy between the eyes. After all, it is war ya know ?

[dburne]

Yesterday I was flying a Spit Mk IX ground attack mission in my new Career I had started in Bodenplatte.

Our flight of six successfully bombed the airfield and made the long journey back to our base.

I kept a close eye on the large map to insure we did not get jumped on the way back.

 

Then as we set up for landing and we're giving the go ahead to begin landing, I hear the sirens going off. Check and sure enough there is a flight of four 109's headed straight for us.

I am on final so I pull up my gear and flaps and go full boost to begin to attack the enemy fighters.

However of course, the AI had already begun the landing routine so they all stayed lined up and landing.

So there I was one against four, and it was not pretty.

 

It would be nice if they could fix it to when this does happen - and it happens more than I would like - that the rest of my flight would disengage from their

landings and engage the enemy flight as well.

 

 

[MasserME262]

1 hour ago, LLv24_Sukka24 said:

I shot down 109 over enemy territory and as he bailed out his canopy struck my prop. We parachuted and landed right next to each other. For me plane parts and trees are more dangerous than bullets.

Definitely. I love the "fear" I feel when attacking someone: I know I can die as soon as I kill him lol

[Fastbikkel]

53 minutes ago, dburne said:

It would be nice if they could fix it to when this does happen - and it happens more than I would like - that the rest of my flight would disengage from their

landings and engage the enemy flight as well.

 

 

Yeah it's like they say "let him sort it out, im going to drink tea laced with rum".

[kendo]

1 hour ago, dburne said:

I am on final so I pull up my gear and flaps and go full boost to begin to attack the enemy fighters.

However of course, the AI had already begun the landing routine so they all stayed lined up and landing.

So there I was one against four, and it was not pretty.

 

It would be nice if they could fix it to when this does happen - and it happens more than I would like - that the rest of my flight would disengage from their

landings and engage the enemy flight as well.

 

The effect of an AI programming change here would be great  - very immersive to see the rest of your flight raise landing gear and take strong evasive action.

 

Hope the AI programmer is reading. ?

 

[dburne]

Ugh.

Just flew a relocation mission in the Spit Mk IX.

Encountered a flight of 4 190's on the way and I disposed three of them, wingman got the other one.

Made a successful landing on the new airfield.

Clicked on finish mission, end result shows I was Missing in Action and reports me captured.

Hence new Career over.

 

[Fastbikkel]

9 minutes ago, dburne said:

Ugh.

Just flew a relocation mission in the Spit Mk IX.

Encountered a flight of 4 190's on the way and I disposed three of them, wingman got the other one.

Made a successful landing on the new airfield.

Clicked on finish mission, end result shows I was Missing in Action and reports me captured.

Hence new Career over.

 

Oh man, that is very bad and demotivating as well.

[dburne]

16 minutes ago, Fastbikkel said:

Oh man, that is very bad and demotivating as well.

 

Yeah that one sure was, thankfully I was only around 10 missions into it.

Going to start a new one and see how she goes.

[Varibraun]

I know it doesn't solve any of these issues (sorry for your loss Dburne), but a nice thing about PWCG when playing Ironman is that at least your same squadron mates live on and you can then rejoin them with a new pilot at that point in the war.  That really adds another reason to help your squadron progress and to protect your mates.  It's nice to see your exec as the squadron leader when you return with your new guy and to have your rookie flying with the aces your RIP pilot helped train along the way.  (This is a feature on my wish list for the in-game Career).

 

With this Ironman spirit in mind, I started using a naming convention for my PWCG pilots.  Same first name, and then progressing the last name alphabetically when I inevitably lose my pilot.  This gives me some some sobering perspective along the way through the campaign (I am only happy to say that I haven't hit a "Z"...yet).    

[PatrickAWlson]

8 hours ago, dburne said:

Ugh.

Just flew a relocation mission in the Spit Mk IX.

Encountered a flight of 4 190's on the way and I disposed three of them, wingman got the other one.

Made a successful landing on the new airfield.

Clicked on finish mission, end result shows I was Missing in Action and reports me captured.

Hence new Career over.

 

 

Damn SNAFU from above sending you to an enemy airfield.  Didn't update their maps that morning.  Hopefully the Germans will enjoy the perfectly intact Spits that you delivered for them  

[dburne]

1 hour ago, PatrickAWlson said:

 

Damn SNAFU from above sending you to an enemy airfield.  Didn't update their maps that morning.  Hopefully the Germans will enjoy the perfectly intact Spits that you delivered for them  

 

Lol probably so...

[Gambit21]

10 hours ago, dburne said:

Ugh.

Just flew a relocation mission in the Spit Mk IX.

Encountered a flight of 4 190's on the way and I disposed three of them, wingman got the other one.

Made a successful landing on the new airfield.

Clicked on finish mission, end result shows I was Missing in Action and reports me captured.

Hence new Career over.

 

 

Can you send me that .mgen file please?

[dburne]

11 hours ago, Gambit21 said:

 

Can you send me that .mgen file please?

 

Not sure I understand which file?

In looking in the data/Missions folder, I  see a _gen.Mission file, however the time stamp would seem it reflects the last mission I flew, which would be from a new career I had started and flown some missions in?

[Gambit21]

Ahh...ok.

Yes only the most current mission is saved there.

[dburne]

3 hours ago, Gambit21 said:

Ahh...ok.

Yes only the most current mission is saved there.

 

Ok if it should happen again, I will be sure and save that file.

[Sublime]

My worst incident was when I started playing. Between waypoints Id set full autopilot and watch until combat. Now I just use alt hold at most.

Anyways the ai legit just.. went into a 45 degree dive and augered in. I was lookong away look bacm and Hans is suicidal and I didnt un autopilot fast enough to beat the compression from the dive. Boom.