PWCG for Flying Circus

[ACG_Seb]

32 minutes ago, PatrickAWlson said:

No organized skin packs for WWI yet.  lots of skins but they are not organized or configured for use.

Thanks Pat, I'll start hunting!  Thanks for all your great work! 

[Muff_Huggar]

I am thoroughly confused and since no one else is reporting this as an issue, it must be me. I set up a campaign where the Role is Bomber. I create a mission and the Payload for all the planes is listed as bombs. I start up the game and load the mission and I have no bombs. None of the other planes in my group have bombs. I looked at the mission file and the only thing I see that may apply is the PayloadID. For me and the other planes, it is set to 2, which I assume means weapon set #2, which is probably the stock single gun. I edited the mission file and changed PayloadID to 3 (which I believe adds the Coopers), but in game I still have no bombs. I can, of course, change my setup before I start, but that only applies to me...the other planes in my group still don't have bombs. What am I doing wrong?

[BTTWJetJaguar]

I too am having the same prob Muff.  I didn't want to post about it yet as I have only just started using the generator and wanted to make sure it wasn't me doing some thing incorrectly.  But, I chose the Bristol F2B F.II and a bombing mission, but when I start the mission no one in the flight has bombs.

 

As a side note, I also cant seem to be able to set up any bombing campaign to play as the Germans.  Is this possible?

 

Also, huge thanks to Pat for getting this working with Flying Circus!

 

 

Edited November 15, 2019 by BTTWJetJaguar

[Picchio]

Heads-up (should FC have its own bug-tracking thread?): after checking a generated mission through the editor, I've seen that Amiens is missing the Cathedral, which was introduced with the recent official update.

[FTC_Snowy]

Thank you Pat for PWCG for Flying Circus! This is my first exposure to any of them and I am impressed. 

[Muff_Huggar]

I have some more information. I ran the official mission builder and opened one of the 7.2.0 missions. I found my plane in the list and double-clicked it to open it. I immediately saw that the WeaponsMod is set to 1. When you expand that to open the WeaponsMods, they all say "none." Payload is listed as 2 but, the adjacent box is blank. So I went back into the WeaponsMods setting and found that #6 is the one for bombs. I changed it from "none" to the BF2 bombs setting. As soon as that is clicked, WeaponsMods setting changes from 1 to 1000001 and the box adjacent to the Payload setting now has a selectable dropdown. From that dropdown, you can pick one of four different bomb setups (Cooper, HERL, etc.). If you save the mission, you can now run it and you'll have bombs by default. If you change the other pilots while you're doing yours, they will have bombs, too. 

 

I didn't compare the mission files closely between the one created by PWCG and the official mission builder, but one thing I saw was the PWCG version didn't have a line for each plane that said WMMASK = 100001. The PWCG version doesn't include that line at all. Adding it doesn't give you bombs though, so there must be more at play in the mission file to control this. For now I have an untested solution: run the official mission builder, open the PWCG mission file, change the payloads of the planes and resave. Note that I HAVE NOT fully tested a mission where I did this, so something else could be broken. I'll give it a whirl tonight.

[Muff_Huggar]

Well, that was a bust. All the planes had bombs. I followed them to see what happened and they flew over the target, banked left and headed back home with the bombs still firmly attached to the plane. There's probably another setting somewhere to tell them to actually drop the bombs, but I have no idea how to do that. So chalk this up as a failure.

[JGr2/J46_Sturm]

Hey Patrick,

 I have downloaded the latest version 7.2... and everything is installed. I create the mission and accept it. When I fly the mission I do not get credit for any kills after mission is completed. So I fill out the AAR and indicate the kill there but the after action report denies my claim. I know for certain I have killed the AI but it seems the game for what ever reason does not see it. Am I doing something wrong maybe.

Thanks for your help.

 

After uninstalling and re-installing 7.2.0 it seems to work fine now.

 

Also I watched your tutorials and they seem to clear things up while making the missions because now I can make the missions shorter by changing the way points and lower the altitude as close to the deck as I please. Also found out the way points do not change if you have unfinished business at that particular way point

 

Good content Thanks

[Blitzen]

I'm currently only trying to use this great utility with Flying Circus but have run into some difficulty.i am playing with VR so that might have something to do with it..I don't know. I have changed the line in "startup " , in my set up ;I have PWCGFC folder within my BoS main game folder & it contains all of the various folders that came with the download. the Exe works fine  and i can enter all my preferences for an allied RFC campaign and first mission.No problem ...but when I hit "Accept Mission" I get a very long rotating blue " installing circle and then get bounced back to "mission" page. There is no "start ' of mission or in fact of BoS.. Have I missed a step ? I am so close to getting this to work, but have hit some minor roadblock. I hate to be so dense but you you suggest a solution?

[Muff_Huggar]

PWCG doesn't start up IL-2 or automatically run the mission. You have to start IL-2 normally and select Mission. The mission you created will be listed there.

[Blitzen]

Ahah! BUT once I'm in the game either with or without VR headgear I can't seem to get back to desktop to start the PWCG. Is there a keystroke that will get me temporarily to desktop & back to game play? In CloD I can simply hit the windows key, but this doesn't work with BoS. Once started where will I find it to play it? do I need to do this same proceedure each time I decide to continue that career campaign?

[PatrickAWlson]

I take off my VR headset and use alt-tab to cycle through running programs and get back to PWCG. 

 

When I run on screen I run the game in a much smaller window.  That was recommended as a performance boost - why spend cycles updating a full screen when you are already spending the cycles in VR.  That has the added advantage of giving me some clickable screen real estate.

 

PWCG missions are under the "Missions" screen in the game.  

 

You do have to do this for every mission but you do not have to start/stop the game or PWCG.  

1, Run PWCG. (Est time 15 seconds)

2. Make a mission (Est time 5 minutes with binary mission creation, 2 minutes without)

3. Minimize PWCG (Est time 10 seconds or less)

4. Run Great Battles (Est time 30 seconds or less)

5. Fly mission (Est time 30 seconds with binary files, 5 minutes with text file)

6. Return to PWCG using alt-tab (Est time 10 seconds or less)

7. Submit combat report (Est time 1 minute if yo blow through it, more if you take the time to read what happened  )

 

For all of this the actual switching time is less than 60 seconds.  The rest of the time: creating a mission, flying a mission, doing the combat report, etc. would have to be done regardless (and it's supposed to be fun anyway)

 

For the next mission:

1. Make a mission in PWCG

2. Return to GB using alt-tab

3. Leave and return to the mission menu (if you are not on the mission menu just go there)

4.  Fly the mission

5. Return to PWCG using alt-tab

6. Submit combat report

7. repeat 1-6 for as many missions as you want to fly.

 

Here you shave off some time because the programs are already running.  My experience has been that neither PWCG nor switching is the time sink.  My time sinks are always "damn, forgot to set the audio to rift ... damn, rift put me into home and not IL2 ... damn, my controllers are not configured ..."

Edited November 18, 2019 by PatrickAWlson

[J2_Trupobaw]

4 hours ago, Blitzen said:

Ahah! BUT once I'm in the game either with or without VR headgear I can't seem to get back to desktop to start the PWCG. Is there a keystroke that will get me temporarily to desktop & back to game play? In CloD I can simply hit the windows key, but this doesn't work with BoS. Once started where will I find it to play it? do I need to do this same proceedure each time I decide to continue that career campaign?

The way that alwys works fo rme - Ctrl+Alt+Del, select Program manager, it sends you to desktop. Just remember to close it before going back to game.

[PatrickAWlson]

PWCG 7.3.0

No new features for FC but some bug fixes
Fixed bad .list files.  Delete .list file when making binaries
Fixed Aces cannot be added to a mission
Fixed unable to add German pilot to coop campaign
Improved binary file error handling

[greywulf]

Thanks Pat for all your hard work. Thank you!

[I.JG3_CDRSEABEE]

Getting numerous "Object unidentified". Only seems to happen when in a dog fight.

 

Also, instead of showing "Mission Completed" in green on map it says "balloon completed"

[JGr2/J46_Sturm]

S! Patrick, Love the missions generated. My question is when you change the waypoints while making your next mission, does the targets also update to match your waypoints or are they set? I made a mission and drastically changed the waypoints in order to have a shorter mission on a balloon busting mission but when I ran the mission I never saw the balloon. Do I need to leave the balloon waypoint alone?

[PatrickAWlson]

8 hours ago, J5_Sturm said:

S! Patrick, Love the missions generated. My question is when you change the waypoints while making your next mission, does the targets also update to match your waypoints or are they set? I made a mission and drastically changed the waypoints in order to have a shorter mission on a balloon busting mission but when I ran the mission I never saw the balloon. Do I need to leave the balloon waypoint alone?

 

Yes.  I should have the balloon WP as not changeable because PWCG will not move the balloon.  I already do that for bombing and attack missions. 

 

You can change the route but not the target.  Of course, some missions, especially fighter, are all route and no target - just attack what you see.

[1./KG4_EKat]

I just flew a 7.3.0 COOP campaign mission and shot down three SE5A's. When I tried to claim my kills, I was only offered balloons to claim. I created the campaign as a COOP 'competitive' campaign, but I have yet to create COOP slots for the British side and associate with pilots, only flying as German for now. Not sure if that would contribute to such a problem. No error was reported.

[Napping-Man]

This is probably a limitation of the BOX engine vs ROF, but is there anyway to prevent Central Powers Aircraft from flying over the lines into friendly territory so often?  Except for Recon/bombers. etc.  It seems that every time I take off, I'm intercepted by Tri-planes on my side of the lines.  I've set the Axis Fighter Mission to have no Offensive Missions, but they keep coming over.   I don't see an Axis CAP option other than Low-Alt...although Allied have a CAP mission available.

 

Maybe the AI on Patrol Missions (Over the Lines) just sees me from a long distance and engages?  Another BOX thing?  It seems a bit off (from a WWI perspective) to have all the fighting over the West side of the Front.

 

Again, not complaining...I realize you're trying to shoehorn an essentially WWII engine into a WWI frame.  Maybe FC will get some more love (Recon, Arty missions).  

 

Thanks for your hard work and attention...you really are the only hope for SP Flying Circus right now.  And ironically your were the only hope for Rise of Flight for the longest time as well!

[Blitzen]

Is there anyway to simplify the map flight plans? I seem to spend quite a bit of time circling around my own airfield before flying to the frony & thenflying a similar complex flight there as well.

Also ( this is my fault probably,but0 is there something I have to check to actually get enemy air activity during my patrols? If so i have missed it because my fist two patrols have come nowhere close to enemy aircraft and/or balloons..can you suggest an easy solution?

 

[Napping-Man]

Open your campaign.  Under Advanced Config---->Mission Limits:

 

Change "Generate Climb WPs" to 0.  No more circling around, but you may not have the time/distance to get to your patrol altitude.  

 

Also, on the first map screen, you can manually adjust Waypoints/Altitudes/Time of day/Fuel as well.

 

On the "Mission Limits" screen you can also increase the number of Enemy Aircraft generated. 

 

You can also do this under the "Simple Config" and set Air Density to "High".

[Blitzen]

Many thanks...I kinda remember this from quite awhile ago when the PWCG was first introduced...I'd let it go until now with FC...

[PatrickAWlson]

The problem with eliminating climb waypoints is that you will not be at altitude when you reach the front, with all of the consequences of always being lower than the other guy. 

 

One other option: you can also edit the waypoints such that the climb waypoints take you towards the front.  A straight line won't do any good but quite often I can come up with a way that allows the climb but does it more efficiently.

 

[Oorpii]

Pat,

after several missions I suddenly seem to have lost the option for a new mission. Combat report for the last has been done.

[71st_AH_Rob_XR-R]

Looks like your pilot is wounded and you could take leave until he is better and it should let you generate a new mission after he is healthy.

[Oorpii]

Right, thanks, I missed that.

[Picchio]

A bit off-topic, but I'd like to ask if you guys would recommend FC based on the single-player experience PWCG can offer at the moment. What do you think?

[JGr2/J46_Sturm]

yea depending on severity of wound it may take some time. I normally go on leave for lets say 15 days to start.

[Picchio]

 

On 12/3/2019 at 2:46 PM, Picchio said:

A bit off-topic, but I'd like to ask if you guys would recommend FC based on the single-player experience PWCG can offer at the moment. What do you think?

 

H-hello? 

Edited December 5, 2019 by Picchio

[PatrickAWlson]

6 hours ago, Picchio said:

 

 

H-hello? 

 

I think that for a fighter campaign it will be fun.  IMHO the biggest limitation right now is the fact that there is only 1 two seater per side, and definitely not the best ones for a single player campaign.  Other than that the fighter side is pretty well fleshed out September 1917 to end of war.

 

Two seater side is more sketchy.  The only planes available are the Bristol and Halberstadt.  Recon photo graphic is not available.  Artillery spot graphic is not available.    You will pretty much be doing bombing and attack missions.  

 

With the recent addition of ground units those are actually pretty nice.

[PatrickAWlson]

On 12/2/2019 at 5:30 AM, Oorpii said:

Pat,

after several missions I suddenly seem to have lost the option for a new mission. Combat report for the last has been done.

 

What AH Rob said - take leave to heal your pilot.  I used to do this automatically when PWCG was single player only.  With the advent of multiple human players I had to account for the scenario where on guys persona was wounded and the others were not.

 

The Leave screen should tell you how many days you have to take off.

 

@Picchio With the caveats from my original post, I have gotten positive feedback from players on PWCG.  It is what it PWCG is, plenty of people like it and some not so much.  Great Battles is obviously much more limited than RoF at this point in terms of scope, bt with VR, improved AI, and other things it also has things that RoF will never have.  

Edited December 5, 2019 by PatrickAWlson

[Picchio]

Thanks Pat. I'd say I am well familiar with PWCG (so many good memories from the days of RoF!). Knowing how good it is, I'm expecially curious how well it applies to the relatively more limited FC theatre, compared to RoF/BoX... mumble, mumble. I'm tempted.

Edited December 5, 2019 by Picchio

[PatrickAWlson]

1 hour ago, Picchio said:

Thanks Pat. I'd say I am well familiar with PWCG (so many good memories from the days of RoF!). Knowing how good it is, I'm expecially curious how well it applies to the relatively more limited FC theatre, compared to RoF/BoX... mumble, mumble. I'm tempted.

 

IMHO VR in this game is amazing.  The new AI improvements are also a huge step up from anything available in RoF.  If you want to fly WWI then those are the two biggest reasons to choose FC over RoF, and they are not small ones.  As for the graphics, FM, DM, etc ... those are all better too but IMHO not as impactful.  Others may have different opinions.

 

 I think you can have a lot of fun but I concede it might be frustrating trying to chase down Bristols in a Pfalz.  TBH I have been spending all of my time coding so I'm not really as well qualified to talk about how PWCG campaigns play as others.  Sounds odd but it's true.

[Cthulhus]

One question, some time, I have a mission (fighter) and I have to follow a route and search and engage air targets :

 

But some time, I don't find any enemy aircraft and after going back to the base, the mission is considered as failed. Why ? (with ESC key, I still see "Primary Objective in progress").

 

Or sometime, I see enemies but they are too fast and they flee war ! And I can't engage the battle.

 

Attached an example (this generated mission is impossible for me or I doing something wrong), the enemies fighters avoid me and can't catch them...

 

Making the mission with autopilot cheat still make it impossible ? (I don't see Mission Succeed in green), Still all the time : Primary Objective in progress

 

If the mission is failed, should I restart it again till it's a success ? Or could I go back to PWCG and ask for another mission ?

 

So I don't understand why I can't have mission succeeded after making all good (follow the route and land).

 

Can you help me please ?

 

Missions.rar

Edited December 7, 2019 by Cthulhus

[the_dudeWG]

@Cthulhus I wouldn’t worry about the FC mission success or failure notifications. File your combat reports, kills or no kills. You will be able to generate and move on to the next mission regardless. Any mission you survive is a success in the end! ?

[Cthulhus]

ok I see ! Thanks !

[MrTheRich]

Where do I install the skins and the music for PWCG??

Edit: nvm Audio goes in the PWCG folder, and the skins are self explanatory

Edit, Edit: I've installed the skins from the website, but the PWCG still reports all skins missing in the menu.. Did I do something wrong?

Edited December 21, 2019 by MrTheRich

[Concorde]

Thank you for the hard work on this. I am truly enjoying it. Nicely done.

[the_dudeWG]

On 12/20/2019 at 8:38 PM, MrTheRich said:

Where do I install the skins and the music for PWCG??

Edit: nvm Audio goes in the PWCG folder, and the skins are self explanatory

Edit, Edit: I've installed the skins from the website, but the PWCG still reports all skins missing in the menu.. Did I do something wrong?

Pat hasn’t updated PWCG with regards to skins yet, mostly due to the fact that FC doesn’t have an official skin deposit for all of the aces and squadrons. I’ve been in touch with Pat and I’m trying to help out as much as possible. S!