Time interval before takeoff

[greybeard_52]

The more I play with PWCG, the more I appreciate its merits, including perfect timing in rendezvous. However, I wonder if it was possible to introduce a slight delay in the take-off of the player's flight, say 15 seconds, to give him the time for some small operations such as adjusting the point of view, lowering the flaps, etc. I believe that this would also avoid the defect currently present (in the missions generated with PWCG) of the permanence on the screen of the message "cleared for takeoff" for the entire duration of the mission.

[Stonehouse]

Pretty sure it is under the configuration for the individual campaign. If you start your campaign, click on configuration, then advanced configuration, then flight and you should see a time before take off parameter. I think it defaults to 30 secs.

[greybeard_52]

Thank you! I tried to increase the time you told me from 30 to 45 seconds, but nothing has changed: my flight always takes off immediately at the beginning of the simulation. Obviously, that parameter is not active.?

[FodderMonkey]

1 hour ago, greybeard_52 said:

Thank you! I tried to increase the time you told me from 30 to 45 seconds, but nothing has changed: my flight always takes off immediately at the beginning of the simulation. Obviously, that parameter is not active.?

Is it possible the timer only applies to starting from parked, not starting from runway?  I've noticed a delay where everyone just sits after taxiing to the start position; that may be what that setting controls.

[greybeard_52]

3 hours ago, FodderMonkey said:

Is it possible the timer only applies to starting from parked, not starting from runway?

Let me take a look at my crystal ball ...

[greybeard_52]

The crystal ball didn't tell me how to start from the parking lot. Now a séance is underway to get the answers from Pat ...

 

[Stonehouse]

Advanced campaign configuration again. You should find an option under flight labeled start type. This accepts either 0,1 or 2 and each value corresponds to a runway, airborne or cold start up and taxi to the runway. Can't remember exactly which value corresponds to each but hover tips will tell you. Honestly I suggest you treat your first campaign as an experiment and take the time to go through each simple and advanced configuration option looking at the hover tips. Most have such a explanatory tip. I think this would save you a lot of time in the long run. Once you get generally familiar with what options there are and the values it will tend to lead to your questions being more clarification type ones about what an option means than "how do I do such and such". Typically once you've got the hang of it you have a general recipe for the options to change to suit your style of campaign and most of the others you will leave default. I know that is pretty much what I do. 

 

Anyway don't take anything I said above as me saying you should stop asking questions, I've never seen anyone treated poorly for asking for help with PWCG but sometimes help can take a day or so which might mean you miss out on flying time. 

 

Just an fyi regarding ramp starts while I think of it. IL2 has some quirks which can cause certain airbases to have AI taxiing and take off issues and I have seen PWCG users talk about this in the past but there is nothing Pat can do to fix it as it is a problem with the game not PWCG. I personally use runway start most of the time because of this.

[greybeard_52]

Thank you! You were right! Position 2 corresponds to the departure from the parking! You made me make a good discovery! What surprises me about this game is the sheer lack of manuals: in IL-2 '46 even third-party products often have well-made manuals, not to mention the main game I paid for. Fortunately, there are kind and polite people everywhere who can help you.

[greybeard_52]

The planes of the flight are brought to the runway, and I follow them (I'm number 3), but then no one takes off! Especially the leader who is in front of me! I tried to repeat the sequence on autopilot (A) from the very beginning and the take off happens ... I can't imagine what I would have to do to take off! (But why do I have to "imagine" it, I wonder).

[FodderMonkey]

7 hours ago, greybeard_52 said:

Thank you! You were right! Position 2 corresponds to the departure from the parking! You made me make a good discovery! What surprises me about this game is the sheer lack of manuals: in IL-2 '46 even third-party products often have well-made manuals, not to mention the main game I paid for. Fortunately, there are kind and polite people everywhere who can help you.

Nobody is going to stop you if you'd like to go ahead and write up a manual for the rest of us ?

7 hours ago, greybeard_52 said:

The planes of the flight are brought to the runway, and I follow them (I'm number 3), but then no one takes off! Especially the leader who is in front of me! I tried to repeat the sequence on autopilot (A) from the very beginning and the take off happens ... I can't imagine what I would have to do to take off! (But why do I have to "imagine" it, I wonder).

when you get to the runway and it pauses, turn off the autopilot and inch your aircraft forward a bit.  This worked for me the last time I tried starting from parked, and I think I recall someone mentioning the autopilot never takes the flight far enough onto the runway to trigger the takeoff routine.

[greybeard_52]

Sorry, but I think you don't understand. I have the opposite problem: it is in _manual_ that the other aircraft, controlled by the AI, do not take off. I mean: I manually start from the parking lot, I drive the plane manually to the runway - following my AI-piloted comrades - we all get to the runway - we line up - then the AI-controlled planes that are in front of me *don't take off*! Never (I tried to wait even several minutes).

 

Anyway, thank you for the answer.

[Stonehouse]

This sounds like the sort of thing I was talking about with the issues with AI taxiing out and taking off. Possibly picking a different airfield (which means choose a different squadron basically) will get around the issue.

 

I would do a search here in the PWCG sub forum as there are several threads about this sort of thing and it may give you some clues about how to pick a squadron that will work and other work arounds. Note though that a unit can relocate and you might run into problems still part way through the campaign. Once again note that this is not a PWCG problem but a problem with the game itself as far as I know.

Edited April 20, 2021 by No457_Stonehouse

[Varibraun]

22 hours ago, greybeard_52 said:

Thank you! You were right! Position 2 corresponds to the departure from the parking! You made me make a good discovery! What surprises me about this game is the sheer lack of manuals: in IL-2 '46 even third-party products often have well-made manuals, not to mention the main game I paid for. Fortunately, there are kind and polite people everywhere who can help you.

15 hours ago, FodderMonkey said:

Nobody is going to stop you if you'd like to go ahead and write up a manual for the rest of us ?

 

See this thread, @C6_Zorkaiev has begun an effort in a Wiki format with @PatrickAWlson's blessing and link in the main PWCG post as beginning instructions for PWCG.  Many thanks to Zorkaiev, for getting it rolling, hopefully it will become a manual with the contribution of others who have the time and inclination to add nuggets (like taxi tips) along the way.

 

[greybeard_52]

16 hours ago, No457_Stonehouse said:

I would do a search here in the PWCG sub forum as there are several threads about this sort of thing and it may give you some clues about how to pick a squadron that will work and other work arounds.

Basically, I think "the game isn't worth the candle", how we say in my country. I think I can live with the "instant" takeoff of PWCG from runway.

 

9 hours ago, Varibraun said:

See this thread, @C6_Zorkaiev has begun an effort in a Wiki format with @PatrickAWlson's blessing and link in the main PWCG post as beginning instructions for PWCG.

Thanks for the tip, but I can't see how this work can be helpful since it is limited to show various menu without explaining meaning and use of each item of them.

[PatrickAWlson]

54 minutes ago, greybeard_52 said:

Basically, I think "the game isn't worth the candle", how we say in my country. I think I can live with the "instant" takeoff of PWCG from runway.

 

Thanks for the tip, but I can't see how this work can be helpful since it is limited to show various menu without explaining meaning and use of each item of them.

 

As a wiki it relies on community input.  Hopefully it gets filled in over time.