Official Historical Campaign: Battle of the Hurtgen Forest

[AEthelraedUnraed]

Dear fellow pilots,

 

I present to you the story of a bloody battle in a needless war, against a malevolent and megalomanic dictator trying to impose his will on the free and democratic peoples of Europe. But also of the staunch defense of brave men fighting on their home soil, undermanned and undergunned, against an invader with absolute superiority in tank and air power. And of how these men, some elderly or even still children, turned every forest, every field and every house into a killing zone to eventually turn it into the biggest military defeat the invading global superpower had ever known. I present to you - the Battle of the Hürtgenwald.

 

I'm proud to bring you this short single-player campaign "Battle of the Hürtgenwald". During this historical campaign, you'll follow the 366th Fighter Group flying the P-47D-28 Thunderbolt during 10 missions starting in early October and ending two months later just before the Battle of the Bulge. You'll fly as a flight leader during Close Air Support and Ground Attack missions over the Hürtgenwald battlefield of late 1944, recreated with a level of detail rarely seen before in the IL2 series (I kindly invite you to take a look at some of the screenshots below). If I need to convince you no further, then proceed to the download link at the bottom of this page. Otherwise, read on to learn more about the campaign and the historical battle.

 

 

Battle of the Hürtgenwald
Autumn 1944. The Allied armies have raced through France in a matter of weeks, routing much of the German army. But now they've arrived at the German border, and the Wehrmacht high command is determined not to let them get any further. Covered by the thick foliage of the Hurtgen Forest (Hürtgenwald), the Germans make a determined stand against the U.S. army. Although the Allied forces have complete supremacy in both air and armoured forces, both are of little use among the trees. Plagued by a failure to identify strategic targets, determined German resistance with pre-arranged machine gun and artillery zones and a failing overarching strategy, the United States are about to embark on what will become one of their biggest military defeats in Europe.

 

Features:

Spoiler

• 10 Mostly historical missions
  Average flight time about 30 minutes (if flown from start to landing) but most can be completed in 15 minutes if in a hurry and if using time compression. All missions are plausible, and similar mission types were flown on those days in those areas. The historicity depends: some missions are entirely historical (but slightly adapted to make them work in IL2), whereas others are completely made-up, albeit always with a mission type as flown on that day (see also the per-mission historical justification below). The weather is recreated as good as the limited data I could find allows. One non-historical adjustment is the airfield; this is Asch (Y-29) for all missions, whereas in reality the 366th FG was only based at Asch from November 19 onwards (although I've also found a single source, the 366th website, that states that they moved there already on October 9th). This was largely done for playability; Laon airfield, where the real-life squadron was based until then, is so far away that it isn't even on the Rheinland map.
• A faithfully recreated Hürtgen battlefield (no Mods On needed)
  Most towns, villages and hamlets, and many of the roads and streams, in the Monschau-Düren-Eschweiler triangle have been recreated, including ground textures that blend into the landscape, culminating in one of the most detailed landscapes yet in the IL2 series. Those towns and areas that feature heavily in (some) missions, such as Vossenack, Hürtgen, Schmidt, Schevenhütte and the Roer valley near Nideggen, have been recreated as truthfully as possible regarding location and layout. Additional terrain around the Asch airfield was created by @Hamaha15 - partly according to historical aerial photographs.
• Custom radio calls
  Although not nearly as extensive as the radio calls in the official campaign "Hell Hawks over the Bulge," custom ground controller radio messages give updates relevant to your mission and respond to your actions, depending on their results. (I'm not a native speaker, but at least my Dutch accent is not as bad as that of some of my compatriots and I can do an acceptable job - I think. If you're a native US English speaker, think you can do better and are willing to help out, you're very welcome to contact me.)
• Well-camouflaged targets
  In 1944, the Germans had become masters of camouflage. You will rarely see targets out in the open, but instead blended into the terrain: among the trees, on a muddy patch of ground, between houses and even inside buildings. There are often one or two easy kills for playability, but if you want high scores, you'll really have to search for your targets, just like those brave pilots of 1944!
• Murderous (but not too murderous) Flak
  Flak was a very real threat: during the time span of the campaign the 366th lost 19 pilots (17 KIA, 2 POW), of which 7 during a three-day period in mid-November. Flak is certainly dangerous too in-game, but I've taken care to make it survivable by adjusting their skill level and calibre. All missions should be survivable, but you definitely need to be careful and mind where you're flying, or you *will* get shot. German aircraft are not so much of a problem, although there *may* be a couple of surprises here and there.
• Optimised for VR
  Careful use of resources makes sure the missions run smoothly, even in VR and with time compression (granted, the 1st mission is a bit heavy but I felt the cinematic effect warranted it. All other missions are significantly lighter).
• "Showcase campaign"
  This campaign is intended to showcase many of the techniques I included in my Surface Editing Guide, and shows what can be achieved if a mission designer is willing to put in a bit of extra work. Feel free to open the mission files and see how I did certain things. You have my permission to re-use any of the files. If you have any questions, ask me in the Surface Editing Guide thread, in the Mission Editor forum, or by PM.

    
Notes:

Spoiler

• Please don't change the folder name of the campaign - it needs to be exactly [IL2 installation directory]\data\Campaigns\Hurtgen or you'll encounter bugs!
• All missions require a Mission Complete message in order to progress to the next mission. I've chosen to not take the popular route of adding a Mission Complete whenever the player lands at the home airbase. However, there are always multiple (hidden) ways to complete the objective so it should generally not be a problem, even if you mess up and don't hit a thing. In fact, sometimes there are even multiple endings depending on how you perform. If you've screwed up, just continue with the mission the best you can and chances are you'll get a Mission Success anyway.
• The campaign is designed to be flown with HUD on but icons and map markers off. If you fly it with HUD off, you won't see the Mission Complete messages and you won't see a transcription of the radio messages, so you'll really have to listen well. If you fly it with icons and/or map markers on, it'll generally work but there may be one or two instances where the markers are somehow wrong. Just do what your mission orders say in that case.
• There are a couple of Armed Reconnaissance flights. These provide you with less clear targets than the usual "go here, bomb that" flight. It may occur that you destroy a target and no "Mission Complete" message shows up. Just continue with your flight path; the message will come eventually.
• Targets are often camouflaged and hidden. This is especially the case for the above-mentioned Armed Reconnaissance flights. As a small hint: if you spot an easily visible target, there's probably a much juicier (but camouflaged) target nearby.
• On large operations and ad-hoc "emergency missions", the loadout is fixed. Small-scale missions that'd have given you time to prepare give you the option to adjust the loadout to your preferences - but do know that the selected loadout was chosen for a reason and that selecting a different loadout might make it more difficult to successfully complete the mission.
• If you don't often fly ground attack missions, remember to set your gun convergence and bomb delay to appropriate values. I use 500m and 5s, but of course you are free to use whatever settings you like.

Per-mission historical justification (WARNING: MILD SPOILERS AHEAD):

Spoiler

• 06-10: Historical. For playability purposes, the amount of Allied aircraft and Allied and German ground targets has been dramatically reduced.
• 11-10: Historical mission type, but not tied to a specific event.
• 02-11: Historical.
• 05-11: Mostly historical, but the battle is, for playability purposes, condensed from a couple of hours to 15 minutes or so.
• 11-11: Historically plausible. The IX TAC did support ground troops in the area, but didn't shoot down any aircraft (which was a rare occurence). That said, German aircraft were occasionally spotted and it's perfectly possible the Germans will flee before you can reach them.
• 16-11: Mostly historical. The mission itself is historical (although like on the 6th, severely downscaled), but I'm not aware of any such "incidents" on this occasion. The Germans are known to have used this tactic though.
• 25-11: Historical. The ground battle includes some nice historical details, but once again is sped up quite a bit.
• 27-11: Historically plausible. Fighters flew support, but the exact ground battle (and the resulting objectives) are made up.   
• 04-12: The briefing and starting situation are according to historical reports, and 9th AF fighters indeed flew support near Bergstein. However, the exact objectives are made up (though both plausible).
• 06-12: Historical, although once again the battle is sped up and multiple events are condensed into a single mission.

Sources (in rough order of importance):

Spoiler

• "The battle of the Huertgen Forest" http://home.scarlet.be/~sh446368/home.html
• "U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II Combat Chronology 1941-1945" Kit C. Carter and Robert Mueller, Center for Air Force History, Washington D.C., 1991
• "366th Fighter Association" https://www.366thgunfighters.org/
• "Major General Cota and the Battle of the Huertgen Forest: A Failure of Battle Command?" Thomas G. Bradbeer, Command and General Staff College, U.S.A., https://usacac.army.mil/sites/default/files/documents/cace/DCL/DCL_MGCota.pdf
• "The Siegfried Line Campaign" Charles B. MacDonald, Center of Military History, Washington D.C., 1993
• "The battle of Hurtgen Forest" Charles Whiting, Da Capo Press, U.S.A., 2001
• "The battle of the Hurtgen Forest", https://9thinfantrydivision.net/battle-of-the-hurtgen-forest/
• "CSI Battlebook 11-A Huertgen Forest" Combat Studies Institute, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1984
• "Wetterzentrale", http://smtp.pilzepilze.de/topkarten/fsslpeur.html
• Various USASC photographers. All images used in this campaign are believed to be in the public domain.

I want to especially point out the first mentioned source, which is a true treasure trove of information with many first-hand accounts including after-action reports from almost all of the relevant Allied divisions.

Lastly, I would like to thank a couple of persons without whom I'd never have gotten this far. Special thanks go to @Hamaha15, who provided the scenery around Asch airfield and helped with testing. Secondly, @JimTM whose Mission Editor guide is indispensible for any self-respecting mission creator and @Gambit21, whose excellent P-47 campaign "Hell Hawks over the Bulge" was a major inspiration. If you like my campaign, I'm sure you'll also love his. I also want to mention @LizLemon (who sadly doesn't seem to be around anymore) who often provided great information about the workings of certain game files that enabled me to write my Surface Editing Manual, which I put into practice here. @Jaegermeister helped with fixing a bug on the first mission and explained a couple of things about the taxiing AI to me. Finally, I want to thank the Devs who continue to support and improve this great game. (I've likely forgotten a few. To all those people who're not listed here and have helped me in whatever way, thank you )

Download:

This campaign is now added to the base game as of 16-4-2024. No downloads are needed. As long as you have BoBP, you should be able to play the campaign.

 

However, for those who want a little more flavour and authenticity, it's possible to have the player flight use historical noseart. In order to do so, download the file below and use Mods On.
Optional skin pack: https://www.mediafire.com/file/k1z1v14qln7jitq/Hurtgen.zip/file (~64MB, updated 20-04-2024)

The optional skin pack contains skins of four aircraft (three D-28, one D-22) that flew with the 366th during the timeframe: A8-X "What's Cookin' Doc" (D-22), A8-H "Corny Babe", A8-Y "Julie's Jabo" and A8-S "Daddy Rabbit". Some original photographs are shown here: https://www.366thgunfighters.org/lt-baiers-scrapbook.html. The skins are made as noseart-only so that those who haven't downloaded the skins do at least still have the ID markings. This is an optional download, although if you don't use it the skins will default to the 1945 camo (no D-Day markings) instead of the correct Late 1944 (striped underbelly).

Edited April 20, 2024 by AEthelraedUnraed
Changed skin pack options

[justin_z3r0]

This Sounds great! I haven't played in a while. I'm keen to get back in the saddle now though!

Thanks!!

[gaga54jacdal]

link not working

 

[Nadelbaum]

Link works perfectly fine, many thanks for this campaign!

[jollyjack]

Thanks, what a great piece of work, compliments and ..

 

[taffy2jeffmorgan]

Something wrong with the graphics, tried mission one and the runway is totally black and P47's have light green stripes, certainly not my end [graphics] all other mission

play perfectly ??

[AEthelraedUnraed]

3 hours ago, gaga54jacdal said:

link not working

Strange; perhaps my server was rebooting for updates? Also, I use fail2ban. If you try *anything* funny (like, idk, boot up any connection that's not on port 80 or 443), you won't get any connection to my server for a couple of days, first attempt.

 

2 hours ago, taffy2jeffmorgan said:

Something wrong with the graphics, tried mission one and the runway is totally black and P47's have light green stripes, certainly not my end [graphics] all other mission

play perfectly ??

*Very* strange. Could you scroll around a bit? Do the other surfaces near Asch show up (there's a couple of villages towards the southwest)? Did you download the optional skin pack? If so, could you try removing it for now and report back?

[easterling77]

Sounds great, I'll hop in my Jug this evening...quite excited?

[7bhp_Mk]

Seems to be working fine for me. Very much looking forward to testing more thoroughly later on today. Thank you for all your hard work producing this campaign!

[352ndOscar]

Excellent to see you make this release.  I know it’s been a while coming and a lot of work.

[Gambit21]

Congrats on completing your campaign!

I'm sure I'll be flying it at some point.

 

[Billsponge1972]

thanks very much for this!

I know what I'm doing tonight after work!

 

[Ala13_Rorschach97]

Loving to be able to fly this campaing. Are there any plans to make it editable so it can be played coop? Ala13 would love to do so

Many thanks for your work <3

[AEthelraedUnraed]

2 hours ago, Ala13_Rorschach97 said:

Loving to be able to fly this campaing. Are there any plans to make it editable so it can be played coop? Ala13 would love to do so

Many thanks for your work ❤️

Eh, it should already be editable? At least I didn't encrypt anything or whatever. The Mission Editor should be able to read .msnbin files just fine. If anyone wants to make a coop version out of this, he's very welcome

[Billsponge1972]

I've flown the first four missions and I have to say great job! Very immersive and I love the stories! The only issue I'm having is when the audio from the "ground units" plays it's extremely loud and startles me every time! Very possibly something on my end because I've always had trouble with the sound. Lots of pops and crackles and the only way I found to (mostly) get rid of it is to set the in-game sound level very low (0.07) and turn the desktop volume high (66).

[Jaegermeister]

Wow, I wasn't expecting this. Right up my alley.

 

The download and install went without a hitch. Your Intro is well done, and the briefing and map for the 1st mission is 1st class.

I will start actually flying it tomorrow, but so far, I'm impressed!

 

Thanks for the work. I'll let you know how it goes.   

[easterling77]

Can't start the missions

 

First of all

 

Thank you for the whole work of making this.

I found it very immersive, that you start the mission in engines cold status and have to taxi to the runway.

For me personaly, I like this way more than the standard "ready for take off on the runway -start".

 

I came over the problem, that after clearance for taxi to the runway, the second plane of my flight will stop at the junction of the parking bay and the taxi way and wont proceed with taxiing.

 

It only begins to proceed after I myself end the mission and the player plane has left the session - so it seems to me the player plane is bloking the following planes in the mission logic? (not an expert in such editior things)

 

I've made two recordings of this in several attempts of starting the mission, the problem remains allways the same

 

Does anyone else experience the same problem?

 

Unfortunately I'm not competent in such things, I dont have a current 7zip so I struggle to upload the tracks here.

If someone could give me a hint I can provide these tracks if needed.

 

So far best greetings

 

DP

 

EDIT

 

01.rar

 

 

02.rar

 

maybe it worked, is this of use?

Edited March 2, 2022 by easterling77

[AEthelraedUnraed]

7 hours ago, Billsponge1972 said:

I've flown the first four missions and I have to say great job! Very immersive and I love the stories! The only issue I'm having is when the audio from the "ground units" plays it's extremely loud and startles me every time! Very possibly something on my end because I've always had trouble with the sound. Lots of pops and crackles and the only way I found to (mostly) get rid of it is to set the in-game sound level very low (0.07) and turn the desktop volume high (66).

I'm glad you like the mission. However the problem with the audio volume you describe annoys me as it's one of the problems I thought to have solved with Hamaha's testing. Volume was fine on my side but much too loud on his, then after some tweaking it was fine for the both of us. Apparently there's still some people for whom it doesn't work correctly...

 

@Gambit21, since you use custom radio messages in your Battle of the Bulge campaign, do you recognise this problem and do you know how to solve it?

 

2 hours ago, easterling77 said:

Can't start the missions

 

First of all

 

Thank you for the whole work of making this.

I found it very immersive, that you start the mission in engines cold status and have to taxi to the runway.

For me personaly, I like this way more than the standard "ready for take off on the runway -start".

 

I came over the problem, that after clearance for taxi to the runway, the second plane of my flight will stop at the junction of the parking bay and the taxi way and wont proceed with taxiing.

 

It only begins to proceed after I myself end the mission and the player plane has left the session - so it seems to me the player plane is bloking the following planes in the mission logic? (not an expert in such editior things)

 

I've made two recordings of this in several attempts of starting the mission, the problem remains allways the same

 

Does anyone else experience the same problem?

 

Unfortunately I'm not competent in such things, I dont have a current 7zip so I struggle to upload the tracks here.

If someone could give me a hint I can provide these tracks if needed.

 

So far best greetings

 

DP

 

EDIT

 

01.rar 1.22 MB · 1 download

 

 

02.rar 1.22 MB · 0 downloads

 

maybe it worked, is this of use?

Sadly, I have to inform you that the first mission is the only one with a cold start. I figured that most people wouldn't appreciate the extra taxiing time, but for the first mission I found it appropriate. It's also a bit symbolic; starting the engine to start the campaign.

 

The problem you describe puzzles me. I haven't ever seen it during testing. I haven't had time to look at the files you posted, but I will. I take it you start taxiing as the first plane in your flight, after you receive clearance (about when the 2nd flight starts takeoff)? And you taxi all the way to the runway via the taxiway? And even a bit onto the runway (it should give a message "wait for takeoff clearance" or something)?

[Ala13_Rorschach97]

10 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

Eh, it should already be editable? At least I didn't encrypt anything or whatever. The Mission Editor should be able to read .msnbin files just fine. If anyone wants to make a coop version out of this, he's very welcome

Well, i see the .msnbin files but mission editor asks for .mission. So i can not open it

[No_85_Gramps]

9 minutes ago, Ala13_Rorschach97 said:

Well, i see the .msnbin files but mission editor asks for .mission. So i can not open it

In the file name type *.*  hit enter and you should be able to see all the files.

Edited March 2, 2022 by No_85_Gramps

[easterling77]

9 minutes ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

I'm glad you like the mission. However the problem with the audio volume you describe annoys me as it's one of the problems I thought to have solved with Hamaha's testing. Volume was fine on my side but much too loud on his, then after some tweaking it was fine for the both of us. Apparently there's still some people for whom it doesn't work correctly...

 

@Gambit21, since you use custom radio messages in your Battle of the Bulge campaign, do you recognise this problem and do you know how to solve it?

 

Sadly, I have to inform you that the first mission is the only one with a cold start. I figured that most people wouldn't appreciate the extra taxiing time, but for the first mission I found it appropriate. It's also a bit symbolic; starting the engine to start the campaign.

 

The problem you describe puzzles me. I haven't ever seen it during testing. I haven't had time to look at the files you posted, but I will. I take it you start taxiing as the first plane in your flight, after you receive clearance (about when the 2nd flight starts takeoff)? And you taxi all the way to the runway via the taxiway? And even a bit onto the runway (it should give a message "wait for takeoff clearance" or something)?

Jup exacly as you asked

 

- rolling as first of my flight after permission to taxi

- rolled untill the runway and got the message "wait for takeoff clearance"

 

I have to leave now but maybe - as I seem to bee the only one with this problem so far - I may reinstall and try it again this evening

 

 

 

[Ala13_Rorschach97]

50 minutes ago, No_85_Gramps said:

In the file name type *.*  hit enter and you should be able to see all the files.

THANK YOU! That did the job 

[Jaegermeister]

1 hour ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

The problem you describe puzzles me. I haven't ever seen it during testing. I haven't had time to look at the files you posted, but I will. I take it you start taxiing as the first plane in your flight, after you receive clearance (about when the 2nd flight starts takeoff)? And you taxi all the way to the runway via the taxiway? And even a bit onto the runway (it should give a message "wait for takeoff clearance" or something)?

 

@AEthelraedUnraed,

 

I had the same starting problem, check your PMs

[AEthelraedUnraed]

2 hours ago, easterling77 said:

Jup exacly as you asked

 

- rolling as first of my flight after permission to taxi

- rolled untill the runway and got the message "wait for takeoff clearance"

 

I have to leave now but maybe - as I seem to bee the only one with this problem so far - I may reinstall and try it again this evening

I updated the campaign files with some edited files, courtesy of Jaegermeister. Could you re-download and let me know if this solves the problem?

Edited March 2, 2022 by AEthelraedUnraed

[Billsponge1972]

2 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

However the problem with the audio volume you describe annoys me as it's one of the problems I thought to have solved with Hamaha's testing. Volume was fine on my side but much too loud on his, then after some tweaking it was fine for the both of us. Apparently there's still some people for whom it doesn't work correctly

Definitely not a deal breaker. The missions work flawlessly other than that. 

 

2 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

I came over the problem, that after clearance for taxi to the runway, the second plane of my flight will stop at the junction of the parking bay and the taxi way and wont proceed with taxiing.

I thought I would have the same problem as this because I stopped too early on the runway. I waited for my wingmen and then decided to pull up about a hundred feet and they started to move.

Sounds like maybe you have a different issue, but that worked for me.

[Gambit21]

3 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

I'm glad you like the mission. However the problem with the audio volume you describe annoys me as it's one of the problems I thought to have solved with Hamaha's testing. Volume was fine on my side but much too loud on his, then after some tweaking it was fine for the both of us. Apparently there's still some people for whom it doesn't work correctly...

 

@Gambit21, since you use custom radio messages in your Battle of the Bulge campaign, do you recognise this problem and do you know how to solve it?

 

 

It's because of users messing with the stock volume settings.

I tuned the voice calls in Hell Hawks so that they play at an appropriate volume at the default setting. Even then you'll have differences in preference (1 tester thought they were a bit too loud) however he was the outlier so I left them as is. I expected to have to field this question a number of times and explain about the in-game sound setting...but oddly after a few years not even once. 

 

Hopefully your sound was at the default setting when tuning the volume of the radio calls. If so, then there's really nothing else you can do other than put a disclaimer as I did  "radio call volume was tested/tuned at the default in-game sound setting" or something like that.

 

Whenever you run into taxi/landing issues etc, remove all other units from the airfield/vicinity of the aircraft in question and re-test.

99.9999 percent of the time it's a truck or something that's preventing the logic from working properly. If that doesn't work, turn off the wind and test again.

 

Incidentally every Hell Hawks mission is cold start, however in real life it often it would be the ground crew that started up/warmed up the aircraft.

That said having the player taxi adds to the immersion, overall play time, and is appropriate in a work like this IMHO...think intended audience. But your call.

 

 

Edited March 2, 2022 by Gambit21

[Sandmarken]

All the extra towns, farms and smal villages makes the map so much more alive? wish the default map was more like this! 

[easterling77]

Hello folks now it works?

 

The hint with "a little further on the runway" may caused the difference.

 

I got the "wait for takeoff clearance" and decidet to roll a little bit further...untill I lined up my port wing with the hangar.

 

 

After that the rest of fe flight alined nicely and took off after me.

 

So maybe I was just to obedient to the message in the first runs and stoped to early.

 

I only checked the take off, because I haven't the time for a whole mission now but I'm certain it will work fine.

 

Thanks for the quick responses and support

 

Best greetings and clear sixes

 

DP

Edited March 2, 2022 by easterling77

[Gambit21]

Ahh...I think I misunderstood the problem initially. I’ve had this crop up before. Glad you got it sorted.

 

 

Edited March 2, 2022 by Gambit21

[Jaegermeister]

I usually put a wind sock or a tent by the runway and fire a message saying "Line up on right side of runway by wind sock" or something like that if you are the flight leader.

 

If you don't pull up quite far enough, you won't get a takeoff clearance, Number 4 won't pull forward or Number 3 can rear end you and ruin the mission. If there is no indicator, I inch forward until I hear "number 2 ready for takeoff" and then stop.   

[Nadelbaum]

15 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

I updated the campaign files with some edited files, courtesy of Jaegermeister. Could you re-download and let me know if this solves the problem?

Would it be possible for you to version number/date the package and/or the original post? After a while the thread might get long and finding info about updates in single posts within is going to be cumbersome.

 

Awesome campaign, again many thanks for you and all the other campaign creators who are dedicating their time to provide such an SP experience to us!

Edited March 3, 2022 by Nadelbaum

[Jaegermeister]

I am really impressed with how much better the map is with your additional texture scenery. I have been adding small villages and towns to mission maps for some time now, but what it has always been missing is the ground textures so it looks natural. It would appear that this map editing technique with the texture editing tools in the ME is the perfect solution. 

 

Great job on this campaign combining the texture editing with the flash overlays and the voice files. For me, the voiceovers are very distorted and I can barely understand them, but that's a minor issue. I have only flown through Mission 1 because I got sidetracked reading through your tutorial on texture editing in the ME section and experimenting with that.

[Ala13_UnopaUno_VR]

Love y work

[Zeev]

Time to reinstall the game! Thanks a lot, sounds great.
What is the average length of each mission?

[unlikely_spider]

Thanks for this campaign - I will start it shortly. What is required? Just Bodenplatte?

[AEthelraedUnraed]

1 hour ago, Zeev said:

Time to reinstall the game! Thanks a lot, sounds great.
What is the average length of each mission?

 

1 hour ago, unlikely_spider said:

Thanks for this campaign - I will start it shortly. What is required? Just Bodenplatte?

Both good questions. Yes, just BoBP should be enough. The average length depends on whether you use time compression; it's a 10 minute flight to the Hürtgen Forest, then 5-15min of action and the return flight. So overall, the average length is 30min or so without time compression, but if you're in a hurry you can use time compression and skip the return flight, giving 15min or so.

[Zeev]

3 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

 

Both good questions. Yes, just BoBP should be enough. The average length depends on whether you use time compression; it's a 10 minute flight to the Hürtgen Forest, then 5-15min of action and the return flight. So overall, the average length is 30min or so without time compression, but if you're in a hurry you can use time compression and skip the return flight, giving 15min or so.

30 min sounds good, thanks.

What do you mean by time compression? Put autopilot and increase game speed?

[AEthelraedUnraed]

1 minute ago, Zeev said:

30 min sounds good, thanks.

What do you mean by time compression? Put autopilot and increase game speed?

Increase game speed, yes.

[easterling77]

I finaly got the time to fly the first mission and I have to give you a very big Thank you Sir!!?

 

The amount of detail you put in the modeling of the additional villages is stunning - I was simply happy circling around the area spotting all the houses and structures waiting for my call to roll in for the bomb run.

 

Your craftet radio calls are very cool - yes kind of hard to understand in first place but I can ensure you from personal experience (I use digital coded radio devices at the work) even today radio transmissions can have awkward qualitiy so I only can imagine how bad it could be in those past times especially in regards of environmental influences.

 

 

I only found one maybe not so intended thing about this mission:

 

The waypont on the way back to base where you are called to come in for landing brings your AI- mates to drop their not used ordonance (like they should for sure)

but I maybe would place this waypoint a little bit outsite of the town of Maastricht, because it happend, that my flight dropped their bombs right into the housing areas of the town as you can see right under my port wingtip

 

 

 

But so far I had an awesome first flight in your campaign and I only can hope that you keep up your outstanding work.

 

Many Thanks and best greetings

 

DP

 

[Jaegermeister]

 

 

46 minutes ago, easterling77 said:

The waypont on the way back to base where you are called to come in for landing brings your AI- mates to drop their not used ordonance (like they should for sure)

 

If an AI flight does not drop their bombs at the target area, they will drop them when they activate the "Land" command. An easier solution than moving waypoints is to check the box in the "Force Complete" MCU after the target area that is labeled "Emergency Ordnance Drop" and they won't bring them back.