Official Historical Campaign: Battle of the Hurtgen Forest

[Gambit21]

The aircraft should not be coming home with any bombs to begin with, but Jay is on point with the fix if it should happen.

 

Assuming an AI lead - "on bingo bombs" plus an appropriate timer to the "form up" logic allowing for some strafing which almost always occurred.

This insures that all bombs are dropped, a few gun passes...then home.

 

If the player is the lead then getting the AI to behave is a bit more difficult...one reason (not the only reason) I have the player as a wingman rather than flight lead.

 

 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

9 minutes ago, Gambit21 said:

The aircraft should not be coming home with any bombs to begin with, but Jay is on point with the fix if it should happen.

 

Assuming an AI lead - "on bingo bombs" plus an appropriate timer to the "form up" logic allowing for some strafing which almost always occurred.

This insures that all bombs are dropped, a few gun passes...then home.

 

If the player is the lead then getting the AI to behave is a bit more difficult...one reason (not the only reason) I have the player as a wingman rather than flight lead.

Yeah I used to have way more complex mission logic for the first mission, but then I got all kinds of problems where some aircraft for whatever reason didn't drop their bombs, so I had a backup timer for that, then I added a couple more flights and added the Flak suppression task, then I had a problem where all aircraft/flights would release their bombs in such quick succession that the whole mission was over in 2 minutes and none would get around to strafing Flak so I added a minimum timer as well. In the meantime my whole mission logic had become so complicated that I barely understood what was going on myself, and it occurred to me that with both a minimum and a maximum timer connected to the Bingo Bombs that weren't too far apart, I might as well just remove the Bingo Bombs and just make it a fixed timer. Definitely made my life a whole lot easier.

 

Good point about the Emergency Drop Ordnance though - will add.

Edited March 4, 2022 by AEthelraedUnraed

[Gambit21]

Your deal, but the problem with a fixed timer (no bingo bombs) is that you don't know when lead/AI is going to drop exactly. "Bingo Bombs" puts a pin in this event whenever it happens, so bingo bombs plus 2 min or something like that insures AI bomb drop, then strafing passes. 

That said I'll leave it, I don't want to mess your thread up with editor discussion.

[Jaegermeister]

1 hour ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

In the meantime my whole mission logic had become so complicated that I barely understood what was going on myself...

 

LOL, I know exactly what you mean with the Spotter vehicle logic added in. It can get very confusing.

 

I use what I refer to as an "Override timer". A Bingo Bombs event deactivates the original timer and triggers a new 2-3 minute timer to allow strafing, etc. and then triggers the RTB waypoint.

[Gambit21]

Yep - simple, easily adjustable.

[jollyjack]

Wow, all them clever tricks; wish i could remember them all at my ole age ...

But the mission editor is what makes this game outclassing most other sims IMO.

[Gambit21]

24 minutes ago, jollyjack said:

Wow, all them clever tricks; wish i could remember them all at my ole age ...

But the mission editor is what makes this game outclassing most other sims IMO.

 

The DCS editor is quite powerful/impressive/flexible and stable...but yes the IL2 editor is great as well.

 

 

@AEthelraedUnraed I’m going to look into your map editing discoveries at some point (PTO?) I’m sure. I could have used you when I was designing my Bastogne mission! That portion of the map is just straight-up unfinished. We’re missing all but one road! No Foy, etc etc.

 

The Hurtgen was a great place to ‘drop anchor’ so to speak and explore. Glad you did this - map stuff included. ??

 

 

 

Edited March 4, 2022 by Gambit21

[justin_z3r0]

Just finished the first mission and want to say a big thanks. It was very immersive.

Worked well on my machine as well. RTX2060super. Ryzen 5 3600 (stock - no overclocking). 32" 1440 Monitor.

 

I particularly like what you've done with the map. It feels more alive with sporadic towns and single homes/farms.

Radio calls from the ground are very welcomed as well.

 

[Mtnbiker1998]

Flew the first mission, great stuff so far!! Good to see the forward thinking with the skins, very excited to see tactical codes in the game soon. Just made me a little jealous that everyone else in the flight gets fancy nose art except me

 

This is probably not a mission error, but an error on my part. I thought I left my flight plenty of room behind me, but I suppose not! the AI had some trouble lining up on the runway for takeoff. Luckily no accidents but 2 and 4 definitely got close... I'll taxi forward more next time, but i wanted to give myself plenty of runway to carry those big 1000lb-ers into the sky!

 

[THERION]

@AEthelraedUnraed

Thank you very much for your campaign - in one word: FANTASTIC!!!

Very immersive and thrilling - really great job. Thanks again.

Cheerio

[blue_max]

Amazing work, thanks so much!!!

[F19_Haddock]

Wow! This is brilliant!

 

Mission 2: The briefing pretty much says that I'm on a free hunt, but I got a "mission failed" despite hitting a few AA guns. Even got a couple of secondary objectives (Attacked a castle and a Train facility). What is the main objective?  Thanks!

[jimg123]

13 hours ago, F19_Haddock said:

Wow! This is brilliant!

 

Mission 2: The briefing pretty much says that I'm on a free hunt, but I got a "mission failed" despite hitting a few AA guns. Even got a couple of secondary objectives (Attacked a castle and a Train facility). What is the main objective?  Thanks!

 

I did almost the same mission, hitting the same targets and got a mission success.  I got a banner as I was flying back to base.  The first time I ran the mission I got too close to the AAA nest in the target area and got smoked.  The jamming was a trip, I didn't know what the heck it was at first. 

 

If you ran the waypoints and hit targets in the areas, I don't understand why you would have failed the mission.

[AEthelraedUnraed]

On 3/12/2022 at 12:02 AM, F19_Haddock said:

Wow! This is brilliant!

 

Mission 2: The briefing pretty much says that I'm on a free hunt, but I got a "mission failed" despite hitting a few AA guns. Even got a couple of secondary objectives (Attacked a castle and a Train facility). What is the main objective?  Thanks!

Strange that you got a "mission failed". The Mission Success event is basically just triggered by returning to Allied territory after reaching the waypoint near Düren. Unless you're taking a *massive* detour returning to base, if you're following the waypoints like jimg123 suggests, I can't see a reason why you wouldn't get a mission success.

 

Do note that I use Influence Areas, so if you quit when you're above enemy territory, even if you got a mission success, the game will interpret that as though you bailed out and register you as "captured," leading to an automatic mission failure.

 

I'll likely do an update in the future to fix some other small issues others have pointed out, so I may consider slightly changing the Mission Success logic.

[Skycat1969]

I just finished mission #1 and I really enjoyed it! I had a runway issue though similar to Mtnbiker1998's; the D-22 parked behind my wing with its prop spinning inches from my ailerons. No damage though. Upon landing my flight all got hung up on the static P-47 at the end of the runway -- if you update can that static plane be be moved? 

[F19_Haddock]

12 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

Strange that you got a "mission failed". The Mission Success event is basically just triggered by returning to Allied territory after reaching the waypoint near Düren. Unless you're taking a *massive* detour returning to base...

 

I'm pretty sure I few the whole route as planned, unless I didn't get close enough to Düren? it could be that...
I did land and park my plane back at base. I'll try again this evening if I have a chance. Thanks anyway! Top job

[Skycat1969]

Mission #2 took three me attempts to complete. AAA took me down the first two times before I even got to fire a shot. On the second attempt I jettisoned my bombs in the target area after taking a direct hit; I got a mission success message although I'm sure I didn't destroy anything. On my third attempt I took out four flak guns, a train car and an MG nest and then limped home with an oily windscreen. The signal jamming noise confused me also, good job!

[AEthelraedUnraed]

I just published a small update. To install, just download from the link in the first post and overwrite the current files.

Features:

• Added windsocks to Asch airfield.

Bugfixes:

• Updated the messages and triggers to prevent bugs with taxiing / taking off on the first mission.
• Moved a static P-47 on the first mission that prevented AI from taxiing after landing on the first mission.
• Slightly increased the timer for the attack phases of the first mission to reduce the chance of planes having bombs left.
• Updated the logic of the first mission to make all flights dump all remaining bombs after completion of the mission.
• Fixed an issue in the first mission where Ditto flight remained hovering over the battlefield after the mission.
• Updated the logic of the second mission to prevent possible issues with the Mission Complete message failing to come up.

Edited March 16, 2022 by AEthelraedUnraed

[justin_z3r0]

Screenshots from Nov 11 mission. Very dark and ominous wouldn't you say.

Loving the campaign. Thanks!!

[F19_Haddock]

I finally managed to complete mission 2. Got a train and some guns, made it back with oil on the windscreen. Mission success this time round. Good fun!

[KodiakJac]

I'm really looking forward to flying this campaign, but the ground is black.  Any idea what's going on here.  The ground looks normal in all other scripted campaigns and career mode.  Thanks for your help!

 

 

 

 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

4 hours ago, KodiakJac said:

I'm really looking forward to flying this campaign, but the ground is black.  Any idea what's going on here.  The ground looks normal in all other scripted campaigns and career mode.  Thanks for your help!

 

 

 

 

Strange, there's been one other report of a black surface but sadly he never got back to me.

 

Could you scroll around for a bit and see if the ground is black everywhere, or if it's just the airfield?

Could you delete (or backup somewhere) all contents of the data\graphics\LANDSCAPE_Rheinland_au folder (note: don't delete the folder itself)? Don't worry, the game will re-generate all required files.

[justin_z3r0]

just wrapped up the last mission - what a great campaign. Awesome work!! Love the radio calls!

 

I played the last 3-4 without any markers at all. It makes it that much better. listening for the radio calls as to where to look / attack.

I 'cheated' in the first half having the ability to turn markers on / off ('I' key). but its much more engaging when you have to hunt for the targets. More rewarding when you find one and hit it too!!

 

I think I'll go back though this campaign with markers off for the whole thing in a while.

 

Great work!! and Thanks a lot for sharing it!!

[Jaegermeister]

15 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

Strange, there's been one other report of a black surface but sadly he never got back to me.

 

Could you scroll around for a bit and see if the ground is black everywhere, or if it's just the airfield?

Could you delete (or backup somewhere) all contents of the data\graphics\LANDSCAPE_Rheinland_au folder (note: don't delete the folder itself)? Don't worry, the game will re-generate all required files.

 

Yeah, that's a texture file error. I would be interested to know why a couple of people are getting it and others are not.

 

Perhaps the campaign specific .tex .dat or .tini files were not installed in the campaign folder correctly.   

[Skycat1969]

November 25 is driving me crazy! I keep crashing into trees or houses -- four or five tries tonight and I still haven't beat it. I was doing great on one attempt until I accidently bailed out during the mission.

 

Also, it seems like my bombs are actually releasing a few seconds after the indicative "chunk chunk" sound. Sometimes the explosions aren't anywhere near my intended target and I can't figure out why. I've noticed this in earlier missions also but thought perhaps my wingmen were jettisoning bombs outside the target area. In Quick Mission I can usually put bombs within a few feet of vehicles.

[KodiakJac]

20 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

Could you scroll around for a bit and see if the ground is black everywhere, or if it's just the airfield?

Could you delete (or backup somewhere) all contents of the data\graphics\LANDSCAPE_Rheinland_au folder (note: don't delete the folder itself)? Don't worry, the game will re-generate all required files.

 

Ok, here is a screen shot of the airfield and the surrounding landscape.  The entire world is black as far as the eye can see.

 

I did just as you asked, I deleted the contents of data\graphics\LANDSCAPE_Rheinland_au but not the folder itself.  The only content was a single folder titled ROADS and two files under ROADS titled (highwaysPath.bin and railroadsPath.bin).  So I deleted the ROADS folder and those two files.  Then I took the screenshot below.  All help will be appreciated, as this looks like a fun campaign!  Thanks!

 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

6 hours ago, KodiakJac said:

 

Ok, here is a screen shot of the airfield and the surrounding landscape.  The entire world is black as far as the eye can see.

 

I did just as you asked, I deleted the contents of data\graphics\LANDSCAPE_Rheinland_au but not the folder itself.  The only content was a single folder titled ROADS and two files under ROADS titled (highwaysPath.bin and railroadsPath.bin).  So I deleted the ROADS folder and those two files.  Then I took the screenshot below.  All help will be appreciated, as this looks like a fun campaign!  Thanks!

 

This is very clearly a surface file error, as Jaegermeister already suspected. Did you install the campaign correctly? I.e. if you go to [IL2 install directory]\data\Campaigns\Hurtgen you should see the files textures_hurtgen.tini, Surface_hurtgen.dat and Surface_hurtgenTex.txt. It must have exactly that path. Could you also try to re-install the campaign, just to be sure?

 

If it still doesn't work, could you provide the following info?

- Do you use the latest game version? (I know there's a few users who manually keep the game out-of-date)

- Do you use the Steam or standalone version?

 

@taffy2jeffmorgan were you able to fix the issue on your system? If not, could you check the above as well?

 

8 hours ago, Skycat1969 said:

November 25 is driving me crazy! I keep crashing into trees or houses -- four or five tries tonight and I still haven't beat it. I was doing great on one attempt until I accidently bailed out during the mission.

I don't really know what to say except that you shouldn't try too hard. Lawndarting into the ground is something that I suffered from as well during testing - until I figured that I should probably fly it like a real P-47 pilot would. Scared, Flak flying around everywhere and with all kinds of G-forces and vibrations, you'd likely want to stay high, dump your bombs and get the hell out. Instead of waiting until the last moment, drop a bit sooner. You should generally never get low enough to hit buildings or trees. Your accuracy will suffer, but at least you'll survive. Also don't forget that there's other P-47s as well. They'll pretty reliably take out the targets eventually so if nothing else works you can just wait for your wingmen to do the job for you.

 

8 hours ago, Skycat1969 said:

Also, it seems like my bombs are actually releasing a few seconds after the indicative "chunk chunk" sound. Sometimes the explosions aren't anywhere near my intended target and I can't figure out why. I've noticed this in earlier missions also but thought perhaps my wingmen were jettisoning bombs outside the target area. In Quick Mission I can usually put bombs within a few feet of vehicles.

I didn't change anything regarding the bombs (nor is it possible to). If the bombs release too late, you should record the track and post it in the bug reports forum.

 

And yes, it can happen that your wingmen decide that they'll probably not need their bombs anymore and jettison them somewhere.

[Skycat1969]

I didn't specifically observe my bombs were hanging on the wings. What is happening though is, I'll come in low on the village (sometimes in a 30-45 degree dive, sometimes horizontal at tree top level) and release bombs at a target on the periphery -- sometimes all bombs at once, sometimes in train. I'll cross over the village, evade, pull out, climb, look over my shoulder for smoke/craters, and see no indication that the bombs hit. A second or two later, a cluster of explosions matching the number of bombs I released will detonate below my aircraft in an unoccupied field several village widths away from the release point. I'll do more testing on this.

[KodiakJac]

11 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

This is very clearly a surface file error, as Jaegermeister already suspected. Did you install the campaign correctly? I.e. if you go to [IL2 install directory]\data\Campaigns\Hurtgen you should see the files textures_hurtgen.tini, Surface_hurtgen.dat and Surface_hurtgenTex.txt. It must have exactly that path. Could you also try to re-install the campaign, just to be sure?

 

If it still doesn't work, could you provide the following info?

- Do you use the latest game version? (I know there's a few users who manually keep the game out-of-date)

- Do you use the Steam or standalone version?

 

@taffy2jeffmorgan were you able to fix the issue on your system? If not, could you check the above as well?

 

Issue resolved!

 

My problem was one of two things, as I made two changes at once.

 

1.  I had renamed the parent directory from "Hurtgen" to "Battle of Hurtgen."  I thought I could get away with this in IL-2 Great Battles, and thought I had done it before without any problems.  But that may not be the case if there is a call for a specific file path name from within the campaign.  Maybe I've only gotten away with this in IL-2 1946, or maybe that has screwed up some of the old campaigns I thought were simply broken due to versioning differences.  I often try to fly very old campaigns in 1946, and sometimes I can fix them if there is a problem.  But sometimes I can't, and it may be because I've renamed the parent campaign folder, and there is something in the campaign looking for a specific file path name under the campaign folder.

 

or

 

2.  I re-downloaded Hurtgen and started from scratch.  I possibly had a corrupt zip file, and by starting from scratch, the problem fixed itself.

 

Please tell me which of the two scenarios above was my likely problem, as I'd like to know if it was from renaming the campaign folder.

 

In any case, I just flew the first mission in Hurtgen, and it was a blast!  The P-47 is one of my favorite aircraft in IL-2 Great Battles, so this campaign is going to be fun!  Thanks for helping me think this through, and maybe my note above can also help @taffy2jeffmorgan

 

Cheers!

[AEthelraedUnraed]

5 hours ago, KodiakJac said:

 

Issue resolved!

 

My problem was one of two things, as I made two changes at once.

 

1.  I had renamed the parent directory from "Hurtgen" to "Battle of Hurtgen."  I thought I could get away with this in IL-2 Great Battles, and thought I had done it before without any problems.  But that may not be the case if there is a call for a specific file path name from within the campaign.  Maybe I've only gotten away with this in IL-2 1946, or maybe that has screwed up some of the old campaigns I thought were simply broken due to versioning differences.  I often try to fly very old campaigns in 1946, and sometimes I can fix them if there is a problem.  But sometimes I can't, and it may be because I've renamed the parent campaign folder, and there is something in the campaign looking for a specific file path name under the campaign folder.

 

or

 

2.  I re-downloaded Hurtgen and started from scratch.  I possibly had a corrupt zip file, and by starting from scratch, the problem fixed itself.

 

Please tell me which of the two scenarios above was my likely problem, as I'd like to know if it was from renaming the campaign folder.

 

In any case, I just flew the first mission in Hurtgen, and it was a blast!  The P-47 is one of my favorite aircraft in IL-2 Great Battles, so this campaign is going to be fun!  Thanks for helping me think this through, and maybe my note above can also help @taffy2jeffmorgan

 

Cheers!

Glad you sorted it out!  Renaming the folder will indeed break the terrain, since the path in the mission file specifically links to the "Campaigns\Hurtgen" folder. If you want to rename the folder, that's possible, but you need to rename all instances of the path inside the .ini and ...Tex.txt files as well (both are text files that you can edit with notepad).

 

6 hours ago, Skycat1969 said:

I didn't specifically observe my bombs were hanging on the wings. What is happening though is, I'll come in low on the village (sometimes in a 30-45 degree dive, sometimes horizontal at tree top level) and release bombs at a target on the periphery -- sometimes all bombs at once, sometimes in train. I'll cross over the village, evade, pull out, climb, look over my shoulder for smoke/craters, and see no indication that the bombs hit. A second or two later, a cluster of explosions matching the number of bombs I released will detonate below my aircraft in an unoccupied field several village widths away from the release point. I'll do more testing on this.

What I *think* may be going on is that your bombs fail to explode. If you drop them from low, you'll need to set the detonator delay to something like 5s. The other explosions may come from an AI P-47 dropping or jettisoning its bombs.

[Skycat1969]

Thanks! I upped the fuse timing from 2s to 5s. I don't know if it made a difference but I destroyed the church as directed in the Nov. 27 mission. At the completion of my bomb run though, I saw a series of explosions under my aircraft several seconds after I passed over the village so I suppose all along I was seeing my wingman dropping his bombs late.

 

 A strange anomaly occurred in the Nov. 27 mission after I probably scraped a tree top. The plane jerked but there was no visible damage. Strafing felt uncalibrated after that. I returned to base but my flaps wouldn't come down when landing. The events log showed my path back to the airfield but also indicated I went down over the village.

 

Loving this campaign though! It is exactly what I wanted when I got excited for the P-47D-28 back when Bodenplatte was still EA.

[alpenspion]

Great Campaign! I love the villages that make the map much more interesting. Can you make a mod for this? 

One question i have. My wingmen do not attack ground targets. What is the problem? 

[jollyjack]

You could do that with JSGME IMO, but it's Aethelraed's (and Hamaha's ?) work, a lot of time went probably in to this. Ask them?

[AEthelraedUnraed]

1 hour ago, alpenspion said:

Great Campaign! I love the villages that make the map much more interesting. Can you make a mod for this?

For the surfaces, you could just put Surface_hurtgen.dat and Surface_hurtgenTex.txt inside data\graphics\LANDSCAPE_Rheinland_au and rename them to Surface.dat and SurfaceTex.txt (overwrite if necessary). However, I don't know how to get the 3d buildings to show up as well.

 

For any custom missions, you're free to use the provided files. Easiest way is to just open up one of the missions inside the editor and delete everything except the scenery.

 

2 hours ago, alpenspion said:

One question i have. My wingmen do not attack ground targets. What is the problem? 

This might be a bug. Which mission does it happen?

 

5 hours ago, Skycat1969 said:

A strange anomaly occurred in the Nov. 27 mission after I probably scraped a tree top. The plane jerked but there was no visible damage. Strafing felt uncalibrated after that. I returned to base but my flaps wouldn't come down when landing. The events log showed my path back to the airfield but also indicated I went down over the village.

 

Loving this campaign though! It is exactly what I wanted when I got excited for the P-47D-28 back when Bodenplatte was still EA.

I think you indeed scraped a treetop there

 

Nice to hear that you like the campaign!

[jollyjack]

On 3/4/2022 at 4:04 PM, Gambit21 said:

If the player is the lead then getting the AI to behave is a bit more difficult...one reason (not the only reason) I have the player as a wingman rather than flight lead.

 

Interesting remark, saw some expert campaign makers from a few years back do the same ...

[Jaegermeister]

9 hours ago, jollyjack said:

 

Interesting remark, saw some expert campaign makers from a few years back do the same ...

 

It's much easier to control the triggers and timing of missions if AI is following a predetermined path. If the Player is in charge, they can do unexpected things, resulting in... well... unexpected things. Those things would then fit the definition of a bug, so allowing the player to be in control is a bug waiting to happen. That doesn't mean you can't do it, it just requires thinking ahead about all the unexpected decisions one might make.

 

15 hours ago, jollyjack said:

You could do that with JSGME IMO, but it's Aethelraed's (and Hamaha's ?) work, a lot of time went probably in to this. Ask them?

 

You have to edit the .mis file to redirect to the custom texture files. I don't think you can get JSGME to do that, and then change the .mis file back to original. I'm not an expert at mods, so maybe you could? I don't know for sure.

 

Edit... It just occurred to me that you could easily replace the custom texture file with the modified one with JSGME and use the stock mission file structure. Include the correct objects in the mission to match the terrain mod and done.  

 

 

 

Edited March 27, 2022 by Jaegermeister

[alpenspion]

Mission 2+3

[AEthelraedUnraed]

On 3/28/2022 at 9:28 AM, alpenspion said:

Mission 2+3

Mission 2 lacks a fixed attack command since I wanted the player to look for targets himself. Unfortunately, this may lead to erratic AI behaviour. There are a couple of AI POIs around the targets and the waypoint priorities are set to low, so you'll find the AI may start to bomb targets on its own. On the other hand, it's equally possible that the AI won't engage a single target.

 

Mission 3 should work; I've tested it multiple times and the AI always attacked the artillery. Sometimes it can take a while though; the AI likes to circle around for a bit. Are you sure that's not the case?

[Deacon352nd]

Jaegermeister,

 

I understand replacing the texture files with the modified ones via JSGME but I don't know what you mean by the "correct objects in the mission to match the terrain mod."  could you explain that a little more clearly.  Thank you.

[AEthelraedUnraed]

2 hours ago, Deacon352nd said:

Jaegermeister,

 

I understand replacing the texture files with the modified ones via JSGME but I don't know what you mean by the "correct objects in the mission to match the terrain mod."  could you explain that a little more clearly.  Thank you.

I'm not Jaegermeister, but as the creator of this campaign I like to think I'm well qualified to answer this question

 

To fully incorporate the terrain into another mission, you'd need both the texture files as well as the 3d models. Texture files can be replaced as indicated above, in a mod. But there's no "catch all" solution for the 3d models; you'll always have to include the 3d models with your mission, otherwise all the towns will have the ground textures but not the 3d buildings to match up with them. As said, you can simply save any of my missions and delete what you don't need, you have my explicit permission

 

CY!