Official Historical Campaign: Battle of the Hurtgen Forest

[August22]

I'm having troubles with mission 4. Whatever I do, I can't achieve the desired tarket. Flew it 4 times now. And it doesn't let me finnish and move on to mission 5.

Edited February 18, 2024 by August22

[AEthelraedUnraed]

38 minutes ago, August22 said:

I'm having troubles with mission 6. Whatever I do, I can't achieve the desired tarket. Flew it 4 times now. And it doesn't let me finnish and move on to mission 7.

Mission six, that's the one where you're bombing targets near Schevenhütte at the beginning of Operation Queen on November 16, right?

 

Strange, cause basically the Mission Complete is behind a (chain of) timer(s). Even if you just keep flying circles above the target, it should still trigger.

Did you succeed in avoiding friendly fire? What was the last message that appeared?

[August22]

Sorry, I meant mission 4. I tried flying circles for 20 min after all the ammo was gone. But it didn't let me proceed to mission 5.

[sevenless]

9 hours ago, August22 said:

Sorry, I meant mission 4. I tried flying circles for 20 min after all the ammo was gone. But it didn't let me proceed to mission 5.

 

Listen to the ground controller "Groundhog". 1st get your bombs on the tanks, then when he calls out the attacking SPWs work on them with rockets and .50cal. I got some in both the tank and the SPW group. Once "Groundhog" thanks for the support, you have done it.

[Towline]

I've just finished the campaign. Very enjoyable, thank you. I only had a few issues with not triggering elements of the script (mission 8 I nearly ran out of fuel so just headed home and deleted the mission in the campaign folder in order to progress to the next). When's your next campaign coming out? ?

[LF_Mark_Krieger]

Minor problem in mision 2 "October 11". Tower says always that runway is busy and doesn't give permission to land.

[Nocke]

Hello there!

We are running this lovely campaign as a coop - great fun!
There is one problem I can't get fixed: The drawings on the briefing map, like the frontline and location of different ground groups, do not show up.

The flight plan however does, and, as far as I can see, all the rest is working fine.
I have checked all files in the campaigns directory for instances of Campaigns\Hurtgen, and replaced them by Multiplayer\Cooperative.
 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

[YoYo]

If the campaign is official now do I need to download the skin pack?

[AEthelraedUnraed]

9 hours ago, YoYo said:

If the campaign is official now do I need to download the skin pack?

Good question.

 

There's a huge number of official high-quality P-47D-28 skins already (at a much higher quality than my own skins) so they probably won't be added into the official game.

 

However, I do plan to keep the skins as an optional download for those people who want a little extra flavour or authenticity. Right now, I'm not really sure how to implement that. Either I could have this optional download overwrite the official mission files, but that would require Mods On. The other option is to have a separate campaign show up in the game menu, i.e. two Hürtgenwald campaigns. Neither option is perfect.

 

Right now, you could download the mission files and skins and use Mods On, which should work.

[Sandmarken]

Are the enchantments to the map still present in the official version? 🙂

[AEthelraedUnraed]

56 minutes ago, Sandmarken said:

Are the enchantments to the map still present in the official version? 🙂

Yes

[YoYo]

I installed the skin pack (3x for D28 and 1x for D22) but only default are present in official version:

 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

1 hour ago, YoYo said:

I installed the skin pack (3x for D28 and 1x for D22) but only default are present in official version:

Hmm, did you enable "Mods On" as well as download and install the campaign files from the first post in this thread?

[Jaegermeister]

2 hours ago, YoYo said:

I installed the skin pack (3x for D28 and 1x for D22) but only default are present in official version:

 

 

The default skin for the P47-D28 doesn't have stripes. That's the late '44 skin.

[YoYo]

5 hours ago, Jaegermeister said:

 

The default skin for the P47-D28 doesn't have stripes. That's the late '44 skin.

Correct but not from the campaign. They are loaded from official version.

6 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

Hmm, did you enable "Mods On" as well as download and install the campaign files from the first post in this thread?

 No, campaign is from stock IL-2 now, its present as Battle of the Hürtgenwald. I’ll check do I have „Mods on”, however I think yes.

Edited April 19, 2024 by YoYo

[creamersdream]

I already had the campaign and skins installed before its official status. Isn't this what the skins should look like?

 

 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

16 hours ago, YoYo said:

No, campaign is from stock IL-2 now, its present as Battle of the Hürtgenwald. I’ll check do I have „Mods on”, however I think yes.

Right now, you need to have both the campaign files and the skin pack installed for the custom skins to show up, as well as Mods On. This is because the skins are specified in the mission files, which hence need to be overwritten.

 

9 hours ago, creamersdream said:

I already had the campaign and skins installed before its official status. Isn't this what the skins should look like?

Yup, that's the custom skins.

[YoYo]

Im after 3th mission, thank you.
 

If I turned on Mods On, it was still in the official campaign, the repaint jobs were not displayed still, but ok, I can at least choose manually for my plane (only).

 

However, there is another issue (for me). The volume of sounds of the target command are so loud that I jumped in my seat. Compared to the rest of the sound from the game, it's even 300% in my opinion, it breaks immersion, like a big boom ;). Something like shouting at the rest. Text is also showing too short, can you extend it and sound keep it down, even 50%? I see that some people reported it already in this topic but the problem still exists.

Edited April 20, 2024 by YoYo

[AEthelraedUnraed]

4 hours ago, YoYo said:

If I turned on Mods On, it was still in the official campaign, the repaint jobs were not displayed still, but ok, I can at least choose manually for my plane (only).

As I said, you also needed to download and install the campaign files from the first post in this thread

Anyhow, I've merged the two files. Go to the opening post of this thread and re-download the "Optional skin pack". If you have Mods On, you should now see the custom noseart.

 

4 hours ago, YoYo said:

However, there is another issue (for me). The volume of sounds of the target command are so loud that I jumped in my seat. Compared to the rest of the sound from the game, it's even 300% in my opinion, it breaks immersion, like a big boom ;). Something like shouting at the rest. Text is also showing too short, can you extend it and sound keep it down, even 50%? I see that some people reported it already in this topic but the problem still exists.

If you've already seen people report this issue, then you should have also seen the solution

Basically, the problem is in your volume settings. This campaign was written for default volume settings, i.e. 100%. If you've got something else there, then the sound will be louder. There's nothing I can do about that.

 

To solve this issue, go to the Game Settings and set the volume as below:

 

If this makes the game too loud, you can change it in the Windows volume settings. If you right-click the volume icon in the bottom right of the taskbar and click "Open Volume mixer", you can set the volume per application so that this won't also change the volume for different applications (i.e. system sounds, youtube, etc.).

Edited April 20, 2024 by AEthelraedUnraed

[YoYo]

I don't have it there at 100%, because then IL-2 is too loud. I fly online a lot using various messengers and SRS, so it's not a good idea. However, when running files directly from the Forlder Campaigns\hurtgen\Audio, you can hear that they are very loud on Windows only and the volume amplitude is over the entire area. Still too much (according me, so its not the problem of 100% in IL-2 but they are too loud for me). Not a problem, I will modify it for me just let me know to know, your system of markings of those files, what voiceover numbers will be responsible for the 4th mission for example? Because I see many signs, but they have 10, 11 and 12 all at the beginning.

 

Example of sample:

 

Btw. So if I understand correctly, the volume slider of IL-2 changes all sounds except added samples in campaigns?

Edited April 20, 2024 by YoYo

[AEthelraedUnraed]

4 minutes ago, YoYo said:

I don't have it there at 100%, because then IL-2 is too loud. I fly online a lot using various messengers and SRS, so it's not a good idea. However, when running files directly from the Forlder Campaigns\hurtgen\Audio, you can hear that they are very loud on Windows only. Still too much (according me, so its not the problem of 100% in IL-2 but they are too loud for me). Not a problem, I will modify it for me just let me know to know, your system of markings of those files, what voiceover numbers will be responsible for the 4th mission for example? Because I see many signs, but they have 10, 11 and 12 all at the beginning.

The number at the beginning is the date in a MMdd format. So e.g. 1006_X.ogg is related to the mission taking place on 6 October 1944, i.e. the first mission.

 

However, as I said, it's possible to change the volume for just IL2 within Windows: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-change-volume-on-a-per-app-basis-in-windows-10/

That way you can have IL2's audible volume at whatever level you want while keeping its internal volume at 100%.

[YoYo]

6 minutes ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

The number at the beginning is the date in a MMdd format. So e.g. 1006_X.ogg is related to the mission taking place on 6 October 1944, i.e. the first mission.

 

However, as I said, it's possible to change the volume for just IL2 within Windows: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-change-volume-on-a-per-app-basis-in-windows-10/

That way you can have IL2's audible volume at whatever level you want while keeping its internal volume at 100%.

 

Yes, I know this option for apps, but then it probably doesn't remember these Windows settings and I have to do it every time. Correct?

[AEthelraedUnraed]

2 hours ago, YoYo said:

Yes, I know this option for apps, but then it probably doesn't remember these Windows settings and I have to do it every time. Correct?

On my Windows 11 system, it remembers the volume settings from the previous time.

 

41 minutes ago, jollyjack said:

This picture shows the sounds are set too loud by default IMO.

No. An audio file can by definition not be too loud by itself since it specifies relative rather than absolute audio levels. An audio file can only be too loud for a specific playback method. These audio files were tuned for IL2 at default levels and they are not too loud for that.

 

3 hours ago, YoYo said:

Btw. So if I understand correctly, the volume slider of IL-2 changes all sounds except added samples in campaigns?

That's basically correct, yes. @LukeFF is it intended behaviour that sounds played in mission files don't change their volume along with the rest of the sounds in IL2 when changing the volume setting? Or is this a bug?

[LukeFF]

51 minutes ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

is it intended behaviour that sounds played in mission files don't change their volume along with the rest of the sounds in IL2 when changing the volume setting? Or is this a bug?

 

I'll ask and see.

[Jaegermeister]

2 hours ago, jollyjack said:

 

This picture shows the sounds are set too loud by default IMO. You could load the sound files in Audacity (free), and resave them 6 or 9db lower.

Make a JSGME ready file for that as MOD?

 

The image below is of sound tracks from Hell Hawks at the top, Battle of Hurtgen in the middle and Lightning Strikes at the bottom

 

 

Some people have mentioned that the tracks in Hell Hawks are too loud also but most people found them to be just fine. I was careful to make the tracks in Lightning Strikes as close to the default sound level as possible. If anything, for me the sound files in this Hurtgen campaign are a little low and I can barely hear them.

 

The percentage of sound graphing going to the maximum limit is an illustration of the amount of amplification used, not the overall volume. All that shows is that I recorded my sound files at a higher input level than the others and therefore used less amplification in the final editing to reach the desired volume level. The heavier sound saturation in the Hurtgen file is due to more static distortion.

 

When I listened to all 3 of these tracks back to back, the volume was almost exactly the same. I would suggest that issues with audio track volume are a specific PC setting, not so much based on the game volume. 

 

Edit... also as JJ mentioned, you can open the files in Audacity, lower the volume and resave them over your current files. 

 

 

 

Edited April 20, 2024 by Jaegermeister

[jollyjack]

The most luxury set up simplifying all is using a multi band compressor either as software plugin or an in-between hardware audio interface like a TC Finalizer.

[YoYo]

Im currently looking for the best audio settings for those files, I have already tested several versions in the Il-2 environment. If will be ok, and @AEthelraedUnraed gives the permission I'll upload the new soundpack here.

Edited April 20, 2024 by YoYo

[AEthelraedUnraed]

13 minutes ago, YoYo said:

Im currently looking for the best audio settings for those files, I have already tested several versions. If will be ok, and AEthelflaed give the permission I'll upload the new soundpack here.

Well, sure, I'm fine with you sharing whatever you've modified.

 

However, be advised that those are the best audio settings only for your particular setup. If someone has different in-game or Windows volume settings than you, those settings will not be the "best" anymore. (Even when disregarding the fact that "best" is a subjective term.) As such, I won't promote them or link to them in my opening post since that would be a slippery slope of other people who have slightly different preferences or a slightly different audio setup also wanting their particular preferences linked. I'm not planning to make the opening post a forest of options.

 

My official recommendation to anyone who has issues with the volume of the radio calls remains: set the in-game volume to 100% and regulate the audible volume from within Windows.

 

21 minutes ago, YoYo said:

AEthelflaed

It's Æthelræd. Æthelflæd is someone else entirely

 

5 hours ago, Jaegermeister said:

The percentage of sound graphing going to the maximum limit is an illustration of the amount of amplification used, not the overall volume. All that shows is that I recorded my sound files at a higher input level than the others and therefore used less amplification in the final editing to reach the desired volume level. The heavier sound saturation in the Hurtgen file is due to more static distortion.

Technically, it illustrates the amount of harmonic distortion introduced (in this case intentionally) by imperfect amplification, rather than the amount of amplification itself. I doubt that I recorded the sound at significantly different input levels, but I did a large amount of signal processing afterwards to make it sound more like an old Microphone->Transmitter->Receiver->Headphone system as would have been used. I can't remember exactly what I did, but it definitely involved a band-pass filter, (soft?) clipping and additive coloured noise.

[Jaegermeister]

1 minute ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

Technically, it illustrates the amount of harmonic distortion introduced (in this case intentionally) by imperfect amplification, rather than the amount of amplification itself. I doubt that I recorded the sound at significantly different input levels, but I did a large amount of signal processing afterwards to make it sound more like an old Microphone->Transmitter->Receiver->Headphone system as would have been used. I can't remember exactly what I did, but it definitely involved a band-pass filter, (soft?) clipping and additive coloured noise.

 

Yes, there could be a whole discussion on how to distort and edit sound tracks. I had a feeling someone was going to correct my oversimplification of the sound editing technicalities fairly quickly, LOL. I added a separate track with static noise and mixed it, but my goal was to make it sound as close to the voices in the default radio comms as possible so it was relatively faint. I don't remember exactly what I did back then either but it's in my notes somewhere

[jollyjack]

Are there any changes or bugs known with 5.203 influencing Hurtgen mission 6?

Take off seems impossible as your wingmen will crash into you if you don't hurry up enough LoL.

[--[---MAILMAN----]

There is definitely a problem with Mission One.  Bluebird flilght never gets ready for take off and the flight never gets takeoff cleance.  Every time I try this mission I creep father down the runway, still no takeoff clearance.  All of the aircraft are shifted to the right half of the runway with number one and three having one wheel in the dirt.  Number two never taxi's into positon which blocks number three and four.  The first AI flight goes off without a hitch, communications and all.

The mission came with an update.  I did not download any files.  I do not have mods turned on.  I am using windows 10 pro 64 bit, not windows 11.

[AEthelraedUnraed]

4 hours ago, --[---MAILMAN---- said:

There is definitely a problem with Mission One.  Bluebird flilght never gets ready for take off and the flight never gets takeoff cleance.  Every time I try this mission I creep father down the runway, still no takeoff clearance.  All of the aircraft are shifted to the right half of the runway with number one and three having one wheel in the dirt.  Number two never taxi's into positon which blocks number three and four.  The first AI flight goes off without a hitch, communications and all.

The mission came with an update.  I did not download any files.  I do not have mods turned on.  I am using windows 10 pro 64 bit, not windows 11.

Yes, I'm aware of the issue. It seems to be related to one of the other aircraft in the flight sometimes not getting into position properly. I'm not quite sure how to fix the issue, but it'll come in due time.

 

For now, you can just take off without clearance. Clearance will eventually be given as you take off, after which all wingmen will also take off as intended.

[jollyjack]

Just peeped at 01 in the ME, seems OK only that a few bluebird planes were not set on ground, and the fuel truck passing to 200m in the air.

In the game itself, on autopilot mission 01: Bluebird 2 (or3) loops a bit at the beginning of the runway, almost bumps into the following one.

Alignment at takeoff is not really exactly on the runway, some taxi mapping issue?

Edited May 21, 2024 by jollyjack

[--[---MAILMAN----]

Same observation.  Bluebird 2 stops in the middle of the runway at an angle and never moves.  Bluebird 3 loops on the runway and if you wait long enough Bluebird 4 will loop also.

Bluebird flight gets takeoff clearance when the player, Bluebird 1 wheels leave the runway.

 

With 50% fuel locked I need to run 2100 RPM, 31" MAP and Auto Lean to and from the target.  2550 RPM, 42" MAP and Auto Rich at the target then back down to minimum fuel consumption in order to have enough fuel to get back and pray that I don't have to use Military or WEP or that my fuel tank(s) don't get hit since I have never seen a self sealing fuel tank seal in this game.

 

I have never understood the fascination with limiting fuel in flight simulator missions to artificially restrict the player.  Just my opinion.

[AEthelraedUnraed]

14 hours ago, jollyjack said:

Just peeped at 01 in the ME, seems OK only that a few bluebird planes were not set on ground, and the fuel truck passing to 200m in the air.

The altitude of vehicles and parked planes doesn't matter; they're automatically set to ground whenever they are spawned.

 

 

13 hours ago, --[---MAILMAN---- said:

Same observation.  Bluebird 2 stops in the middle of the runway at an angle and never moves.  Bluebird 3 loops on the runway and if you wait long enough Bluebird 4 will loop also.

Bluebird flight gets takeoff clearance when the player, Bluebird 1 wheels leave the runway.

As I said, I'm aware of the issue and if possible (which it likely is) I will fix it in a coming update

 

13 hours ago, --[---MAILMAN---- said:

With 50% fuel locked I need to run 2100 RPM, 31" MAP and Auto Lean to and from the target.  2550 RPM, 42" MAP and Auto Rich at the target then back down to minimum fuel consumption in order to have enough fuel to get back and pray that I don't have to use Military or WEP or that my fuel tank(s) don't get hit since I have never seen a self sealing fuel tank seal in this game.

 

I have never understood the fascination with limiting fuel in flight simulator missions to artificially restrict the player.  Just my opinion.

Strange, I've never had any fuel issues. It's only a 20min or something flight; 50% fuel should be more than enough.

 

Regarding the limiting of fuel; I would argue that it's artificial to not restrict the player. In real life, pilots didn't have much to say about their loadout either. Anyhow, this is a video game and I don't have any real objections against players taking additional (or less) fuel, so I've unlocked the option, to be included in the same update as mission 1 is fixed.

 

Lastly, I want to remark that landing back at the player airfield is never a requirement for mission completion. Should you run out of fuel because of a leak or run into engine trouble, you're free to belly land anywhere in allied territory (look on the map for the current front lines) and you're able to continue the campaign. In real life, ditching your aircraft because of battle damage wouldn't stop your career as a pilot, so IMO it shouldn't stop an IL2 campaign either.

[--[---MAILMAN----]

I appreciate you taking the time to fix Mission 1 for a future update and creating the campaign in general.  Mission 2 never gives the player, wingman and Chieftan who is stooging around Y-29 permission to land.  All three planes keep getting "the runway is busy, go around.  I just landed anyway, but observed for a while the two AI circling, getting into the landing configuration occasionally and getting waved off.

 

"Regarding the limiting of fuel; I would argue that it's artificial to not restrict the player. In real life, pilots didn't have much to say about their load out either."

 

I agree restricting the load outs and pilots not having a say so regarding ordinance, but I have never read where fuel was not "topped off" when there was sufficient time to refuel the aircraft prior to a combat mission.

 

I suppose an exception would be a scramble to protect the airfield/carrier from an incoming air raid/attack.  Cdr McCambell 7 kill defense of his carrier is one such exception.  Another might be the P-51B fuselage tank not being filled and purged on non-long range flights due to it causing center of gravity shift.  Maybe P-47's at Saipan and F4U's at Pelelieu did not top off in between sorties since they were dropping ordinance in some cases before the landing gear was even retracted because the front lines were so close.

 

If someone knows of doctrine or documented cases of USAAF aircraft not being fully fuel prior to a normally scheduled combat mission I would love to read these.

 

I have only flown the first two missions of the campaign so far.  IRL most pilots did not have assigned aircraft and flew what was available.  Since we have a mix of P-47D-28 and P-47D-22 in the flights I might suggest that the player be assigned different aircraft models occasionally in the campaign for variety (haven't found a campaign featuring the -22 yet).  If you have included this in your campaign already and I haven't got to the mission yet this is a moot point.

 

Keep up the good work.

Edited May 23, 2024 by --[---MAILMAN----

[AEthelraedUnraed]

7 hours ago, --[---MAILMAN---- said:

I appreciate you taking the time to fix Mission 1 for a future update and creating the campaign in general.  Mission 2 never gives the player, wingman and Chieftan who is stooging around Y-29 permission to land.  All three planes keep getting "the runway is busy, go around.  I just landed anyway, but observed for a while the two AI circling, getting into the landing configuration occasionally and getting waved off.

Someone else reported something similar so I already had a look but couldn't find anything. I'll have another look then I guess.

 

7 hours ago, --[---MAILMAN---- said:

I agree restricting the load outs and pilots not having a say so regarding ordinance, but I have never read where fuel was not "topped off" when there was sufficient time to refuel the aircraft prior to a combat mission.

I haven't read any sources stating anything about refueling doctrine, so I can't know for sure. It just strikes me as odd that they'd take the extra weight of a full fuel tank when flying less than a 5th of its maximum range. But if anyone has any good sources for this, I'm willing to reconsider

 

7 hours ago, --[---MAILMAN---- said:

I have only flown the first two missions of the campaign so far.  IRL most pilots did not have assigned aircraft and flew what was available.  Since we have a mix of P-47D-28 and P-47D-22 in the flights I might suggest that the player be assigned different aircraft models occasionally in the campaign for variety (haven't found a campaign featuring the -22 yet).  If you have included this in your campaign already and I haven't got to the mission yet this is a moot point.

Nope, the player only flies the D-28 as a conscious choice. The issue with having both types is that people would need to have both the Bodenplatte and Normandy modules, versus only Bodenplatte if the player only flies the D-28.

 

The large majority of all aircraft of the 366th (about 2/3 as you can see from the images in Lt. Baier's Scrapbook) were bubbletops and the player flies as the flight leader, so I wouldn't say it's inaccurate to only fly the D-28

[Jaegermeister]

22 hours ago, --[---MAILMAN---- said:

I appreciate you taking the time to fix Mission 1 for a future update and creating the campaign in general.  Mission 2 never gives the player, wingman and Chieftan who is stooging around Y-29 permission to land.  All three planes keep getting "the runway is busy, go around.  I just landed anyway, but observed for a while the two AI circling, getting into the landing configuration occasionally and getting waved off.

 

This is usually due to a vehicle being too close to the runway when the planes are trying to land. The limit is something like 20 meters +/-

 

22 hours ago, --[---MAILMAN---- said:

If someone knows of doctrine or documented cases of USAAF aircraft not being fully fuel prior to a normally scheduled combat mission I would love to read these.

 

The only instance I know of where 9th Air Force Jabos were not fully fueled was during the battle of the Bulge when the 370th Fighter Group was doing ground attack shuttle trips in their P-38s from Florennes to the Panzer spearhead at Celles about 10 miles away. They were landing by flights to rearm with 500 lb bombs and taking right back off without refueling until dark. That only occurred on one day. That night, they lined up some of the Lightnings with the cannons pointing down the road towards Dinant and the rest of the pilots and ground crew stood watch with carbines and AA machine guns all night.

 

I never saw any comments regarding what a full fuel load was considered to be. Standard procedure seems to be all internal tanks full with the exception of the rear tank of the P-51 as noted earlier.

 

[Anonymousgamer]

On 5/23/2024 at 6:35 PM, Jaegermeister said:

This is usually due to a vehicle being too close to the runway when the planes are trying to land. The limit is something like 20 meters +/-

If so, then it's a major problem because I am experiencing the "Autopilot won't land" issue in almost all the campaigns so far (I just got this game recently). Can anything be done about it?

[AEthelraedUnraed]

7 hours ago, Anonymousgamer said:

Can anything be done about it?

That depends on where you're experiencing it

 

When you mention "almost all the campaigns so far", do you mean scripted campaigns or also the career mode? If it's in scripted campaigns, you need to post it in the relevant threads. If it happens in the career, you can take a recording of the issue and post it here: