Bodenplatte career - "2 O" on some fuselages

[Skycat1969]

In career mode some of my aircraft have black "2 0" tactical code letters over the default blank skins. I've seen it on RAF P-51Bs and on Mosquitos. This occurs in a completely stock install as well as in my primary "customized" install on separate PCs. Is anybody else getting this; and is there a way to disable the tactical codes in the career mode?

[Jaegermeister]

@LukeFF may know. What aircraft are they on?

[Skycat1969]

RAF Mosquito, some flights.

RAF P-51B, some flights.

I haven't haven't tested USAAF Mustangs.

[LukeFF]

Do you have a mission file and/or screenshots? What's the date in career mode you are seeing this? 

[Skycat1969]

I first noticed this while testing skins P-47 skins in a 508 FS career. The career starts at the earliest phase in the campaign. The initial escort fighters were Spitfire Mk.IXe's, but then I began noticing RAF P-51B's. Some had the 20 code, others were blank. 

 

I then began a new RAF career flying P-51B's to test this, on a different PC without any mods installed. Only two of the three squadrons (No. 19 Squadron and No. 65 Squadron) are playable in the campaign. No. 122 Squadron is AI. All three are operational for only a short time: period = "1944.09.17","1944.09.28". My skins were still the default blanks so I can't pinpoint if a particular squadron was marked. I've since edited in some painted skins with proper fuselage codes; I'll start a new RAF P-51B career and see if I can screenshot the problem.

 

Meanwhile I started Mosquito career at its earliest phase and date. The mission was two Mosquitos. My aircraft was blank; the other had the "20."

[Skycat1969]

New start of a No. 19 Squadron career. I ran this twice from start of the phase, with same results:

I have more screenshots but the basics are: Date = 18.9.44. Mission start = 16:01. Eight ship flight. Flight Leader, #5 (Player), and #6-8 (AI) have the black code overlay.

 

Two P-51s from No. 65 Squadron entered the mission. Neither have the black code letters.

[LukeFF]

Ok, thanks - I'll have a look.

[Skycat1969]

First mission of No. 305 Squadron Mosquito career. Date = 25.11.1944. Mission start = 08:46. Two ship mission to interdict traffic; AI Leader has the black tactical code while Player does not.

 

I haven't noticed this code on any other RAF aircraft; or on any USAAF aircraft including a combined P-51B and P-51D eight-ship formation.

[RedeyeStorm]

For information. I have also started a 305 Mossie career and have flown 4 or 5 missions. I have seen no codes on the planes.

[Skycat1969]

Thanks. I really wanted to test this again in my unmodded setup, in case I mis-remembered what I saw there vs. my main setup. Unfortunately my wifi was down last night so I couldn't access Pilot Career mode on PC #2. My BOS is on Steam while most of my DLC is from the website.

 

Here is one thing I am certain of though: for some reason my modded install (the source used for the screenshots and tests above) displayed default USAAFskins for RAF P-51Bs, while unmodded PC #2 shows the default RAF skins. That's one of the reasons I edited in the RAF skins over the weekend. But the 2-0 problem was before the edit.

 

I'll test with mods disabled tonight. I'm light-handed with my mods anyhow but maybe something I wouldn't have expected is causing tactical codes to appear in the career mode.

Edited June 6, 2022 by Skycat1969

[LukeFF]

Yes, I ran some tests last night and couldn't reproduce the problem - I was thinking that maybe some leftover lines in the code made it into the last update, but my money is on it being a stray mod somewhere. ?

[[APAF]VR_Spartan85]

This is a silly question, but in your aircraft set up, when you choose your paint, you don’t have any custom code set do you?

 

?

[Q_Walker]

I started a new career with No. 65 and saw the markings as well. I have never used mods.

[Skycat1969]

6 hours ago, [APAF]VR_Spartan85 said:

This is a silly question, but in your aircraft set up, when you choose your paint, you don’t have any custom code set do you?

 

?

I checked that. All of the custom code squares are blank in the set-up screen. I also selected the 'remove' option just in case. That said, the codes are appearing on the AI aircraft also and I'm playing low-ranking new guy so my personal setup shouldn't affect 4 out of 7 AI wingmen.

 

I just tested with mods disabled and custom skins disabled also. I began a new No. 65 Squadron P-51B career, and while the proper default RAF skins did appear (yay!) unfortunately so did the "2 0" black tactical code. 

8 hours ago, LukeFF said:

Yes, I ran some tests last night and couldn't reproduce the problem - I was thinking that maybe some leftover lines in the code made it into the last update, but my money is on it being a stray mod somewhere. ?

On a hunch I just tried playing as the commander from the start. The codes did not appear in either the P-51B or Mosquito careers. I generated three consecutive Mosquito missions to be certain. The third mission had eight aircraft and none had the codes. I feel confident the cause is related to pilot's rank.

[AEthelraedUnraed]

8 hours ago, LukeFF said:

Yes, I ran some tests last night and couldn't reproduce the problem - I was thinking that maybe some leftover lines in the code made it into the last update, but my money is on it being a stray mod somewhere. ?

I haven't seen the issue myself, so I haven't been able to investigate, but here's my theory:

 

Inside the mission file, a string containing a certain number of characters is used for the TCode property, which determines the squadron code. E.g. TCode = "a1b" will result in the code A1?B on the side of the aircraft. If a character slot should be empty, the HTML value of the space character, %20, is used to indicate this. Because tactical codes aren't used yet in the campaign, all codes are "%20%20%20" (or "%20%20%20%20" if the aircraft has four character slots).

 

Now what if for some reason, the percent sign isn't written down properly because of some error in the code (forgotten escape character, Russian language encoding, whatever)? Let's say it ends up as a #, for example. The resulting string is then TCode = "#20#20#20". The # sign likely defaults to the space "character", and the 2 and 0 end up as, obviously, the 2 and the 0. The leftover characters aren't rendered.

 

@-DED-Rapidus, am I up to something?

Edited June 7, 2022 by AEthelraedUnraed

[Canvas25]

Brilliant! I would vote for this answer even if it turns out to be completely wrong. 

[-DED-Rapidus]

2All, please give me a list of squads, is the problem only in the career?

[Skycat1969]

I've only noticed this happening in Bodenplatte careers and when playing as a low-rank pilot (ie, not playing as commander from the start).

I have only confirmed:

 

- No. 19 Squadron (P-51B Mustang)

- No. 65 Squadron (P-51B Mustang)

- No. 305 Squadron (Mosquito)

 

I have not seen this occur on any other aircraft types. Also, it does not seem to affect the USAAF P-51B or P-51D.  I will continue testing and observing.