FC2 Career suggestions

[Napping-Man]

I know the 1917 phase is limited due to the plane set, but my flight of Spad 7s ended up fighting some Pfalz D.XIIs in May 1917.  I think the only German a/c that was even close to being used in May '17 was the Albatros D.V (maybe if you can squint, you'll think it's a D.III).   ?

 

Right now it's kinda like fighting Fw190Ds during the Battle of Britain.  

[TAIPAN_]

3 hours ago, Napping-Man said:

I know the 1917 phase is limited due to the plane set, but my flight of Spad 7s ended up fighting some Pfalz D.XIIs in May 1917.  I think the only German a/c that was even close to being used in May '17 was the Albatros D.V (maybe if you can squint, you'll think it's a D.III).   ?

 

Right now it's kinda like fighting Fw190Ds during the Battle of Britain.  

I thought the D.XII was a 1918 plane?

 

I'm flying the the Pfalz squadron that eventually will get the D.XII and the early years / 1917 we definitely don't get the D.XII (I'm given Albatros or Pfalz D.III).

 

If it's appearing as an enemy a year too early I'd say that was a bug and could be reported.

[LukeFF]

1 hour ago, TAIPAN_ said:

If it's appearing as an enemy a year too early I'd say that was a bug and could be reported.

 

It's not a bug, because as it's been explained elsewhere a lot of planes right now are standing in for others not yet built. 

[TAIPAN_]

1 minute ago, LukeFF said:

 

It's not a bug, because as it's been explained elsewhere a lot of planes right now are standing in for others not yet built. 

Ahh k thanks, don't remember reading it in the release notes but I probably just missed it

[PatrickAWlson]

17 hours ago, Napping-Man said:

I know the 1917 phase is limited due to the plane set, but my flight of Spad 7s ended up fighting some Pfalz D.XIIs in May 1917.  I think the only German a/c that was even close to being used in May '17 was the Albatros D.V (maybe if you can squint, you'll think it's a D.III).   ?

 

Right now it's kinda like fighting Fw190Ds during the Battle of Britain.  

 

Until we get an earlier plane set you can either start later (July, if you want to be accurate) or you can just go with the flow and accept that the context is not accurate.  Earlier planes are not coming until FC3 and beyond, so I would not advise waiting patiently  

[Napping-Man]

Yeah, I'm sticking to 1918 for now. 

[LukeFF]

1 hour ago, PatrickAWlson said:

Until we get an earlier plane set you can either start later (July, if you want to be accurate) or you can just go with the flow and accept that the context is not accurate.  Earlier planes are not coming until FC3 and beyond, so I would not advise waiting patiently  

 

Yes, for both career choices, I'd recommend people just start in 1918. When compared to 1917, the plane set there is far more complete right now.

[PatrickAWlson]

1 hour ago, LukeFF said:

 

Yes, for both career choices, I'd recommend people just start in 1918. When compared to 1917, the plane set there is far more complete right now.

 

The problem there is that you lose some planes like the Sopwith Triplane and the earlier SPAD VII which was still in use in the summer of 1917.    The July 1917 plane set is not bad at all with both SPAD VIIs active, the Camel and Se5a are in service as are the Albatros D.V and Pfalz D.III.  Those were the main combatants at that time all the way into very late 1917.

 

The two seater situation is unrealistically challenging for the Germans without an RE8.  The German two seater situation has never been good in this product line with the DFW C.V shouldering the entire load from late  1916 to end of war, but that is true of RoF as well.  There are no French 2 seaters before the Breguet but I always use the FE2b and RE8 in drag for the Farman and Dorand.  

[LukeFF]

1 hour ago, PatrickAWlson said:

There are no French 2 seaters before the Breguet but I always use the FE2b and RE8 in drag for the Farman and Dorand.

 

Don't forget the Strutter - the French used those things in huge numbers (far more than the British ever did).

[Guest deleted@219798]

I think the way AI behaves needs to be looked at. I've flown four missions for Jasta 4 in April 1918. One was a balloon busting mission, no one in my flight shot down a balloon and just milled about. Free hunt mission, flight didn't follow route and went off to attack balloons or ground units and lost 3 planes. AI flights don't try and attain altitude after take off. I always try and reach at least 2,000m approaching enemy lines and my flight is at far below, maybe at best 1,000m. On an escort mission my flight of Dr1's took off chasing low flying Bristols leaving the 2 seaters unprotected. The way escort mission are constructed at take off 2 seaters are flying straight for enemy territory and at around 800m. Our fighter have to try and catch up. The AI flight leaders just seem to do any old thing without much good reason. Reasonable enough to leave the mission route if there are enemy planes threatening but usually not. When they do go off course they just circle around before eventually getting back to the mission.

[ST_Catchov]

10 minutes ago, kestrel444x500 said:

On an escort mission my flight of Dr1's took off chasing low flying Bristols leaving the 2 seaters unprotected.

 

Well, to be fair, this is typical behaviour of Dr1 drivers. Look at MvR, he might still be alive today although quite old.

 

But your general point is becoming a theme and really needs to be looked into.

[=IRFC=Gascan]

Unfortunately this is the sort of reason (and their general lack of ability in a dogfight) why I vastly prefer the MP experience, especially campaigns like Black September and Bloody April. But the SP stuff certainly is an important aspect of the game that draws additional customers who may never try MP, and this sounds like it needs some attention to give them the best experience possible. With a big release like a new career mode, it seems like a lot of bugs have been found (like incorrect awards and British planes appearing in French areas of the map) and a lot of older issues (like poor/lackluster AI performance, both in dogfighting and in mission following for WW1). Not surprising, and I imagine the devs are hard at work trying to make things better.

[LukeFF]

1 hour ago, =IRFC=Gascan said:

With a big release like a new career mode, it seems like a lot of bugs have been found (like incorrect awards and British planes appearing in French areas of the map)

 

British planes appearing in the French areas of the map is a design feature, not a bug - it's happening right now because the mission generator code is looking for squadrons from all over the map. It just needs to be reconfigured so that the search radius is smaller for WWI missions. 

[Guest deleted@219798]

One major issue is bombers dumping their bombs before reaching the target. They then endlessly circle the target probably because they haven't any bombs to drop. Our fighters had to eventually leave and the Halberstadts were still circling. Of course the mission failed.

[RNAS10_Oliver]

The RNAS squadrons again are made up of pilots from the RFC (there are no naval ranks). And pilots are being transferred between RNAS squadrons and RFC squadrons. The same was the case in Rise of Flight. And I also imagine the case for the German and French naval squadrons. The career still only distinguishes between the different countries and not the different air services.

[PatrickAWlson]

On 3/30/2023 at 4:32 PM, Napping-Man said:

I know the 1917 phase is limited due to the plane set, but my flight of Spad 7s ended up fighting some Pfalz D.XIIs in May 1917.  I think the only German a/c that was even close to being used in May '17 was the Albatros D.V (maybe if you can squint, you'll think it's a D.III).   ?

 

Right now it's kinda like fighting Fw190Ds during the Battle of Britain.  

 

The Pfalz D.III was present in July 1917.  No way you should be seeing the Pfalz D.XII for another year.

[Napping-Man]

I wish we could start a career later in 1917.  That would make it a wee bit more realistic.

[FeuerFliegen]

If later planes are being used as stand-ins, then why am I seeing SPAD XIII in early 1917 when they could have just used the SPAD VII?

[TG-55Panthercules]

If I get to it before the devs do, while I'm working on my project to inject appropriately-marked squadron default skins into career mode I also plan to take a look at some of these odd plane selection/stand-in assignment issues and see if I can tweak them to yield a bit more realistic results than some of the ones people are reporting here.  I think I understand what the devs were shooting for here and I don't really blame them since there's obviously only so much anyone can do at this point given the holes in the plane set until we get FC3/FC4 released, but maybe it can be improved a little bit in the meantime.  It may make things a little more "boring" in some respects by limiting the variety of planes encountered, but I think most people would probably prefer a little less variety and a little more historical appropriateness in their encounters, but I guess we'll see down the road.

Edited April 6, 2023 by TG-55Panthercules

[csThor]

Something is fishy with regards to my balloon defense missions. Every time so far both sides have fighters present but they all just circle endlessly, totally ignoring each other, the balloons and whatever else happens. This is the second such mission where exactly the same happened - I went home early after expending all my ammunition for 8 kills each. Never was it possible to trigger the "mission accomplished" message because I think the mission logic is broken.

 

PS: I let it run on accelerated time after landing and I watched how one balloon was drifting towards the northeast on the map. In the end it was some twenty or thirty kilometers behind the front.

gen.zip

[Guest deleted@219798]

Logic seems to have flown right out the window when it comes to stand in planes. Nieuport N28 stand in for presumably N11? Fokker Dr1 as some sort of ground attack plane, what's that standing in for? As a grumpy old git I may not even be around when the actual planes that flew in early 1917 show up. When the planes for FC2 were announced, I pointed out that the main opponents of the Spad 7 and Tripe, Albatros DII and DIII were missing. In RoF Spad7 was classed as one plane, in FC it counts 2 planes, same as Sopwith Strutter will be.  Get out the bug spray.

Edited April 13, 2023 by kestrel444x500

[LukeFF]

10 hours ago, kestrel444x500 said:

In RoF Spad7 was classed as one plane, in FC it counts 2 planes, same as Sopwith Strutter will be.  Get out the bug spray.

 

The Spad 7 in ROF is two different planes, no different than here. Strutter - also two different planes. Put away the bug spray. ?

[PatrickAWlson]

9 hours ago, LukeFF said:

 

The Spad 7 in ROF is two different planes, no different than here. Strutter - also two different planes. Put away the bug spray. ?

 

That was something that I begged for early on in RoF.  Putting the 180 HP Spad up against Eindeckers and Halberstadts is not fair  .  Putting a 150 HP Spad up against them isn't entirely fair either, but at least the Halberstadts stand a chance.

[csThor]

Just wondering: What is the numerical probability of mission types for a german career? For some reason nearly 70% of missions are either balloon attack or defense, with a handful of interceptions or escorts thrown in. I wonder if this is intentional or if something like "front patrol" is yet to be added. I know far less of WW1 than I do of WW2 but IIRC two-seaters were pretty numerous according to what I have read but somehow I always get scouts and no two-seaters at all.