Career Mode - No enemy fighters?

[gydaveb]

What is up? Flying a career on the US side, in both Bodenplatte and Normandy, there are practically no enemy fighters to be found. This seems new over the past few months. It used to be that there were plenty of targets. I've even dialed up the settings for enemy flight density to high, and there is still practically nothing to be found. P-51 campaigns where you just fly along escorting bombers to and from target with no enemy opposition may be realistic, but it is sure boring. Am I missing something?

[Calos_01]

 

[gydaveb]

37 minutes ago, Calos_01 said:

 

Thanks for the quick response.

 

Ugh. That's kind of a "game breaking" bug... a combat flight sim career mode with no enemy opposition. Hopefully it is fixed quickly?

[1Sascha]

Apparently, it hasn't been fixed yet.

I just ran into this in my LW Kuban career - which also seems to continually throw the same "Escort Bombers"-mission at me. It's not exactly the same mission, so I'm not stuck in a time-loop or anything like that, but I think I've now flown three of these in a row where no enemy AC showed up, whatsoever. And it's not like they don't run into my flight - there are no enemy planes on the map (verified via CTRL-F2 view).

 

I've done Kuban before, and I do remember that in earlier careers, this phase of the campaign would throw tons of enemy air at me - usually lots of P-39s, IIRC.

 

 

S.

Edited August 12, 2024 by 1Sascha

[LukeFF]

1 hour ago, 1Sascha said:

Apparently, it hasn't been fixed yet.

I just ran into this in my LW Kuban career - which also seems to continually throw the same "Escort Bombers"-mission at me. It's not exactly the same mission, so I'm not stuck in a time-loop or anything like that, but I think I've now flown three of these in a row where no enemy AC showed up, whatsoever. And it's not like they don't run into my flight - there are no enemy planes on the map (verified via CTRL-F2 view).

 

I've done Kuban before, and I do remember that in earlier careers, this phase of the campaign would throw tons of enemy air at me - usually lots of P-39s, IIRC.

 

 

S.

 

What settings are you using for your career? (Frontline density,etc)

[1Sascha]

21 hours ago, LukeFF said:

What settings are you using for your career? (Frontline density,etc)

From memory (I'll check these settings later), I *think* enemy/friendly strength is on "parity" and ground troops, etc are both on "scattered".

 

I've multiple active careers and the other one I fly ATM is Rheinland, which uses the same settings - but so far it hasn't given me these "empty" missions.

 

S.

[LukeFF]

Thanks. If/when you can, please post an example mission file showing the issue along with the settings uses when generating the mission. 

[1Sascha]

On 8/13/2024 at 6:34 PM, LukeFF said:

please post an example mission file showing the issue

Err.. been a while since I dug through the IL-2 folder. Where do I find the mission files? Or do you mean a track?

 

S.

[LukeFF]

40 minutes ago, 1Sascha said:

Err.. been a while since I dug through the IL-2 folder. Where do I find the mission files? Or do you mean a track?

 

S.

 

Mission files. 🙂

 

They are in data/missions, the _gen.mission file. You have to grab it before you generate another mission, because it gets overwritten every time a new mission is created.  

[1Sascha]

Okidokey...

 

Err... it's too large to post here... I'll see if I can zip it or something, or upload it someplace else. I copied it to a different location, so I won't lose it once I start another mission.. although I suspect the next one will be just another "escort bombers" one with no enemies showing up. At this pace, I should be in Moscow soon...

 

 

It's Kuban LW career, phase 2, Escort Bombers mission from Anapa to... err.. that large-ish coastal town SE of Anapa with an AF next to it. Just flew that mission again and the same thing happened. Weirdly enough, it wasn't just no enemy AC, but also no enemy ground units whatsoever. I'm playing in VR, so I have icons on and there was nothing red near the target area. Neither at the "action" waypoint (where the bombers were supposed to drop their loads) nor at the Russian AF right next to it... not even AAA guns or searchlights there.

I did see German ground-units along the front-line and on Anapa AF though.

Setting are:

Speed: Rapid

Start: On the Runway

Enemy Strength: Parity

Troops/AAA: both on "scattered".

 

EDIT: Couldn't right click on the damn file on my desktop to zip it while VR was running... 😄 Attached the zip now.

 

EDIT, EDIT: This career doesn't seem generally broken. Ran the mission and started the next day which put me on CAP - and this time enemies did show up. Sadly, it was one of those "let's end the player's career" kind of missions that are also pretty common. Only four friendly AC total on mission, laughably low patrol altitude (2k) and a *ton* of enemy fighters showing up with ~2k of altitude advantage, who will bounce my oblivious AI wingmen. Since the enemies' alt seems to be based on my own (not my flight's) altitude, climbing well above my assigned altitude will not work - or perhaps make things worse, even... 😄

 

 

 

S.

_gen.zip

Edited August 15, 2024 by 1Sascha

[Pocaire]

I haven't played il2 in a while and just went back to try the 109 single missions from Battle of Stalingrad. I did the airfield defence one, the Stuka escort one, and then tried the Yak mission which is an intercept. Saw no planes at all, enemy or friendly, except for my own wingman/flight. In the first two cases I got 'mission accomplished' after just flying the track and landing. There were radio messages like 'engage enemy fighter' but nothing visible.

[LukeFF]

18 hours ago, 1Sascha said:

Okidokey...

 

Err... it's too large to post here... I'll see if I can zip it or something, or upload it someplace else. I copied it to a different location, so I won't lose it once I start another mission.. although I suspect the next one will be just another "escort bombers" one with no enemies showing up. At this pace, I should be in Moscow soon...

 

 

It's Kuban LW career, phase 2, Escort Bombers mission from Anapa to... err.. that large-ish coastal town SE of Anapa with an AF next to it. Just flew that mission again and the same thing happened. Weirdly enough, it wasn't just no enemy AC, but also no enemy ground units whatsoever. I'm playing in VR, so I have icons on and there was nothing red near the target area. Neither at the "action" waypoint (where the bombers were supposed to drop their loads) nor at the Russian AF right next to it... not even AAA guns or searchlights there.

I did see German ground-units along the front-line and on Anapa AF though.

Setting are:

Speed: Rapid

Start: On the Runway

Enemy Strength: Parity

Troops/AAA: both on "scattered".

 

EDIT: Couldn't right click on the damn file on my desktop to zip it while VR was running... 😄 Attached the zip now.

 

EDIT, EDIT: This career doesn't seem generally broken. Ran the mission and started the next day which put me on CAP - and this time enemies did show up. Sadly, it was one of those "let's end the player's career" kind of missions that are also pretty common. Only four friendly AC total on mission, laughably low patrol altitude (2k) and a *ton* of enemy fighters showing up with ~2k of altitude advantage, who will bounce my oblivious AI wingmen. Since the enemies' alt seems to be based on my own (not my flight's) altitude, climbing well above my assigned altitude will not work - or perhaps make things worse, even... 😄

 

 

 

S.

_gen.zip 1.38 MB · 1 download

 

Okay, so long story short, these missions were revised so that the chance and the timing of an enemy interception is more random. However, if there are continued reports of enemy fighters just never showing up at all, then the team may look into revising things. 

 

As always, just please attach mission files to these reports, thanks. 🙂

 

30 minutes ago, Pocaire said:

I haven't played il2 in a while and just went back to try the 109 single missions from Battle of Stalingrad. I did the airfield defence one, the Stuka escort one, and then tried the Yak mission which is an intercept. Saw no planes at all, enemy or friendly, except for my own wingman/flight. In the first two cases I got 'mission accomplished' after just flying the track and landing. There were radio messages like 'engage enemy fighter' but nothing visible.

 

Those haven't received updates in ages, IIRC. 

[1Sascha]

5 hours ago, LukeFF said:

However, if there are continued reports of enemy fighters just never showing up at all, then the team may look into revising things. 

Like I said: It's not just that there weren't any enemy fighters there, there were no Russian ground units, either. Neither the intended targets for the bombers nor any flak, searchlights, whatever at the Russian airfield nearby. On the blue/German side, everything was as it should be.. my flight of fighters, the bombers we needed to escort and ground units at our own airfield and near the frontline.

[Pocaire]

On 8/15/2024 at 4:22 PM, LukeFF said:

 

Those haven't received updates in ages, IIRC. 

 

Does that mean that they should be working because there are no recent changes, or that they have been broken for a long time?

[LukeFF]

23 minutes ago, Pocaire said:

Does that mean that they should be working because there are no recent changes, or that they have been broken for a long time?

 

They should be working as they were originally designed.

[Pocaire]

Ok, I will try again and keep the mission files this time.

[Pocaire]

On 8/17/2024 at 3:10 AM, LukeFF said:

They should be working as they were originally designed.

 

I did this again with no problem, at least in the first one. I think the first time I might just have climbed above the incoming sturmoviks and failed to spot them.

[Panzerlang]

Simple check is Shift-F2 to cycle through enemy planes (or ctrl-F2, I forget).

[PatrickAWlson]

19 minutes ago, Panzerlang said:

Simple check is Shift-F2 to cycle through enemy planes (or ctrl-F2, I forget).

 

ctrl-F2 for enemies.  shift-F2 for friendlies.

[Yogiflight]

In a 109 escort mission in BOS no enemy aircrafts as well, plus no AAA at my base. The ground targets for the Hs 129, we escorted were there.

109 escort mission without enemy and friendly AAA.zip

 

 

 

109 escort mission without enemy and friendly AAA.zip

[Yogiflight]

I was just flying another escort mission, lots of Russian fighters this time. We shot down 13 LaGG 3. But the fighter bombers were 109 F4, not E7 as most likely should be.

109 F4 fighter bombers.zip

[LukeFF]

Thanks, I will pass along these reports to the developers. 

[LukeFF]

1 hour ago, Yogiflight said:

I was just flying another escort mission, lots of Russian fighters this time. We shot down 13 LaGG 3. But the fighter bombers were 109 F4, not E7 as most likely should be.

109 F4 fighter bombers.zip 1.32 MB · 0 downloads

 

This is now on the to-fix list. 

[Aapje]

@LukeFF

 

I've been trying to do a Spit career in BoN, but it's mission after mission of no enemies. Can the devs take a look at my mission file?

 

 

Spit no enemy.zip

[LukeFF]

16 hours ago, Aapje said:

@LukeFF

 

I've been trying to do a Spit career in BoN, but it's mission after mission of no enemies. Can the devs take a look at my mission file?

 

 

Spit no enemy.zip 1.97 MB · 0 downloads

 

What unit and what date?

[Aapje]

On 2/1/2025 at 6:17 PM, LukeFF said:

What unit and what date?

 

501 RAF at Friston

09.05.1944

 

Ran it from the start of BoN career, and no enemies along the way. Enemies set to random likelihood & random dominance.

Edited February 3 by Aapje

[LukeFF]

On 2/2/2025 at 2:11 PM, Aapje said:

 

501 RAF at Friston

09.05.1944

 

Ran it from the start of BoN career, and no enemies along the way. Enemies set to random likelihood & random dominance.

 

One of our mission designers looked at this and says: "There are airplanes in the mission. If enemies set to random, most likely generated values (enemy inferiority, scattered). In that case, the escort missions may not have any enemies." 

[MAJORgoonMADLOU]

I've set many career missions to dense and enemy superiority and still no enemies.  As a result I have given up on careers.  Just too boring. 

[Aapje]

4 hours ago, LukeFF said:

One of our mission designers looked at this and says: "There are airplanes in the mission. If enemies set to random, most likely generated values (enemy inferiority, scattered). In that case, the escort missions may not have any enemies." 

 

Perhaps the fly paths are bugged then? Because I don't encounter any for mission after mission. It doesn't really matter if there are fighters hidden away far away in the map.

 

I guess that I have to record a track for this, to see where those planes go?

Edited February 4 by Aapje

[LukeFF]

Yes, a track file would help.

[Aapje]

@LukeFF

 

Ok, I think that I found at least two (related?) issues, during an evening of mucking about. One issue is that during bomber/attacker escorts, I have a habit of putting the plane on autolevel until getting to the coast, and then turning around, back to the bombers/attack aircraft. What I think happens is that I trigger the enemy planes to take off, but since I fly away, they despawn. I noticed this in a mission, although I wasn't recording at the time. But I saw them take off, and then when I tried viewing the enemies a bit later, while flying away from them, no enemies were there anymore.

 

The second is that the planes did trigger to take off, but they just kept circling their own airfield. Here is the track that can be downloaded for the next 7 days showing this:

https://www.transfernow.net/dl/20250207xXgA3m4f

 

In both cases, I think that the planes should attempt to climb to meet the attackers, and if they lose sight of them, at least climb to gain potential energy and do a little patrol.

Edited February 7 by Aapje

[gydaveb]

Can y’all take another look at this? Started a Rheinland P-51 career and it is boring as hell because there are no enemy fighters regardless of settings. This is definitely broken. Same story with Normandy.

[LukeFF]

It's been submitted for review. 

[Fingers68]

I have just not long bought Normandy.

 

Career mode, iron man Spitfire, I have now done about 8 missions without seeing a single enemy fighter. Of the ones I have done maybe 3 of them have had enemies (which have killed me)

The last mission I was on I just put on the auto pilot and I actually fell asleep in VR!

 

Is it just being kind to a new guy?

 

What settings do you need to have to get some action?

[MAJORgoonMADLOU]

LOL. On 2d, on several occasions,  I've actually put the plane on auto pilot while traveling to and from the combat zone, then got up and completely left the computer for 15 or 20 minutes, came back and the plane was still flying like nothing had happened, because nothing had happened!  You are not the only one who has fallen asleep while using VR.

 

The settings dont seem to really matter as far as action is concerned. But its my understanding that was the way it was in real life during WW2. Many, many hours of boring flight and  a few short seconds or minutes of sheer terror during combat.

 

If you want quicker action in any Great Battlles a career, I strongly suggest you fly the German ones. I've  flown many German career missions in which I encountered many enemy fighters in less than a minute after takeoff.  Unfortunately, German planes are not my favorite, especially having to hear that incessant,  irritating German radio chatter.  But there is plenty of action in those careers in my humble opnion. 

 

 

[Fingers68]

https://il2sturmovik.com/news/851/update-5203/#:~:text=Enemy interceptors appear in the,its own group of interceptors.

 

I've just been reading this which sort of hints at if your low on pc reserved power it might hold back from adding to the problem.

 

I've got it running like butter with plenty headroom but will run some tests in flat screen low resolution. 

 

It's a bit of a shame, I've had IL2 for years and just got back into it after getting a Crystal light. So bought the Normandy dlc as from  watching YT vids doing a career in the spitfire it looked very appealing. And quite active.

 

I guess there will have been many irl missions when it was quiet, and I am starting the career early at normal time scale. Maybe as the war goes on things get a bit more intense, well it certainly does on D Day. But I can't just sleep through the war till then, that wouldn't be British.

[Aapje]

I've had the same experience with the Spitfire. What you can try is switching units. Another option is starting the career after D-day. A third option is to use PWCG to generate missions. 

[Fingers68]

I switched units which has made things a great deal more interesting, also setting the max difficulty.

 

Thanks for the suggestion.