Why FC has so few mods?

[Dupxo]

Really, why this game is almost "clean" and there are so few mods in comparision to RoF. It is quite exhausting that I have to mod all things by myself 😕 .

Mod for reducing completely unrealistic MGs rate of fire - nope. Mod for extending time of "destroy delay" of dead pilots and gunners - nope. Mod for improving AI pilots - nope. Mod for better looks of No Mans Land - nope. Mod which change bullets damage to make wings ripping off faster - nope. Mod for improving static explosions at No Mans Land - nope. Mod which makes balloons more vulnerable to fire - nope. 5 of listed mods i had to do by myself, thanks to the RoF modders i knew which file should I find and modificate. 

 

I mean if someone doesn't know anything about creating simple mods, he is in bad situation. He has no choice and is stuck with stock game. After 5 years Mods section has only 1 page. I assume that everyone thinks this game is perfect and perfection doesn't need improvements :D. 

[LukeFF]

What is wrong with the MG rate of fire?

[Dupxo]

All planes armed with Vickers MG fire with the same rate as late war Entente fighters (Camel, SE5a, Dolphin etc.), which had the Hazelton Muzzle Booster. Nieuport 17, Sopwith Pup, Sop Strutter, Spad 7 and rest of early Entente planes should have fire rate about 400-450 RPM, not 750.

 

In RoF there were 2 .txt files for Vickers. Ordinary one (vickers_mk1.txt) and with hazelton booster (vicker_mk1_boost.txt). Thats why in RoF Pup, Strutter, NIeuport 17 have slower rate of fire than Camel, Dolphin etc. In Flying Circus there is only vickers with hazelton muzzle booster.

The same issue is with Spandau MGs. In Flying Circus their rate of fire is insanely fast, set to 650 rounds per minute. There are a lot of topics (look theaerodrome and old RoF Forum) on the net which prove that standard Spandau's rate of fire was set to about 450 rpm and this situation didn't really change through whole Great War. Yes, 650 was possible but we are talking about not-obtainable ideal world conditions. Look also to this thread:

 

[Stonehouse]

Just an FYI @Dupxo not including myself in the discussion, simply providing some info.

 

On 12/11/2024 at 8:25 AM, Dupxo said:

Mod for extending time of "destroy delay" of dead pilots and gunners - nope. Mod for improving AI pilots - nope.

These are covered by the AI Gunnery and AI Gunnery despawn delay mods. Found here AI gunnery mod - Mods - IL-2 Sturmovik Forum

 

 

On 12/12/2024 at 4:51 AM, Dupxo said:

All planes armed with Vickers MG fire with the same rate as late war Entente fighters (Camel, SE5a, Dolphin etc.), which had the Hazelton Muzzle Booster. Nieuport 17, Sopwith Pup, Sop Strutter, Spad 7 and rest of early Entente planes should have fire rate about 400-450 RPM, not 750

 

Currently there is only the boosted Vickers defined in game (mg_rof_vickers_mk1_boost.txt) and Gun_0 (primary armament) is defined in the plane file. Modding the plane file makes the aircraft unflyable by players. Therefore, if you were to create a version of the Vickers which was unboosted and mod the early Entente fighters to use it then they become unavailable to fly and if you change the boosted Vickers to be slower then the later war fighters are impacted. So, you cannot really win via the modding path. Your only option here is to provide enough documentation to prove to the dev team that they need to add an unboosted Vickers definition to the game and change the plane definitions for early Entente aircraft to use it. If I could add it to the AI Gunnery mod and still allow the aircraft to be flyable I would do so but as that is not possible, I won't make that change.

 

On 12/12/2024 at 4:51 AM, Dupxo said:

The same issue is with Spandau MGs

I can do this one in AI Gunnery as based on reading through your linked thread I would agree that the LMG 08/15 has been given too high a ROF. I will add this to my next release and set it to 450 rpm.

 

I believe there are graphical mods around for explosions and I know there was an old couple for improving the look of no man's land on the Arras map. I know for sure there is one that removes it so the Arras map to make it pre/post WW1. I will include the Arras wartime ones I have below. Perhaps you can adapt them to work for the Western Front. None of these graphical mods are mine by the way but you can search for the original threads. I cannot recall if they are in the FC subforum or the main IL2 modding one.

 

On modding the damage of bullets - I don't want to include that in AI Gunnery as it can impact more than just WW1 and FC. I don't cover balloons in any of my mods but perhaps you may be interested in the AAA mods I've published as they do cover WW1 - here AAA mod - Mods - IL-2 Sturmovik Forum

 

FC no mans land ambient smoke mod.zip

 

FC arras crater mod.zip

FC BetterFronts.zip

 

Edit - I found an unsubstantiated post that the Hazelton device was used in service from May 1917 onwards. If this could be substantiated with a proper reference document then this would likely be the proof needed to convince the devs https://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/showthread.php?p=468799

Edited December 13, 2024 by Stonehouse

[Dupxo]

On 12/13/2024 at 2:25 AM, Stonehouse said:

Currently there is only the boosted Vickers defined in game (mg_rof_vickers_mk1_boost.txt) and Gun_0 (primary armament) is defined in the plane file. Modding the plane file makes the aircraft unflyable by players. Therefore, if you were to create a version of the Vickers which was unboosted and mod the early Entente fighters to use it then they become unavailable to fly and if you change the boosted Vickers to be slower then the later war fighters are impacted. So, you cannot really win via the modding path. Your only option here is to provide enough documentation to prove to the dev team that they need to add an unboosted Vickers definition to the game and change the plane definitions for early Entente aircraft to use it. If I could add it to the AI Gunnery mod and still allow the aircraft to be flyable I would do so but as that is not possible, I won't make that change.

 

Dammit, thanks for that information. I was going to modificate plane files with that non-boosted Vickers couple of months ago, but i had a big break with this game. So you tested it and such mod doesn't work. OK, so this infomation spared some of my time. Many thanks again.

[CrazyhorseB34]

Not many mods needed in FC. 

 

FC fixed things that needed mods in ROF. 

 

My opinion.