As discussed above we are changing the wind to make it less challenging on take off.
From playing the mission just then its become apparent that some players might not be aware of some things that can make it easier to take off. So in the meantime while we change the wind these might be of use to some players.
Firstly ensure you chock the aircraft immediately as you spawn in - this will stop u rotating in the breeze. This capability was introduced back in March-ish this year with the introduction of the 4.3 patch. You'll need to bind some keys - i use Alt C to toggle chocks on/off. Once your engine(s) are running it should be easier to control the aircraft once you remove the chocks.
Secondly you should try and take off into the wind. If you look at the airfield you will see a set of yellow boards - if you line up on the runway so you see the yellow boards running off into the distance this will mean you are more/less into the wind (but there will still be cross wind sometimes - there's several threads on the forums about how to take cross winds into account). This has been the case since before i started flying in Feb this year and if you do this then it should also help making take off easier.
And there are bofors guns on most airfields so if you just take off from your spawn point without clearing your take-off run then you might hit them during your take-off roll.
Note that with the random wind / weather you will have to check where these boards are each time you fly it as the active runway will change as the wind direction changes. And that is why sometimes when you spawn you will have to taxi to the other end of the runway to take off into the wind and sometimes you wont.
Also - i'm now aware that on some airfields destroying it (ie 100% destroyed) isnt removing the ability to spawn in. Freya is taking a look at the spawn points as i now know i didnt set them up correctly (i got very confused trying to set them up) so we will hopefully have that fixed soon as well.
And lastly vulching....
Lots of people are complaining about vulching. One suggestion is to move to another base if you are tired of being vulched. Ive just spent 2 hours flying over the western side of the map in a 110 and wasnt vulched once when i took off 3 times from the blue bases. Its not as if there isnt any action going in the west and i encountered several Blenheims and was shot down a couple of times by Spitfires and Hurricanes operating in the area escorting Blenheims. And there are 2 bases in France for the Blues and several northern bases for the reds which should be far enough away to not be vulch fests. So it is possible to fly on the map, see action and not be vulched when taking off/landing if you are prepared to move bases.
Hope this helps some of you and thanks again for your patience while we fix some of the bugs etc. I know that there are still a few players who really dislike the map but at the same time there seems to be many who like it. For anyone who dislikes it pls post your reasons in the forum and I 'll take a look at them and might be able to do something to help remove some of your angst.
Ezzie
More feedback...
- Looking at the briefing, it looks like North Weald should be a valid target. I've bombed it multiple times and have seen no messages.
- Speaking of briefings, the one you get when you select briefing from the map could use some restructuring. It probably makes no difference to fighters, but for bombers, it is tricky trying to sift through the text and compare that to <obj<blue messages. Additionally, there is limited capacity for scrolling in that briefing window, so the listed information needs to be carefully placed.
- We tried manning some Flak this evening... our attempt to deal with the problem of Spitfires over blue fields. Some prime fields (e.g. Lympne, Hawkinge) seem to be low on available Flak positions. There also seems to be some large Flak emplacements (8,8cm) scattered about in otherwise deserted locations.
- On the topic of being strafed on take-off, it is difficult to find fields that are far back, so I think a lot of this comes down to luck, circumstance and the tactics applied by the opposition.
- And in terms of starting further back, I have found that I am taking off from Bembridge, flying south way out into the channel, turning around, and then flying back in to target. This is so that I can climb up to high-altitude for bombing. Given this, I may as well start in France, which additionally makes it safer for take-off, rather than being close to the front line. Perhaps the map is specifically designed to encourage the 110s and Stukas, or low-alt action. But, if not, is there any chance of a large-ish French airfield for the Ju 88s and He 111s? (Marquis West? Tramecourt? Oye-Plage?) ... and if there are bases in France, I couldn't find them? Where are they?
Thanks. Salute!
Thanks for the feedback Dietrich.
Re Nth Weald - will take a look. Sounds like the trigger isn't working.
Re briefing - I will take a look and see what I can do. Do you think there should be less info in the briefing or are u thinking its more changing the order in which the tgts are discussed?
Re flak - will check. from memory every field has at least 1x bofors and a bunch of lower calibre weapons. I will review.
Re 88. 88s were placed near selected transportation tgts (ie some rail yards , some bridges) and the tank parks. They were also placed in some areas where they could cover a number of airfields so aren't located right on the airfields in these locations.
Re French airfields. There should be 2, one at Oyle Plage and 1 at Theville and all blue aircraft are available from these bases. A bunch of 110s took off from Oyle Plage today when I was online earlier today and at least 1 G50 so it seems that base is working. But I'm not sure if anyone has used Theville so will check them.
Re high altitude. When I set out to make the map I wanted to accommodate high altitude missions. However the map became more of a tactical environment and the geography didn't end up suiting the high altitude role as much as i had intended. In some ways it's the Battle of France replayed in England with tactical missions for the Luftwaffe rather than the more strategic missions flown during the BoB.
Thanks for letting me know your thoughts /observations Dietrich.
Ezzie
Got some work done tonight! I'll send the mission back to you, Ezzie, for review and any other changes you want to make (ie Briefings?) And you can submit London Ruft 1.4 when ready!
Re: North Weald destruction message - Fixed
Re: Spawn points still being available after airfield is destroyed - fixed
Re: Eastchurch spawn issues - fixed
Re: Winds - reduced (still random, but won't be as severe)
Re: All other spawns - Reworked. During busy server times, it will be helpful for players to make note of and report any issues that may still remain, as higher player numbers will reveal the need for further changes/additions.
Re: Loadout limitations - Removed ALL limitations - needs review from Ezzie.
Re: Airfield "strength" - needed balancing, made some changes, needs review from Ezzie.
Thanks Freya.
About to PM you.
Ezzie
It is more a question of ordering it in a way more suitable for bombers to use in-game. As a pre-game briefing it is fine, but the layout is awkward when doing in-flight work. Basically, this the briefing that you can get in the map (open the in-game map, right-click, select briefing), and it is the one called Army Blue (or Army Red) in the FMB. It appears both in the entry screen (after selecting sides) and on the in-game map. The problem with the in-game map, is that the scroll bar doesn't function and the only way to see all the targets is to see the entire briefing. This means expanding the map... hence the inconvenience.
If you open the FMB and that briefing, you can copy the entire text, by clicking in the box, selecting CTRL+A, then CTRL+C. You can then paste it into a PM/reply and I could edit it to show you what I would recommend.
Check Lympne. As far as we could tell it had 1x2cm and 1xBofors. What might have happened though is that they had been destroyed.
Okay. Understood.
To be honest, I didn't check Theville. However, Oye-Plage was definitely not an option (is it destroyable?). I will check Theville again.
Thankyou to both you and Freya for the responses.
Hi again Dietrich,
I'm not clever enough to quote specific bits out of your posts so here goes with the old school approach.
re brief - Freya thinks he understands what you mean and is taking a shot at reworking it today. Will see how it looks and might post here or PM to you and see whether we have understood you correctly.
re flak - we'll be updating the blue airfields to make them all have at least 3 bofors.
re Oye Plage - at least one player took off this morning (my time) from Oye Plage and i asked him on TS to confirm he did so. So it appears OP is working as i think several other players did as well.
Thanks for the thanks. Most of the thanks should go to Freya who has provided extra horsepower to help improve the map. I'd reached the end of my tether trying to get it to work so all of the credit towards refining it into something that at least some players seem to enjoy goes to him.
Ezzie
Can confirm Oye Plage is working, although there was a weird bug where some of our planes could only accelerate to 20 km/h no matter the throttle setting/pitch, direction in relation to wind, or whether on the concrete runway or off. Is it possible for this to be looked at?
flare
Thanks Flare.
re OP - thanks for letting me know you could spawn in Ok. Not sure i have any obvious solutions re your bug but thanks for letting me know.
Another player reported when this mission first came out a similar issue at Biggin Hill so I'm not sure if its caused by the spawn points / locations at specific bases or something else. Freya has taken a look at all the spawns so if it is spawn related then maybe it will go away in the next update. But maybe it wont....
If you / anyone else gets it again pls let me know.
Thanks
Ezzie
That's a weird one eh Flare, but I'm not sure it's the map. It's happened to me on other maps a couple times (OP Relink was one)! Blamed it on the wrenches. Had to respawn, seemed to have fixed it. But yes Oye and Theville are available in france. I've finished work on the mission (for now), have made some changes here and there. May add/tweak some more spawns in the new year, so keep reporting any probs.
About the briefings, I've added a target list at the bottom (which is where the in-game map breif always starts for some weird reason) so it will be easier to see. However, since most of us all re-size our map to our own personal taste, it won't be and can never be the same for everyone. (I use the whole screen - to simulate that true 'lost' feeling...) Check it out, adjust if necessary!
More Flak has been added to some bases - Bofors that is. It's pretty damn scary flying low over them as it is, so I hope this doesn't over do it!
I'll submit this to Ezzie for a final check over and then it's off to Bliss. London Ruft 1.4 will be a blast!
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