TWC 113 Days Campaign officially started Apr 29th!!!! (TWC Campaign Server)

[TWC_Flug]

FYI I pulled the trigger . . . the TWC Campaign Server 113 Days Campaign is officially off and running.

All stats, all ranks, all objectives, all aircraft stock levels, all front lines reset.

The campaign will run for 113 Days--just as the actual Battle of Britain did (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057%2F9781137316264_3)--OR until one side pushes the other off of the map OR until Team Fusion release TF 5.0/Tobruck.

Whichever comes first!


I left everyone signed up for whichever side you have been signed up for - Blue or Red. However, if you would like to switch sides, now if the time. Just ask Fatal or me in a private message or on this thread. (I feel like Blue could probably use some more help, so I would encourage a few people to move in that direction if you would like to.)
Outside views are now turned off. However, note that you can still make nice videos etc by running your track files through the Team Fusion Track Editor. Request permission to use that tool here (https://theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1782), link to the tool itself here (https://theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/tracks/cgi-bin/enableexternals.php).
Extensive help, instructions, how-tos, etc etc at the TWC Forums (https://forums.twcpilots.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=26) (you'll need to register to view) and also in the Mission Briefing online when you log in to the multiplayer server (TWC CAMPAIGN SERVER).
Note that a "TWC PRACTICE/TEST CAMPAIGN SERVER" is running also. In that server you can try different aircraft (no rank restrictions), use outside views to help, crashing or losing planes has not great consequence, and generally experiment or try things before doing them "for real" in the TWC Campaign Server.

Good luck! May the best team win!

[TWC_Birdtail]

Flug, can you fly both red or blue in the "TWC PRACTICE/TEST CAMPAIGN SERVER?

[AKA_Blasto]

S!~

Great news! . When signing in last night- the first night of this 113 day campaign - myself and others noted that the Luftwaffe aircraft numbers were not reset. We had zero E1-B's - or one- and almost every one of our good planes ( E4B) were not there. So either the Blue sides aircraft were not reset / replenished - or some jackfruit has ran thru a massive number of aircraft in one day.
Also - it was a little surprising to find such short- or no notice - of the campaign start. Ive noticed the Allied numbers are far more than the Luftwaffe- so going out in our oldest fighters is a bit ridiculous. Could have got 200 kills with a better plane- wink. Good times await- and I hope the Luftwaffe and Allied sides are treated the same this round- ie; stocked aircraft. Blast you tonight!

S!~ AKA_Blasto

[Erpr.Gr.210_Mölders]

* A thing noted yesterday while flying with the Stuka. Do not activate extended clouds in the option menu or you get odd stuffs it seems. Yesterday at a certain point my gunsight disappeared and was visible only if I zoom in. Clouds were also appearing/disappearing.
Deactivated the extended clouds option and everything returned to normal.

** A request. Should it be possible to lower the server messages displayed on the chat windows. There are continuously a lot of unnecessary messages popping up ( Like for example: The AI X aircraft has been shoot by AI aircraft X, the red have X points/ the blue have X points, etc ). It renders extremely difficult to read what you have selected because, every time you are reading something, new messages pops up and the chat bar scroll down. In addition if someone is using the waypoint system everyone see the messages he put in the chat.
Yesterday there was a bomber player using it and the chat was engulfed continuously by the messages he wrote. It was a real pain to read the chat when for example I was pressing the TAB-4-4 combination to request the info I needed.

*** A question: I've read in the briefing that the rearm of bombs actually doesn't work for bombers ( with players not able to arm the bombs if they rearm ). This does apply also to Stukas and fighter bombers ( Bf 109s and Bf 110s )?

[TWC_Flug]

I just updated the Campaign server with a few small updates:

#1. Improvements to cover bomber spacing and new <cdist 200 chat command for cover bombers. First off, I increased the spacing of <cover bomber formations just slightly, hoping to avoid those cases where the cover bombers flying in formation crash into each other. Second, you can now issue commands like <cdist 200 to increase cover bomber formation spacing to 200% (ie, 2X normal) or <cdist 50 to decrease cover bomber spacing to 50% (ie, half normal). You can vary this between about <cdist 25 and <cdist 2000 I believe. <cdist 100 is 100%--ie, normal/regular spacing.

Note that in-game you can use chat commands <chelp and chelp2 for a quick summary of instructions on using the <cover system--including the new <cdist command.

Also <help for a summary of all available chat commands.

#2. There is an experimental system to remove any skins larger than 500K in size. So if you have a very large skin YOU will be able to see it but it won't (or shouldn't, anyway) download to anyone else

Here are some of the updates I put in place over the last few weeks before the new Campaign launched, just FYI:

* Coordinates in recon & objective lists now include the elevation/altitude of the objective. Note that elevations are reported in METERS for Blue pilots and FEET for red pilots. So an coordinate like (234232, 143243, 600) means the objective is at game coordinate 234232, 143243 and at altitude 600--meaning 600 meters if you are flying Blue or 600 feet if you are flying Red.

The elevation of a target is something photo recon can research & determine from recon photos & info. So it is reasonable for recon to be able to provide this information. And it is important information for bomber pilots (based on my experience flying bombers, Blue bombers don't need this info as the bomb site automatically takes target elevation into consideration. But Red Bombers definitely need to take the target elevation into consideration.)

Also FYI I have observed that Red Cover Bombers often drop their bombs short on targets at high elevation. They seem to assume that all targets are at sea level--perhaps due to a bug in CLOD. You can adjust for this by setting the target coordinate point "long" by some few hundred meters. It is a lot easier to estimate this if you know the target elevation. That is my observation, anyway.

* AI bombers now know about the objective and recon lists and target objectives on the list.

This has a few ramifications:

#1. Recon provides targets & coordinates to AI bombers as well as breather pilots. If the recon is old/stale they'll all be attacking incorrect coordinates.

#2. As a fighter pilot, if you see enemy bomber formations flying your way, you need to stop them. If you don't, they will be attacking objectives in your territory. Doesn't matter whether the bombers are AI or breather pilots - the all have the same mission: destroying objectives.

#3. Flying cover for your own bombers--whether AI or breather pilots--is an important and useful mission. If you can help your own bombers arrive at their target safe and sound, they'll be attacking mission objectives. So flying cover for your own bombers - whether piloted by breathers or AI - is an important job.

* Weather improved and more varied. I actually worked out this weather system a month or two ago but CLOD bugs kept it from working properly until this last update.

* Fixed some of the bugs where the screen reported "you survived" but then you died. Mostly this happened in the case where the 'parachute failed to open' message was received.

* Changed planes for fighter vs bomber careers. Back in the day we considered JU-87 to be more of a turn fighter than a heavy bomber, because that is how most pilots were flying them in the ATAG server. But with our Campaign Server they fly more in the role of a heavy bomber.

So generally I went back & looked at which planes should be considered part of your bomber pilot career and which part of your fighter pilot career and made a few adjustments, such as moving the JU87s from fighter to bomber.

If you're wondering which career a certain plane falls under, just jump into that aircraft and request a current rank & career summary (<career). If it says something like "TWC_Flug (bomber) is a ..." then that is your bomber career. If it says "TWC_Flug is a ..." then that is your fighter pilot career.

* Loaded a version of the Campaign Server onto our second server as the "Campaign Practice/Test Server" On that server you can fly any aircraft, fly either side, etc. So you can do practice runs on a new aircraft, do training with your squad, etc. Also I'll add new features there first to give them a runthrough before installing them on the Campaign Server.

FYI the radar and stats for this second server are still under "Mission Server".

* Types, routes, skins, formations, etc of AI bombers and fighters now far more varied and also target actual mission objectives, as mentioned above.


* Added current percent destroyed to objective and recon lists

Also please note that the radar page (http://brenthugh.com/twc/radar/) includes a lot of helpful info such as current objective list (including coordinates, percent destroyed, etc), recon list, list of planes destroyed this session, list of current players & aircraft, etc.

All this info is available using Tab-4 commands in-game but it is a lot easier to read & understand it via the web page

[TWC_Flug]

** A request. Should it be possible to lower the server messages displayed on the chat windows. There are continuously a lot of unnecessary messages popping up ( Like for example: The AI X aircraft has been shoot by AI aircraft X, the red have X points/ the blue have X points, etc ). It renders extremely difficult to read what you have selected because, every time you are reading something, new messages pops up and the chat bar scroll down. In addition if someone is using the waypoint system everyone see the messages he put in the chat.


I wish I knew how to implement this--especially to remove the lengthy "XX aircraft shot down by YY aircraft/flak/etc etc etc" messages but I've tried a few techniques and they don't work. So if anyone knows how I would love to hear it.



Yesterday there was a bomber player using it and the chat was engulfed continuously by the messages he wrote. It was a real pain to read the chat when for example I was pressing the TAB-4-4 combination to request the info I needed.


Almost all commands pilots (including bomber pilots) need can be activated via Tab-4 commands.

There are a few that can't, such as <cover XXX and <kadd XXX,YYY. But most all the rest can be done via Tab-4 menu--exactly for that reason, to try to reduce the chat clutter.

However, not all pilots know about those options, apparently.



*** A question: I've read in the briefing that the rearm of bombs actually doesn't work for bombers ( with players not able to arm the bombs if they rearm ). This does apply also to Stukas and fighter bombers ( Bf 109s and Bf 110s )?

I'm not sure about that. No bomb rearming has worked correctly when I have tried it, but I don't recall testing any 109s or 110s.

You could test by dropping a bomb nearby (ie, just take off and drop in a nearby field--no need to fly across the channel). If you can see the bomb explode in a fairly normal fashion all should be well. What we have observed in the past is the bombs are loaded and the drop just fine, but they are not armed. Even if you push the various buttons to arm them (for the aircraft where that is possible) they still don't become armed.

So, because they are not armed, when they hit the ground, they don't explode.

If you drop a bomb and see it explode when it hits the ground, everything is working fine.

[SamJoDo]

Continued great work Flug!

Questions: I like to fly online myself, usually without teamspeak (just the way I am). The server allows bombers to call for escorts - can a single fighter be set up to call for an AI wingman/flight? Always cool to fly around in a close formation!

This in turn leads me to another question: Is it possible (for either a fighter or bomber) to start on the ground along with your AI flight and either lead (or be lead by AI) on a sortie? For example, you spawn into an airfield as a fighter, request 2 AI fighters be added to your flight and now all 3 of you are on the ground at the same airfield. You can then lead the flight yourself or enter another command and have AI lead the flight and you fly as a wingman?

Ok, another question: I love flying escort. Is it possible to give a warming when/where an AI flight of bombers will be spawning in so I can join them and fly escort?

[Erpr.Gr.210_Mölders]

First of all thank you very much for all the additions brought to the server, I'm really impressed by the quality of the work you have made! Excellent job mein Herr!


I wish I knew how to implement this--especially to remove the lengthy "XX aircraft shot down by YY aircraft/flak/etc etc etc" messages but I've tried a few techniques and they don't work. So if anyone knows how I would love to hear it.

You should try asking info to Reddog or Dietrich admins of the SoW forum. If I remember correctly during their past SoW campaigns such messages ( and the ones regarding the own pilot kills too ) were removed from the chat info box.


There are a few that can't, such as <cover XXX and <kadd XXX,YYY. But most all the rest can be done via Tab-4 menu--exactly for that reason, to try to reduce the chat clutter.

Solved/Improved the situation increasing the messages timeout to 60 seconds. Not yet the best solution but at least now I can read the TAB-4 messages with more calm.

Here follow an additional question:

1- When flying multi crew aircraft how the career is affected when a crew member is killed? I mean...Let's say that I'm in a Bf 110 and I switch to man manually the rear gunner and, before returning him under AI control, he get killed. Does it count as like if my pilot has been killed and so of consequence my career will end? ( You know that when you manually man the rear gunner position the game considers you as like occupying both the positions, that's why I'm asking how it works )


Thanks in advance! :salute:

[Erpr.Gr.210_Mölders]

Tried the rearm and refuel with the Ju-88. Everything worked as per normal. Aircraft refuelled and fully rearmed. Bombs all dropped and exploded on target.

Some important notes:

- Before starting the refuel/rearm process jump to the pilot position and DO NOT switch to any other crew position/s until the refuel/rearm process will be fully completed

- At least for the Ju-88 you need simply to write the command " <rr50 " ( sample, no quotation marks ) and the aircraft will be both refuelled and rearmed