'1941: Circuses and Rhubarbs' for Cliffs of Dover

It is 1941.

After the inconclusive battle that was Operation Sealion, Germany has turned its attentions to the East, initiating Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of Russia.

In the West, just 226 German fighters, primarily those of JG2 and JG26, are left to defend against the constant threat of RAF bomber and fighter attacks. The RAF Air Officer Commander-in-Chief, Sholto Douglas, initiates Operation Circus - large scale bomber raids deep into France and Holland, with the intent of drawing the Luftwaffe into combat and reducing their ability to defend against RAF bomber command's planned incursions into Germany.

The Circuses and Rhubarbs mission pack Ch. 1

Chapter one available for download now as self installing file:

3 missions, all of which recreate historical events:

Flight of the Intruder
Operation Circus mission 1
A Knight Falls

Download the self installer here: https://www.box.com/s/27f8ede06b87c314652e

The Operation Circus mission recreates the first large scale air battle involving 2 wings RAF and 4 staffeln Luftwaffe over France in Jan 1941.

15 painstakingly populated airfields: Wissant, Peuplinge, Audembert, Marquise West, Caffiers, Hermelingen, Campagne Les Guines, Coquelles, Calais Marck, St Omer Wizernes, St Omer Arques, St Omer Claimarais / RAF Lympne, RAF North Weald

3 newly populated locations: Calais and Dunkirk Ports, Cassel

Ground targets include the above airfields, road traffic, port infrastructure. As usual, the mission can be fought from the point of view of every flyable unit, by using the CUSTOM button to choose your flight. Both grounds starts and air starts catered for.

This chapter comprises around 20 flyable sorties.

Screenies from "Flight of the Intruder"










From Operation Circus #1








From A Knight Falls










Briefings

Intruder flight: Jan 09 1941

Early January 1941 was a quiet time for both RAF and Luftwaffe. Licking their wounds after the conflicts of 1940, both sides conducted only nuisance raids intended to probe the other's defences and provide recon information. Jan 09 was no exception. Although the RAF had sent a major fighter sweep over Calais earlier in the day, the Luftwaffe had declined to respond.

This sweep was followed by an Intruder flight by two of 23 Squadron's Blenheims, a small low level hit and run raid conducted in dim twilight conditions. In this raid however, one Blenheim was lost, with Pilot Sgt. Jones: KIA 1 and Sgts. G.E. Bessell and R.W. Cullen taken prisoner.

It was the last such raid before the RAF began its more intensive campaign of Circuses and Rhubarbs.

(In this mission you will have the opportunity to fly either the Blenheim mission, or a special operations mission in a captured Bf 110C 7. Luftwaffe flyables include Bf 109 E3 and E4s of JG26 and JG2.)

Operation Circus begins: 10 January 1941

Objective: Caffiers airfield west of Guines forest.

At the start of January 1941, the RAF began Operation Circus. Much renewed after the Battle of Britain, the RAF now comprised nearly 800 front line fighters, while in France, most Luftwaffe units were being stripped of aircraft and/or moved East for the coming offensive against Russia. A force of around 200 fighters from Luftflotte 3's JG 26 and JG2 were all that remained.

RAF commander in chief, Sholto Douglas, authorised his forces to begin aggressor raids into France to keep pressure on the Luftwaffe in the West. Their primary intent was to draw the Luftwaffe up to fight, through raids on Luftwaffe airfields and German reserves in France and the low countries. But if the Luftwaffe avoided combat, the intruders' orders were to destroy them on the ground. Any and all German military targets in France were considered appropriate.

Luftflotte 3 Generalfeldmarschall Hugo Sperle ordered his geschwader commanders to conserve their forces. They were not to respond to enemy fighter sweeps, or engage in fighter to fighter combat unless the odds were significantly in their favour. Daylight bombing raids were to be met in force, to ensure a high toll was inflicted on the RAF intruders.

In this mission Hurricanes from 242, 56, and 249 Sq fly close escort for a force of Blenheims, being covered by Spitfires from 41, 64 and 611 Squadrons. Opposing them are 6 staffeln from JG 26 and JG 2.

Rhubarb 1: 242 Squadron, January 12 1941

Objective: Attack targets of opportunity in occupied France

242 Squadron's 'Willie' McKnight, of Canada, came out of the Battle of Britain as one of its most successful aces, and by the end of 1940 he had 17 confirmed kills, two shared and three unconfirmed credited to his score. On two occasions he registered three kills (two fighter and one bomber) in one day.

Led by the famous legless ace Douglas Bader, 242 Squadron was relocated to Coltishall in November 1940, followed by a further move to Martlesham Heath in December. On 12 January 1941, the squadron began a series of offensive sorties against targets in France, first acting as escorts for Blenheim bombers then beginning on 12 January, the first of the "Rhubarbs," low-level intruder attacks on targets of opportunity.

While strafing an E-boat in the English Channel, P/O M.K. Brown accompanying McKnight, broke off as the duo came under fire from anti-aircraft fire from the French coast just as Bf 109Es of JG26 attacked. Brown made it back home but McKnight was listed as "missing." OKW records suggest McKnight fell to Fw. Helmut Brugelmann of Jagdgeschwader 26 (three kills), west of Boulogne.

Bader was distraught at the loss of McKnight and vowed revenge, but 242's "top gun" was never found.

Review:WIck v Dundas add on to Cliffs of Dover

Desastersoft's Wick vs. Dundas
Time to Go Campaigning in Cliffs of Dover
by Fred "HeinKill" Williams

Introduction

If real estate is all about location, location, location, then what is one key to creating a successful flight sim platform in the new millennium? Content, content, and… content!
777 Studies has driven a strong following for Rise of Flight through an innovative and continuous program of both free and user-pays downloadable content that started almost from launch. Many like it, some don’t, but 777 has built a hard core fan base and a very strong platform from which to grow their sim.


In these days of streaming movies, always-on WiFi and 24 hour drive-through everything, 777 with its Rise of Flight model has tapped into modern expectations for a constant drip feed of news and simming goodness.

On the other hand, there is the 1C IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover approach, which takes us firmly back to the 20th century.

Just to recap, the original IL-2 release came out in 2001, and it was not until two years later that the expansion Forgotten Battles followed. It was another year again until the Aces Expansion Pack and Pacific Fighters, and a full three years after that before 1946 hit the shelves in ‘07. And then nothing (if you don’t count user mods and the Daidalos Team patches) until Cliffs of Dover crept into the light in 2011.

So let’s get this stated up front. 1C is not a developer from whom you should expect a constant flow of new content, people! 1C has a strictly "last millennium" approach to building and marketing a sim platform. It will take YEARS between official releases. If you are looking for new content to keep up your interest in Cliffs of Dover, while you wait for the 1C dinosaur to lay a new egg, then you are going to have to turn to 3rd party developers.

Helmut Wick and wingmen in the Desastersoft Wick vs. Dundas expansion package for Cliffs of Dover.

The good news is, a highly creative German team has jumped into this void and is starting to crank out some very interesting content for IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover.

Their name is Desastersoft, and this article will review the first of their Cliffs of Dover add-on products, Wick vs. Dundas.

What Does Wick vs. Dundas Add?

Without the benefit of a 3rd party developer SDK (which 1C promised, but has not released), Desastersoft has been pretty creative in putting this package together. The Wick vs. Dundas package offers:

• A career system with promotions and medals
• 6 scripted campaigns, each between 20-50 missions
• New skins and beautifully populated air fields and targets for the units featured in the campaigns: RAF 111 and 609 Squadrons, JG2 and Erpro 210.

Personally, I was most excited by the prospect of a career system being added to Cliffs of Dover, since it shipped without any dynamic campaign, and certainly no way to track victories or achieve promotions within the game. The new career mode for Rise of Flight (a free addition) has become my game mode of choice in that sim, and I hoped the same could happen with the Desastersoft add-on for Cliffs of Dover.

Purchase and Installation

The Desastersoft web site offers a choice for getting a hold of the Wick vs. Dundas package.
You can order a German language boxed DVD, or an English language direct download with payment via PayPal or credit card. The cost for the digital download is 17€ (~ $23 USD).
My German being a little rusty (!) I went the direct download route, and had an entirely painless process signing into the Desastersoft site, selecting my product, paying via PayPal and downloading the 600MB download.

Thoughtfully, Desastersoft has taken into account the current uhhh, "non-optimized" state of the sim, which can cause even modern PCs to run the game at low frame rates if there are large numbers of objects and aircraft being rendered. Users are given the option to install a low-fi (for low spec rigs) or a hi-fi (for hi-spec rigs) version of the package.
In the hi-fi version you get more of everything: more aircraft, more ground objects, more clouds — as long as your machin can handle it.

Pictured here is an example of the detailed airfield object features Desastersoft has added to the game.

I recommend starting with the hi-spec version. You can always uninstall and reinstall the low-fi version if you need to. I found the hi-fi version playable on my machine at medium graphic settings. Installation was very straightforward, no issues at all. Even better, the program starts from an update screen which prompts you to automatically update to the latest version, which was also a snap. I clicked UPDATE, waited a minute or two while it chugged through the latest 200MB update, and then clicked "Play" and it started Cliffs of Dover. I was then presented with the normal startup screen, but when I clicked "Single Player" I was greeted with a new menu option: "Desastersoft Campaigns".

So far so good, a problem free install and update process. 

Documentation 

Desastersoft has made a nice effort to put together a detailed user manual that includes a description of the new campaign system, a historical background to the Battle of Britain which helps set the context for these campaigns, a code word glossary, German phonetic alphabet guide and target codes for the major RAF ground targets.

Does the world need yet another summary of the history of the Battle of Britain? I thought not, but this one is actually quite interesting, written as it is by a German developer. It busts some myths about Luftwaffe losses during the battle, and is actually a good read. 

If you get the boxed German language version, you also get a printed topographical map of the combat area, a sector map showing the main combat zones and printed version of the manual. Maybe worth buying for the maps alone?

New Career System

The big innovation Desastersoft offers is a career system with promotions and medals for Cliffs of Dover. Desastersoft goes to pains to explain up front in the user manual, the principles behind how it awards points and promotions.

The first thing you need to know is that these campaigns are intended to be played on FULL REAL settings. And if you do play on FULL REAL, you get "normal" progress through the ranks as you complete missions and achieve victories. However for every REALISM option that you uncheck, you get a penalty. For example, if you don't use complex engine management and go with, say, basic realism options like limited ammo, external views, ground damage, air collisions, takeoffs and landings, stalls or spins, and limited fuel, you will get a 500% penalty. This means you need to overachieve the mission objectives by 500% to get the same career points as you would with full realism options checked.

The Desastersoft campaign selection screen. Here you can also see your "performance coefficient". If it shows 585%, as above, that means that where on Full Realism you may need to get 2 kills, at a 585% rating you would need to get 12 kills in the mission for the same ‘career points’! Fair? Definitely. Achievable? This is arguable.

To quote from the manual: "Choose your realism factor wisely because it has a considerable influence on the performance needed to win medals and promotions! A 50% surcharge means that you need 30 victories instead of 20 for the Knights Cross. A 150% surcharge then 50 victories and so on… the same for increases in rank."

Oh well. This effectively means the career system is not as much fun for non-full-real flyers like myself, which was a disappointment. 

As you go hunting with your wingmen, your victories will count toward promotions and medals. The more realistic your flight settings, the more points you will earn. 

I asked Thomas Voss, of Desastersoft, why they had designed the career system with "realism bonuses" this way. He replied, "Because nobody else does it. The main fun you can get in a simulation is to fly as real as possible. A simulation is not a game. A fantastic engine like Cliffs of Dover deserves a gameplay system such as this. Also the statistics between players should be comparable. If you manage five kills in full real it is very different than five kills using outside views, because you can never see where the enemy is. This must have an influence on promotion and medals. That is our way of gameplay. Many love it, some don´t like it. But this is and will be our way — sales figures are not everything. We pride ourselves on historic add-ons."

Dead is Dead

Another feature of Desastersoft career system that is worth mentioning is that it follows a "dead is dead" principle. This means that you can start a campaign, and fly your mission(s), but when your pilot is killed, your campaign is over. Finito. No changing to a new pilot. No appeal to a higher court. Personally I am fine with this, as I always do my campaigning on the "dead is dead" principle. But many other flight sim campaigns give the player the ability to decide whether they want to continue as a different pilot, or start over. Desastersoft has decided for you — you WILL start over. And you can't try any of the old simmer tricks like killing the program as soon as you die so that it doesn't record your pilot as dead — as soon as you see that black screen, Desastersofts campaign system marks you K-I-A!

So perhaps it is not such a problem that with the Desastersoft campaigns you can’t personalize your pilot with his or her own name and call sign etc. The game takes your user name from Steam as your pilot name. Anyway, there is no point becoming too attached to your pilots, because your hard fought campaign will only last as long as your pilot does!

The Campaigns

You have a wealth of material to work through in this package, with six scripted campaigns:

German Campaigns

Wick: 25 missions in a Bf109 E4 in which your goal is to beat Wick’s achievement of 43 kills between 10 July and 28 November 1940.

JG2: Flying as a flight leader in Wick’s Geschwader, in 40 missions you have to exceed 56 kills to succeed.

Erpro 210: 25 fighter bomber missions in the Bf110 C7 created from the actual flight log books of this famous unit. Comes in both a timed and untimed version. 

British Campaigns

Dundas: An RAF campaign, from the point of view of 609 Sq’s John C. Dundas 

609 Squadron: Similar to the JG2 campaign but from an RAF point of view where you will fly as a section leader in a Spit 1. You goal is slightly easier though — you only need 20 kills from 42 missions. 

111 Squadron: A Hurricane campaign starting during the Battle of France and eventually pitting you against aces like Moelders, Galland and Marseille.

 

Are these "campaign success" criteria achievable? Exceed 40-50 kills in your 109 without dying? Get "only" 20 kills in your Spitfire 1? I will readily admit, not by me! But perhaps you are up to such a heroic challenge. For me, just surviving a campaign without dying is success enough. One of my pet peeves in scripted campaigns is the designer who decides that unless you "succeed" in shooting down 15 He111s in one mission, you have to perpetually repeat the mission until you do (are you listening Gaijin?!). Happily, the Desastersoft campaign interface allows you to either refly a mission if you fail or just move on to the next mission, though of course I would imagine you lose the benefit of any career points if you do this.

Mission Design

I won’t give any spoilers about actual missions, but suffice to say this is where Desastersoft’s experience in building missions for IL-2 1946 shines through. In general the missions are nicely scripted, using triggers, random elements and very credible mission success criteria so that missions are generally achievable, and enjoyable.

It is clear Desastersoft really enjoys making missions for Cliffs of Dover. Thomas Voss says, "Making missions for Cliffs of Dover is whole new world. Oleg Maddox told me first in 2007 (I think it was… Christmas, we were talking about our favorite Glam rock bands) about the possibilities for mission designers, and I couldn´t believe it. The main difference is the script thing. You can now do everything you want, if you have someone who can do the code. The Third Party interface is the key. If you understand how it works, you can, as you see in our expansion, do everything, without touching the engine. It´s genius. Maddox Games made an excellent engine. We made it into a game."

Desastersoft has a love affair with the Bf110 and it shows in their Erpro 210 campaign.

Each mission includes detailed maps with flight waypoints marked, and recon photos showing mission objectives.

The Desastersoft interface adds some nice details to campaign mechanics. If you crash or bail out over enemy territory, the game throws the dice to decide whether you make it back to your unit or not. If you don’t, it’s campaign over. If you do, you will skip forward in time a couple of missions to simulate your time out of action. One neat feature is that the campaign engine also models if you crash land on your own territory. Of course, you still have to get back to base, and your machine is usually damaged, so you also have to skip a mission. The same applies if you are wounded in combat — the severity of the wound determines how long you are out of action. All this delays your ability to gain promotions and medals, and of course, makes it much harder to achieve campaign victory in a shorter amount of time. 

Mission success is usually based on pleasantly simple criteria: e.g. destroy 2 enemy aircraft in 30 minutes. Timed missions can be a bummer if the time available versus goals are unrealistic, but time limits in Wick vs. Dundas are generally quite generous, though you can’t waste too much time on your takeoff routine because the clock starts as soon as you enter the cockpit! This is especially the case for the Erpro 210 dive bombing campaign, so the designers thankfully included an "untimed" version of the campaign to allow for you getting lost, trying to find the target, or getting intercepted en route. 

Another nice feature, thanks to the latest update, is that you have the option to play any mission in the campaign, and you can start your campaign at that point, rather than at the first mission every time. If for example in the 111 Sq campaign you want to skip the first couple of training-oriented missions, you can dive straight in at a later mission in the campaign.

In Desastersoft campaigns, you can start at any point, and then the campaign will run from there.
Very useful for experienced players who want to skip the early training-style missions.

Another warning though for non hard core simmers: you will be "encouraged" to use your compass/map, and navigate. Using the in-game map with waypoint icons is regarded as a "cheat" and carries the dreaded "realism penalty". If you are flying for the RAF you will get simulated RDF (radar) vectors sent to you, which you are expected to follow. So get your pencil ready because this is what you will see:

Dover CH: Enemy Group A, more than 23, Vector 273, Sector S16, Angels 13, Distance 25

Got that? Good, because you can’t autopilot your way there without a realism penalty, so you have to work out the interception point yourself, or navigate yourself to the right sector if you have been ordered on a standing patrol.

The better you are at map and compass navigation, the better your career will progress in Wick vs. Dundas.

Hard enough? Apparently not. Desastersoft has decided this would be too easy (!) so they have also simulated the imprecision of 1940s RDF which means there could be an error factor of up to 300% in the information. These guys are hard core! In the real Battle of Britain flight commanders always added 5,000 feet to the controller's estimate, to ensure they were on top of the raid coming in. In Cliffs of Dover, this is fine if you are over water where the enemy is easier to see, but if you are over land you will really struggle to find the enemy, so I found I gave myself the best chance in Wick vs. Dundas by going 5,000 low, not high, and looking for the enemy silhouetted against the sky above. Suicidal? Maybe, but at least you'll have a better chance of sighting the enemy! And let's face it, even though it is tweaked well by Desastersoft, the Cliffs of Dover AI is no ace, so you should be able to sneak up on the formation of 109s or He111s with a little patience...

Conclusion

In its current form, to get the most out of this IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover expansion module, you need to be a hard core full realism simmer. If you are, then you will be able to enjoy the full promotions and medals component of the campaigns. If you are more interesting in the fighting than full-real flying, like me, your laziness will not win you many promotions or medals. But you will be able to enjoy a wealth of well designed content, and remember, content rules!

Good

• Ease of purchase, download, update and install
• Good documentation
• Adds new scripted campaign interface to Cliffs of Dover
• Adds some cool new missions, object sets and skins
• The price is very reasonable

Could Be Better

• Career mode really only applicable to pilots flying full realism
• Mission targets ideally require ability to navigate by map and compass
• Campaign objectives are very very very hard (e.g. exceed 50 kills without dying)

My System Specs

• ASUS GTX laptop
• Intel i7 4GB RAM
• NVIDIA GTX460m 2GB VRAM
• Windows 7

13 April CoD beta patch readme

From Blacksix at 1C Forums:

Performance

We've performed a huge amount of work improving both average and minimum FPS in the game. Most recommended-spec machine will see a roughly double average FPS and a significant reduction in the micro-freezes that had previously plagued the game. Their frequency, duration, and overall FPS impact will be greatly reduced or completely redone.

Some of the changes include:

• Completely rewritten rended pipeline, which reduced CPU load;
• Rewritten texture manager, reducing stutter when loading new textures;
• Moved landscape geometry generator to its own CPU core, reducing stutters;
• Optimized tree code, reducing stutters when moving across landscape or rotating camera;
• Moved grass generator to its own CPU core, decreasing stutters during low-level flight;
• Moved all building and vehicle damage models to be pre-loaded, rather than dynamically loaded when they are destroyed. This increased mission loading times and memory usage, and reduced stutters when blowing things up;
• Improved multithreading in many other aspects of the code, improving minimal FPS on most multicore machines.

Finally, we need to mention the launcher.exe crashes. This was a very hard issue to address as it wasn't caused by a single 100% reproducible bug, but rather rare combinations of various uncommon events. The work described above, coupled with a huge volume of general bug-fixing performed, should have at least minimized the number of instances that lead to crashes. We haven't encountered one in months, but determining whether that'll be the case for the general player base will be one of the leading goals for this beta test.

Flight Model

We've performed a tremendous amount of work testing and improving flight models in the game, as well as improving various aircraft engines. We used actual pilot's notes and flight testing data during the process (thank you Sean!). Unfortunately some deeply-set limitations in the engine code do not allow us to minimize the margin of error at altitudes about 7 km (21,000 ft) where most aircraft begin to perform worse than their real-life counterparts. Fixing this requires more extensive code rework and will therefore only appear with the upcoming sequel. However at lower altitudes most flyables will perform much closer to real life. We also have to note that some aircraft, most notably Spitfire Mk.II, had better performance than the real thing. Others, especially their engines, had reduced performance. We've addressed these serious issues and made our planes fly much closer to the real thing.

More specifically:

G.50
Temperature models of the engine were wrong due to incorrect data. The engine could not get up to required power at all altitudes. We've also added +100 boost for WEP mode.

Spitfire Mk.II
The aircraft's speed performance was too good at all altitudes, sometimes 60 mph better than the real thing.

Spitfire Mk.I
Fixed the top speed dip above 18,000 ft.

Hurricane Mk.I
Speed performance was also too good at all altitudes, similar to the Spit II.

Blenheim Mk.IV
Had many problems with the engine model. The engine overheated at normal RPM, the plane could not get up to stated airspeed at all altitudes. Maximum allowed airspeed was too great, and the plane could get up to 560 mph in a dive. A huge amount of work was performed to improve the plane's FM and bring it up to speed.

For a better example, here's a comparison of the old and new speeds of the Fiat G.50. The data was taken by a special internal module that tests speeds at a range of altitudes using optimal engine settings. Human players will likely not be able to set their engine precisely the same way, or fly exactly level at the exact altitude, so testing this for yourselves may give you slightly different results. The vertical axis is the speed in kph, the horizontal is the top speed.


Artificial Intelligence

Partial list:
• Fixed some non-working orders, removed others from the list. There are no more orders available to the player that the AI does not follow.
• Added a request for available targets;
• Turned off friendly fire for ground battles (improving FPS);
• Added the ability to query current waypoint for scripts;
• Told AI pilots not to commit ritual suicide when their leader crash-lands;
• Fixed out of turn take offs for AI pilots;

Operation Sealion Complete Campaigns now avail!

Welcome to the completed Operation Sealion Mission Packs for Cliffs of Dover!

There are two packs, each comprising 28 missions, one created from an RAF victory perspective, and one from a Luftwaffe victory perspective. However every mission in the BoB Game Hub Sealion mission packs is designed with multiple flyable aircraft available to players flying either RAF or Luftwaffe. Wherever practical, mission design includes both ground starts and airstarts. Mission design takes an 'open battlefield' approach - the player will be given an objective, but once airborne, you have full freedom of operation to either prosecute the assigned target, or attack other targets of opportunity.

These missions are minutely based on the notes from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst wargame conducted in 1974 to simulate a September 1940 invasion by Germany. In this exercise, each side (played by British and German officers respectively) was based in a command room, and the actual moves plotted on a scale model of SE England constructed at the School of Infantry. The panel of umpires included Luftwaffe ace Adolf Galland, Admiral Friedrich Ruge, Air Chief Marshal Sir Christopher Foxley-Norris, Rear Admiral Edward Gueritz, General Heinz Trettner and Major General Glyn Gilbert. The main problems the Germans face are that a) the Luftwaffe has not yet won air supremacy; b) the possible invasion dates and resupply are constrained by the weather and tides (for a high water attack) and c) it has taken until late September to assemble the necessary shipping.


The combat takes place on a narrow front, on land, sea and in the air.

I have aimed for nothing less than 'epic' with these mission packs, and hope they leave you with a feeling of reliving an alternate version of history.

Enjoy!

HEINKILL

DOWNLOAD HERE:

Sealion RAF Point of View: http://www.box.com/s/5d8236170f3da466a4fb
Sealion LW Point of View: http://www.box.com/s/55339e8c4d9fcaa73623

PS There have already been more than 3,000 downloads of the earlier releases of the partly completed Sealion missions (thanks all!). The full pack adds another 10 missions, and alternate endings!

FAQ and further guidance.

Q. I ran the install program but the missions don’t appear in my Single Missions menu in the game!
A. The install program can automatically install all the required files into your Single Missions folder and menu. When prompted, you should browse to your default Cliffs of Dover folder, usually 1CSoftClub>IL2SturmovikCLiffsofDover. If you do not choose a folder, the files will be placed into your My Documents folder for you to install manually. To manually install these missions, simply copy all files into your CoD Single Missions folder, usually 1CSoftClub> IL2SturmovikCliffsofDover> missions> Single.

Q. What is the difference between the RAF mission pack and the LW mission pack?
A. From about S-tag (Sealion Day) +8, events diverge between the two mission packs – the two mission packs have different endings! The RAF pack follows events from the RAF perspective and the default flyable aircraft are usually RAF aircraft. The Luftwaffe pack is put together with the default flyables as Luftwaffe.
Of course, because these are single missions, the player can fly any flyable aircraft, on either side, from the CUSTOM menu.
EVERY player flyable aircraft in these missions has its own mission briefings and objectives.

Q. What types of missions are featured?
A. Here is a list of the types of missions available in the mission pack, for both sides:

- Combat air patrol ('routine' patrol, frie jagd)
- Ground attack (strafing, dive and level bombing; bridges, trains, gun emplacements, ports, vehicles, troop encampments, airfields)
- Shipping attack (dive bombing, level bombing, strafing, merchant and naval)
- Bomber intercept
- Bomber or supply aircraft escort
- Recon
- Scrambles under air and/or ground attack
- Night flying
- Specials (no spoilers here: there are several missions with unique storylines/objectives...)

Q. I want to fly for the Luftwaffe but the default aircraft seems to be RAF (or vice versa). Can I change the default?
A. Yes! The reason this pack has been created as single missions, rather than a campaign, is so that you can more easily customize to your heart’s desire, no matter whether you install the RAF victory or LW victory versions. On the mission briefing page, click the CUSTOM button. Then see below for what you can customize.



Q. I want to change the default aicraft eg fly a Spitfire rather than a Hurricane / an Emil rather than a Bf110. Can I?
A. Yes! If the aircraft is player flyable, simply click CUSTOM (see above) at the briefing screen then click on the picture of the pilot for the aircraft you want to fly. You can change this aircraft to whatever flyable aircraft you want by clicking the picture of the aircraft. (A. below). Check the briefing to see what mission this aircraft is assigned. (B. below).



Q. I want to change other mission parameters like time, weather or realism
A: To change time of day or weather, enter new values at D. To change loadout click the ‘default(stock)’ or custom loadout indicated in A. To change realism values, click C.

Q. How can I see what the mission or target is for every aircraft in the mission? This will help me decide which one I want to fly.
A. Check the mission and targets assigned to each flight at B. When you are airborne, use the map and enable waypoint icons to see which route you are assigned to patrol. You do not have to follow the assigned route, but the missions are scripted for aircraft/players to follow the waypoints as ordered, which was RAF and LW airforce doctrine at the time unless fighters were assigned a ‘free hunt’.

Q. I want more aircraft in the missions, or, my PC can’t cope with the number of aircraft in this mission!
A. You can increase the number of aircraft in each flight in the drop down box next to the pilot (see A.). This may degrade PC performance. You can decrease the number of aircraft in each flight (or zero it completely) the same way to increase PC performance. It is suggested you start by decreasing ALLIED aircraft to preserve the focus of the integrity of the sortie you are flying yourself.

Q. I am having trouble finding the mission target, or mission waypoints
A. These missions are built on the ‘open battlefields’ concept, to try to simulate what a battle on such a narrow front would be like. There are multiple aircraft in the battle area for each mission, each with their own primary and secondary targets. And there is a separate war taking place on the ground, and on sea. If you are having trouble locating your target, you have several options:
- turn on waypoints and icons and view the in game map
- run the mission on autopilot and let the autopilot guide you to the target
- fly as a wingman and just follow the squadron leader (just go to external view, cycle through the aircraft to the wingman aircraft in your formation, and press ALT-F1 to fly that aircraft)
- identify enemy ground targets and attack those (eg, beat up an enemy airfield.)
Ground targets such as trains, guns, vehicles or stationary aircraft, as in real life, are hard to find and hit. If it helps, fly ground attack missions as wingman, and follow your leader in! (You can set your aircraft to fly as wingman in the Full Mission Builder).

Q. My flight appears to have no landing waypoint… where do I land?
A. Some flights, especially player flights, are not assigned landing waypoints, to ensure they stay in the battle area. It is up to you as the pilot to judge when and where to land, but here is a list of the main home airfields, at various stages of the campaign.
Lehrgeschwader 2: Calais/Lympne/Hawkinge
Erpro 210: Calais Marck/Lympne/Hawkinge
111 Sq: Hawkinge/Croydon
64 Sq: Manston

Q. My flight is out of action / has run out of targets/ I have run out of fuel and ammunition, but I can see other aircraft are engaged on the battlefield. Can I jump into the cockpit of those aircraft and keep fighting?
A. Yes. One of the great features of CoD is that you can jump into the cockpit of any player flyable aircraft on the map as long as this is enabled in REALISM menu. Just cycle through external views of aircraft to the aircraft you want to fly, and hit ALT-F1

Q. I prefer campaigns, rather than single missions. Why don’t you compose these missions into a campaign?
A. I will. When the full mission set is complete, it will be scripted into 4 Sealion scripted campaigns, each with its own unique squadron point of view. As you can probably guess, the campaigns will be:
RAF 64 Squadron: Spitfire campaign
RAF 111 Squadron: Hurricane campaign
LW LG2: Bf 109e4 campaign
LW Erpro 210: Bf110C7/Bf109e4B campaign

Of course there is nothing to stop you compiling these missions into a campaign yourself - if you do, please share!

Q. I like random elements in missions, like randomly spawning enemies and event triggers. Why don’t you incorporate those?
A. Because they require scripting, which requires coding abilities, which I don’t have. I have to work within the limits of what the full mission builder basic functionality allows sorry. But I have compensated this by building a world of such detail on the ground and in the air that I hope the missions remain interesting anyway. Each mission can be played from several points of view, and because of the large number of sorties and targets in each mission, they never play exactly the same way twice.

Q. I have found an error or fault in one of your missions, can you fix it?
A. If I can, I will! Just post details of the problem in a comment on www.bobgamehub.blogspot.com or leave me a message here on the SimHQ CoD forums, or Airwarfare forums. I can usually fix and upload a new version of a mission within a few days if there is an error.

Q. These were OK! Do you have any more?
A. Ah yes. You'll be wanting the BoB Game Hub Cliffs of Dover Mission Megapack! More than 60 missions in total. Only available from my blog:

www.boghamehub.blogspot.com

Enjoy...

AI settings in Cliffs of Dover

You spend time getting a Cliffs of Dover offline mission just right, jump in the cockpit, fly into battle, and then the enemy aircraft start doing stupid barrel rolls, defying gravity or coming at you with bombers that think they are fighters. Groan.

Don't despair! You can actually do something to make the experience a little better, though it has to be said the AI in Cliffs of Dover is porked, so you will never be able to totally eradicate the sillyness. Here's a guide to make it happen less though.

Load the mission in the full mission builder.

Right click on the aircraft flight you want to work with, and choose PROPERTIES

On the GROUP PROPERTIES menu you will see one for the whole flight which is called SKILL. In the dropdown list, set this to VETERAN (never ACE).

Click on the '...' (dot dot dot) button to the right of this dropdown list. This will give you a set of individual fields you can play with. These features aren't documented anywhere, so after much trial and error I will tell you how I set them to get the best results.

BASIC FLYING: Leave this where it is

ADVANCED FLYING: move this back a notch, which seems to help reduce the rolling rolling rolling behaviour

AWARENESS: increase to max. This gives the AI a chance to realise you are sneaking up behind them, and stops them suddenly flipping into level flight in the middle of a dogfight just because they can't 'see' you anymore.

AERIAL GUNNERY: increase to max. This eliminates the problem that on lower settings the AI pilots are crap at deflection shooting, and also burn all their ammo in long hosepipe bursts. At max setting the AI is not only a better shot, but doesn't waste ammo so badly. Beware though: this setting also affects bomb accuracy (good) and bomber gunner accuracy (bad). So with bombers, it is a good idea to go to the individual plane tabs in the PROPERTIES screen and set only one or two of them to gunnery max, and leave the others as veteran or average. Otherwise you risk getting slaughtered by deadeye gunners.

TACTICS: leave at veteran

VISION:  increase to max. This increases the 'bubble' around the aircraft which allows the AI pilots to detect other aircraft. If you don't max it out, they can just fly straight past each other.

BRAVERY: Set to max. This seems to determine the damage level at which enemy aircraft will cut and run, either at the flight level (x out of x aircraft destroyed) or individual level (x% damage). The lower you set it, the more likely they will bug out. Very important for bombers because at lower settings a couple of flack hits to a couple of aircraft will send the whole raid running for home.

DISCIPLINE: This setting affects how likely a unit is to follow its assigned orders or attack its assigned target. For fighters, leave this at standard VETERAN setting or even AVERAGE. If you set it to max for fighters, you will get situations where fighters assigned to attack bombers, will ignore the group of fighters coming straight at them, and get slaughtered, because they have been assigned to attack bombers. Also, at higher settings it seems to affect the likelihood the WINGMAN will just stupidly follow his leader around, rather than getting into the fight. Obviously though in some mission designs, you do want your Hurricanes to go for the bombers and your Spitfires to go for the fighters, so it can be useful. But usually it isn't.

For bombers however, or dive/fighter bombers with specific ground targets, I set this to maximum. This increases the chances the bomber or dive/fighter bomber will go for the assigned ground target. At lower settings they can get 'distracted' by other targets that are near the waypoint and attack these instead.

On a final note, the skill setting is also relevant for SHIPS. If you set it to ace for ships, they are deadeye shots at maximum range, for both their large bore guns, and their AAA and you will get slaughtered flying over a minensuchboot, even in a fighter. Set ships to AVERAGE.

BoB II version 2.12 gets closer!

A big update now on the coming improvements to Battle of Britain II - still listed in the top 50 games ever for PC, by PC Gamer magazine 2011!

While other period sims such as Rise of Flight and IL2 Cliffs of Dover have overtaken BOBII in the GFX bells and whistles category, none in the opinion of this writer has come close to  BOBII for either the historical accuracy, depth of the strategic campaign engine, or the human like experience of dogfighting the BOBII AI.

The past

The BoB Developers Group (BDG) is a motley crew of transatlantic Battle of Britain sim enthusiasts who was given access and rights to the code for the Battle of Britain II flight sim by the developers A2A Simulations, several years ago.

Since then, they have released regular improvements to the sim - including a mission editor, Multiskin (a mod which gives nearly every one of the thousands of individual fighters and bombers in the game historically accurate skins and aircraft codes) a new single player campaign mode, AI code updates which have made it the benchmark in flight sim AI, new campaigns including the Battle for France, and constant improvements to the historical accuracy of skins, airfields, and landscapes. Update 2.10 won a Sim HQ award for the best community mod, while update 2.11 introduced hundreds of new period ground objects, and a new flyable aircraft, the de Havilland Tiger Moth trainer.

But as with all bands of volunteer enthusiasts,  the pace of work of the BDG is driven by the availability of members with critical skills, and recently the group has been hampered by the lack of coding capabilities. Nonetheless a core of BDG heroes (including but not limited to Stickman, Two27, PV, Borton, Buddye and Ben) has kept plugging away and version 2.12 is now finally nearing a beta release.

The future

What will version 2.12 bring to this venerable sim? Emphasis in this patch has been on increasing the historical accuracy of this already incredibly accurate simulation.

The list of improvements is a long one, but I have pulled out a few highlights:

AI behaviour

AI behaviour at squadron level has been further improved. Squadrons and staffeln leaders will give their pilots an order 'break and run' if the number damaged or lost reaches a trigger level. This applies to both fighters and bombers, and bomber formations feature better 'straggler' behaviour. Damaged bombers will more realistically drop out of formation and head for France.

Campaign reporting

This has been given a real workover. BOBII campaign features detailed reporting for the player on everything from pilot fatigue and morale, to squadron and staffeln readiness, infrastructure and factory production/damage and daily kill/loss statistics. There were however somethimes inconsistencies between reports, which were put down to 'fog of war' but which were in fact bugs in the code. These have been dug out and the reporting interface significantly improved.

Below: Example of the revised 'Airfield level' report. Here we are looking at Middle Wallop airfield, which we can see is currently home to 238 and Squadrons. The report shows damage to airfield buildings and runways, and individual squadron reports on who the CO is, what their morale and the morale of the unit is like, what the current skill level of the leader and unit is (in BOBII this is dynamic, and afffected by combat results) and the readiness level of the squadron.
























Example below: the updated National level 'resources' report, showing in this case the number of available aircraft and status of every gruppe with symbols indicating 'non operational due to low morale' (eg 37!), 'non operational due to losses ( >35< ), 'non operational due to fatigue' (36).









    


Campaign AI improvements

Multiple fixes have been made to the way the game manages the hundreds of game events: Luftwaffe staffeln leader death rate has been adjusted, RAF factory damage and recovery has been optimised, as has aircraft repair rate, Luftwaffe unit 'lockouts' due to low morale and fatigue or damage have been adjusted, and locked out units now receive a morale and fatigue boost while being rested.

RAF units which need to be rested are now rotated in and out of 13 Group, as was historically the case. And while resting, they regain strength and morale.



The way the game manages skill upgrades and downgrades has been adjusted so that pilot skill improvements come mainly through combat, not just stick time. And squadron scrambles have been simulated so that the amount of damage inflicted on units which are rearming or refueling on the ground when bombed, is more realistic.


Fuel values for various aircraft types have been corrected to better match historical reality.


Landscape and terrain


Updates have been made to key locations such as Southampton, Weymouth, Thameshaven, Tilbury Docks, Dunkerque and Brighton. Docks and factories have been remodelled - all of this work using scale maps and historical sources.


The number and type of AAA defences at key locations has been painstakingly mapped and reproduced.


 Example: Rework of the coastline and docks at Weymouth, showing the BOBII coastline, and a satellite image for comparison. And, it aint fun, unless you can blow it up, right?

Conclusion

With the 2.12 update, PC simmers will get the most historically accurate flight sim representation of the Battle of Britain that has ever been developed. It builds on the already existing attention to detail so that BOBII now features historically accurate:

- placement of factories, buildings, infrastructure, ports, piers, harbour facilities, and AAA emplacements. Cliffs of Dover map is nowhere near as accurately modelled (for example on the CoD map, Folkestone harbour is completely lacking port buildings, docks or factories.)
- correct location and designation of Fighter Command, Bomber and Coastal Command airfields, for 10, 11 and 12 Group. (Again, Cliffs of Dover map is smaller, basically only covering 11 Group.)
- placement, size and structure of RAF and Luftwaffe units. When the player starts a campaign, no matter at which time period they start (Convoy phase, Adler Angriff, or Blitz) the relevant squadron will be placed at its historically correct location for that day, with the actual CO of the time in charge. (There is no campaign engine in Cliffs of Dover, so this element is only available in BOBII)
- skins, markings and code letters for every one of the hundreds of bomber, dive bomber and fighter units in the game (basic skin functionality is avail in CoD, but individualisation is left to modders)
- geographically accurate coastlines, rivers, roads and city sizes scaled to period photographs from 1940
- fuel capacity and aircraft ranges
- period tactics: Luftwaffe staffeln fly and fight in rotte and schwarm formations, RAF squadrons use the outdated and less flexible Vics. Luftwaffe fighters can be ordered to fly sweeps, or more typically, stay tied to the bomber formations, which was Luftwaffe doctrine.
- resource availability: Limited Luftwaffe resources are available during the first phase of the battle, Kanalkampf, but are increased for subsequent phases as the full strength of Luftflotten 2 and 3 are brought to bear. Stuka geschwader are available at the start of the Battle, and withdrawn in later phases.
- Luftwaffe strategy can be completely historical - the Luftwaffe will target first convoys, then RAF airfields and factories, and finally throw itself at London. Or, the player can choose to fight an alternate Luftwaffe strategy in which it focuses on relentless attacks on RAF airfields and factories for the entire Battle.

So, dust off that BOBII CDRom or re-install your digital download, because BOBII is back!