Special Aircraft Service

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Did They Hand Me A Lemon?  (Read 1386 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

The Saxman

  • member
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 18
Did They Hand Me A Lemon?
« on: January 09, 2019, 08:02:03 AM »

So I've uninstalled and reinstalled Il-2 over the years for a variety of reasons, and I'm back to trying it again.

I'm currently playing through one of the PTO campaigns, and I just have to ask:

Did my crew chief hand me a lemon?

What happens is that whenever I try to fly a mission where I'm NOT leading the group, no matter what I try to do I just can't keep up with the formation. I'll be straining along at full throttle, supercharger set for the correct altitude, flaps up, cowl closed, and trimmed for level flight, and yet I'm always inevitably falling behind with my engine overheating while the AI pilots chug along without a care in the world. Turn on autopilot, and magically I rubberband back into position with no apparent change in power settings.

Is the AI simply not affected by engine temperatures and able to run at higher power levels?
Logged

Vampire_pilot

  • member
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 7989
Re: Did They Hand Me A Lemon?
« Reply #1 on: January 09, 2019, 08:20:28 AM »

Quote
Is the AI simply not affected by engine temperatures and able to run at higher power levels?

in short terms, yes. AI is getting to use a very much simplified version of the Flighmodel. It is not constrained by many thing you as a player have to take care off in full real. Engine overheat is one example but also, iirc stall characteristics and g forces , prop settings and trimming or such are taken quite liberal by the AI FM. It is more or less prominent in this or that aircraft. That means the effects may be present at a greater or less obvious level.
This also may differ with game version (4.10 AI vs 4.12 AI ...) or modded Flightmodels being present, which may be heavy on content that limits the player but does not affect the AI so much.

I turn of quite a few full real settings, namely the engine and overheat functions playing offline because it's more fun and relaxing that way.

The Saxman

  • member
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 18
Re: Did They Hand Me A Lemon?
« Reply #2 on: January 09, 2019, 09:27:48 AM »

Yeah, I've noticed the spins/stalls thing. The AI LOVES to make a straight vertical climb, and will just hang there nearly indefinitely without the slightest wobble (depending on how much smash you have either making themselves a perfect target, or suckering you into spinning out trying to line up the shot).

So it sounds like I should just turn autopilot on during transit unless I'm the lead ship and can set the pace (and even then I'm tempted to turn it on during transit simply because navigation in the game leaves an awful lot to be desired).
Logged

greybeard

  • Modder
  • member
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1931
  • diligo veritatem
    • Old stuff about RB3D and a tiny "IL2 corner"
Re: Did They Hand Me A Lemon?
« Reply #3 on: January 10, 2019, 02:49:59 AM »

Much depends on values set into *planes.dat of campaign you're playing (I guess you're playing DGen campaign, since in static campaigns cruising speed is usually set to 300 km/h, which is manageable).

Try editing your *planes.dat files like in following example line:

from
Axis     Germany    Fighter       BF_109F4             425 4700 4700 default         1

to
Axis     Germany    Fighter       BF_109F4             375 4700 4700 default         1

if you don't have any *planes.dat in your campaign, this means the game makes use of generic Europlanes.dat or Pacificplanes.dat, according to theater, requiring corrections as well.
Logged
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 - RAM: 2GB DDR @ 201 MHz - MoBo: ASUSTeK Computer INC. A8N-SLI (Socket 939) - Vidcard: 1024MB NVIDIA GeForce 9400 GT (Club3D) - Screen: L1750SQ (1280x1024@75Hz) - Audio: Realtek AC'97 Audio.

The Saxman

  • member
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 18
Re: Did They Hand Me A Lemon?
« Reply #4 on: January 10, 2019, 05:34:46 AM »

Much depends on values set into *planes.dat of campaign you're playing (I guess you're playing DGen campaign, since in static campaigns cruising speed is usually set to 300 km/h, which is manageable).

Try editing your *planes.dat files like in following example line:

from
Axis     Germany    Fighter       BF_109F4             425 4700 4700 default         1

to
Axis     Germany    Fighter       BF_109F4             375 4700 4700 default         1

if you don't have any *planes.dat in your campaign, this means the game makes use of generic Europlanes.dat or Pacificplanes.dat, according to theater, requiring corrections as well.

I was trying the DCG Bouganville 1943 campaign from the Solomons pack I found on this board. However when I look at the planes.dat files, they only list the aircraft and don't have the speed/etc.:

Quote
[Eastern_Solomons42_M]
F4F4
[Guadalcanal43_M]
F4F4
[Russells43]
F4F4                                                         
F4U1A                     
[NewGeorgia43]
F4U1A                     
[Vella43]
F4U1A                     
[Bougainville43]
F4U1A
[Bougainville44]
F4U1A

Do I add those lines after the aircraft?
Logged

vonofterdingen

  • Missioneer
  • member
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1266
Re: Did They Hand Me A Lemon?
« Reply #5 on: January 10, 2019, 09:15:35 AM »

In DCG campaigns the speeds get set in the Class.dcg file in the \Data directory of your DCG install. Take care when editing that file. Ensure that the columns all line up and do not use tabs; use only spaces in columns. Back up a copy of class.dcg just in case.
Logged

The Saxman

  • member
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 18
Re: Did They Hand Me A Lemon?
« Reply #6 on: January 11, 2019, 07:11:44 AM »

In DCG campaigns the speeds get set in the Class.dcg file in the \Data directory of your DCG install. Take care when editing that file. Ensure that the columns all line up and do not use tabs; use only spaces in columns. Back up a copy of class.dcg just in case.

I tried adjusting that, but didn't see any change reflected in the game. However there's two speeds listed: One at 6000 meters (I think) and the other that's labeled Default. I tried to change Default because I assumed that was the speed the AI defaults to for non-combat flight. Is it actually the other that needs to be tweaked?
Logged

vonofterdingen

  • Missioneer
  • member
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1266
Re: Did They Hand Me A Lemon?
« Reply #7 on: January 11, 2019, 08:36:50 AM »

Here is an example from the last 4 columns of a Class.dcg entry:

5000 Meters          410.00 kph  Default     410.00 kph
[transit altitude] [cruise speed] [range] [ingress speed]

I think that cruise speed it the field that you want to change. Remember though that if you are playing an existing campaign, changes to this file will not take effect until you generate a mission. So after making the change, make sure your campaign is the active campaign, open the DCG program, and click the generate mission button.
Logged

The Saxman

  • member
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 18
Re: Did They Hand Me A Lemon?
« Reply #8 on: January 11, 2019, 08:56:21 AM »

Ok, so I went backwards. I'll try switching them.

Though TBH, I'm still tempted to just use autopilot for transit. The briefings on these missions leave a LOT to be desired (like, y'know, course headings and ALTITUDES).
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up
 

Page created in 0.066 seconds with 25 queries.