Greetings, fellow CFS enthusiast, and thank you for downloading this mission.
This is a CFS1 stock mission originally titled Gunboat Attack. It has been converted and modified to play in CFS2.
You will be flying from the British side, so the mission will be found under the British section in the mission setup screen.
The objective in this one is to destroy all four of the gunboats, before any of them make it to the coast. If any of them do, the mission will be prompted to end. You may have to battle your way through fighter cover, but the gunboats are your main priority. Don't lose your focus!
Just extract the contents of the zip file into a temp folder and then cut and paste or drop and drag the .mis and the .dyn files into your CFS2 mission folder.
You will need to copy the files spitwin.wav and spitlose.wav from your CFS2 sound folder to your CFS2 sound\action folder if you want to use them.
Also see "Install Sounds.txt" file, included in this zip, for sound file installation.
And remember you need the VB Hurricane 2a from Sim-Outhouse and you also need Akemi's Bf109e-7.
I also recommend the British Radio Calls from the Ground Crew. You can find them in the CFS2 section under CFS2 stuff.
For scenery, I myself am using Martin Wright's Dover scenery, which gives you a base (Hawkinge) and the Cliffs of Dover as well. You can't really go wrong with Martin's scenery. This can be found in his CFS2 section under scenery.
And lastly I am using the extra smoky clouds (8 bit) from Chris Willis, and probably available from Flightsim. They are a little frame rate intensive, but provide my measly video card with the best looking clouds I've seen so far.
***If any of these links are dead or inaccurate, try seeking help on one of the CFS forums for updated locations.***
Originally, this mission was basically just a furball, with a (destroy a few boats) side goal. I modified it to where you must kill the four gunboats, before any one of them makes it to the coast, to win. This meant devising a multiple (or) event that would trigger when any of the 4 boats made it to shore. No big deal, not near as tricky as the similar events in the Strafe Tanks, and Beachhead Defense missions.
I also wanted to have a little air cover, so some random flights of defenders were set up. Sometimes none will show, and other times all flights will show. This gives it some replay value for those of you like me who play missions over and over.
If I've done my job right, this mission will appear to be deceptively simple. And it in fact is, as far as the playing of it goes. The "little details" of the coding however...
One example of this is the debrief messages for a successfully completed mission. I tried it several ways, but many times the debrief message would display even though I had been killed after completing the mission goal. This may not bother some people, but it drives me to bonkers. In the end I settled on an event that checked whether the goal had been met, whether the player was alive, and whether the player had left the combat area. So if you complete the mission goal, but don't leave the combat area (say you bail out or ditch inside the combat area), the debrief shouldn't appear. I can't guarantee that this works to my satisfaction though, cause it was the very last thing I have been working on in these missions. Needless to say, these conversions have provided me with a goodly measure of headaches and frustration. This is just one of many examples. There were similar experiences with, ditching, bailing, and leaving the combat area without meeting the goal requirements. This was one of the reasons that I eliminated the "you must survive" automatic goal in these missions, as it was botching a lot of otherwise hard work.
Here are a few tips, but you'll have your most fun experimenting for yourself.
As always it was designed to be played at 100%. With unlimited ammo it might not be as fun. With 4000 rounds in the Hurricane it's like having unlimited ammo anyway! It should play fine on other settings, but it was not tested on any.
This mission was designed and tested using warping. I can make no guarantees what it will do in real time. I just had to cut this one loose before it burnt me out.
The mission called for a Hurricane, so I swithced to the VB stable of mounts.
For the enemy plane I chose Akemi Mizoguchi's Bf109E-7 found Here. You can get the VB planes at the Sim-Outhouse.
Just make sure the folder names are mz-Bf109e-7 and VB_Hurricane 2a to avoid the dreaded mission file may be corrupted message.
If you run this mission through the mission builder.... ****Make a backup copy of the mission first, or you might lose some of the coding when you run it through the mission builder. I modified the ai planes skill levels, and I also eliminated the "you must survive" automatic goal. These will be overwritten if you run this mission through the mission builder, and the mission will no longer play as it was intended to.***
There is some flak, (I'm a non-repentant flakaholic!), and random flights of defendending aircraft to deal with to make it a bit more difficult.
I used several of the sound files from the British Radio Calls package by the Ground Crew. They aren't absolutely required, but they do make it more interesting. You can find them Here. They are in the CFS2 section under CFS2 stuff.
I deleted all objects from the mission files that were at or around the runways. Mainly because it takes longer to load when they're all there, and secondly because some of you are probably using other scenery packs anyway, and this would just cause a bunch of overlapping and altogether sloppy looking scenery. If you don't have any of the CFS1 runways installed, you'll just be taking off from bare land (no runways). If you don't mind that, then neither do I.
I also included ditching (like C. Burgess uses in his missions). Just come to a complete stop anywhere outside the base area (about a mile or so), and cut off your engine. It will trigger an end mission event in a matter of seconds. This works on land or water.
Curiously though, I have ditched successfully in enemy territory after having completed the mission goal, and I wasn't captured by the enemy. I have done this several times. Not sure why it does this, but I have been unable to find an answer. Yes there is a front line around the enemy territory, in case you're wondering. I've bailed out in the same area and been captured. Go figure.
Another one of CFS's "undocumented" features (see: bugs). LOL (Or, I'm overlooking something. Either way, it's out of my hair, so seek ye a solution if ye must. I'm tired of searching......)
Is this just an European feature? Maybe the French Resistance is just really good. If that's the case, I reckon I owe em some spirits. S!
If you are curious why the German's didn't just send those destroyers after the convoy, instead of the gunboats... Let's just assume that I wanted to accurately simulate the reported incompetence of some of the German leadership. LOL
And lastly, I did include weather with this one, as frame rates were manageable with weather included. I do get some slow-up when the clouds are being drawn. If you are getting unacceptable frame rates, just remove the weather section at the top of the .mis (mission) file. Use a text editor (notepad, wordpad, etc.) to do this manually though, running through the mission builder will remove some hand-editing I did. The weather section is up near the very top of the mission file and easy to find. Just take those scissors and cut it right out.
The bit that looks like this....
| [weather] |
|---|
| visibility.0=80467.00,0.00,3048.00 |
| vis_layers_num=1 |
| cloud.0=9,915.31,1981.20,99.97,2,0,0,1,0.00,2,0 |
| cloud_layers_num=1 |
| temperature.0=0.00,15.00,2.78,15.00 |
| temp_layers_num=1 |
| wind_layers_num=0 |
| wind_surface=609.60,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,0,0 |
Also of note, for those of you using Martin Wright's Dover scenery. Tweaking the [runway.0] section of the mission file, will get your starting point closer to the middle of the runway. You just want to change the line base_lat=N51 14.33 to say base_lat=N51 14.35.
There are several more of these CFS1 stock converted missions also available, and possibly more on the way. It just depends on the potential of each one. If I discover some aspect of them I like, then I will invest the time necessary to complete some.
I also have other "experiments" sitting on my hard drive if I can get around to completing them, stay tuned...
Well get out there and save the world soldier. Hope you have fun, good luck.
This package is freeware and cannot be sold for any reason. You may post it where you like, just so long as all original documentation (this HTML file!) is included as well. Swap it, pass it along, hack it, but most importantly have fun with it.
Use at your own risk, no warranty implied or offered. I will accept no responsibility for any damage you think may have been caused to your pc and or marriage due to the use of this mission or any of its contents.
I still don't have an internet connection at home, though I do have an email address. I can't promise quick replies, but I will reply to any messages I receive. Sorry but that's the best I can manage right now.
Designed and tested on a PIII 600, windows 98 SE, 128 RAM, Voodoo 3 2000 system. (You can stop laughing now, I can hear you!!!) The same system I was playing the original versions of these CFS1 converted missions on. As the saying goes, "She ain't much, but she's mine".
All HTML on this page was done by hand using wordpad and tested on Internet Explorer 6.0. Not sure what it'll look like on anything else, but it looks ok with IE 6.0.
All grammatical errors are solely the fault of the author and cannot be blamed on anyone or thing excepting himself.
FvB missions are created under the influence of rock and roll.
LONG LIVE ROCK!!!
© Michael Brookshire and Franz von Baron Productions- 2000-2004. All Rights Reserved