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Making some midway missions

Posted: 27 Oct 2008, 10:27
by Buffalo Six
This weekend I sat down to make some midway missions. Starting chronologically with the initial IJN air raid on Midway NAS. VMF-211 with 7 F3F3's and 21 F2F3's (wildcats and buffalos) vs....well 2 IJN carrier divisions (2 carriers each). VMF-211 didnt come out of that so well and Midaway got creamed. The mission I made is not as bad...its bad...but not hopeless.

2nd Mission is the 7th AAF detachment making their attacks along with VMSB-241 making torpedo and dive attacks, which means B-17E's and B26's....which we dont have....so....We will be flying A20's with a torp.
Its hairy but I tested it and lived, but ran dry of gas on the way home and went swimming. Also my torp didnt slow down the carrier I hit....oh well.

3rd mission is the big one, where 3 IJN flat tops go down. Well, I think I made it too big.

For example, the IJN Midway Strike Force consisted of 4 carriers, 4 Cruisers, 2 Battleships, 12 Destroyers. I toned (not enough it seems) the flak down, but there is still a lot of it. and poor old Torpedo 8 (and its friends from the Enterprise and Yorktown) succeed in getting crushed by the High and Low CAP and the AAA.....but about the time we (we are flying SBD-3's from Enterprise) get over the fleet.....its a slide show. I pushed thru the lag, and made my run at the Akagi...missed...and ended up with like 6 zeroes on my ass, had a hole big enough in the right wing to see thru.....and leaking gas like crazy. I made it out of the fleet zone, twisting and turning to keep the zeros from nailing me and a big ol' piece of AAA killed my ass. Black screen....water.....death.

4th Mission will be Defending Yorktown with trusty wildcats, and then doing it again for the 5th mission, Yorktown will be hurt and slow if I can make that happen.

6th mission will be Enterprise and Hornet Launching on the remainign carrier Hiyru.

7th Mission will be VMSB-211 attacking 2 cruisers (one damaged, one assisting).

So 2 problems I have to overcome for us to enjoy these. 1st is the soul crushing lag when it gets hot and heavy. One issue may be the map I am using. I found a wonderfully populated Midway map. Looks cool as hell. Except for the designer added like 1000 sets of trees. I am not kidding. For the 2nd mission I went in and removed all of them, and then used that map as my base map. Also I have, for the navy engagements, all the IJN fleet, and both TF16 and TF17 on the map. I may have to cull that down. and I think I have way too many planes taking part in the action, 40 some odd torp planes, 30 SBDs, our 16 SBDs, and way too many zeros. So I will tweek all that and pair it down some. Maybe divide up the carrier attacks into Enterprise, Hornet, Yorktown, and do those attacks separate.


2nd issue is flight lead in time. I know you guys dont like long flights into action, but you have to remember that IL2 missions are all based on time from the master clock. So right now the flight times are abotu 15-20 mins to get there, then making your attacks, then if we choose to.....a long assed flight home. I might be able to save some time off the lead in, but I have to have time for the High CAP to engage the low torp planes, otherwise, weeza gonna dieee.

Also of note I need everyone who wants to fly these missions to check your IL2\planes folder for a B6n5 (I think thats the name), its should be just under the B5N4 folder which is the Kate. The B6N5 is almost a dead ringer for a Vought Vindiacator Torp plane and I'll use those as subs...I even have a paint job that looks correct.

I will also if people want them somehow make a zip file that contains all the paint jobs used so stuff looks correct =)

ok...its lunch time....

Posted: 27 Oct 2008, 12:59
by daofcmacg
This is for IL-2 1946 right?

DA

Posted: 27 Oct 2008, 13:14
by VEGETA
o hell no we are recreating this with migs, a-10's and f-15's, the enterprise is now nukler carrior and da da da da

Yes ok so I am kidding. yes its all il2 :) he has been working on this all weekend. I would insert a get a life comment here but I spent all sat playing paintball and sunday working on paintball equipment lol so I am not one to talk lol

Posted: 27 Oct 2008, 13:37
by Buffalo Six
Yes DA, IL21946

Posted: 27 Oct 2008, 13:41
by PanzerMeyer
Thanks for all the work and time you put into those missions Buff. We'll definitely give them a shot some time soon! I'd love to fly them.

**Panzer now gives DA the patented Moe head slap**

Posted: 27 Oct 2008, 15:08
by Grifter
Buff, this sounds frik'n awesome. I'm looking forward to flying them. Maybe Friday night, but with it being Halloween and all, we'll see.

Posted: 27 Oct 2008, 19:21
by Buffalo Six
ok I fixed the main mission....its still hairy, I made it away from the area and then my engine seized....I went swimming and then got killed my a damn arty shell....nice huh?

Flight times into action are about 8-10 mins...best I could do for now.

We might want to spend a little time learning how to dive bomb.....its tough when the sky is full of lead

Posted: 27 Oct 2008, 20:21
by Buffalo Six
I added a .ntrk file....add to your il2 records folder.

In the track player, the switches are up on and down off. Turn off loop, the rest can be on. Use Shift+F2 to flip between allied planes and Ctl+F2 to flip between the Japs
I think it starts in the outside view...but you can switch to whatever view you want....enjoy

phpBB/dload.php?action=file&file_id=35

Posted: 28 Oct 2008, 07:02
by VEGETA
watch the torpedo bombers first, and then realize you don't want to fly those lol

Posted: 28 Oct 2008, 07:27
by PanzerMeyer
VEGETA wrote:watch the torpedo bombers first, and then realize you don't want to fly those lol
No torpedo bombers are flyable anyway in the Pacific theater. ;-)

B5N Kate, Avenger, Devastator. None of them are flyable.

Posted: 28 Oct 2008, 07:50
by Buffalo Six
or vindicator....which is even a worse plane than a devastator....

unless your running 4.09beta and have the mod switcher running.....which begs the question.....anyone want to run with 4.09beta?

I'd like to see how the 6DOF works and get the new awesome clouds...and maps....anyone game?

Posted: 28 Oct 2008, 08:30
by Buffalo Six
well I found a much better timeline that has positional information and better breakdowns of who was doing what.....I'll use this to adjust some of the missions, Mainly the 1st and 2nd. And I have learned that Torpedo-8 had 6 planes detached to Midway NAS and took part with VBSM-241 attacks.

Posted: 28 Oct 2008, 09:51
by PanzerMeyer
Well dang Buffalo, thanks for all the work you've put into these missions. If you want, we can play some of them tomorrow night. As for 4.09 Beta, I'd prefer to wait until an official 4.09 comes out and I'm wondering if enabling the mod could affect online compatibility.

Posted: 28 Oct 2008, 09:58
by Buffalo Six
well that wait will prolly be untill Q1 2010ish if ever....just saying....my guess is that 4.09beta is all we will ever get before (and even after) SoW hits

Posted: 28 Oct 2008, 10:09
by Buffalo Six
Right now they are not ready for "prime time" and I want to have them all done so we can fly them in order per the time line. Also I need to figure out the easiest way to get you guys the skins so things look correct (like the B5N4's painted like Devistators so we dont try to shoot them).

Also we may want to spend some time learning how to dive bomb....if you try a shallow glide bomb attack....your gonna get pasted, bad....really...I'm not kidding.

I have made a DB practice map that we can use. I'd make it a dog fight but I cant remember how to set the spawn alt. You want to DB from at least 10,000 feet min. and it takes a while to lug a 1600 lb bomb up that high in a Dauntless

Posted: 28 Oct 2008, 10:24
by VEGETA
we can use that one we where using the other night buff for dive bomb practice to, yes we did skip bombing but that would work.

Posted: 28 Oct 2008, 10:53
by Buffalo Six
you know how long it takes an SBD to get to 12,000 ft with a 1600 lb bomb?....a loooooong time

Posted: 28 Oct 2008, 11:00
by PanzerMeyer
Buffalo Six wrote:you know how long it takes an SBD to get to 12,000 ft with a 1600 lb bomb?....a loooooong time
Hehe, you ain't kidding. I've flown the SBD quite a lot in IL-2 and I usually take the single 1600 lb bomb instead of the three 500 lb bombs because its less drag.

Posted: 28 Oct 2008, 11:06
by Buffalo Six
Ok.....I need to do a rather radical re-design of these missions and I have a great idea for "Defendign the Yorktown" =) but this new time line will allow for a more dynamic mission profile. For the big main attack on the jap fleet, I will have us fly a mission for each of the SBD squadrons in the attack and maybe if yall feel froggy....you can defend the torpedo planes in F4F4's against the Jap CAP....something like 35ish zeros (ok so I wont put anywhere near that number in but just imagine)....my mind is spinning.....too bad I'm doing mind numbing shop drawings all day.......

Posted: 28 Oct 2008, 11:19
by PanzerMeyer
Buffalo Six wrote:.too bad I'm doing mind numbing shop drawings all day.......
Well dip me in corndog batter!!! I had no idea you had artistic talent Buff!