Some problems with add-on campaigns

[Tom-boy]

First of all- hello, everyone! A newbie here Nice to be onboard
To the point: I've been having some issues with a couple of custom campaigns. Couldn't find the authors e-mail addresses, so I'll try here.
1) Norway 1941
http://elwood.www4.50megs.com/norw41.htm
1940 campaign ran just fine but here on the first mission He115 didn't have a sound:Fine, OK,-let's go with it. After that, the game kept crashing all the time. What I did, was do a fresh install and add only the files needed, except the autumn/winter stuff. Is this the reason for crashing or is it a known bug?
2) Pacific campaign http://www.simviation.com/cfs1missions5.htm
Up till Mission 8 everything A-OK, but here, on a Dauntless mission, the undercarriage wouldn't retract, making it impossible to complete the mission. Later on, in Mission 10, B25_play mission failed to load, giving me a shot-out Hellcat instead (!) with obviously not enough fuel to fly to boot. A bug again? Is there a way around this, with another B25 perhaps?
3) Africa campaigns http://www.simviation.com/cfs1missions1.htm
Do I really need FS98 for the sceneries or can I download them from somewhere?
There; somehting to chew on

[Hagar]

Hi Tom-boy & welcome.

[Tom-boy]

Thanks for your reply, Dan
I think I did everything right when installing because everything worked fine except in those cases mentioned. Must've been something in downloading procedure or the files themselves were bad that caused the problems. Got around the B25 issue on my own by checking the mission file and changing the player plane to another B25. I'd still like some clearance to  the weird Norway 1941 crashes, though. It would be appreciated  if someone knew the solution. Stuff like this is to be expected, no pun intended to anyone, when dealing with custom add-ons. Sometimes things just don't work after all.
So, I need FS98, eh? Oh well, I'll have to think about it, not exactly being  a fan of civilian scene.
All the best,
Tom-boy

[mikencfs]

Hi,

In reply to your third question, Alsina released a scenery bgl to cover the desert area when he realized that people flying CFS didn't necessarily have FS98.
I'm certain that I downloaded here at simviation but am unable to find it again.
Contact me at mikencfs@aol.com and I'll send it to you if you like.
I'll take a look at your other two problems in the meantime.

Mike

[Hagar]

Stuff like this is to be expected, no pun intended to anyone, when dealing with custom add-ons. Sometimes things just don't work after all.

I agree that not all campaigns are configured too well. However, in most cases freeware addons will work as advertised providing you follow the installation instructions carefully. These old CFS1 campaigns were most likely uploaded during my time as CFS Editor - in which case they would have been checked out personally before being posted.

[Tom-boy]

Yes, I'm certain , too, that you wouldn't provide any even borderline non-functional add-ons. That basically leaves five possible reasons: 1) I didn't install properly. Possible, but the add-ons still worked most of the time, so... 2) Hardware/software issue. Maybe.   3)  Something went wrong when downloading (using FlashGet for this) Perhaps?  4) Cluttered CFS folders.  5)Tough luck Me in question; most likely.
Anyway, this is no big deal, really. Nothing that a full fresh install and double double-checking won't solve. Heh, it's gonna be pretty hectic summer for me, catching up with all the CFS stuff out there

[Hagar]

Without checking the campaigns out myself I can only give you some idea of what to look for. First make sure that you have all 3rd party aircraft & that they are correctly installed with their correct folder names. One explanation might be that some 3rd party campaigns will use a particular aircraft in only one or 2 missions. The campaign will work perfectly until this one is required. I doubt there is anything wrong with the zipfiles or you would have problems extracting them. One common problem with some older campaigns is that they include AI Only drones with empty Panel & Sound folders. Some unzipper utilities will not extract empty folders so they don't work when required. I used to configure my own AI Only drones with a dummy CFG file in each folder to overcome this problem.

If you know what to look for it's possible to identify the cause of error messages from a text file named Error.LOG. This should be created in the CFS1 main directory folder.

[Tom-boy]

I see, I see. Sounds like solid advice, cheers I've to check it after awhile, since I'm pretty busy right now and have to also upgrade my 'puter, so it's gonna take sometime before checking these things out.  From the top of the hat; the unzipping of empty folders seems to be the most likely culprit. Should've thought of that myself. We'll see how it works.
Thanx again for your help