mission and campaign problems

[piersyf]

Hi guys. Downloaded a campaign package that redoes the CFS1 Battle of Britain missions as a CFS2 campaign. Tried to play it but system says mission file is corrupt, so I go in to mission builder and it will open the mission but says the plane (Hurricane Mk I) is not in the object library and do I want to substitute another AC.
Having come across this before I said yes to let the mission load. It did, with all the other a/c and waypoints and so on. Looked fine, exept I had to fix the Hurricane. I used the pull down list and used a hurricane Mk1 I have already. System crashed.
Went back in to mission builder and made a dummy mission using that Hurricane Mk 1. Worked fine, so it's not the plane.
Any ideas on how to fix this, or do I have to go through the actual mission files in wordpad, seeing as the Mission Builder isn't able to help?

Piers

[Cody_Coyote]

If the crash occurs as soon as you select the new Hurricane, or as soon as you click "Fly Now", or as soon as you try to save the mission, then try editing the mission using Notepad to replace the missing planes with ones in your livery.

If the crash occurs when you click on "Advanced Info" or when attempting to look at the map while in the mission then the problem is probably a conflict in the runway ID numbering system between what's in the converted missions and what's in your airbases.dat file.

Personally I shy away from CFS1 converted missions and recommend looking for ones written sprcifically for CFS2 or writing your own.

[piersyf]

Thanks Cody. After I posted I did open the mission file in notepad and change the aircraft ID (sim name) but didn't change the aircraft ID number. When I opened the mission again the original aircraft was still listed, so maybe I need to open my dummy mission and look at the ID number itself and change both.
I'm not sure about the airfield data either, I've loaded several campaigns in my pacific theatre game and there are now overlaps in numbers and duplications of fields. I can't set up the Milne Bay campaign I got because I have to re-write the airfield data in the missions to match what's already in the airfields.dat file. A real management issue.
Thanks for the info on airfield data causing crashes with the 'advanced info' and 'map' buttons. Didn't know about that one.

Piers

[Cody_Coyote]

Assuming you have all of the aircraft, ships, and infrastructure that a mission calls for you can fly any mission in the game even if you don't have the airfield scenery installed.  When flying the mission your position is determined by the longitude and latitude written into the mission file, not by the airbase.dat entries. However, just because you can fly the mission doesn't mean it will work right.

If you're flying the mission out of Adak, Alaska but don't have that scenery installed you'll find yourself sitting on the tundra when you should be sitting on a runway.  Additionally, when you warp back to the base to land you may see nothing but bare ground. Another possible glitch is caused when you have one version of an airbase entered in your game but the mission author used a different version of the same base.  In that case you may find yourself sitting inside of a building or in a vacant field a quarter mile from where your base is located.  Again, this is caused by the mission using longitude and latitude to determine your position and his starting position lining up with his scenery, not yours.  

As you mentioned, this becomes a management issue with downloaded missions as you may have to tweak the takeoff and landing positions to get them to fly right for your setup.

The big problem comes when you try to look at the map or go to Advanced Information.  If the runway ID's shown in the mission file don't match the ones in your airbases.dat file you can get a crash.  None of these problems are insurmountable, but you may find that in some cases it is more bother than it's worth to tweak the missions, particularly if it is a very large campaign.

[piersyf]

Yeah, finding out all you've said. I changed the aircraft ID number and name in the mission folder using wordpad. Now the mission will open in Mission Builder without telling me it can't find the aircraft. I zoomed onto the player aircraft and found the position of the aircraft didn't line up with the airfield (Warmwell). When I tried to click and drag the aircraft icon to the actual runway, MB crashed to desktop. I think given the work involved in fixing the campaign I may as well just delete it, or just use the mission overviews as inspiration to write my own from scratch.

Thanks for the info  ;D

P

[Tango_Romeo]

:-/ At least two things have happened here:

1. The new Hurricane will not load in the mission and I'll bet it doesn't showup in Free Flight either.

[piersyf]

Hey there Tango... perhaps my explanation wasn't that clear... the 'new' hurricane was already in the folder and was working fine. I meant 'new' in the sense of 'alternate' regarding the mission.
Your point about the a/c defaulting to 'turn' I hadn't checked, and may be a valid point. I'll have to open the file again... I've already deleted the campaign, but I can try loading just that mission into the missions folder and seeing what ails it there. I also am unsure whether the person who upgraded the missions from CFS1 to CFS2 had the infrastructure update already on his/her system and forgot to mention it was needed or not. It may be something to do with my install because none of the new campaigns work in it (all say the files are corrupt) yet the campaigns I download for the Korea install all work well, as do the multiple campaigns installed in my pacific theatre install.

P

[Tango_Romeo]

Ah, yes.   I did misunderstand or misread....been a long day, or I just had a senior moment.    :P

It probably is an airbases.dat issue.  If by Korea downloads you mean the Fox4 campaigns, we incorporated a very carefully modified 'stock CFS2' airbases.dat file in the downloads...the 'mod' part being the addition of the proper Korean airbases used in the campaigns at the end of the stock file.

[piersyf]

Yeah, I do mean the fox 4 campaigns. They load really sweet!  ;D I think one of the problems, as mentioned before is the fact that many campaigns use the same number set for their new airfields, so modifying the airfield.dat file to suit one campaign may screw it up for whatever is already installed, and I'm not quite prepared to have a separate install for each campaign.
A shame we don't have something like postal/zip codes for airfields. I may end up running a directory anyway. Perhaps something for a coding genius? A utility that lists the installed airfields by name, number and maybe location? Something we could print out so new campaigns could be adjusted before they run? Beyond my ability.
I may end up having a 'test' install of CFS 2 that I can load campaigns into just to see if they work or not. Even then there's the scenery and infrastructure to consider. A major issue with 3rd party campaigns is that we just don't know what stuff they have on their install that'll make it NOT work on ours...

P  

[Tango_Romeo]

A shame we don't have something like postal/zip codes for airfields. I may end up running a directory anyway. Perhaps something for a coding genius? A utility that lists the installed airfields by name, number and maybe location? Something we could print out so new campaigns could be adjusted before they run? Beyond my ability.

That would be one damned fine thing to have.  A downloadable/printable directory of airfields with a uniform numbering system.   It would go a long way to preventing the airbase.dat file conflicts caused by everyone going his own way.  You may have found yourself a worthy project.  

[piersyf]

Yeah yeah, I get the hint  ;) I really think it's a bit beyond me at the moment because I'm not sure how things work in the game. For example, I run 5 installs to cover different periods and geography. That in itself isn't an issue as the 4 digit airfield code gives up to 10,000 locations. Is that enough, or do I break it down to pre 1949 and 1949 onwards and have duplications of numbers to lift the number to 20,000?
How does the game treat multiple entries? If I have a file for an airfield in 1940 and another file for the same field in 1944, do I give them separate numbers, and will the game show the right one in the mission? That may mean allocating number groups to specific airfields, which reduces the number of airfield files covered.
It could be a simple list with a 'brand name' so that when you download a campaign you know automatically which airfield.dat list you're working from, but I think it'd still be nice for some coding whiz to come up with a utility that scans what you already have on the system. There is such a thing for the random generated campaigns, but not for the standard ones. Something that runs through the mission/campaign files and indicates where conflicts exist with what is already installed...

P