She's up!
http://mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads&file=details&id=3090From the Readme:
Kanalkampf - With No.32 Sqn - July 1940
A Campaign by CompansNotesA semi-fictional, NO ICONS campaign for the RAF simulation enthusiast which will take him through the first stage of the Battle of Britain. I wanted to use the French map as it's far less bland than many others. The problem is that the coast is north of the map, so I decided to represent the Kent coast and the coastal direction works well. Obviously distances are a little abstract but it proved fairly easy to place Canterbury, Sheerness, Whitstable, Margate and the various RAF airfields. Manston is too close to the coast but artistic license proved essential as described above. Likewise, RAF Tyler Hill is a fictional airfield but I wanted another between Detling and Manston.
I have stuck fairly closely to the day-to-day events for this period, complete with weather conditions which were fairly poor throughout July 1940. Some events have been shifted to the Kent coast from the south coast just to spice things up a bit.
Ground Objects.There's a lot of them! I wanted to produce some real looking British towns, which eventually involved using thousands of objects. Likewise the airfields have been detailed with barracks and parade grounds, perimiter fences and lots of trucks and bikes zipping about. All this is a strain on the old PC - do not be alarmed at loading times. Mine tends to take awhile at '79% Loading Tanks'. It'll get there eventually though. I have an
Athlon 64 3200+, Geforce 8500 GT and 2 gigs of DDR RAM. I do experience slow downs in the larger missions but they're playable. I wouldn't recommend playing this campaign with lower specs though.
IMPORTANT! Included are new RAF pilot voices by myself. They do include some rather rich language so best not to play through speakers when children are about. Make sure you back up the original RAF and French sound files (and previous files from 'With No.32 Sqn In France) before installing the new ones! It has been my intention to add some (at times plummy) RAF atmosphere with these new voices - they may get repetitive in places but so do the old ones. I have replaced fully a couple of the old actors. This is in no way a comment on the previous chaps. I feel they do add a bit of immersion. If you don't like them, just replace with the old ones.
IMPORTANT! Make sure you give yourself the starting rank of FLIGHT SERGEANT.
IMPORTANT! This campaign has been specifically designed for a NO ICONS environment - it will be rather pointless in places if you use them. When playing this campaign I also remove subtitles and all other modern intrusions. One of the complaints with this game is that the campaigns are stale. I've tried to add some mystery and a sense of the unknown throughout these campaign missions. If you're like me, you enjoy the pure flying aspects of the sim. As a lower rank, you should be following your No.1 and No.2 at all times. This will involve some very tight formation flying, which is accurate for the period. You'll see why it was so hard to fly in formation and keep an eye around you at the same time. If you're in doubt of how close or where you should fly in the formation, hit autopilot for a few moments. This is useful during large formation airstarts as well. Please note that the AI often take a couple of minutes to get in formation. It's sometimes worthwhile to hang back a bit whilst they get themselves situated. Cruise speed in the Hurricane will be 150mph throughout. You shouldn't have to burn out your engine catching up your section mates! In designing this campaign I have focused on the journey as much as the destination. Enjoy the look of the thing. There'll be plenty going on.
The RAF emphasized teamwork and team kills are the ones that count. Try to stick with your section at all times. Your job is to keep the enemy off your leader's arse, not to go tearing around as a lone wolf. If you do the latter you'll end up in trouble.
The sections are organized as follows:
Red SectionNo.1 - GZ-E (Squadron Leader).
No.2 - GZ-J
No.3 - GZ-B (Note: you'll sometimes get shifted to other sections. You will always
have skin 'GZ-B' and for instance 'GZ-L' will fill this spot if you are flying with yellow section).
Yellow SectionNo.1 - GZ-F
No.2 - GZ-X
No.3 - GZ-L
Blue SectionNo.1 - GZ-N
No.2 - GZ-W
No.3 - GZ-T
Green SectionNo.1 - GZ-K
No.2 - GZ-R
No.3 - GZ-U
Please note: You will always be referred to as 'Red 3' (assuming you don't get promoted). I found the best way to place the player in a particular plane was to make his section the only instance of a particular squadron. In addition, the 'Arming' screen will be a bit meaningless, as it'll always show one section. I've tried to let you know where you're flying in the mission prologue so pay attention!
Tips for close formation flying.
Official RAF distance was 12 yards at this time. Very close by later standards. The AI seem to fly in echelon right formation. This will require you to get in very close to the aircraft on your left You should be able to clearly read his whole serial number. The speed of the AI does tend to shift a bit. If you find yourself getting in too close I find sharp (but careful) vertical movements of the joystick (generally 'up') will slow you down enough to stay in formation. Once at cruise speed I tend to fly at 80% prop pitch. It will require constant attention but that's realistic for the time. There's something very satisfying about flying in close with the powerful aircraft in front of you. Enjoy it!
Difficulty should be full with the exception of 'NO INSTANT SUCCESS' and 'NO EXTERIOR VIEW' (for take-off purposes). In addition I give myself the luxury of the speedbar, but that's entirely up to you.
Notes on the skins.
Please use 'Compans No32_GZB' skin for the entire campaign. As some of you will know, the GZ-B and GZ-L skins were created by me a couple of years ago and have proved popular. I lost my hi-res templates in a computer crash a while back, so these new ones have been created from the low-res version. Wherever possible I've kept the AI with default skins to keep the framerate up. My PC is very midrange but I can play all these missions with very little framerate loss.
I will be producing another follow on dealing with the later stages of the Battle of Britain.
Good luck and Per Ardua Ad Astra!
Sheerness (Thames Estuary).
RAF Detling
50-100+ formations.
S! Comp