Question re A2A download version of BOB2

[Styggron]

Hello everyone,
A fea years ago I bought a copy of BoB2 but I can't find my disks so I thought I might buy A2A's one.
With my Physical copy, there was no serial or anything, no internet needed, I put in the disk and installed and it didn't need the disk afterwards or internet to run

My question is
1. Is the A2A one DRM free like my old Physical version ? or does the A2A one need online activation or have some other DRM ?

I am hoping once I buy and download the A2A version, it can be installed and played completely offline.

Thanks everyone.

[PV]

A2A provides the download of the patch v2.06 issue of BoB2,
and that is their last officially supported version. The current BDG
patch, v2.13, can be applied on top of this. The A2A purchase
has no associated DRM; in addition, the information provided
for the purchase is held on file, and if you still have the same
email and billing data, in the event of an inadvertent loss of
your copy of the download (which should be saved to a
non-volatile medium), you can generally get a replacement
free of charge. A2A treats their customers with respect, and
expects that this will be repaid by them respecting the value
of their products.

[stickman]

I am hoping once I buy and download the A2A version, it can be installed and played completely offline.

Once you download A2A BoBII, you will install it offline. No need to be connected online.
The A2A BoBII needs no disc inserted to play the game.
There is also no need to be online to play the game. It lives completely on your Hard Drive.

[Styggron]

Fantastic.
Thanks everyone.

I will be buying this as I can't find my install disk when I bought it a few years ago. Glad to hear there is no online activation needed.

[PV]

Please be aware that currently we still can't guarantee
that BoB2 will function properly on any OS newer than
Win7. Basically it is constrained to Win7-64 and >=4GB RAM
for optimal performance, as the quantity of rendered
objects now is too large for the capability of XP (not that
we get much enquiry about that anymore).

[Styggron]

Please be aware that currently we still can't guarantee
that BoB2 will function properly on any OS newer than
Win7. Basically it is constrained to Win7-64 and >=4GB RAM
for optimal performance, as the quantity of rendered
objects now is too large for the capability of XP (not that
we get much enquiry about that anymore).

Hello,
Thank you for that. Should not be a problem as I have Windows 7 64 bit and the system has 8 gig ram so should all be ok

Thank you again

[Styggron]

A2A provides the download of the patch v2.06 issue of BoB2,
and that is their last officially supported version. The current BDG
patch, v2.13, can be applied on top of this. The A2A purchase
has no associated DRM; in addition, the information provided
for the purchase is held on file, and if you still have the same
email and billing data, in the event of an inadvertent loss of
your copy of the download (which should be saved to a
non-volatile medium), you can generally get a replacement
free of charge. A2A treats their customers with respect, and
expects that this will be repaid by them respecting the value
of their products.

I agree 100%. I hold the biggest respect for any company that provides things DRM free. I always encrypt the downloads with heavy duty software so even if the media is stolen, they are not getting the content. It is the least I can do.



Going through the manual now. Had trouble with the training missions, in the landing, I just can't find the airport even if I fly straight

[Trumper]

[quote="Styggron"

Going through the manual now. Had trouble with the training missions, in the landing, I just can't find the airport even if I fly straight [/quote]

It's been along time since i flew the sim but the radio should give you directions to base.I printed off a map of the southern uk and marked where the bases were and quite often managed to fly by pure compass headings ,great fun.

[stickman]

Here is a table of all Radio messages. From the BoBII v2.13 Manual, which is in the Docs folder:



To get a vector to your home base radio Home Tower R-5-2.
You can also shortcut this by pressing Shift+5 - 2.

Mayday! message to tower will also give you a vector to home base. I feel silly calling out Mayday!, tho.

This from from the BoBII Manual. Not written by me:

Viewing the subject of current heard message: After calling out one of the tower commands, one can padlock the location of the ground control tower that is responding by pressing the F5 key.
The key must be pressed WHILE the response message is being played back.
Padlock diamond drawing must also have been previously enabled with SHIFT+T.
(F5 key is: Padlock Subject of Current Message) stickman.

[stickman]

You can also send radio messages using the Map. M key brings up the Map and pauses play.
You can also find your home base with the Map without a working radio.
I shall try try to illustrate this, even tho I'm a piss poor pilot.

Instant Action > Historical > Battle of Britain Day > West India Docks.
1st Canadian Squadron out of Kenley.

Starts out with the 1st Canadian doing a head on attack against a Gruppe of Do17s.
I attack like a Saskatchewan gray wolf trying to cut out one of the bombers at the edge of the herd. I don't like to ride into the middle of the stampeding herd!



YeeHaww! I smoked his port engine.

Less than a minute later an Emil shoots me from behind, smoking my engine and cracking my armored wind screen.
Och! All the fighters LW and RAF are all Aces by default in this mission. I should have set them to Veteran or Regular skills for better realism.
So.. I am no longer of much use, time to find my way home. To do so I can use the radio, or I can look at my map.

In Instant Action the map always shows your home base. With a white circle around it, and a tan line drawn from it to a gray circle which is a kind of reference point for the Mission.

Here I see my home base with some red diamonds denoting airfield targets and a white circle around it and the tan line.
Never been to south England but I am very much familiar with the geography there, having been developing BoBII for a decade plus.
I think that my home base is Kenley, and that the odd red diamond must be Croydon airfield. Possibly an alternate landing field if things go awry.

Note! The Map has four functions.
1. Accel
2. Waypoints (only useful in Campaign)
3. Radio
4. Zoom



Let us zoom into the map, with the player's aircraft at center, in this unholy furball of hell!
The gray circle for this mission is where the LW bomber Leader started from. Reference point. The player's AC has a tan line always drawn to it.
Also a tan line is drawn from it to your home base.



In Map you can give out radio messages. So I do so, clicking 2. Home Tower. My radio message was sent, see lower left corner, which holds the last two or three messages, you or others, on the air.



OK. I go back to 3D play and listen to my Tower giving me a reply and a vector to home.
While listening to the Tower's "Subject of Current Message" I press the F5 key to get a red diamond padlock drawn upon my home base.
Which happens to be off my starboard beam, so I need to turn right and follow the compass directions supplied by my Tower.
I got my cockpit holed. I hope that one my two compasses still work.



Or.. in Instant Action, I can periodically check my Map, noting the tan line to base, and "Follow The Yellow Brick Road Home!"
Even a Canadian, Pole, Czech, or Yank, never been to England before, can do so. Pretty hard to get lost, eh?

I fly in the general compass directions given me by Tower, and checking my map periodically, and follow the yellow brick road home.
There she is! Kenley. I could land at Biggin Hill, too, but I can just hear my Canadian comrades:
"What!? MacKenzie! Don't know the difference between Kenley and Biggin Hill, eh!??"
"Uhhmmm"
"HA HA HA HA!"



I do one slow landing circle around Kenley and land on the N-S concrete strip. Love the Hurricane for takeoff & landing.
Taking care to keep away from the middle of the strip and stop on the right edge of it, as I see another 1 Canadian coming for a landing too, just right behind me.
Shut off my fuel cocks, before something starts burning real bad.



My Canadian comrade taxis back to the hangars.
I saw 3 aircraft hit the ground around Kenly and Biggin Hill. Not sure if they were RAF damaged bad like me, or LW fighters.
The whole affair was verra bloody!



Some purist flight sim folks may think that the "yellow brick road to home" is a blatant CHEAT.
If so.. then don't use the Map in Instant Action. Only rely on the radio which will also help you find yer way around.

Even if you get yer cockpit damaged, the Radio will still work.
Perhaps we should code it so.. that if your cockpit gets holed, then your radio takes a bullet too.
No more Radio, you spoiled young whipper snappers! Say your prayers and get thee to bed!

[stickman]

Bloody Foreigners!
Don't even know how to speak English!:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptijNcDanVw

[Styggron]

Thank you for the help there but sadly, it doesn't help much.
The airport is just invisible practically from the air, sure they can vector you in but you're not aligned you find it turn round for an approach, clear skies and you can't SEE the airport again..... very frustrating.

I use M and then the radio.

As for the big battle map no idea how to use that. SO surprised there is nothing on youtube to teach us how to play it. There are a few videos one using the battle map but not great.

Very hard game and very frustrating, even on easy. Finding very hard to get into it

Also I liked 2.06 far better than 2.13. It was faster, better frame rates. 2.13 installed a lot of textures and liveries none of which I could see anywhere...... I have the 2.13 manual as well as I want to print/bind both 2.06 and 2.13

I really want to learn how to play this but the frustration of not getting anywhere is killing things.

[stickman]

Stygron,

The airport is just invisible practically from the air, sure they can vector you in but you're not aligned you find it turn round for an approach, clear skies and you can't SEE the airport again..... very frustrating.

You are not the first man to complain about how hard it is to see the airfields. They do blend in with the green terrain about.
So.. what's a mother to do?
Well, considering that the grass portion of all airfields use the same grass texture of the Landmap2\img0004 file, and that is not used very much anywhere else,
then I can make the fields show up better by changing the color, without making it look ridiculous.
First try, I go for much browner grass.

I go the a place right between Hawking and Lympne fields.

Hawkinge green:


Hawkinge brown:


Lympne green:


Lympne brown:


If you want to try this Brown Airfields mod, here it is, with installation instructions:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/powl3a1px ... fields.zip

Brown airfield grass.

INSTALLATION:

1. Open the Battle of Britain II \ Landmap2 folder Copy and save the img0004 .DDS file somewhere.
2. In the ZIP download, extract the modified img0004 file to desktop.
3. Copy or cut that img0004 file and paste it into the Battle of BritainII \ Landmap2 folder.

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I will try and make a yellow grass. I am open to any suggestions.

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Know that the RAF did everything they could to camoflage the airfields to make them hard for the LW to see them from the air.
Of course that made them hard to see for RAF boys using them too!
So.. the fact that you have difficulty seeing them is a reflection of reality.

A couple of examples:

Portreath airfield in 1942. The runways are camouflaged and the lines of former field boundaries and a road have been painted over the grass areas of the airfield.
At several Cornish airfields attempts were made to camouflage not only the runways but the entire base.
This was done by painting the runways with an irregular chequered pattern, and by painting the lines of former field boundaries over the grass areas of the airfield using bitumen or tar.



Exeter in 1942. Fake hedgerows/tree lines painted, tarred, or dump all the used oil to make such.

[Styggron]

Hello
Errrr

1. I can't see the airfield in any of your pictures
2. they hardly look any different to me



I'd need to make them ridiculously out of place so I can spot it, all red or something simiar.

reality sure but goodness, on novice level it should be visible. There is a question of accessibility and this game does not really seem to have anything to ease you in really.

[Trumper]

Hi ,I Just wondered if you get down to a slightly lower level whether the airfield pops out a bit more.
Maybe on novice level there should be markers in place so that you can do some route learning then after a while when you get a "sense" of where you are they can be removed.