New to BoB II WoV and need advice

[sixstrings]

Have been into Microsoft's CFS series since the beginning and with CFS3(9 different installs) i have 3 different BoB installs. Two as stand alones and one in CFS3 ETO. They are all great and immersive and constantly improved. Very interested in all things BoB. After researching i found out about BoB II WoV. Looks really good but where do i start ? Heard it was buggy. Do the updates help out much? Where do i get the updates and are there any missions,addons,additional aircraft,correct German markings(if needed).(Hate politically correct stuff !!) ? Does some things that CFS3 doesn't cover yet, (really large formations for example). Here's a stand alone for CFS3 http://cfs3bob.wix.com/battle-of-britain you might find interesting and a big update is coming soon. Any advice would be helpful . Regards , Scott

[vramesh]

Greetings Scott,

Welcome to BoB II forum!

Looks really good but where do i start ?

1)Before you purchase, check if your PC will run BoB2: http://shockwaveproductions.com/forum/v ... a7d5ff53df
Also, Win 8 and Win 10 don't like BoB2 very much . Win 10 is slightly more receptive.

2) If you want to purchase the game, you can order it online at A2A store:https://a2asimulations.com/store/index. ... 18721f44c6

3) Then, you'd have to update your version to 2.13: http://shockwaveproductions.com/forum/v ... a7d5ff53df


4) Customize your install by tuning the parameters to get better performance: http://shockwaveproductions.com/forum/v ... a7d5ff53df
Don't worry, most of the 2.11 recommendations hold well for 2.13 as well. You may have to dig in through the forums because a lot of useful tips are buried in there.

Heard it was buggy.

5) Sad but true. Must confess that many get put off by this. BDG is trying its best to get rid of the bugs. However BDG is a volunteer group and hence some bugs are killed soon and some live for decades. Please report your experience (joy or bug) here. I look at BoB2 as I look at my old Royal Enfield Bullet 500 cc -- needs constant carb tuning, leaks oil, very noisy, must follow a ritual to kick start a cold engine etc. but in the end, the ride is awesome and makes it all worth it.

They are all great and immersive and constantly improved.

Then you'd be happy to know that BoB2 WoV provides immersion in spades and that the BDG constantly improves BoB2Wov. BDG has gone to great lengths to replicate the events of the era that it is often called a time-machine and not just a sim. Even things like the weather on a particular day too are faithfully followed.

Where do i get the updates and are there any missions,addons,additional aircraft,correct German markings(if needed)

6) You'll get them all here in this forum. Out of the box,you can fly Spitfire, Hurricane, Stuka, Bf-109E4, Bf-110 and ride as gunner in Do-17, He-111 and Ju88.That is the current planeset. BDG once (with some struggle) managed to include TigerMoth once. No effort has been taken to add any other new planes since.
Although there are tools that kind of lets you create custom Instant Action missions, usually, the campaign mode will keep you busy. That is just like creating your own missions yes--planning your raids everyday throughout the duration of the conflict? If you want a quick mission, try Instant Action missions. Most of the mods include changes to campaign code, tweaks to AI, terrain modifications, texture modifications, object location (like AAA, balloons, landmarks, buildings, forests etc) modifications, UI look and feel and recently, new 3D objects and fixes to existing 3D objects. There have been discussions in the forum on Battle of France mods. As it stands, adding new planes are a hassle and new IA missions are possible. If your machine can handle it, try multi-skins. It provides correct markings of all the squadrons involved in the conflict. BoB2 textures are fully user customisable. Hence, if you want a swastika and don't see it in the stock texture, you can look for a texture mod here in the forum or you can add them yourself (and possibly share them here too ).

Does some things that CFS3 doesn't cover yet,

Comparisons are tempting and inevitable. Having said that, comparisons are often made with apples and oranges.The campaign is top-notch and the AI is closer to human-like than any other ww2 flightsim till date. If you didn't already know, BoB2 is a marriage of a strategy game and a flight sim. It can be played exclusively in 2d mode without ever fragging into a cockpit at all! Just have to accept that only the conflict/theatre is common between the two sims and everything else may be handled differently.

I am relatively new here and I have answered your queries to the best of my knowledge.

Hope PV, Stickman and others provide you with their advice.

Once again, welcome to the BoB2 forum!
--
Vasanth

[stickman]

Scott,

I have been with Rowan's BoB and A2A's BoBII since year 2000 as a player and a developer.

Heard it was buggy.

BoBII had a lot of bugs 6 years ago and before. All of the old bugs that caused CTD's have been fixed.
There are some bugs left in the code that do not cause CTDs, but show weird aircraft behavior, that have not been fixed.
These problems are not what folks call "show stoppers".

The only CTD's I now get are computer system caused. Not from BoBII code.
I have a fairly old (4 years old?) Dell computer that I have never taken care of.
My computer has given me Blue Screens of Death & Graphics Accelerator failures. Oddly, these only occur soon after I turn on the computer.
It seems to like to run HOT! Maybe I should open up the case and clean it?

BoBII needs a good CPU and at least 3 Gigabytes of RAM. A good GFX card with 1Gb of Video RAM.
As far as GFX cards, BoBII has always worked better with Nvidia cards than with ATI cards. I use an ATI card now OK.

So.. sometimes I get CTDs because my computer is not perfect. These CTDs are not repeatable.

Some new folks to BoBII have CTDs. Their problems usually get fixed, either by advise from the few BDG guys left around, or the Players find a system setting that makes it work OK.
Here is the last one from the BoB2 Technical Support forum. Player gets CTDs that other players do not get.
Problem > BoBII .exe Compatibility settings:
http://a2asimulations.com/forum/viewtop ... 17&t=53371

A lot of problems have been solved in the BoB2 Technical Support forum.

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BoBII will not run at all with Windows 8.

BoBII will run with Windows 10, BUT! Upon exiting 3D and pressing the ALT-X key to do so.. will CTD the game.
This is OK for Instant Action (Quick Missions) but makes the Campaign part of BoBII unplayable.
The Campaign is the best part of BoBII, now with v2.13.

With v2.13 almost all of the old Campaign bugs have been fixed, and improved as to historical facts, and military realism,
thanks to two27 an US Army (retired due to injuries) BoBII coder.

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[stickman]

Scott,

Do the updates help out much? Where do i get the updates

BoBII has been constantly fixed, repaired, and refined since year 2001. Every update has improved things. One way or the other.
Version v2.13 is a culmination of all of theses improvements. All together.

Many players (not BDG developers) have made modifications.
These modifications are quite often better than stock issue. It is my desire to include the best of these Player's modifications as future BoBII stock issue.
I nominate the best ones, and put them up for a popular vote, both on the General forum and the BDG forum.
Let the best improvements all surface to become stock issue by popular vote!
This may seem to be a rather foolish, idealistic, & democratic process.
But is the way I am insisting on making improvements on our BDG simulation of the Battle of Britain.

The BDG is now a very small group of men.
- PV. Canada.
- Cherkassof54. Scotland
- stickman. USA, Hawai'i
- two27. USA by way of US Army
- vramesh. India
- arquillos. Spain

Note the lack of Englanders. Whatever. The BDG is largely made up of a bunch GB Colonialists.

[vramesh]

Note the lack of Englanders. Whatever.

Well Stickman, you've done it now.

(Please read the text below in the movie trailer announcer's voice for added effect)

Coming next in Hell's Half Acre:
Haz: "see Fb. the BDG is dominated by non-Brits...mebbe this could affect the future of BoB2WoV app hobbit vote for IN or OUT of EU?"
FB: "It has worked out well so far. Has it not?"
Haz: "yer 100%. BUT, unmanaged change......."
...
...
...
Tune in for another exciting debate, that could span dozens of pages, only in "Hell's Half Acre...Hell's Half Acre...Hell's Half Acre"*fading echo*


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Just kidding. Stickman, Haz and FB. I didn't mean to offend. If I have, I am sorry.
I just couldn't resist.

--
Vasanth

[ShadowShooter]

Haz: "see Fb. the BDG is dominated by non-Brits...mebbe this could affect the future of BoB2WoV app hobbit vote for IN or OUT of EU?"
FB: "It has worked out well so far. Has it not?"
Haz: "yer 100%. BUT, unmanaged change......."

Vasanth,
why don't you write all of Hazzie's posts for him from now on? Give the poor fella a rest from page after page of tiring blogging! That is, of course, unless you are already writing them because "Hazzie" is, in fact, simply a pseudonymical character you invented long ago (cleverly using photos stolen from some unsuspecting South African Alan Quartermain-impersonator's facebook page) in order to achieve your secret scheme to bring down Western civilization!
!Please Insert Dramatic Organ Music Here!:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leiDzFiIkBk

[stickman]

SS,



Vasanth,

Oh. I should mention the BDG actually does have an Englishman. PremHoldaway. He made up our v2.13 Manual with many many changes.
Prem was also very helpful to me when I was remaking the Spitfire gauges too. A dear friend.

[stickman]

sixstrings,

are there any missions,addons,additional aircraft,correct German markings(if needed).(Hate politically correct stuff !!) ?

As per addons aka Mods.
Many players have made modifications. As mentioned before.. the best of these have been included into v2.13.
Many more available, but not very well organized, and hard to find.
I make many mods that I can point to you to easily.

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As per additional Missions.
There is a Battle of France mod for Instant Action called The Battle For France.

This was made by a Player using as a special Tool which anyone can make new Missions for the Instant Action missions.
I have used this Tool and it it easy to use.

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There are no additional aircraft to be had in BoBII. We did manage to introduce the Tiger Moth into the game,
but it makes the Campaign unworkable. We had to sacrifice the Hurricane to make it work.
Geoff123 and I made some gauges for it. However, I can no longer find the special .EXE to make it work any more.
Personally, I do not see the point of adding a trainer aircraft into a Campaign War Game & Combat Flight Simulator that BoBII is.

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With v2.13 all aircraft British and German, now have their historical letter & number codes for each aircraft, their historical skins,
and their historical emblems, including the swastika, when you use the MultiSkin option.
The skins will change at the dates that they actually were changed in 1940, when playing Campaign.
The BDG is dedicated to reproducing the Battle of Britain as historically true as is possible, down to the minutest minor detail,
including correct building layouts for the RAF Airfields and ground Targets like Docks and Factories, which I am still working on.
We are history buffs, and care only about showing what was there in 1940.
If we we have any intolerance, it is the intolerance of denying the historical Truth.

[vramesh]

Dear SS,

When I wrote that, I had just completed (binge) watching Rich Little's impressions. That could partly explain my buffoonery.

I was born in May, and am a Gemini. There are often instances when my behaviour makes people around me believe that I may possess dual personality disorder (like Two-Face or Gollum) .
However, we can only give our word to you that none of it is another avatar of Haz. However, nobody here has seen Haz and us in the same room so, us can't proves it. Us only wish us possessed the same perspicacity, panache, proficiency and prolific blogging rate. Gollum! Gollum!
*cough* *couch* *ahem*

But I digress...

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dear Stickman,
Yes I have read your interactions with Prem in the forum. He has done an excellent job of one of the most often overlooked but crucial parts of any software--documentation.
Did you know that "Prem" is a popular Indian name? My younger brother is named Prem. "Prem" means love. My name means spring (as in season, not the mechanical device). I guess they called me that because I was born in May, which is considered spring month in India.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dear Scott,

Hope you got the answers to all your queries. If you have any more, please do not hesitate to ask here. We'll try to respond to it as best as we can.

Regards,
Vasanth

[stickman]

spring also means "a source of underground water flowing to the earth's surface, a natural fountain".
As well as about 7 or 8 other meanings not yet here mentioned.
Don't you love the English language!?