B-17: The Mighty Eighth

smithcorp · 01-31-14, 03:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Taff in Exile

Hello,

I realise I'm dragging this topic up from the depths but I've recently starting playing this game again and have used the AngelFire links to get a number of the mods etc.

The one thing I'm missing and have been searching for an age is the Olive drab skin. Does anyone still have this tucked away on their HDD or know where to find it as 80% of sites/links are now sadly dead.

Here's hoping.

Cheers

Taff

I collected together a few OD skins, plus a weathered aluminium skin, for anyone who wants them. They can be downloaded from here:

http://www.smithcorp.com.au/files/b172skins.zip

cheers

smith

Taff in Exile · 02-02-14, 07:45 AM

Thankyou for the warm welcome and thanks for the links :-)
Always nice to freshen up these great old games :-)

Deranged · 05-28-14, 10:17 PM

I'm glad to see such a huge support for this game! I downloaded it off of GOG.com, and have been playing ever since. Such in-depth! I started looking into mods for this game, and Google brought me here. However, it would appear that some, if not most of the links provided are discontinued sources. Would love to see if anyone has anything still available.

I think one of the trickiest part of this game is trying to hit the targets. I don't know if I'm just lacking in the skills department as a bombardier or what, but most my crew dies in plane vs plane crashes, or worse, two dead pilots. I was reading here about a Campaign, but have yet to find one. I've done the single aircraft mode and the multiple air craft mode, but those just seem like selectable missions. If those are the campaign modes, I need more practice then. I can get about three in (all "Complete Misses" of course) and then I'm just outta luck with any good crewmen left.

Anyways, I'm rambling on. Love the game, love these type of games, hope to check out more like it.

Aktungbby · 05-29-14, 12:27 AM

Deranged!

CCIP · 05-29-14, 02:18 AM

Welcome!

Is the bombs-away site still around? I do remember downloading a few things via there recently.

As far as collisions and crashes, after flying what's probably a few dozen missions, I did the math to keep track of losses etc. and I realized that on average your chance of dying in a mission was a lot higher than in real life, and that the enemy fighter AI was unfortunately not that smart at avoiding crashes and often not good enough to be a threat, except as a kamikaze of sorts. I also found that flak is more deadly than it should be.

So as a compromise, I found that the most "realistic" if you want accurate results would be to turn plane collisions OFF (as much as that sometimes creates silly planes bouncing across the sky), turn the flak accuracy down to low or medium at most, and set enemy AI fighter difficulty to highest. With that, I found the game a lot more enjoyable and challenging and turning out with much more historical mission results. You always have 18 B-17s flying in that box formation in campaign missions (6 from your squadron, 12 from two others in your wing), and in the long term the average should be no more than 2 bombers lost per mission. If you're constantly losing much more than that, it's not really realistic.

As for bomb sighting, practice practice practice! The bombsight is actually extremely accurate, probably even more so than it was in real life. Numbers are important, but really the important thing is just to make little adjustments by feel as you're approaching the target and keep making them so that the target is as stable as you can get it in the sight, all the way till release. And remember the goal is not laser accuracy, you just need to be close enough. With a little bit of practice, the game's sight is forgiving enough that you'll learn to get that "close enough" pretty much 100% of the time.

Jimbuna · 05-29-14, 04:47 AM

Welcome to SubSim Deranged

Deranged · 05-29-14, 06:05 PM

Thanks for the warm welcomes, y'all and big thank you for the insight and advice, CCIP! I will try the new setup!

As far as the bombs-away site, I clicked on quite a few and they all came back with 404 error messages.

05-29-14, 12:27 AM	#4
Aktungbby Gefallen Engel U-666 Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: On a tilted, overheated, overpopulated spinning mudball on Collision course with Andromeda Galaxy Posts: 30,006 Downloads: 24 Uploads: 0	welcome aboard! Deranged! __________________ "Only two things are infinite; The Universe and human squirrelyness?!!

05-29-14, 02:18 AM	#5
CCIP Navy Seal Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Waterloo, Canada Posts: 8,700 Downloads: 29 Uploads: 2	Welcome! Is the bombs-away site still around? I do remember downloading a few things via there recently. As far as collisions and crashes, after flying what's probably a few dozen missions, I did the math to keep track of losses etc. and I realized that on average your chance of dying in a mission was a lot higher than in real life, and that the enemy fighter AI was unfortunately not that smart at avoiding crashes and often not good enough to be a threat, except as a kamikaze of sorts. I also found that flak is more deadly than it should be. So as a compromise, I found that the most "realistic" if you want accurate results would be to turn plane collisions OFF (as much as that sometimes creates silly planes bouncing across the sky), turn the flak accuracy down to low or medium at most, and set enemy AI fighter difficulty to highest. With that, I found the game a lot more enjoyable and challenging and turning out with much more historical mission results. You always have 18 B-17s flying in that box formation in campaign missions (6 from your squadron, 12 from two others in your wing), and in the long term the average should be no more than 2 bombers lost per mission. If you're constantly losing much more than that, it's not really realistic. As for bomb sighting, practice practice practice! The bombsight is actually extremely accurate, probably even more so than it was in real life. Numbers are important, but really the important thing is just to make little adjustments by feel as you're approaching the target and keep making them so that the target is as stable as you can get it in the sight, all the way till release. And remember the goal is not laser accuracy, you just need to be close enough. With a little bit of practice, the game's sight is forgiving enough that you'll learn to get that "close enough" pretty much 100% of the time. __________________ There are only forty people in the world and five of them are hamburgers. -Don Van Vliet (aka Captain Beefheart) Last edited by CCIP; 05-29-14 at 05:16 AM.

05-29-14, 04:47 AM	#6
Jimbuna Chief of the Boat Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: 250 metres below the surface Posts: 190,539 Downloads: 63 Uploads: 13	Welcome to SubSim Deranged __________________ Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something. Oh my God, not again!!

02-02-14, 07:45 AM	#2
Taff in Exile Swabbie Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 7 Downloads: 70 Uploads: 0	Thankyou for the warm welcome and thanks for the links :-) Always nice to freshen up these great old games :-)

05-28-14, 10:17 PM	#3
Deranged Nub Join Date: May 2014 Posts: 3 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	I'm glad to see such a huge support for this game! I downloaded it off of GOG.com, and have been playing ever since. Such in-depth! I started looking into mods for this game, and Google brought me here. However, it would appear that some, if not most of the links provided are discontinued sources. Would love to see if anyone has anything still available. I think one of the trickiest part of this game is trying to hit the targets. I don't know if I'm just lacking in the skills department as a bombardier or what, but most my crew dies in plane vs plane crashes, or worse, two dead pilots. I was reading here about a Campaign, but have yet to find one. I've done the single aircraft mode and the multiple air craft mode, but those just seem like selectable missions. If those are the campaign modes, I need more practice then. I can get about three in (all "Complete Misses" of course) and then I'm just outta luck with any good crewmen left. Anyways, I'm rambling on. Love the game, love these type of games, hope to check out more like it.

05-29-14, 06:05 PM	#7
Deranged Nub Join Date: May 2014 Posts: 3 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	Thanks for the warm welcomes, y'all and big thank you for the insight and advice, CCIP! I will try the new setup! As far as the bombs-away site, I clicked on quite a few and they all came back with 404 error messages.