I have started to sift through my backlist of campaign, trying to sort them into different categories, to see what can be done with them when it comes to updating. Because even though the game is getting older, it is also, paradoxically enough, getting better and better, not least when it comes to content.
In doing this I look upon 4 "Only's" that I really try to follow now when I build campaigns:
• Only historical maps, portraying the actual terrain over which the aerial campaign was fought in real life – no stand-in maps.
• Only historical aircraft, that participated in the actual aerial campaign – no skin-hacks.
• Only historical skins, showing actual camouflage and markings.
• Only historical front-lines – what happens on the ground and/or is mentioned in the briefings follows what actually happened then and there.
With this in mind a couple of campaigns are just irrepairably obsolete, and will be left behind. (Like my campaign for the Battle of Brunete. Or large parts of my big JAAF series "Raging Eagles".) And that's those that rely on a non-historical maps. Perhaps the briefing can be salvaged. That's just about it.
But most (for instance those that use "skin-hacks") just calls out for tender and loving updates. Using a number of available mod system. Not least because the scope of this game and the number of available aircraft has grown in a most wonderful way. Almost all operational WW2 aircraft can now be found in modded IL-2. As I see it the game is now at it's zenith, content-wise, and I think it would be a shame to give up on it and on these old campaigns, but give them the chance to realise their full potential. Which wasn't possible before, because of the simple limitations of the old game. We will probably never see a flight combat sim with this HUGE range of content again.)
I am still very partial to DBW 1.71, and some campaigns will enjoy the best that can be offered through that mod system. Some are simply too large to be lifted over to 4.12, like "Years of Triumph" or "Courage Alone". At least I feel terribly daunted by the task. All my Nightfighting campaigns will be updated to make full use of the "Nachtjagd Mod Pack". (More info on that mod pack here:
http://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads3&file=details&id=2143) And all my campaigns connected to the 30-ies will be updated to make full use of the "IL-2 SCW".
Finally: the best ones will be ported over to 4.12. That is an important point for me, and that work has already been started, and it will continue. But that updating is the most time-consuming by far. Right now I am doing this 4.12 updating with HSFX 7, but when I eventually get CUP going I hope to use that system.
So, yes, you can expect to see a fair number of updates in the future, leading to the eradication of limitations or errors, big or small, and hopefully resulting in what I hope to be final versions of many of the campaigns listed in post 1. (The links will continue to be valid, by the way.)
Thanks for looking
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Topic: ALL my campaigns - a simple list (Read 75623 times)
