. I installed as instructed and the aircraft carriers are broken now.
mate, if i had a penny for every time some member gave us this line, and then we proved otherwise.....
it's simple - you did not install as instructed. that's all.
no-one here is trying to diss you, but as mentioned before, if you come into a thread looking for help, and then start sniping everyone who's comments you don't like, then you will soon have no-one who is willing to help you.
that's human nature, it's nothing to do with 'this or that' community.
the instructions are a lot, yes, but that's because this is a huge mod collection.
now, take a minute to consider this - you come from a background of flight sims such as DCS, you said - well, most of those and other flight sims were designed with modding specifically in mind, so literally anyone could jump in and use/make mods.
IL2 is a completely different kettle of fish - it was never designed with modding in mind, and it took years before some guy eventually hacked the game, and made it possible to mod.
even with that, there were no tools or anything for modders, we had to develop them ourselves.
bear this in mind, please, and then if you're asking for help, remember, even if you don't like the answer, these guys are still trying to help you.
if you shoot them down, you're going to end up man alone with no help forthcoming at all - which seems to be the direction this is going.
so, please, take a few breaths, calm down and come back here with a more relaxed manner.
as for your carrier problems, from your explanations so far, it's still unclear to me exactly what you've done with your setup -
i honestly suggest starting from scratch with a fresh install, and then ASK for help the second you're not 100% sure of any instructions, BEFORE just going ahead and making your own decisions.
to mod IL-2, you seriously need to read all instructions at least twice, and then again for good measure.
it is unbelievably easy to make a mistake, so keep notes of what you've done, so it's easier to back-track when something goes wrong.
none of us here are all-knowing, we've all learnt through our mistakes here, so please, just relax and go through the issues step by step, and don't engage any comment you don't like, because it totally derails the thread - from a 'new guy lookng for help' thread, into a 'new guy looking for a fight with whoever doesn't help' thread....