I was looking for a good Pearl Harbor mission and came across this in Mission4 today by someone called 'Loon' (coincidence with my username)
It is originally made as a campaign to include three stages of the event but I only used the main attack phase as a Single mission.
It needed a lot of re-working for BAT and I also cut out some stuff to reduce mission size a bit.
I used the C&C Dead Zone to remove planes once they cleared the coast on their way back to the carriers which help framerates.
I also did away with the irrelevant B17's coming to land.
The original Read Me file is repeated here out of interest.....
I realise that the attack on Pearl harbor was an important event in American history, and has been a topic of interest ever since. The makers of Pacific fighters were no doubt aware of this, and went to the trouble of producing a Hawaii map which would only be of use for this one action. The few missions based upon the action provided with PF were regarded by many as pathetic. They were however, very basic and simplified versions of the action which can be played on any computer without stutter. Mission builders can make missions simple or complex, realistic or imaginary, however players require. Making a mission based on the attack is rather unique in several ways.
To play from the US side really only puts you in the seat of a P40. Because the game engine requires that the players plane be born from the mission start it creates difficulties. You have to sit there with your engine off waiting for the appropriate time to go into action (if you are intending to try and recreate an experience at least loosely based on the real events.) If you want to get up there and wade into the attacking forces and re-write history, then the possibilities are endless. But if you want to keep some element of historical accuracy in your mission, then you run into problems.
If you are going to fly alone, then you can have your plane taking-off from a minor airfield which was hardly affected in the action, then sit and wait for your 'cue' to enter the scene...... Not so bad, as you can watch events using the static cameras etc. and so will not be bored whilst waiting. The mission builder, in this case, must keep enemy planes away from your position, or you will be destroyed before you have a chance to join in.
If you are going to have a buddy, it would be better if he has a delayed start, so you should taxi away from the start of the runway a little to prevent being destroyed when he is born on top of you. You may choose to taxi around so that you can take-off together side by side. If you start together, he will start his engine and sometimes, being AI, get impatient and taxi around you to take-off, considering your inactivity to mean you are damaged.
If you try to start from an airfield which plays a part in the action and comes under attack, then your problems will mount. As we know, the AI especially love to go for the 'white' players) plane, even in preference to other AI on your side. Trying to hide by taxiing away from your start point, as the mission begins, and going into one of the hangers, does not guarantee your safety, as strafing can still get you, without even mentioning bombs. I have tried reinforcing your hideout by placing several hangers on top of each other, but even that sometimes fails. Although I must admit that I haven't tried the airfield masking nets, as you cannot taxi under or through them. Pity, as they seem to be particularly effective at protecting whatever is beneath.... from strafing.... not rockets or bombs!
To play from the Japanese side has its own, but different problems. You may choose to fly a zero, but then you are really only limited to strafing, as there aren't many US planes in the air and your weapons are ineffective against ships. A pity that you cannot, by strafing and shooting up the AA on the ships put them out of action and at least help your buddies doing the bombing and torpedoing from being shot down, as could happen IRL. Still, you can be part of the team that hits Kaneohe airbase first, which was relatively undefended, and then go on to join in the fun at Hickham and Ford Island.
That only leaves you with the Vals if you want to have a go at the ships. (Until we get a seat in the Kate... if ever.) Their rather limited bombload prevents you from taking decisive action on your own, unless you choose to go for a fuel carrier and skip-bomb it.
If the mission builder intends to try and recreate the actual events as closely as possible, he can do quite a good job.....but......what is the real intention here?? To create a new movie based upon the action...... following on from Tora!Tora!Tora! and the last one.... albeit a movie in which you can be one of the actors, and view and replay the action from almost any viewpoint and angle. It is impossible to get everything exactly right, even using all the skins available, and correct quantities of aircraft. Even a closely historical first wave stretches the capabilities of the top computers available right now, without adding the second wave. And making a separate mission out of the second wave will not work, as damage etc. cannot be carried over from the first, apart from a few buildings on the original map and by making it as a campaign. You will have noticed too, that the more complex a mission becomes, and the more elements involved, makes it more random, so things never come out the same way twice. A mission of this size and complexity especially so.
I was impressed with the FB movie "Infamy" produced by 'ShadowSix', and when I saw on a forum someone asking about the mission file I downloaded it too. Then I got the skins recommended and started adding things to it. As is usual with me, I like lots of action and objects to increase the realism. Before PF and its patch came out which allowed a time-out for the ships AA the mission was difficult to run, and was no surprise attack. I added ships and other objects from PF and the mission is now available at 'Airwarfare.com'. It is not very historical though, as it doesn't use the new Hawaii map, and the numbers of aircraft and routes, placings of ships etc. are just as I threw them in. I had the blessing of 'ShadowSix' to put it out for the community to play though.
My present Pearl harbor mission uses the correct map and approximates the number and placing of ships, using what is currently available.... hoping we can have some more battleships one day. I have not attempted to recreate all the different parts within the action, just Wheeler, Kaneohe, Ford Island, Hickham and the harbour.
I have about 170 Japanese aircraft involved including a representative second wave attack. I feel the player is best served by being part of the second wave, so I have him taking-off from the Akagi at start of mission and leading a squadron of 11 Vals, so he can give orders to his flights and over-ride their set objectives if he wants. Switching to Auto , he can watch the action whilst flying to Oahu. The first wave and remainder of the second wave all air start at the coast of Oahu, but all return to land at their ships. This means the first action at the harbour takes place about six minutes into the mission. Several destroyers make a run for the open sea.... not all make it there. A couple of small launches bump around the harbour... the normal to and fro of a busy, but sleepy fleet at the week-end.
My personal computer is quite modest.... Athlon XP 2200+ (1800mhz.), 1.5 Gig Ram, NVIDIA Geforce 4 MX440 128mb., win XP home.....and I have never seen the much vaunted 'Perfect' settings or water etc.
Flying my mission is not quite a 'slide-show', but I need to drop to half-speed to watch the action with any smoothness from the various static cameras.
A better CPU and GPU would make it quite playable I'm sure.......
The difficulty for us mission builders is knowing when to leave it alone... there is always the desire to fiddle a bit more, add a bit more... and then after hours and months of work a single patch can throw it all out of kilter. Reworking the FM's to encompass carrier ops. for PF threw one of our tricks out of the window allowing off-runway starts, so my 'Scramble' campaign and single missions went for a burton.
I don't think the action lends itself to the DF kind of play and the heavy restrictions it imposes on the mission builders.
I have made this into a campaign because I wanted to start with the Japanese Fleet approach and take-off phases, but to combine it all into a single mission would be too much for those who want to get started with the attack and also too much for most computers to bear...
Start the campaign at the highest rank and switch off 'No Instant Success' in the Difficulty settings.....
The first mission has the fleet almost at the point where they are to turn into the wind for take-off, and you are sat in one of the planes decorating the carrier decks...but no take-off.... just look around at the spectacle......press 'escape' to go to the next mission whenever you like....
The second mission is the Take-off phase, but you are the pilot of a Zero float plane, so that you can watch the action from any viewpoint you want.........'escape' to the next mission whenever you like....
The third mission puts you in the cockpit of a 'Val' ready to take-off from a carrier in the fleet as a part of the second wave attack force.... the preliminary circuit around the task force is in order to waste time, so that you will arrive at the coast correctly to meet up with the rest of the attack force....... meanwhile the first strike is taking place....
There are three versions of the 3rd mission in the folder..... attack!... attack!_medium..... and attack!_light. This is to allow those with the best systems to see the full works.... and those with lesser ones to run the medium, whilst those who have quite old systems or who would rather have less stutter than more eye-candy can choose the light version. The medium version loses a few of the unimportant details, whilst the light version is stripped down to the main important bits...no B17's, no Kaneohe etc.
The campaign is set for the full attack! version, so if you want to play the medium or light version then open the Campaign (configuration settings) file which comes with the pack. You will see under
the three missions which make up the campaign. Change the name of the third one from attack! to attack!_medium or attack!_light which ever version you want to use....
Each of the mission files with its corresponding properties file can be copied to the single missions/IN/D3A1 folder to be played as single missions too.
All members of the community are welcome to use these missions in any way; to copy, change, alter, distribute, use parts of, or make movies from, without my consent. This applies to all my previous missions too.......... just give me a little credit for all the long hours I've spent.... :-)
Install to your Single/IN folder (D3A if you have it)
https://www.mediafire.com/file/v1ljvmdtu532wm5/BAT-WAW%20pearlattack4%28light%29.7z[/list]
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Topic: Pearl Harbor mission (Read 5573 times)
