Tags

, , , , ,

After a spring of silence, I wrote my seventy-fourth in a series of posts on the Vietnam War. See here for the previous post in the series and here to go back to master post.

Taking a break from playing IL-2 is bound to cause problems. I forget everything that I knew about the game. This includes the technical issues of what it takes to get the old program running well as well as everything I know about flying planes within the simulation. Any number of times, I’ve gained enough skill to be able to take off and land, maintain more-or-less level flight, and occasionally hit an enemy. I’ve never got good enough enough to really feel pleased about my abilities; just enough that each session isn’t just pure humiliation. Then I move on to other interests and forget it all again.

…updating.

But wait, there’s more. My time between plays seems to be just about enough to get another major update in for the massive modding project that keeps this now-20-year-old flight simulator flying. Specifically, I’m talking about the SAS -BAT project, which I’ve been using since 2018. This project provides both a one-stop shop for mod installation as well as a framework for taking the simulator outside of its World War II origins. Absent such an aid, knowing how to get multiple mods to play with each other in a friendly way can, itself, be a full time career. Having BAT’s base functionality set out for you allows jumping in cold. I will further add that, with each of the major updates, I’ve seen vast improvements in the way the installation is managed. Trying to keep everything up to the latest versions used to be a bit of tightrope walk. It has now become rather simple and painless (although still time and bandwidth consuming).

The most recent “big” update was at the end of 2020. As I hint, it represents another top-to-bottom rework of how the updates are downloaded and installed. Meaning, in other words, it was once again necessary for me to de-install my entire IL-2 setup and start over. I don’t think I mentioned it before, but despite owning a stack of the original IL-2 CDs, I repurchased the game from GOG so as to use the “1946” version of the game as a base. Then there is a community-provided mega-patch, after which the fun begins with BAT update. Different from before, the installation is split into “Red” and “Blue” updates, allowing those who aren’t interested in the non-World War II portion of the mod to forgo it. Of course, I wanna fly jets.

As I said, for me time-between-plays always seems to be enough for the game to get another major update. In this case, the time between downloading and installing all the updates and then finally getting around to playing was, once again, enough to allow for two more significant code releases (BAT 4.12 was out in of March and BAT 4.13 as of June).

Having completed my entire installation, and then both updates, my targeted scenario was in the series Wings over ‘Nam, a set of scenarios created for The Jet Age in its earlier iterations. Specifically, I’m looking at a communist-side scenario that involves tactical bombers being escorted into an airbase strike. It’s a bit of a gamble, as I mix and match a couple of generations of updates. It is, however, a gamble that payed off. I did not notice any compatibility issues between the latest version and the scenarios.

There’s also another task before I can get going. The major updates require a “clean installation” of the base game. Although there are ways to carry forward any customizations that may have been made previously, for me (particularly considering I’ve forgotten pretty much anything I did and why) it is easier just to wipe everything out and start with a clean slate. This, of course, means starting over with the process of mapping my flight controller into the game. It used to be something of a tedious process. Before I upgraded my controller, I tried to map as many stick buttons to common flight functions as I could. At this point, I don’t remember what all the useful commands were, much less where on the stick it made sense to control it. As it turns out, the default mapping has all the major functions represented and I see no point in trying to figure out the minor stuff. My recollection is that I never really was able to remove everything from the keyboard while at the same time never being able to smoothly transition between two-handed flight controls, mouse, and keyboard.

I got myself boomed and zoomed.

After all that lead-in, the actual playing of the scenario hardly seems worth comment. Although it is a ground-attack scenario, the player’s aircraft is armed with rockets, so I didn’t need to try to figure out the bombing. Not surprisingly, I didn’t do very well. The primary objective was taken out by NPCs who were over the target before I was. I made a few runs myself, but I’m not convinced I hit anything. When the enemy fighters appeared, I tried to get away, but ended up dying in a fireball. I didn’t even see who, or what, hit me. I’ll try it a few more times – I should at least try to make to the landing at the end – although I’ll almost certainly crash in the attempt.

…and then just boomed.

My half-assed google-fu says this scenario is wildly ahistorical. The largest ground-attack mission conducted by the North Vietnamese Air Force (Vietnam People’s Air Force) did not take place until January of 1968. Furthermore, that attack was conducted by biplanes (Russian An-2s). While mounting rocket launchers on MiG-17Fs was probably feasible, I don’t believe it was a part of the Vietnam War.

The North Vietnamese strategy, instead, consisted of what has been called air-guerrilla warfare. The North used their aircraft in conjunction with anti-aircraft guns and surface-to-air missiles. The communist planes would ambush a bombing sortie by attacking from multiple directions. The primary goal was not to achieve air superiority but rather to force the American planes to jettison their bomb payloads prematurely. After this, the VPAF would disengage rather than take on U.S. fighters on their own terms. Even still, the communist planes, despite the technological superiority of their opponents, were surprisingly successful with kill ratios, by some measures, approaching 1:1. This prompted a rethinking of both technology and training in American aviation.

I’m sure you know of what I speak.

Return to the master post for more on the Vietnam War. My next post returns to the Squad Battles series and another short and compact scenario.