Battle for Europe / Other campaign & missions redux...

[Rami]

Good evening,

I have FINALLY finished the comprehensive update to Battle for Europe. For those who remember, this is a dual-sided campaign (28 missions for the Allies, 27 for the Germans) which chronicles the period from July, 1943 to April, 1945.

The campaign was originally written by Dominique Rollin in 2002 and contained only the German side, but when I did version I in 2009, I made it dual-sided. The Allied versions are in many ways "mirrored images" of the German side.

Changes to this version include...

1) FDGv2 planes, because they're now freeware.

2) Greatly improved dynamic elements, including random chance and other goodies, in almost every mission. The missions for Normandy and the Rhine Offensive especially have undergone considerable modifications.

3) Improved mission texts, goals, and other fun.

4) GSL scenery for various ports.

5) Better ships, including Pen32Win's landing craft for D-day.

6) A random chance element in the Allied campaign; you'll either fly the Schweinfurt raid in a B-17, or you'll be protecting them coming back from this raid.

Battle for Europe now officially joins the list of "retired" campaigns.

This officially concludes all campaign work in the Late European theatre for now. This theatre, like the Eastern Front, I am "putting into mothballs" for the time being. The only other thing I will do with it is to do the second layout package, probably this weekend.

I have put it up on my site for you all to enjoy.

http://www.box.net/shared/0k1e1rz29h

[rohan]

This is probably a stupid question, but I have to ask - why not upload it to SOH, whether it's "retired" or not?

After all, the site you linked as your own is just a file upload service ...

[Rami]

Rohan,

Because I already have an older version on this site, and since I do, I don't make duplicates to save server space.

The campaigns folder at box.net contains reworks that have already been uploaded here. The only ones which I have uploaded to the new section have dead links or have not been uploaded before.

[rohan]

Sorry but your logic evades me. If they are newer / older versions, then it means users have to know two websites in order to get both versions, if they even know that there is a newer / older version. And as newer / older versions, they are hardly duplicates. I would think it preferable to have everything on one website where users can discover that there is more than one version and get whichever they prefer / want. You could even put a link to the old version in the description if you upload the new version ... but then they're your files, so ...

[Rami]

Sorry but your logic evades me. If they are newer / older versions, then it means users have to know two websites in order to get both versions, if they even know that there is a newer / older version. And as newer / older versions, they are hardly duplicates. I would think it preferable to have everything on one website where users can discover that there is more than one version and get whichever they prefer / want. You could even put a link to the old version in the description if you upload the new version ... but then they're your files, so ...

Rohan,

Sometimes, it takes another person's perspective to see the logic we think is right is actually foolhardy. I like the idea of providing a link to the old file. I will upload these today!

[rohan]

That's all I ever want - to help ...

[kdriver]

Andrew, thanks for uploading all of the campaigns - it is clearer now.

However Finland_Wars_2.0.zip appears to be corrupted.

[rohan]

Actually, that's a bug in WinZip processing. If you change the file extension to be .RAR then open it with WinZip, it works. Presumably, any other archive processor will work the same (for example, WinRAR), though I can't say for the Windows "WinZip" unpacker ... I had that problem with the last few updates of this file that Rami posted on his old website.

Ro

[Captain Kurt]

Rami,

I know how nice it feels to get a project out the door, congratulations. I will look forward to flying it sometime soon. Thanks!

[Rami]

Actually, that's a bug in WinZip processing. If you change the file extension to be .RAR then open it with WinZip, it works. Presumably, any other archive processor will work the same (for example, WinRAR), though I can't say for the Windows "WinZip" unpacker ... I had that problem with the last few updates of this file that Rami posted on his old website.

Ro

I tried swapping out the download, let's see if it helps.

[Rami]

Hello,

At user request...I have updated all of the campaign and mission packs I have "retired" for working on. They are all in the new campaign and mission sections. I will upload more as I finish them, clearing the way for new projects.

These have all been extensively updated, and are the same as the versions on my box.net folder.

For those interested in the method behind the madness, I always encourage you to open up the missions in MB and try to get inside the mind of "the Ramster."

Thanks again, Rohan.

[rohan]

Thanks for that - I grabbed copies of all the ones that interest me.

The Finland_Wars_2.0.zip file is still the same - I use WinZip v12.1 and have to change the file extension to .RAR before I can open the file ...

By the way, I notice that there are two copies of the latest repaint by Shessi in the Library - one under FS2004 and another under CFS2. Did you know that you can assign more than one category to a file when it is uploaded ? Just use the <Ctrl> key and click on all the categories you want to use ...

Ro



Don't know if it will help, but the attached is a recreation of the Finland_Wars_2.0.zip file from your renamed file's contents. This file is a little bit bigger but gives me no problems when I download it -

Attachment 22501