flt-file patch for Emils BoB campaign V2.0 (30. Jan. 2002)
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Hello,

we all know that the (german) AI doesn't use the their cannons very often.
That's why we got EAW V1.2a introducing a more aggressive AI and an AI that always uses their cannons.
Flying Emils new BoB update for the german side I quickly got frustrated because it simply was much too hard. I didn't make it past the 3rd mission using EAW V1.2a. With EAW V1.1 is was even harder because your wingmen only used their 2 guns. But I had an idea yesterday night, just before falling asleep:

I often edited the flt-files to get better shooting (and more wisely ammo using) AI tailgunners for my Bf110, the Stuka and at least for the Defiant wich lead to a historically accurate (and nevertheless useful) Defiant-Patch. But why not tweaking these values for the main guns... ??? :)
So I tried all day long and tested various values for the 'gun tracer range'. Normally it is set to 140 for english and 135 for the german light guns. IMO that was the reason why the Hurricanes were that hard. They simply shoot earlier than the german. Further more the AI shoot already at a distance of 720m. This is quite remarkable, but the problem was: they hit something at that range... So I applied the following change to all flt-files:

I set the 'tracer duration range' to 100 for all planes, exept the two engined and the Defiant. The result is the following: 

* AI does not shoot that often and not at far range (if the target is moving). You have the feeling they aim better before shooting. 
* the dogfights are now won by the pilots that fly better/have the better planes, not by the pilots that shoot earlier or have the more powerfull weapons, more dogfighting less shooting.
* it does not any longer happen that there are always three enemy planes behind you. You can fly more relaxed, but pay attention, if an enemy is close (!) behind you he will blast you out of the sky instantly. BTW: if you fly straight ahead they will shoot at far distance nevertheless.

Sounds good, doesn't it? :) The effect is even stronger (and may be more realistic) if the value is set to 90 or even less, but the AI is only flying around then and nobody is shooting at all. So I decided to take 100. It's a compromise between both and works quite well.
But I didn't tell you all features yet. I tested the package with EAW V1.1 too and you won't believe it: Since the AI does not shoot at far distance that often it uses their cannons relatively frequently. :) I didn't believe when I saw it, but try yourself. That means, you can take V1.1 for flying, especially for flying the Bf110.

At last some words to the two engined planes (Blenheim & Bf110): I set their values to 110 to give them a little shooting advantage. They need it badly, just imagine that poor Bf110 pilot with a lot of ammo but not getting on the tail of that ******* Hurricane. So they shoot more often, but the advantage is not very big. They still have a very hard life. 
The Defiant model included uses my historically accurate patch.


Installation:
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just unzip/copy all files to your EAW BoB V2.0 directory.
If you don't want the Defiant accurate, leave the planes.dat and the p51d.flt.


I hope you like it and are not that frustrated any longer when flying Emils BoB V2.0 for the Luftwaffe.

To all campaign and flt-model makers: How about applying this finding to all mods??? :)


Thanks go to:

the guys who made all the basic research on the flt-files (Charles Gunst & Paulo Morais?), to Jeroen van Soest for his 'EAW Aircraft Edit' and to Dirk 'Emil' Schoorens for making all these nice campaigns. :)


Greetings to you all still enjoying this great game,
Andy.
(andy@wiesel-network.de)