Cliffs of Dover

[clod65]

Has anyone tried to contact Oleg about this?  I tried to contact him here:-

https://www.youtube.com/@OlegMaddox

 

I know this may not be him.

If we could create a fund page just so that we can fix this , wouldn't that be a good idea

let him know that we love this sim

Edited December 16, 2025 by clod65
more info

[AndyJWest]

Oleg Maddox hasn't been involved in air combat sim development for many years.

[paul_leonard]

Huh.  I have original version, and both Steam versions.  I was unaware that original .mis files had a timer in them.  I am very familiar with editing .mis files with Notepad++.

over the holidays I will take a look at your informative posts above.

 

[Hiuuz]

8 hours ago, clod65 said:

Has anyone tried to contact Oleg about this?  I tried to contact him here:-

https://www.youtube.com/@OlegMaddox

 

I know this may not be him.

If we could create a fund page just so that we can fix this , wouldn't that be a good idea

let him know that we love this sim

Or try here
https://www.facebook.com/oleg.maddox

[clod65]

Thank you Hiuuz, I I have sent message.

[paul_leonard]

clod65:

I think your advice from ChatGPT is a little bit wonky.  I've now looked a dozens of old mission files from the 2011-2012 vintage and none have any kind of line references to your 4 keywords.  I also looked at older il-2 1946 mission files and nothing there.  The generative AI engines have a real habit of confusing things and mixing things up (usually when I know better and challenge them, they respond with something bright and bubbly like "oh, you are quite right".... and then happily move on to try and feed me something else).  While I have been able to do a number of neat things using the latest round of so-called AI (let's keep in mind it is a marketing term), I suspect this particular thread will lead you nowhere.

[Mysticpuma]

Oleg won't be able to help due to contractual reasons. Buzzsaw can elaborate more if required but Oleg is a dead end.

[clod65]

Paul:

i know, at this point i will try anything for new ideas, even if they are dead ends

Mysticpuma:

Thanks, it was worth a try, even if it is the old clod from 2012?

Edited December 17, 2025 by LukeFF
Language

[paul_leonard]

Don’t despair.  This is a big frustration for many and you are trying something.  If it works you are a hero.  Keep testing please.  I will support.

Paul

[clod65]

Thanks for the encouragement

[clod65]

chatgpt may not be all that wrong i suspect the file in question is in dll, mainly partBob.dll, that's the one ill be looking at.

[clod65]

so this is what i'e done so far

First i started line at a time, from the beginning and found that the game wouldn't start
i bypassed these lines until i found where the game would run then started disabling code 10, 20, 100 then a thousand
lines at a time.

These are all filled with 90 which apparently disables code, then I restored the original partBob.dll and filled 90s from 250 to a000 (a000) is 10000 lines
the game runs and I test using the ] bracket at maximum speed, the plane disengages about 20 second mark which equates to 5 minutes.
so far I have gone 1/4 of the way, I'm sure i'll hit a snag further down the line and will have to do few lines at a time.  

partBob.dll

Edited December 17, 2025 by clod65

[Hiuuz]

I wonder about you get any response from Oleg.

[AndyJWest]

51 minutes ago, Hiuuz said:

I wonder about you get any response from Oleg.

What sort of response would you expect from someone who has had nothing to do with CloD (or any other air combat sim) for well over a decade?

[clod65]

i will let you know of course if i do get one..

[clod65]

I'm changing tactic, Paul pointed out few messages ago about timer residing in memory, so i'm using cheat engine to scan for opcodes in memory

type this in chatgpt:-  cheat sheet of common timer-related opcodes in x86/x64 binaries.

 

Notes:- 

* `B8 / B9 / 68` → Load timer constants
* `DEC / SUB / CMP / JNZ / JMP` → Loop-based timers
* `CALL` → OS or library delays (`Sleep`, `usleep`)
* `XOR / MOV 0` → Reset counters
* Hex values for timer constants are **little-endian**, e.g., `300` seconds → `2C 01 00 00`.
 

[AndyJWest]

'Timer-related' opcodes? Yeah, sure. Unfortunately, 'more-or-less-everything-else related' too. Ask ChatGPT 'which are the most common opcodes in x86/x64 binaries?', and you'll get a very similar result.

 

[Hiuuz]

12 hours ago, AndyJWest said:

What sort of response would you expect from someone who has had nothing to do with CloD (or any other air combat sim) for well over a decade?

"Good luck with that" is already a respone!

[clod65]

This is a long shot, but I have set plan now to look for 2c 01 00 00 (300 seconds) in all files and change it to 84 03 00 00 (900 seconds)

I'm doing this change line at a time and testing. partBob.dll, has been done, and no change seen in timing, there were 8 instances of:- 2c 01 00 00 in partBob.dll.

I am now looking at core.dll which has 222 of:- 2c 01 00 00. done 30 of them so far.   

[Mysticpuma]

The information vacuum that comes from TFS.

The BoX forums have vanished so no CloD discussions there. The new BoX forums have one single post where everything can be discussed...nobody cares, it's pretty much deader here than it was on the old forums.. Their own Discord server has about 5 regular posters, Batmacumba (TFS Coder) pops up now and again but doesn't mention any WiP. Barely anything else happening there.

TFS's YouTube channel, last video posted was 8-months ago. Their Facebook page was last posted on in June, their Steam page is dead, one post in September, nothing before that since March and ATAG, the home of TFS, the main activity on the public forums, is discussion of upcoming online events, nothing of WiP or if it's still actually being worked on. The fact is, anyone passing by any location with a TFS footprint, would have no idea if the project had folded or if it was even being worked on.

News is we will get an update before the end of the year, maybe Christmas Day or New Year's Eve/Day...but from what I have heard, it won't contain any footage we haven't already seen/been aware of.

My guess is that it will show some model work in progress, none of it will show any of the new aircraft in-game (apart from the Typhoon which we already saw over two-and-a-half years ago), maybe a few new found models/assets. We all know that CloD VR remains in perpetual beta, so maybe a few shots of the latest version of Speedtree in-game (which isn't news), a few shots of Truesky (which looks awful on the horizon still), which isn't news, however now that Simul the makers of Truesky have vanished off the horizon, the chances of any substantial improvements are pretty much dead in the water, which is a shame because TFS said they would (for v7) implement the Truesky water physics, so that doesn't look promising.

A year since "Fortresses and Focke Wulfe's" should have released and realistically what does anyone know?

No updates since June apart from telling us the Dieppe map was being worked on (we knew)

No new models in game apart from the Typhoon.

No new images of Speedtree

No new images of Truesky (which was/is fundamentally broken when representing the distant horizon).

No news on VR everything happening because it's perpetually in beta and they still aren't testing it with landscape, ground assets or Truesky enabled, so that's still a long way off.

Paul Leonard does continue to work on making the maps more lived in with ground assets being added to airfields and areas nearby, as well as reworking the Ai so it doesn't barrel roll forever (usually into the ground), but this was discussed in the June update, so if it's mentioned again, it's just reworking old news.

Realistically, any new footage or update needs to have a release date, show any of the new V6 aircraft actually working in-game, Speedtree, Truesky and VR all working flawlessly....just anything that shows the last year actually had progress that makes a release of the software a realistic proposition.

Anything less, well it'll just be the same old, same old. "We Hope", "We'd Like", "We're aiming to", "Real lives, real jobs, volunteers, blah, blah".

Guess we'll find out if they have any hope of releasing anything when the next update drops before or at the New Year.

My hopes aren't high, which sadly, if they are hoping for everyone to hang around for another year, then this next update has to be truly substantial.

Finally, not to forget, if it ever does release, I assume a price tag in the £60-80 bracket, and if anyone new was considering investing, should they try and find any active forums with development input, what faith would they have in the product being supported? It's a big gamble to 'throw' £80 at a product when you don't even know if the team behind it are still active or accountable for their product?

Edited December 24, 2025 by Mysticpuma

[clod65]

 

 

It took while of experimenting with files and such but found by setting the skill to ACE and moving the sliders one by one, namely:- -basic flying (no change here still ai would quit at about 5 minutes) -advanced flying (no change here as well) -Tactics (after moving this slider all the way down, the ai plane kept going until it ran out of ammo, notice top of video the time 9.25 to 9.43.

 

I had to edit the video near the end to fit in within 15 minutes, I really do hope this is some good news...

 

Edited December 26, 2025 by clod65

[clod65]

i just tried with only tactics slider all the way to left and on 16 times playtest ran for 75 seconds or about that instead of the usual 25 seconds which i used to get before.

That's about 15 minutes of combat before ammo runs out. so would seem tactics slider causes the issue.

The battle keeps going if the ammo doesn't complete.....awesome

Edited December 26, 2025 by clod65

[paul_leonard]

You are starting to find what FTC_Rostic and I concluded.  There are ways to extend and improve combat by tweaking AI settings (unfortunately only available in FMB and not quick missions which can create more “randomized” AI settings and hence inconsistent experiences).  I’ll post a link to our discussion in the old forum later today.  Can you post your settings?  Maybe also a .mis file? Also can you confirm (maybe by jumping into the AI cockpit post disengagement) that the AI really is out of ammo as I still have my own suspicions about this.  
 

Good stuff!

Edited December 26, 2025 by paul_leonard

[paul_leonard]

Link to old forum post.

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/91024-ai-skill-settings/

[clod65]

I was too excited yesterday and had to post, the clod version is the original 2011/2012

I did test several times, one of the tests went for around 100 seconds at 16 times speed. which is about 20minutes

I suspect the ammo did not run out from the fight. I will jump in the ai plane with alt f1 and make sure this is the case.

.mis file attached.

In it:-

Skill 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1

I'll do more testing of course

At the start of video i show the fmb settings.

 

1on1_acelvla.mis

Edited December 26, 2025 by clod65