To our customers:

We know you have a choice and we thank you for choosing Battle of Britain II.

 

PLEASE NOTE:

Please give this site a few seconds to load up, due to the amount of content included.  The download is at the bottom of the page.

 

 

 

What is BOB2.06?

 

• Built on the Merlin Air Combat Engine
• Introducing "Individual Pilot" Artificial Intelligence
• New Visual Effects Suite
• Authentic Flight Modeling
• New Customer Controls and Options
• Terrain Improvements
• Continued Stability
• Multiskin 2.06
• Best User Manual in the Flight Sim Business

 

 

 

Built on the Merlin Air Combat Engine:

 

Battle of Britain II is built on top of the Merlin Air Combat engine.  Merlin is designed to deliver:

• an overall air combat experience full of immersion and authenticity.
• a dynamic campaign system, with true and historic persistence over time.  Command and control, thousands of aircraft, pilots, aircraft production and assembly plants, supply, and radar networks create the most advanced air war machine ever to be released on the computer.  The player is a single pilot in the midst of a massive, target-rich air war, and can witness raids that create real damage that may not be repaired, depending on priorities and available resources. 
• air battles with 400+ visible aircraft in the air at once.
• both player and AI aircraft that fly and react with uncompromising realism.
• AI pilots that think and respond to unpredictable situations, just like us.

 

 

 

Introducing Advanced Artificial Intelligence (AAI)

 

AI (Artificial Intelligence) is the capability to imitate intelligent human behavior.

 

AI in Air Combat Games

Creating convincing AI for air combat simulations has historically been one of the top challenges for developers.  We know that you, the player, can only have as good of a pilot's experience as the AI is in the simulation.

 

If you are a veteran air combat player, you can probably think of only one or two air combat games over the past decade that has had truly convincing AI.  Most games use simple AI and canned cheats to simulate different skills.  This means that even casual players can rather quickly learn AI maneuvers and why veteran players express frustration with a cheat-based skill approach.  Once the player recognizes how the AI works, interest is lost.  Truly great AI programming will keep the player coming back for more. 

 

While Multiplayer games can be wonderful to play, a large number of flight simmers continue to choose to fly offline.  There are several reason for this, and one is that good AI can create a most authentic and historical experience for the player.  AI pilots adhere to authentic military doctrines including formations, tactics, and historical events.  This creates the atmosphere of “being there.”  This is why Battle of Britain II has been called the “Time Machine” so many times (this term was created by Bader on the forums) and it is this reason why AI must always be a top priority to create any serious air combat experience.

 

What is AAI about?

AAI is a brand name for the technology in the Merlin Air Combat engine that represents the wide range of historical pilots, from novice to veteran to ace, that battled each other for survival during the Second World War.  Aces racked up countless kills, while inexperienced pilot careers ended after just several hours of combat.  As a real air combat pilot grows in experience, they are not just more skilled - they make smarter choices.

 

 

Pilots in the Merlin Air Combat engine will:

• learn how to better manage energy in flight.
• improve in marksmanship, including deflection shooting and head-on attacks.
• learn to react smarter and quicker.
• learn how to aggressively track and pursue an enemy.
• utilize the strengths of their aircraft.
• respond differently to unexpected and random events in the heat of combat.
• learn to better manage and exploit different ammo types and load amounts.

 

 

A wide range of skills the player can choose:

New skill level enhancements were implemented for customer selection in Instant Action missions.  Now the customer can select the IA skill level that fit his taste, experience, and challenge requirements. The goal is so the customer can see/feel a genuine difference in both the IP AI’s offence and defense when different skill levels are selected. Please note that the skill level differences offered are Novice, Poor, Regular/Veteran, Ace/Hero, and the terminator (we are retaining the names for future expansion). 

 

NOTE:

The customer needs to pay more attention to the default skill levels in the Instant Action missions and select the skill levels wanted according to their personal taste and experience, as the combat experience will vary greatly based on these choices.

 

New Terminator AI (not for the faint of heart)

Terminator AI is for the experienced customer who wants the highest AI challenge in Instant Action (not the campaign).

 

HOW TO ENABLE:

Just set the new Bdg.txt parameter for fighting with the Terminator AI.     (Do_You_Want_To_Fight_The_Terminator_AI = ON).

 

The terminator AI will not disengage (except when they kill an enemy) and they do not go home. It is a fight to the death for both the wingmen (friendly) and the enemy AI (unless one gets too far out of visible range). The Terminator AI is as aggressive as Hero and Ace and may even ram you as he does not care about being killed.

 

The Terminator has a weakness as his defense is rather normal as his focus is on offence. As an added bonus, the longer the fight continues the more Terminator AI’s will be assigned to target the player. The Goal of the Terminator Skill level is to challenge the player to try and survive the 12-on-12 Random Advantage Mission and be the last one standing with your wingmen’s help. Good Luck. 

 

 Marksmanship

 

An IP AI skill level check was implemented for shooting accuracy, and range.

• Novice and Poor – Start shooting long-range, high loss in accuracy
• Regular and Veteran – Start shooting at mid-range, moderate loss in accuracy
• Ace, Hero, and Terminator – Start shooting at short-range (don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes…), no loss of accuracy, and use more concentrated fire.

 

 

JU87 improved behavior

A modification to the JU87 behavior was implemented so that the JU87 pilot will not engage enemy fighters and chase them for an extended period. The JU87 will engage the enemy if shot at (or near miss), but he will disengage (if the range from the enemy is greater than the break off range). In summary, the JU87 pilot will realistically try and get away and continue its mission to the next WP if he can do so.

 

 

Engine fire improvements

New code was implemented to better detect when an engine is burning, and we supported this with new visual effects. Aircraft may detach, fuel tanks may explode, and the pilots and / or crew may bail.

 

 

Pilot reaction skill improvements

More experienced pilots learn to react better when fired at.  The objective of this change is to simulate the pilot that has been trained, through experience, to better react when being fired upon.

 

NOTE:

The number one priority of the AI enhancements was to give the customer a smoother AI without jumps or unnatural maneuvers without reducing the AI’s effectiveness or customer challenge. This turned out to be a significant task and tradeoff for us during the 2.06 beta test period, and we thank our crack team of beta testers for seeing this through to completion.

 

 

 

New Visual Effects Suite

Customer can choose REALISTIC or HOLLYWOOD Effects

        

New 2.06 visual effects include:

·         more realistic fireballs when targets are hit with bombs.

·         new aircraft smoke trail and fire effects, should eliminate the blinking trails (contrails may still blink however).

·         new bullet ricochet effects when attacking hard, ground targets.

·         new ammo dump explosion. Look for those ammo crates or the ammo dump, fire some lead into them and enjoy.

·         large exploding buildings may now throw new kinds of large chunks of smoking debris.

·         further optimized and improved smoking debris.

·         burning ground fires improved.

·         more randomized bullet hit effects.

 

 

 

Authentic Flight Modeling

      

 

In keeping with our philosophy of building on the previous fidelity of the BoB II Flight Models, Patch 2.06 includes a number of incremental FM improvements.  Three of these changes involve the entire range of player-flyable aircraft.  Firstly, induced drag has been increased – this should be evident in more realistic energy bleed during sustained turns and while preparing to land.  Secondly, we have further tuned the AI FMs (Artificial Intelligence Flight Models) with the player flown aircraft.  Finally, and this is the global change most apparent to the player, the maximum achievable roll rates have been reduced.  Although this change in roll performance is very noticeable initially, beta testers have noted that they saw improvements both in the quality of their own flying and in the manoeuvring of the AI-flown aircraft, with increased immersiveness. 

 

Note:

These reduced roll rates still remain somewhat higher than real world figures;  the gap will be closed further in the next coordinated FM update (see "Future FM Plans" below).  

 

Other minor FM improvements for specific aircraft types include:

 

• adjustment to Rolls Royce and Daimler Benz engine output at various altitudes.  In the case of the former, this change reflects the use of 100 octane fuel and higher boost levels, and increases the low level, straight and level maximum speeds of the two RAF fighters in the current FM.
• slight relocation of the centre of gravity of the Bf109, to impart additional longitudinal stability.  This change is most noticeable during slow flight (takeoff / landing).
• a number of minor dimensional corrections to the Spitfire, and one major correction (fin/rudder area) which may reduce the side to side oscillation seen occasionally when bringing guns to bear on target.
• decreased pitch response and increased yaw stability for the Hurricane, to better highlight the Hurri’s known stability as a gun platform.
• several changes to the Ju87 - in particular, dive brake effectiveness has been increased to authentically limit terminal velocity in the 80 degree delivery to approximately 540 kph.  Both maximum straight and level and landing speeds have been reduced, and the pitch trim change due to flaps has been neutralized to reflect the automatic compensation mechanism found in the RW aircraft.
• numerous minor adjustments to improve the handling of the Bf110 and reduce stall speeds. 

 

Future FM Plans

Both the Bf110 and the Ju87 FM require further work to bring them up to our current standard.  We are working on this as part of the next coordinated FM update.  A key feature of this update will be incorporation of more in-depth and authentic airfoil performance data.  This change is significant and will require considerable and continued research as well as a number of supporting improvements to the FM code - it is therefore some way off.  This is just one aspect of our continued effort to push our industry leading flight modeling technology to new heights.

 

 

 

New Customer Controls and Options

We believe in giving you, our customer, the ability to make your own decisions.  Inside the game you will find a host of OPTIONS that can tailor the game to your needs.  For those who like to dig even deeper, there is an editable file called the bdg.txt in the game installed directory that our programmers use for convenient edits to the core engine.  Additionally all aircraft, terrain, and artwork textures, fight models, and sounds can also be edited by the customer.

 

We also honor those who want a simple and intuitive setup so they can just install and play, so all game defaults are automatically setup and ready for the maximum air combat experience.

 

Limit AI targeting of player

A new Bdg.txt parameter (Initial_Max_Number_AI_Targeting_Player) was implemented as the more aggressive AI were ganging up on the player during Beta Testing.  This parameter permits the customer to control the number of enemy AI that can target the player, especially when the player is badly outnumbered in campaign missions.

 

Limit targeting of AI

We implemented a Bdg.txt parameter to limit the number of AI A/C that can attack another AI A/C. The parameter is Max_Number_AI_Targeting_AI and the default is 2

 

 

Terrain Improvements

 

·         Cures the flying cliffs on the Isle of Wight: Hurricane Hicken

·         Mapping the Pas de Calais region of France: Don E Brooke, Heini, Hurricane Hicken, PV. Especially PV!

·         The Cerne Abbas giant and Maiden castle in Dorset: Hurricane Hicken

·         Removes animals from all Fighter Command airfields: Hurricane Hicken

·         Harbour to Folkestone: PV

·         Removes flashes of sea in several places: HH

·         Raise FPS slightly and improve looks at Tangmere, Kenley and Biggin Hill: HH

·         Puts Stonehenge in its proper place: HH, PV

·         Improved the North of England,with some of Derbyshire mapped: HH

·         Stop roads going over woods at several places near Kenley airfield: HH

·         Northern France. New SRTM height data added from Coquelles to just South of Boulogne: PV

·         Rebuilt Dover. Area around Dover was corrupted, so tile could not be worked on: PV

·         East Kent. New SRTM height data added: HH

·         Corrected RDF stations locations and changed CHL to be CHL stations, and CH to be CH stations: HH

·         Kenley Hangers rotated correctly: HH

·         Layout of CH stations modified to be more historic: HH

·         Objects added for Boulogne harbour: HH

·         Minor fix to cliffs near Brighton Pier:HH

·         Objects for Folkestone Harbour: HH

·         Isle of Sheppey (Eastchurch airfield). New SRTM height data added: HH

·         Isle of Sheppey. New objects added: HH

·         Lewis guns removed from Biggin Hill and Lympne airfields as they may cause problems: HH

·         Relocated Pembrey airfield, as it was on on a random hill! HH

·         New French objects and relaid out existing ones to match new French Terrain: Jeff 'Stickman' Stickley

·         Moved Colerne airfield: HH

·         More France mapped. This time around a large area around Calais:PV

·         Moved Marck airfield to correct location:HH

·         Ground objects moved to new Marck airfield location: Stickman

·         A few gound objects and trees added to Calais (replacing the ones from before the city was mapped): PV

·         Lots of other little things found when doing the above!

 

 

 

Terrain Notes:

 

Mar/07

In this new release, new height data was incorporated from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. This data was collected by NASA in 2001 by the space shuttle Endeavour and started releasing data in 2003.  The height data currently in game is satelite data, so is pretty good. but some detail is not present, as it's not fine enough. This is particularly so in the badly mapped regions, like France. This should help improve the terrain for anyone taking off and landing over there. This is the single biggest improvement since the last release.

 

 

 

Continued Stability

Throughout the process we fixed or prevented a total of nine (9) CTD for 2.06 and implemented a total of 56 enhancements and fixes that for some took weeks of study, analysis, coding, and testing by our outstanding Beta Testing team.

 

 

Multiskin 2.06

Multiskin is an OPTIONAL separate download

 

Summary
Multi Skin introduces authentic paint and marking schemes to Battle of Britain II, bringing a vast number of historical aircraft to life.

All aircraft in the Battle of Britain II dynamic campaign are based and operate from one of over 100 historic airfields throughout Britain, France, and Belgium. When you spot aircraft in flight, those aircraft actually took off from their home base, are on a mission, and will eventually return to their home airfield.

If you have studied the Battle of Britain enough to recognize these aircraft by their colors, markings, etc., an already immersive campaign will have just become much deeper. If you are like the vast majority of flight simmers that have not studied the squadrons and pilots that took part in the Battle of Britain, you are actually more like the real pilots that participated in this battle. You, like them, will simply experience a sky filled with countless aircraft, all with their own flavor.

To assist those who wish to know more, and to recognize the aircraft in flight, we’ve provided printable, color maps. If you wish, when you have an encounter, you can use these maps to know who is in the air. If you manage to shoot down say, 5 aircraft from a particular squadron, you can be assured there are 5 less aircraft from that squadron that will be taking part in future battles.


Below are two examples of printable maps (six included in all)
RAF full list:
http://shockwaveproductions.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6414
Me109 full list:
http://shockwaveproductions.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6412

Download all six printable maps here:
http://www.shockwaveproductions.com/bob/downloads/multiskin_pdf_maps.zip

 

 

 

 

Additional minor updates to Multiskin:

For the RAF, we have
A fix for aircraft lettercodes for No 32 Squadron (Hurricanes). The individual aircraft codes were scaled wrongly and didn't match the oversized squadron codes.

If you select Squadron leader of No 3 Squadron (who don't really appear in the Battle and are based in No13 Group in BoBII) then you will be in the personal plane of Keith Park, OC 11 Group. He flies a personalized Hurricane (code OK-1) and white overalls. Anyone who has watched the 1969 BoB film will recognize his plane (and characteristic dress) from that.

If you select Squadron leader of No 616 Squadron (Spitfires) (again, based in 13 Group) then you will be in a Green photo-reconnaissance Spitfire. Thanks to Lewis for the Spit skin.
These two features are for entertainment value, primarily. You can switch them off, if you wish.

For the Luftwaffe, a number of texture updates correct errors (such as inaccurate wheel types).

 

 

Best User Manual in the Flight Sim Business

We have included the 2.06 manual as part of the 2.06 installation.  User manuals rarely get the attention they deserve, and the amount of man-hours and passion put into this manual is to be admired, especially since this wonderful manual is a result of the great community we have.

 

 

 

BOB v2.06 UPDATE DOWNLOAD HERE:

English:

http://www.gamershell.com/download_19100.shtml

 

International:

http://www.gamershell.com/download_19101.shtml

 

Multiskin (optional download –256mb video card required):

http://www.gamershell.com/download_19112.shtml  

 

IMPORTANT:

LATEST DIRECTX 9 INSTALL MAY BE NEEDED.  DIRECT LINK HERE:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&DisplayLang=en