(Last updated April 30, 1998)
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1. Where is the ReadmeFM.txt file? How do I open it? A: It is located in the RedBaronII directory with your other game files, and can be read by double-clicking on it or by opening it with any text file editor 2. Where did all my pilots, campaigns, and single missions go after I installed the 1.0.5.4 patch? A: They were placed in backup directories, OLD_CAMP and OLD_SING. 3. What is this about the old campaign files (see note in readme file)? How do I use them now? A: Campaign files are not compatible with any previous version of RBII _except_ patch version 44.If you created the campaigns with the patch version 44, you can copy they campaign file back to the campaign directory and continue to play it. 4. Why do I lose my terrain detail after I fire my machine guns? How do I fix this? A: In order to improve frame rate in combat there is a realism setting called Combat Detail. It lowers the ground texture when the program detects an action that lets it know you are in combat. To change this, click on Preferences from the main menu, click on Graphic Setting, click Graphic Options, and then select Combat Detail to "off." 5. This advanced flight model sucks and is too hard! What can I do? A: The aircraft modeled in Red Baron are often under-powered and lose speed quickly in heavy maneuvers. You need to learn to use a light hand on the controls and to conserve energy. In turns watch your airspeed. If it is decreasing rapidly, you are turning too quickly -- ease up on the stick. If you lose too much speed, drop the nose of your aircraft below the horizon so that gravity can help you gain more airspeed. If your aircraft doesn't turn well, learn to use vertical maneuvers to "shorten" your turns without bleeding off airspeed. 6. This advanced flight model sucks and is too easy! What can I do? A: If the flight model realism is set to Authentic, you're already flying a very complex flight model. If you want more of a challenge, make sure the enemy skill factor is set to maximum. 7. I've heard about a 3D patch. What information can you give me about that? What 3d cards will be supported with the upcoming 3d patch? And when? A: A 3D patch is definitely in the works. It will definitely support 3DFX cards, and we are looking into support for other cards, as well. 8. What is the rb2sim.ini file? How do I use it? A: This is a file that sets various defaults for the sim. You can open this file in Notepad and edit it to make changes in the way the game plays. The items under the heading BARON control the accuracy of ground-based gunners. We believe that these settings represent a reasonable compromise between realism and fun. You can experiment with these numbers to see how they influence the gunner's ability to track you and shoot you down. The item under CONTROLS will switch the input from the 2nd and 3rd axes of your joysticks when the 0 is changed to a 1. This is useful for people who have rudders and no throttle, or whose throttle is set to emulate keyboard input. 9. People say that changing the Processor entry in the sierra.inf file will improve my graphics. How can I do this? A: This entry is purely to allow InstallShield to verify that your system meets minimum requirements for the game. Changing this in no way alters game performance. 10. Where can I submit problems about RBII? What information should I submit? A: Submit problems via email to rb2@sierra.com. You may also post problems on the message boards. List your machine components (CPU speed, video card, sound card, RAM, etc) as well as where you saw the problem, steps to recreate it or at least a good description of the problem. 11. I have a version of RBII that I bought in the United Kingdom. Don't I get a patch too? A: The English(United States) selection in the install for the patch will properly install the patch for UK versions of the game. 12. When I received the WON.net update, I lost the "internet" option on the Multi-Player Wizard. What should I do? A: There are a number of circumstances where this problem can occur, so there are a couple potential remedies. First try to click on one of the other available options (IPX, modem, etc..), then click "Next", and finally "Back". Is the "Internet" option available now? If this does not work, you might also try rebooting your PC or simply quitting Multi-Player and restarting it. 13. Why do landings end so abruptly, where is the old rollout? A: Changes made to prevent planes from rolling excessively (and perhaps crashing into buildings) has drastically affected aircraft rollouts. We are still looking into this issue, but for the time being we judged that a short rollout was preferable to occasional, and perhaps deadly, collisions. 14. Where is the torque in this game? A: Torque was much more pronounced in an earlier version patch, but this caused a number of problems and complaints because of some of the unexpected side effects. However, torque is still modeled in the game, if somewhat unrealistically lightly. If you have an analog throttle, you can verify this: fly a DR1, gain some altitude and get straight and level. Hit TAB to kill your engine, then set your throttle to max. When you hit TAB to start the engine, the plane will roll to the right. We are still working on improvements to torque. 15. Why do the Aces fly worse than they used to. A: Aces are by nature much more aggressive than lesser pilots. They have the tendency to fly their aircraft at the very edges of the performance envelope. Because of this, they are more likely to suffer accidents when they are trying to get aircraft, which fly poorly, to perform. This means that in an aircraft that can outperform yours, they can be _extremely_ deadly, but in an inferior aircraft, you can often coax them into burning off speed and losing control. The increase in flight model realism in the patch has made this effect more pronounced. We hope to improve their ability to conserve energy and make them even more deadly, especially in poor aircraft. 16. If I find out in the debriefing that I am killed or am going to be disciplined is there a way to null and void the mission. A: There is a Back-up file made for every campaign inside you '/campaign' directory which can be renamed to the same name as the campaign file, restoring your campaign to just before your last mission. For instance, if you have several pilots are playing the pilot on page 2 of your Pilot Log Book, then your campaign will be saved under "campgn01.dat" and the back-up file for this campaign will be "backup01.dat". Just rename "backup01.dat" to "campgn01.dat" after deleting the original "campgn01.dat". 17. Bomber Gunners and ground fire are too accurate. How do I make this less accurate? A: In your RedBarronII directory there is a file called rb2sim.ini. Look at the entries below [Baron]. Use the following as guidelines for changes: bulletMassFactor=180 is a field that allows you to adjust the strength of your bullets fired at other planes. The larger the number, the more powerful the shot is. Note that this number may have to be pumped up into the 1000s before you see any difference. (This is intended to help those who find dog-fighting the enemy is too hard. Note that if you drag the "Enemy AI" slider (in the Realism Preferences menu of the game) to the left, you'll also increase the stopping power of your bullets - hits will actually have enough force to spin the enemy around! This only affects YOUR bullets - NOT your opponent's - as this is intended to help the new pilot...) groundGunnerBase=800 determines how far off the initial aim is of the ground gunners. The larger the number, the farther off the initial shot. groundGunnerNoise=180 puts in a little inaccuracy DURING the stream of fire. Increasing the number puts in more inaccuracy. groundGunnerConvergence=160 is how fast the ground gunner will bring the stream of bullets to bear on his target. Increasing this number will increase the speed at which he will correct his shot, so LOWER it to make it easier for you. 18. Why can't I ever seem to log onto Won net? (Won is down frequently) A: WON is in the process of growth, and does have periods of problems. Recently this has improved greatly, and should continue to improve as changes and improvements come online. 19. Why does my plane seem to lose altitude more quickly near the ground? A: Many people online have observed seeing a problem they are calling the "ground sucker" effect. The reported effect is that near the ground the player sees a drop in RBPs and a loss of power, resulting in a drop to the ground. We have been unable to reproduce this on a test machine to determine exactly what is happening. While there may well be a defect causing some of these reports, it is also clear that what some people are seeing is a result of misunderstandings. Some of the confusion may be caused by the fact that the nature of the graphics tends to make the apparent speed of decent higher as you get closer to the ground. Also, if you are in outside scrollable view (F4) the Point Of View can't go below ground level, so it may abruptly swing upward as you near the ground, giving the impression that the aircraft drops. Confusion is also caused by the fact that the actual direction of travel of the aircraft is not necessarily the same as the direction the aircraft is pointing. If you approach the ground, slightly nose down, while near a stall, the aircraft's actual direction of travel may be at a downward angle, that is you may have a very high "sink rate" or "vertical velocity," even though your aircraft is nearly level. At this point the direction of airflow (angle of attack), begins to not be directly over your wings. Pulling back the stick, or maintaining a back pressure on the stick, will continuously increase the angle of attack, which also increases your sink rate. At this high angle of attack you are also creating more drag. Forward velocity and RPMs decrease, and vertical speed increases, causing you to drop dramatically. We are continuing to look into this to discover what other problem(s), if any, there may be. 20. My plane keeps stalling, even when I'm flying fast. What's wrong with this flight model? A: Stalls are not caused by low speed. They are caused by the angle of attack (the angle of the wings relative to the airflow) becoming high enough that the air moving over the wing becomes turbulent and no longer produces lift properly. Stalls can happen at low speed, when the sink rate causes the direction of travel to be at an angle to the plane of the wings. They can also happen when you turn sharply at high speed, effectively turning the belly of the aircraft into the wind. These high-speed stalls increase drag dramatically, and burn off speed rapidly. They can often lead to a second, low-speed stall. If you are pulling back on the stick and airspeed is dropping radically, you are flying at a high angle of attack and not flying efficiently. A light hand on the stick is critical when using the new flight model, and the faster your aircraft is moving, the more conservative your stick movements should be. This is especially true of aircraft with a high rate of climb. For instance, the DR1, which has a very good climb rate, will turn very rapidly at high speed with only a very light back pressure on the stick. Pulling back harder on the stick merely burns off speed and actually _lowers_ the rate of turn. At lower speed you will have to pull the stick back much farther to achieve a similar rate of turn. 21. Why am I often considered "dead" when I appear to have successfully landed my damaged plane? A: It is possible you were wounded. Wounds do not always kill you in the current patch, nor do they kill you as quickly. It is sometimes possible to land with a mortal wound, only to die. 22. I hear there are frequent updates to RB2, where can I find out if I have the latest version? A: You can check your current version number by looking at the "PatchVersion =" entry, the number should look somewhat like this "1.*.x.x". NOTE: "x" stands for numbers that will change with subsequent patches, and "*" is the language version entry and will not change. A link to official patches will always be posted on the Red Baron II web site http://www.sierra.com/titles/rb2/ as soon as they are available. 23. Will there be continuing changes/updates to the game? A: We are committed to supporting RBII. There will be at least one further patch, the 3D patch, which will also include other changes and updates. Other changes and updates will be done as necessary. 24. Why don't I have the LAN connection when I want to play on Kali? A: Kali is a LAN emulator. Most of us use modems to connect to the Internet and use the TCP/IP protocol to do so. A LAN connection normally uses the IPX protocol. In order to enable the LAN connection option in Red Baron II, you must have the IPX protocol installed in Windows95. To do this, choose NETWORK from the Control Panel in Windows95. Choose ADD, PROTOCOL, MICROSOFT, IPX/SPX compatible protocol. You may have to restart your computer after this, but it should enable the LAN option at the connection wizard.
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