To make it easier to understand how to configure dgen campaigns with the conf.ini file in the Il2 root folder, here a Conf.ini DGen section guide.

Full credits to juri_js who reworked an older guide collected in web, which i usualy added to my campaign files. This thread is intended as a knowledge base. If someone has something to add to this guide, we will do this gladly.


[DGen]
The DGen section in the conf.ini file is used to alter settings for the games dynamic offline campaigns. It is not added by default.
If one of the following entries is missing or disabled DGen will use the default setting. Lines can be disabled by placing a ? ; ? in front (for example ;NoAirfieldHighlight).

AirIntensity=Low
Settings are Low, Medium and High. Default or not having the line in conf.ini is medium. Sets the number of enemy and friendly flights that are related to your mission. On low setting, there will be no random flights and it will override the RandomFlights setting (see below). Can affect frame rates.

CampaignAI=Hard
Settings are Easy, Normal or Hard. Default or not having the line in conf.ini is normal. Low increases friendly AI level while lowering enemy AI level. High does the opposite. Normal gives you a more even match of AI strength.

CampaignDifficulty=Hard
The same as simultaneously setting CampaignAI and CampaignMissions. Settings are Easy, Normal or Hard. It will influence both the AI skill and the difficulty of the missions. Don't enable this line if you are using the CampaignAI and/or CampaignMissions settings!!!

CampaignLength=VeryLong
Settings are VeryShort, Short, Medium, Long, VeryLong (VeryLong is default). It doesn't work in Pacific campaigns.

CampaignMissions=Hard
Settings are Easy, Normal or Hard. Default or not having the line in conf.ini is normal. It changes the ops files (for example - ops41-E.dat, where "E" means easy) in the DGen folder that are used to generate missions. The settings affect the number of enemy and friendly planes in a mission. For example, set on easy, you might have a mission generated which gives you four fighters on your side with four bombers, and two enemy fighters will later show up to intercept your bombers. The very same mission on hard might give you only two fighters on your side, maybe the same number of bombers to escort, but you'll run into four enemy fighters to deal with.
The line will have no effect on campaigns that use only one ops file for all three difficult settings.

GroundIntensity=Low
Settings are Low, Medium or High. On low ground objects like vehicles, artillery or trains will only appear at the target and at active airfields. Default or not having the line in conf.ini is medium. On medium there will be some extra objects around your flight route. High gives you more extra ground objects along your route. Can affect frame rates.

HistoricalRanks
Enables a more historical rank and flight leading system for the European Theater of Operations (ETO) similar to the one in the Pacific. You will lead earlier and there will not be a lot of senior officers in your squadron.

Maxbomberskill=1
Settings are 0, 1, 2 and 3, (for rookie, average, veteran and ace). This limits the entire bomber skill (not just the gunners) to a lower level if preferred, so you can attack bombers more easily if you limit it to a low setting. Default or not having the line in conf.ini, the AI bomber gunners skill will depend on other settings like CampaignAI (see above) or the campaigns own skill setting. It affects only AI for enemy bombers, not friendly and it does not affect transport aircraft.

MaxFLAK=5
Can be set to 0 to 100, default or not having the line in conf.ini is 10. Affects the amount of AAA/flak that will be encountered on the way to the target. Can affect frame rates.

MissionDistance=50
Can be set to from 0 to 299 Kilometers, depending on the map size and available targets. It is not guaranteed that there will be suitable targets in the selected distance. If no targets are found a higher or lower distance is used. When the MissionDistance line is removed or disabled, the default setting without a specific distance will be used. Using a setting of 300 or more will also activate the default setting. In Pacific campaigns any value other than default means that carriers are located in a shorter than historical distances on maps. In Pacific operations without carriers the MissionDistance setting has no effect.

NoActiveFrontline
Suppresses activity along the frontline (guns, tanks, explosions). Can improve the frame rate. Only used for campaigns of the Battle over Europe expansion.

NoAirfieldHighlight
If not used AAA/flak units will be placed at some unused airbases.

NoBadWeather
You never get bad weather in a mission.

PromotionRate=1.0
Enables the rank promotion rate of a pilot to be increased or slowed. Values are 0.0 to 100.0. Default is 1.0 (normal). Only works in Pacific campaigns.

RandomFlights=0
Can be set to 0 to 5. Random flights are flights not related to your mission. Both friendly and enemy are just incidental. If they are generated in a mission you may not always encounter these flights, sometimes they will not get close enough to your flight route. RandomFlights=0 disables the generation of additional flights. Default or not having the line in conf.ini is average (RandomFlights=3). Can affect frame rates.

SlowFire=5.0
Enables the reload time of ship AAA to be increased or slowed. Values are 0.5 to 100.0. Default is 5.0 (5 times slower than historical).

UseGenericPhotos
Enables the use of a generic pilot skin for flights that don't belong to the players squadron. It will only work if pilot skins are available that are named de_nn, ru_nn, gb_nn, etc. (country initials + _nn). Because of limitations of the game engine skins of copilots, gunners and pilots on parachutes are not affected.

UseParkedPlanes
Allows campaign builders to determine the players airfield by placing static aircraft. It can cause problems in some campaigns and should be disabled unless the campaign author recommends to enable it. On some maps (Murmansk, Kurland) it is enabled by default.

UseParachutes
The line allows Japanese pilots to use parachutes in the first month of the war.

OperationVictory=100
OperationDefeat=-100
WarVictory=1000
WarDefeat=-1000
In the stock Pacific campaigns the player's actions influence the outcome of individual operations as well as the whole war. The system works by assigning a static number of points to each target destroyed, and calculating a total number of points for each side. If your side destroys enemy targets, points are added to your side's tally. If your side's targets are destroyed by the enemy, the points are subtracted from your side's tally. Each side is assigned a predetermined number of points which in each operation means a historical outcome (victory or defeat). If the operation's tally does not match the historical outcome, an alternative briefing is triggered which may mean a defeat for the side that historically won, or vice versa.

The following point values are used:

Carrier = 100 points
Other ship = 20 points
Plane = 5 points
Tank = 3 points
All other targets = 1 point

The tallies are recalculated after each mission, and they're checked at the end of each operation.
Default value for an operation outcome is 100 points (added if it's a victory, subtracted if it's a defeat). War outcome's value is 1,000 points. By reducing the numbers you can make your contributions matter much more in the overall war effort.

If you want mission outcome to always be historical, you can set the parameters to unachievable high values, such as:

OperationVictory=3000
OperationDefeat=-3000
WarVictory=30000
WarDefeat=-30000


The complete Conf.ini DGen section for easy copy and paste. Remove the ? ; ? to activate a line.

[DGen]
;AirIntensity=Low
;CampaignAI=Hard
;CampaignDifficulty=Hard
;CampaignLength=VeryLong
;CampaignMissions=Hard
;GroundIntensity=Low
;HistoricalRanks
;Maxbomberskill=1
;MaxFLAK=5
;MissionDistance=50
;NoActiveFrontline
;NoAirfieldHighlight
;NoBadWeather
;PromotionRate=1.0
;RandomFlights=0
;SlowFire=5.0
;UseGenericPhotos
;UseParkedPlanes
;UseParachutes
;OperationVictory=100
;OperationDefeat=-100
;WarVictory=1000
;WarDefeat=-1000

The reason to write this new guide was, that none of the old conf.ini DGen section guides explained all options that are available and some information was even incorrect.

Just one example:
It is often stated that some lines like NoAirfieldHighlight, NoBadWeather or UseParkedPlanes can be disabled or enabled by putting a =0 or =1 behind the command. This is NOT correct! A setting is activated by adding the line to the conf.ini DGen section. You can disable it by removing the entry or by placing a semicolon in front of it, then the default setting will be used.
The only exception is the RandomFlights setting. No random flights will be generated when you use RandomFlights=0. If you delete the line or disable it with a semicolon the default setting (RandomFlights=3) is used.

When the new DGen by Asura is used, the settings in the DGen section of the Conf.ini file will not work. With Asura's DGen the setting commands have to be added to the DGen_mod.ini file, but everything else remains the same.

That's interesting, is the new DGen_mod.ini resident in the main install directory like Conf.ini?

That's interesting, is the new DGen_mod.ini resident in the main install directory like Conf.ini?

Monty27

Yes.