Highwayman-Ed

Hey guys, Inspired by Ghosts fantastic work on the DCS-A10 pit, and with a few pointers from him here and there, I've managed to hack around a little bit and create an iPad pit for the Black Shark with working ABRIS, Shkval and PVI-800 sections that I'll be uploading shortly. Screen shots below show the work in progress so far, but I hope to have it uploaded ready for the weekend :)

Great app, any chance of enhancing the data card section or adding a full 9 line card in there too?

Thanks so much for the help Speed, after running through the mission file, it's actually really simple as you first mentioned so I'll be sure to use this again. Thanks again, really appreciated.

Hey guys, I've made a simple obstacle course mission to help our squadrons pilots familiarize themselves with the Shark again after having been in the Hog pilot for quite a while now, and I'm looking to see if anybody knows a simple way to display the "time since flag" value in a message in game to tell the pilots how long it took them to fly the course. IF anyone has seen this on the forums, can they please send me the link as the search hasn't turned up too much thus far. Thanks:)

One of my S77th squad mates has produced some excellent airtime charts and checklists. I've asked if he would mind donating them to the app.

Hey Deadman, the covers arrived a week after shipping, and they're great. They fit perfectly, and I haven't had to dust them off once since getting them :) Well worth the price all.

+1 I'd like to see an option to hide the stick too.

Ditto... I'll be buying one as soon as I can get my grubby mits on one :)

I'd definitely shell out a few bucks (up to $15) for this kind of App, and to be honest buying an iPad is much more appealing than a touch screen monitor.

Shadows in hangers Minor issue, but I'd like to post it anyway. Hardened Aircraft Shelters are not blocking lights. This screen shot was taken at 06:00 and the sun comes straight through the side of the shelter and casts the aircraft shadow on the inside wall. I reduced all setting to the absolute minimum and the issue still remains. No Shadows Medium or Full Shadows

I ran into the same issue as this and found out when messing around in the cockpit later on that the canopy open / close is mapped to the Seat height adjustment switch on the left side of the canopy frame.

OK, I have a favor to ask, can everyone stop downloading it from the JaBoG server so I can speed this up ;) I'm resisting watching the low grade youtube version :) and as always, thanks GA

I'd say that you should try your hand at mission making and build missions that prohibit this kind of behaviour. The ME is more than capable of throwing several curve balls at you if you have the patience to work with it.

I'm sure you'd find plenty of volunteers for that :)

1, I've tried to do this via several means and the only way I've found is to build in a whole bunch of triggers that do the following. Group A-1 drive from waypoint 1 to waypoint 2 which has a trigger assigned that does this: Trigger: Type = Once Name = Test 1 Rules: Unit inside Zone = Group A-1-1, Zone = Trigger A Group B is Alive Actions: Activate group A-2 Deactivate group A-1 If the condition is True, group A-1 is deactivated and replaced by group A-2 (which you would set to start very close to where the trigger is activated. with practice, you can make the switch over between the two groups almost seem less. The second group then drives on the the next waypoint and trigger combination where you repeat the process above, but this time with a 3rd group and so on. Trigger: Type = Once Name = Test 2 Rules: Unit inside Zone = Group A-2-1, Zone = Trigger B Group B is Alive Actions: Activate group A-3 Deactivate group A-2 You could carry on this process as many times as you like and you make the 3rd waypoint to be either a return to base, or to hold up on a defensive position somewhere near the trigger zone as this will only ever be used if Group B is dead. The image below may help understand this. Whilst I have used tanks to illustrate the point, the same method works with Air units. 2, This one I'm afraid is a question of fuel burn as the unit will start looping as soon as it reaches a 'Begin Loop' waypoint and will only 'End Loop' if it's attacked, heads off to intercept a target or reaches Bingo fuel and has to land...

When spawning your AI units, try to stagger them from the start time or use triggers to bring them to life only when they are needed. This will help you with mission start up times and prevent lag. In most missions that I design there are random triggers that take place at the start of the mission to decide which units get spawned by setting flags. This gives the missions some re-playability as things change every time you fly the mission. However, although the flags decide which units get spawned, they only come to life when the player or a client enters a trigger zone within a set range of a group of units. This keeps the number of active units down at any one time and may happen anywhere between 1 and 50 times depending on where the player flies, and what the mission is designed to do which also adds a little more to the re-playability depending on where you fly. So to give you an example of what just one of these many potential trigger zones could look like: If only Flag 1 is true, an SA-9 is spawned 2km from point 1 when player enters 20km from point 1 If only Flag 2 is true, an SA-9 is spawned 5km from point 1 when player enters 20km from point 1 If Flag 1 & 2 are true, an SA-13 is spawned 3km from point 1 when player enters 20km from point 1 If Flag 1 & 2 are false, a ZSU is spawned at point 1 when player enters 20km from point 1 Learning the trigger system is about the most important feature of the Mission Editor and can turn a simple and predictable mission into something exciting that keeps you on your toes that you fly again and again :) See the screen shots below for an example from one of my missions.

I doubt it has to do with the mission itself, but more with connectivity. Time for some basic troubleshooting... Have each of the players tried hosting the mission, or is it always hosted by the same player? Is it always when the same player joins that it drops, or is it just any third player? Are you all running the same version and or patches of Black Shark? Do any of you have mods installed that affect the lua files that the others do not? All of these could cause issues, but the fact that Team speak is being dropped as well would point to a problem with hardware or internet connections of one of the players computers rather than with Black Shark. I've taken a quick look at the mission and there are nowhere near enough units to be causing you issues in terms of overloading, although given your flight route, there is an awful lot of cleaning up of units that you could do with units that the player will never interact which could help it flow better.

I can only imagine how pretty all those lush green hills will look covered in trees :)

Speed mentioned the same principle with the helo land at wayopint request, but maybe this could be as simple as creating a single and invisible FARP landing point as a structure that could be placed on the terrain? I'd also like to see the ability for units that get spawned as a result of a trigger to be able to occupy the same space. For evample, I place a block on road with 2xBTR's if one condition is met, or 2xT80 if it is not met, what happens in the game however is that the units do not function.

Hey guys, I just wanted to add my support to your initiative. I like the idea of following a campaign in the day to day life of a pilot, and after having flown your demo, I can honestly say that it was quite refreshing to just fly for once, even though you don't really know what's coming ;) I also like the simplicity that this gives you as mission designers allowing you to create quick and simple missions in amongst what can be an incredibly time consuming and intensive project. I loved the voice overs, and the chatter too. Although I found them difficult to understand at times (I played the version without subtitles), overall I enjoyed what they added to the atmosphere of the mission, and livened up a mundane task. Good work :)

Sounds like you've really gone to town Grimes, I look forward to taking up the challenge!

Thanks dragony, check PM's

So I've started tinkering around with some mission building again and have begun working on a campaign set for Black Shark in the limited spare time that I have. The first mission is almost complete, but I realized one thing... On screen messages are rubbish and my accent (English with an Australian twang) doesn't really fit that of a Russian Army soldier :) So what I'd like to ask for if I may be so bold is for anyone that speaks English with a Russian accent that wouldn't mind creating some voice recordings for me so that I could import them into the mission and make it a little more realistic. I'd obviously welcome Russian accented Russian language too for those Russian players on the forum, or those that just want everything to be in the native language of the aircraft! I realize I'm casting a wide net here, and I can't promise access to regular missions but I'd appreciate the help if anyone has the time. Answers on a postcard to... :smilewink:

Nope, I didn't have it with 10.2 before I upgraded to 10.3