RyboPops

That will be a great one to add to the collection!

It only feels stupid the first few times you do it. After a while it feels stupid not to talk while flying. It offers a huge increase in immersion IMO. Then before you know it you'll be buying an O2 mask and wiring a mic up and then the immersion REALLY kicks up a notch! ;)

So jealous...I've always wanted to go to an airshow and see the Thunderbolt family.

PM sent with the error details. It appears to be related to both my moose.lua and my RAT.lua. I have two errors when loading them both, only one error if I just load moose, and no errors when I don't load either. They are both the exact same files I was using last night without errors. The errors didn't start occurring until I altered the RAT template aircraft to have two jets instead of one, but then even after changing it back to one aircraft per template the errors still occur. :huh:

I'll start on that as soon as I can. I tried to test something with a pair of aircraft in the template and it seems to have corrupted my mission file somehow :cry: I reverted back to a single aircraft but it still results in script errors on load and then no aircraft spawn...

Frank, definitely feel free to put the chart in the first post. It'll help more people there than it will buried in the thread :) Regarding the number of spots, that was my original intent. However, with so much overlap in which airplanes/helos can use the spots I wasn't sure how to put all the info in a logical format in the table. I'll try to work something out. That leads me to a question though...in the ME helos can be placed to ramp start in just about any parking spot that isn't covered. Does RAT somehow restrict helo spawns to runway and dedicated H parking spots?

I have a quick request if it's not already possible. It would be nice to have the ability to spawn a PAIR of AI, both using the same skin and flying the same flight plan. Obviously not useful for civilian traffic, but it would be great for randomly generating fighter traffic out of an AFB.

Hey everyone, I made a small chart showing what airports can be used to spawn certain aircraft in actual parking spots. Take note, however, that just because an airport CAN spawn a 747 in a parking spot doesn't mean it won't spawn on the runway. Smaller aircraft can still spawn in the few heavy spots which will lead to 747s spawning on the runway. I have found that this is mostly avoidable with some good planning and "city pairs." While the routes often aren't realistic, it gives a very vibrant and lifelike feel to the scenario.

No, I mission plan and brief all phases of flight before I even "step" to the jet. Then I know where I need to go, how to get there, what I need to do once I'm there, and how to get back home. I personally fly with real kneeboards on my legs that have checklists, EPs, plates, and a fully filled mission briefing card. I'm not saying never to look at the TAD, I'm saying it shouldn't be what you're constantly staring at to get around. The A-10 isn't really a strike platform anyway, so you're not typically going out to bomb bad guys in some random field. For your prototypical CAS mission you'll be on the radio with the FAC/JTAC/TACP on the ground who is going to give you what you need to get to their position and who will talk you on to your target. In the off chance that you are dropping bombs in some field you can either drop a waypoint there in the mission planner before you step, or punch known coordinates into the CDU once you're in the jet. You can pull up airfield info on the CDU and it has all the info you need.

I've never used the F10 map before, and I don't really use the TAD that much for nav either since I don't usually fly with preset waypoints. TACAN/ILS for IFR, eyeballs for VFR. And no, you shouldn't eventually stop using the F10 map. You should stop using it now. If you avoid bad habits in the beginning, it will pay dividends in the long run :)

Thanks for the detailed responses, they're very helpful. Regarding the air start, yes I would love to be able to manually define the altitude for an aircraft to start. I'm hoping to eventually be able to generate several "sets" of traffic: airport to airport, air spawn to airport to air despawn (for the big heavies that only have the option of landing/departing at KLAS) and overhead transient traffic that is simply spawning in the air, and flying to a random trigger zone at cruise altitude and then despawning, creating the illusion of traffic cruising on the airways above NTTR. Hopefully that makes sense.

Watch the video Cibit posted. That's how I set troops up as well and it works for me on NTTR, but not in 1.5.7.

A few more questions after tonight's scripting session: 1) How should RAT respond to combining SetTakeoff("air") and SetMinDistance(100)? 2) When using SetTakeoff("air") is there a way to force them to spawn at a particular altitude? 3) Is RespawnAfterLanding() necessary when setting ContinueJourney? Will aircraft respawn in the exact parking spot they were last in? 4) Is there a proper order to write the various commands? My order so far has been roughly in the same sequence of events that the aircraft would experience in flight. 5) Say I want to have some 737s spawn in the air, and have others spawn cold at airports. Can I just simply declare two different locals using the same 737 from mission editor? For example: I'm having such a a blast learning this stuff. Cheers!

Missions are great so far! I haven't had this much fun in DCS in a long time, so thanks again for your great work. I think the biggest thing holding RAT back right now is the single runway use. If ED could resolve that and add more parking to KLAS, the possibilities would be absolutely incredible.

For NTTR we desperately need an SWA 737 as McCarren is one of their hubs.

How are you setting up the troops in ME? I have no problems embarking and disembarking in NTTR.

Thanks for the info! I hadn't thought of using commute, that will certainly work for my purposes. I'm simply making a Red Flag scenario and I want a moderate amount of air traffic flying in and out of Nellis, McCarren, and Tonopah to give the scenario a lively feel. Cheers!

I have a few questions after playing with RAT for a bit: 1) Let's say I want to use the same departure and destination airport. If I add a minimum distance, will RAT simply ignore it since the departure and destination are the same, or will it generate a random flight path to meet that minimum distance requirement? 2) What is the difference between SetClimbRate and Vclimb? The descriptions in the documentation are nearly the same, although I suspect SetClimbRate is supposed to be the climb rate, and Vclimb is supposed to be the climb speed. Are both of these functioning? If Vclimb works, I'm assuming the parameter it wants is desired airspeed in knots? I'm sure I'll have more questions as I test more. Absolutely loving the possibilities so far though, this is going to be a game changer for mission developers.

This couldn't have come at a better time! Winter is here in Colorado which means riding season is over and the CBR gets parked for a few months. I'm glad I'll have something to keep me busy until spring :)

Absolutely amazing work! Pairing this with RAT is going to be so much fun.

IIRC this was pretty extensively tested and it was determined that you CAN pick them back up, but only once they disengage (i.e. all bad guys are dead). Hopefully that gets changed soon, it would be great to be able to do hot LZ extractions.

Oh my....that's going to be lots of fun.

It's always good to get guys with real world experience on the team. Looking forward to the end result!

That's the default behavior from what I can tell. I haven't really played with it in the editor, but I think you could have a trigger zone in your intended LZ and set up a "group in zone" trigger to make them run somewhere. I'm far from a trigger expert though so someone else might be able to offer more specifics or a better solution.

Yep, that's the cabin pressure. It's in the same place in the Rhino, too.