Bahger

Thanks for such a definitive response, Speed. The only sim I've ever got it to work properly in was Tornado (of blessed memory) in which you could time TOTs so precisely in the ME that SEAD, CAS and runway interdiction could be synched to the second. it was an important part of that sim, as it is in real life, for the player to hit his TOTs so that he could feel that he was participating in a intricately fragged mission. This dimension has never been present in DCS and, as you say, if they cannot execute it properly for fighter ops in a fast-mover study sim, the feature will be conspicuous by its absence. Grimes, I took a look at my mission to see if I could implement TOT by compensating for delayed activation times. The problem is that the sim does not seem able to consider either late activation times nor cold startup/ taxi times when calculating airspeed. I have tried synchronising my two pairs of flights, SPRINGFIELD & ENFIELD and SPRINGFIELD AI & ENFIELD AI, to arrive at WP 1 at 08:48. Mission start time is 08:30. The AI flights are delayed 10 minutes to make up for the difference between how fast they cold-start vs. how long it takes the average player. With start times locked and ETA at WP1 set at 08:48 for each flight, human and AI, the problem is that the sim calculates an unflyable airspeed en route to WP1 because it does not take into account the start up and taxi. At least, this is my theory. it is also possible that the sim cannot compensate for the minute or so of delay in each flight gettting off the same runway and re-joining, so it's possible that the synchronisation could only work, if it can work at all, over a longer time and distance from mission start. I have attached the mission in case you are curious or reckon you can fix it without breaking a sweat. Don't go to undue trouble. Before I experiment with trying to synch the TOT at a more distant WP, I'd love to know (i) if there is indeed a TOT caret in the HUD to guide the DCS A-10C pilot to the right airspeed for the correct, calculated, TOT and (ii) whether it's even possible to achieve any of this. I'm not sure. It's not a mission-breaker. As Speed suggests, I can simply remind the player via a text output message, of his fragged time of takeoff but that begs another question; how can TOT calculations from takeoff possibly be made without bearing in mind target altitude and airspeed in a climb? If I climb out to 6000ft at 182kts IAS and then lower the nose to climb to 12,000ft at 200kts IAS, how can the AI possibly fly the same profile and therefore get to the WP at the same time (with small additions or reductions in airspeed to compensate for an earlier/later departure time from tha last WP? Apologies for the large file, there are custom sound files embedded in the .miz. Patrol by Force 23_TOT.miz

I've never managed to make this work. Perhaps it only works if you plot TOTs for each WP before you create the next? Anyway, I have two flights that I want to 'synchronise' by having them both hit WP 2 at the same time, even though one flight will have to fly faster (or the other one fly slower) because they cannot take off simultaneously from the same single-runway airfield. Complicating matters is the fact that there are really four flights in this scenario, as I have it set so that any client flight not chosen by the player will spawn as an AI flight with identical routes, tasking, etc. Complicating matters further is the fact that the mission requires a cold start for both client and AI flights. I do not understand why, every time I try and convert my flightplan without locked WP TOT times to one with at least one locked time, I get all sorts of red numbers, impossible airspeeds and error messages. If I cannot make this work, I can brief the player not to run too far ahead of the AI flight behind him, but I would rather create continuously computed TOTs that show up in his HUD. I don't want to start over just to get TOT WPs to work but I wonder what I'm doing wrong. I could never master this in the Falcon 4 AF ME either, alas.

The bigger the image you start with, the crisper it will be when you resize it for a DCS briefing graphic. I've done a lot of this. Work with an image that is basically square to start off with so that you don't find yourself drawing outside the borders, and as large as is practical. Use a great free program called Ifranview to resize it to 512 x 512.

This is very useful info, thanks for taking the time to post it here.

More like 3 days and 3 weeks. It's ok though.

I don't usually double-post but I'm linking this to my thread in the Bug forum, as it is very relevant to mission editing. And nobody ever seems to respond in the Bug forum.

Maybe I have to move them closer. Might not bother, the coords work.

Now I feel really stupid; I was forgetting to enter the inputted coordinates with OSB 16. Sorry to have wasted your time.

Oh, that's good to know. Makes sense. Do you think WP mark requires a vehicle too?

I had assumed that "Engage group" meant that the FAC unit itself engaged, which is usually suicide. My JTAC must have LOS or he would not call out the target coordinates; plus, I made sure he had LOS by seeing for myself in F7 mode. You may well be right about FAC "Engage group/Visible" but I wonder how this affects WP and why it's not working for me. JTAC has always been strange magic. EDIT: And even thoughthe "datalink" box is checked, the JTAC does not give me a red triangle, just a coordinate. I wonder what that's about...

I want my JTAC to mark a target with WP but, after saying he'll mark it, a few moments later in the JTAC procedure he says "No mark". Does anyone know what this is about?

I took a long break, now some things are easier to re-learn than others. In inputting UTM coordinates given to me by a JTAC, I can't seem to get it right. The JTAC gives me LN 745176. However, it seems to me that the UTM coordinates in the CDU for flightplan wps have more digits (2 groups of 4) after the two letters. When I enter the above coordinate it's always way wrong. I don't think it's about being in the wrong UTM zone. What am I missing?

Hmm, I don't think this function works for aircraft, just vehicles. makes sense, I guess, as an airplane might not hit a waypoint within the tolerance necessary to trigger the radio messages. Can anyone comment? I think I'm going to have to go back to trigger zones to output radio messages and/or text reliably.

That's a great idea. Even better, I have a mic-key sound file somewhere, I'll use that. Rather than make temp triggers for text messages that I will eventually replace with sound files, I figured I'd make the "final" triggers and insert text as placeholders. Using a waypoint trigger is much more precise and effortless than making a trigger zone.

Manu thanks for running it up the chain of command, Druid. Is there an ETA on an updated user manual for the ME?

This is a great addition but am I correct in my understanding that it's for sound files only? I wanted to use it as a placeholder by putting text in the "Subtitle" field before uploading the sound file but the text didn't show up in the mission when triggered. I'm assuming that's because only when I've uploaded a sound file will the associated text subtitle show up. No sound file, no text. Is this correct? Many thanks.

OK, well, first, thanks very much for taking a look and making cahanges, Quirk, if ever I meet you I'll owe you a beer (Druid and Grimes, too...) You were absolutely right, the "Invisibility" order does not toggle. If "Invisible" is part of any vehicle group's advanced waypoint orders, there appears to be no switching it off. This was why my Humvees did not engage and possibly why the Apaches were often passive, too. Here's where our solutions differ: I can't make the appearance of the escaping Insurgent convoy conditional on the Chinook arriving because it's a very important tactical aspect of the mission that the player controls and has to time the ingress of the airborne assault group optimally. If he orders it to take off too early, the A-10Cs will not have found and killed the air defences and the helos might get shot down before they can deploy the humvees (and, eventually, infantry.) If he orders it too late, the airborne group will not be in time to intercept the escaping convoy and, assuming the other units don't catch them either (they drive fast) a mission objective will be left undone. So, what I did was, following your advice, I eliminated all "Invisible" advanced waypoint orders and had the convoy spawn on the main road quite near the Chinook's LZ. However, I made the appearance of the Insurgent convoy a timed event tied to when Red suffers the first loss of a vehicle in the battle. This sets a seven-minute timer ticking, as the HVT in the convoy rushes to get his escape organised at the other end of town. Only if the airborne assault drops its Humvees at that end of town in time will the convoy get destroyed. There's a chance that the Hogs or Apaches will get it but that'll happen more often when testing with AI than when human pilots in the A-10Cs have about 45 seconds to spot, roll in, and kill all five vehicles. Making the Insurgent convoy spawn this way is less contrived, because it offers different possible outcomes based on the player's actions, and more realistic because it does not create an inevitable, set-piece battle with a preordained result between the Humvees and the vehicles. Thanks to your intel re. the borked invisibility toggle function, I've now got my Humvees to fight (although the TOW gunner never gets a shot off, maybe he has a really high minimum range.) The mission is going to be good. Here's the fixed WIP .miz, in case anyone is interested. Thanks again! Patrol by Force 13.miz

Look at these two tracks, towards the end. Not only do the Humvees passively get shwacked by the Insurgent convoy every time, but the assault helos are also strangely reluctant to take it on. Only the A-10s seem willing to attack these vehicles, the other units seem to have declared a cease-fire (suicidal in the case of the Hummers.) In the second track, even the Hogs do not go for the Insurgent vehicles, leaving them to destroy the Humvees, that simply won't fire at them. This is insane. Can anyone comment? Passive Humvees & helos Fail.trk Passive Humvees & helos Fail 02.trk

I'm having a very similar problem. AFAIK You cannot get a vehicle unit to attack a specific target, as you can with AI aircraft. This is very interesting: . I'm going to test that and will get back to you.

Thanks, Druid, maybe that way lies salvation. I have taken a very careful look at the advanced waypoint options for both groups but now I'll look again. If you do get the time to check it out, I'd be very grateful.

Ok, very frustrated, I thought I'd fixed this but the AI behavior varies enormously in the mission vs. in the test I made. I have attached two files: 1. The test .miz: This proves that a group of 3 Humvees will successfully attack a convoy of 3 unarmed Insurgent vehicles and their escort of 2 APCs. 2. The actual .miz: In this mission, over exactly the same terrain (therefore same LOS, ranges, distance between the groups, etc.) the Humvees just sit there and allow themselves to be lit up by the oncoming convoy. I am baffled. For anyone kind enough to take a look at the mission, please bear in mind the following: - Elect to play the mission as the C/O aircraft. You will not have to do any flying but this will activate both AI Hog client flights which will be occupied by players. - Switch to F10 view. - The confrontation takes place at the end of the mission, so ctrl-z ruthlessly BUT: - Make sure you order the Airborne assault to commence via the Radio menu/F10/F1 at 12:19:30, as this will give the A-10s enough time to get rid of enemy AD in their path. The Chinook will then land successfully as its Apache escorts patrol. - You will see the three Humvees spawn and take up a position south of the bridge. - Shortly after this, the semi-civilian Insurgent convoy drives out of the town towards that bridge. The Humvees will not act aggressively and they get mulched by the APCs. They won't even fire on the civilian vehicles. - Note that I have made the target convoy invisible until it gets almost in range of the Humvees. This is to prevent it from being hit from the air by over-competent AI; I want the humvees to kill the convoy to rewaed the player for getting the airborne assault in place on time to intercept it. This skirmish is the climax of my mission, which in other respects plays out really well. If I can't fix this I'll need to consider awful kludges like scripting the convoy to blow up if the Blue airborne Humvees are in place on time. I have tied "Fire at point" orders for the Humvees; no dice. I don't know what it is that is making them so passive in a fully populated mission when in the test .miz containing only the two vehicle groups they act with proper aggression. I realize I have asked a lot of you guys lately but this is my most ambitious, and potentially by far my best, mission. I've got the Airborne assault wiorking very well, I like the way the player has to give certain battlefield orders that require decent tactical SA on his part and the fight is pleasingly ferocious. It's going to have extensive custom radio comms files and will be playable in both SP and MP. However, if I can't fix this, I'm going to be very discouraged. Thank you! Humvee_test 03.miz Patrol by Force 12.miz

Ain't that the truth.

It turned out to be all about range and elevation. I had the two groups going head-to-head but a crest with steep fall-offs on both sides meant that they didn't spot each other until they were almost on top of each other. This meant that the TOWs were useless and the .50 cals on the Humvees could not tilt their gun elevation down sufficiently and/or quickly enough, giving the more heavily-armored BDRM-2s the first (and last) shot. This is why, in this specific situation, not a single Humvee got off a shot. At longer range it was a different story. Sometimes the BDRM-2s lit up a Hummer, but most of the time, the TOWs, which are very slow to reload, a problem that counts less at longer range, would take one APC out and the .50s would hose down the civ vehicles and the remaining APC. Now I know how to organise this in my .miz so that there is no danger of what might look like anomalous behavior when the Humvees cannot bring their guns to bear on a target that looms up at close range and the TOWs are well inside their minimum range.

Well it's close range but in some pretty hilly territory where LOS might be hard for the ME to calculate. Thanks, as always. I've adjusted the .miz and will post it here if it still won't work. Knowing you, you'll figure out something really dopey in my logic.

I have an Insurgent convoy that is a mixture of vehicles: 2x "civilian" VAZ-2109 sedans and 2x "Armor" ARV-BDRM 2s. I want a Blue Humvee group consisting of both TOW and Armament variants to open fire when they run into the Insurgent vehicles but they do not, even though other units, including AI Hogs, do. Insurgents are definitely classified as Red in this mission, not Neutral. I have tried giving the vehicles explicit ROE "Weapons Free" orders and looked to see if they might be unarmed but there's no loadout control over vehicles. I suppose I could change the target vehicles to a full-military convoy, i.e. no Civilian sedans but that would be a pity, as they contain an Insurgent warlord HVT and his family, who are travelling with an armed escort. Is there anything coded into vehicles that might make them not attack a convoy containing unarmed "Civilian" units when aircraft will?