Bahger

Yes, I've played Separatist Aggression several times with friends and in my old squadron; it's a classic, and is programmed with a lot of randomization, which keeps it fresh. I use randomization, too, but nothing too sophisticated. By "FC3 fighter jocks looking for easy A-10 kills" do you mean guys flying the F-15C? That would just be griefing. If they flying Red fighters, it's legitimate, no? The biggest challenge in both MP and SP mission making -- to me, anyway -- is to construct a realistic level of challenge. I do not like making, or flying, missions in which A-10s have to go up against a wall of SAMs. I'd much rather make my missions much more procedural and doctrinal and ensure there is both SEAD and HICAP cover for strikers and CAS flights. Not everyone wants to play like this; some people want to fly MP like a shooter.

Fair enough, Speed. The best flying is usually in squadron-based MP but I find I like to be able to do a little tactical aviation on my own time and without all the coordination. I haven't flown the Eagle since LOMAC but acquired FC3 because it's integrated into DCSW. The F-15C is ertainly sim-lite compared to the A-10C and Ka-50 but it can be fun to fly a mission in the weeds in an A-10C and then watch the AI fly that role while you provide high cover in the F-15. For the moment it scratches my itch for a NATO A2A platform until DCS's fast-mover arrives in all its button-pushing glory. I don't really know why, but I cannot develop much love for the Russian aircraft, or for helicopters vs. fixed-wing; respect, yes, love, not so much. As for Combined Arms, that will probably be my next module. I'm still not entirely clear about how good, successful or finished it is. I'd like to be able to insert proper maneuver doctrine into ground-force components of my missions and to enable the player to deploy troops in coordination with air. I'll have to figure out, just as I have using both the A-10C and FC3 modules, how missions built with CA elements will play for those people who don't have it. Can you advise?

I'm dipping a toe in mission making again after a long layoff. I really welcome the idea of mission-making in DCSW for flyable aircraft in different, mutually-supportive roles. My first experiments in creating a scenario in which the player can either fly CAP in an F-15C or CAS in an A-10C have been encouraging; the system works and even if you do not have the required modules, I have learned how to program the ME to substitute AI flights for those client flights not chosen by the player (an innovation enabled by the ability to designate flyable a/c as "Client" as well as "Player" in both SP and MP.) I'm wondering what the demand is, i.e. whether most of you have both A-10C and FC3, if you are more interested in SP vs MP and if you want PvP (i.e. humans flying both Red and Blue a/c) or PvsAI missions. My limitations are: I know more about Blue equipment and doctrine than Red and am more interested in playing/creating missions as NATO and the only flyables you're likely to find in my missions are the A-10C and the F-15C unless there is a demand for flyable red a/c in missions. Please respond to the poll and comment here when convenient. Thanks!

Thanks, grimes, as always. I will definitely try Enroute Task>Search and Engage in Zone, as this seems the most realistic, i.e. least scripted, option. I need the flight to orbit, as before but I assume I should delete the CAS-/?a-Ref orders from the unit's orders?

I have a flight of AI A-10Cs attacking a column of Russian armor that has made an incursion south of the Russia-Georgia border. I've placed a few Red EW radars north of the border because it's realistic and I want the player's RWR to light up with threat radars when he is in the area. However, the AI Hogs cross the border and hammer the EWRs, as well as a group of passive Russian aircraft I've placed on the ramp at Sochi-Adler. IRL, no flight would go off-mission and hit these targets, which pose no threat, especially when doing so requires the Blue flight to cross the Russian border into enemy territory, another tactical no-no. Is there any way to keep the AI on a leash? The A-10C flight has been given orders on ingress to strike a particular unit that has strayed south of the border and then holds in a CAS orbit. This is when it starts attacking the unbriefed targets. It's probably too ambitious to expect to be able to program the AI not to attack in certain areas or not to hit certain enemy objects that would be outside a mission's brief, i.e. to discriminate; perhaps this kind of behavior can only be expected in MP missions with no AI... I thought about making these objects "invisible" but that's a bit of a kludge. I also thought about using the Static Objects menu as opposed to the Vehicle menu to place these objects; does anyone know if that would influence the AI's behavior toward them? If the above is impossible, can anyone suggest how I might construct a dense radar-threat environment without having the AI go off-mission to hit the emitters? It would also be good if I could get SAM radars to paint Blue aircraft without launching missiles. It would be realistic in a quasi Cold War scenario and keep the player on his toes. Thanks!

I placed a few aircraft and helicopters on the ramp at a Russian air base with no flightplan and no orders. The intention was either to leave them there untasked or to give them tasking in a future version of this mission. The problem is that they take off and hover around without orders to move. How can I simply place them in their ramp positions but prevent them from going anywhere until I tell them? EDIT: NVM, got it, you check the "Uncontrolled" box.

Thanks, winz. It's a little disppointing that DCSW cannot detect the absence of a module and disable your choice of an aircraft from that module when you fly a mission with that aircraft in it. Offering you the choice when it's not an option -- even though most users will realise that they can't fly an F-15C without FC3 -- is not a very elegant front end presentation for missions designed in DCSW. The good news is that the triggers work very well, even if the initial user-interface choices are a little misleading.

Fries, check out this thread and after that it might be easier if I send you the WIP .miz so you can see the trigger code first-hand. PM me an email address if you want it. Adapated just a little, grimes' concept for spawning AI flights where the player does not choose that role works perfectly so far.

This looks great. Has anyone run it in DCSW? Asking because the readme says "Compatible with DCS A-10C 1.1.1.1."

Well wouldn't that defeat the object of the exercise? I'd be very pleasantly surprised if one could organise Client a/c into groups so that (i) you do not have to draw up the same flight plan four times for a four-ship flight (without even being able to "copy flightplan") and (ii) a human player flying by himself in MP could have the AI fly a Client aircraft from the same flight on his wing. Unless I am misunderstanding something, however -- and, as always, I doff my cap to Grimes in these matters -- I don't think the ME can offer this functionality; in fact I seem to remember Matt Wagner acknowledging that the engine just won't support Client groups or AI/Client flight sharing in MP.

I've yet to test in MP -- where there will be the usual runaround of having to create flightplans for individual Client a/c within the same flight/group because there is no Client group or flight structure in MP -- but I strongly suspect Weta43 is right. I have both the triggers he mentions above for all duplicate AI/Client roles. The AI flights are set to late activation so that the system has time to calculate whether the client slots connected by trigger are occupied or not. If they are not, the sim considers them non-existent and the AI flights spawn in. As Weta says, these are not the same a/c or flights looking for either AI or Client pilots, they are duplicate a/c or flights that, when they spawn, will always be flown by either AI or the player depending on which platform the player chooses at the beginning of the mission. I'll be using this method a lot in mission design, it's great.

Oh, whoops, sorry. winz, PM just sent.

Right. That's what I want, i.e. for the mission to be flyable for someone with A-10C only -- in the A-10C, obviously -- but for the AI F-15C flight to spawn in to perform the CAP mission that this player cannot. Just like if he had both modules but chose the A-10C. Does that make sense? What I want to avoid, is the mission "breaking", i.e. no AI F-15C CAP flight, if the player does not have FC3.

Did I mistakenly refer to it as the F-15E? Can't find where... No it's the flyable F-15C in FC3, and the mission is strictly A2A.

Thanks, winz, as soon as I escape my public-holiday family duties I will PM you. Fell free to PM me your email address than i can just send it over without bothering you. I like this mission. m it's my first after a long break from the sim but I know the ME well and welcome the ability to make multi-role missions for the player.

A slight disagreement here; interesting, I might have to ask someone with only one module to test the .miz. By selecting the aircraft listed in yellow, I am obviously making them flyable for those who own the modules. By programming the AI spawns correctly (thanks, as always, Grimes), the mission will spawn an identically-briefed and equipped AI flight for the Client flight not chosen. This is what makes me suspect that, if a player has the A-10C module but not does not have FC3 and plays this mission in DCSW, because he cannot select the playable F-15, he won't get the option to fly it but will spawn into the Hog and the AI F-15 flight will activate. Maybe that is wishful thinking. I will make an MP version of the .miz when I finish the SP and resolve this issue. It's great to be able to choose whether to fly CAS or CAP, in suitably equipped specialist aircraft, in one mission and then play it again in the other role.

I'm making a SP mission in DCSW for both a flyable A-10C and F-15C, i.e. I have selected yellow a/c from the drop-down list in the ME and made them "Client" flights. I have also placed AI flights that perform the same mission as the Client flights and coded it so that if you choose the F-15, the AI F-15 will not spawn but the A-10Cs will, and vice versa; it works very well. My question is: If you want to play this mission but you only have DCS A-10, say, and not FC3, will there still be an AI F-15 in the mission? In other words, of course you will not be able to fly the F-15 but will the AI version of that flight spawn and perform its mission as it would in the version of DCSW I have, with both modules? I hope so; it would be a pity to make missions in DCSW for two fyable a/c if the mission breaks for those who do not have both modules plugged in.

As far as I know, this has never been possible in DCS. Client flights have to be placed on the map as individual a/c; only AI can be deployed as flights. Only in SP, therefore, can the player fly with AI wingmen. It's a regrettable quirk of this sim family.

What is the idea of "Late Activation"? It's a new feature that I searched in the DCSW User Manual but came up blank. And is it still necessary to set a start time of 11 hours after mission start for a unit that you want to spawn in per condition?

If I want to test the mission with AI flying both client flights, will the sim allow that, or is the player required to fly one of the client a/c?

Thanks, Grimes. I hope I will reward your patience with fine missions.

Gents, I'm coming back to mission design now that I can put flyable FC3 aircraft in the ame scenario as the A-10C. I'd like to make a scenario with missions for both the F-15C and the A-10C. I need to figure out how to get the AI to fly the Hog flight's CAS mission should the player choose the Eagle flight's CAP sortie, and vice versa. I know this is about a small piece of code that enables an AI flight to spawn (and a client flight not to spawn) when the player chooses an alternative client. I can't quite get my head around how to do this and I'd rather know than spend hours experimenting. If it's possible to do in the ME UI rather than with lua, that would be even better, as lua programming is way above my pay-grade. My other (associated) question is: If I design this as an MP mission playable in SP, should I designate the flyable aircraft "Player" or "Client" And in MP how can I get around the fact that I need to plot a separate a/c and flight plan for every single potential player-flown aircraft? Apologies if I'm repeating myself. I think grimes may have answered this some time ago but I cannot find the thread. Mea culpa.

Thanks!

I flew a coop MP mission in FC3 with a buddy today, 2 F-15s vs 2 AI but could not find any "save track" function in the debrief. Is there one? Or should I rely on Tacview for AAR data? Thanks!

What time zone are you in 8thkill?