Squadron ATO mission: MP co-op 12

EDIT: 8/16/2011:

SEE THIS POST FOR MISSION AND INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1273838&postcount=12

Well, after the urging of some people that flew it, I decided to post on here the a fairly simple mission (only took me like six hours to build) I made for the 16th ACCW friday flight night. It utilizes the chatIOlibv1 script I made and released to take input through the chat screen. There are three flights, Boar, Hawg, and Tusk. Type in something like, "DARKSTAR, BOAR, REQUEST TASKING" and you will get your mission tasking!

Additionally, later, you get to clear in a B-52 strike. Anyone can say, "BUFF1, CLEARED HOT", and he will start his attack run.

Oh and 16th Mojeaux did some of the airbase template work here.

Anyway, I think this is definately a good, quick, fun mission, but not really one you would fly more than half a dozen times. The tasks are not randomized, so after you do all the tasks for each flight, you've pretty much seen the whole thing.

This mission is a great demonstration of the power of the chatIOlibv1. You get the current coordinates of MOVING targets, not just a set of three coordinates that you have to search between. Additionally, ANYONE can call in the B-52 carpet-bombing strike by saying, BUFF1, CLEARED HOT as a chat message, not just the host.

Oh and finally, this isn't a "forever mission"- you take off with enough gas and ordinance (assuming you have at least one wingman!) to get the job done.

Anyway, here's the briefing and the mission, in day form. Feel free to change it to night if you wish.

ATO for 4/1/2011

Georgian separatist rebels, aided by Russia, have captured western Georgia and are building up forces around Kutaisi. Engage targets as tasked by Darkstar.

Tasking Instructions:

To receive tasking from Darkstar, use the "tab" key on the keyboard to chat. Say these EXACT phrases with this EXACT same punctuation.

Boar flight, say:

DARKSTAR, BOAR, REQUEST TASKING

Hawg flight, say:

DARKSTAR, HAWG, REQUEST TASKING

Tusk flight, say:

DARKSTAR, TUSK, REQUEST TASKING

Later, when it comes time to call in the B-52 strike, anyone can say:

BUFF1, CLEARED HOT

WEAPONS AND TACTICS:

Default load out:

6X AGM-65D

2X GBU-12

2X GBU-38

2X CBU-97

1X TGP

1X ALQ-131

100% Fuel

Combat Mix 30mm

120 Chaff 180 Flares

This should be more than adequate.

The enemy is in possession of many MANPADs and some IR SHORAD, so ingress and egress from targets at high altitude- around angels 20. Descending below angels 15 to attack a target is only advisable after all air defense threats at the target have been eliminated.

Radio frequencies:

Guard:

225 MHz UHF (Set switch to MNL, not PRE!)

Boar Flight Comms:

31 MHz VHF FM

Hawg Flight Comms:

32 MHz VHF FM

Tusk Flight Comms:

33 MHz VHF FM

VHF AM Radio: Set to your airbase's tower frequency (see below)

DATALINK IDs:

Boar: Group 1

Hawg: Group 2

Tusk: Group 3

DIVERT AND EMERGENCY FIELD:

Tbilisi-Lochini due to longer runway and backup taxiway-runway.

AIRBASE DATA AND FREQUENCIES:

UGTB Tbilisi-Lochini (Tusk flight)

Runway: 13-31, 3000m

ILS:

Rnwy 13: 110.3

Rnwy 31: 108.9

Tower: 138.0

UG24 Soganlug (Hawg flight)

Runway: 14-32, 2400m

Tower: 139.0

UG27 Vaziani (Boar flight)

Runway: 14-32, 2500m

TACAN: 22X (VAS)

ILS: 108.75

Tower: 140.0

Nice one, will check this out later.

Just for your info, IRL

Civil Airfields use VHF AM freq's

Military and Air to Air use UHF AM

The army i.e. FACs use VHF FM

Guard on VHF AM is 121.5

Guard on UHF AM is 243.0

Doesn't matter too much at the end of the day as long as its in the brief but it would be nice (and easier for me, selfish I know) if mission designers stuck to a template and the easiest one is obviously .. reality.

Especially like the work you've done with chatIOlibv1. I wonder if future patches will be more MP friendly with regard to triggers?

p.s. Where's that list of lua functions you were going to post Speed?

Nice one, will check this out later.

 

Just for your info, IRL

 

Civil Airfields use VHF AM freq's

Military and Air to Air use UHF AM

The army i.e. FACs use VHF FM

 

Guard on VHF AM is 121.5

Guard on UHF AM is 243.0

 

Doesn't matter too much at the end of the day as long as its in the brief but it would be nice (and easier for me, selfish I know) if mission designers stuck to a template and the easiest one is obviously .. reality.

 

Especially like the work you've done with chatIOlibv1. I wonder if future patches will be more MP friendly with regard to triggers?

p.s. Where's that list of lua functions you were going to post Speed?

See, that's the kind of info I need :)

The list of lua functions is on my hard drive... still in a WIP form. I've been focusing my efforts on missions and releasing chatIOlibv1 recently... the list of lua functions could be next... you really are interested? Here is what I have so far. This is not a complete list at all, for example, I don't have any of the incredibly powerful functions listed for the Controller class. Or the powerful functions Coords.LOtoMGRS and Coords.LOtoLL. Lol and, trigger.setUserFlag is also missing. There could be errors in this... a lot of errors. But this is what my WIP lua scripting guide looks like ATM:

Note on convention:

Anything inside [ ] in the function description indicates the variable type. Anything inside < > indicates a variable. Example, [string]<name> indicates a variable I am calling <name> that has a variable type of string; [unit]<unit> indicates a variable I am calling <unit> that is of type Unit.

Unit:

Unit.getByName( [string]<name>)

Returns the Unit with name <name>. Returns nil if the unit with name <name> does not exist.

Example:

playerunit = Unit.getByName(‘playeraircraft’)

Unit.isExist( [unit] <unit>)

or

[unit]<unit>:isExist()

Returns true if the unit exists, returns false if the unit doesn’t (alive or not yet activated units count as “existing”, dead units or deactivated units count as non-existing). Input parameter is a Unit.

Example:

playerunit = Unit.getByName(‘playeraircraft’)

playerunitdead = Unit.isExist(playerunit)

OR

playerunit = Unit.getByName(‘playeraircraft’)

playerunitdead = playerunit:isExist()

Unit.getVelocity([unit]<unit>)

[unit]<unit>:getVelocity()

Returns a table containing the x (north), y (altitude), and z (east) velocity in meters per second. NOTE THAT THIS TABLE DIFFERS FROM THE MISSION EDITOR’S POSITION TABLE IN WHICH x AND y ARE THE NORTH AND EAST COORDINATES!

Such as:

{ x = <number>, y = <number>, z = <number> }

Example:

if playerunit:isExist() then

velocity = playerunit:getVelocity()

Northvel = velocity.x

AltVel = velocity.y

EastVel = velocity.z

end

Unit.getController( [unit]<unit>)

[unit]<unit>:getController()

Returns that Controller class object for that unit. See the Controller section for explanation of the controller object.

Object:

Object class replaces the Weapon class from beta. I’m not sure yet what all things include objects, but I do know that Unit class objects inherit Object class functions! I.E.: Any functions for Object should also work with Unit!

Object.getPosition( [Object]<object>)

[Object]<object>:getPosition()

Returns a table of FOUR tables concerning an object’s position. These tables are x, y, z, and p. The “p” table is the x,y,z map coordinates of the target, in Lock On (LO) format. The x, y, and z tables deal with things such as unit heading.

Example:

if unit1 ~= nil then

if unit1:isExist() then

unit1posit = unit1:getPosition().p

unit1Ncoord = unit1posit.x

unit1Ecoord = unit1posit.z

unit1Alt = unit1posit.y

end

end

view.GetCamObject()

Returns the object/unit that the host or single player is looking at.

timer.getTime()

Returns the time since the beginning of the mission, in seconds.

timer.getTime0()

returns the world time when the mission began, in seconds. Example, 12:00 = 12*3600 =43200.

Example:

currentmissiontime = timer.getTime() + timer.getTime0()

World.schedule_do_string([string]<lua code>, [number]<time>)

This is a very powerful function. After running this function, at <time> since mission start, the game will attempt to execute the lua code in <lua code>. NOTE! This can be tricky to use. You have to make <string> look exactly like how you would type it into your text editor. The lua long string defined by double braces ( [[ ]] ) can be very useful here. For example,

World.schedule_do_string(‘playerposit = Unit.getByName(‘player’):getPosition()’, timer.getTime() + 60) WILL NOT WORK!! This is because there are two strings in the above code. Use something like this instead:

World.schedule_do_string([[playerposit = Unit.getByName(‘player’):getPosition()]], timer.getTime() + 60)

With this example, the string:

playerposit = Unit.getByName(‘player’):getPosition() will run at the current time + 60 seconds.

dispatcher:

dispatcher.exit()

Closes the 3D world; causes a “DCS has stopped working” in multiplayer, but it is a legitimate closure of the game.

dispatcher.load

Loads a mission, I believe. I’ve never used it.

Look forward to hosting this thanks:thumbup:

Need more time to look at your LUA shniz

Also linkage to any discussions RE chatIOlibv1

TY Cib

Nice one speed. As I'm so rubbish at searching for this info and MP is still being patched I shall wait until the finished version of your lua guide. You have a nice way of explaining the functions to an old and rusty programmer too. Cheers.

Look forward to hosting this thanks:thumbup:

 

Need more time to look at your LUA shniz

 

Also linkage to any discussions RE chatIOlibv1

 

TY Cib

Ok, I editted my sig line, you can get it there. I have a readme. I can make a youtube as well if necessary.

Played your mission lastnight. We loved it. I did have to change some of the boar1 to client and I think boar 3 and 4 the time had day 240 set so clients couldnt fly them. I just changed it to 0 and it worked fine.

Today I might try to add some more tasking

edit:

We also noticed lastnight some vehicles were spawning destroyed. They were mostly SAMs.

Played your mission lastnight. We loved it. I did have to change some of the boar1 to client and I think boar 3 and 4 the time had day 240 set so clients couldnt fly them. I just changed it to 0 and it worked fine.

Huh? I'm pretty sure we've tried every aircraft and they all worked. But I did just notice that for some reason, start time for Boar 3 and 4 was set to day 15. How could that have happened? But I swear we tried those too and they worked. Odd. But thanks for pointing that out! I'll change them to day zero and re-upload when I get a chance

Boar 1, however, is supposed to be Player, and not Client. Players are treated as Clients in multiplayer. You include a Player in a multiplayer mission so that it is actually possible to use external views when testing in single player. If you do not have a player aircraft, you cannot use external views to view the position of placed ground units and structures when you fire it up in single player.

Today I might try to add some more tasking

You'll have to add chatmsg_groupMGRS or chatmsg_repeat calls to "scriptman", and then change the triggers that support them.

edit:

We also noticed lastnight some vehicles were spawning destroyed. They were mostly SAMs.

That is intentional. A-10s are supposed to operate with SEAD coverage killing most of the SAMs.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback, and I'll change the boar 3 and boar 4 to start time of day zero (they are day 15 on mine) and reupload. I know for a fact we had folks flying in boar 3 and boar 4 so either their isn't a problem with that, there is a problem with some folks, or there is a problem with everyone and somehow their start time got changed from day 0 to day 15 between the last time we flew in those aircraft and when I uploaded the mission.

Great!

I like the idea of destroyed SAMs. Like you said we are not SEAD. I gotta look to see how you did that. I thought it might of been a bug. Sorry

Player aircraft I have a question about. On my missions I always use a player aircraft for testing but I change it to client for mulitplayer. Are you saying I dont need to do that and guys can join that plane if its set to player?

Thank you very much for releasing this to the public. You made the triggers and groups very easy to read. It will be very valuable when I use your script package in my next mission. (I was waiting for patch) Now I can do some editing to this mission and get familiar how it all works. Actually looks pretty simple.

Yeah we tried this last night and some issues with players getting a plane stopped us in our tracks, will try the above fix. Cannot wait to call in the big boy:)

Yeah we tried this last night and some issues with players getting a plane stopped us in our tracks, will try the above fix. Cannot wait to call in the big boy:)

Right, did you only have the issue with Boar 3 and 4? If so, the other 10 planes had no problem with start time, so you shouldn't have had an issue with them. Just because Boar flight is first on the list doesn't mean you're supposed to fly that one first, the list is just in alphabetical order ;) In fact, you can even mix-and-match. You could be Tusk and request tasking for Hawg or Boar.

Anyway, I forgot to upload it last night, so I just uploaded the fixed version so Boar 3 and 4 should be flyable again. I still haven't a clue when or how that change occured to day 15 start time :huh:. I have no memory of changing it, and I also have no reason why I would ever change it in the first place. It's just odd.

A working, 1.1.0.9 version of this mission now exists (DO NOT EDIT IT IN THE MISSION EDITOR!):

http://forums.eagle.ru/attachment.php?attachmentid=55298&stc=1&d=1313525054

A SERVER-SIDE ONLY MOD MUST BE INSTALLED TO RUN THIS MISSION!!:

"slmodbeta2" (NOTE: The old slmodbeta1 WILL NOT WORK with this mission!!!).

INSTALLATION:

Modman Package:

http://forums.eagle.ru/attachment.php?attachmentid=55303&stc=1&d=1313528591

OR

Manual installation instructions:

1) Download these two files:

http://forums.eagle.ru/attachment.php?attachmentid=55295&d=1313524301

http://forums.eagle.ru/attachment.php?attachmentid=55296&d=1313524301

2) Rename "server.lua" to "server_original.lua" in C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS A-10C\Scripts\net (NOT C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS A-10C\Scripts!!!!). Next, just drop these two files into that same directory, C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS A-10C\Scripts\net. You're done.

NOTE: Not yet compatible with Servman. I will create Servman compatibility once I have completed all the guides on how to use this mod- which yes, I have begun working on.

Squad_ATO_v1_2_1109.miz