Mission design & AI question.

[DarkFire]

It's been a couple of years since I last seriously played DCS. I wrote a small number of missions and combined them in to a SP campaign. Now that I've got a nice shiny new box that's capable of running all the DCS games (very pleased to see a FC3 - thanks ED!) I was thinking of porting my old FC2 campaign in to FC3.

 

I remember that when DCS-A10 appeared that the AI for route following and a number of other things changed significantly. Does FC3 use the old FC2 AI or does it use the newer version? I.e. if I directly ported my old FC2 campaign in to FC3 would it work or would it require significant re-writing?

 

Thanks

[Exorcet]

Everything in integrated into DCS World now. You can't play FC3, etc without DCSW (which is free). As FC3 is a DCSW module, it uses all the new settings.

 

I haven't tried converting FC2 missions to FC3, but I think it is possible. You may have to do some adjusting.

[cichlidfan]

My guess is that there have been so many changes to the mission editor that, short of rebuilding the mission from scratch, there is little likelihood of your missions, from FC2, working.

[DarkFire]

That's pretty much what I expected.

 

Thanks for the info. Looks like I have some learning to do...

[Grimes]

You should be able to open your mission files from FC2 and re-save it. All of the units, triggers, etc should be fine. However the AI tasking has changed dramatically with DCS World. So you will need to go in an make sure all of the waypoint tasking is setup however you want it to be.

[SDsc0rch]

tell us how you fare, DF

: )

[DarkFire]

I started playing around with things and it appears that the AI has indeed radically changed. Other than stuff starting where it ought to... Not very much worked as intended. This is where I'll have to dig out my physical copy of the A-10C manual to read all about AI intents & actions on waypoints. Lots of very nice new stuff in the editor!

 

Does anyone know of any on-line resources to help with FC-3 mission design? I know the basics of misison design but the new AI and waypoint system isn;t familiar to me.

 

Thanks again...

[Grimes]

With your install folder there is a doc folder. For instance the path might be: X:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Doc

 

Open the DCS User Manual.pdf and pages 110 to 203 are all about the new tasking system. A fair amount of data is repeated though as some of the tasking applies to aircraft, helicopters, ships, and ground vehicles, but each of those are listed in their own section.

 

Aside from that just ask away on the forums, there are plenty of people who can answer a ton of different questions.

[HiJack]

Learning how to search this forum is also a must as all have a tendency to be explained several times :music_whistling:

[HiJack]

You should be able to open your mission files from FC2 and re-save it. All of the units, triggers, etc should be fine. However the AI tasking has changed dramatically with DCS World. So you will need to go in an make sure all of the waypoint tasking is setup however you want it to be.

I tried that but ended up with units that were impossible to kill and other strange behaviours. It is quite a while since I tested this so I may have a new go if things now work better? Have you done this lately Grimes? Anyway there still will be quite a bit of work on old FC2 missions to get everything working good I think. :)

[DarkFire]

With your install folder there is a doc folder. For instance the path might be: X:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Doc

 

Open the DCS User Manual.pdf and pages 110 to 203 are all about the new tasking system. A fair amount of data is repeated though as some of the tasking applies to aircraft, helicopters, ships, and ground vehicles, but each of those are listed in their own section.

 

Aside from that just ask away on the forums, there are plenty of people who can answer a ton of different questions.

 

Thanks, I've found the manual now. Lots of work for me to do to port my missions but I'm very much liking how versatile the AI is now compared to the old version. Excellent!

 

Learning how to search this forum is also a must as all have a tendency to be explained several times :music_whistling:

 

Ah yes, I forgot rule #1 of well established forums: search is your friend :music_whistling:

 

One more question: in campaigns is it considered to be bad form to force the player to fly different types of aircraft in consecutive missions? My old FC2 campaign had 'fighter' missions interspersed with missions for the SU-25T. Would this be acceptable as a campaign or would it be better to publish the missions individually so that players could only do missions for each type (principally the SU-27 and SU-25T) if they so wish?

 

Thanks for all the assistance :thumbup: