Help making my first mission- where to start?

[Hoggorm]

Hi,

 

I would like to try and make a mission. The idea is as follows:

 

A two player mission where one player is flying the A-10C and following a route from one airport to another. Along that route the other person will man various CA Anti Air units like Shilka, Tunguska, Strela, MANPAD and other playable CA AA units.

 

The mission for the CA player is to shoot down the aircraft, while the mission of the A-10 pilot is obviously to avoid being shot down and reach the end of the route safely. This is supposed to be a training mission for both players.

 

The idea is to place long range radar SAMs in the edges of the route of the aircraft and thereby forcing the A-10 pilot down low. I understand such long range radar SAMs is not playable in CA?

 

What I guess could be good to know to be able to make such a mission is among other things:

 

- How do I add a flyable A-10C and make a route for it?

- How do I add CA controllable AA along that route?

- Can I put the controllable AA into a "non-firing state"? This so that they do not fire unless controlled by the player?

- How do I add radar SAMs to the mission? I understand these need both radar and a missile system? They should be able to fire automatically

- Is it possible to randomize if a specific AA unit is placed or not at the beginning of the mission? This so that the A-10 pilot do not know where the AA units is every time the mission is played. One time there is a Shilka to the left of the route, next time there is a Tunguska at the right and so on.

- Anything else you see that I could benefit from knowing.

 

I appreciate all the help I can get in this.

 

Thank you very much!

[Exorcet]

I've been thinking of making a video tutorial on the ME, but that obviously won't be ready in time to be of use in this thread. So instead I'll just list quick answers.

 

Note that the most basic things are covered in the DCSW manual (like adding units and routes)

 

- To add a unit look at the left side toolbar, select the unit type by icon (plane, ship, etc) than click it on the map. When on the map you can change country, unit type, AI setting, etc

 

-There is an option on the left side toolbar for ground commanders or something. There you can add the ability for players to control ground units

 

-The AI can be set to have AI off via trigger, or set to alarm state green, or set to rules of engagement hold fire, or set to reaction to enemy: no reaction in their advanced options. Any of these should prevent them from shooting

 

-To add a SAM unit just add all the units associated with that SAM in the unit list to the same group

 

-To randomize units, use flag(s) as triggers at the start of the mission. Add more units than you want to have in the mission, but only activate some based on the value of the flag

[DarkFire]

To add to the very useful comments Exorcet makes above:

 

1. When you place an aircraft, if you look at the "skill" drop-down list on the right hand pane, one of the options will be "client." Client means that the aircraft can be flown by the player.

 

2. For ground vehicles (including fixed SAM emplacements) again when you click on the unit one of the check boxes shown on the right hand pane is titled something like "player can drive." This has the same effect as the "client" setting does for aircraft: it means that the ground unit in question can be 'occupied' by and used by a player.

 

3. To enable ground units to be used by a player with Combined Arms, I think, though not totally sure, that the Red team (I'm guessing your A-10 player will be Blue team) must have at least one "battlefield commander." In the mission editor, if you look at the left hand tool bar, two spaces up from the green "fly this mission" tick you'll see an icon that looks like a pair of flags flying in opposite directions. Click that and it'll bring up the battlefield commander screen. You'll have to tick the "pilot can control vehicles" button and assign one battlefield commander to the red team. If the blue team only consists of 1 x A-10 then the blue team won't need a battlefield commander.

 

4. To place a ground unit in a non-firing state, click on it. At the bottom of the right hand pane you'll see a button called "Advanced (Waypoint Actions)". Click on it. Before doing anything else, above this button is another button labelled "Edit." This means that you want to edit the current waypoint rather than add a new one or delete the current one. Forgetting to change to waypoint edit mode rather than add new waypoint can get really annoying. Anyway, now that you're editing the current waypoint, under the "Advanced waypoint actions" button is an empty box, beneath which are a series of 5 buttons. Click the "add" button to add a new advanced action for that waypoint. This brings up a second pane on the right hand side. At the top is a pull-down menu titled "Type." This will probably default to "Set Option." If not, chose that. The pull-down menu beneath it (titled "Action") contains an item called ROE (Rules Of Engagement). Chose that. Now a new pull-down menu will appear at the bottom on which you can chose to make that ground unit go weapons-free, return fire or weapons hold. Note that you can assign multiple advanced actions per waypoint. The AI usually executes them in order of creation, i.e. top-to-bottom on the list of advanced waypoint actions. Once you're happy with the action(s) for that waypoint click on the "add" above the Advanced waypoint actions button to change from editing the current waypoint to being able to add the next waypoint. Even if a unit has only one waypoint, i.e. a start waypoint, you can still add advanced waypoint actions for it.

 

Note that many advanced waypoint actions can have start and stop conditions attached to them. I'm sure that you can imagine how powerful this can be: you could have a trigger zone that sets a flag so that a player aircraft is surprised by a SAM unit turning on right in front of them etc.

 

5. As far as randomizing the existence of unit is concerned, there is a way to do it, of that I'm certain as I've seen it in many missions, but I'm not entirely sure how to do it.

 

Hope this helps...

Edited February 9, 2015 by DarkFire

[Hoggorm]

Thank you both for helpful advice!

 

I've started with my mission ever so slowly. Some new questions arise:

 

To add a SAM unit just add all the units associated with that SAM in the unit list to the same group

 

Does this mean that if I want to add a Kub site, I must add both

 

SAM SA-6 Kub LN 2P25

and

SAM SA-6 Kub STR 9S91

 

and for a Buk site:

 

SAM SA-11 Buk CC

SAM SA-11 Buk LN

SAM SA-11 Buk SR

 

I guess one is a radar, launcer and a comand centre perhaps?

 

I tried to add some AI choppers just for some eyecandy really. I set all WP altitudes to be 200 ft, however they climb to well above 1500 ft. What is the reason for this?

 

Thanks again

[FSFIan]

I tried to add some AI choppers just for some eyecandy really. I set all WP altitudes to be 200 ft, however they climb to well above 1500 ft. What is the reason for this?

 

Thanks again

 

IIRC all the altitudes in the editor are in meters (and speeds in km/h). Although 200 m equal 657 ft, so maybe there is some confusion about altitude MSL vs altitude above ground level involved as well.

[Hoggorm]

Ian;2314242']IIRC all the altitudes in the editor are in meters (and speeds in km/h). Although 200 m equal 657 ft' date=' so maybe there is some confusion about altitude MSL vs altitude above ground level involved as well.[/quote']

 

I see. It sais Altitude feet and knots. I also have selected AGL, Above Ground Level instead of MSL.

[FSFIan]

I may have confused "altitude in the editor" with "altitude in the mission file format".

 

If you have set the helicopters to 200 ft AGL and they climb to more than 1500 ft, are you sure the "above 1500 ft" figure is given in AGL as well and not in MSL?

[Belgeode]

Thank you both for helpful advice!

 

I've started with my mission ever so slowly. Some new questions arise:

 

 

 

Does this mean that if I want to add a Kub site, I must add both

 

SAM SA-6 Kub LN 2P25

and

SAM SA-6 Kub STR 9S91

 

and for a Buk site:

 

SAM SA-11 Buk CC

SAM SA-11 Buk LN

SAM SA-11 Buk SR

 

I guess one is a radar, launcer and a comand centre perhaps?

 

I tried to add some AI choppers just for some eyecandy really. I set all WP altitudes to be 200 ft, however they climb to well above 1500 ft. What is the reason for this?

 

Thanks again

 

Absolutely correct on your assumption of what the SAM units are. If you look at the last two letters of the SAM SA-11 it tells you what they are too. LN is the launcher, CC is the command and control, SR is the radar.

 

 

As for your AI choppers. That is odd but I am gonna stab at why that may be happening. Check to make sure you are entering in feet and not meters. If you have a mismatch in what you are entering it can be frustrating. I had set my main game options to imperial, and was trying to keep my helos below 200 feet... well lo and behold I was actually entering meters. 200 meters is a LOT more height than 200 feet.

[Hoggorm]

Thank you very much for all help.

 

It appears as the choppers fly the correct altitude after the first WP.

[Hoggorm]

I have two more questions for you guys :)

 

I'd like to try adding a couple of triggers:

 

1 - How do I add a trigger that will give a specific message to the pilot of an A-10C when he flies over a specific area?

 

2 - Can I also give another message to the enemy side when the A-10 flies in the same area?

 

For example: When the A-10 flies over its WP 2 a message is given to the blue side: "Cleared hot" The red side will get another message: "Attack is imminent"

 

3 - How do I add a text message to both sides when a specific target is destroyed?

 

Is this possible at all?

[mwd2]

Place a Triggerzone over WP2 (big enough, that you will not miss it)

 

Trigger Action

Once() // Unit inside Zone(A-10C, Zonename) // Message to Group (A-10C, Cleared hot) && Message to Coalition (Red, Attack is imminent)

 

Once() // Group Dead(Target_One)//Message to all (Target One destroyed.)

[Hoggorm]

Place a Triggerzone over WP2 (big enough, that you will not miss it)

 

Trigger Action

Once() // Unit inside Zone(A-10C, Zonename) // Message to Group (A-10C, Cleared hot) && Message to Coalition (Red, Attack is imminent)

 

Once() // Group Dead(Target_One)//Message to all (Target One destroyed.)

 

I just tried this, but no message was received when flying the A-10. Is the trigger zone also an altitude or is it a cone extending all the way up to space?

 

I might have the first trigger wrong:

 

1 ONCE (Test trigger, NO EVENT)

 

No event is perhaps wrong? What should I change it to?

[mwd2]

NO EVENT are additional options for activate the event - no need for activeate message.

 

Unit inside Zone(A-10C, Zonename)

Have you named your A-10C Unit & Triggerzone proper? - the altitude have no input.

 

Maybe change Message to Group to Message to Coalition

 

Post the mission file.

Message_Test.miz

Edited February 10, 2015 by mwd2

[Hoggorm]

Thank you mwd2. By looking at your mission file I was able to solve the problem. The only thing I changed was that the name of the unit that was supposed to be inside the trigger zone.

[Belgeode]

Thank you mwd2. By looking at your mission file I was able to solve the problem. The only thing I changed was that the name of the unit that was supposed to be inside the trigger zone.

 

Yeah that is a common error to make, that or putting the wrong zone in. I am a stickler for naming stuff specifically according to where they are, what they do, etc. Otherwise confusion sets in.