How to... save specific flag values between MP missions?

[609_Relentov]

I've been trying to get a feel for Lua scripting in DCS, but I think I'm still a ways off. I'm trying to start small, then go from there - in this case what if I want to save the value of a set of flags from one mission and use them in a subsequent mission? Do I need to use Lua tables for that? Or can I just save flags/variables?

 

Basically here's the scenario:

 

MP Mission one - a small set of objectives are either met or not met; lets say 3 flags representing objectives achieved/failed are individually either 1 (true) or 0 (false). I'd like to save the state of those flags in a file (e.g. using io.open(..) for writing, then write/close the file, etc.).

 

MP Mission two - Read the file saved from mission one (e.g. using io.input(..), etc.) - based on the flag values, spawn specific groups of units to make the campaign flow semi-dynamic. At the end of MP mission two, write out another file, etc.

 

What's the best way to script this? At this point, any suggestions are appreciated.

 

Thanks!

Relent

Edited April 2, 2015 by 609_Relentov

[xcom]

For your needs, I would use the loadfile shown in MBot's DC Guardians script.

 

Save the flags by exporting a table to a file:

local function TableSerialization(t, i)													--function to turn a table into a string (works to transmutate strings, numbers and sub-tables)
	local text = "{\n"
	local tab = ""
	for n = 1, i + 1 do																	--controls the indent for the current text line
		tab = tab .. "\t"
	end
	for k,v in pairs(t) do
		if type(k) == "string" then
			text = text .. tab .. k .. " = "
			if type(v) == "string" then
				text = text .. "'" .. v .. "',\n"
			elseif type(v) == "number" then
				text = text .. v .. ",\n"
			elseif type(v) == "table" then
				text = text .. TableSerialization(v, i + 1)
			end
		elseif type(k) == "number" then
			text = text .. tab .. "[" .. k .. "] = "
			if type(v) == "string" then
				text = text .. "'" .. v .. "',\n"
			elseif type(v) == "number" then
				text = text .. v .. ",\n"
			elseif type(v) == "table" then
				text = text .. TableSerialization(v, i + 1)
			end	
		end
	end
	tab = ""
	for n = 1, i do																		--indent for closing bracket is one less then previous text line
		tab = tab .. "\t"
	end
	if i == 0 then
		text = text .. tab .. "}\n"														--the last bracket should not be followed by an comma
	else
		text = text .. tab .. "},\n"													--all brackets with indent higher than 0 are followed by a comma
	end
	return text
end


local exportData = "local t = " .. TableSerialization(MDC_data, 0) .. "return t"				--The second argument is the indent for the initial code line (which is zero)
	exportFile = io.open("MDC_campaign_results.lua", "w")
	exportFile:write(exportData)
	exportFile:close()

 

 

 

Load the saved file and run a loop to activate the names as flags:

local LoadCampaignData = loadfile("MDC_campaign_results.lua")

[609_Relentov]

Thanks for the suggestions Xcom - so it seems tables are used for everything data-wise with DCS/Lua scripting. These look like hash tables - ill try these suggestions and see how far I get..

 

Thanks again!

Relent