Creating Multi group templates

[Jacks]

Can I make a single template from multiple groups?

 

I have created a FOB using mainly single unit groups. Can I combine these into one group or create a single template to move the FOB around the map?

 

Please say yes because if not I have just wasted over 10 hours of my life.

 

Please below for pics of the FOB which is 90% complete and is pretty much all infantry, armour or fortification units. All I have left to do is add the barbed wiring, guards and a few more vehs and it is done.

 

 

Jacks

Edited August 26, 2015 by Jacks

[Roadrunner]

nice work mate, realy looking good ;)

 

as for your question, not that i know of, but others might answer that.

 

however, as the editor in the new engine will eventualy be able to show 3d objects in the editor (not the icon) on a satelite map, it will be much less timeconsuming to build something like this in the future, looking VERY forward to this as well ;)

 

regards,

RR

[DarkFire]

Very impressive, I can only imagine how long it took to get everything in place and aligned correctly :shocking:

 

Unfortunately I think the template facility that we have now only works with groups of "active" units, e.g. you can have several air defence units in a group, or possibly several armoured vehicles, but I don't think you can combine types of units with static objects.

 

Having said that, what you want to do is probably the same way that a FARP "object" works, so it must be possible in some way, unless the "FARP" item is a hard-coded arrangement.

[Jacks]

I am not too bothered about adding static objects to the group as the only static objects are the chinook and the 4 ISO containers.

 

Is there a way to move the models and entry.lua for static objects into another category say fortifications so they are seen as active units and can be added to groups?

 

In terms of alignment I had to enter and exit the game about 200-300 times making tiny adjustments in ME each time!

 

My main concern is just being able to group so many groups into one. I wondered if there was a away to change the script that ME generates for the mission and change the name for each unit to the same name so when I reopen mission editor it thinks it is all one group and so allows me to turn it all into one template.

 

Are there any programs that open the.miz file outside of DCS so you edit the script/code. What language are .miz files written in?

 

I am concerned that with the vehs in the one group, giving s command to one veh will command them all!

 

Jacks

Edited August 26, 2015 by Jacks

[FSFIan]

In terms of alignment I had to enter and exit the game about 200-300 times making tiny adjustments in ME each time!

 

I take it you have not heard of my DCS Witchcraft project then. It does not do much, and it doesn't do it very well, but it would have saved you some frustration. Take a look at 09:30 in the tutorial video.

 

(Note: AFAIK it still works with current versions of DCS, but I won't develop it further, because the Mission Editor in EDGE will have a proper solution to this problem.)

[Jacks]

I an that looks great! I will definitely use this if I have to rebuilt the fob from scratch. Hopefully I can edit the .miz file to greate a large group.

 

Jacks

[MagicBra]

You can be using a small lua script and mist. I did some to generate objectives on the fly in our missions.

 

The main script is here :

https://github.com/MagicBra/VEAF_mission_library/blob/master/scripts/veaf_library.lua

 

The function that may interest you are the "VEAF_generate_objetive_*"

 

Example :

function VEAF_generate_objective_warehouseSite(side, zoneName)
   
   local maxRadius = VEAF_get_zone_radius(zoneName)
   local zone = trigger.misc.getZone(zoneName)        
   local obj = {}
   local country = "Russia"
   
   if (string.lower(side) == "blue") then 
       country = "USA"
   end
   
   obj.name = "Depot_" .. math.random(0, 1000)
   obj.x = zone.point.x + math.random(-maxRadius, maxRadius)
   obj.y = zone.point.z + math.random(-maxRadius, maxRadius) 
   obj.country = country

   -- warehouse at the center of the coordinates.
   local warehouse = 
   {
       type = "Warehouse",
       country = obj.country, 
       category = "Warhouses", 
       x = obj.x,
       y = obj.y,
       name = obj.name .."_warhouse_" .. math.random(0, 100) , 
       heading = math.random() * 10,
       dead = false
   }

   local fueltank1 = 
   {
       type = "Tank",
       country = obj.country, 
       category = "Warhouses", 
       x = obj.x + math.random(30, 70),
       y = obj.y + math.random(-100, 100),
       name = obj.name .. "_tank_" .. math.random(0, 100) , 
       heading =  math.random() * 10,
       dead = false
   }

   local fueltank2 = 
   {
       type = "Tank 2",
       country = obj.country, 
       category = "Warhouses", 
       x = obj.x + math.random(-60, -40 ),
       y = obj.y + math.random(-100, 100),
       name = obj.name .. "_tank_" .. math.random(0, 100) , 
       heading = math.random() * 10,
       dead = false
   }

   local fueltank3 = 
   {
       type = "Tank 3",
       country = obj.country, 
       category = "Warhouses", 
       x = obj.x + math.random(60, 120 ),
       y = obj.y + math.random(-50, 50),
       name = obj.name .. "_tank_" .. math.random(0, 100) , 
       heading = math.random() * 10,
       dead = false
   }
   
   -- adding up to 4 silos to randomize a little
   siloNumber = math.random(0,4)
   
   for i=0,siloNumber do
   
       local dmpi = 
       {
           type = "Tank",
           country = obj.country, 
           category = "Warhouses", 
           x = obj.x + math.random(-100, -10),
           y = obj.y + math.random(-100, 100),
           name = obj.name .. "_tank_" .. math.random(0, 100) , 
           heading =  math.random() * 10,
           dead = false
       }
        mist.dynAddStatic(dmpi)
   end
   
   
   mist.dynAddStatic(warehouse)
   mist.dynAddStatic(fueltank1)
   mist.dynAddStatic(fueltank2)
   mist.dynAddStatic(fueltank3)
   
end

To be more simple, edit your mission .lua in an editor (not the miz, the lua file inside the miz wich is a zip file)

Go to the part where you find your FOB.

 

Now you just have to get the poisitions x and y relatively to the first object and adapt the script.

 

In my code I use zones names to identify the position and to generate them randomly. You can also add units groups this way with some mist functions

 

 

If you have a witchcraft connected you can also debug your lua code easily to make sure it works without having to restart your mission over and over.

 

 

I hope it helps, have fun.

[Jacks]

I have managed to open the mission.lua file. It has the title groups. But which part of the script determines which group each object is a part of? Is it the group name?

Edited August 26, 2015 by Jacks

[MagicBra]

I think the best ways would be to make a backup of your mission and then remove all groups and statics that are not necessary.

 

The units are in groups.

 

I don't have a mission under my eyes right now so I can't tell but the structure should be obvious. The structure should be separated in countries > groups .

[Jacks]

Success!!!

 

By editing the mission.lua I turned 70 single unit groups into a single 70 unit group.

 

I can still drive the vehs but now all units of part of the same group, I can task the mortars to fire or set a path for the vehs in the F10 map. Does anyone know a work around for this?

 

The only items that I can't get into the group are the four ISO containers. Does anyone know a way to copy th models into the fortifications category so I can add them to the group and template?

 

Thanks for all the help.

 

Jacks

[MagicBra]

For the first question, I don't get what you want.

Do you want to split your groups, inside 1 template ?

 

For the fortifications, they can't be added to templates or groups. That why I was forced to use the script above in the first place.

[Jacks]

MagicBra,

 

For the fortifications have been added to a template which I have used else in the map. My question was how to turn 60 single units groups into one 60 unit group without deleting them and starting again. I needed to do this as I can only create a temp,ate using one group.

 

I mi ex all the units into one group by editing the mission.lua although it was a big job and took me 1.5hours

 

 

Jacks