DML - Mission Creation Toolbox [no Lua required]

[cfrag]

7 minutes ago, DD_Friar said:

Perhaps I had it working accidentally then.

Probably. Unlike a circular zone, it is currently undefined what radius ("size") a quad zone has, and the zone's size is used to determine the size of a line. I think you got lucky   

[DD_Friar]

@cfrag - Now not able to load troops.

In my new mission I am now not able to load troops I have requested. As you can see from my screen shots. I was able to generate the group of 6 but then do not get the command to load.

[cfrag]

9 hours ago, DD_Friar said:

I am now not able to load troops I have requested.

Have you tried to choose 'Exit' and then try again? DCS's menu options are somewhat quirky (to put nicely), and they sometimes need a couple of re-tries to 'take'.

[DD_Friar]

29 minutes ago, cfrag said:

Have you tried to choose 'Exit' and then try again?

I will give it a go and report back, but am doubtful that will sort it based on previous success with heloTroops.

I will also look a creating the process from fresh just to make sure the issue is not the keyboard / computer interface.

[DD_Friar]

@cfrag

I give up. I have spent most of today trying different things to get helicopter troops working again. I suspect the issue is right in front of me but I can not see why it is now not working.

I have attached two missions. The Syria mission is an older mission and works. If you use the Blackhawk AAAtest at the top of the list this spawns in cold on the ground in front of where the troops spawn.

The other mission troop test is one I put together using 2.26 files to test. The troops spawn but then there is no option to load.

If it is something I am doing or have missed, I am sorry for wasting your time.

 

 

DDServerSyria-V1-4 trimed.miz TroopTest DML V2-26.miz

[cfrag]

3 hours ago, DD_Friar said:

I suspect the issue is right in front of me but I can not see why it is now not working.

Not to put too fine a point on on this, but is it possible that you have put the combined joint task force blue to be a part of neutral? That will make all blue troops spawn as neutral, inaccessible to blue.

Edited June 28, 2024 by cfrag

[DD_Friar]

1 hour ago, cfrag said:

but is it possible that you have put the combined joint task force blue to be a part of neutral?

Entirely possible and in fact that is exactly what I had done. I had not paid any attention to the coalition implications when building my new missions.

Thank you once again.

I can now get back to weaving your magic into my missions.

Friar  

[Sinclair_76]

I ran in to the following issue. 

For some randomization I clone a 'lead vehicle' somewhere random in a another zone. Linked to that 'lead' vehicle is another zone which through a sequencer, pulses 1-8 additional vehicle within 500' of the lead vehicle.  Only thing that does not work is the zone following the 'lead' unit. Somehow I made this work in another mission but I can't reproduce it. 

Added the png's to show following zone attributes and the 'lead' vehicle attributes. 

Am I missing how linkedUnit works?

PS the pulses set to 1-8 in the pulser attributes generates 4 pretty much al of the time. Does not appear very random.

 

Edited June 30, 2024 by Sinclair_76

[cfrag]

1 hour ago, Sinclair_76 said:

For some randomization I clone a 'lead vehicle' somewhere random in a another zone. Linked to that 'lead' vehicle is another zone

You are about to delve into the deep, dark abyss of DCS unit naming voodoo. Be advised, your hairline will pay for this.

The reason that the zone doesn't follow the clone is that zones only follow the units that they are assigned to. And units in DCS are unique, in that their name and unit id are always distinct. Unless we cheat, and force a unit to assume specific names. Since names must be unique, a spawning unit that has the same name as an existing unit will cause that existing unit to disappear to make the unique rule be whole again.

Cloners know that, and can cheat. They will do exactly as you tell it, and to heck with the consequences, so be sure that you know what you are getting into. 

To get started on this trip, please read 5.3.12.2 of the shock block. It explicitly mentions zone following for clones, so you are on the right track. Once you feel that you understand sufficiently what is required, add the nameScheme attribute to your unit, and roll the dice. There will be odd side effects, and I recommend that you choose a name scheme that is far outside of DCS's normal, predictable one. You may also want to experiment with the 'identical' attribute.

The funny thing it, suddenly it will work, and that's really worth the effort  

 

 

Edited June 30, 2024 by cfrag

[Sinclair_76]

2 hours ago, cfrag said:

You are about to delve into the deep, dark abyss of DCS unit naming voodoo. Be advised, your hairline will pay for this.

The reason that the zone doesn't follow the clone is that zones only follow the units that they are assigned to. And units in DCS are unique, in that their name and unit id are always distinct. Unless we cheat, and force a unit to assume specific names. Since names must be unique, a spawning unit that has the same name as an existing unit will cause that existing unit to disappear to make the unique rule be whole again.

Cloners know that, and can cheat. They will do exactly as you tell it, and to heck with the consequences, so be sure that you know what you are getting into. 

To get started on this trip, please read 5.3.12.2 of the shock block. It explicitly mentions zone following for clones, so you are on the right track. Once you feel that you understand sufficiently what is required, add the nameScheme attribute to your unit, and roll the dice. There will be odd side effects, and I recommend that you choose a name scheme that is far outside of DCS's normal, predictable one. You may also want to experiment with the 'identical' attribute.

The funny thing it, suddenly it will work, and that's really worth the effort  

 

 

 

No hair anyways. Solved it by adding the identical and wholeGroups attributes, both set to true, in the objective zone.

Downfall is I can only have one group active at a time due to identical. Would nameScheme be able to overcome that? If so how? Could you provide an example?

Edited June 30, 2024 by Sinclair_76

[Sinclair_76]

Another thing I would like as a module is ELINT.

In theaters like Iraq and Afghanistan, ELINT units were often able to provide grids of insurgent ICOM (walkie talkie) chatter. The way I see this in DML is a zone with attribute ICOM (placeholder), over a enemy unit. The value can represent the power of the transmission in watts, or chance of intercept, amount of transmission ins an hour etc. Furthermore a zone over a friendly ELINT asset, like an antenna or MQ-9 or RC-135 Rivet Joint. Work out line of sight and chance of intercept. If true a message could be sent (like in recce module). 

[DD_Friar]

@cfrag, Salute Sir, I hope that you are well.

I require a small amount of guidance please with relation to using "slotty" (I am using 2.26b). I am trying it without the need for any server side install of SSBclient.

I am trying to have blue player flyable planes at a currently owned red airfield, so that when the airfield is captured the blue planes become available, but not before.

Which zones / modules are required please?

I have tried laying the "airfield" zone over the top and also used in conjunction with an "ownedZone" but am obviously not doing it right as I can see the blue plane in the list and can select it at the red airfield.

Do I only need the airfield zone, can that control ownership and availability on its own?

Your advice and pointers as always are very much appreciated.

Cheers

Friar

 

[cfrag]

1 minute ago, DD_Friar said:

I am trying to have blue player flyable planes at a currently owned red airfield, so that when the airfield is captured the blue planes become available, but not before.

Which zones / modules are required please?

Off the top of my head:

- dcsCommon, cfxZone, cfxMX as always, they provide DML foundational bedrock

- ssbClient to provide 'only board aircraft at owned airfields' service. Uses SSB protocol, but does not require SSB

- slotty in-mission. Provides SSB services for single-player and multiplayer if SSB isn't installed

[mimamema]

Hi@cfrag! Yesterday I was playing with DML to make it able to deploy a Farp anywhere I land with a helicopter I´m flying. This is kind of something that has already been added to the Rotorops Perks script, but I would prefer to keep things as much as possible on DML instead of depending on a modified version of MIST that is necessary to run that script. 

I linked a cloner to my helo so whenever I land I could deploy a FARP using a template created with another cloner of the basic FARP ( ammo-cache, Fuel depot and an invisible FARP). In the same trigger zone, I created a radioMenu to be able to trigger the clone command and spawn the FARP where I landed. Anyway, I wasn´t able to make it work cause the radioMenu was not containing the option I set up in the trigger zone.  But then I realized that if I even manage to fix that, some more things would be a bit off, as doing this won't add weight to Helo and I would need to create a system to self-regulate how many can be deployed, for how long, etc... So, I was wondering, and more now that the Chinook is almost already here in less than two weeks™, if this function of deploying a road base or a simple FARP from a helo like the Chinook would be something cool and useful to add as a module for DML. 

Hope you are having a good weekend.

Cheers!

[Sinclair_76]

Could linkedUnit also be available for statics? This would diversify the options immensly.

Edited July 1, 2024 by Sinclair_76

[cfrag]

9 hours ago, mimamema said:

deploy a Farp anywhere

AFAIK, spawning a FARP isn't yet fully supported in DCS, although this may have changed in the past few months; I have seen nothing that would suggest so, and I'd be happy for any links that show working FARP spawns so I can get to work on this important feature. With DCS's current slot system, spawned FARPS can't allow players to slot in (enter the game) from there, but hopefully it will allow them to refuel and rearm.

I'm aware of some interesting work being done on 'teleported' FARPS ("teleportation" is pretty much identical clones in DML). These are FARPS that already exist and are then moved to a new location, and they even can allow players to enter the game from there. A hack, and IMHO not ready for prime time, too many open questions -- but interesting nonetheless. 

https://github.com/brihernandez/DCSBuildableFARPs

 

 

[cfrag]

34 minutes ago, Sinclair_76 said:

Could linkedUnit also be available for statics?

It's currently not in DML (static objects behave very differently from units), but from what I see this should be possible in principle. DCS itself does allow you to link a zone to a static, so I'll definitely have to look into this anyway  

Edited July 1, 2024 by cfrag

[Chess96]

Hey !

While playing around with the WP module, I realized that the French smoke rockets are not recognized as a valid target marker by the script. I keep getting a message saying that no target has been marked. I was specifically trying to use the Red SNEB smoke. I haven't tried it yet but I think given that the Gazelles uses the same rockets it might not work for it either.

 

[cfrag]

26 minutes ago, Chess96 said:

French smoke rockets are not recognized

For idiots like me who own but don't fly all planes - which aircraft would that be, and what is the ammunition called in mission editor?

Edited July 1, 2024 by cfrag

[Sinclair_76]

I think I have found a bug. 
When linking a zone A to a unit 1 via linkedUnit, if the unit 1 gets cloned in a zone (using the identical attribute). The zone A moves fine. But the moment you add useOffset or useHeading attributes the zone A stops moving with unit 1.

Edited July 1, 2024 by Sinclair_76

[Chess96]

1 hour ago, cfrag said:

For idiots like me who own but don't fly all planes - which aircraft would that be, and what is the ammunition called in mission editor?

 

Sorry about that ! Should have made it clearer. It's for the Mirage F1 and the Gazelle helicopter and for the rocket I don't have the exact name in mind and no access to DCS right now, but I remember them having SNEB in the name. I think there is 3 color variants of the smoke ones

 

[cfrag]

1 hour ago, Sinclair_76 said:

the moment you add useOffset or useHeading attributes the zone A stops moving with unit 1

Thank you for that report. Do you have a simple demo so I can try and reproduce this? 

Thank you,

-ch

[cfrag]

3 hours ago, Sinclair_76 said:

But the moment you add useOffset or useHeading attributes the zone A stops moving with unit 1.

I've analyzed this a bit further - a silly question: doesn't the zone move at all, or is it merely moving at a different relative location? Looking at the code, the offset is calculated anew for zone and unit to follow, using the freshly spawned unit's location and the zone's placement in ME, meaning that if the unit was originally 100m away from the zone, and the clone spawns 1 mile away, the new offset would be 1 mile, and the zone would follow all movements, but a mile distant, keeping that distance.

So, to better understand what you are doing: are you setting up a zone linked to a unit nearby with offset active, and then use a cloner with 'identical' to teleport this unit to some distant location with the hopes that the zone will follow at the distance that it had when you positioned the zone in ME? If so, that's indeed an edge case that would require some (small?) code change.

 

[Sinclair_76]

 

 

A small test mission.

Basically my intent is to clone a 'lead' vehicle on a random location in a zone. Then, using useHeading clone 4x MLRS in a specific formation on to the "lead' vehicle. In this small mission it is only a MLRS but in the mission I am scripting the vehicles are more random (per zone) especially paint scheme's) to liven it up a notch. Once the MLRS battery is in position kill of the lead vehicle. (Hence the question regarding linkedUnit to a small static item but killing of the lead vehicle is even better) to not always have the same vehicle in otherwise random formations / conglomerations. 

 

Radio Menu is enabled to fire flag 1: this clones the lead vehicle in the END zone (yes my feable attempt at humor).

Firing flag 2 will clone a M1 randomly close to to the lead vehicle as a QED

Firing flag 3 will clone a MLRS battery using useHeading to maintain formation

Firing flag 4 will kill the lead vehicle.

Test-DML.miz

 

1 hour ago, cfrag said:

I've analyzed this a bit further - a silly question: doesn't the zone move at all, or is it merely moving at a different relative location?

It seems to stay at the original location. My hope was, that it moves with the lead vehicle.

Edited July 1, 2024 by Sinclair_76

[Sinclair_76]

1 hour ago, cfrag said:

So, to better understand what you are doing: are you setting up a zone linked to a unit nearby with offset active, and then use a cloner with 'identical' to teleport this unit to some distant location with the hopes that the zone will follow at the distance that it had when you positioned the zone in ME? If so, that's indeed an edge case that would require some (small?) code change.

Yes this is what I want.

And indeed I am living on the edge...