DML - Mission Creation Toolbox [no Lua required]

[cfrag]

On 4/5/2023 at 8:48 PM, Panthir said:

Is there any way for the player to get the score only if he manage to land?

There is now. Please look at the enclosed demo miz. I'm, still regression testing this, but PlayerScore now has the option to activate the 'deferred' attribute in the config zone. When active, any kills or feats are only awarded after you land inside a zone marked as scoreSafe (see Kobuleti vs Senaki), and remain there, on the ground, for a minimum amount of time (10 seconds in the demo).

Oh, and landing (in general) is now also an optional feat. It's active as soon as you set the score for landing in the config zone to anything > 0

On 4/5/2023 at 8:48 PM, Panthir said:

Is there any way to have the individual score for all participants by the end of a mission for example to a log file?

This too I have added. The demo miz lacks the (required) persistence module (i.e. you need to add it by hand), so it falls back to only showing on screen what it would have saved to file. Save to file is initiated whenever the flag that you defined with the 'saveScore?' input in the config zone. I'm using a radioMenu module output to trigger it via communications. It's currently configured to list the players by rank, rank is sorted by score.

If you have the time, please try the demo and perhaps give some feedback. The docs still require writing.

Cheers,
-ch

Later Score.miz

[Panthir]

Hello Mate, I check it!!!!

[Panthir]

4 hours ago, cfrag said:

There is now. Please look at the enclosed demo miz. I'm, still regression testing this, but PlayerScore now has the option to activate the 'deferred' attribute in the config zone. When active, any kills or feats are only awarded after you land inside a zone marked as scoreSafe (see Kobuleti vs Senaki), and remain there, on the ground, for a minimum amount of time (10 seconds in the demo).

Oh, and landing (in general) is now also an optional feat. It's active as soon as you set the score for landing in the config zone to anything > 0

This too I have added. The demo miz lacks the (required) persistence module (i.e. you need to add it by hand), so it falls back to only showing on screen what it would have saved to file. Save to file is initiated whenever the flag that you defined with the 'saveScore?' input in the config zone. I'm using a radioMenu module output to trigger it via communications. It's currently configured to list the players by rank, rank is sorted by score.

If you have the time, please try the demo and perhaps give some feedback. The docs still require writing.

Cheers,
-ch

Later Score.miz 153.82 kB · 2 downloads

I have just tested it. I tried to add the persistence module but I get the followinf mission script error null

Later Score v1.mizI attach you modified mission

 

Edited April 19, 2023 by Panthir

[cfrag]

1 hour ago, Panthir said:

I tried to add the persistence module but I get the followinf mission script error

Huh. You unearthed a bug in persistence that can only happen if your DCS install isn't sanitized, and therefore has eluded me for months - thanks!

I've corrected it in the included update, also added a slightly better regression-tested version of of playerScore.

Cheers,

-ch

Later Score v2.miz

[Panthir]

Thanks

[Panthir]

2 hours ago, cfrag said:

Huh. You unearthed a bug in persistence that can only happen if your DCS install isn't sanitized, and therefore has eluded me for months - thanks!

I've corrected it in the included update, also added a slightly better regression-tested version of of playerScore.

Cheers,

-ch

Later Score v2.miz 191.02 kB · 1 download

I am convinced that you are David Copperfield of DCS World!!!!! Perfect, after land only score award and score save works excellently. I attach you the score save text. Cheers!!!!!!!!!!!!

Player Scores

Later Score v2.miz

Edited April 19, 2023 by Panthir

[Panthir]

BTW is there any way not to get score kill messages after every kill. The ideal would be to get the awarded score only after a successful land?

Edited April 19, 2023 by Panthir

[cfrag]

35 minutes ago, Panthir said:

BTW is there any way not to get score kill messages after every kill.

IIRC there should be an 'announcer' config attribute that when set to false (default is true) suppress messages after a kill.

 

[Panthir]

As always, you are completely right thanks!!!!

You did an extremely important job. 

[shinobi61]

@cfrag this is amazing, truely great stuff for mission makers, i only wish there were more videos on your youtube channel they are great i found when i followed them i started sparks in my brain on how to use modules together

[cfrag]

Version 1.2.8 - Major feature Update: PlayerScore

This update contains two big updates, of which only one is complete - time ran out on me. So let's get into the details.

PlayerScore
The score-keeping drop-in module has received a massive overhaul , and I have added many, many features (you guys are inventive and kind enough to submit many ideas - thanks!). PlayerScore maintains backwards-compatibility, so you can add most of the new features simply by updating the script itself, and add new attributes or zones. So what does the new PLayerScore 2.x bring?

• Deferred Scoring (new!)
  You can now opt to have score awarded only after landing in designated 'scoreSafe' zones. If players crash or for some other reason lose their aircraft, those scores and feats are cancelled. Unless, of course, they earn negative score (for example friendly kills) - demerits are always "awarded" immediately. This is intended as an optional new game mechanic to force people to 'bring home' the score they earned. That way, people become increasingly risk-averse the more they achieve.

• Demerit controls (expanded)
  You can now control the factor that is applied to a score when a player commits a friendly kill. Also, mission designers now decide how much the loss of an airframe costs (set it to zero to turn this feature off)
   
• PvP score scale (expanded)
  Likewise, you can now control the multiplier for a PvP kill. If you set it to 1, for example, killing a player-controlled aircraft awards exactly as much as killing the same aircraft controlled by an AI would yield. If you set it to 2, kills of player-controlled units fetch twice their standard score. Note that this also applies to friendly kills: if, for example, your friendly fire multiplyer is -2 (to subtract twice the amount from a players score for a friendly kill), and pvp kills are valued at 3 times the normal score, a friendly pvp kill nets the player -2 * 3 = -6 times the base score!
   
• Kill zones (new!)
  Another big improvement is that PlayerScore can now optionally enforce combat zones. Kills outside that zone aren't prevented, but they award no score. Placing kill zones is as difficult as placing a trigger zone.

• Feats (expanded!)
  PlayerScore 1.x already supported feats; they were only accessible to other modules like CSARmanager or HeloTroops. With 2.x you can place trigger zones in which you can award feats yourself. PlayerScore now allows mission designers to place the following feats:
  • landing inside a zone 
  • killing inside a zone 
  • pvp kill inside a zone
     
• Personalized feats (new!)
  Taking a page from messenger and valet, feats provide extensive support for wildcards in their description. This means that mission designers can personalize feats by accessing a wide variety of game data and have the feat text update in real-time.

• Award control (new!)
  In addition to controlling where a feat can be earned, mission designers now can also restrict who (which coalition) can earn that feat, how many times that feat can be earned (in total during a mission), and restrict feats to once per player.
   
• Export entire score table to plain text (new!)
  Yeah. Requires that you also add the 'persistence' module and do all the manual says you must do to make it work.

The rising tide...
Since I was at it, I also completely re-wrote PlayerScoreUI, the drop-in module to give individual players access to their own (and only their own) score. It has reduced dependencies, is much faster, more secure, and requires even less performance than the old version 

The other Big Change...
I have started refactoring OwnedZones, to split it into one module to manage owned zones, and one to manage production (the defenders and attackers of the original OwnedZones). I'm also aiming for 99% backward-compatibility. That being said, the transition isn't done, and the current DML contains unfinished parts of the new ownedZones and factoryZones. For better legacy support, DML now includes the last version of OwnedZones (1.3.0) as a separate file. 

 

All Changes 
Documentation
    - Main
        - PlayerScore updates 
        - PlayerScoreUI inclusion 
        - (new) More Score demo doc 
        - (new) Later Score demo doc 
        - updates to other modules 
        - (incomplete) updates to OwnedZones
        - (incomplete) updates to factoryZones 
        
    - Quick Ref 
        - PlayerScore updates 
        - Various other updates 
        - (incomplete) owned zones 
        - (incomplete) factory zones 
        
Demos
        - Player Score (update) 
        - More Score (update)
        - Later Score (new) 

Modules
    - Owned Zones legacy 1.3.0 (frozen)
    
    - cfxOwnedZones (in development)
    
    - cfxPlayerScore 2.0.0
        - many new abilities 

    - cfxPlayerScoreUI 2.0.0 
        - rewrite: same abilities, better, faster, smaller

    - cfxZones 3.0.8 
        - new pointInOneOfZones()
        
    - countDown 1.3.2
        - new enableCounter? attribute 
        
    - dcsCommon 2.8.6
        - new phonetic helper methods 
        - new spellString()
        
    - factoryZone (in development) 
    
    - persistence 1.0.7
        - removed potential verbosity bug 
        - correct start-up handling for un-sanitized DCS
    
Enjoy,
-ch

Edited April 27, 2023 by cfrag

[Panthir]

Excellently 

[shinobi61]

Awesome stuff i got alot of modules working in one mission without issue, but now having a slight issue with helotroops and spawnzones not cooperating with me
i cant seem to get the spawn group option up in the "Airborn Troops Menu" for some reason, fun stuff though

 

edit : Interfaces with other scripts, if you set this value to true, troops will only spawn on request via cfxSpawnZones.spawnWithSpawner().

This seems to be what i dont fully understand if anyone knows what i need to do, I've rechecked the demo mission and i dont see anything different that im missing.

Another question regarding ReconMode, it seems to work fine however is it correct that even airframes that are excluded from recon still see the option in f10 menu and indeed can select it and recieve the message "xxx reports bright eyes, commencing recon"

Edited April 28, 2023 by shinobi61

[cfrag]

On 4/27/2023 at 7:37 PM, shinobi61 said:

i cant seem to get the spawn group option up in the "Airborn Troops Menu"

This is because the "Airborne Troops" menu belongs to DCS which behaves a bit selfishly, and does not allow scripts to access it. The Helo Troops menu, and all other scripted menus are accessible via Communication-->Other-->Airlift Troops

On 4/27/2023 at 7:37 PM, shinobi61 said:

airframes that are excluded from recon still see the option in f10 menu and indeed can select it and recieve the message "xxx reports bright eyes, commencing recon"

They will receive, yes - every player in the same coalition will receive the recon info so they can adjust to the tactical information. But they can't recon themselves. Or rather: they should not be able to start recon if they are excluded. If they can, please let me know, and I'll see if I can fix that

[shinobi61]

Hi @cfrag I think i explained my first issue badly, i understand the menu of Airbourne Troops and its the one inside "other" menu that needs to be used, its the way to get them to spawn the troops using a spawn zone, it seems to me maybe its a LUA edit needed?
As mentioned in the Doc : "Interfaces with other scripts, if you set this value to true, troops will only spawn on request via cfxSpawnZones.spawnWithSpawner()."
I dont know how to setup that request

About the Recon module it indeed works correctly as in only units assigned by a trigger zone can actually recon however the menu is available for all players assigned or not and that just makes it "appear" that they can. (See image its from a Ka-50 that is not assigned recon)

- A side note is it possible to add these Gazelle L smoke rockets to Willie Pete? (see image)
null

Finally thanks for this awesome stuff me and my mate having a real blast it really opens up mission edititng

Edited May 4, 2023 by shinobi61

[cfrag]

16 hours ago, shinobi61 said:

its the way to get them to spawn the troops using a spawn zone, it seems to me maybe its a LUA edit needed?

Usually with DML no Lua is required, so hopefully not. I'm not entirely sure I understand what you are trying to do, but to get SpawnZones to spawn on-demand from HeloTroops is indeed a built-in ability, I'm sure that we will get it to work quickly. Perhaps describe/show what you did, and what you expected to see, and then what you are currently seeing, maybe also show a screenshot of the trigger zone attributes that you are using. 

 

16 hours ago, shinobi61 said:

is it possible to add these Gazelle L smoke rockets to Willie Pete?

I'm working on it right now, that should be entirely doable

 

[cfrag]

19 hours ago, shinobi61 said:

is it possible to add these Gazelle L smoke rockets to Willie Pete?

It now can. Enclosed please find demo mission and updated module

 

williePete.lua Giving Gazelle the Willies.miz

[shinobi61]

@cfrag thats awesome gonna give that a go now (Gazelle)
I will take a look also if i have time to revisit the spawn on demand (helo troops) and show some screens if not tonight then tomorrow, thanks man

[shinobi61]

@cfrag nullnullnullSo this is how i have it setup maybe i just miss something stupid, the spawn zone is right next to a Uh1 and when i go menu>other>airlift troops i dont see the request option only see no troops nearby

Regards

[cfrag]

41 minutes ago, shinobi61 said:

this is how i have it setup maybe

That all looks correct to me - at first blush. Can I trouble you to PM me the mission for me to have a look? Please remove any mod content (on the off chance that you use some) from the mission. If all goes well, we'll have this resolved quickly  

 

[mimamema]

Hi @cfrag!! I´ve been modifying a mission these last few days using DML and I find it quite easy to do things that will require a lot of steps in the DCS ME or a lot of tests to check for errors using Moose.  I´m planning to make this mission a 24/7  PVE one and I´m looking for a way to count the players in a zone to make the enemy CAPs adaptable to the number of players. I was thinking about using the sequencer and the "next?" flag to launch more CAP flights into the area but I need a way to count the players combining DML modules. I´ve been reading through all the modules and cannot make this work out in my head . If you have any idea of how to do it by combining modules that would be great.

Apart from that, do you have any plan on making a DML module for tasking air units, I think the use of zones to manage them would make it very easy to create flights to randomly attack the units in a zone or just set up a simple CAP inside a quad trigger.

Honestly is amazing the work you have already done with DML and it´s more fun for me now to edit and create missions.  

Lastly, I know there are a lot of demo missions with examples for flags and I know they have a lot of potential, that´s why I think you should make a video about flags and as a suggestion it should be called "Fun with Flags".

Anyway, thank you for creating this for the community, I can´t help thinking about the possibilities DML could have integrated into the DCS Web Editor that is being cooked right now. 

Edited May 8, 2023 by mimamema

[cfrag]

3 hours ago, mimamema said:

I´m looking for a way to count the players in a zone to make the enemy CAPs adaptable to the number of players.

That's a very helpful function that currently can't be assembled easily in DML. Let me see if I can come up with a module that does this. 

3 hours ago, mimamema said:

do you have any plan on making a DML module for tasking air units

Tasking in DCS is IMHO such a mess that I'm trying to avoid sinking effort into this. A (passable) work-around exists: use a clone zone with template groups that have task orders (CAP, Strike, SEAD etc.). That way tasking is pushed outside of DML's context, and you still have the ability to spawn tasked groups on demand.

3 hours ago, mimamema said:

I think you should make a video about flags

That's a good suggestion, and I would like some more specifics about what may be of interest. Can you give me a hint which flag subject to focus on, assuming that people have watched the flag tutorials T020 We did start the fire and T030 Spawning on demand. 

Edited May 8, 2023 by cfrag

[cfrag]

9 hours ago, mimamema said:

I´m looking for a way to count the players in a zone

Here's a proof of concept module that will likely make it to the next DML update. If you have the time, please look at it, and if you have some feedback, so much the better  

 

playerZone.lua Players in the Zonemiz.miz

[shinobi61]

To me flags are confusing as dcs uses flags as numbers and then a value, but DML uses words or whatever, so much better but also hard to grasp in your head meat! Atleast for me.

The simple ones in the example missions not so bad but easily confused with more complex flag 'linking' 

Maybe I'm just stupid and it will click eventually but I do like your other videos, a flag video would be great!

Edited May 8, 2023 by shinobi61

[cfrag]

6 minutes ago, shinobi61 said:

To me flags are confusing as dcs uses flags as numbers and then a value, but DML uses words

Until a few months ago, flag names in DCS Mission Editor were limited to numbers only. That changed recently, and now Mission Editor and DML can use alphanumeric flag names (for example "sam1_active"). Flag values are whole numbers only for both. 

Edited May 8, 2023 by cfrag