DML - Mission Creation Toolbox [no Lua required]

[cfrag]

30 minutes ago, ClausHoffmann said:

The whole message, that I copied into the message attribute is as follows:

Ha, finally! Someone to put the messenger through it's paces!  It looks as if you are 90% where you want to be, but I think that part of the documentation needs to be more clear.

Let's try and analyze the message and see where it runs against what I currently put into messenger to understand

32 minutes ago, ClausHoffmann said:

Hello <player>,

Wildcards always need a reference, and although you do supply the keyword <player>, you need to tell messenger which player you mean, because in DCS there is no concept of "I", a script doesn't know on who's client it is running. So to access the player name of someone flying unit x, you will need to provide the unit's name. For example

"Hello <player:theHawg>,"

will replace <player:theHawg> with the name of the player that is currently flying the unit named "theHawg"

37 minutes ago, ClausHoffmann said:

<true: bp_OK [You did not follow the base procedures for Gudauta base as has been issued for this mission. | You have properly followed the base procedures for Gudauta.]>

I'm really happy to see you use this, because it is exactly what I intended it for. Again, usage is tied to a flag or unit that if it set to a value other than zero or the unit exists will return the "true" (right) part of the declaration, the left otherwise.

It seems that you are 99.9% there already: It should work when set to 

<A/B: bp_OK [You did not follow the base procedures for Gudauta base as has been issued for this mission. | You have properly followed the base procedures for Gudauta.]>

with bl_OK being a standard DCS flag. If that flag is set to any value other than 0 (zero), the right side of "|" should be returned, the left part otherwise. Instead of "true", use "A/B".

So, small changes - does that help?

 

[ClausHoffmann]

Dear cfrag,

first of all thank you very much for the quick response. Unfortunately the A/B: thing does not help (see picture attached). It is again a screenshot of the output, but in it you can aktually see my message structure, as it is been outputted, as in the message attribute, not taking into account the wildcards.

Please disregard the error about the player, as I used a wildcard in it, which is not possible. By the way, why does the <player> thing work in the valet module, but not in the messenger module?

Thank you very much for your support.

Best regards

Claus

null

[DD_Friar]

Salute @cfrag

Idea for a new scenario / module - but am I re inventing the wheel?

I have had an idea of introducing a med-i-vac element to one of my missions but having second thoughts of am I just re-inventing CSAR?

First let me outline how I was going to build this scenario and the missing link that I was going to ask you to review.

My thoughts were that I have a convoy or cloned group of units. They come under attack. Both modules offer a trigger output ("attacked!" in convoy and "damaged!" in cloner). This would then place a Map Marker indicating casualties need picking-up (and the thing I wanted to ask about this module was that there does not seem to be a way to remove a Map Marker? is that "do-able", my thoughts were that when the casualties were picked up the marker could be removed.) It would also clone in a template group of units representing the casualties. (It would be nice if ED added 2 infantry carrying a stretcher but we can only dream.) I would also mark the location with smoke.

I would have a radio main menu called Medivac Locations (or similar). Each instance of a group coming under attack would have its own radio sub menu that would get added to that main menu. It would have options for location, pickup and deliver. Selecting pickup will declone or clear the group. Once the pick-up was completed the radio menu would be removed. Delivery of the casualties would be to a location where the player selects "Delivered" from the radio menu to end that particular medivac mission. 

However, as the title of my post suggests, am I not just rehashing CSAR? The difference I am thinking is that I would link my casualty zone to the convoy with an offset so that it would be generated at the point of attack, no matter where that might be.

I would be happy to build this using radioMenu, Messenger, MapMarker, convoy/clone, smoke zone, but as always I would value your opinion on this?

Cheers

Friar

 

[cfrag]

On 12/21/2024 at 10:14 PM, ClausHoffmann said:

Unfortunately the A/B: thing does not help (see picture attached).

Now, this one almost drove me nuts. Until I realized that there's something funky in Lua's internal grep implementation that I use for text pattern recognition. I re-built the method that scans and replaces the A/B wildcards, and it should now work. The relevant code is in cfxZones, not messenger, so please find an updated version to replace yours and - if you have the time - tell me if it works for you.

On 12/21/2024 at 10:14 PM, ClausHoffmann said:

why does the <player> thing work in the valet module, but not in the messenger module?

Because valet, being a dedicated module to look after units always knows which unit just triggered the module and then can derive the player from that. Messenger, being general-purpose, can't and therefore requires help.

 

cfxZones.lua

[cfrag]

10 hours ago, DD_Friar said:

The difference I am thinking is that I would link my casualty zone to the convoy with an offset so that it would be generated at the point of attack, no matter where that might be.

If I understand you correctly you are looking for a way that allows convoys or other spawned ground units to generate CSAR missions. I think that I did explore this some time ago, and observed that as long as there is one enemy unit in the vicinity, that unit moves to kill the evacuee(s), and very quickly there no longer is a CSAR mission to speak of. DCS ground units' AI simply isn't. Therefore I concluded that it would be easier to simply generate a CSAR missions in random locations.

That being said, have you tried having a CSAR mission creation zone follow a unit, and when the unit dies trigger the CSAR mission creation? It could work, with the problem of course that the unit that killed the vehicle will quickly proceed to kill the CSAR evacuees.

And sure, I'd be happy to explore this further, with any ideas that you may have.

[ClausHoffmann]

55 minutes ago, cfrag said:

Now, this one almost drove me nuts. Until I realized that there's something funky in Lua's internal grep implementation that I use for text pattern recognition. I re-built the method that scans and replaces the A/B wildcards, and it should now work. The relevant code is in cfxZones, not messenger, so please find an updated version to replace yours and - if you have the time - tell me if it works for you.

Dear cfrag,

I did a quick test with the new cfxZones.lua and it worked (see attached screenshot)! Thank you very much for your support, I am very impressed about what you do for the community (including me) and DCS World. I can follow the logic of the differences between valet and messenger and will solve the problem, as soon as I have a little more time.

Happy christmas and all the best for the new year

Claus

[DD_Friar]

@cfrag

I had a go at building a mission yesterday using all the modules and came across an issue in that a cloned or convoy generated group would not let me link the cloner for the casualty's.

It would only work if I added the group directly, which is not the end of the world.

I take your point about the generated casualty units potential to be attacked themselves. 

 

[cfrag]

2 hours ago, DD_Friar said:

a cloned or convoy generated group would not let me link the cloner

In DCS, everything is linked with names (unit/object names are supposed to be unique). So, in order to link a trigger zone to a cloned unit, you need to use the 'identical' attribute. Cloning a group that has 'identical' set to true will immediately remove any previous incarnation of that same name to ensure that "there can only be one". 

[DD_Friar]

5 minutes ago, cfrag said:

So, in order to link a trigger zone to a cloned unit, you need to use the 'identical' attribute.

Thanks, I will give that a go. 

ref the casualties - I might make them invisible to the AI so they do not try and attack them, Geneva Convention and all that

Edited December 23, 2024 by DD_Friar

[cfrag]

1 minute ago, DD_Friar said:

I might make them invisible to the AI

Ha! Silly me never thought of that. That's a nice idea!

[JalilDoran]

First of all CFrag, thanks for this "construction kit" it is actually making DCS mission creation fun.

I am trying to use the aswSubs drop-in and have configured it as-per the docs, however, the submarine just stays on the surface and doesn't attack, nor can it be attacked.  Seems it is not being recognized by aswSubs.  I have my Kilo class inside the asw zone and have the aswSubsConfig zone designating a target group.  Is there something I'm missing?  I definitely have all the dependencies loaded;  the rest of the ASW stuff is running fine (loading and dropping the ordinance.)

Edited December 23, 2024 by JalilDoran

[DD_Friar]

@JalilDoran - You have taken the lid off Pandora's box now! Welcome to the wonderful world of DML!

I have only played with this module a little and I am certain there are others that have more experience, but have you set the waypoints for the sub at below surface levels?

null

[JalilDoran]

@DD_Friar That was it, thanks a lot.  Working perfectly now.  

[DD_Friar]

@cfrag

Two new interesting additions in the update today that might be worth exploring?

• ME. Added trigger "Smoke Marker Stop" and "Smoke Marker on Unit Stop” for the coloured target marking smoke.
• ME. Added trigger functionality to allow individual drawings to be shown or hidden

[cfrag]

13 hours ago, DD_Friar said:

Two new interesting additions in the update today

Indeed. They have not made it into the API yet. As soon as they do, I'll try and get them into DML as well.

[DD_Friar]

1 hour ago, cfrag said:

I'll try and get them into DML as well.

I particularly like the idea of being able to turn individual drawings on and off. Could be a nice aid to information and intelligence sharing on a map.

And with the smoke, could this be the end of waiting 5 minutes for it to stop once the command is given?

[Panthir]

Merry christmas Gents and a happy new year. 

 

Edited December 28, 2024 by Panthir

[Gideon312]

Need Help with DML Fogger - New to DML

 

Hi everyone,

I’m completely new to DML, and unfortunately, my first attempts at using it have been unsuccessful so far. I’m trying to implement the Fogger module in a mission on the NTTR map.

I’ve looked at the example mission and tried to replicate the setup by copying the trigger zones and the “do script” entries in the trigger section of the Mission Editor. I’ve also copied over the weather settings from the example mission (fog enabled, manual settings, etc.).

When I start the mission, the F10 radio menu appears, and I can select one of the options, but nothing happens—the fog doesn’t change. I’ve double-checked for any possible typos in my attributes but couldn’t find anything wrong.

Does anyone have any idea what might be going wrong? All help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

NTTR_HELO_DML_v1.0.miz

Edited December 29, 2024 by Gideon312
Included miz file

[cfrag]

43 minutes ago, Gideon312 said:

Does anyone have any idea what might be going wrong?

I don’t have access to my computer for the rest of today, so I didn’t download the miz and neither have I taken a look at it.

I have the suspicion, though, that the fog‘s thickness attribute is tripping you up. Thickness defines the upper limit altitude (in meters) that the fog reaches — in MSL!!! IIRC, most of the airfields in NTTR are much higher than the thickness given in the demo, so perhaps you can look up the altitude of the airfield you want covered in fog in meters, and add 500, and enter that value to all the thickness attributes. Does that resolve the issue?

Edited December 29, 2024 by cfrag

[Gideon312]

50 minutes ago, cfrag said:

Does that resolve the issue?

Thanks for your quick reply, and yes it did resolve the issue

[cfrag]

13 hours ago, Gideon312 said:

it did resolve the issue

Thank you for reporting back. I've now added an optional 'local' attribute to the fog zone that automatically adds the ground elevation at the zone's center to thickness to make the fog zone more easy to use. It'll be part of the next update. 

[WipeUout]

On 12/23/2024 at 12:45 AM, cfrag said:

please find an updated version to replace yours and - if you have the time - tell me if it works for you.

Hi @cfrag

I came upon a bug in the AH-64D, whenever i was slaving a target to George AI, the sim would crash.  At first, I thought there was a conflict with Splash Damage 2.0 but turns out that replacing cfxzones.lua with your latest version solved the problem.  This only appeared recently after the 24.12.2024 dcs update, but now all good.

[Gideon312]

Subject: Help Needed with Nested Radio Menu - “Fog Control” Issue

Hi all,

I’m struggling to add a nested radio menu for “Fog Control” under a main menu called “Mission Main Menu,” which itself is within another menu named “RW Training.” Despite using "attachTo:" as specified, I can’t get the “Fog Control” option to appear in the correct submenu. (RW Training --> Mission Main Menu --> Fog Control)

I’ve double-checked all the naming conventions for typos, but everything seems correct. Unfortunately, the menu still doesn’t work as expected, and I get the following error (screenshot attached).

Has anyone experienced a similar issue or knows what might be causing this? Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

NTTR_TRAINING_HELO_DML_v1.0.miz

[cfrag]

37 minutes ago, Gideon312 said:

what might be causing this?

I can't open your mission because it contains mods. That being said, from the screenshots that you kindly included you seem to be ignoring the warnings at the beginning of the mission where radioMenu and scribe both complain that they cannot connect (attach) to a radioMainMenu zone called "Mission Main Menu"

 

39 minutes ago, Gideon312 said:

I’ve double-checked all the naming conventions for typos, but everything seems correct.

Please verify that the Trigger Zone "Mission Main Menu" has an attribute "radioMainMenu" 

[Gideon312]

57 minutes ago, cfrag said:

Please verify that the Trigger Zone "Mission Main Menu" has an attribute "radioMainMenu" 

Changed it to radioMainMenu and it worked. Thanks again.