Mission Editor: Copy flights

[ZoomBoy27]

Is it easy to add to the Mission Editor a "Copy Flight" command?

 

When people convert a single player to co-op, they have to redo 2 or 4 flight paths. With "Copy Flight", users can quickly convert for on-line play.

[Jester_159th]

I'd love to see this. And I'm pretty sure anyone else that makes co-op missions for a squad or public server would love it too!

 

Excellent idea.

[eXor]

The merge function does just that. IIRC you have to set the flight you want to duplicate as "Player" then you can reproduce it as many times as you like.

[S77th-X-Man]

The merge function does just that. IIRC you have to set the flight you want to duplicate as "Player" then you can reproduce it as many times as you like.

 

Merge only works for "PLAYER". As you see, he said COOP - so he means CLIENT.

 

I think the merge function is useless (it only works is the mission designer wants to fly the same route in every mission). the ability to merging all objects ot the ones the user wants is what is lacking in LOMAC. This also prevents the remote possibility of the dynamic campaign, objects (and previously destroyed) don't carry over to the next mission in campaign. Some how, your AI wingee's wreakage does LOL.

 

All this talk about event branching ia moot when you can't overcome this basic hurtle.

[ZoomBoy27]

What a gawd-awful way to copy things. And having to select a file(why??) and you don't know what happens.

Glad I know it but yeeeesh!!

[169th_Cobra]

a copy function is definately something i would love to have in the misison editor.

 

also a merge function that would copy the entire mission to another mission would be great.

 

further to the above posts, i just did a test with the current merge function to see if it worked but i cant get it to copy even a single F15 flight (as a player) to another mission?? can someone explain the current merge feature and how it works (if at all??)

 

cheers

[ZoomBoy27]

I only have used Merge to Copy a Flight in the original Mission.

This is the workflow that I used

• Open the mission in the the Editor,
  Save what you mission are working on e.g. tester.mis
  Select or make a flight that has Player on it
  Click on File | Merge
  Up will pop a list of files
  Double-click on the one you are working on e.g. tester.mis
  On the map should be a Merged Group
  Drag the way points around to look at the group and player should be client
  The MergedGroup contains the same path as the Selected Airgroup

What it does not contain and what you have to fix manually is:

• You need to create the Attack points
  You need to create the Land/Takeoff points
  For each Waypoint you have to adjust the Altitude and Speed
  If you have a 2-plane original flight, the MergedCopy becomes a 1-plane flight

Good news - you retain the payload

 

This is a very limited copy method - you can copy the player flight only.

==========

Further testing shows you can only import the Player flight from another mission

[169th_Cobra]

thanks ... I'll give it a go.

[Trident]

I second this request. Interestingly, pre-release screenshots of the mission editor interface in LOMAC showed cut/copy/paste buttons.

[eXor]

 

Merge only works for "PLAYER". As you see, he said COOP - so he means CLIENT.

 

Nothing is stopping him from changing the merged groups and Player to client when he is done.

[S77th-X-Man]

eXor - LOL I don't think you understand.

 

You cannot set more that 1 aircraft as PLAYER in a mission. Therefore, he would have to still create individual routes for the other aircraft he wants.

 

So if he's going to have to create 3 routes for the rest of the flight - he's not saving any time by merging only 1 of the 4 he needs.

 

like 169th_Cobra said - without the ability to merge the whole mission, what's the use of the thing? Recreating a player's route is about the least time consuming thing in LOMAC misson building.

 

When it comes to mission building utilities I think FB & F4 are the best

[Jester_159th]

Yes, FB/PF's Full Mission Builder is good (possibly better overall than the LOMAC editor). But the LOMAC one (apart from this one item) is far more user friendly.

[eXor]

eXor - LOL I don't think you understand.

 

It is you who doesn't understand.

 

For example, you have a single player mission with a 4 ship of A-10s. 1 is player and the other three are AI.

 

You just reduce the flight to one ship and use the merge function to spawn 3 additional flights all of which will share characteristics ( waypoints, loadouts etc ) with the first flight.

 

You can then set all of these to client and play online.

 

If the single player mission has other flights you want to convert, you just do the same thing. It saves time duplicating waypoints and loadouts.

 

But yes, a more robust copying functionality would be nice. Even better would be to remove the need for separate flights for humans.

[S77th-X-Man]

Ahh I see what you mean! So make the routes on one map (max of 4 with 1 player) then merge them to the map you want to use. This way you can click merge as many times as you like.

 

When you are done - set them as CLIENT! gotcha!

 

Very interesting.

[S77th-X-Man]

Exor on review, I'm not impressed with that workaround - It just creates just as much more work - there's not much benefit.

 

The S77th Server always has enough aircraft to go around: which means 8 F-15, 8 Su-33s/27s and 8 MiG-29s. That's 48 times I have to merge.

 

Secondly, each flight is names merge_x (where x = merge #). As I only want 8 aircraft per type. It gets very confusing when you have 48 aircraft in a mission and 4 of each have the same file name. Editing them is a nightmare.

 

Third, yes waypoints are duplicated, and loadouts copied, but not events (the hardest part of making a 48 plane mission). You have to go back to each aircraft and reassign "takeoff & Land" and "attack & targets" as this doesn't transfer with the merge function. Worst of all - they even give the default altitude and speed settings and not transferring your initial settings in the original mission.

 

The only upside is the 1st plane is given "player" but subsequent fights are automatically assigned CLENT after a merge. Also, if more than 4 planes per team have the same waypoints, this does make setting them all more precise.

[GGTharos]

Has anyone tried using LOMU for this type of work by any chance?...

 

Hey, Caretaker ... didn't you write that tool? Could you maybe write a 'duplicator' for objects with their waypoints?

All it would have to do I think is assign a new flight ID or something and you could replicate it X number of times and presto ... that would simply rock.

 

This would be an absolutely excellent tool for mission makers at this point in time.

[GGTharos]

N/M that, LOMU doesn't merge stuff ... hm ...

[Skarp]

:cry:

[Caretaker]

Actually it does merge missions, but not fliights. And even that more on an "experimental" level, never tested it much...

 

To be honest I had a function in mind since months to replicate flights in one mission. Copying the same flight X times with a client setting for each would be rather trivial if I ever find the time again to dig into my old code. I never pursued this much due to a lack of feedback and time - and currently most of my Lock On time is consumed by testing.

 

But if there is interest I may have a look after 1.1 is out.

 

Skarp, even if it doesn't seem to be what you're looking for I still provide a link to it for the sake of completeness ;)

http://www.lockonskins.co.uk/index.php?page=downloads&cat=45

[GGTharos]

Cool, Caretaker ... please keep it in mind for a list of things to do ... Crimean Air Wars could -really- use a tool for merging missions compeltely, as well as flight duplication (or duplication of any one object's paths etc)