Mission Editor Questions

[FBW]

1. I am trying to add some static F-15 on my map, only found out that I can not change the skin on the Static objects. I have some nice F-15 Skins for my playable aircrafts, but i would like to put them on all Static F-15s as well. Is there a way to change the skin on Static Aircrafts? can i put payloads on Static Aircrafts?

 

2. I realized that if i assign a AI Aircraft Group, they fly in a straight line instead of the regular Wedge formation, is there any way to change the formation of AI aircrafts? (no i am not talking about my wingman).

 

3. When i assign an AI Aircraft group to take off from the ramp, it can not be found when i enters the game. Do i have to take off first before AI aircraft takes off?

 

4. Is there any way to make my pilot exit the aircraft? if i press ALT+I, the AI will takes over my aircraft and start to taxi it down the ramp.....

[Exorcet]

1. I am trying to add some static F-15 on my map, only found out that I can not change the skin on the Static objects. I have some nice F-15 Skins for my playable aircrafts, but i would like to put them on all Static F-15s as well. Is there a way to change the skin on Static Aircrafts? can i put payloads on Static Aircrafts?

 

2. I realized that if i assign a AI Aircraft Group, they fly in a straight line instead of the regular Wedge formation, is there any way to change the formation of AI aircrafts? (no i am not talking about my wingman).

 

3. When i assign an AI Aircraft group to take off from the ramp, it can not be found when i enters the game. Do i have to take off first before AI aircraft takes off?

 

4. Is there any way to make my pilot exit the aircraft? if i press ALT+I, the AI will takes over my aircraft and start to taxi it down the ramp.....

 

 

1. ?

 

2. ?

 

3. Yes, you must take off

 

4. ?

[crazyeddie]

1. The static aircraft takes one of the skins from the available selection, and one only, and you cannot change which one unless you change the whole selection around in the Temp Textures file. If your current static has skin #1 and you want it to have say skin #4 then you have to change that around, not complicated to do, just takes some time, and if the aircraft uses multiple skins it can be almost impossible to do because some aircraft share some skins. You end up with the wrong colour wings or wrong pylons, and working out which ones you need TAKES A LOT OF TIME. No loadouts.

2. Don't think so, they fly Ech Right and that's it until they start doing whatever they set out to do then the AI takes over.

4. Don't think so, why would you want him/her to leave whilst in transit ?

[Brit_Radar_Dude]

Basically, if you have more than one GROUP assigned to an airfield then the 2nd GROUP won't appear until all of the 1st GROUP have taken off and cleared the immediate vicinity of the airfield.

 

The way round this is to make sure you are all in the same GROUP. Suppose you want an F-16 pair to do some SAM suppression and you are their escort in an F-15. Make the F-16 pair be one FLIGHT and you in the other FLIGHT. Of course you will share the same waypoints, make sure you are set to takeoff from parking area. Even though you share the same waypoints (of course your F-15 doesn't have to follow them), you can be allocated different TASKS and even assigned different TARGET's from ATTACK waypoints.

 

Alternatively, there are some bases very close to others, so you can have AI taking off from a neighbouring base.

 

A problem you might find with certain airbases is that your own player aircraft will start in one part of the base, all the AI might be clear across on the other side of the base. It depends on the base, the size of the aircraft - small AI jets will start from a HAS (hardened aircraft shelter) if there are any on the base. Also on some bases, the taxi time from the starting position (HAS or parking spot) to the runway can be a long time, the AI taxi at a fixed speed that you cannot alter. The taxi time can vary from a couple of minutes to over ten minutes! I made an investigation into this - Taxi time link

 

By placing static object aircraft to occupy parking spots, it is possible (but somewhat tedious) to amend which spots you/AI start on.

 

Hope this helps....

[FBW]

Thanks a lot BRD, since you mentioned parking spot, that raised another question. How does the russian style parking spot works? there are lines and arcs, but it seems that they do not represent any type of parking spot at all. When i appears on the ramp, my airplane can be anywhere, over the line, right in the middle of the arcs, or neither. so when i organize my static object and put the aircrafts right on the white line, sometimes my F-15 overlap them.

 

there are a lots of hangers in my home airfield, but somehow i can't put aircrafts in them. whenever i put one right over a hanger in the mission editor, they appears directly over the hanger instead of stay inside. Any ideas?:joystick:

 

I know i should just put my f-15 on the runway and throttle up, instead of think about taxi all the way down the runway, but i would like to add some realism to my campaign......:helpsmilie::music_whistling:

[Exorcet]

Na, I like starting from the parking area. It's just that you don't know how long the AI will take to taxi (unless you refer to Brit Radar Dude, thanks) and by the time your last wingman takes off, you are so far away that he will use all his fuel on afterburn trying to reach you.

[Brit_Radar_Dude]

How does the russian style parking spot works? ......... when i organize my static object and put the aircrafts right on the white line, sometimes my F-15 overlap them.

No idea, I'm afraid. It is trial and error I think to get your statics where you want them.

 

there are a lots of hangers in my home airfield, but somehow i can't put aircrafts in them. whenever i put one right over a hanger in the mission editor, they appears directly over the hanger instead of stay inside. Any ideas?

Never tried this myself. I can only guess from what you said that it is not possible to put them inside.

 

I know i should just put my f-15 on the runway and throttle up, instead of think about taxi all the way down the runway, but i would like to add some realism to my campaign......:helpsmilie::music_whistling:

If you want a few ideas about how to make an airbase "come more alive" just with a few statics and a few moving vehicles, check out the missions made by a guy called MBot - he does a pretty good job of it in his missions. Link to MBot mission pack at LockonFiles

[Vekkinho]

...and to answer your question, no, the static aircraft/helicopters can not be loaded with weapons in LOFC...

 

So the only way to have "statics" with payload on the parking areas is to make a flight that would land as soon as the mission starts and if there's no HAS at the airfield they're landing at they'll park on the parking area. This way you can see static planes with weapons in the parking!