Training Grounds v1.00 - A "Shooting Gallery" look alike

[ESzczesniak]

I don't know about others, but I did much of my weapons training and familiarization using the "Shooting Gallery" mission on Nevada. Now that We no longer have this map, I needed a replacement where I can train without things shooting back.

 

This mission in it's current state is quite early in development, but I thought I'd share it here now both to make it available to others and to get feedback for additions and bugs to fix. I'd like to morph this in to a sort of ultimate training mission where you can practice nearly anything.

 

Current setup/design philosophy:

-There are no dedicated red force anti-air defenses: Feel free to train without fear of retribution (although if you're close enough, the BMP's will shoot at you).

-Ancillary support training: AWACS and a KC-135 are placed in the mission so that you may practice communications and refuelling.

-Variety: There is one static bunker and a mix of trucks, BMP, tanks, helicopter (harmless Mi-8's) and SMERCHes.

-Easy to find targets: in theme of the old "Shooting Gallery" mission, targets are at waypoints appropriately named.

-You can practice everything: Ramp start, refueling, attack profiles, ILS/visual landing.

-Familiarity: targets are all near (but not on) the abandoned airfield used in the training missions.

-Short transit times: no need to spend 35 minutes flying to the target for 15 minutes of practice.

 

Plans for the future:

-Addition of moving ground targets to practice point tracking versus area tracking on the TGP.

-Addition/refinement of more airbase "environment" (there's just a few static aircraft right now).

-Addition of fixed wing A2A targets (maybe).

-Possible revision of the current waypoints used to mark target locations. My thoughts would be to make these mission points outside of the flight plan. With this you could switch to the mission points to easily find your targets or keep your flight plan up and rely on JTAC targeting or markpoints in a more realistic fashion.

-Addition of a "hostile zone" in the opposite direction of all the targets (to the north instead of the south) with active AAA/SAM to practive missile evasion tactics.

-Possible addition of a wingman pending feedback (my wingman in Shooting Gallery just annoyed me, so I've left them out for now)

 

Known Bugs:

-The current group of trucks at waypoint "convoy" are oriented perpendicular to the road instead of parallel.

-Tanker pilot is on crack. Need to figure out why he's orbiting on a race track at 2,000' MSL.

 

Please report any bugs you as well as suggestions for new additions and/or refinement of the current mission. I will continue to update this mission and upload it here. Once this mission is relatively stable, I'll add a version with IFR weather and a night mission for further training.

 

Change log:

v1.01

-Added briefing information

-Removed erroneous A-10C's on bunker roofs

-Added some additional static aircraft

 

v1.02

-Added JTAC with tasking

-Tried to smooth out tanker track

Training Grounds.miz

Edited November 21, 2010 by ESzczesniak
Updated Mission

[Atomic978]

Thanks I will give it a try.. I really enjoyed the Shooting Gallery mission as well, Now all we need is a jtac added to practice the radio more..

[dane48]

Much appreciated. I will be giving this a try also. I thank all that have made missions and tutorials

[Yanouk]

Thanks a lot!

 

That sounds like I really good Training Ground and lots of fun!

 

Cheers

Tom

[DaveG]

Thanks for this. :thumbup:

[ESzczesniak]

Uploaded a newer version with JTAC (untested) added.

[Steel Jaw]

Thanx bud will give it a try tonite.

[ESzczesniak]

I finally made my first real flight on this mission (despite having made it). The embedded JTAC worked flawlessly tasking all vehicle groups and even requesting reasonable weapons accounting for what I had left.

 

AWACS and airport comms were excellent as well. However, the tanker pilot is some random as cowboy. I thought I had him set to be orbiting at 15,000' MSL, but he's down on the deck in his tanker orbit. Will have to work on this.

 

Additionally, the JTAC doesn't task you to destroy the bunker (no option to do so, would love to try that with buddy lasing from JTAC). I had placed the bunker with the intent of using it to practice force correlate on the mavericks. This bunker is quite poor for that use, so I will likely change this building.

 

Will see what I can do about these couple of issues and upload a new mission when they are solved. If anyone has suggestions on the tanker track, let me know.

[rss0900]

Cant even load this one using 64 or 32 bit .exe Tried compatiability mode, running as admin - still crashes on load. Can only play about 2 minutes of shooting ground mission and then crash.. Beta 3, vista 64 - missions free roam work fine.

 

 

Problem signature:

Problem Event Name: APPCRASH

Application Name: dcs.exe

Application Version: 1.1.0.1

Application Timestamp: 4cddb523

Fault Module Name: Terrain.dll

Fault Module Version: 1.1.0.1

Fault Module Timestamp: 4cdd706c

Exception Code: c0000005

Exception Offset: 00000000000210d0

OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.256.1

Locale ID: 1033

Additional Information 1: 0612

Additional Information 2: 393282a36bbac05d00f2e74dfed80f03

Additional Information 3: bac0

Additional Information 4: 20019c299d6d5ac5b8e2b145509b987c

[kylania]

Yeah, I was getting a lot of lockups, hiccups and eventually a crash with this too. Which is really odd since there's really nothing complex about this mission and not that much active AI.

Edited November 22, 2010 by kylania

[ESzczesniak]

Odd, I haven't even had a stutter the two times I've played it so far. What are you guys systems like? Also, I assume everyone having problems is trying this in beta 3?

Edited November 22, 2010 by ESzczesniak

[kylania]

Odd, I haven't even had a stutter the two times I've played it so far. What are you guys systems like? Also, I assume everyone having problems is trying this in beta 3?

 

iCore 7 920, 6GB RAM, Nvidia 470 GTX. Normally get 60FPS in normal flight. And yes, beta 3 (though it's Beta 1 patched to 2 patched to 3 if that matters).

[ESzczesniak]

iCore 7 920, 6GB RAM, Nvidia 470 GTX. Normally get 60FPS in normal flight. And yes, beta 3 (though it's Beta 1 patched to 2 patched to 3 if that matters).

 

I wish I had any ideas why we have such a difference. I have your system with the i7 overclocked to 3.5 GHz and a GTX 285. I doubt it'll be much different, but I'll upload the latest version I've been tweaking when I get home from work. None of the changes should be performance issues though.

[Geskes]

I will grab your mission and give it a try tonight. Many thanks for the efforts in creating it.

 

Yeah, I was getting a lot of lockups, hiccups and eventually a crash with this too. Which is really odd since there's really nothing complex about this mission and not that much active AI.

 

I've noticed that even the smallest amount of AI can cause crashes. I had been flying acrobatics and patterns and so on for hours on end in an otherwise empty mission. It didnt crash once. Then I add 3 APC's and a Shilka and it crashes.

[609 Avatar]

I just tried it and it crashed when I was closing in on waypoint 4. :(

[jon123]

thank you for your work Still trying to get my head around this sim

[allstrong]

Thanks this is awesome, just one question, is there any way to change the mission to a runway start ?

[ESzczesniak]

Thanks this is awesome, just one question, is there any way to change the mission to a runway start ?

 

You should be able to open the mission in the ME, select the lone A-10 (your aircraft) at the airport on the ramp and then switch the action from "takeoff from ramp" to "takeoff from runway". Save and you should be able to go.

[allstrong]

Thank you will give it a try.