making active CAS calls by triggers

[jeffyd123]

Hi ME Gods :worthy::worthy::worthy::worthy::worthy:

 

Im thinking of making a mission where 1 - 4 A-10s are providing CAS to an infantry unit that is being attacked by enemy infantry.

they are danger close so no bombs, rockets or missles can be used... only guns.

 

What I want to do is have up to 20 different sound files that activate when the A-10 is closing in... giving directions and showing the adrenaline of the troops on the ground. also saying when the hits are good or when they can depart, etc.

 

Im thinking of tailoring the sounds even more by having the troops say something like " I can see you approaching from the east" (or west, etc) by using a group of triggers that surround the battle area.

 

My primary questions are:

1. is this the best way to do this (with multiple triggers around the AO)

 

2. is there anyway the audio can be sent by radio or just "sound to..."

 

any ideas from the gurus :worthy::worthy::worthy::worthy: would be very welcomed.

 

I attached a preliminary audio mock up (.ogg format) to see what you guys think.

 

thanks so much

 

Jeff

CAS gunfight sample2.zip

Edited May 16, 2011 by jeffyd123

[nomdeplume]

For #1, that seems the simplest. However there's some limitations... you can probably somehow track if anything is killed in the target area to report if rounds are on target, but there's no triggers to detect misses so you can advise which way to adjust aim.

 

This might be better suited to a full-on Lua script implementation. Maybe Speed's bored and looking for a project? :D

 

For #2 no, but I hope it'll come in a future upgrade/module.

[Speed]

This kind of thing is tough to do, but I think it can be done. The best end result would come through a combination of lua scripting and mission editor triggers.

 

Anyway, you can use "UNIT IN ZONE" trigger conditions to say stuff like, "I see you coming in from the west".

 

As far as having good hits or not, that's ALOT trickier. The only way to do it in the mission editor is to just detect if the enemy units are taking damage or not. No way to call for adjusting fire unless you damage specific units and you make a million triggers. And there's no way for the ME to tell if YOU did the damage to the enemy, or the friendly ground forces did the damage to the enemy.

 

With extensive lua knowledge and scripting, a lot more possibilities open up. Some day, I'd like to look at making a "weapons impacting in zone" script, as I THINK it's possible. Every bullet appears to get an id, and it may be possible to get the location of that bullet in a lua script, track its flight, and determine the impact point. But yea... you'd have to make a script that harvests that data real-time from the debrief.log file fast enough to get the bullet before it impacts, and track it. There is a lua function that is land.getIP(), and since I have never tested that function, who knows- maybe it stands for "impact point". Almost certainly not, but it's a faint hope.

 

But yea, with the near total lack of crew-served weapons and poor infantry AI, the infantry simulation in DCS A-10 is lacking (and according to this thread, it seems some people don't even seem to care http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=69423 ), and thus, I have never made any infantry CAS missions.

Edited May 16, 2011 by Speed

[jeffyd123]

Ok guys thank you very much for the info.

 

I was hoping to have the blue forces call out "Blue on Blue" if the rounds hit them.... but its no biggie. I guess I could have a message come up saying if they died or not and since I plan on having only about 8 of them I can trigger them and end the mission if they all die.

 

Im gonna experiment with it and see what happens... I'll report back here for reference.

 

Im hoping to employ random unit placement too... Illl build the miz in stages and see what happens.

 

thanks again ME Gods:worthy::worthy::worthy::worthy:

[jeffyd123]

OkiDoki...

 

Tried using four triggers surrounding the AO and it does fire off messages as expected but I dont want it to fire off the other triggers as I fly through them. (Meaning if I fly from the north, I only want to fire off the North trigger and not the South trigger as I exit the area)

 

I got this to work by setting "Time Since Flag" settings but when flying with MP Pilots no triggers were fired off at all.

 

Also Im trying to "re-Light" the smoke markers and not having any luck with a switched condition trigger.

 

Ive attached the .miz if the ME Gods:worthy::worthy::worthy::worthy: want to take a look at my Lowly work LOL. (Ive got the random unit script in there so ignore those)

 

thanks guys for any advice

 

Jeff

Get Home.miz

Edited May 18, 2011 by jeffyd123

[jeffyd123]

alrighty,

 

Got it working thanks to Strong Harm....

Had to change the triggers to "unit" instead of group.

 

Got the smoke firing off now but I had to change the order of its trigger to to the first position or it had delays.... gonna be interesting to see how this goes as I add other AOs.

 

Timings need various tweaks but all of the triggers have audio/message indicators to help me visualize what its going to sound like.

 

Linked it if anyone cares

 

Jeff

Get Home.miz

Edited May 18, 2011 by jeffyd123

[LeadTurn_SD]

Thanks jeffyd123, I'll give it a try. I'm just beginning to use the mission builder, so I do really appreciate looking at (and flying!!) the missions the more experienced folks are making.

 

Best wishes.

[jeffyd123]

kewl lead... its just in a very crude state but you can fly around and kill bad guys in it and see how the triggers work.

 

note the scripts for random unit placement... they have nothing to do with my CAS calls.

[SmokeyTheLung]

jeffyd,

 

I like where your head is at, will try when I get back home.

[jeffyd123]

well some more ME annoyances...

 

I broke the flags up into different numbers to test some different timings and now all kinds of things are porked.

 

1. the smoke fires off but doesnt show up half the time... it also stops after 30 seconds or so. weird.

 

2. the random CAS call trigger either works JUST on the timer or not at all (with "random" in there as a 2nd condition. works on 100% or not at all on any other number).

 

3. the "disperse under fire" function for the enemy AI works on 1 group but not the other. cool when it works though.

 

gonna be a pain to get this working right I thonk.

[jeffyd123]

update:

 

smoke is still acting strange but working most of the time

 

Random CAS call trigger is working good now (15 sec flag delay, random @ 8, 2KM inclusion radius around AO). Also needed an init trigger to start the flag timer

 

Added an AFAC and a JTAC to test things... neither are working right. Most likely me. Im interested in testing out the AFAC more... he gave me a bullseye call once but hasnt since.

 

Attached the latest .miz

Get Home-testv01.miz