Any Aussie LogBook Mods ?

[docbrown]

Thanks! Works great, looks awesome =)

[Strut]

Just a quick note to say that i had to re-do the download for the mod, so the download will be offline for a short time, i modified the A-10C skin so that it can be used in US missions as well, this is so u can use it other than Australian missions. The mod will go back up when the moderator has completed the checks before posting on "User Files" at http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/

Edited July 3, 2013 by Strut

[Home Fries]

Brilliant mod, Strut. We fly with an Aussie who will be (in his words) gobsmacked to see this.

 

In regards to the RAAF rank names, I was able to get the RAAF ranks to display on my test character.

 

 

I did this by editing only the parenthetical entries in the db_countries.lua file:

  {
   rank('Second lieutenant', _('Pilot Officer'), 0, {0, 0, 64, 32}),
   rank('First lieutenant', _('Flying Officer'), 15, {0, 32, 64, 32}),
   rank('Captain', _('Flight Lieutenant'), 30, {0, 64, 64, 32}),
   rank('Major', _('Squadron Leader'), 60, {0, 96, 64, 32}),
   rank('Lieutenant colonel', _('Wing Commander'), 120, {0, 128, 64, 32}),
   rank('Colonel', _('Group Captain'), 240, {0, 160, 64, 32}),
 },

This likely doesn't corrupt the logbook either, because as you can see my pilot is still listed as a Second Lieutenant.

 ["picture"] = "",
           ["callsign"] = "Dude",
           ["squadron"] = "75 SQN RAAF",
           ["password"] = "d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e",
           ["rankName"] = "Second lieutenant",
           ["name"] = "Test2",

Is there anything that you have tested that would prevent this improvement? I have a mind to do this for the RAF as well if it doesn't screw anything up.

 

EDIT: One more thing.

 

If you would like me to make you a pilot and helmet to go with that Hornet skin, please let me know. I have a 2048x2048 pilot skin that works for the F/A-18 and A-10, and I have RAAF ranks for both green and desert flightsuits. I need only the squadron patch (which I can get from your mod) and the patch you want on the right arm.

Edited July 8, 2013 by Home Fries

[Strut]

Thanks Homefries, excellent work mate, will apply that asap and just to let you know, me and Aussieboy will be releasing an update soon with "Australia_RAAF" and "AUSTRALIA_ARMY" Logbooks, this way the blokes can get into the Aussie Army Aviation units, if they want, even though they dont use anything modeled in DCS yet, buts its our "flavour" , so we like it. Once again thanks very much mate, and il be sure to bounce this over to Aussie for the offer of the pilot edit.

[aussieboy]

Great work Home Fries, that fixes the ranks not showing perfectly, seamlessly even.

[aussieboy]

BTW, I'll be releasing my RAAF Huey skin tonight, I'll release the Army version after we update the logbook so it will fit straight in.

 

Here's a screen of RAAF version already to go.

[Gascan39]

Sounds great.....love having the addition of Australia in DCS World also

[LiveBait]

Thank you guys. I've been wanting something like this for ages.

[Strut]

Here ya go fella's, ive got both the logs looking as they should now, both with the help of Home Fries and the direction of Aussieboy. Here's some pics one for the RAAF and one for the Aust Army. Il get the mod out ASAP and will even have a JSGME Mod folder made up, building on Ebs good work.

 

Not sure if 2nd Lt's exist anymore , might do in Aviation for Direct entry pilots ?

 

 

[Boris]

Not sure if 2nd Lt's exist anymore , might do in Aviation for Direct entry pilots ?

 

Since all Australian Army officers go through RMC and graduate as full Lieutenants, and proper flight training starts after graduation, I'd say there's no chance of there being any 2LT pilots.

 

I understand that they have entry level cadetships now, with pilot testing done before joining up, but they too go through RMC and come out as Lieutenants.

[Strut]

Thx Boris, although what yo say is not entirely true, i knew of direct entry pilots in the early days of 5AV who never put a foot near RMC, and i was an ASWOCS Captain at the end of my career (last 6 years) which ended not all that long ago. Anyway hope the German beer is cold and the Frau's are keeping you warm ............

 

regards

[aussieboy]

After RMC-D they go to BFTS and upon completion pilot recruits are awarded their provisional Army flying badge and promoted to rank of Second Lieutenant.

 

If they want choppers then they can then go to HCC followed by HTC.

[Boris]

Thx Boris, although what yo say is not entirely true, i knew of direct entry pilots in the early days of 5AV who never put a foot near RMC, and i was an ASWOCS Captain at the end of my career (last 6 years) which ended not all that long ago.

 

Ok, so you're saying it happened back in the day? Since we're primarily talking about Hueys here, I guess it applies.

I was talking from my experience of being in the Army about 10 years ago and the situation as it is today. You won't have a 2LT flying in this day and age. At least I can't think how.

 

Anyway hope the German beer is cold and the Frau's are keeping you warm ............

 

regards

 

Thanks :thumbup: I do have a frau to keep me warm, but with the weather right now I don't need to be kept all that warm... but a cold beer is just the right thing.

 

After RMC-D they go to BFTS and upon completion pilot recruits are awarded their provisional Army flying badge and promoted to rank of Second Lieutenant.

 

If they want choppers then they can then go to HCC followed by HTC.

 

When was this? After graduating RMC-D you're a Lieutenant already.

[Home Fries]

Gents, another question:

 

When you do Army and RAAF separate entries, do you need to make them separate countries, or can they both be "AUS" but with separate entries, medals, et. al.?

 

I ask because you guys inspired me to do a US Navy mod, and without wanting to add the USN as another country that couldn't just use "USA", I just swapped out the ranks and shoulderboards using the method posted previously (activating the mod with JSGME or ModMan), and I'm currently working on the medals. Right now it's that way , but if there's a way to do put both under "USA" this might be a long term solution (at least until the DCS F/A-18C is released, in which case both mods are likely obsolete).

Another thought: if I end up adding USN and releasing it, we should coordinate/integrate our mods. I currently have this logbook mod released, which is fully compatible with your own, but I would be more likely to roll my USN mod into it one if this goes further, in which case a full integration makes a lot of sense.

Edited July 8, 2013 by Home Fries
added screenshot of USN mod

[Strut]

Gents, another question:

 

When you do Army and RAAF separate entries, do you need to make them separate countries, or can they both be "AUS" but with separate entries, medals, et. al.?

 

Another thought: if I end up adding USN and releasing it, we should coordinate/integrate our mods. I currently have this logbook mod released, which is fully compatible with your own, but I would be more likely to roll my USN mod into it one if this goes further, in which case a full integration makes a lot of sense.

 

HomeFries, first question - yes they are separate Lua files, when our mod gets released you will see the structure.

 

Second question: got no probs with integrating the mods, if its better to do that then we should.

 

Will try to get the new Army/RAAF mod out tonight. And thanks for helping out mate.:thumbup:

[aussieboy]

Hi Home Fries, sorry for the delay in replying.

 

I added them as separate countries, wasn't ideal but it did the job. Unless ED added another drop box for the countries to allow more categories I can't see another way around it.

 

For skins too, you need the different entries for the description.lua to differentiate between them.

[Home Fries]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

 

Some interesting developments:

When you get promoted, The new ranking system actually shows up in the logbook:

            ["rankName"] = "Second lieutenant",
           ["rank"] = "Ensign",

rankName is the important one, and keeping this as the defaults is key. "rank" appears in the logbook, but if you change countries you'll still see the rank as it appears in db_countries. However, the logbook is changed, so this is worth pointing out.

 

Second, and along similar lines, I ran into a small problem with the medals when doing it "my way". While the graphics get updated with the updated medals, the medals must be earned as part of that mod in order to display correctly with text. This is because DCS puts the names of the medals into the logbook as well as the entry, so when you hover your mouse over the medal you will see its description from the logbook.lua, not db_countries.lua.

 

Here's an example of my logbook:

                [2] = 
               {
                   [6] = "Silver Star",
                   [2] = "Purple Heart",
                   [8] = "Medal of Honour",
                   [3] = "Bronze Star",
                   [1] = "Air Medal",
                   [4] = "Airmans Medal",
                   [5] = "Distinguished Flying Cross",
                   [7] = "Air Force Cross",
               }, -- end of [2]

Of note, db_countries now says "Air Force Medal of Honour" instead of just "Medal of Honour", so I assume this was a fairly recent change from ED to prep for the Hornet, and I must have received the MoH with the old LUA.

 

And here's what the new db_countries with the USN mod should read:

  {
   award('Navy Achievement Medal', _('Air Medal'), 200, 'NavyAchievementMedal.png'),
   award('Navy Commendation Medal', _('Purple Heart'), 600, 'NavyCommendationMedal.png'),
   award('Air Medal', _('Bronze Star'), 1000, 'US-01-AirMedal.png'),
   award('Distinguished Flying Cross', _('Airmans Medal'), 1400, 'US-05-DistinguishedFlyingCross.png'),
   award('Legion of Merit', _('Distinguished Flying Cross'), 1800, 'LegionofMerit.png'),
   award('Silver Star', _('Silver Star'), 2200, 'US-06-SilverStar.png'),
   award('Navy Cross', _('Air Force Cross'), 2600, 'NavyCross.png'),
   award('Navy Force Medal of Honor', _('Air Force Medal of Honour'), 3000, 'NavyMedalOfHonor.png'),
 },

Finally, here's a graphic of the logbook so you can see the problem with doing it "my way":

You can't see the cursor, but it's hovering over the Navy & Marine Corps Commendation Medal (NCM, the green and white one), but it's showing as "Purple Heart" because that's the [2] entry displayed in the logbook. Of course, going in and changing these in the logbook will work just fine, but the point is that using a GME/ModMan swap between USN and USAF isn't as clean as I thought it would be.

 

Another thought: can we have multiple countries for the logbook without affecting people who don't use the mod, so long as we keep a single country in the MissionEditor (i.e. can have "AUS" and "AUS-RAAF" as countries, but only assign "AUS" in aircraft and ME defaults)? This would solve the problem of having skinners tweak their aircraft to the mods, yet would allow personalization in the logbook because the country in the logbook doesn't matter as far as in-mission countries go.

Edited July 10, 2013 by Home Fries
technical clarity

[Home Fries]

Some more discoveries with medals. Sorry to brain-dump in your thread, but this seems the best place to share knowledge.

 

The earlier entry in db_countries.lua was done the following way because medals achieved under the "old lua" weren't displaying (with the exception of the Silver Star, which didn't change in name or precedence).

{
   award('Navy Achievement Medal', _('Air Medal'), 200, 'NavyAchievementMedal.png'),
   award('Navy Commendation Medal', _('Purple Heart'), 600, 'NavyCommendationMedal.png'),
   award('Air Medal', _('Bronze Star'), 1000, 'US-01-AirMedal.png'),
   award('Distinguished Flying Cross', _('Airmans Medal'), 1400, 'US-05-DistinguishedFlyingCross.png'),
   award('Legion of Merit', _('Distinguished Flying Cross'), 1800, 'LegionofMerit.png'),
   award('Silver Star', _('Silver Star'), 2200, 'US-06-SilverStar.png'),
   award('Navy Cross', _('Air Force Cross'), 2600, 'NavyCross.png'),
   award('Navy Force Medal of Honor', _('Air Force Medal of Honour'), 3000, 'NavyMedalOfHonor.png'),
},

You may notice that this is the reverse of how the entries were changed with the ranks. Doing this allowed old medals to show, but predictably displayed the name of the original medal (and updated the logbook as such) when a new medal was earned.

 

Here's a screenshot. The medal should ideally read "Navy Achievement Medal", but reads "Air Medal" instead.

Changing it to the following (putting the new entry in parenthesis) allows it to update properly in the logbook, but we still have the problem of "hiding" the old medals.

  {
   award('Air Medal', _('Navy Achievement Medal'), 200, 'NavyAchievementMedal.png'),
   award('Purple Heart', _('Navy Commendation Medal'), 600, 'NavyCommendationMedal.png'),
   award('Bronze Star', _('Air Medal'), 1000, 'US-01-AirMedal.png'),
   award('Airmans Medal', _('Distinguished Flying Cross'), 1400, 'US-05-DistinguishedFlyingCross.png'),
   award('Distinguished Flying Cross', _('Legion Of Merit'), 1800, 'LegionofMerit.png'),
   award('Silver Star', _('Silver Star'), 2200, 'US-06-SilverStar.png'),
   award('Air Force Cross', _('Navy Cross'), 2600, 'NavyCross.png'),
   award('Air Force Medal of Honour', _('Navy Medal of Honor'), 3000, 'NavyMedalOfHonor.png'),
 },

Now I'm beginning to wonder what the purpose of the first field is (the text without parentheses), since displayed medals are based on comparing the logbook to the parenthetical text.

 

Anyway, none of this is likely an issue if you do a separate country, but this is just information on how the LUA files work (or don't work).

 

EDIT: Besides, I'm thinking about doing this for the USAF as well (ED screwed the pooch on US medals, with the exception of the top 4 and the Air Medal). If I do this, it will need to be integrated with your mod whether I release USN or not, and people will have the same issues unless they manually update their logbook entries.

Edited July 9, 2013 by Home Fries

[aussieboy]

The first entry probably relates to the .dlg side if not it could be used as a container.

There's a bit of info to process so I'll run some tests first before making further comment.

[Strut]

Home Fries: Are we building a replacement 'Logbook' ? or a 'mod'? I think maybe this will help to answer your questions. I think the way to go is to treat each service of the country we want included as an 'individual country'. This way the mod doesn't get to be a monstrous file swap. So maybe as the 'need' increases or more like minded desk pilots develop their own country more 'individual country's' will be added to the 'mod' ether. Lets say if someone wants to be a " collector" and have all the possible Air Forces, Naval and Army Aviation elements then this is still better, if you only want a mod to get your favorite 'Air Arm' then its better, If we treat this mod this way it seems to me we solve the small problems like 'gongs' and rank names. just a thought,,,,,,:thumbup:

[Home Fries]

Interesting thoughts, Strut. I'm curious to see how you did the Australian Army. Did you do a full integration like you did with RAAF, or did you just add it to db_countries (along with the folders, et al) and leave them out of the orders of battle?

 

The latter is ideally what I would like to do with the US Navy. This would give it the flexibility it needs as its own "nation" without having to mess with adding a redundant nation to the OOB.

 

EDIT: The mods will still need to be integrated, though, as they will use a common db_countries.lua.

Edited July 10, 2013 by Home Fries

[Strut]

Not fully integrated, the Australia_Army and Australia_RAAF folder for instance contain the medals, unit insignia and stripes(rank). The thing is that both use files common to the logbook and combine to give you a Army and RAAF logbook.

[Home Fries]

Look forward to seeing it.

[Strut]

Had some trouble with the "Common Lua", we have fixed and replaced it, the kills, and landings and maybe some other things weren't being reported properly.

 

So ive repacked and updated the Zip file and u can DL here. il remove from the DCS location with reference to come here to DL, that way we can iron the bugs out without having to piss off moderators loading this file all the time .

 

This file is good to go as from 11 Jul 13:thumbup:

Please dl both files and read directions

 

 

Links Removed

Edited July 18, 2013 by Strut

[Gascan39]

Really opens up my mind to all of the possibilities based off this great work. In theory, I guess we could add any nation, USSR, Greece, Sweden. Outstanding.