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Dynamic Campaign Engine


MBot

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Hi. Thanks’ a lot for your great work. The ‘mini’ Wild Weasel Campaign, is great!

If possible, may I make a suggestion? Wouldn’t be easier to place the ‘DCE Campaigns’, on the “/Mods/campaigns/” folder? Regards.

 

*A Mirage/Harrier Wild Weasel Campaign would be fun too…

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If that happens you can run DEBUG_DebriefMission.bat manually. In this case, the error message should persist and hopefully provide a pointer to where the problem is.

 

It´s happened again, see submitted images.

 

In the mission, I destroyed three parked aircrafts. Two AI SU-30 bombed some shelters. First pass they bombed one shelter each, the second run they bombed the same shelter. (On several attack runs the AI seems to attack the same target on the second run).

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  • 2 weeks later...

One (more) question for Mbot. Is there a way to make player's aircraft arrival timing a scripted modificated option ? Or if not, can it be possible to have a refuel waypoint available (in option) before crossing the frontline when player need it with some small planes (like Mirage 2000C) It can really be more immersive. Actual settings don't allow players to take off quicker to go refuelling before making an escort or a strike with Escort.

I know it was a discussed subject long time ago and I think you reduced this timing but it could be really nice (and realistic) to be able to refuel so allowing to change manually the timing in scripts or allowing to make refuel with specific waypoints when needed can be a good solution to have an even more flexible DCE :thumbup:


Edited by PB0_CEF

[/url]All known Dynamic Campaign Engine Campaigns

Last DCE news : Crisis in PG - Blue version

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If I remember correctly, I think there are in fact two variables in camp_init that control how much time AI flights and the player get for start up. You could use this to give you some more headroom to hit a tanker, but of course this would be applied to every mission.

 

To problem with including tankers into mission planning is that it requires very detailed planning for fuel: When is a tanker needed for whom, how much time is needed to refuel. This in turn requires detailed data about available fuel and fuel flow (depending on speed, altitude and weight) for every aircraft type. This would be very difficult to automate. I don't remember even Falcon 4 having tankers as part of a specific mission plans (other than hand-crafted).

 

What I could imagine for the future is an Escort Tanker support task. Adding them to packages would be controlled in the loadout (required support) of the strike asset, so you could set up long-range loadouts and link them to long range targets via the attributes. The whole thing would then be set up that the tanker flies within the package, at let's say 1/3 of the route package members start to refuel while continuing to cruise along the route until the tanker is empty and returns home. All of this would be canned without any specific fuel calculations and would be pretty easy to implement. A problem might be to let AI only take a little fuel each and not have the first aircraft suck the tanker dry (which I am not sure is possible).

 

Let's wait and see. Without maps that really need refueling yet and without any suitable escort tankers (buddy refueling, KA-6), it doesn't make much sense yet.

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Thanks for this answer Mbot :).

The first solution should be enough to wait until suitable planes are available. Only one more question :

If I want to have time to refuel with my flight before joining AI planes, I suppose I have to give more time to my flight so that the mission will start for me well before AI start ? So if I want to give me 10 minutes to start/taxi/take off Mirage 2000C and 20 minutes to refuel I should give 1800 seconds to my flight and less to AI : 180 for example ? (not really sure :doh: )

[/url]All known Dynamic Campaign Engine Campaigns

Last DCE news : Crisis in PG - Blue version

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Yes that would be the basic idea. Of course you would have to ignore your own waypoint timing in the flight plan, as it would expect you to take off 30 minutes after mission start. For the timing for the AI you have to play around a little to find the right balance, as the time required to taxi and take-off is dependent on the airbase size and current traffic. That is the reason it is a variable, so you can nudge it to work best on your own homebase and expected package sizes (of course it won't work equally well for units based at other airfields). Better be on the long side than on the short side. After take-off all planes orbit the airbase to form up and the timer controls when to depart the orbit. If there is too little time allocated, flights start to push without everyone having taken off and formed up. With some more time, flights simply orbit longer.

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Yes that would be the basic idea. Of course you would have to ignore your own waypoint timing in the flight plan, as it would expect you to take off 30 minutes after mission start.

 

I don't understand this ... If the normal take off time for player (to be able to make the mission with other AI flights) is for example 12:30 I though it will not change but that the player will appear 30 minutes before this timing (12:00) and so will be able to do what he wants (like refuelling) until the time has come to join the normal flightplan ... Am I wrong ?

[/url]All known Dynamic Campaign Engine Campaigns

Last DCE news : Crisis in PG - Blue version

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You are right, and this effectively means you ignore your flightplan. If the flightplan calls for mission start at 12:00, take off at 12:30, Join Point at 12:33 etc., you ignore your flightplan by taking off at 12:05 to hit the tanker and meeting your package somewhere on the way.

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Firstable thank you Mbot for your answer : It works perfectly, I now have all the time I need to start my M-2000C and even to refuel before going to war with my AI wingmen :thumbup:

One more question : Is it possible to put my own attributs in targetlist and loadouts files for strike missions or is it a strict list of predefine words like Bunker, Scud, etc... ?


Edited by PB0_CEF

[/url]All known Dynamic Campaign Engine Campaigns

Last DCE news : Crisis in PG - Blue version

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You can define your own attributes to your heart's content. If you assign a target the attribute "Candy Attack", then any loadout that also has the attribute "Candy Attack" will be eligible. Loadout can also have multiple attributes to be eligible against various targets.

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I am still contemplating how to go ahead. I am having a lot of fun with the AV-8B lately and it is a very cool aircraft. But being heavily geared towards CAS, it doesn't work particularly well with DCE, which is strike orientated. A prototypical Harrier campaign, with amphibious landings, V/STOL operations, FARPs and CAS missions is probably best achieved through a highly scripted linear campaign.

 

A Desert Storm style dynamic campaign set in Nevada revolving around the Kuwaiti kill-boxes might work, as the Iraqi army was basically deployed statically in the desert. But for this to be fun I feel we would need to have more suitable air defense, especially AAA such as the 57mm S-60 guns and also 37mm. Less deadly MANPADS such as SA-7 and SA-14 would also be desirable.

 

Could you set up some missions CAS-style where players would check in for tasking and a random ground group would request CAS support against fixed emplacements? You could repeat this process for 4 or 5 AOs, where the player also has the option of hitting a tanker in-between or hot refuel/rearm at a FARP, checking in and out at will for tasking.

 

I would certainly be interested in a Harrier campaign

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Hallo, can you please tell me how the weather is managed during the campaign ???

 

I'm more than 20 missions into "Screaming Eagle" and the weather has always been clear, no clouds, no wind... I'd like to change it and i tried modifying the weather tab in the base_mission.miz but it does not work.

 

Maybe I have to change the % of hi-low pressure probability in the camp_init.lua ???

How can I set custom weather ???

 

Awesome mod !!! :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

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Maybe I have to change the % of hi-low pressure probability in the camp_init.lua ???

How can I set custom weather ???

 

That is indeed the way to do it. It will only start to take effect once you have generated a new First Mission.

 

I set my campaigns to all clear weather because during the last year clouds produced a hard performance hit. Perhaps that is something to reconsider after 2.5.

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Is it possible to make a campaign with no human players? Could be useful for testing when your own flying skills are not the best :) Also, kind of fun to just watch.

 

I seem to have done that by accident, can't join any a/c in the flight. They just don't spawn and the mission goes on as normal....

 

If I find out what I did, I'll let you know

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I'm doing it often to test my DCE campaigns modifications. If the human mission is strike, you must be sure to have at least 2 strikers flights for the target so you stay on the ground and watch AI making the job...To be sure to have enough flights you must change power needed to attack targets in target list.lua (firepower)

 

 

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Edited by PB0_CEF

[/url]All known Dynamic Campaign Engine Campaigns

Last DCE news : Crisis in PG - Blue version

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Thank you !!! so no other parameter ??? no fine tuning of clouds, rain snow etc ???

 

Yes, you only input probability of high or low pressure system dominance. There is a simple meteorological model that will generate appropriate weather. High pressure dominance will create clear and calm weather. Low pressure dominance will create random warm or cold fronts and warm/cold sector weather behind the fronts. Due to the way the static weather is handled in DCS, weather will of course be uniform across the map. But it will correspond to in what stage a passing front is on the campaign level.

 

Weather will also affect the ATO. Aircraft that are not adverse weather capable need to have a minimum visibility at their airbase and an attack altitude below sold overcast, otherwise they will not be tasked with missions. Adverse weather capable aircraft are tasked in any weather. If the player aircraft is not adverse weather capable, you will not see any foul weather, as the campaign time will fast forward until the weather improves to allow operations again.

 

I am no meteorologist, so there is probably considerable room for improvement in the weather model.

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One (more :music_whistling: ) question to Mbot about laser illumination. Looking for all the possible missions for aircrafts I saw this one as a support task like SEAD missions. I thought it could be really interesting for Mirage 2000C air to ground missions. I created F-16 loadout with Laser Pod and Mirage 2000C with GBU-12 loadout and laser illumination support. It worked really well for AI, they used their GBU-12 to destroy all the targets. Not really sure that the F-16 illumination position is realistic but at least Mirage 2000C can use the GBU :thumbup:

My question is about human pilot : how can I interact with F-16 illuminator ? I was part of a flight attacking an airbase with 10 targets but it was impossible for me to know which one was illuminated . I tryed to launch my GBU on possible targets but my bombs never get the laser beam. AI Mirage had no problems with that. Isn't it possible to have an airborn JTAC routine like in some existing scripts ?

[/url]All known Dynamic Campaign Engine Campaigns

Last DCE news : Crisis in PG - Blue version

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This is implemented quite simple. From IP to Egress Point, the laser illumination aircraft will point a laser at the first target element. If it gets destroyed, the laser will immediately switch to the next element. That is really all there is to it. As you can see this is not meant for loitering and pickling against a large number of individual targets, but to support a single strike. It should work rather well against a bridge for example, where the laser can switch from one span to the next as they get destroyed.

 

Did you tune your LGB to the laser code that is mentioned in the briefing?

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