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MBot

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The path must also be altered in the cmp-file, located in the campaigns folder. Also, check the numbers of ..\ in the skipmission.bat and firstmission.bat so it points to the correct folder.

I noticed that your path does not include the EN folder.

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The path must also be altered in the cmp-file, located in the campaigns folder. Also, check the numbers of ..\ in the skipmission.bat and firstmission.bat so it points to the correct folder.

I noticed that your path does not include the EN folder.

 

Thanks! I think it worked!!!

 

f9OypfN.png

 

This is what mission end is supposed to look like?

 

Im not getting the error message anymore.

 

Apparently if you do not make an EN folder in the aircraft mods folder it breaks everything.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Is there any way to remove units from the map if certain conditions are met. For example, if unit A is destroyed, remove unit B.

 

Sounds like a job for camp_triggers_init.lua

 

Make a unit inactive under the right conditions?

 

Return.AirUnitAlive("UnitName")

-- returns amount of ready and damaged aircraft in unit

or perhaps

Return.TargetAlive("TargetName")

--returns percentage of alive sub elements in target

 

 

if above is false, deactivate desired unit/target:-

 

Action.TargetActive("TargetName", boolean) = false

or

Action.AirUnitActive("UnitName", boolean) = false

 

--boolean true sets unit active. false sets it inactive.

klem

56 RAF 'Firebirds'

ASUS ROG Strix Z390-F mobo, i7 8086A @ 5.0 GHz with Corsair H115i watercooling, Gigabyte 2080Ti GAMING OC 11Gb GPU , 32Gb DDR4 RAM, 500Gb and 256Gb SSD SATA III 6Gb/s + 2TB , Pimax 8k Plus VR, TM Warthog Throttle, TM F18 Grip on Virpil WarBRD base, Windows 10 Home 64bit

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Is there any way to remove units from the map if certain conditions are met. For example, if unit A is destroyed, remove unit B.

 

I assume you are referring to ground units. Its not currently possible, but in fact I have already implemented it for the next version.

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Do not expect anything soon. My work on DCS is very much on low burner since a couple of months. I just tried to give it another go and have seen wonderful new bugs such as SA-6 not engaging and EW radars not detecting aircraft. It seems DCS is in a shape worse than ever. I see no point in spending much effort on content in this situation.

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Yeah man i dont blame you, take a break. Lets see if we do eventually get 2.5 its in a stable enough condition to work on. I'm honestly loosing faith in DCS, trying to work round problems and then it being broken by updates anyway. So i fear to the level of problems your facing trying to maintain this.

 

I honestly dont think we're going to get the support we need for the engine unless eagle deem its time for them to look at a dynamic campaign, which honestly i cant understand why its not high on their priority list along with dedicated servers...

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  • 2 weeks later...

If I was to take the route of trying to create a WW2 dynamic campaign using Mbot's DCE is there any gotcha's I should be aware of that might not have made it into this thread?

 

 

I'm guessing that probably the WW2 specific things like large bomber formations may not work for instance?

 

 

Is there any doco to support campaign authors floating about yet?

 

 

Anything else come to mind?

 

 

Thanks,

Stonehouse

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If I was to take the route of trying to create a WW2 dynamic campaign using Mbot's DCE is there any gotcha's I should be aware of that might not have made it into this thread?

 

 

I'm guessing that probably the WW2 specific things like large bomber formations may not work for instance?

 

 

Is there any doco to support campaign authors floating about yet?

 

 

Anything else come to mind?

 

 

Thanks,

Stonehouse

 

I am currently creating a WWII campaign and there are a number of gotchas. I have been digging into MBot's brilliant code and what I have done to it, mostly in the basic sorties generator, may well make him tear his hair out so I offer him a huge apology for my vandalism! Here we go....

 

If you change the Map there are airfields to change.

 

For most targets you need to obtain target element (hangars, buildings etc) co-ordinates using the tools MBot provided.

 

The B-17 had to be 'written in' as some aircraft types are hard coded into the script. In time I'll probably make these a lua file that can be read in and can therefore be added to by the campaign builder.

 

MP is only for up to 4 players but I have changed that to 12 (I usually use 8. I have also ensured that those player numbers are always available, unlike AI Units whose availability is randomised and usually less than the full Unit number. No-one wants to turn up with their mates and find they haven't got enough aircraft to fly.

 

I changed a couple of other things to better represent WWII. This included a look at the firepower of various aircraft and munitions to get a set of values that are more relevant to eachother. For Ground Attack units I have the firepower used when considering A-A engagements and added attackpower for when considering ground targets.

 

Escorts are generated in pairs and rotate in 'time on duty'. This may be suitable for the small packet numbers seen in the cold war but does not really suit a WWII environment with larger formations. This could be changed but at the moment what is being generated in this way is as much and sometimes more than my PC can run! These things can be adjusted by your inputs. Again in time I may change that to an escort numbers variable, and put values for each aircraft type into the aircraft lua file.

 

I had real problems understanding what was going on so I have peppered the main generator script with debug statements that can be turned on and off. These display the generator working through the various input parameters so that I could see where I was going wrong with my lua inputs and why some aircraft/units weren't being assigned tasks etc..

 

So it's pretty messy inside at the moment but it works.

 

With my memory retention capabilities I had to write down what the various lua inputs do. I have ended up with a kind of guide manual. Much of it comes from MBot's inputs here and the rest is what I discovered. I am sure is not comprehensive yet and may contain a few errors but I'll attach it 'as is' in case it is of interest.

 

I hesitate to attach my campaign as it is still not finished, the code has all those debug statements in it and it has a couple of bugs: sometimes the frame rate is appalling and I have a theory about that; occasionally it generates a player aircraft 'empty' which can't be occupied and I have yet to find out why. I suppose you could always change the base mission and have a go yourself. I doubt if you would have any problems understanding it from what I have seen in your other posts.

 

Anyway, yes there are gotchas at this stage if you change the map, aircraft and potentially the era.

 

Finally, another apology to MBot. I am working through this. It may yet end up as a pile of junk on the floor and it may not be of interest to anyone else but I thought I'd try to answer your question.

MBot_DCG_Overview.doc


Edited by klem

klem

56 RAF 'Firebirds'

ASUS ROG Strix Z390-F mobo, i7 8086A @ 5.0 GHz with Corsair H115i watercooling, Gigabyte 2080Ti GAMING OC 11Gb GPU , 32Gb DDR4 RAM, 500Gb and 256Gb SSD SATA III 6Gb/s + 2TB , Pimax 8k Plus VR, TM Warthog Throttle, TM F18 Grip on Virpil WarBRD base, Windows 10 Home 64bit

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Thanks Klem especially for sharing the document. I already know I am going to try this in between items in what is a pretty busy life at present. So I expect my progress to be very slow. If I come across anything of interest in the process I'll put up a post or maybe better add things to your document and post up the revision. I flew the F15 campaign with a couple of mates the other night, first time in DCS for a very long time so the results weren't stellar but it was fun and the campaign engine was impressive. Kind of a super DCG (IL2 campaign generator) for DCS. Most of the people I tend to fly with are more WW2 orientated so I figured it would be a good idea to start working on a WW2 campaign even if it takes until Christmas to get anywhere with it lol.

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Thanks Klem especially for sharing the document. I already know I am going to try this in between items in what is a pretty busy life at present. So I expect my progress to be very slow. If I come across anything of interest in the process I'll put up a post or maybe better add things to your document and post up the revision. I flew the F15 campaign with a couple of mates the other night, first time in DCS for a very long time so the results weren't stellar but it was fun and the campaign engine was impressive. Kind of a super DCG (IL2 campaign generator) for DCS. Most of the people I tend to fly with are more WW2 orientated so I figured it would be a good idea to start working on a WW2 campaign even if it takes until Christmas to get anywhere with it lol.

 

"even if it takes until Christmas to get anywhere"

lol, it might.

 

Just to say again that this is really all MBot's good work, I have only tinkered and the 'guide' is very unofficial.

klem

56 RAF 'Firebirds'

ASUS ROG Strix Z390-F mobo, i7 8086A @ 5.0 GHz with Corsair H115i watercooling, Gigabyte 2080Ti GAMING OC 11Gb GPU , 32Gb DDR4 RAM, 500Gb and 256Gb SSD SATA III 6Gb/s + 2TB , Pimax 8k Plus VR, TM Warthog Throttle, TM F18 Grip on Virpil WarBRD base, Windows 10 Home 64bit

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  • 2 weeks later...

Klem,

 

 

Just wondered how you are setting up the B17s in your campaign. I was thinking to base them on the airfields in England but as someone else mentioned and I saw in a quick 10 minute test today they barely have room to take off with a full load (which perhaps is the workaround as you could reduce their fuel load a lot for hitting targets in coastal France) - do you have them set up as air starts or ground starts?

 

 

 

<edit> Also what did you mean by B17s needing to be edited in? Would they not be (apart from formations and the bombing style) be similar to the other bombers used in the existing campaigns? Or do you mean exactly the difference in formations and bombing style is the issue?

 

Cheers,

Stonehouse


Edited by Stonehouse
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Klem,

 

 

Just wondered how you are setting up the B17s in your campaign. I was thinking to base them on the airfields in England but as someone else mentioned and I saw in a quick 10 minute test today they barely have room to take off with a full load (which perhaps is the workaround as you could reduce their fuel load a lot for hitting targets in coastal France) - do you have them set up as air starts or ground starts?

 

 

 

<edit> Also what did you mean by B17s needing to be edited in? Would they not be (apart from formations and the bombing style) be similar to the other bombers used in the existing campaigns? Or do you mean exactly the difference in formations and bombing style is the issue?

 

Cheers,

Stonehouse

 

Hi Stonehouse

 

Still building the campaign - nearly there :)

 

My first pack of B-17s had an air start but the following pack took off ok from Chailey. I don;t control air/ground start.

 

I edited in the B-17 in the ATO_Generator.lua because it assigns several bomber types (cold war) as single aircraft to a sortie. The default would be pairs but I wanted to assign them in threes so I made that entry. It should work ok without it but the sorties would be pairs.

klem

56 RAF 'Firebirds'

ASUS ROG Strix Z390-F mobo, i7 8086A @ 5.0 GHz with Corsair H115i watercooling, Gigabyte 2080Ti GAMING OC 11Gb GPU , 32Gb DDR4 RAM, 500Gb and 256Gb SSD SATA III 6Gb/s + 2TB , Pimax 8k Plus VR, TM Warthog Throttle, TM F18 Grip on Virpil WarBRD base, Windows 10 Home 64bit

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Escort P-51D switches from Escort to Fighter Sweep

 

Hi MBot,

 

I have a problem assigning P-51Ds as Escorts because the generator adds in 'search and engage' waypoint tasks and when I look at it in the ME it changes them from Escort to Fighter Sweep. It may not matter and I'll probably be able to find out why but I thought you may know the answer off the top of your head.

 

??

klem

56 RAF 'Firebirds'

ASUS ROG Strix Z390-F mobo, i7 8086A @ 5.0 GHz with Corsair H115i watercooling, Gigabyte 2080Ti GAMING OC 11Gb GPU , 32Gb DDR4 RAM, 500Gb and 256Gb SSD SATA III 6Gb/s + 2TB , Pimax 8k Plus VR, TM Warthog Throttle, TM F18 Grip on Virpil WarBRD base, Windows 10 Home 64bit

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Hi MBot,

 

I have a problem assigning P-51Ds as Escorts because the generator adds in 'search and engage' waypoint tasks and when I look at it in the ME it changes them from Escort to Fighter Sweep. It may not matter and I'll probably be able to find out why but I thought you may know the answer off the top of your head.

 

??

 

That is actually working as intended. The reason is to to nudge the AI in the right direction of doing something useful. I don't like the Escort task as it glues the escorts to the maneuvers of the main body flight. Also custom engage tasks are not available for Escorts, so a switch to Figure Sweep is required. It's all just names anyway.

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Hi Stonehouse

 

Still building the campaign - nearly there :)

 

My first pack of B-17s had an air start but the following pack took off ok from Chailey. I don;t control air/ground start.

 

I edited in the B-17 in the ATO_Generator.lua because it assigns several bomber types (cold war) as single aircraft to a sortie. The default would be pairs but I wanted to assign them in threes so I made that entry. It should work ok without it but the sorties would be pairs.

 

 

 

Thanks Klem. Got my toes wet but that's all. Collected some nice research items on the 2nd TAF and the area/week or two of my interest and got the target id mission working for me in the latest patch and am about finished the loadouts. CMP and camp_init are done. Biggest job I think will be the targets and campaign triggers. It would be nice to be able to have a medium/large B17 raid at least once a campaign day but perhaps for performance reasons small formations are better anyway......

 

 

It is probably a good thing Mbot hasn't included the ground war yet as trying to cater for a front line that moves according to success and failure would pretty much double the setup I think. So far it really does bring back memories of IL2 DCG campaign building although on a much more detailed scale.

 

 

PS After you mentioning the ATO script I had a quick look and saw that ATO_ThreatEvaluation.lua needs WW2 entries added as well.

 

 

PPS attached may help people doing Normandy missions. Cannot guarantee it is 100% accurate but that was what I'm aiming for and I am still working on. The news reel about construction of B-3 is pretty interesting as are the pics. Going by the pictures ALGs regardless of who built them really were pretty temporary, dust ridden places in summer and probably mud to the eyes when it rained.

ALG and Airfields.zip


Edited by Stonehouse
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Super Mega player Red Flag?

 

Hi. MBot; I want to start saying thank you, thank you very much, for your Superb job.

I've already written this on other posts, ("MBot" dynamic campaigns, made me come back to DCS World).

"Everything fells more ’real’ and ‘alive’ when playing; almost the same feelings as on *Falcon 4 + upgrades… old times coming back again".

 

*Screaming Eagle dynamic campaign + Nevada theater is simply, an outstanding combo!

 

Well, I wanted to make if possible, a request. Can you make a dynamic ‘Red Flag’ Campaign, with all the flyable DCS World modules?

A player would only need to choose the desired squadron, prior to start the campaign. AI only airplanes and choppers (no player flyable), would be great too.

 

Maybe; from all the squadrons present, at least add this player flyable ones…

Blue Side:

(01) F-15C

(02) M-2000C

(03) F-16 (with a payable mod)

(04) F-5E

(05) A-10A

(06) A-10C

(07) Hawk

(08) SA342

(09) UH-1

(10) Combined Arms(?)

Red Side:

(01) Su-27

(02) Su-33

(03) MiG-29

(04) MiG-21bis

(05) Su-25

(06) Su-25T

(07) L-39

(08) Ka-50

(09) Mi-8MTV2

(10) Combined Arms(?)

 

Anyway, thank you very much again and best regards to all,

Xanix

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  • 2 weeks later...

Mostly @Klem but also anyone else using the Normandy db_airbases.lua file which was kindly posted up a page or so back. Please note that the ATC freq's in the file are above the range of WW2 radios which seem to peak at around the 156ish Mhz level. So for a WW2 campaign I believe the file needs to be adjusted by checking each airfield and getting the suitable freq and editing the section of the file.

 

 

<edit> did a very quick update and thought I'd try to help out by attaching results. Hopefully no typos music_whistling.gif Freq's now in the 118-119 MHz range

db_airbases.lua


Edited by Stonehouse
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Mostly @Klem but also anyone else using the Normandy db_airbases.lua file which was kindly posted up a page or so back. Please note that the ATC freq's in the file are above the range of WW2 radios which seem to peak at around the 156ish Mhz level. So for a WW2 campaign I believe the file needs to be adjusted by checking each airfield and getting the suitable freq and editing the section of the file.

 

 

<edit> did a very quick update and thought I'd try to help out by attaching results. Hopefully no typos music_whistling.gif Freq's now in the 118-119 MHz range

 

Hi Stonehouse. Yes I found the same.

 

Unfortunately I have stepped away from DCS. Although I was very close to completing my campaign my entire squad, over a dozen of them, became fed up waiting for real progress on the Normandy map, Spitfire, visibility and the unbalanced planeset. Together these make WWII multiplayer unplayable to any enjoyable degree. I held on as long as possible trying to get real news but met with blind refusal and in the end I gave up and have joined them in another sim. We still play DCS Korea in 1.5/Caucuses one night a month but that's all. I think that's a sop to me as I tried so hard to keep interest in DCS. Hopefully one day Normandy will be more playable, visibility will improve and we will get contemporary 1944/45 aircraft to the two 'ultimate' Bf109 and FW190 currently in DCS. In fact my friends say they will only come back to DCS when that has been done and to be honest we are enjoying the other game very much at the moment. I still fly some DCS a/c offline as a pure flight sim because the cockpits and FMs are superior to other sims.

 

Anyway, good luck with your campaign.

klem

56 RAF 'Firebirds'

ASUS ROG Strix Z390-F mobo, i7 8086A @ 5.0 GHz with Corsair H115i watercooling, Gigabyte 2080Ti GAMING OC 11Gb GPU , 32Gb DDR4 RAM, 500Gb and 256Gb SSD SATA III 6Gb/s + 2TB , Pimax 8k Plus VR, TM Warthog Throttle, TM F18 Grip on Virpil WarBRD base, Windows 10 Home 64bit

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Sorry to read your news Klem but I can understand it. My group flies very little these days due to combinations of real life sticking it's oar in and also for at least half the guys the WW2 side is still in progress so they don't really get keen. They like the potential but it's a while off yet. Me building a campaign was literally aimed at trying to convince friends to fly it around Christmas while people have a few days free from work. So my comment about how long it will take me was only semi tongue in cheek.

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