"realistic templates"

This is great, thank you.

thanks Danny! great work....

 

Im wondering if I could get a quick explanation/tutorial on how to make templates with these formations...

 

Also, I was wondering how the framerates hold up with all these units?

 

thanks again rep inbound

Jeffyd,

The easiest way to get all those templates in your editor, is copying the templates.lua file from the download into your "%userprofile%\Saved Games\DCS Warthog\MissionEditor" folder.

Make a backup first of the existing file, because it will overwrite your own templates if you have any.

You can add them manual too.

To do so, open the mission file included in the download. And select one of the units.

Click the template icon on the left side in the editor. A new window opens to the right. You give the group a name, and click "save template" to add it to your templates:

Most of the units in the list, are just a line-up of all units that are to be found in a battalion, platoon,....

It's up to you what groups you use in your missions.

The reason I divided all different units in subgroups, is that you are not forced to deploy a complete battalion for instance, but you can put a single platoon out of it on the map for your mission.

For the same reason, almost all groups are "lined up" in the template file.

It's up to the mission designer to decide where to actual place them, and in wich setup.

The one special template in there, is the farp template.

It's a group of vehicules lined out in that way, that they form the outline of a farp, with the heli pads in it.

This allows mission designers, to place their farps exactly where they want them to have tham, and put units on the farp without having to check 20 times in the running mission if unit placement is correct. After all units are place, you can delete the farp template group again.

The only thing you have to take in account, is that you place the template, and the actual farp structure in the same degrees.

Here a few screens to explain more:

The FARP template:

The FARP structure:

In mission:

Framerates are affected by the amount of units/groups you use in your mission. You don't have to use them all at once :D

Hope it's clear to you now.

Rep inbound if I can Great work thanks :)

I just fell in love with you.

Superb work! :thumbsup:

Stuka, this reminds me of the parking situation on my block! now we just need some fire trucks:)

Thank you. :thumbup:

OK, thanks Danny,

I put your templates in and they showed up.

thanks again for the excellent tut!

jeff

HI!

Thanks for great job. I have question about installig those templates and use it in mission editor.

1. In my folder saved games/dcs.../missioneditor/ I haven't found this files to replace.

2. How can I use this in mission editor, its really complicated. ;-(

I'd give you +10 if I could! :D

HI!

Thanks for great job. I have question about installig those templates and use it in mission editor.

1. In my folder saved games/dcs.../missioneditor/ I haven't found this files to replace.

2. How can I use this in mission editor, its really complicated. ;-(

Just save the mission file anywhere, in the ME hit the open file button, then find the file you just saved & open it.

From the available groups select a group you want to be available as a template.

Now click on the template button on the left toolbar of the ME.

In the lower panel of the area that appears, give the template an appropriate name & save that template.

It's best to close the template box by clicking the Template button again between saving groups (so you don't accidentally drop groups everywhere).

Repeat till you have all the groups added to your template file.

To use the templates - click the template button & in the upper section choose a country, then a template from the next drop down, click on the map where you want the new group from the template to be (& the group will apppear), then set the alignment with the dial or dialogue box, and exit the template section (or every time you click on the map you'll add another group :-)

Thanks!

Awesome work dude!!! Rep inbound!

ok, this should be off topic:

can you send me an excel table with the composition of your templates (if exist)?

It will be extremely useful to let me insert and use them in my campaign software :)

Thank you! Is there a way to sort the templates so that they appear in alphabetical order, such as:

STB80 HQ

STB80 Supply Platoon

STB80 Tank Company 1

STB80 Tank Company 2

STB80 Tank Company 3

At least for me, they seem to be scattered all over in the list ATM. I'd do it myself, but I'm not sure how to "block" sort in Notepad++... Any ideas?

@ chromium, yallu.

Just THINK if you can how long it took Danny V to make these templates, and now your asking for it to be in an excel format and alphabetical ?

I know what I'd say if I was Danny unfortunately I'd get banned if I did.

DO IT YOURSELF Gezzzzzzzzzzzzzzz talk about LAZY

I did it in other templates mod. I just added before unit name overall marker, example _ or # ect. Just to make list clearer. However editing 20 MB LUA file even in Notepad++ can be a bit demanding.

@ chromium, yallu.

 

Just THINK if you can how long it took Danny V to make these templates, and now your asking for it to be in an excel format and alphabetical ?

---> "(if exist)" <---

Did you saw it, before posting?

I'm working for 1.5 years about the software I did, and I did a similar work on really different, smaller and simplier templates (attached).

what I thought is that, MAYBE, Danny did the same work when creating his templates and, SO, I could be already available. I did not tell him to do the work.

A02_T3_templates_composition.pdf

Yes I saw it,

And I'm sure Danny would have put any other information in the package if he had any, if he's like me when making templates it's all scribbled down on copious sheets of paper.

Easy guys :D

@Chromium

I'm afraid I don't have a file describing all groups.

Where would you use it for ?

@Yallu

I was actually hopeing that the naming convention I used was putting them alphabetical in the templates.lua.

Didn't work out.

I tried editing it straight into the lua, but that also didn't work out (unless I did it wrong).

So if somebody does know a working way to have them alphabetical sorted in the templates, please let me know.

if he's like me

But everyone thinks different and works in many different ways... for example: i write faster on keyboard than on paper, so it's natural for me think to prepare a word or an excel as reference instead of many sheets of paper, and maybe I would not have posted drafts in a release. Only different way to think :smilewink:. The reason because I did not like your post is that I read it as an attack, caused by misunderstaning the question.

Obviously, as you can see in other posts, I can't write in english very well, so if my previous post for DannyV could be read as a request, I'm wrong and I can ensure that it wasn't a request of additional work. I believed that adding "if exist" at the end of the question makes it readable as a necessary condition for give the answer :doh:, as it is in Italian language.

Maybe It's time to get back on topic, before collecting bad reps for both of us :book:.

I'm afraid I don't have a file describing all groups.

Where would you use it for ?

I'm workin on an access 2010 database that create a scenario for a campaign, out of the DCS environment (I'm not a software developer, I only know a bit access), to have a layout for create sequential multiplayer missions for my Virtual Wing. The Access reproduce economy, supplies, storage, simplified offline ground battle (by statistic+random), produces SITREP and partially automates briefing (SITREP example attached... Italian language only :( ).

Every coalition has it's army, builded by standard templates that I have saved in the mission editor. Every group is identified and named, and every mission I check with Tacview for dead units to remove it from the database (also the database can extract dead units from tacview log and remove it from tables by queries).

Since your templates are beautiful, vastly better than mine, I was thinking about use that for rebuilt the armies instead of mine. But to use it, I need to have an excel table with every unit correlated to the template, cause when I "Start" the campaign the database recreate every army group from templates table, giving unique names at the units, and this last table is used for calculate ground groups strenght (reduced when units are destroyed). Since recreating your templates as a table is a terrible data-input work, I hoped that you may already have something like that as a starting layout.

But sure I will find a workaround, else I will partially use them or, maybe, take inspiration (read: copy) from them to rebuild mine :).

PS: sorry for the english but here is 1.07 AM... my mind is slowing down a lot... :)

SITREP.pdf

@Yallu

I was actually hopeing that the naming convention I used was putting them alphabetical in the templates.lua.

Didn't work out.

I tried editing it straight into the lua, but that also didn't work out (unless I did it wrong).

 

So if somebody does know a working way to have them alphabetical sorted in the templates, please let me know.

Hmm... Not lua developer myself, but it seems that the order of the items is not guaranteed with associative tables. Nothing you can do prolly. Here's samples how to overcome (I think), but that's something ED should do when reading the table in the templates options:

http://lua-users.org/wiki/OrderedAssociativeTable

Or?

fantastic work, really impressive and obviously time consuming

(chromium, if you can convert comma separated lists (.csv) to excel, I can convert the .lua in the .miz to csv pretty easily. Do you just need a name per entry?)

templates.csv.zip

templates2.csv.zip

 

(chromium, if you can convert comma separated lists (.csv) to excel, I can convert the .lua in the .miz to csv pretty easily. Do you just need a name per entry?)

Yes I can!

What I need is a "simple" table where in the first column there is the template name, and in the second the unit name. For example, if template1 is made of 6 different units of 3 different mode, and template 2 is made of 4 units of 2 model, could be like this:

TEMP.NAME | UNIT.NAME

template1 | unit1

template1 | unit2

template1 | unit2

template1 | unit2

template1 | unit3

template1 | unit3

template2 | unit1

template2 | unit1

template2 | unit1

template2 | unit2