Dynamic Campaign Engine

Awesome work! Bit dissapointed it's in NTTR, but keep up the good work. This is exactly what DCS needs.

A Caucasus campaign using DCE would be a complete new campaign, requiring several weeks worth of work. I haven't planned one at the moment.

That is worrying me. So it is a fixed story dynamic campaign engine ? There is no flexibility for the user to create his own initial conditions ?

Well, I can't speak for MBot, but looking at his scripts and the files in the INIT folder, it IS possible. Very time-consuming, but possible. You basically have to create an initial Mission with all the ground forces and Targets in place. Then create the OOB in the LUA files...THEN create target lists and so on and so forth. It's all laid out in the files, it will just take some time to create one from scratch. His other scripts do all the Campaign work. So doable, yes. Quick? No.

That is worrying me. So it is a fixed story dynamic campaign engine ? There is no flexibility for the user to create his own initial conditions ?

I wonder how do you get this conclusion...

You probably didnt read the whole thread (probably not even few posts...) so you dont understand the MBOT work here...

You have the tools to create a dynamic Campaing, in NTTR or Caucasus. Now... What do you thing, creating a campaing means? You need to create targets, type of packages, loadouts, and many things.

It is not just. Create a campaign button, with options like... An awesome one... With lots of Migs and some dogfights. You need to put all the inputs for the program to create the dynamic enviroment, depending on the previous result. It should be, and needs to be something complicated. With lots of work from your side. Once created, it is forever.

I am currently playing Desert Tiger 76 a lot and in the process I have found and fixed a couple of rather obscure bugs in the campaign. I am very happy with how well it plays, I think this is one of the best playing experiences with DCS I have ever had. When creating content for DCS you have this vision of great things in your head, at the same time you are concerned that it turns out not to be as much fun as you thought. I am very glad that this campaign is tons of fun!

I just had one of those fantastic mission you only get with a DC. Our 4 ship of Tigers is tasked to escort a lonely Phantom on a recon mission of the Altes Lager target airfield. As we pass the IP on time, I see overhead the contrail of the Phantom as it accelerates for its mach 2 high-altitude dash over the target. Meanwhile AWACS reports MiGs rising from Groom Lake. We turn north to block their approach. In the evolving dogfight, my wingman gets shot down, but we subsequently kill 5 MiGs. With our recon Phantom being nowhere to be found (it turned out it took an SA-3) and AWACS reporting more MiGs inbound from Tonopah, I decided to call it a day and RTB.

As we approach Las Vegas with MiGs in tow, low on fuel and ammo, two F-5 on intercept duty rise from Nellis to help us out. Together with the help of a Hawk SAM site, the pursuers are dispatched.

There is no landing at Nellis yet though, as a 10 aircraft strike package currently launches and assembles over the airbase. I orbit and wait until the package departs on its mission (I later observe it whipping out Lincoln County Airport). As activity winds down at Nellis, our flight and the two F-5 interceptors come in to land.

After landing I taxi to the ramp and pull into an open parking spot in a row aircraft. Exactly at the moment I pull into the spot, the two adjacent Phantoms pull out and I watch them taxi to the runway and fly onto some mission.

All this was completely auto-generated and dynamic. I had no idea any of this was going to happen.

Really nice ! Exactly what we need for DCS :) Thanks a lot for your good work Mbot ! (I bought the F-5 for Christmas and I'm training hard to be able to fly campaign missions as soon as possible ;) )

Fantastic campaign Mbot!!!! This would make an impressive DLC in its own right, looking forward to any updates you make. Also making me study more on attack/delivery techniques for the F5. A must download for anyone flying the mig21 as well as the tiger shark

I wonder how do you get this conclusion...

 

You probably didnt read the whole thread (probably not even few posts...) so you dont understand the MBOT work here...

Please don't underestimate me dude, I can't understand how you can consider people so low with so lame hypotheses. "the MBOT work here…" are you a fanboy to speak like this ?

I've followed the thread until some time before the test version came out. Unfortunately I don't have the NTTR module, so I have not tested the thing at all, and barely followed the thread that was mainly about issues that were already solved in the development version. Indeed, I didn't get the detailed picture but if you want to play smartass, you'd better to make a nice presentation of DCE for everyone.

Hi there MBot, this afternoon we were trying to play the desert fishbed campaign but we were unable to spawn. All our aircraft were locked in an uncontrolled state and we were unable to switch to the F1 view.

I followed all the readme instructions, but it can be an error on my end, do you have any idea of what I could have done wrong ?

Hi there MBot, this afternoon we were trying to play the desert fishbed campaign but we were unable to spawn. All our aircraft were locked in an uncontrolled state and we were unable to switch to the F1 view.

 

I followed all the readme instructions, but it can be an error on my end, do you have any idea of what I could have done wrong ?

Did you run the clock for a couple of seconds? Aircraft should become available 2 seconds after mission start (to prevent them from taking damage in case some scenery is exploded (returned to damaged state form previous mission) around the airbase.

Thanks for the answer, we have tried unpausing the mission, wait 10 seconds and then select a slot and spawn but the aircrafts were still in an uncontrolled state. We are 3 players and I have set the player number to 3 thanks to the firstmission.bat.

Please don't underestimate me dude, I can't understand how you can consider people so low with so lame hypotheses. "the MBOT work here…" are you a fanboy to speak like this ?

 

I've followed the thread until some time before the test version came out. Unfortunately I don't have the NTTR module, so I have not tested the thing at all, and barely followed the thread that was mainly about issues that were already solved in the development version. Indeed, I didn't get the detailed picture but if you want to play smartass, you'd better to make a nice presentation of DCE for everyone.

I do apologise if I have seem rude but you said.

"So it is a fixed story dynamic campaign engine ? There is no flexibility for the user to create his own initial conditions ?"

So,

If you read the thread, precisely this is a non fixed story, depends on previous results and missions packages are autogenerated. And the purpose is that you can create your own initial conditions, in whatever map with whatever units.

I felt shocked with your affirmations, since they were exactly the opposite of Mbo's work. And not, I am not a fanboy... In any case. I am sorry for my answer and let's get back to the topic!

Thank you for all of your hard work MBot - this campaign is amazing!

There seems to be a problem running it on my PC though - after the mission ends, I see the error shown below. Notepad does not open and neither does command prompt, so the mission progress does not seem to be saved.

The error text is:

---------------------------

Mission script error

---------------------------

[string "C:\Users\Geoff\AppData\Local\Temp\DCS.openalpha\/~mis00005537"]:55: attempt to index local 'scenFile' (a nil value)

stack traceback:

[C]: ?

[string "C:\Users\Geoff\AppData\Local\Temp\DCS.openalpha\/~mis00005537"]:55: in function 'onEvent'

[string "Scripts/World/EventHandlers.lua"]:13: in function <[string "Scripts/World/EventHandlers.lua"]:11>

---------------------------

OK

---------------------------

I have edited MissionScripting.lua as described in the readme:

I am running Windows 10 and DCS World Open Alpha 2.0.4.59428. Do you know how I could fix this problem? Please let me know if there are any other files which would be useful.

Thanks for the answer, we have tried unpausing the mission, wait 10 seconds and then select a slot and spawn but the aircrafts were still in an uncontrolled state. We are 3 players and I have set the player number to 3 thanks to the firstmission.bat.

I cannot reproduce it on my end. Can you send me the mission?

There seems to be a problem running it on my PC though - after the mission ends, I see the error shown below. Notepad does not open and neither does command prompt, so the mission progress does not seem to be saved.

This could possibly be related to an incorrect installation path. The .miz mission files, the .cmp campaign file and the "Desert Tiger 76" subfolder should be in the folder "DCS World 2 OpenAlpha\Mods\aircraft\F-5E\Missions\EN\Campaigns". Can you check and report back whether that is the case?

Really nice ! Exactly what we need for DCS :) Thanks a lot for your good work Mbot ! (I bought the F-5 for Christmas and I'm training hard to be able to fly campaign missions as soon as possible ;) )

Same with me, first learn how to fly the bird and then next step will be trying your campaign.

Very excited by your DCE, at least some consistent content for single player.

This could possibly be related to an incorrect installation path. The .miz mission files, the .cmp campaign file and the "Desert Tiger 76" subfolder should be in the folder "DCS World 2 OpenAlpha\Mods\aircraft\F-5E\Missions\EN\Campaigns". Can you check and report back whether that is the case?

Thanks for the reply. The path was set up correctly, but while experimenting with some settings I figured out the problem. For some reason the game did not seem to have permission to write to the disk - running DCS World as an administrator fixes the problem. Probably caused by some kind of overly protective Windows security setting.

May be... (this happened to me) you have to give permissions to overwrite the DCS folder. By default, you are unable to do so.

MboT.

Question.... Do the Campaign save ground units movements? Like DAWS?.

May be, we could do some simple triggers during the campaign to move some groubd units. The point is if those movements would be saved. ( i am not tallking about self generqted routes).

I cannot reproduce it on my end. Can you send me the mission?

I've seen this where the ME gets confused with parking spots between player and AI flights. Changing the player spot and re-saving usually does the trick.

Nate

I've seen this where the ME gets confused with parking spots between player and AI flights. Changing the player spot and re-saving usually does the trick.

 

Nate

Thanks for the input, I means that I have to place player aircrafts manually after each mission ? Do they have to keep their uncontrolled state in the editor ?

I don't think you'll have to do it often - I've only seen it once or twice. The issue isn't that the plane is set to uncontrolled - the Player Aircraft never spawns, as the AI is in its parking spot.

Nate

Just echoing a couple of other people in the thread. I think the phrase Dynamic Campaign Engine implied that the Engine does the work of identifying targets, but it appears you need to list the targets inside the LUA files? If I am correct so far, what are the steps to create your own campaigns? It seems a waste to have such effort done to have the average person unable to create their own content. Is this something you can document Mbot? What are the steps? I've spent years in ME and scripting so i'm not shy to put in the work, but I don't want to start 'tinkering' where you didn't intend it to be changed. The sound of "two weeks work" sounds quite high, I've created single content that last more than 20 hours in much less time, I'm hoping there is something we can use in here rather than wait for you to create the content? What pointers can you provide, or do we not touch the DCE and wait for you to create them?

Thanks.

It is pretty modular in the sense that the system can handle a wide variety of aircraft types and eras. It can generate carrier strike missions for Backfires, fighter sweeps for Sabres or bomber escorts for Mustangs. Setting it up is some work though, as you need to define the data for the engine to work with. Expect a couple weeks of work to create a new campaign from scratch. Eventually I will have to write down everything, but at the moment I am rather developing than documenting. For now let me just say that everything that has to be adjusted is the Init folder, the script folder does not need to be touched.

Just echoing a couple of other people in the thread. I think the phrase Dynamic Campaign Engine implied that the Engine does the work of identifying targets, but it appears you need to list the targets inside the LUA files? If I am correct so far, what are the steps to create your own campaigns? It seems a waste to have such effort done to have the average person unable to create their own content. Is this something you can document Mbot? What are the steps? I've spent years in ME and scripting so i'm not shy to put in the work, but I don't want to start 'tinkering' where you didn't intend it to be changed. The sound of "two weeks work" sounds quite high, I've created single content that last more than 20 hours in much less time, I'm hoping there is something we can use in here rather than wait for you to create the content? What pointers can you provide, or do we not touch the DCE and wait for you to create them?

Thanks.

Just a reminder. We are at beta phase, as Mbot said...

And as far as I read Mbot... Yes we will be able to create our own campaigns.