[Release] Deprecated: Simple 3rd party Mission Builder for BoS

[Bearcat]

That is actually a very good idea...

[SYN_Mike77]

Feel free to implement!

[DD_Arthur]

'Kin 'ell. It works!!!    

[-NW-ChiefRedCloud]

Can't wait to get home and try this. Thank very much for your contribution.

 

Chief

[II/JG17_HerrMurf]

Awesome!

 

And I like the "contributors," badge idea too. Zeus is gonna need one of those as well.

Edited February 19, 2015 by HerrMurf

[ST_ami7b5]

Awesome!

 

And I like the "contributors," badge idea too. Zeus is gonna need one of those as well.

 

And also Veteran66 for sure

[divydave]

HI Got it all working fine now thank you....

 

forgot to ammend C:\program files\\ 

to

                              C:\program files (x86)\\

 

in the application.properties file..

 

love the program and I expect others will have great fun to..

[Yakdriver]

Do it like the Team - stop giving things away.
sell it!

[StG2_Juuti]

Yes dev's - indue something like the heroes of soviet union or medal of honor for these reputable members of the BOS Com.

[Habu]

Good job.

[Juri_JS]

When I run the mission builder it doesn't show the 'select country' option.

 

 

Edit:

After I loaded the mission again, the 'select country' option showed up correctly.

Edited February 19, 2015 by Juri_JS

[79_vRAF_Friendly_flyer]

Wow, just wow!

[oneeyeddog]

Lupson, Thank you for this Outstanding Contribution.  S!

[Lupson]

Thanks again, all.

 

Juri_JS: Thanks for the bug report. The "Create Mission" doesn't unhide the country selector. Will fix in the next release

[heinkill]

FANTASTIC work sir!

 

Took me a few minutes to figure out how to get it installed properly (I need to type localhost:81 to get it to run) but after that no problems.

 

Some observations (these are not complaints, I know this is just a test piece of software and again, you have done an amazing job!):

 

- Only Luftwaffe aircraft available at the moment? (Ah, when I reload the mission, I can see a new 'select country' option - nice.)

 

- I set up a mission with 20 Heinkels, 10 109G, 10 FW190 flying a triangular set of 3 waypoints. It creates and saves nicely, and the waypoint dropdown boxes and actions appear very easy to set, thankyou!

 

- Large formations of aircraft spawn so close together that they collide. Within seconds two of the FW190s and 5 of the He111s had collided.

 

- Same at the next waypoint - 4 of the Heinkels collided while the formation was trying to turn, 2 of the FW190s

 

- FW190s (player) did not follow waypoints on autopilot

 

- Heinkels did not proceed past waypoint 1, they just started circling, and colliding some more

 

- 109Gs did follow waypoints

 

Anyway, I look forward to what this might turn into!

 

H

Edited February 19, 2015 by heinkill

[Lupson]

FANTASTIC work sir!

 

Took me a few minutes to figure out how to get it installed properly (I need to type localhost:81 to get it to run) but after that no problems.

 

Some observations (these are not complaints, I know this is just a test piece of software and again, you have done an amazing job!):

 

- Only Luftwaffe aircraft available at the moment? (And they can't be set to attack each other?)

 

- I set up a mission with 20 Heinkels, 10 109G, 10 FW190 flying a triangular set of 3 waypoints. It creates and saves nicely, and the waypoint dropdown boxes and actions appear very easy to set, thankyou!

 

- Large formations of aircraft spawn so close together that they collide. Within seconds two of the FW190s and 5 of the He111s had collided.

 

- Same at the next waypoint - 4 of the Heinkels collided while the formation was trying to turn, 2 of the FW190s

 

- FW190s (player) did not follow waypoints on autopilot

 

- Heinkels did not proceed past waypoint 1, they just started circling, and colliding some more

 

- 109Gs did follow waypoints

 

Anyway, I look forward to what this might turn into!

 

H

 

Thanks Heinkill,

 

I will definitely increase the spacing between aircrafts within groups. 100 meters or perhaps even more? I can also stack them slightly in vertical space to reduce risk of collisions. Another thing to perhaps add is an explicit "Formation Command" to all aircraft groups to set a "loose" formation directly after spawn.

 

You can change sides by using the "Select Country" drop-down menu between "Menu" and "Map filters". However, due to a bug it is not visible until you have loaded a mission. So just reload it from the menu.

 

BTW - all changes made in the GUI (placing, dragging, typing something and leaving the text field etc - triggers a save to the server. Hence no Save buttons anywhere.

 

Not sure why your Heinkels started circling. That is the AI's behaviour when not having any more waypoints linked. The mission generation logic does not make any difference between types of aircraft. Also not sure about your FW190 group and autopilot. Could be a mission difficulty setting I havn't looked at yet.

[zeus--]

Cool!

 

[lennycutler]

Just created my first air to air mission, simple intercept of a PE Bomber by a FW190A3,

 

Works great.

 

One quick question....is there a way to get the waypoints of both the German and Russian aircraft to display on the map at the same time...or am I missing something....could not see them together....but the mission was saved correctly with both aircraft in their correct locations.

[heinkill]

@Luspon

 

Yes give those formations plenty of room! 100m or more. Mission builders will also have to build gentle waypoints for larger formations because the AI seems to struggle with large groups keeping formation without colliding.

 

Using this software I successfully within a short time created a simple mission with the following

 

20 Heinkels

10 109G

 

Following a simple dogleg set of waypoints and

 

10 FW190 following an opposing dogleg route, as below.

 

 

(No VVS as I hadn't discovered the 'Pick Country' button yet!)

 

This is what happened when I ran the mission a few times to check.

 

The Heinkels spawned in line abreast formation but right on top of each other

 

 

 

They then attempted to move into wedge formation, and within seconds 3-4 had collided.

 

 

The 109s did the same, but none collided.

 

 

These successfully formed a wedge formation and moved toward waypoint one, then proceeded to waypoint 2

 

 

The 190s did the same as above, a few near collisions, the rest formed a wedge (this was a player group that I put on autopilot)

 

 

At the first waypoint for the bombers, they tried to make the turn and more collided

 

 

They then circled over the waypoint.

 

The 190s reached the first waypoint, tried to turn as a formation, and collided.

 

 

THE GOODER NEWS!!!!

 

I didn't put any ground objects into this mission, but there was no slowdown, lag or rubber banding observable even though there were 40 AI controlled aircraft all flying in the same airspace, same time. FPS was smooth the whole way.

 

H

Edited February 19, 2015 by heinkill

[Lupson]

Just created my first air to air mission, simple intercept of a PE Bomber by a FW190A3,

 

Works great.

 

One quick question....is there a way to get the waypoints of both the German and Russian aircraft to display on the map at the same time...or am I missing something....could not see them together....but the mission was saved correctly with both aircraft in their correct locations.

 

Thanks.

 

Right now there is no way to show both sides at the same time. I hope I can fix an option for that in the filters menu where the "other" side would be greyed out and not editable. Perhaps it's better to be able to edit both sides at the same time, but I'm currently using that global side state for some things so its non-trivial to change to a model where both sides are edited at the same time. Maybe adding a keyboard shortcut for switching sides would be OK.

Heinkill: I'm trying to make airplanes spawn in a wedge-like formation by default now and I can automatically tell flights to form a loose wedge formation directly after mission start. That should help a lot.

 

Though I suspect that if planes are crashing into each other after forming into their "real" wedge formation, it could be either pilot AI level or the BoS engine having problems with huge formations. I never tried more than 12 IL-2's at the same time but that worked pretty well. Maybe limit number of aircraft per group to 12 or 16 if they keep colliding.

[ZaknafeinTV]

Nice work, please add to this Coop.

[heinkill]

Though I suspect that if planes are crashing into each other after forming into their "real" wedge formation, it could be either pilot AI level or the BoS engine having problems with huge formations. I never tried more than 12 IL-2's at the same time but that worked pretty well. Maybe limit number of aircraft per group to 12 or 16 if they keep colliding.

 

Yeah I'm thinking the same - must be a reason formations in the retail game are limited to 4-6 aircraft, and bombers to only 3-4 aircraft.

 

Also, they were pretty sharp dogleg waypoints, milder turns might be more kind to the AI...

 

H

[AnKor]

 

Nice to see someone succeeded where I have failed.

[Sokol1]

 

14 He111 (attack artillery)

4 Bf 109  (cover He 111)

4 Yak-1 ( & player)

6 Yak-1 (detect He 111 at 7 KM).

6 SDKFZ (advancing against artillery - no engaged)

5 artillery (no engage SDKFZ - destroyed be He 111).

 

Over target area the He 111 became "dogfighters".  Do the same when see fighters. (Game issue, no related with the Mission Generator)

 

Need ground object FLAK for Russian side.

 

I set the first waypoint far from spawn point, so no collisions at spawn (that is very ugly). 

Edited February 20, 2015 by Sokol1

[Juri_JS]

Some observations from me:

- I've noticed that the autopilot doesn't correctly work in the missions and the player's plane will not follow the waypoints.

 

- Sometimes I can't edit waypoints. Waypoints are selectable and they can be moved, but the waypoint menue doesn't open when I click on them. All I see is the flight edit menue. When I restart the editor and re-load the mission the waypoint menue correctly appears.

[heinkill]

Some observations from me:

 

- I've noticed that the autopilot doesn't correctly work in the missions and the player's plane will not follow the waypoints.

 

- Sometimes I can't edit waypoints. Waypoints are selectable and they can be moved, but the waypoint menue doesn't open when I click on them. All I see is the flight edit menue. When I restart the editor and re-load the mission the waypoint menue correctly appears.

1. Same

 

2. Click on another object, then click on the first object then its waypoint. That works for me.

[Lupson]

* USSR Flak. My mistake. Since I have to dig through .Mission files generated by the simulator I don't know if there are flak units specific to each side or if both sides should use the FLAK37 and FLAK38. Will try to fix this in the next release.

* Autopilot. Don't know how to fix that right now. The RoF FMB manual has no mention of autopilot (does RoF even have autopilot?) I have a suspicion it's a difficulty setting enforced by the mission maker. The original template the missions are generated from is actually the Chir_Front1 mission file kindly provided to me by PBO_Foxy which I think had a quite high difficulty setting enforced? There are some changes/additions to the BoS .Mission format compared to RoF, I have probably missed something. Will look into this.

* Waypoint selection. Yes, I have a bug there. I think it occurs directly after a waypoint has been added to a group but possibly hasn't been persisted to the backend and then synced with the mission graph in the web app. After deselecting as heinkill describes I also think it works. Will also try to fix this.

* Coop missions. When the dserver.exe has been released I may revisit coop missions. For player vs player missions I think the FMB is a requisite. I don't know too much about it but I think those missions are very very complex (loads of triggers, airfields providing refuel/rearm etc.) and not suited at all to the simplistic approach of the SMB.

* Showing both sides. Implemented that yesterday in the Filters menu. The non-selected side's units (not waypoints) are rendered with low opacity and are non-selectable.

 

Thanks for all your feedback!

[Comes]

Yes, RoF had an autopilot too. 

[yeikov]

This is awesome, thanks a lot Lupson!

I'll try this as soon as I get home today 

One question: is it possible to make missions where you're not the flight leader? I like to be the wingman every now and then... 

[Lupson]

Yes, RoF had an autopilot too. 

Ok, thanks!

This is awesome, thanks a lot Lupson!

I'll try this as soon as I get home today 

One question: is it possible to make missions where you're not the flight leader? I like to be the wingman every now and then... 

Thanks!

 

Not sure. There is a "numberInFormation" property one perhaps can use. Can also try to change the AiLevel property on the flight leader plane entity from 0 (player) to 1-4 (Novice - Ace), and instead set the 0 on another aircraft in the group. Yet another thing to test and see if/how it works.

[yeikov]

Thanks for the quick answer, I'll fiddle with those parameters in the mission file too and see what comes out. I'm curious to see if the radio commands system and the AI support that already... (@devs: if you're reading this, could you please comment?) 

Edited February 20, 2015 by yeikov

[LAL_Luny]

Thanks for the work Lupson.

 

Just tried a bit, but cant seem to find a proper way to have (at least my) flight to take off from ground. I guess its because you dont have access to the ingame 3d map ?

[Lupson]

Thanks for the work Lupson.

 

Just tried a bit, but cant seem to find a proper way to have (at least my) flight to take off from ground. I guess its because you dont have access to the ingame 3d map ?

 

Since autopilot doesn't work for some reason I guess your own flight won't take off by themselves at all. I have successfully managed to get an AI flight to take off by doing the following:

 

1) Place them on the airfield at altitude 0.

2) Place the first waypoint really close to the flight and specify the START command on the waypoint.

3) Add a few more waypoints.

 

Since I don't have the runway/taxiway/landing approach coordinates (I just use the same template for all airports right now) they will probably try to take off but will just drive straight onto the snow with varying results.

 

If I can get hold of all runway/taxiway coordinates things will work much better and if I have those, I can also render those onto the map so placing flights at end of runway etc gets much easier. With the FMB there seems to be a 3D mode as you say which greatly simplifies exact placing of units.

[LAL_Luny]

Thx for the answer.

 

It will get much easier for you next week with the full MB.

 

Keep on keeping on : its a very nice tool to easily create training missions focused on what  I (we) have to  work

Edited February 20, 2015 by UF_Luny

[DD_Arthur]

Lupson; Congratulations, this is freaking brilliant!!

 

Will it be possible to add some weather options too?

[Lupson]

Lupson; Congratulations, this is freaking brilliant!!

 

Will it be possible to add some weather options too?

 

Thanks,

 

weather is on my todo list. The very first object in a .Mission file contains the weather information:

 

 

  CloudLevel = 500;

  CloudHeight = 200;

  PrecLevel = 10;

  PrecType = 0;

  CloudConfig = "00_Clear_08\sky.ini";

  SeaState = 0;

  Turbulence = 0;

  TempPressLevel = 0;

  Temperature = -15;

  Pressure = 760;

  WindLayers

  {

    0 :     314 :     0;

    500 :     306.791 :     0;

    1000 :     294.693 :     0;

    2000 :     289.836 :     0;

    5000 :     280.331 :     0;

  }

 

Making a usable HTML-based form takes a bit of work but shouldn't be too hard. If someone knows all possible "CloudConfig" values that would be helpful to know. Think most of the other properties there is covered in the RoF FMB manual.

[Lupson]

First update of the Simple Mission Builder:

 

Download new installer and just unzip it on top of your current install (won't overwrite your missions):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/da8484aic2hh249/bos-smb.zip?dl=0

 

or

 

Just download the .war application file and replace the one in your current SMB install dir:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/iumhephqzyv4os1/bos-missiongenerator-1.0-SNAPSHOT.war?dl=0

 

 

Changelog

 

-- Fixed issues 2015-02-21 --
* Vehicle groups formation "follow roads formation" now works
* Formation calculations for LINE, COLUMN and VEE now works
* Air units always spawn in VEE formation with 125 meters between each aircraft. Seems to reduce collisions a lot.
* Air units try to form loose VEE formation 13 seconds after mission start (not 100% sure if this actually works since they seem to try to reform anyway)
* Added map filter to show both sides at the same time

* Fixed broken map filters for Air, Ground and static objects
* Fixed bug where Select Country menu option was not visible after creating a new mission

* Fixed bug with wrong icons shown for various ground objects in briefing
* Vehicle formation select now only shows ground unit formations.
* Briefing icons now always shows BLUE for friendly forces and RED for enemies

Known/new issues:
* Aircraft groups in mission briefing uses Baloon icon. Havn't figured out the IconId for planes yet...
* Waypoint select bug. New waypoints are not selectable until another unit has been selected and then deselected.
* All other known ones, see initial post...

[FlatSpinMan]

Jeez this is impressive. I can't believe how much you seem to have managed with so little material to work with. Thanks for going through all this effort.

[heinkill]

Nice update Lupson. I just updated the .war file as recommended.

 

- AIrcraft do spawn further apart and therefore fewer collisions

- Small flights still recommended though because they are not good at formation keeping (AI issue - maybe fixed in next official update?)

 

Issues:

 

- Flights of more than 6; six aircraft seem able to follow waypoints, the rest seem confused and do not

- Waypoints are now impossible to select so I cannot assign actions to them. I can't find any way to select them now. If I assign two airgroups on each side, deselect, select, export, reload etc and try select it is not working. I would say this is a priority to fix right now.

 

Here's hoping the next official update helps with AI formation keeping, especially with bombers, but also with larger groups of fighters. This gives me hope they have looked at the AI formation keeping code: "35. AI stay in formation when an enemy fighter is spotted;""

 

Cheers,

 

H

Edited February 21, 2015 by heinkill

[Lupson]

Nice update.

 

- AIrcraft do spawn further apart and therefore fewer collisions

- Small groups still recommended though because they are not good at formation keeping (AI issue - maybe fixed in next official update?)

 

Issues:

 

- Flights of more than 6, six aircraft follow waypoints, rest seem confused

- Waypoints are now impossible to select so cannot assign actions to them. I can't find any way to select them now. If I assign two airgroups on each side, deselect, select, export, reload etc and try select it is not working.

 

Cheers,

 

H

Thanks for the information.

 

Regarding 6 aircraft and waypoint following that sounds like a game limitation of some sort. I don't handle groups of 2 or 24 aircraft differently - all aircraft (and ground vehicles) has a link to aircraft 1 in the formation which is the aircraft that receives all commands given (such as switching waypoints). Also - please note that if you have an ATTACK_TARGET command on a waypoint, those aircraft will not do anything after that except start to circle. Also on my fix-list but may require me having the FMB to figure out how to set up the necessary timers, forcecomplete, destroy event etc. entities necessary to get the desired behaviour.

 

Regarding waypoint selection, none of the code related to that was changed AFAIK. I would suggest 1) reloading the web browser with a deep refresh (CTRL+R in Chrome) and also 2) Clear cache in Chrome (CTRL+SHIFT+delete).

 

There also exists other possbilities for the waypoint mess, will try to debug that when I have time.

Edited February 21, 2015 by Lupson