Duplicating SP missions for multiple Planes

[[Pb]Vapor]

Just wanted to make sure I am not reinventing the wheel or missing some feature that would do this for me.  I want to duplicate my SP mission and allow it to be played with any plane.  At first glance it seems like the only way to do this with the ME is to copy the Mission and manually delete/add the new plane for each plane.  That's a lot of point click. 

 

However I see the .mission files are basically dictionary files.  I was thinking of looking into scripting it to allow me to bulk copy and change a mission.  Before I put too much effort into this I wanted to see if anyone has already done this, or to make sure I am not missing some Mission Editor feature.  Thanks guys!

[TP_Silk]

You could use the text editor approach if you wanted, but it wouldn't save significant amounts of time unless you are going to be changing more than just the player spawn aircraft. You would likely still need to open the mission, save it with a unique name then open each individual one with the text editor and do the find and replace.

 

If you were also using complex triggers for example that said to look out for the particular aircraft type you select then this may well be something that saves more significant amounts of time.

 

Personally I would say that this type of mission is better suited to being run on a Dserver and using a spawn point where you can select any aircraft from a given spawn point. I can fully appreciate that this may be more than you wish to get involved in however.

Edited October 27, 2017 by TP_Silk

[LLv34_Temuri]

Personally I would say that this type of mission is better suited to being run on a Dserver and using a spawn point where you can select any aircraft from a given spawn point.

My thoughts exactly.

[LLv34_Temuri]

If you don't go the multiplayer route. You can also just select the plane in the Mission Editor and on the Properties Dialog click Model, and change the plane there. No need to delete&add anything.

[Jade_Monkey]

If you don't go the multiplayer route. You can also just select the plane in the Mission Editor and on the Properties Dialog click Model, and change the plane there. No need to delete&add anything.

^ i second this. It will keep all the links and save you a lot of work.

 

The scripting might be the other best option if you find programming fun (i do).

[TP_Jacko]

^ i second this. It will keep all the links and save you a lot of work.

 

The scripting might be the other best option if you find programming fun (i do).

 

Hello Jade, are there any examples you can give or point me to for scripting with IL2, I have not done anything like it for a long time.

[TP_Silk]

If player = SIlk and Target = Bf-109_G4
   Then TargetName = Gunther Rall
             TargetSkill = Novice
             PlayerAward = Hero_of_the_Soviet_Union_1st_Class

   Else TargetName = [null]
           TargetSkill = Ace
           PlayerAward = [null]

End IF

Works for me     

[Jade_Monkey]

I wrote a simple find and replace script in python for when the complex triggers changed the name of an object.

 

I havent done much more since then but i see how it could be used to create variations of the mission by saving a copy of each plane.

Edited October 27, 2017 by Jade_Monkey

[Habu]

 

 

I want to duplicate my SP mission and allow it to be played with any plane. At first glance it seems like the only way to do this with the ME is to copy the Mission and manually delete/add the new plane for each plane. That's a lot of point click.

 

- Select the plane you want to change.

- In the PLane properties box, click on the button Model, then select the plane you want. No need to delete the plane. But once you did the change, use the button set on ground, under the menu.

 

It also works if you select a group of planes.

[[Pb]Vapor]

Thanks for the info everybody!  The multiplayer server is kind of out of the question. The intent of these Missions was to make a group of small maps for drilling different situations offline.  Boom and Zoom, pop up Ground Attack, dive and steep angle bombing, formation practice, etc.  I wish we had a multiplane spawn like in MP maps (hint hint devs)   

 

Habu's and Temuri's solution is a good one, I didn't realize I could just change the model without deleting the object.

 

- Select the plane you want to change. - In the PLane properties box, click on the button Model, then select the plane you want. No need to delete the plane. But once you did the change, use the button set on ground, under the menu.

 

However, these Missions may require me to make small modifications and improvements as I move forward and the tedium of doing that for any minor revisions sounds like a nightmare.  I may try and put together a python script to find/replace based on a dictionary of plane data for the .mission file.  Something like what Jade_Monkey and Silk mentioned.  It sounds like this isn't that uncommon, especially with MP maps/servers.

Edited October 30, 2017 by FFS_Vapor