Waypoints and getting Ships to move automatically

[jollyjack]

I tried to come to grips with the FMB stuff, but there's some of unlogical logic used here with Waypoints compared to 1946 and Cliffs.

Been reading through manuals and checking videos BTW. In most vids and manuals the teaching jumps easily over this matter it seems to be a piece of cake. Not for me sofar LoL.

 

Can some one explain, or link me to a page etc, how to get a ship to move along the coast using MCU's step by step. Do i need a time MCU first maybe?

Also it would be nice how to set this ship to shell some objects along the coast if possible.

 

I placed a destroyer in Kuban, set a trigger waypoint, but could not connect via the trigger object function; no red line appears as demonstrated in videos about setting planes and waypoints.

Selecting the ship from right clicking on a newly placed trigger waypoint's 'select object' function dragged and released on the intended ship in this case does nothing thus. 

 

What i also couldn't find is how to select a plane (in an existing FMB imported mission) and jump from it's existing waypoint to the next waypoint. Again a piece of cake in Cliffs.

 

Thnx J

[LLv34_Temuri]

Did you create an entity for the ship? If you want to connect any mission logic into the objects, you need to click "create linked entity" on the object's property dialog. 

[jollyjack]

i did .... must be something else i forgot or don't know (yet) ..

[JimTM]

12 hours ago, jollyjack said:

I tried to come to grips with the FMB stuff, but there's some of unlogical logic used here with Waypoints compared to 1946 and Cliffs.

Been reading through manuals and checking videos BTW. In most vids and manuals the teaching jumps easily over this matter it seems to be a piece of cake. Not for me sofar LoL.

 

Can some one explain, or link me to a page etc, how to get a ship to move along the coast using MCU's step by step. Do i need a time MCU first maybe?

Also it would be nice how to set this ship to shell some objects along the coast if possible.

 

I placed a destroyer in Kuban, set a trigger waypoint, but could not connect via the trigger object function; no red line appears as demonstrated in videos about setting planes and waypoints.

Selecting the ship from right clicking on a newly placed trigger waypoint's 'select object' function dragged and released on the intended ship in this case does nothing thus. 

 

What i also couldn't find is how to select a plane (in an existing FMB imported mission) and jump from it's existing waypoint to the next waypoint. Again a piece of cake in Cliffs.

 

Thnx J

 

Did you try the procedure in "Make a Ship Follow a Route", on pg. 73 of the editor manual? If so, was there a step that did not work for you? Also, review "Manage Connections Between Mission Icons" on pg. 19.

 

Here's a simple layout:

 

 

You should only need one waypoint (at the destination), but put more in if needed to handle river bends. The zig-zag behaviour mentioned in the manual seems to have gone, but that's only from a quick test. You may find that the ship can run aground on some corners if there isn't a waypoint there.

 

 

Edited September 26, 2019 by JimTM

[jollyjack]

Well, i cannot link the red line, placed a few icons, for the ship pressed 'created linked entry

I selected an icon, f.i. Mission begin, pressed shift T, target arrow shows OK, then clicked with the target arrow on various MCUs within the red circle.

The targeted shows sometimes in the properties listing under 'Targets", but NO red line appears. Must do something essentially wrong.

 

PS what are these ship icons, properties won't open with info, can't even select them as such :

 

 

And this one you can set to allies etc, Icon Translator, hard to grab it's use ....

 

 

and show some selectable functions set to zero here on right clicking:

 

 

Edited September 27, 2019 by jollyjack

[jollyjack]

FOUND IT in your manual: MCUSEL and MCUUNSE should be on.

But i can only connect the 3 except the ship icon with a red line ... placed all on the ground, maybe not for ships.

Edited September 27, 2019 by jollyjack

[JimTM]

1 hour ago, jollyjack said:

FOUND IT in your manual: MCUSEL and MCUUNSE should be on.

But i can only connect the 3 except the ship icon with a red line ...

 

A red line represents a target link, which does not work for the ship in the scenario above. See pg. 8 in the editor manual for uses of target links (bullet point 2 and 4 apply to objects).

 

Re. your previous post, turning MCUSEL and MCUUNSE on should show the links from the icon translator (pg. 255) to other icon translators, which shows a line or circle on the in-game map. 

 

The two yellow ship icons are mission objective translators (pg. 271) with the Icon Type set to Attack Enemy Ships. If you cannot select them, they may be in a group, so you need to set the group as the working group (pg. 24-25) to access those MCUs. 

Edited September 27, 2019 by JimTM

[jollyjack]

OK thanks, I'm getting slowly there, for a good part thanks to you, i owe you a beer ... your manual is quite an amazing compilation of the ins and outs.

For the coming winter i got some job, i want to get more into the FMB.

Edited September 27, 2019 by jollyjack

[jollyjack]

Hey Jim, i just finished my first freshly started tryout mission, using your FMB bible.

 

The a20 is player flyable, and follows the course alright, placed a few icon translators, for map locations. Still have to figure out how to use those however,

but they show on the game map now displaying a route.

 

Only could not yet get the plane to bomb a bridge automatically, it works manually though.

And it starts above ground, behold, and lands in the right direction and not in somebody's haystack anymore.

 

The Vluki map loading does not seem to react to 'summer' as setting BTW. I you're interested i can place the mission file on dropbox.

 

Your manual is an amazing & recommendable piece of work, and a great help towards this FMB business. Thanks again for making it ! Cheers and 2 beers !

[JimTM]

6 hours ago, jollyjack said:

...

Only could not yet get the plane to bomb a bridge automatically, it works manually though.

...

The Vluki map loading does not seem to react to 'summer' as setting BTW. I you're interested i can place the mission file on dropbox.

 

Your manual is an amazing & recommendable piece of work, and a great help towards this FMB business. Thanks again for making it ! Cheers and 2 beers !

 

I'm glad that you are finding the manual so useful jollyjack. Virtual beers are good until I ever make it to NL.  

 

Re. bombing, review all the steps and the example in "Make an Object Attack Another Object" on pg. 119 to make sure you haven't missed something. Here are a couple of posts that also may help:

• How to make bombers drop bombs on target at first pass
• Make PE Bomb

 

Re. Vluki, I think that may be a Winter-only map but I'm not sure.

Edited September 29, 2019 by JimTM

[jollyjack]

Thanks. BTW i ran the setup again, Vluki area map: you can select summer and winter, but it's always the same map still, a summer version might be nice though ..

 

There's some large Railway Yard on it with pre installed buildings from the Vluki all Group template at Veiliki Luki. I'll have a look at your JimTM -TestTrainRoute mission, and try to place some Axis trains there; that was really the backbone of the German industry supported war expansion machine.

 

 

Sideline: my father in law was 19 years old, and sent into slavery by the Nazi Arbeits Ensatz, after they shot a brother and his father as resistance men. He escaped from this business, and was helped to get back home by German farmers, and taught me as 18 year old NOT to hate Germans as a whole. Some feeling i then got sort of implemented from my family's end during my youth, also due playing with American kids. My wife's grandfather BTW is still today considered a real WW2 hero; a commemorative plaque replaced in the completely rebuilt new railway station in Utrecht. Oops, politics ... but that's what WW2 really was all about.

 

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PS thanks to the above tips the a20 (auto pilot test) now stops flying in circles in vain: the distance of 1900m from the last waypoint before the attack command did the trick.

Guess this was Gambit's tip about 600m height, and SittingDuck's about distances.

Maybe something for the manual too? Well with the update lets see what FMB changes come first.

But for now the plane drops bombs and hurray; misses the target, but we're getting there slowly LoL ...

 

Edited September 29, 2019 by jollyjack
continued

[JimTM]

8 hours ago, jollyjack said:

...

There's some large Railway Yard on it with pre installed buildings from the Vluki all Group template at Veiliki Luki. I'll have a look at your JimTM -TestTrainRoute mission, and try to place some Axis trains there; that was really the backbone of the German industry supported war expansion machine.

...

 

You may find some weird behaviour if you place trains in rail yards (or even in scenarios involving a simple rail siding).

[jollyjack]

Yeah, got two oil trains smoking now, and one has to check which tracks pass through the yard i think when placing them.

One moves slowly (set speed at 5km/h), the other stays put, probably the timer wrong, but the AA flak wagon fires alright.

And the tank wagons blow up nicely when bombed ...

 

The trains now did not move at all .....have to check the timers etc i think. Just looked at your train mission, i have two independent Mission Begin command icons linked to the plane, and two trains separately ... must be wrong, i'll set only one linked to the lot ....

 

Edited September 29, 2019 by jollyjack
added pics

[jollyjack]

And after changing that (set on ground level selected) my player plane is located sunken in to the ground on lift off, i can't figure it out.

Just tried to launch the tester mission with the player plane placed in the air, and it still starts underground, a recorded track from the start, includes the lot i think.

 

FIXED IT !! The solution was in JM's manual:

 

Important! Make sure that the map selected in "GUI Map" matches the terrain

selected in "Terrain Presets". The map and terrain names may not be exactly the same.

 

Edited September 30, 2019 by jollyjack
added info