"Scripted Campaigns" What is possible with current 2023 game version?

[kraut1]

Hi,

I am a beginner with scripted campaigns.

I read the manual of JimTM and I downloaded some free campaigns and looked at the structure of the campaigns and the info.locale=....txt and info.txt. I made a small test campaign and it worked. Thanks very much for the manual and the campaigns!

But to decide if it is better to use a scripted campaign or just a mission pack I have some questions:

 

1.) is it now (2023) possible get awards? or promotions to higher ranks?

 

2.) In many single player missions I am credited with unrealistic many air victories, approx. for each plane that I damaged a bit.

Is it possible to make this a bit more realistic by changing game settings or a changing a parameter in a mission file or in a campaign file?

Or can I edit (reduce) the number of kills stored in the current campaign?

(Currently I am adding my single missions results to an excel logbook and count only the kills that could have been confirmed, maybe a bit similar as in PWCG).

 

3.) Is it possible for a wartime career to define for a campaign at the beginning maybe 250 missions (&missionsAmount=250) with maybe only 2 available missions in the campaign folder at the beginning and to add the further later missions while flying the career step by step?

(ADDED LATER: seems to work, I could replace in a running campaign the next to be flown mission by another mission with a different mission name)

Maybe the pilot is wounded and has pause for some months, this can I consider only during a career and not from the beginning.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 19, 2023 by kraut1

[AEthelraedUnraed]

I think there may be a slight misunderstanding as to what "scripted campaigns" are

 

A scripted campaign is a series of missions, hand-made by someone and featuring pre-defined events and mission settings. Hence promotions and/or awards don't make any sense; your position in the flight is pre-determined and may be important for the mission, so unless the mission writer wants it, you won't suddenly become a flight leader.

 

The kill counts are not related to the scripted campaign system in any way; for scripted campaigns they're counted in the same manner as for career or single missions.

 

For a scripted campaign, you're never ever going to see 250 missions. If you've got any experience writing missions; building a high-quality mission takes a full working day, more or less. Add at least a couple of hours for research. It'd take someone a full year's work to even get close to 250 missions.

 

Are you perhaps confusing scripted campaigns for the career or PWCG, which both consist of auto-generated missions?

[Zooropa_Fly]

37 minutes ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

building a high-quality mission takes a full working day

 

[kraut1]

1 hour ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

I think there may be a slight misunderstanding as to what "scripted campaigns" are

 

A scripted campaign is a series of missions, hand-made by someone and featuring pre-defined events and mission settings. Hence promotions and/or awards don't make any sense; your position in the flight is pre-determined and may be important for the mission, so unless the mission writer wants it, you won't suddenly become a flight leader.

 

The kill counts are not related to the scripted campaign system in any way; for scripted campaigns they're counted in the same manner as for career or single missions.

 

For a scripted campaign, you're never ever going to see 250 missions. If you've got any experience writing missions; building a high-quality mission takes a full working day, more or less. Add at least a couple of hours for research. It'd take someone a full year's work to even get close to 250 missions.

 

Are you perhaps confusing scripted campaigns for the career or PWCG, which both consist of auto-generated missions?

 

1 hour ago, Zooropa_Fly said:

 

Hi,

Thanks for your answers!

I think I understand what you mean. I know, to create individual missions is hard work.

I like the IL2 GB "Pilot Career" and "PWCG" too, but for my old computer / with VR I prefer sometimes EMG by Vander for mission creation, because with this tool I can limit the numbers plane / ground unit very effectivly for acceptable FPS.

If Awards / Promotions not possible - no problem. Maybe I would create a character like a former Social-Democrat in Germany or a former prisoner of a Gulag in USSR that is excluded of being promoted or to get awards.

 

In IL2 1946 I used the IL2DCG by Paul Lowengrin (IL2 Dynamic Campaign Generator) only as a fast mission generator. The missions were saved in the campaign folder and you could play them with older Campaign mode for static campaigns too. The advantage for me was that I could create the missions step by step while flying the campaign.

But even in this old static IL2 1946 campaign mode there were awards and promotions available.

 

In Il2GB I can create playable single player missions with EMG by Vander.

For a static frontline e.g. Channel Front 1941-1942 or Netherlands 1941-spring 1944 at the North Sea Coast I can create by using random settings comparable fast playable missions with a variety of different mission / target types. With good random settings it is possible to create a mission with a short editing with ME and a short test flight with autopilot in ca. 30...60 minutes.

They are of course not so good as individually handmade missions. But they are good playable in respect not to long mission time of ca. 20 -40minutes without time acceleration and they are comparable well balanced.

I am currently creating a mission pack for IV. Gruppe / JG1 in 1942 in Netherlands.

For my first scripted campaign test I put 20 of them in a campaign folder and created the info.txt and only a info.locale=eng.txt and the campaign seems to work.

When it's completed I will release it.

 

 

[Zooropa_Fly]

Don't forget you can access MP maps you've logged on to, mess around with them and convert to single missions. 

Good luck ! 

[Gambit21]

3 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

I think there may be a slight misunderstanding as to what "scripted campaigns" are

 

A scripted campaign is a series of missions, hand-made by someone and featuring pre-defined events and mission settings. Hence promotions and/or awards don't make any sense; your position in the flight is pre-determined and may be important for the mission, so unless the mission writer wants it, you won't suddenly become a flight leader.

 

The kill counts are not related to the scripted campaign system in any way; for scripted campaigns they're counted in the same manner as for career or single missions.

 

For a scripted campaign, you're never ever going to see 250 missions. If you've got any experience writing missions; building a high-quality mission takes a full working day, more or less. Add at least a couple of hours for research. It'd take someone a full year's work to even get close to 250 missions.

 

Are you perhaps confusing scripted campaigns for the career or PWCG, which both consist of auto-generated missions?

Factor in testing…testing…bug fixing, testing, (getting aircraft flights to form up with each other etc) script writing, voice actors, sound file editing, more testing, writing briefings, editor crashes etc etc….at least 20 hours per mission in the case of Hell Hawks for the less complex missions. Not much less then that for Havoc. For the more complex missions - I don’t even want to think about it.

Guess why I’m not working on any campaigns for now? DCS is even more painful. At least IL2 logic is solid for the most part once you lay it down. DCS…ugh.

 

 

 

 

 

I 

Edited October 19, 2023 by Gambit21

[kraut1]

18 minutes ago, Zooropa_Fly said:

Don't forget you can access MP maps you've logged on to, mess around with them and convert to single missions. 

Good luck ! 

Very interesting, I know only the maps that I use for SP.

Where are these MP maps and how do I select them?

Conversion to SP I suppose by editing with ME and changing mission type to SP.

[BlackSix]

16 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

building a high-quality mission takes a full working day, more or less. Add at least a couple of hours for research.

15 hours ago, Zooropa_Fly said:

8 full working days for me...)))

[kraut1]

14 minutes ago, BlackSix said:

8 full working days for me...)))

Very impressive!

In comparison when I create a full Modification for EMG by Vander for a new theatre of war with non-static frontlines e.g. my

I have much work with (similar as you have):

-selection of existing IL2 GB Map with similar landscape to be used.

-historical research of front lines, units / plane types, battles, dates.

-definition of a planes.json file with adapted service dates, and for Papua New Guinea definition which plane to be used as a japanese pseudo plane

-definition of frontlines / combat areas with related historical date for each front line in the template file

-renaming of existing EMG airfields

-definition of additional EMG airfields on existing airfields of the map

-definition of new field airfields including search for a sufficient plane ground on the map (e.g. Kokoda airfield)

-definition of target objectives in the template file

-design with of additional plane groups, ship groups. E.g. for my Kokoda Track fronts groups of AI controlled "Boomerang" flights with selfmade smoke bombs for automatic target marking in the mountain forrests.

Each step of course tested / saved as backup.

Total working hours: I don't know exactly, maybe about a full working week / 40hours or more.

 

At the end I have a modded Mission generator that I use while flying the campaign for step by step mission generation.

The missions have not the perfect quality of your individally designed missions, but when settings and templates are completed you can produce quick missions according to the users requirements, with few / many plane numbers, different AI levels and most of the parameters can be randomnized.

 

And what I have tested now the missions are suitable to be used for a Scripted Campaign.

 

 

[Zooropa_Fly]

13 hours ago, kraut1 said:

Very interesting, I know only the maps that I use for SP.

Where are these MP maps and how do I select them?

Conversion to SP I suppose by editing with ME and changing mission type to SP.

 

Any MP maps you've been on should be in ...\data\Multiplayer\Dogfight folder.

I'd maybe just copy/paste to a new folder somewhere (should be 10 files for each map).

You can open in the ME, play around, then ultimately re-save them as 'Single Missions'.

Obviously you can only have one available plane for a single mission (unfortunately), so there's a couple of things to do.

If it's to contribute to a 'Campaign' you can save it as such.. but I've no experience of that yet.

 

You can also play these MP maps as they are by going into MP, and clicking 'Create New Server'.. and untick the internet option if you're just playing yourself.

 

There's plenty of help in the ME forum section when if you get stuck on anything.

 

S!

[AEthelraedUnraed]

14 hours ago, Gambit21 said:

Factor in testing…testing…bug fixing, testing, (getting aircraft flights to form up with each other etc) script writing, voice actors, sound file editing, more testing, writing briefings, editor crashes etc etc….at least 20 hours per mission in the case of Hell Hawks for the less complex missions. Not much less then that for Havoc. For the more complex missions - I don’t even want to think about it.

45 minutes ago, BlackSix said:

8 full working days for me...)))

I know, I'm superhuman

Yeah, the "full working day" is if you've already got all templates for the not directly mission related stuff, and already have all your research done. Also it's for not too complex missions without any custom sounds and the like. If you still need to create your templates or want to make a slightly more complex mission, then the required time rapidly increases.

 

14 hours ago, kraut1 said:

If Awards / Promotions not possible - no problem. Maybe I would create a character like a former Social-Democrat in Germany or a former prisoner of a Gulag in USSR that is excluded of being promoted or to get awards.

Since in a scripted campaign you write the missions and briefings yourself, you can just write down something like "Congratulations, you've just been promoted to Flight Leader" and from then on have the player lead the flights.

 

In your case I wonder if a "mission pack" wouldn't be more suitable. With scripted campaigns, I expect some kind of a story behind it. It can for instance follow a squadron through some battle, or perhaps follow an individual pilot. It's not clear to me if you plan to write extensive mission briefings that follow a story line; if the missions are somewhat disconnected and independently playable, then why bother to make it into a campaign?

 

4 minutes ago, Zooropa_Fly said:

Any MP maps you've been on should be in ...\data\Multiplayer\Dogfight folder.

I'd maybe just copy/paste to a new folder somewhere (should be 10 files for each map).

You can open in the ME, play around, then ultimately re-save them as 'Single Missions'.

Obviously you can only have one available plane for a single mission (unfortunately), so there's a couple of things to do.

If it's to contribute to a 'Campaign' you can save it as such.. but I've no experience of that yet.

Of course, if you plan to modify and re-distribute some missions, whether modified from a multiplayer mission or based on Vander's EMG, please ask for their permission first

[BlackSix]

28 minutes ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

Yeah, the "full working day" is if you've already got all templates for the not directly mission related stuff, and already have all your research done. Also it's for not too complex missions without any custom sounds and the like. If you still need to create your templates or want to make a slightly more complex mission, then the required time rapidly increases.

Yes, initial preparations for the campaign (research, general scenario, map preparation, initial filling of airfields) are of course not included in this period, these are still months of preparatory work. When everything is ready, everything works out something like this for me:

drawing the front line and additional tactical layer - 1 day

creating a mission - 4 days

testing - 1 day

writing a briefing - 1 day

black and white picture for mission - 1 day

[jollyjack]

Well, you're missions and campaigns are as always showing a quality that makes them worthwhile ?

[Sandmarken]

8 hours ago, BlackSix said:

8 full working days for me...)))

You get paid  to do it atleast. ?? but they are of the highest quality also ?

[IckyATLAS]

All depends on what is your ambition and what you want to achieve in terms of a campaign. It can take many years.

But the only way to know is just to start building missions. Very simple things can be done pretty quickly, but the editor allows for very complex missions. If you want to have speech, to have images, special sounds, specific skins that you have to create, you name it. If you coordinate air, land and sea operations in one mission etc. etc.

You can do all of it but be careful the rabbit hole is not far from your feet. ? 

[Jaegermeister]

On 10/20/2023 at 4:17 AM, BlackSix said:

Yes, initial preparations for the campaign (research, general scenario, map preparation, initial filling of airfields) are of course not included in this period, these are still months of preparatory work. When everything is ready, everything works out something like this for me:

drawing the front line and additional tactical layer - 1 day

creating a mission - 4 days

testing - 1 day

writing a briefing - 1 day

black and white picture for mission - 1 day

At this point it takes me about 4 full days to make a complete campaign mission when it is all averaged together. Single missions are maybe a little longer because each one is started from scratch.
 

Play testing sometimes takes a full day or more if it is a complicated or particularly troublesome mission.