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Post by stearmandriver on Apr 15, 2020 6:08:10 GMT -5
Just wondering if this is possible, instead of the carrier being spawned by the mission .asl script and traveling a specified route. Reason I ask is, I'd like to have the carrier following the wind from real-world weather instead of never deviating from a known route, and I'd like the tacpack-created navaids on the boat.
I just recently discovered the missions baked into FSCAI and read enough to understand how they're created, and I'm really impressed with the possibilities here. It'll take me forever just to work my way through all the included southeast Asia missions, but I see much fun to be had in creating and trading missions... really good work you've done here.
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Post by Dutch Owen on Apr 15, 2020 11:08:36 GMT -5
Just wondering if this is possible, instead of the carrier being spawned by the mission .asl script and traveling a specified route. Reason I ask is, I'd like to have the carrier following the wind from real-world weather instead of never deviating from a known route, and I'd like the tacpack-created navaids on the boat. I just recently discovered the missions baked into FSCAI and read enough to understand how they're created, and I'm really impressed with the possibilities here. It'll take me forever just to work my way through all the included southeast Asia missions, but I see much fun to be had in creating and trading missions... really good work you've done here. Support for obtaining missions from a carrier is present in FSCAI, although I haven't tested it in a while ... so maybe you're the one to test it! The way it works is there are defined "carrier zones" in certain parts of the world. The two defined by default are "Yankee Station" off North Vietnam, and one just outside the Gulf of Siddra north of Libya. You can add more carrier zones by editing the file "Carriers.cfg" located in the FSCAI\Missions folder. Each line defines a zone, starting with a name, then latitude and longitude of the center point, and then a radius in kilometers (max is 200). For example the one defining Yankee Station is: YANK,18.188969,107.384116,100 You will see a folder in FSCAI\Missions named "YANK" to match this zone, with missions defined for any aircraft parked in that zone. So, place a carrier in that zone (any carrier) put your aircraft on it, and you should see that mission list when you do a SHIFT-J assuming you're in a valid aircraft and in the right era for the missions. It doesn't matter how you place the carrier, it doesn't have to be in a mission script. *UPDATE: I tried and it doesn't recognize carrier missions. I found the problem and fixed it, the fix should be in version 0.11.0 which I aim to get out this coming weekend. Dutch |
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Post by stearmandriver on Apr 15, 2020 17:50:20 GMT -5
Ah, thanks for the update. I was just trying it myself and wondering what I was doing wrong. An elegant solution though, thanks.
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Post by realolddog on Apr 21, 2020 13:20:07 GMT -5
Hmm, I'll try taking off from AI carriers and see if FSCAI works - B back to U.
ROD
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Post by Dutch Owen on Apr 21, 2020 21:12:12 GMT -5
Carrier operations won't work in the present version, wait for 0.11.1 - hopefully, unless we hit a snag, out tomorrow (22 APR)
Dutch
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Post by realolddog on Apr 22, 2020 12:11:04 GMT -5
AI carriers woks just fine with FSCAI. Pix included - I took off from land base at dawn, flew out to sea, spawned carrier group and landed (after one wave off) took off again, spawned bandit, shot him down, back to land on carrier and takeoff back to land base. Issues noted: 1) when I spawned the bandit - noted landing light and constant weapon fire from bandit. I can edit the aircraft config to take care of that, however - thinking of leaving on one mg so I can follow my fall of shot - or create an AI - something I've never done - to remove the problem on the bandit. 2) when dogfighting I noted a severe drop in framerates when I turned toward my carrier group - 5 miles away - They must not be multi LOD models. I'll have to get rid of them and respawn after the fight. Darn, I enjoy flying back to the carrier by the seat of your pants and compass heading. I have 4 escorts in the carrier group - will go down to one and also check different carriers and ships for frame rates. 3) Kinda funny shooting down, or being attacked by an aircraft that could be your wingman. which leads to another issue with the "airbase" determining friend or foe (team) Can we make a carrier an airbase for this type of scenario? ROD    |
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Post by Dutch Owen on Apr 22, 2020 18:13:32 GMT -5
AI carriers woks just fine with FSCAI. Pix included - I took off from land base at dawn, flew out to sea, spawned carrier group and landed (after one wave off) took off again, spawned bandit, shot him down, back to land on carrier and takeoff back to land base. Issues noted: 1) when I spawned the bandit - noted landing light and constant weapon fire from bandit. I can edit the aircraft config to take care of that, however - thinking of leaving on one mg so I can follow my fall of shot - or create an AI - something I've never done - to remove the problem on the bandit. 2) when dogfighting I noted a severe drop in framerates when I turned toward my carrier group - 5 miles away - They must not be multi LOD models. I'll have to get rid of them and respawn after the fight. Darn, I enjoy flying back to the carrier by the seat of your pants and compass heading. I have 4 escorts in the carrier group - will go down to one and also check different carriers and ships for frame rates. 3) Kinda funny shooting down, or being attacked by an aircraft that could be your wingman. which leads to another issue with the "airbase" determining friend or foe (team) Can we make a carrier an airbase for this type of scenario? ROD View AttachmentView AttachmentView Attachment 1) FSCAI attempts to force Ai to turn off all their lights, but this only works if the AI cooperates and obeys the signal; some do, some don't. Depends on how the AI model was designed. IF they still show up you can remove the entries from the [LIGHTS] section of the aircraft.cfg, and sometimes it's necessary to use ModelConverterX to remove attached effects. 2) I have used the SWS Coral Sea carrier group and I've noticed a frame rate hit when in the center of it. 3) There are several solutions. If you add a "Vehicle=" statement to the Team file in use and put the atc_model of your aircraft in there it will always assign you to that team. Or now, you could use a "ZONE" statement at the same location and the same radius as the Carriers.cfg zone to insure you are assigned to the team that "owns" the carrier zone space. Dutch |
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Post by realolddog on Apr 22, 2020 19:51:44 GMT -5
Got it thanks.
Reading more in the manuals, it seems Captain Sim Weapon would enhance the option in gameplay. Is this part of FSCaptain or separate, and is there a recommended place of purchase?
Thanks again.
ROD
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Post by Dutch Owen on Apr 22, 2020 23:56:35 GMT -5
Got it thanks. Reading more in the manuals, it seems Captain Sim Weapon would enhance the option in gameplay. Is this part of FSCaptain or separate, and is there a recommended place of purchase? Thanks again. ROD Although there are some links between FSCAI and FSCaptain neither requires the other and FSCAI is designed to be completely on its own. For FSCaptain, FSCAI provides "Assignments" (missions) and it will have the ability to update the career database for a pilot that has a career in FSCaptain. But that's for when FSCAI is complete. Captain Sim Weapon is a quite old and somewhat limited weapons system that's hard to configure (you have to write or modify XML). It's cheap though (about 10 Euros I think) and it still works; you can find it at the Captain Sim website I would imagine. For much more realism and capability I would recommended Tacpack by VRS, and you can always use the built-in FSCAI weapons as described in the manual if you have nothing else. Dutch |
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Post by stearmandriver on Apr 23, 2020 5:43:10 GMT -5
Yeah, the problem wasn't using FSCAI in general with a carrier present, it was getting FSCAI's mission scripts to recognize a carrier at sea as a valid starting location for missions. Before, when you opened the mission menu while sitting on a carrier deck, it showed no available missions.
The new version worked well tonight though; I placed myself on a moving carrier spawned at Yankee station and started the mission to strike the Vinh petroleum storage. Had the carrier following the wind, real world weather active. Placed a tanker orbiting off the coast. Hit the target area (got brave, made a second pass using a manual drop, well down in the flak zone), plugged the tanker after using its TACAN to locate it, then used the boat's TACAN to find it. It had moved over ten miles from spawn point already. Then the weather went down to Case 3 and I had to use its ILS too.
... And then after what would have been an OK pass, I went high at the very end and boltered, and my #*%$ing FSX crashed as I was arcing around the boat for another try. So I could not verify that ENDING the mission on the carrier also worked, but I'm guessing it would have.
Also learned that gunners actually recognize when you're in a cloud and stop targeting you. Now that's a cool touch of realism! ... They're gonna slaughter me when you give them radar though 😁.
Thanks Dutch! This is too fun!
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Post by Dutch Owen on Apr 23, 2020 9:20:27 GMT -5
Yeah, the problem wasn't using FSCAI in general with a carrier present, it was getting FSCAI's mission scripts to recognize a carrier at sea as a valid starting location for missions. Before, when you opened the mission menu while sitting on a carrier deck, it showed no available missions. The new version worked well tonight though; I placed myself on a moving carrier spawned at Yankee station and started the mission to strike the Vinh petroleum storage. Had the carrier following the wind, real world weather active. Placed a tanker orbiting off the coast. Hit the target area (got brave, made a second pass using a manual drop, well down in the flak zone), plugged the tanker after using its TACAN to locate it, then used the boat's TACAN to find it. It had moved over ten miles from spawn point already. Then the weather went down to Case 3 and I had to use its ILS too. ... And then after what would have been an OK pass, I went high at the very end and boltered, and my #*%$ing FSX crashed as I was arcing around the boat for another try. So I could not verify that ENDING the mission on the carrier also worked, but I'm guessing it would have. Also learned that gunners actually recognize when you're in a cloud and stop targeting you. Now that's a cool touch of realism! ... They're gonna slaughter me when you give them radar though 😁. Thanks Dutch! This is too fun! Sounds like you had a lot of fun with that one. Try Hanoi or Haiphong once you've got Vinh nailed! Sorry your FSX crashed before you could record the mission. Yes, non-radar guns can't target you in clouds. Dutch |
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Post by realolddog on Apr 25, 2020 11:13:18 GMT -5
Sounds like everyone is having fun! I just finished creating some weapons for a few of my uploaded planes and got a surprise. (see attached) In my vehicle database I have 48 new vehicles! All I can surmise is the carrier group I spawned and all the eye candy from the Solomon's base I flew from- to after the mission were picked up by FSCAI. I'm guessing it's OK to trash them since they indicate undefined status. Very interesting find for me, using such scenery in FSCAI has the program noting everything in the environments you visit, AND ADDING them to your vehicle database! Dutch:  Thanks for the info. I'll plod along and see what happens as FSCAI matures. ROD |
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