AI flight plan missions

[StuB]

Does anyone know if there is a way to create FSX/P3D flight plans that allow the flights to originate from an airport, fly to a waypoint (or series of waypoints) and then either return to that same airport or fly to and land at a different airport.

I know CCP can "sort of" do this, but it doesn't seem possible to have the CCP controlled AI actually start off on the ground....or land. It's also tedious to set up.

I have been working on Vietnam era AI for P3Dv4 (and FSX when possible) and they are following normal flight plans OK, but the problem with that is regular flight plans can only go between airports. Also they can only be for one airplane. 

I would LOVE it if there were something that worked sort of like AI Flight Planner, but allowed for flights of up to four aircraft and also allowed the user to insert coordinates into the flight plan so that the AI would follow a specific path.

[xpel]

For achieving this "allowed for flights of up to four aircraft and also allowed the user to insert coordinates into the flight plan so that the AI would follow a specific path."
you can't go with AI flight plans. Only via .xml files this is possible because they define all these necessary parameters.
Such .xml files are created either by CCP or FSX/P3D Mission/Scenario system (also can be done via FSCAI scripted assingments).

You can certainly have AI formations taking off and Landing at an airport. That's for certain. They just don't start from parking spots 
but from the runway and end (accumulate) at the runway.
With CCP you can certainly have a sort of campaign with many AIs taking off from airports at different times, following their Flights 
Wpts to their "targets"-goals and return for landing at the airports.
Such a sample campaign (one day - Normandy 1944 campaign) with CCP directed AI traffic, you may watch here : www.youtube.com/watch?v=nond9O_1FNY
At 05:35 and 12:53 you can see CCP controlled allied & axis AIs taking off from the airports for their "missions".

The only real PROBLEM is that as soon as FSCAI takes control of the AIs (either to engage ground or air targets), the CCP flight Wpts are 
cancelled permanently. This is also the case with any other method (Flight plans, Mission or even assignments), resulting that the AIs 
after running out of ammo or destroy their targets can't resume back to their assigned route (by any method) and RTB. They just 
fooling around or head back to a previous last Wpt and keep going straight.

[StuB]

Nov 6, 2020 3:09:35 GMT -5 xpel said:

For achieving this "allowed for flights of up to four aircraft and also allowed the user to insert coordinates into the flight plan so that the AI would follow a specific path."
you can't go with AI flight plans. Only via .xml files this is possible because they define all these necessary parameters.
Such .xml files are created either by CCP or FSX/P3D Mission/Scenario system (also can be done via FSCAI scripted assingments).

You can certainly have AI formations taking off and Landing at an airport. That's for certain. They just don't start from parking spots 
but from the runway and end (accumulate) at the runway.
With CCP you can certainly have a sort of campaign with many AIs taking off from airports at different times, following their Flights 
Wpts to their "targets"-goals and return for landing at the airports.
Such a sample campaign (one day - Normandy 1944 campaign) with CCP directed AI traffic, you may watch here : www.youtube.com/watch?v=nond9O_1FNY
At 05:35 and 12:53 you can see CCP controlled allied & axis AIs taking off from the airports for their "missions".

The only real PROBLEM is that as soon as FSCAI takes control of the AIs (either to engage ground or air targets), the CCP flight Wpts are 
cancelled permanently. This is also the case with any other method (Flight plans, Mission or even assignments), resulting that the AIs 
after running out of ammo or destroy their targets can't resume back to their assigned route (by any method) and RTB. They just 
fooling around or head back to a previous last Wpt and keep going straight.

Well, that's unfortunate they lose their flight plans after FSCAI takes control.

The only method I have used so far is CCP, but have not figured out how to have them start on the runway.

[xpel]

For having AIs taking off & landing, the only thing needed is that the first Wpt (spawn position actually not a wpt) 
and the last one have 0 values at altitude and speed. You can edit these values either inside CCP program when 
designing the wpts at CCP map or by hand at the created .oob.xml file by opening with notepad and after changes save. 

I usually manipulate CCP created files by hand in notepad. I design the missions in Google maps and then I copy/paste 
the coordinates and speed/altitudes that I want directly in notepad opened CCP .xml, adding there as many new wpt entries 
I need (copy/paste from the xml and editing). 
You can edit the xml as much as you're willing to work with it... I mean, you can create with CCP an .oob.xml that contains a 4 
planes flight (that will fly in formation) and then edit the wpts of the 4 planes in the .oob.xml in such a way that they'll split in two 
pairs at some point in the route, performing different tasks... or edit the initial spawn position of each plane... or even add more 
planes than just the available 4 via CCP program and of different types. 
All these abilities can't be achieved via CCP program but only by manipulating the CCP created files directle by hand (editing).

I also do the same with .Mis files. You can rename the extension .Mis to .Zip and then extract from this zip file the included xml files.
You can then make any changes you want (with notepad), in these files, like editing times, wpts, adding more xml files, whatever 
and then you select all these files and send to a zip file. You then rename the extension to .Mis and you have a fresh new mis file 
to run with CCP that functions perfectly.

Hope these info help. An .oob.xml example of the above video, showing the take off & landing edits of a plane of a 3 ship flight:


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<planeUnits>
<PlaneUnitCool>
<modelName>AI_WWII_Bf109_G-10</modelName>
<position>
<latitude>48.93072700</latitude>
<longitude>0.95808500</longitude>
<ktsSpeed>0</ktsSpeed>
<altitude>0</altitude>
<heading>42.4527146243767</heading>
</position>
<waypoints>
<PlaneWaypoint>
<latitude>48.9447149621306</latitude>
<longitude>0.977439880371094</longitude>
<ktsSpeed>120</ktsSpeed>
<altitude>600</altitude>
</PlaneWaypoint>
.
.
.

<PlaneWaypoint>
<latitude>48.93092998834</latitude>
<longitude>0.964221954345703</longitude>
<ktsSpeed>0</ktsSpeed>
<altitude>0</altitude>
</PlaneWaypoint>
</waypoints>
</PlaneUnitCool>



[StuB]

Thanks, I'll give that a try.

I am still trying to get all of the AI to park in their correct spots at Da Nang Airbase, but it is really looking good though.

I removed all static aircraft models, so all airplanes visible at the base are AI. I will probably reduce the number of AI flight plans, which should lower the number of models.... which should be OK, since there are almost too many. I'm running a GTX 980ti and the frame rates struggle a little in FSX, but P3D runs it all very well.