1st Lt. David E. Price
Air Combat Pilot
95th Aero Squadron, First Pursuit Group
Air Service, American Expeditionary Force

Thanks Soda! I'll start with the campaign this weekend. Will you be adding missions on a regular basis?

You know, TV series sometimes have "guest directors". Perhaps one of ther other mission builders could contribute a mission or two, now that you have already 'set the stage'?

Very nice Soda. I have flown missions #1 and #2. I like the mission descriptions, so much better than Neoqb's. I have read both Hall's and Rickenbacker's books, so it was quite simple for me to get in the right atmosphere. I could see numerous villages have been added to the map, which makes the scenery much more realistic. It would be nice if they could all show up in the map? I think I can find my way around the are now

Question : why does time compression not work in these missions?

*** SPOILERS ***

Don't read further if you want to fly the missions yourself. Just some feedback for Soda:

First mission was good. I like the way you point out the landmarks; very useful for navigation. This is essential because the N28 still has no compass!! The clouds and lighting were wonderful. I spotted several aircraft going over the lines, but as capt Hall did not react I supposed they were allied. When I saw one up close it was indeed a Brequet. I wasn't the last to land as I was a bit impatient, but I did wait on the ground for the last plane to land. Then all hell broke loose and two fighters took off. I noticed two German recon/bombers aircraft and took off as well (tip: perhaps use the siren sound?) but before I could do anything the two bandits were destroyed!

In the second mission I had to fly as #2 which is quite hard as the AI do not really behave. Half way through the mission the #4 guy collided with me and hit my top left wing with his wheels. My left struts came loose, but I could keep flying, however ten minutes later I lost part of my upper wing and I had to make a (crash) landing that I survived. Next time I'll stay well clear of the other aircraft! I followed the other N28 home (external view) but there didn't seem to be much happening.

*** END SPOILERS ***

aloha Vanderstok, thanks for sharing your work with the ME.
your comments & feedback on the Price missions is most valued, mahalo for response.

yes, intent is to add missions, there are a number in progress. was waiting to see if there was interest before investing the time. the ‘guest director’ idea sounds like a very good one.

played around with including names for added locations, but could not find a good icon to use, waypoint with roll over text seemed the nearest to acceptable. in the end decided to use names for added locations only in the missions in which they are referenced, you’ll see it in the next couple missions.

did not know time compression did not work, but have confirmed it is not working here either. not a clue as to why.

according to my research the majority of air combat in the Toul Sector was a result of attempts to counter enemy recon aircraft activity. the ‘Vanderstok Wheel’ is used to try replicate this recon activity in a random fashion as ‘background’ air activity. there are also probability/random factors used for defense at each of the aerodromes. your experience after landing in mission #1 was not scripted. very pleased to hear it happened.

a siren is a good idea, each aerodrome should probably have one, but every time i try use effects i get this:
Object(939:Effect) >> no model file! : graphics\effects\effect.mgm
Object(944:Siren) >> no model file! : graphics\effects\effect.mgm
there is no effects folder in my graphics directory. haven’t been able to sort it yet.

holding position #2 in a 5 ship V formation is a difficult for me, & conditions in mission #2 are less than ideal, cranked up the turbulence & wind a bit, even the AI struggle some. flight position & conditions were intentionally chosen to challenge player.

missions #3 & #4 are a little different in nature, both are based on historic reference. hope you enjoy them.

I think if you use an Icon with type "none" and give it a name, only the name will show on the map.



Excellent! I didn't know it was random behaviour. Very good!



Just ignore the error message. It will work in the game! See here: http://www.airwarfare.com/index.php?name=Downloads&file=details&id=10
In mission "quick coop 01" you will find an example...

sirens working, thanks Vanderstok.

Sorry to report that Mission #1 (only one I've tried...repeatedly) does not work for me. It locks up ROF and I have to Ctrl-Alt-Del to shut down. Usually locks up immediately on mission start(well,within 10-15 seconds). None of my controls work for views, etc. time compression seems not to work. I've flown other missions, ROF default missions and Laser quick Dogfights, and they work fine. I just can't get your mission to run. No idea why.

My Rig:
Dual core E6700 Cpu
4GB RAM
BFG 8800GTX w/768MB Graphics card
Windows VISTA 32bit

sorry to hear you are having problems DoolittleRaider, but thx for notice.
have a couple ideas for possible solutions from mission editing side, would you be willing to help me troubleshoot?

Sure...just let me know what you need me to do.

thanks DoolittleRaider, appreciated.

please try mission #3 18-05-06 08h05 Alert Intercept &
mission #4: 18-05-15 05h10 Thiaucourt Voluntary.
clear all check boxes at mission settings screen prior to loading.

Just finished mission 3. Very nice. I think it's based on the "Jimmy Hall's last flight" chapter from Rickenbackers book? I really like they way you used priority "high" to make the flights fly as they do (at least I think that's how you did it).

*** SPOILERS ***

Don't read any further if you intend to fly the mission.

I was just able to follow my flight, because they were climbing hard. Over Pont-a-mousson we spotted a German two-seater heading west, a bit higher than we were. Jimmy abruptly changed course and followed the two-seater. A flight of three Pfalzes came to the rescue of the German recon plane, but they were flying a bit lower than our flight. As I was lagging a bit behind I managed to slip behind the Pfalzes which did not seem to notice me. Just as I was about to dive on them I saw a lone Pfalz directly behind me, ready to shoot me in the back! I turned to meet him and as I had a little height advantage I could dictate the fight. It took some time and a lot of altitute, but I eventually managed to shoot it down. I went back up, looking for the others but couldn't find them so I followed the Flirey-Toul Highway back to our base. Later I learned that captain Hall had crash landed behind enemy land. No word yet if he survived or not...

yes sir Vanderstok, Fighting the Flying Circus/Chapter 6 - Jimmy Hall's Last Flight

sounds like it played out pretty close to the account.

the really neat thing is there’s 6 primary engaged encounter scenarios that could develop from that mission, with the lesser possibility of about 20 variations that may come into play. where the fight goes after initial encounter could trigger more stuff. & that’s in single player, take away AI Jimmy’s exact flight path with a human as lead in the MP version & you can multiply that by … who knows!

the ME is just a great tool & way fun to play with.
glad you're enjoying & thanks for the feedback Vanderstok.


edit: oh, almost forgot. found out why time compression doesn’t work.
need to put a Media Type: Stop Media in Translator:Media advanced properties.

Sounds interesting, I'll have look at your mission in the editor! I have also been experimenting with random elements for some "patrol the front" co-ops I did. Basically I have created a template for a "random" flight as follows:

-a number of aircraft in a flight (I change the number per flight)
-an "activate" MCU for the flight which is randomly chosen (by default 50% chance of spawning)
-one fixed start waypoint
-two follow up waypoints, of which one is chosen randomly (50/50)
-two attack area MCU's of which one is chosen randomly (50/50)
-one fixed exit waypoint
-after the flight has reached the exit waypoint it is deactivated again

When I make a new patrol missions, at first I create the environment: airfields, villages, some possible targets such as factories, train station, military camp etc. Then I create
two co-ops flights, so each side has a couple of aircraft available for players.
Then I import several of the above flight templates and make little variations (number of aircraft, type of aircraft, waypoint priorities). I make a group of each and use "set working group" for easier editing. I more or less put the random waypoints and attack area MCU's all around the patrol section. For now, I create 4 additional "random" AI groups on each side.
The result is great. Even though I have placed all the waypoints myself I haven't got a clue what is going to happen when a mission starts, there are just too many possible variations. You can also stay on the ground and watch the other flights and see how an air battle ensues (or not, but this is very rare, at least the two co-op flights are always there).

I just read about the 30 aircraft limit for co-ops, this is a pity because it limits the number of random flights you can put in a game...

Soda,

ROTC (as we know it today) was authorized in 1916 and closed down when America entered the war in 1917. Not revived until 1920.

The Army School of Military Aeronautics replaced ROTC at Cornell:

http://www.rso.cornell.edu/sandb/history.htm

Lt. Price's resume, at least his source of commissioning, is a tad suspect

HT

3 new missions based on actual ordered activities of 95th Aero Squadron on 21 May 1918:

Dieulouard-Commercy Patrol
Vaucouleurs Voluntary
Sector 19 Protection Patrol

First Pursuit Group Toul Single Player r1.05, link in Toul Sector download section here.

missions are a little ahead of planned timeline sequence, but they use some ME functions added in 1.010 & a new custom template. format is closer to that generated for neoqb career mode missions, game play does seem to be smoother than previous template without too much impact on ‘unscripted’ activity.

some features of new template:

- most default locations in the 480,000 km area of operations re-aligned to fit better with 1.008 texture changes.

- 50+ research referenced locations added.

- all air bases (17 total) populated & actively defended, including sirens & possible scramble air response. house smoke also included at all to indicate approximate wind direction & velocity.

- operations area semi-randomly populated with planes, aerostats, AAA/flak, vehicles & columns. enemy/friendly flights & ground activity not directly related to mission may be active.

- there is high probability of contact with enemy (ground &/or air), but it is not 100%, some player initiative may be required.

- ‘skip’ menu added to media display prior to start of mission. subtitle needs to be enabled for text to be visible, if not visible click at bottom of screen to proceed to mission start or wait for timer to expire.

- mission succeed / fail conditions are in place, player must land for results to be displayed.

- some AI behavior may be adjusted from default. destruction of enemy not always required for mission success.

- player aircraft has limited waypoints. use of autopilot does not guarantee assigned route will be followed.

- player may have wingman if assigned to a flight of 4 or more, even if not flying lead. when this happens other aircraft in flight will be instructed by script to take correct positions as directed in briefing by Operations Officer Captain Philip J. Roosevelt. issue of command to place player’s wingman in proper formation position relative to player aircraft recommended.

example: 5 ship V formation positions in RoF:

#2 is close left of lead,
#3 close right,
#4 far left,
#5 far right.

in the 5 ship Dieulouard-Commercy Patrol mission, Lt. Price (player), is assigned position #3. after reaching assembly waypoint at Dommartin les Toul flying field, AI #2 (Lt. Buckley) & #4 (Lt. Curtis) will move to form in correct positions to left of lead (Lt. McKeown). #5 (Lt. Casgrain), is player wingman & will by default form in player’s #2 close left position, putting him in wrong overall flight formation position. if player issues formation right edge command, Lt. Casgrain will move to players right, putting him in correct overall #5 flight formation position relative to player aircraft.

… or you can just display lack of flight discipline & not fly in formation.


to install unzip download file & place First_Pursuit_Group folder in \Rise of Flight\data\Missions\ .
if folder is already in place from previous install allow any requested overwrite of .jpg files.

aloha ... soda

Great missions Soda!

So far, I flew the "Dieulouard-Commercy Patrol"
and "Vaucouleurs Voluntary" missions. In the first one I didn't meet any enemies, but I did check on some friendly two-seaters. It was nice to see how the N28 AI has improved it's formation flying skills though. I was actually able to fly as #3 in the formation!
The second mission had some more action, but I will not give that away.
I really love the mission description and the official orders at the start. Keep up the good work!

Soda, since the latest RoF update supports campaigns, I'm hoping you will make a campaign of your missions? I haven't been looking into how it's done, but my guess is that it would be pretty easy to do...

aloha Vanderstok, thanks for your continuing feedback & support.

yes, it was always intended to convert from a collection of single missions to a RoF ‘Campaign’ when the ability to do so was made available to mission builders. don’t think we have that yet, appears the RoF Hat in The Ring Campaign is packed in the game files as there are no new files in the 1.011 data\campaigns directory. also interesting is after playing the first mission i got a Hat in The Ring Start Campaign Badge for ‘purchasing’ the campaign.

was surprised to hear you did not encounter any enemy aircraft in the Dieulouard-Commercy Patrol mission. while possible it’s not very likely & never happened in all my testing. after a little investigation i think it’s possible behavior of the Command:AttackArea MCU may have changed in 1.010. need to do some more testing with 1.011, have you noticed any differences?

I think we can just add a new folder to make our own campaigns, but Neoqb needs to tell us how it's done.



This triggered me as well. Will it be possible to sell a campaign through the RoF webshop? That will be interesting



I flew the missions in 1.010. I lost my flight briefly while checking out the friendly two-seaters, but I don't think they shot down any aircraft in the short time I was not with them!

Did you know that the aircraft visibility distance is now longer when you zoom the view? I tested this and it works. This is great for these patrol missions; it is now possible to spot enemy further away if you carefully scan the horizon with zoomed in view... But we have to take care not to spawn enemy aircraft too close to the players (I think 3-4 km is now minimum?).

i've been running random activated aircraft with 7500m closer check zones,
5000m closer check zones for aerostats & ground stuff. no issues yet.
have you been able to confirm max vis distance at full zoom?

wind socks working well

Yep, I use it all the time. I have mapped zoom in/out to my hatswitch on the stick.

I tested once, sitting in my aircraft on the field with a siren set to go off when the enemy was within 4,5km distance. I knew where the enemy was coming from, so I looked there with min FOV. I could see the enemy aircraft well before the siren went off. Zooming back to normal I couldn't see them. You don't need to zoom in all the way btw, zoom in a little and you will see them up to 4 or 5km already.