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