I'm trying to get to grips with DGen New Guinea 1942 allied fighter campaign. Port Moresby area is full of airstrips (I put stationary aircraft on each of them) but for some reason all aircraft participating in a given mission are always generated on the same runway, in a silly-looking long queue. Worse still, during missions more aircraft are spawned on the same strip. They only give hiccups to my otherwise smooth-running missions; some of these aircraft immediately crash in a ball of fire (that is, the very moment they pop up), blocking the runway. It really drives me crazy. Any idea how to get rid of them?
I don't use and mods.

Planes participating in the same mission will always start from the same airfield, this can't be changed.
To disable randomly spawned aircraft add the line RandomFlights=0 in the DGen section of your config.ini file.

Thank you! Another issue which I'm struggling with: How to make DGen generate anti-shipping missions? In the New Guinea scenarios I want to recreate B-17s, B-25s and A-20s, with top cover of P-38s, attacking convoys of ships coming from the north (Rabaul).
In the opsNewGuinea file I put the following lines:

under [Macros] section:
UsArmyAttackShips 10622:50814:A USN 3Y 6B IJN 0F
UsArmyAttackShips 10622:50814:A USN 6Y 6B IJN 3F

and under [Operations] section:
oUsAttackConvoy {UsArmyAttackShips}

I also have:
oUsBombShips {UsArmyBomb}

Nevertheless, DGen seems to 'avoid' these missions. I have ships, aircraft, ordnance. What's wrong?

The various mission types have different probabilities to be created. Missions against ships have one of the lowest probabilities and you will rarely see them. Moreover they will only be generated when the campaign builder placed suitable targets on the map.

I think I monkeyed around with this also and it never worked, I was wanting to fly some Betty torpedo strikes on Singapore map, added lots of cargo ships cruising around in the red mis file, and there's a oJpAttackShips operation in the singapore ops file, but never ever got a ship attack mission, and I flew quite a few missions, all bombing land targets (though I did bomb stationary ships sitting in Singapore harbor).

I've just discovered a weird thing on New Guinea map - I've created plenty moving ships by means of FMB but when I drop the MIS file into the DGen folder, they just don't show up! Everything else is there - stationary objects, including ships, moving vehicles and armor but no moving ships. What's wrong?

All the necessary text is in place. For example, under [Chiefs] I have:

3_Chief Ships.USSShamrockBayCVE84 1 0 2 1.0
4_Chief Ships.USSOBannonDD450 1 0 2 1.0
5_Chief Ships.USSKiddDD661 1 0 2 1.0

followed by:
[3_Chief_Road]
328499.94 97894.49 120.00 0 2 4.8872222900390625
366315.44 82585.31 120.00
[4_Chief_Road]
329614.44 96605.02 120.00 0 2 9.774444580078125
367702.38 80453.80 120.00
[5_Chief_Road]
328227.50 99519.13 120.00 0 2 9.774444580078125
363751.25 85020.75 120.00

However, the sea is empty. No moving ships

Can anyone do a test for me: place some moving ships on the New Guinea map and run a mission through DGen (not FMB) to check if the ships show up?

I think I may have seen that on the singapore map as well, though the map is so large that perhaps they weren't in the right 'target area' that DGEN chose.

Ships that are not part of a mission will only appear when they are near a mission target and only if the GroundIntensity setting is not too low. You should use GroundIntensity=High in the config.ini file.

I do have GroundIntensity=High in the config.ini file, and since my squadron operates from an airstrip by the beach, I put a moving battleship right next to it, just to make sure I won't overlook it. Still nothing Only stationary ships show up.

So, no one's willing to do a little test for me? All I'm asking is to check if you can actually see any moving ships in a DGen campaign on the New Guinea map.

Is this default New Guinea map and default DGen? I seem to remember that some of the airfields just weren't programmed into DGen.

No moving ships for me either. I loaded the NewGuineaBlue and NewGuineaRed mis files up pretty well with ships, they should have been in my target zone and/or near my base, no luck.

Did you edit the "Chief Road" section so that it was only two lines. All the templates that I have opened have a beginning and an ending location and nothing else for the moving ships.

[0_Chief_Road]
237495.92 218733.11 120.00 0 2 8.424028396606445
211094.63 164390.42 120.00

• 237495.92 218733.11 - X and Y location on the map. (Z is altitude.)
  
  
• 120.00 - No idea ?? (Kapt claims that this is your heading but I know that is not correct since it never changes.)
  
  
• 0 - Sleep time in seconds
  
  
• 2 - Number of waypoints
  
  
• 8.424028396606445 - ships speed (Notice that there is no speed designation for the second waypoint.)

Source: http://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=ForumsPro&file=viewtopic&p=11120#11120


Wheels

Dgen handles static and moving ships different. I haven't tested it, but I doubt that you will see these moving ships unless they are part of a mission.

Interesting. I am curious why it would pick up the moving carriers on the templates for a USN or an IJN career?


Wheels

Yes, it's default New Guinea map and default DGen. AND it's the same story with Singapore and Japan maps! No moving ships! No one has ever noticed that before?
Yes, Wheels, I assigned only two waypoints for each moving ship, it doesn't make any difference

Just checked - the same problem with Guadalcanal map. Any ideas? I have a feeling that the entire DGen system for Pacific Fighters is simply messed up, to put it mildly.

Carriers are a little bit different, they can be both targets of a mission and will also function as bases for starting and landing planes that's why carriers appear in a mission even if they are not a target - but only if there are planes in the mission that start from carriers!

And here some more information on the difference between static and moving ships. They will be used in different mission types. Static ships are used to create ports that can be attacked during AttackPort and BombPort missions. Moving ships are targets in the following mission types: AttackConvoy, BombConvoy and if a carrier is involved BombCarrier, ReconCarrier, AttackCarrier

Reading your reply there might need to be more than one ship in close proximity to one another for it to generate the missions since DGen is looking for a "Convoy." It also looks like they used the wrong attack codes.

Edit:
Whoops, I missed that Lagarto had the convoy attack code in his post.


Wheels

Lagarto, the Pacific part of Dgen has a number of problems, but missing ships isn't one of them. Try the following:
Back up your opsNewGuinea file, open it, delete all entries and add the following lines:

// New Guinea
[Macros]
UsArmyAttack 10622:50814:A USN 6Y 6F 6F IJN 6F
UsArmyAttack 10622:50814:A USN 6Y 4F 6F IJN 6F
UsArmyAttack 10622:50814:A USN 4Y 6F 6F IJN 6F
UsArmyAttack 10622:50814:A USN 6Y 4F 4F IJN 3F
UsArmyBomb 10622:50814:A USN 6B 6Y 6F IJN 6F
[Operations]
oUsAttackConvoy {UsArmyAttack}
oUsBombConvoy {UsArmyBomb}
oUsAttackPort {UsArmyAttack}

Start a US or RAAF New Guinea campaign and run some test missions. If everyting works you should now see some ship attack missions.

Amazing, it works. After so many futile efforts, for the first time I saw a Japanese convoy pop up and US bombers go after it. I'm speechless. Thank you

It's a pity that moving ships which aren't part of a mission don't show up, simply as a scenery element - as they do on ETO and Africa maps.
By the way, I still get those unwanted spawns on the runway, even though I had set RandomFlights=0 in the conf.ini!

Are these flights spawned at the mission start together with your flight on the same runway? If yes, they are no random flights and belong to the mission.

Juri, these flights are spawned on the same runway shortly after my flight takes off. Sometimes they explode the very moment they pop up, which probably means that too many planes are spawned at the same time in the same place.

Btw, I added two more lines:

oUsPatrolConvoy {UsArmyCAP}
oUsDefendConvoy {UsArmyCAP}

thinking that perhaps I'm inventing things and the DGen will crash on hitting this mission but hell no, I got a mission defending/patrolling over (don't know which line actually worked) a moving convoy of ships!

This shouldn't happen. I did some tests and don't have this problem in my New Guinea campaign when I disable random flights. I have no idea what causes this problem.



Yes, defend and patrol missions will work too, I just forgot to mention it. For static ships you can also add:

oUsPatrolPort {UsArmyCAP}
oUsDefendPort {UsArmyCAP}

Maybe it's because I added an extra pair of fighters here and there, for example:
UsArmyAttack 10622:50814:A USN 6Y 6F 2F IJN 6F 2F

It has never caused problems in European scenarios but perhaps in PF it triggers some conflict

That's possible. Remove these extra flights and see what happens

Removing those extra flights seems to have cured the problem.
Currently I'm trying to include some hydroplanes and transport planes in the operations. I've found this line in the Guadalcanal MIS file:

JpArmyRecInt 10622:50814:A USN 1Hr IJN 3Y

So I know it's possible to generate a mission with land-based Japanese fighters intercepting a reconnaissance hydroplane (presumably PBN1) but I can't make it happen on Guadalcanal map. All I get is Japanese fighters take off and circle in vain (I do have PBN1 listed in DB and DAT files). Any ideas?
Also, is it possible to generate a mission with some transport planes (say C-47s) fly, for example, from Port Moresby to Milne Bay area, and get intercepted on the way by Japanese fighters?

Don't know. In my own campaigns I never use the Hr entry. When I want to generate a PBN1 in a mission I usually set it to Reconplane.




I am not sure if transport plane escort or intercept missions like the ones in ETO campaigns really work in PTO campaigns. But you can add transport to other mission types as additional targets.

Juri, I did as you suggested and the PBN turned up as Reconplane - the only problem is that after the mission it landed on the ground, not in the water!

I found these entries for the A6M2-N. I wonder if using the HyRecon code instead of Reconplane woud do the trick?

• Axis Japan Hydroplane A6M2N 400 3000 3000 default 1
• Axis Japan HyRecon A6M2N 300 1000 1000 default 1
• Axis Japan HyFighter A6M2N 300 1000 1000 default 1

Wheels

I used HyRecon but in combination with "Hr" designation (instead of "R") in ops file; maybe HyRecon in combination with R will do the trick, I must try it
By the way, what's the correct designation for Hydroplane and HyFighter in ops files? They are neither bombers (B), nor fighters (F). What type of missions can they perform? Anyone knows?

By the way, I noticed that using A6M2-N as reconplane doesn't make much sense because as soon as enemy a/c show up in its flightpath, it attacks like a fighter.

The answer may be in the DGen studies thread in the archive.
DGen studies: http://simhq.net/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1708223/DGen_Studies.html


Change the loadout from default to empty none and it won't be able to fight. Makes it an easy target but at least it will act more like a recon plane and not a fighter.


Wheels

If you want to stop fighters on recon missions from attacking, you can set their armament to none in the PacificPlanes file.


Edit: Oh, wheels was faster

I was wrong. I used what is shown in the FMB dropdown (empty) instead of the "none" .dat code. I edited my prior post to show the correct code.


Wheels

I think Hr is the wrong code combination. I found these in the DGen studies thread for the PTO codes.
Source: http://simhq.net/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1708227/Re_DGen_Studies.html#Post1708227

• rR, // recon
• rP, // para
• rH, // hydrorecon/rescue
• rHr, // hydrorecon/rescue, mid range airstart

You will need to scroll down quite far in the post to find the PTO codes list.


Wheels

Wheels, I must give it a try but I've never seen codes starting with small "r", like in rY (??)

Give the man a cigar!!

I've been around long enough to remember that PF was almost still-born, and it shows. My foremost gripe about PF's DGen system is the randomization feature, or rather the lack of it. The system tends to generate the same type of mission many times in a row (usually scrambles or CAPs), while ignoring other options, some completely. For example, I finally got to flying some convoy patrol/defend missions only after I deleted all other options from the ops file!

If the work on the new DGen.exe version goes according to plan, maybe it will be possible in the future to fix some of the shortcomings of the Pacific campaigns.

That would be very much welcomed fix.


Wheels

I ran into all the problems you've mentioned when working on True Pacific. For a while, I was forwarding findings onto Starshoy, and a couple of small bugs got fixed, but then he stopped responding and dissappeared. I finally gave up on modding DGen after I figured out that some of the missiones (such as the carrier-based Bomber Intercept) simply did not work for one side (or both). Tough to have a Midway campaign where you can only run scrambles . . .

Nimits, I am in contact with the Russian guy who is working on the new DGen.exe. If you want to make a list with the problems you encountered when working on your True Pacific campaign, I can send it to him, maybe some of them can be fixed.

I'm happy to hear that. Hopefully he will incorporate the maps - Bessarabia, Slovakia, Solomons and a few others. Anyway, I keep my fingers crossed for this project.

I think he said he is externalizing all the data, planes, map nodes, etc so that users can maintain that part in the future.

That would be an awesome development.


Wheels

At the moment I can give no guarantees, but if the plans to store the map data in external files succeed I will try to do a campaign in the Solomons (and maybe New Guinea) - but only if the many restrictions in the PTO part of DGen allow a realistic campaign.

How about a campaign in the MTO map, the one with Tobruk in the centre? I'm so sick and tired of that Sands-of-Time fictitious map

I think that's a job for Boelcke

oh yes, if that will be possible in the future a dream would become true

Is this MTO map being mentioned a modded map? I don't remember it being part of the official version.

No matter what it still sounds like a cool DGen campaign.


Wheels

Wheels, I don't use any mods and I have this map, so it must be a part of the official version. I don't think the name Tobruk is mentioned on the map but one can clearly see that it's Tobruk Up north there's something which looks like Crete and the southernmost part of Greek mainland.