DISCLAIMER: read the below in the knowledge that the mission described was built using a third party simple mission builder in alpha build state and the maker indicates he may be able to adjust for some of these issues.

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Simple Mission Builder

A community member called Lupson has created a genius piece of code which emulates a Simple Mission Builder in Java in your web browser.

Get it here: http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/14672-release-simple-3rd-party-mission-builder-bos/#entry234061

Using this software in a short time I successfully created a simple mission with the following

20 Heinkels
10 109G

Following a simple dogleg set of waypoints and

10 FW190 following an opposing dogleg route, as below.



(No VVS as I hadn't discovered the 'Pick Country' button yet!)

This is what happened when I ran the mission a few times to check.

The Heinkels spawned in line abreast formation but right on top of each other. Lupson thinks he may be able to adjust this so the aircraft spawn much further apart.





They then attempted to move into wedge formation, and within seconds 3-4 had collided.



The 109s did the same, but none collided.



These successfully formed a wedge formation and moved toward waypoint one, then proceeded to waypoint 2



The 190s did the same as above, a few near collisions, the rest formed a wedge (this was a player group that I put on autopilot)



At the first waypoint for the bombers, they tried to make the turn and more collided



They then circled over the waypoint.

The 190s reached the first waypoint, tried to turn as a formation, and collided.



LESSONS

If Lupson can get the aircraft to spawn further apart, it may help but in the meantime he suggests formations of max 10-12 aircraft

Sharp dogleg waypoints may be too tough for the AI to handle as it seems to struggle with formation keeping. Try milder doglegs.

THE GOODER NEWS!!!!

I didn't put any ground objects into this mission, but there was no slowdown, lag or rubber banding observable even though there were 40 AI controlled aircraft all flying in the same airspace, same time. FPS was smooth the whole way.

Please post your tips here if you are trying this mission builder out.

H

Some interesting results, thanks for sharing!

Now build us a decent campaign !

Hard to get excited over 40 whole AI at once in a sim game released in 20014. 40 AI has been possible in sims since the mid 90s and they had much better campaigns to play as well.

A simple mission builder is not even remotely enough to save this sorry sim game. Add some decent SP campaigns, unlock the ability to control our own graphical settings, add co-op MP capability. The kind of things that were possible in IL2 over a decade ago.

Easy Tex,

This guy's software is precisely one day old. He hasn't even begun to build it out.

I only put 40 aircraft in the mission, I did not try more. I don't know what is possible before the engine chokes.

H

Nice review...it is a start! I just have to shake my head that this quasi "jailbreak" of a mission builder had to come from an outsider toiling without any apparent support from the Devs. I'm hopeful that with at least this tool we are going to begin to understand the real limits to the BoS code and where the fault points are with AI and or entity counts.

I set ~24 aircraft in 4 groups and far waypoints with task to attack ground target, cover and attack bombers.
Despite no collisions at spawn this one is a ugly "show".
Some ground units. As usual the bombers became "dogfighters" when detect fighters (game bug).

The program work as announced and is easy to use, just dont have more advanced functions.

Yes, as with all sims the mission builder wont fix probs in the game AI. In fact, it often exposes them. Bomber AI, the inability to fly in formation, takeoff and land, conduct ground attacks, use weapons, these are all things that need to be fixed before a mission can be properly made.

And it looks like the latest patch might address some of these, so that is good news!

BUT

Back to tips:

- Selecting a waypoint is a bit buggy - you click on it and nothing seems to happen, so in that sitaution to select a waypoint create another object. Now you can go back and click on the waypoint to edit actions etc.

- dont start aircraft on the ground, except for player, they seem not to be able to take off

- if you want AAA to autogenerate you have to put a 'land' waypoint at that field.


H

Good stuff HeinKill!

Updated mission generator files by Lupson

http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/14672-release-simple-3rd-party-mission-builder-bos/?p=235234

Changelog

-- Fixed issues 2015-02-21 --
* Vehicle groups formation "follow roads formation" now works
* Formation calculations for LINE, COLUMN and VEE now works
* Air units always spawn in VEE formation with 125 meters between each aircraft. Seems to reduce collisions a lot.
* Air units try to form loose VEE formation 13 seconds after mission start (not 100% sure if this actually works since they seem to try to reform anyway)
* Added map filter to show both sides at the same time
* Fixed broken map filters for Air, Ground and static objects
* Fixed bug where Select Country menu option was not visible after creating a new mission
* Fixed bug with wrong icons shown for various ground objects in briefing
* Vehicle formation select now only shows ground unit formations.
* Briefing icons now always shows BLUE for friendly forces and RED for enemies

Known/new issues:
* Aircraft groups in mission briefing uses Baloon icon. Havn't figured out the IconId for planes yet...
* Waypoint select bug. New waypoints are not selectable until another unit has been selected and then deselected.
* All other known ones, see initial post...

My observations

- AI aicraft dont follow waypoints
- Nearly impossible to select waypoints, they just arent selectable, so actions can't be assigned.

Wait for another update.

H

This thing is fun to make ground battles .

Is a little difficult select the waypoint first time, but after became easy - use double click.

I set a mission in Stalingrad, 2 group of He 111 (6 each) to try landing there. I set the waypoints in parallel with 100 meter of altitude difference and the two groups fly together.



Put some FLAK in He 111 route , no good idea without see the terrain... Tip: set FLAK 1 be 1 to avoid make columns or lines.

A flight (4) of Bf 109 tanking of in near base. They dont use the runway, and two successful take off, one collide in trees and other in FLAK - are some in map FLAK in this area.

Surprisingly the 2 Bf 109 that take off meet the He 111 and cover the until Stalingrad, engaging the attacking La5 and Yaks.

One group of He-111 try lading, but since dont find the runway... :P

The other circle endless above. Of 22 aircraft that spawn in the air only 2 Yak-1 collide on spawn.

Anyway the mission result more fun that the QM "Airquake".

Yeah, its a great piece if work by Lupson in the circumstances but it is all a bit chaotic and stupid for me.

I hope the FME actually works without these issues.

H

You said "stupid"?
What exactly do you mean?
I am not that good in Fifty Shades of English..._

To the OP about large formations...this could be a side-effect of the simple mission editor not arranging the flight in their correct number order in their flight upon spawning as in #2 aircraft>#3 aircraft>#4 aircraft in their formation. You can do this in the FMB easily, but may be an oversight in the simple editor. Once the AI realizes "Oh, I'm #2 aircraft and I'm in the #3 spot, better fix myself" they try to correct without regard to the other aircraft doing the same thing which causes wonderful chaos.

I've successfully had an 18 He-111 flight cruising and navigating waypoints with no problems.

Tip from Sokol on how to select waypoints

- highlight aircraft object
- double click on waypoint to activate waypoint action menu

H

Yes, I remember having to set the aircraft positions manually in the RoF editor to make sure of that, and then copying and pasting those formations between missions, so you might be right. Note to Lupson!

TIP: make the waypoint 'sphere' very large when you are creating waypoints, at least 200 metres. If you don't there is a big risk the AI aircraft will not 'trigger' the waypoint and they will just circle around instead of going to the next waypoint.

To add custom skins to IA in SMG missions, saved in

...Battle of Stalingrad\data\Missions\webmissions\(my_mission_name)

Open the file "(my_mission_name).mission" - notepad, notepad++

Find (Ctrl+F) the line Skin = ""; under plane type (e.g. La5), for each mission plane is created a entry.

Type here, between "" the name of plane\name of skin:

"La5s8\(custom skin name).dds";

Copy (Ctrl=C) for the next plane of type, or if want use other skin the appropriated name.

Custom skins folder is:

...Battle of Stalingrad\data\graphics\skins\(Plane name)

Not the more practice way, but not difficult.

Sample: player (left) using custom skin select in "Plane setup", AI (right) custom skin set in mission file, the other the default skin.

http://s29.postimg.org/wnyw73a5j/Skins.jpg

Hi chaps

Could we use this tool to create a simple coop style mission which we could host on a dedicated server? For example red players take off from one airfield in an escort role and blue players have to take off to intercept?

Post what you want Lupson here - he is basicaly a SP player, no COOP experience:

http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/1467...e-4#entry238019