Rolling Thunder Campaign with RP1?

[TeTeT]

The stock WoV Rolling Thunder campaigns mostly visit the upper route packages, with basically no armed recon missions. Is there a campaign for those available?

 

If not (which I guess), how could this be achieved? From the knowledge base I take that strategic nodes can be used for ground movements. So an attempt to create traffic on the Ho Chi Minh trail would be to connect several strategic nodes from Haiphong all the way through Laos and Cambodia, next to Saigon. Would ground units (equipped with trucks) that are placed on the nodes, start to move towards Saigon?

[tn_prvteye]

Not doable right now. Armed Recon missions never show up in campaigns. I WISH they did. I've been itching for a good realistic F-100D campaign.

 

You could add some static targets in the South, like truck parks, though.

[TeTeT]

You're right, it seems to be more involved than I thought. I added two ground units, one in Hanoi, one in Vinh, equipped with Zil-157 trucks. The one from Hanoi never moved anywhere and was not really picked up by intelligence. The one in Vinh attacked Khe Sanh in 1 out of 5 campaigns (only 5 missions in to each campaign, always ending with ESC).

 

Your suggestion to add some truck parks and goodies in the woods looks good, I'll give it a try. I guess the best way to go ahead is to use KMD, design the new target areas, and then add it to the VietnamSEA terrain's target list.

[tn_prvteye]

If you do manage to do it, please feel free to share!

 

I don't have the talent for it.

[+Dave]

Crab_02 and I started one ages ago. It is possible but I need a target adding specialist make it all work right.

[TeTeT]

Crab_02 and I started one ages ago. It is possible but I need a target adding specialist make it all work right.

 

I very much believe so - I guess there is no tool for designing the target area? I've seen that this part on Bunyaps wiki is pretty empty. Though the information on targets.ini and target_types.ini is invaluable, as always...

 

The following is just for testing and not meant as a release. I was not able to get a mission against the truck park, though the targets are there. It's located halfway from Ubon to Vinh Sonh, at the far end of some grass lands, coming from Thailand. I've placed a single SAM, so following your RWR will get you there.

 

This zip contains a changed target_types.ini and targets.ini for VietnamSEA. For testing save the original file and unzip in the VietnamSEA directory:

http://woffle.de/wov/Truckparks/VietnamSEA-trucks.zip

Changes:

1. Added TargetArea125, named Truck Park 1
   
2. Changed TargetValue for Trucks
   
3. Changed DetectChances for trucks and brdms
   
4. Changed TargetType for SovietTruck from MISC to TRUCK
   

This zip contains a campaign where I tried to get some ground attacks going from Vinh and Dong Hoi to Khe Sanh, but with next to no success. It's modified to use the F-105D-25RE and skins as well:

http://woffle.de/wov/Truckparks/RoutePackage1.zip

1. Changed F-105D to F-105D-25RE for some squadrons and skins
   
2. Added ground units for NVA
   
3. Set AirOffensive[001] to TRUCK, to no avail
   
4. Increased chance for CAS and ARMED RECON for some squadrons
   

Any comment is welcome.

 

[Heck]

1. Changed F-105D to F-105D-25RE for some squadrons and skins
   
2. Added ground units for NVA
   
3. Set AirOffensive[001] to TRUCK, to no avail
   
4. Increased chance for CAS and ARMED RECON for some squadrons
   

Any comment is welcome.

 

Don't know anything about this, so this will be a stupid comment, which I'm good at.

 

What if you set AirOffensive[001] to MISC, or added MISC as a target selection to each of the air offensives, which is what the game thinks trucks are as a target type (it seems target selection is hardwired into the .dll's, since changing the vietnamseatypes.ini from MISC to TRUCK didn't work). Then make one player flyable squadron armed recon only, no other type of mission, just to see if it works. The sim doesn't seem to allow the creation of new target types (ie: truck), so maybe you have to fool it by making the target type fit the mold. Also, have you added routes to the VietnamSea_Movement.ini? Couldn't remember if I saw that in the above posts.

[Nicholas Bell]

Then make one player flyable squadron armed recon only, no other type of mission, just to see if it works.

 

Recently tried that in WOE and the program generates regular recon missions unfortunately.

[TeTeT]

...

Also, have you added routes to the VietnamSea_Movement.ini? Couldn't remember if I saw that in the above posts.

 

Yes, I added two routes, one from Vinh to Khe Sanh and one from a new strategic node Dong Hoi to Khe Sanh. I only had one CAS mission against the NVA inf div and then it was at a completely weird place, e.g. north of Korat rather than between Vinh and Khe Sanh.

 

[Route015]
RouteType=GROUND_ATTACK
StartArea=Vinh
EndArea=Khe Sanh
RoutePosition[001]=510619.0,603328.0
RoutePosition[001]=545000.0,544000.0

[Route016]
RouteType=GROUND_ATTACK
StartArea=Dong Hoi
EndArea=Khe Sanh
RoutePosition[001]=537000.0,578000.0
RoutePosition[001]=555000.0,544000.0

[TeTeT]

These are the TargetTypes that are currently defined in VIETNAMSEA_TYPES.INI

TargetType=AAA
TargetType=BRIDGE
TargetType=CITY_BUILDING
TargetType=COMMAND_BUILDING
TargetType=COMM_BUILDING
TargetType=EW_RADAR
TargetType=FUEL_STORAGE
TargetType=HANGAR
TargetType=LARGE_RUNWAY
TargetType=MEDIUM_RUNWAY
TargetType=MISC
TargetType=NAVAL_BASE
TargetType=NVA
TargetType=POWER_PLANT
TargetType=RADAR
TargetType=SAM_LAUNCHER
TargetType=SAM_RADAR
TargetType=SMALL_RUNWAY
TargetType=TOWER
TargetType=TRUCK
TargetType=WAREHOUSE
TargetType=WEAPON_FACTORY
TargetType=WINDSOCK

 

As quite a few missions are flown versus warehouses, I guess I change TRUCK to WAREHOUSE and change the actual WAREHOUSE to MISC and see what happens.

[TeTeT]

I was able to get one campaign mission against the trucks by declaring them as warehouses...

 

 

The files have been updated:

Route Package 1 Campaign

Truck Targets for Vietnam Terrain

 

I'll create some more target areas with trucks and see what happens.

[tn_prvteye]

This is great stuff, man!

[TeTeT]

I've uploaded the new terrain and campaign with five truck parks roughly along the trail. Please keep in mind that this work in progress and neither finished nor polished:

 

Route Package 1 Campaign

Truck Targets for Vietnam Terrain

 

It seems that the AirOffense determines which missions are played one after each other. So a strike against a truck park will always compete against strikes versus warehouses ... Also the strike always targets only one truck, not all of them. I wonder if this can be changed somehow? Probably by assigning them as AAA, so it becomes a SEAD mission?

 

Currently the trucks are quite heavily defended and the target area itself is just a cut'n'paste job with no variation. I'll try to come up with a good layout for flat terrain and then individualize those in the hilly terrain.

 

And here two screenshots on a strike vs Truck Park 5:

[Heck]

Looks excellent, TeTeT. Have to give it a try. Thanks for making it a separate campaign and terrain, so people can still use their normal terrain and campaign without modding it. Sometimes we (read me) mod things so much that we can't tell what's original and what's not. Thanks again for all your hard work. This promises to be a great addition.

[TeTeT]

... Thanks for making it a separate campaign and terrain, so people can still use their normal terrain and campaign without modding it. Sometimes we (read me) mod things so much that we can't tell what's original and what's not. ...

 

It's not exactly a separate terrain - you have to overwrite the vietnamsea_targets.ini _types.ini and _movement.ini. By default none of these are extracted from the cat file, so take care if you have mods installed for the terrain.