Wrench 9,848 Posted July 19, 2009 This came to me, literally, like a bolt from the blue; one of those every-so-rare flashes of inspiration that happens to all of us from time to time. Now, normally, what I'd been doing to populate the cities, airbases, army camps, port facilities, etc, is "Create Single Mission" and keep clicking on it till I got to the region, either as my base or "Objective" to fly over. Not only is that EXTREAMLY time consuming, but it's annoying as hell to keep clicking back and forth till you get what you want. Until the Swambast Target Translator is finished testing, and it looks REAL good people!, this should help out just a bit. If one looks at the various shapes and locations in cities (expecially those with port facilities), one discovers QUITE quickly that there is no realy way to do a cheezy "copy/paste" of a basic city layout; these usually don't fit the tile pattern, are off by sometime hundreds or thousands of meters, and just plane looks bad. What does that mean? Basically, EVERY target area NEEDS a custom layout of both GroundObjects and TerrainObjects (vehicles, ships, AAA, and those buildings either imported or stock in the terrain cat files). It's Very Rare that one will find 2 cities exactly alike in how they're tiled, allowing the 'copy/paste' of exiting target areas. So, to that end I created 2 missions; they are EXACTLY the same, but one for each side, Red and Blue. What this will do is place YOU, the player, pretty much at the X/Y coordinate of the center of whatever target area you choose to fly over. What you do the change them, I'll elaborate on as we go. First thing you'll need is the HUDData.ini extracted from the FlightData.cat. You'll need this so you can get the Offset= that is displayed (this is also covered in the Word Doc that's included in my Shipwreck terrain object, available here in our downloads section) Open the HUDData.ini and look for this, the very first section: [Debug] DisplayDebug=FALSE What I do, is add a second line, that states TRUE, commented out until ready for use.... [Debug] DisplayDebug=FALSE //DisplayDebug=TRUE This way, you can switch back and forth by commenting or uncommenting a statement. You can also just switch FALSE to TRUE, and just use the HUDDataToggle keystroke to turn it off and on in game. Ok, with the modified HD.ini in you /Flight folder, you'll need the user created mission to fly over a particular target area... The one below taken from my PTO WW2 install; I've give you specific instructions on How To Change For Any Other Time Period and Map following. Copy the text below into a blanck notepad (or your text editor of choice), and save as... "Targets Locator GoodGuy.msn" (without the quotation marks) into your /Mission folder for your Game Install of Choice, [MissionHeader]AircraftType=P-38F MissionMap=Solomons-V3 MissionType=CAP StartDate=12/18/1943 StartTime=12:00 [Weather] WeatherType=CLEAR WeatherAlt=4000.0 WeatherThickness=500.0 HasHighLayer=False HighLayerAlt=8000 FogAmount=0.6 ContrailAlt=8000 StartWindSpeed=2.0 WindGustingAmount=5.0 [MissionData] FriendlyAirActivity=1 EnemyAirActivity=1 FriendlyAirDefenseActivity=1 EnemyAirDefenseActivity=1 PlayerMissionID=1 PlayerPositionID=1 MissionNumber=1 AdjustStartPosition=FALSE AdjustBaseWaypoint=FALSE [AircraftMission001] AircraftType=P-38F Name=Showtime FormationType=USFighter Texture=0 Squadron=1 AircraftNumber=1 Size=1 RandomChance=100 MissionType=CAP CarrierBased=FALSE ObjectiveID=0 RatingForSuccess=50 StartOnGround=FALSE Position=694983,371456,2000 StartTime=0 Heading=0 Speed=145 Alignment=FRIENDLY AmmoPercent=100 FuelPercent=100 Loadout=AirtoAir TracerMixRatio=50 PilotTrainingStandard=EXCELLENT TargetArea= Nation=USAF Now, copy/paste it again into a blank notepad sheet, and save as "Targets Locator BadGuys.msn", again without the quotes. Welll adjust the 'sides' in minute... Like I said before, it dosen't matter when or where, as that is changeable in the various sections. Ok, in you're "BadGuys.msn", you'll see the line in the aircraft description that says FRIENDLY. AKA, the Aligngment= line Alignment=FRIENDLY As you'l probably be flying one of the MiGs, you MUST change that to read ENEMY, as all "Red Air" aircraft are classed as Enemy Aircraft . If you don't, it may CTD or cause other unwanted consequences. So, it becomes.... Alignment=ENEMY ---- On To Targeting.... So, fer instance, you want to add targets to the GermanyCE map, some ships at Bremerhavan for example. Since that's a NATO (or "GoodGuy") side all you need to change is the map, date and aircraft -REMEMBER!- the aircraft is listed twice, and you'll need to change both!! This holds true for BOTH Good and Bad Guy versions. Like this: [MissionHeader]AircraftType=F-4E <-- must match the EXACT name of the aircraft folder MissionMap=GermanyCE <--must match the EXACT name of the terrain folder! MissionType=CAP StartDate=12/18/1969 <-- adjust to whatever year fits within chosen aircraft service years! StartTime=12:00 Now the REALLY important Bits!!! [AircraftMission001]AircraftType=F-4E 2nd instance of the aircraft!! make sure its the same as above!! Name=Showtime FormationType=USFighter Texture=0 Squadron=1 AircraftNumber=1 Size=1 RandomChance=100 MissionType=CAP CarrierBased=FALSE ObjectiveID=0 RatingForSuccess=50 StartOnGround=FALSE Position=694983,371456,2000 <--THE critical statement!!! StartTime=0 Heading=0 Speed=145 Alignment=FRIENDLY AmmoPercent=100 FuelPercent=100 Loadout=AirtoAir TracerMixRatio=50 PilotTrainingStandard=EXCELLENT TargetArea= Nation=USAF On, now the super critical statement; the Position= line. These first 2 sets of 6-digit numbers are X/Y coordinates position of whatever target area you're going to populate. The last set of numbers is you altitude (probably in meters) On any Home-Built or Stock or any terrain, you'll have coordinates found in the terrain's ***_Targets.ini. If you don't have the targets ini in the terrain folder in question, you'll need to extract it from that terrain cat, using the Cat Extractor Tools. So, opening the GermanyCE_Targets.ini, do a "find" for Bermerhaven. You'll see it's TargetArea023, btw. You'll also be able to see the formating of HOW targets are placed. Let's talk about that for minute or 3, as a lot of folks don't know or understand it. I'll break down the important lines [TargetArea023] <-numerical sequence of existenceName=Bremerhaven <- self explanitory! Position=365715.06,730556.00 <-- X/Y coordinates on map Radius=16971 ActiveDate=01/01/0001 Location=1 <--defined in terrain's _nations.ini Alignment=FRIENDLY <-- again, self explanitory Target[001].Type=church <-- object type name, defined in _types.ini Target[001].Offset=-6907.72,-863.09 <-- offset, in meters, from 0,0 coordinate Target[001].Heading=90 <-- compass heading; can be ANY angle Target[002].Type=Crane Target[002].Offset=-6469.12,638.19 Target[002].Heading=358 Target[003].Type=Crane So, since we now know where Bermerhaven IS, we can adjust the start postion of our aircraft to match... [TargetArea023] Name=Bremerhaven Position=365715.06,730556.00 <-- It dosen't have to match perfectly, you only need the 6 digits each, not the decimal fractions So.... [AircraftMission001]AircraftType=F-4E ==lines snipped for brevity== Position=365715,730556,2000 <--now adjusted StartTime=0 Heading=0 When you start the mission, you'll be flying over the 'center' of town. BUT...... you'll still need to know where to place those docked ships or warhouses or whatever. This is where the HudDebug comes in, as shown in the example from the shipwreck instructions... You can see I've boxed the offset coordinates. Now the actual hard part is you STILL have to write these offsets down on a sheet of Real Paper so you can transfer them to the targets ini. When populating an empty city, or rebuilding one, you can expect to be listing dozens and dozens of items, expecially for a WW2 style map that dosen't have SAM batteries that are they're own particular target areas (which is the easiest and bestest way to do them, btw). Then, you just choose the heading; ALL port tiles will be facing a cardinal point (North=0, East=90, South=180 or West=270). You can guestimate it, and always change it later. The above pic shows what a populated port/dockyard/navy yard, whatever looks like. Remember too --that in the stock terrain types inis, the ships are usually NOT listed (the stock CargoShip and Tanker may be in post-08 level terrain cats but NO aftermarket/3rd Party ships will be, and any you wish to have MUST be added to it, otherwise they simply won't exist. And that's the subject for another post, "Adding to Terrain Types", for another time. I hope this helps our budding Terrain Engineers some; it sure made my Targetization Life a bit eaiser! Questions? Comments? Addendums? Post in the Mods and Skinning Forum, and we'll address them! Wrench kevin stein 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
