Dynamic campaign: when is it running?

[Uhu 2]

Hello!

 

As far as I know, the thirdwire games feature a dynamic campaign. But when is the campaign engine running? I bet that you have to select a campaign for a begin. But one you are in the campaign screen, to select the armament of your plane etc., it could be theoretically working. Or is it only active when your are actually flying (if that's the case, what is happening when you are escaping after a succesful mission without landing at your base?)

 

Greets, Uhu

Edited August 21, 2009 by Uhu

[+Dave 2,322]

Its only running when you are flying.

[MigBuster 2,883]

The campaign probably only runs when you are in flight from what I can tell - theres no feedback to say its constantly running.

 

In Falcon 4AF you have a clock constantly ticking and can manipulate and see objects when you are not in flight - so that defo is running the whole time in real time.

 

in the SF series it depends on the game how a campaign feels - for example in SF2 Rolling Thunder - even on hard settings you get assigned missions that are spaced out over the 4 years - so any targets that were destroyed in a previous mission have long been repaired by the Chinese Engineer core ;)

 

Whereas in WOI the campaigns are over a short period of months - so targets and SAM sites destroyed in the previous game are still destroyed - giving a better sense of you being in a real time war - and evidence that the campaign does remember destroyed objects - however I would say (without asking TK) that objects are only affected during game play.

 

 

If you press escape before landing - you would assume the game stops there and just takes into account of what has been destroyed - but i think only TK would know for sure.

[+Dave 2,322]

If you press escape before landing - you would assume the game stops there and just takes into account of what has been destroyed

 

It does, I am in a campaign now with the Buff and I wiped out 2 airfields with ALCM's that were forward located. They are still that way 4 missions later. Would be nice if they still looked wiped out. Those 2 were gving me problem with intercepting my aircraft while I was still far away from my targets. As soon as I got ALCM's I took them out. But a one sided victory it wasn't, the Russkies managed to nuke one of my forward bases. Took out an entire F-15 unit. That hurt. In return though they lost two units of Mig-29's.

[+PureBlue 71]

It does, I am in a campaign now with the Buff and I wiped out 2 airfields with ALCM's that were forward located. They are still that way 4 missions later. Would be nice if they still looked wiped out. Those 2 were gving me problem with intercepting my aircraft while I was still far away from my targets. As soon as I got ALCM's I took them out. But a one sided victory it wasn't, the Russkies managed to nuke one of my forward bases. Took out an entire F-15 unit. That hurt. In return though they lost two units of Mig-29's.

 

This is one great feature, I didn't know stuff stayed damaged for a few missions.

Could this algorithm be taking the value of RepairRate from the terrain_types.ini?

For example runway1 has RepairRate=10.0

and runway2 has RepairRate=20.0

 

So does this value determine how fast the they are repaired in a Campaign game, counting days/hours/other variable?

 

Very interesting subject, do the buildings/fuel tanks stay destroyed also? Burning even?

[+Dave 2,322]

This is one great feature, I didn't know stuff stayed damaged for a few missions.

Could this algorithm be taking the value of RepairRate from the terrain_types.ini?

For example runway1 has RepairRate=10.0

and runway2 has RepairRate=20.0

 

So does this value determine how fast the they are repaired in a Campaign game, counting days/hours/other variable?

 

Yes that is what the repair rate is for.

 

 

Very interesting subject, do the buildings/fuel tanks stay destroyed also? Burning even?

 

No the next time I flew over the base it looked intact but there was nothing on it as far as aircraft goes.

[+PureBlue 71]

No the next time I flew over the base it looked intact but there was nothing on it as far as aircraft goes.

 

Oh ok, you already had said you wished they looked wiped out.

Well the only way we can visualize this would be to change the corresponding objects in the terrain_targets.ini with their destroyed models. It can be automated only if TK had an 'exported mission results' file. Then a utility that modders would develope (because TK won't do this, no way :) could go and modify the targets.ini, switching over to destroyed bridges/cratered runways/etc., and even insert a burning object along with a destroyed fuel tank. Now this program wouldn't be that hard to code IMHO.

Or it could be done manually, assisted by a utility where you enter the things you destroyed..

 

Sorry for rambling on this, but you can see how greatly the game could be enhanced, this would give us a living scenario..

[Emp_Palpatine 501]

It does, I am in a campaign now with the Buff and I wiped out 2 airfields with ALCM's that were forward located. They are still that way 4 missions later. Would be nice if they still looked wiped out. Those 2 were gving me problem with intercepting my aircraft while I was still far away from my targets. As soon as I got ALCM's I took them out. But a one sided victory it wasn't, the Russkies managed to nuke one of my forward bases. Took out an entire F-15 unit. That hurt. In return though they lost two units of Mig-29's.

Nukes and stuffs!

What campaign are you playing, Dave?

[Emp_Palpatine 501]

Very interesting subject, do the buildings/fuel tanks stay destroyed also? Burning even?

I might have misunderstood Dave's replies, but I do remember in my games flying above previously destroyed targets that were still ruins. Not burning but ruins. At least it's true for fuel tanks and hangars/warehouses in WoI and WoE.

[+Dave 2,322]

I might have misunderstood Dave's replies, but I do remember in my games flying above previously destroyed targets that were still ruins. Not burning but ruins. At least it's true for fuel tanks and hangars/warehouses in WoI and WoE.

 

I will go back in look they may have been getting repaired.

 

As far as the campaign goes, all my stock campaigns are highly modfied. Most are completely modfied.

[Gr.Viper 131]

Sometimes you can have a strange tank battle resolution. It used to give your troops a total victory after you destroyed a few enemy tanks during CAS. Even if in the end enemy tanks were still active and the friedlies were wiped out. Now in those cases I sometimes see "Misson complete" a report of successful capture of enemy positio and the next day map shows the enemy sitill there at that point.