krfrge 742 Posted December 20, 2009 (edited) Papa Goat posted this idea on troops marking their position. I have tried to expand the capability. This was a random generated Close Air Support Mission. I have gotten three colors to work (Purple, Red and Green) Still a lot to do but thanks Papa Goat for the idea. Edited December 20, 2009 by krfrge Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JDSnypes 0 Posted December 20, 2009 oooh that look cool. I wonder if I could add a radio voice over like for example " 900m southwest of our position" *smoke pops* Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+EricJ 3,933 Posted December 20, 2009 (edited) That's making it more complex, it's best for the game engine to have the smoke pop for friendly position, especially for anything from the Vietnam War or sooner. I usually look at the map before committing to a bomb run in anything modern. What would be really nice would be functional NVGs so you can have strobes, but that's a bit much too... Edited December 20, 2009 by EricJ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
krfrge 742 Posted December 20, 2009 Thanks for the comments. The Red Smoke in this screenshot indicated that friendlies had been hit, that's why I used Red for the good guys. Real World, I am sure you know, Red is for Dust Off. I used Green for the friendlies to hit the bad guys. I'll see if I can work up a strobe. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pappa Goat 3 Posted December 21, 2009 Hmm how did you do this without having an army of smoke popping kamikaze's appear in the generated missions? I'll post the single mission I made in the next couple of days, it's kinda fun- a hot LRRP extraction from the Ia Drang. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
krfrge 742 Posted December 22, 2009 Pappa Goat, Sent you PM but basically expanded on the concept. There's more work for me to do. KRFRGE Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
krfrge 742 Posted December 23, 2009 Papa, Send me a copy of the LRRP mission so I can run some test please. Thanks and Happy Holidays KRFRGE Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
krfrge 742 Posted January 11, 2010 The work continues. This was a random generated mission with a modded Soviet Squad being targeted by Walker Bulldog tanks. I still have a lot to work. I set the Soviet squad to deploy Violet (Purple) smoke when attacked. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+EricJ 3,933 Posted January 11, 2010 Still pretty cool, that just an ini edit or? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
krfrge 742 Posted January 12, 2010 I expanded on Papa Goat's idea of using a single soldier with smoke. I am still experimenting but basically took the stock X_Squad and modified the X_Squad_data file to have the smoke deployed. Currently the squad carrying smoke will fire their smoke at an item designated "ENEMY". That way the squad still can fire its normal assortment of weapons and still mark enemy targets. Eric J - The strobe work is difficult. I am not sure if I can pull that one off. Will keep you advised. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+comrpnt 16 Posted January 18, 2010 (edited) I thought that I'd comment briefly on this, as I've also had a play with this idea in order to tidy up some of the missions I'm revamping for VMFA-531. First, thanks for Pappa Goat and Krfrge for sharing their work and thoughts here on this subject. It was something that I'd wanted to include in my scripted missions for some time (without using FACs and WP rockets) but never got around to it. Until now... As a foundation I've taken Pappa Goat's work from a previous posting* and reworked it to match my own needs - now we see the benefit of sharing work-in-progress. Thanks for your previous post on this PG! :-) *If any CA Admins read this, please could you look into why there is only 1 page of Mission-related posts here. I'd expect to see numerous old posts for this topic. Is this a bug, or a feature? For my version of this I've moved away from using a VC or US GroundObject model as the origin of, what I call, "friendly smoke". Instead I wanted something small and inconspicuous. The best I could come up with using the stock objects was a single oil drum... I simply extracted the LODs and INIs from the terrain CAT and turned it into a static GroundObject with a Gun that fires smoke. I also camoflaged it to make it even more innocuous. I then use PG's idea of creating two 'smoke' objects from opposing sides and sat them on top of each other. Once placed they happily have a go at each other, or cause nearby enemy forces to 'have a go' until you get detonation... I tweaked the emitters to remove the WP hit debris and sparks so you get a clean explosion, then up'ed the amount of time the smoke is visible. When combined with one of my FAC missions the results are just what I need (VC forces occupy the ridge South of US forces lower down the slope - as now indicated by the different coloured smoke. White smoke is courtesy of a 'Misty' who has just arrived on scene)... Of course, with all of this the question is about timing and the placing of any smoke objects to get them to emit while the FAC and strike force are closing in on the target area. Lots of re-runs and tweaking the StartDelay values of the various players in a mission eventually work this out... For now I've played with red smoke (as you can see), but will add yellow and green options and then post the results in the download section. Thanks again guys for starting this thread - I've now solved an issue that's been annoying me for some time. Kind regards, comrpnt. Edited January 18, 2010 by comrpnt Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+swambast 601 Posted January 20, 2010 Comrpnt, that is great work building off the foundation laid by PG and KRFRGE...I am eagerly awaiting the update of your VMFA-531 missions and looking forward to your next release...thanks!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+comrpnt 16 Posted January 20, 2010 Comrpnt, that is great work building off the foundation laid by PG and KRFRGE...I am eagerly awaiting the update of your VMFA-531 missions and looking forward to your next release...thanks!!! Thanks Steve - these smoke canisters really help FAC missions with friendly troops "in contact". Much cleaner than alternate FACs marking friendlies. As for VMFA-531 (which is why I needed the smoke markers in the first place), it's getting close now. I've cleaned up everything up until April 26. Only have to go up until April 30 to complete this. The last set of missions are all written (completing the tour) so I'm just going back through and getting everything else up to the same standard as the final batch, then it all gets shipped as a single package. Other news from the revamp is that pre-reqs have changed a lot, and now I only use publicly available models, or stock models. I also took some artistic license and removed the helos, replacing them with F-105 strikes to escort, and ditched the O-1E FACs in favor of fast FACs using stock F-100s. So, not absolutely historically correct but more fun and offering more scope to the player. Now you get to sit through a couple of 'Misty'-style fast FAC missions (with extra AAA thrown in for good measure to keep you on your toes), and you can also can be a Thud driver for a few days. Kind regards, Paul. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+swambast 601 Posted January 21, 2010 Hi Paul and All, Instead I wanted something small and inconspicuous. The best I could come up with using the stock objects was a single oil drum... I would like to offer this as an additional contribution... hope it helps, it's on it's way to you... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+comrpnt 16 Posted January 22, 2010 You star! It's just what we need. A kind gesture indeed. I'll integrate it into the mod and refresh. Kind regards, comrpnt. :-) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
