All Strike Missions are on Carrier Battle Groups?

[+Geary 1,889]

I'm running all 5+2 merged game installs.

 

My SF2 Europe is started from the Exp2.exe file.

 

I enabled Naval operations in my Europe install.

 

Until recently Navy strike missions would launch from carriers and strike land targets.

 

Now ALL strike missions, Navy or otherwise, ONLY strike carrier battle groups.

 

If I disable NavalMap=True in my GermanyCE.ini file, I can strike land targets, but no carrier launches.

 

Anyone know what caused this and is there a way to keep naval ops in a Europe install and be able to strike land targets?

 

 

Thanks for any help,

 

 

 

Geary

 

 

 

 

[+SupGen 79]

Geary, a couple of questions first. Did you: 1) Add USN to the LimitedNationsList in the GermanyCE_NATIONS.INI in the terrain folder and make it FriendlyNation001? 2) Add a WaterMap with Carrier Zones defined? Without those two things I couldn't get any Carrier launched strikes at all; once I added them all Strike Missions were, as you say, against CBGs. This, however, is normal; what I don't understand is how you were getting Strike Missions against land targets in the first place. The reason is the game engine assigns Strike Missions based on who's first in the LimitedNationsList; in order to get Strikes launched from U.S. carriers, USN must be FriendlyNation001. The problem arises from the fact that there is no seperate SovietNavy; all Soviet forces are lumped together under the designation "Soviet". Once you enable NavalMap=TRUE, the game assigns Strike Missions against Soviet Naval assets until there are none left. The key is to create a new nation, SovietNavy in the NATIONS.INI that goes in the Flight folder, and to make it EnemyNation002 (or anything but 001) in the LimitedNationsList in the GermanyCE_NATIONS.INI in the terrain folder. Your Strike Missions will now attack land targets, I think exclusively. A couple of weeks ago I (shameless plug here) uploaded a small mod that addresses this, but only on the Iceland terrain. To tell the truth, I just hadn't thought about Naval operations on the other terrains. If you d'load it here: http://combatace.com/files/file/14024-airstrikes-on-land-targets-in-sf2na/ , you can take a look at how it's done and actually, substitute the appropriate files for the GermanyCE terrain and use it. Hope this helps you out.

[+Geary 1,889]

SupGen.

 

Got it back to launching from carriers and striking land targets, thanks.

 

To answer your questions: 1. I had added USN to GermanyCE_Nations.ini but it was and is at 009. I also added USMC, ROYALNAVY, FRENCHNAVY and AustralianNAVY as 010 - 013. All those Navies launch from carriers. AND 2. Yes, I had added a WaterMap with CZ defined.

 

 

The thing that seems to have put me back on land is your suggestion to add SovietNavy to the EnemyNations at 002.

 

Thanks for the fix. To bad it doesn't also randomly assign carrier group targets.

 

[usafphantom2 19]

SupGen,You da Man!

[+SupGen 79]

Geary, glad you got it straightened out. Thing is, now you got me thinkin'...USN at 009? I had understood that if you wanted Carrier strikes against other CBGs, the Navy your carrier is part of had to be first in the list but, maybe it just has to be the first Navy in the list? In other words, if SovietNavy is first in the EnemyNations list (so your strikes will attack another carrier) but you make USN 012 and FrenchNavy 009, will the French carrier then launch strikes against the Soviet CBG? I hadn't even thought about this aspect until now, you sir, have opened a can of worms (in my head) . Well it is raining out...guess I know what I'll be doing for the next couple of hours.

[+SupGen 79]

Owwwww, my head! Had to do some R/L, so I had a chance to think...and what I'm thinkin' is I am an idiot...first; the USN (or whatever) as 001 is when you want the other guys strikes to attack you; I haven't had a chance to check out the rest of it yet BUT,...to get back to the original question that started this thread I've realized there's one other reason why you were getting carrier launched strikes against land targets and it's something so simple and obvious that I've still got the palm imprint on my forehead. Start Date. Of the Kiev. Geary, is it possible that all the missions you played prior to all the strikes targetting CBGs were prior to 1976, the Kievs' Start Year? I ask this because I enabled naval ops in my Europe install and without changing anything in the EnemyNations list, prior to 1976 all my strikes attack land targets and after, they all target the Kiev CBG. No carrier, no CBG, no airstrike on same. As Homer would say, "Doh"!

[+SupGen 79]

OK Geary, been doin' some more foolin' around...you're absolutely right, you're own Navys' place in the list does not affect whether or not your Carriers generate Strike Missions, the enemys' list position determines what your target type will be, ie. land targets or CBGs. On another note, I did some more foolin' around...I changed the Base .exe for my Vietnam: Air and Ground War Expansion Pack from SF2V to SF2NA, added NavalMap=TRUE to the main .ini in both terrains, and added a slightly different WaterMap to each terrain; the one for South Vietnam has the carrier zone in the southern part of the map, and vice versa for North Vietnam. End result is I now get carrier missions from either Yankee or Dixie Stations depending on what terrain I select and as a bonus it doesn't seem to affect the Campaigns at all; those missions all generate from Yankee Station as defined in the Campaign Data .inis. This is a little off topic, but I found it interesting and thought others might also.

 

 

Edit: Changed it back to SF2V; same results.

Edited May 19, 2013 by SupGen

[+Geary 1,889]

Geary, is it possible that all the missions you played prior to all the strikes targetting CBGs were prior to 1976, the Kievs' Start Year?

 

SupGen,

 

Quite possible that's what I did, but the way I jump from one project to another, I can't remember it that's it. When I get time, I'll delete the SovietNavy from the install and try different strike mission dates.

 

Be careful with all that thinking, might cause headaches and confusion. (At least that's what I use as a reason not to think.)

[Icarus999 70]

What about the "new" Naval_strike coding that was implemented for SF2na... could someone explain how this works, and why... if NAVAL_STRIKE exists that only a "general" strike option is available.

[+SupGen 79]

NAVAL_STRIKE only comes into play if the opposing Navy is EnemyNation=001, see above. "The key is to create a new nation, SovietNavy in the NATIONS.INI that goes in the Flight folder, and to make it EnemyNation002 (or anything but 001) in the LimitedNationsList in the NATIONS.INI in the terrain folder." Also extract all the Soviet ships Data.inis and change their NationName to SovietNavy and place those Data.inis in the proper ship folders in the GroundObject folder. Do this for the Yak-38 also or it won't fly off the Kiev. If you set SovietNavy as EnemyNation=001 and Soviet as 002 in the LimitedNationsList in the NATIONS.INI in the terrain folder your airstrikes will only attack land targets; if you reverse it the game seems to act completely stock. So far, I can't see why TK didn't do it.

[Icarus999 70]

So if you set soviet navy as enemy nation 002 the soviet battle groups will show up in game, yet you are still able to strike land targets?

 

Im trying to find a way to to strike land targets... while still being able to create mission editor missions that target the battle groups

Edited May 28, 2013 by Icarus999

[+SupGen 79]

Icarus, the Soviet CBGs will not show up by default, but you can create them with the Mission Editor and target them with your Strike mission.

[+gerwin 451]

I have an oddly modded SF2NA based install, with these Soviet Warship types: BattleShip, Destroyer, Frigate. NO Aircraft_Carrier or Transport.

Surprisingly the single mission strike objectives have a pleasant variation: Most strikes are on land targets, no soviet 'surface action group' at sea. Yet often the generated missions do produce a soviet 'surface action group', which is the subject of a Blue naval strike.

 

To give the soviet navy some survivability it needs a though capital ship, the Slava for example. Otherwise the SEAD flight will finish off the capital ship before you get there. Calling the capital ship a Battleship seems to gives bigger 'surface action groups' then ones based around a Cruiser. Adding Amphibious transports will again prevent all land strikes

 

Now I wonder, one could make EnemyNation1 to create 'surface action group's at random, while keeping Carrier+Amphibious stuff in EnemyNation2....  A bit complicated though.

Edited October 4, 2013 by gerwin