Any campaign editing experts out there?...

[Rampstrike]

Greetings, gents!

 

With the release of the new F-15A cockpit (simply fantastic, I must add!), I am wanting to make a "Burning Sands 1977" campaign. What I plan on doing is simply updating the aircraft from the base campaign so that they fit the new year (example, USAF units will be F-4E and F-15A, USN will be in their F-4J's and F-14As, Paranis will be flying MiG-21, MiG-23s, Su-17s, etc...). I don't think I'll have too much trouble with this, as I've changed aircraft/squadrons in the default campaign before.

 

My question is this: How do I change the timeframe of the campaign itself? More specifically, what controls the dates that missions are generated? I want to make the campaign take place over several months, not several years like the default campaign does. In my current Burning Sands campaign, I fly only one or two combat missions a year (Started in early 1962, now in late 1964, and I've only flown 4 missions)! How do I increase the sortie rate?

 

If I wanted the campaign to start in April of 1977 and go through February 1978, what file(s) would I need to edit and how do I do it?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Cheers,

Rampstrike

[+Spectre_USA]

I'm no Experten by any stretch, but we do have a resident expert/site co-owner who I've

tested a few fledgling campaigns for. He is MK2, who will be releasing the flood-gates once

the campaign fix patch is released, if ever. He should be along shortly, so consider this a bump.

 

Concerning 2 of your questions, the XXXCampData.ini should have a StartDate= line to get a

timeframe started, and a MissionRate= line, though what it correlates with, I've no idea.

 

The one's he's made are testing well, so I will defer. I would like to see the one you propose

be created, sounds very cool...

[+MK2]

Hi rampstrike!

 

I certainly love campaign editing!

 

My best advice is for you to download an existing campaign (anyone). Observe the files use to make it, open the files, explore and change stuff?I know this sounds strange but do this first then come back with specific questions and I will be glad to help.

 

1. download a campaign

2. see what files are needed to affect the campaign

3. open them with something as simple as notepad

 

 

Your specific question centers around the campaing_data.ini , you need an extractor found in the download section to find this file. (or you will find the file in a downloaded campaign)

 

If you open the *_data.ini file (whatever it is named)

 

These are the parameters that control time:

 

[CampaignData]

StartDate=012/04/1981

StartDateDeviation=0

ForceWithInitiative=0

MaxMissions=75--------------------------------------------------------------------------*

NormalMissionRate=5--------------------------------------------------------------------*

NormalMissionRateDeviation=5-------------------------------------------------------*

OffensiveMissionRate=5------------------------------------------------------------------*

OffensiveMissionRateDeviation=5-------------------------------------------------------*

CampaignEndWinScreen=Winner1.bmp

CampaignEndLoseScreen=Loser1.bmp

CampaignEndStallScreen=Loser1.bmp

CampaignEndWinText=IIwin.txt

CampaignEndLoseText=IIStall.txt

CampaignEndStallText=IIStall.txt

 

I will upload editing notes (not created by me)to the forum tonight.

 

Have fun!

[Rampstrike]

Greetings, MK2!

 

Thanks for the encouragement. I have been working with a downloaded file... it's just a Burning Sands campaign that someone sent me a while back that added the F-8D as a flyable to the default campaign. I edited quite a bit last night, but I am having some definite issues that hopefully you can help me with...

 

I found and was able to change the start date of the campaign (to Feb 1978), as well as edit the starting dates for all air units involved (didn't think about doing the ground units yet... I assumed if it was after they're starting date, they'd show up). I did make some changes to the lines in the .ini that you mentioned, but I haven't flown enough missions to see what the effect on the sortie rates/dates are yet.

 

That's largely because of the biggest problem I'm having: Although I was able to add several new add-on aircraft to the lineup (specifically, the F-111E, F-15A, A-1H, F-14A, and for the Paranis, the MiG-23B), and the squadrons/aircraft all are available as hoped, they don't show up in the campaign with the appropriate weapons! The F-15A and the F-111 don't have ANY ordinance at all available in the loadout screen, and the Tomcat has only some AIM-9 and AIM-7 missiles available, but no AIM-54 or fuel tanks. The A-1H has some dumb bombs and a rocket pod, but nowhere near the loadout that shows for the aircraft in it's own loadout.ini file. I am pretty sure I added the weapons that I needed to correctly (for the Tomcat and Aardvark, which I think were the only ones that came with ordinance not already in the latest Weapons Pack, which I also have installed), with the proper entries cut and pasted and sequenced in the weaponsdata.ini file. I tried to see if adding the proper re-supplies for each unit in the campaign.ini would help, but it didn't, and I also tried changing the starting supply value for each unit (in most cases, from 50 to 100, which I assumed was a percentage), but that did nothing either.

 

And what's even more confusing and disturbing is that now, even in single missions, the improper ordinance shows up for several planes, most notably the F-15A. Now there are no fuel tanks available, and only the older AIM-9 and AIM-7 versions, plus a ton of bombs and rocket pods... none of which are listed in the loadout.ini file for the F-15A. What's really strange is that it worked just fine when I first installed the F-15A and the new cockpit, but all I've done since is add some more planes and mess with a backup campaign.ini file.

 

Needless to say, I'm getting kind of confused.

 

Any more help is greatly appreciated!

 

Cheers,

Rampstrike

[+MK2]

Ramp,

 

You have to go to the campaign_data.ini file and add it like this, notice the F-4 squadron in the upcoming Iran Iraq campaign below (have the latest weapons pack installed, go to a file called weapondata and study it, use the same spelling to add the weapons like you see below, ):

 

[AirUnit005]

AircraftType=F-4E

Squadron=11TFS

StartDate=

ForceID=1

Nation=Iran

DefaultTexture=Iran

StartNumber=1

BaseArea=Mehrabad Intl

RandomChance=100

MaxAircraft=16

StartAircraft=16

MaxPilots=16

StartPilots=16

Experience=60

Morale=100

Supply=50

UpgradeType=Never

MissionChance[sWEEP]=50

MissionChance[CAP]=50

MissionChance[iNTERCEPT]=50

MissionChance[ESCORT]=20

MissionChance=50

MissionChance[CAS]=50

MissionChance[sEAD]=50

MissionChance[ARMED_RECON]=50

MissionChance[ANTI_SHIP]=0

MissionChance[ANTI_SUB]=0

MissionChance[FAC]=0

MissionChance[RECON]=50

Supply[001].WeaponType=Mk81

Supply[001].Quantity=2880

Supply[002].WeaponType=Mk82

Supply[002].Quantity=1440

Supply[003].WeaponType=Mk84

Supply[003].Quantity=240

Supply[004].WeaponType=LAU-3A

Supply[004].Quantity=480

Supply[005].WeaponType=Tank370_F4

Supply[005].Quantity=480

Supply[006].WeaponType=Tank600_F4

Supply[006].Quantity=240

Supply[007].WeaponType=AIM-9P

Supply[007].Quantity=640

Supply[008].WeaponType=AIM-7E-2

Supply[008].Quantity=480

Supply[009].WeaponType=Mk82SE

Supply[009].Quantity=240

Supply[010].WeaponType=Rockeye

Supply[010].Quantity=360

Supply[011].WeaponType=BLU-1

Supply[011].Quantity=240

Supply[012].WeaponType=AGM-45A

Supply[012].Quantity=240

Supply[013].WeaponType=M36E2

Supply[013].Quantity=480

Supply[014].WeaponType=AGM-65A

Supply[014].Quantity=180

Supply[015].WeaponType=CBU-29

Supply[015].Quantity=180

Supply[016].WeaponType=CBU-49

Supply[016].Quantity=140

Supply[017].WeaponType=CBU-52

Supply[017].Quantity=180

Supply[018].WeaponType=CBU-53

Supply[018].Quantity=180

Supply[019].WeaponType=CBU-54

Supply[019].Quantity=180

Supply[020].WeaponType=CBU-58

Supply[020].Quantity=180

Supply[021].WeaponType=CBU-59/B

Supply[021].Quantity=140

[Rampstrike]

Hmmm....

 

That's pretty much what I did. I went to every aircraft's loadout.ini file and copied and pasted the weapon name into each aircraft's corresponding unit entry in the campaign.ini file in the format that you showed (and which was already present).

 

Still no weapons available in the loadout screen.

 

Something fishy going on, I guess....

 

Anything else to try?

 

Thanks,

Rampstrike

[+MK2]

do you have the latest weapons pack installed? is it just some of the weapons or all of the weapons?

 

Basically more details if you can provide them.

[Rampstrike]

MK2,

 

I just installed the latest weapons pack over my lunch break to fix another problem (see F-15A weirdness post), which it did, so I'll give the campaign_data.ini another go tonight and let you know if that did the trick there as well...

 

Thanks for all the help so far!

 

Cheers,

Ramp