An important question....

[timetraveler71]

 

It´s possible to start the mission from the platform of the air base? not in the head of the runway (sorry my english is no good)

Es posible empezar la misión desde la plataforma de la base? no desde la cabecera de la pista, gracias

[+daddyairplanes]

without heavy ini and graphical editing, no.

assuming that you are talking starting on the parking apron and taxiing to the runway, no the game doesnt do that

if you are talking an actual platform, that is where you would need to ini edit the placement of things, and tile the airbase to have a platform visually at the head of the normal runway. coulf be done, but a big big hassle

one thing this brings to mind is to create an oil platform, but as an aircraft carrier in game, and have a landing platform on that. easier than option 2, but still takes 3d modelling skills

[+Stratos]

And maybe editiong the spawn points? I mean the spawn point for the player while the wingmen keep the same spawn point.

[+daddyairplanes]

2 hours ago, Stratos said:

And maybe editiong the spawn points?

while that is true (i was suspecting but couldnt recall, iirc it takes editing by coordinates on EACH airfield. you cant just say spawn=ramp, it has to be spawnpoint = 190.893,986.990 or something similar. over several iterations per terrain.

dont get me wrong, like Eames said in the movie about inception, "No its not impossible. Its just bloody difficult,"

its why I havent exactly moved on enlarging parking spaces on ramps yet so airliner tails dont intertwine

Edited April 8, 2018 by daddyairplanes

[+streakeagle]

This is a sore spot for me. Way back when SFP1 was originally released, you could create a mission with a ramp start. It was buggy, but it was clearly intended to be an option that wasn't finished yet. Of course some other unfinished intended options included drag chutes and an "action view". Instead of debugging and perfecting the "ramp start", TK took it away after some patch revision that escapes my memory... WoV? WoE? I am fairly certain it was there up to Service Pack 2a. TK intended to deliver the perfect survey sim, but found he lacked sales/popularity to fund its completion.

 

[+Stratos]

10 hours ago, daddyairplanes said:

while that is true (i was suspecting but couldnt recall, iirc it takes editing by coordinates on EACH airfield. you cant just say spawn=ramp, it has to be spawnpoint = 190.893,986.990 or something similar. over several iterations per terrain.

dont get me wrong, like Eames said in the movie about inception, "No its not impossible. Its just bloody difficult,"

its why I havent exactly moved on enlarging parking spaces on ramps yet so airliner tails dont intertwine

Can you please explain a bit more about this? I will like to run some tests. With the Target Editor by Mue, is not that difficult to check a specific point, so I can try and see If it's worth the effort.

[+Florian]

24 minutes ago, Stratos said:

Can you please explain a bit more about this? I will like to run some tests. With the Target Editor by Mue, is not that difficult to check a specific point, so I can try and see If it's worth the effort.

Just keep in mind, how the game engine works. The player "spawn point" can been easily adjusted, BUT, the AI wingmen positions are offset positions of that.

Open the TERRAIN_Targets.ini, find the airfield you want to adjust and look for the line AirfieldDataFile=. The file written there must been adjusted.

In that file you'll find these entries:

TakeOffHead=0,1059 <- "Player spawn point", but also Take off point for AI. 0 means middle of the runway and 1059 the distance from the runway centerpoint to the north.
TakeOffTail=0,-1053

TaxiHead[01].Heading=90
TaxiHead[01].Offset=-59.72,1079.41 <- Position of the first wingman

When you start as player on the ramp (by editing the INI entries) and you start to taxi, the wingmen will taxi to your starting position and will try to take off from there. Example a 4 ship flight, you start, #2 will taxi to your position, #3 to former position of #2 and so on.

[+Stratos]

I will try on the latest "range" terrain, as it has only two airfields. Following your post, If I place the offset position of the wingmen close enough to me, all the flight will be relatively close, right?

It shouldn't be possible to have wingmen appear after 1 and 2 alreay took off? As in the aircraft carriers?

[+Florian]

Yes, making the offset smaller makes the aircraft waiting closer together.

To get more aircraft appear like on carriers, probably won't work on land bases. If i recall the engine function correct, the flight decks mesh name is used to set up the catapults. When you only have 4 catapults, more aircraft will appear until the flight is full. But airfields miss the entry for the "flight deck" (the runway) having systems like catapults or arresting wires.

[Stick]

Some of the ODS missions have this ability but if you open the mission file in the Mission Editor it gets nixed. So it is possible through .ini editing.

[+Stratos]

1 hour ago, Stick said:

Some of the ODS missions have this ability but if you open the mission file in the Mission Editor it gets nixed. So it is possible through .ini editing.

Thats' the way it works in YAP so it works in edited missions, we're trying to replicate it in single missions and campaigns.

[+Florian]

1 hour ago, Stick said:

Some of the ODS missions have this ability but if you open the mission file in the Mission Editor it gets nixed. So it is possible through .ini editing.

10 minutes ago, Stratos said:

Thats' the way it works in YAP so it works in edited missions, we're trying to replicate it in single missions and campaigns.

So called "scripted missions", like YAP, are a different point. You can make multiple flights, were the spawn point is on the ramp, but it won't work this way for random single missions or campaigns.

 

 

[KJakker]

Inside the OPTIONSSCREEN.STR file are the entries listed below for use with the options menu and are present as text in the OptionsScreen.DLL file as well. As I recall only the first three were available in SF2 when it came out and at some point TK disabled the "In the air, near home base" option during one of the patches and I have no idea what data point you would have to edit in the DLL file to turn it back on.

TXT_MENU_START_NEAR_TARGET      
TXT_MENU_START_AIR              
TXT_MENU_START_RUNWAY           
TXT_MENU_START_RAMP  

In the air, near target 
In the air, near home base 
On the ground, at home base 
On Ramp

[+Gepard]

11 hours ago, Florian said:

TakeOffHead=0,1059 <- "Player spawn point", but also Take off point for AI. 0 means middle of the runway and 1059 the distance from the runway centerpoint to the north.

TakeOffTail=0,-1053

TaxiHead[01].Heading=90
TaxiHead[01].Offset=-59.72,1079.41 <- Position of the first wingman

 

 

The TakeOFFHead is the starting position of the player only in single take off. If you want to make a mass take off, then you need no TakeOffHead. Without TakeOffHead parameter all planes starts from their positions in the direction of the runway. The positions of the single planes you set with the parameter TakeOff[xx]

Maybe, that it is possible to use the parameters TaxiHead[xx] and TakeOff[xx] together. That the AI planes roll from taxi positions to their designated takeoff positions and start the take off run from there.

 

[+Menrva]

1 hour ago, KJakker said:

Inside the OPTIONSSCREEN.STR file are the entries listed below for use with the options menu and are present as text in the OptionsScreen.DLL file as well. As I recall only the first three were available in SF2 when it came out and at some point TK disabled the "In the air, near home base" option during one of the patches and I have no idea what data point you would have to edit in the DLL file to turn it back on.

TXT_MENU_START_NEAR_TARGET      
TXT_MENU_START_AIR              
TXT_MENU_START_RUNWAY           
TXT_MENU_START_RAMP  

In the air, near target 
In the air, near home base 
On the ground, at home base 
On Ramp

That's interesting, KJakker! I remember that our fellow Stary discovered a lot of additional statements inside the .DLLs. Turns out that most are non working though. This makes me believe that TK had a huge vision for Strike Fighters. But due to money and time constraints, various features have been cut or were not even developed.

[+Sundowner]

Maybe one of our "programmer" friends can make a mission editor that could allow the placement of flight(s) with ramp start positions and taxi positions and maybe even the positioning of parked aircraft, although this would possibly need it to write to the airfield data.ini as well as a mission file.

I'm sure Kreelin's old editor did something like this for SF1.

[+Stratos]

9 hours ago, Sundowner said:

Maybe one of our "programmer" friends

Is that Mue real name?

[+Stratos]

At the second try...

Mue tools helped a lot, but there's a thing that can be a problem. I think wingmen does not take off until you do, and in some airfields that will block the taxiway.