No joy on carrier-based single missions

[kblomkvist 433]

I'm trying to modify the Okinawa terrain to make it suitable to more modern period, not the WW2, just for my personal use (don't expect anything serious from this, I'm not a terrain modder really). My idea is to have the USAF/JASDF based on the Japanese islands and shipborne USN/USMC forces clash with the Chinese shipborne forces (the Chinese side will have no airfields, maybe I'll add some off-the-map airfields for long range strikes). For now, I have not modified anything on the ground but decided to add the carriers only. I downloaded some Chinese stuff and modified the Ulyanovsk CVN as a fake Chinese carrier. The problem is that I have no carriers spawning in the single missions at all.

I am using a full 5 merged SF2NA install (it's a separate Far East themed install) and the Okinawa terrain updated for SF2. I created a water map in a way which has been explained in the forums. You can see it here for yourselves: Okinawa_Water.rar

The Okinawa.ini looks like this:

Quote

[Terrain]
TerrainFullName=Okinawa/Japan
DataFile=Okinawa_data.INI
TargetFile=Okinawa_targets.INI
TargetTypeFile=Okinawa_types.INI
MovementFile=Okinawa_movement.INI
NationsFile=Okinawa_nations.INI
BriefingText=Okinawa_briefing.INI
DogfightFile=Okinawa_dogfight.INI
NavalMap=TRUE
WaterMap=Okinawa_Water.bmp
DogfightOnly=FALSE
LimitedNations=TRUE
//CatFile=..\Desert\Desert.cat
//CatFile=..\IcelandNA\IcelandNA.cat
CatFile=..\VietnamSEA\VietnamSEA.cat
Longitude=131
Latitude=31

[Map]
FilenameFormat=PlanningMap%d.bmp
Width=1000000.0
Height=1000000.0
NumZoomLevels=3

[AllowedDates]
StartDate=2000
EndDate=2040

And the nations.ini:

Quote

[Theater]
TheaterName=Okinawa
Location001=Okinawa
Location002=Japan
Location003=Korea

[LimitedNationList]
FriendlyNation001=USAF
FriendlyNation002=USN
FriendlyNation003=USMC
FriendlyNation004=SKorea
FriendlyNation005=Japan
EnemyNation001=China
 

Do you have any idea what's wrong here?

Edited October 6, 2019 by kblomkvist

[+Menrva 4,200]

3 hours ago, kblomkvist said:

Do you have any idea what's wrong here?

Terrain wise, everything seems fine to me, at least from what I see; I suggest that you increase the dimensions of the yellow area though, which is used by the enemy; if it's rather small, ships then spawn everywhere else.

The problem is not related to the terrain, I think. Double check dates/years and userlists of the ships and aircraft. Also, please check that if you select a USN aircraft (a Tomcat for instance), you'll take-off from a friendly carrier in the game's generated single mission.

Edited October 6, 2019 by Menrva

[kblomkvist 433]

5 minutes ago, Menrva said:

Terrain wise, everything seems fine to me, at least from what I see; I suggest that you increase the dimensions of the yellow area though, which is used by the enemy; if it's rather small, ships then spawns everywhere else.

The problem is not related to the terrain, I think. Double check dates/years and userlists of the ships and aircraft. Also, please check that if you select a USN aircraft (a Tomcat for instance), you'll take-off from a friendly carrier in the game's generated single mission.

I'll check that out. I also wonder whether there are any limitations when it comes to the water.bmp file, like resolution or color depth (24-bit etc.).

[+Menrva 4,200]

1 hour ago, kblomkvist said:

I also wonder whether there are any limitations when it comes to the water.bmp file, like resolution or color depth (24-bit etc.).

Oh yes! It has to be color scale, 8bit. It should weigh 257 kb. Resolution of 512*512.

I double checked, and yours is wrong indeed. Thanks for pointing this out with your question. This is your terrain issue. You should use gerwin's TFDtool, as it can generate a water bitmap for you, and you simply have to add yellow and green areas in a painting software (but be careful to save it as it is, 8bit).

Make sure that you do not use Photoshop, because it somewhat saves 8bit bitmaps with a slightly different file size, and the game does not read it. Use MS Paint instead.

Edited October 6, 2019 by Menrva

[+Menrva 4,200]

@kblomkvist I made one for you. It took me nothing, really; Okinawa_Water.bmp

Test it and let me know!

Edited October 6, 2019 by Menrva

[kblomkvist 433]

Thank you for the bitmap, it seems to work well. There must be a problem with the Chinese ships that I need to investigate further. I had to copy some Soviet ships form my SF2NA RSR install to get any red side ships to show on the map.

[Wrench 9,846]

the enemy CV zone is small on purpose -- as the IJN had no carriers left for the maps original usage.

have you checked the PRC's nations ini entry? It's not a naval force. You may have to create the PRC navy (as had to be done for the IJN, seperating it from the IJAAF)

[+Menrva 4,200]

54 minutes ago, Wrench said:

have you checked the PRC's nations ini entry? It's not a naval force.

Neither is the stock Soviet nation. IRL there's no need to create an additional nation (although my nations expansion mod adds the People's Liberation Army Naval Air Force and Soviet Naval Aviation, they are unused without extensive changes to numerous userlist.ini files).

The key simply is to make sure that both ships and carrier based aircraft use the same nation (China or Soviet, for instance).

Edited October 6, 2019 by Menrva

[kblomkvist 433]

@Wrench your idea would make sense only if there was an entry in the nations.ini determining whether a nation is a "naval" nation or not and I've never seen anything like this.

@Menrva I'm still getting nowhere despite the fact that my fake Liaoning (Ulyanovsk with changed nations entry in the data.ini and userlist.ini) and my J-15 both have the same nation (China). This is strange because the USN Hornets spawn on carriers and even have Chinese battlegroups as their targets in strike missions (with the Kirov as a main target and smaller Chinese ships as escort).

I have another idea. Maybe the "frontline" on the map affects places where red and blue naval forces spawn? In that case, the yellow area on the water.bmp would be on the wrong side of the frontline.

Edited October 6, 2019 by kblomkvist

[+Menrva 4,200]

@kblomkvist Negative, the frontline is purely cosmetic in single missions. At this point, there are no terrain related things causing your issues. If you spawn on the carrier with the USN, Red side would work just as fine, given correct ground objects and aircraft.

Make sure that the J-15 is CarrierBased=TRUE. Also, the Ulyanovsk may not be compliant with the new standards set by SF2NA; compare its data.ini with that of the Kiev, I bet you might be missing some statements. Even better, try to convert a Kiev for China, but make sure to increase its year span.

Edited October 6, 2019 by Menrva

[kblomkvist 433]

1 minute ago, Menrva said:

@kblomkvist Negative, the frontline is purely cosmetic in single missions. At this point, there are no terrain related things for your issues. If you spawn on the carrier with the USN, Red Side would work just as fine, given correct ground objects and aircraft.

Make sure that the J-15 is CarrierBased=TRUE. Also, the Ulyanovsk is not compliant with the new standards set by SF2NA; compare its data.ini with that of the Kiev, I bet you might be missing some statements.

The aircraft is CarrierBased=TRUE. The airbase size in both the aircraft and carrier data.ini is set to medium.

I'll compare the Ulyanovsk with other carriers that work in the latest version of SF2NA and see what I get.

[kblomkvist 433]

The only missing thing I found is that the Ulyanovsk has no place for parked aircraft but would that make any difference?

[+Menrva 4,200]

No, that wouldn't affect the carrier's spawning. I am out of ideas for this issue, ATM. But would Soviet Yak-38s spawn from a Kiev? At least check if you can make stock Red side naval objects spawn.

Edited October 6, 2019 by Menrva

[kblomkvist 433]

10 minutes ago, Menrva said:

But would Soviet Yak-38s spawn on a Kiev? At least check if you can make stock Red side objects spawn.

They do, at least after I added Soviet to the Okinawa_nations.ini. The Ulyanovsk must be messed up somehow.

Edited October 6, 2019 by kblomkvist

[+Menrva 4,200]

@kblomkvist Keep in mind that the Kiev and Yak-38s are meant for older (Cold War) mission years, so you should increase the year span of your terrain. I also suggest that you try to increase the yellow area of the water bitmap. Use Microsoft's Paint and re-save. Even better, exchange the green with the yellow and viceversa, as a test.

Edited October 6, 2019 by Menrva

[kblomkvist 433]

1 minute ago, Menrva said:

@kblomkvist Keep in mind that the Kiev and Yak-38s are meant for older (Cold War) mission years, so you should increase the year span of your terrain. I also suggest that you try to increase the yellow area of the water bitmap. Use Microsoft's Paint and re-save.

I edited my post, I forgot to add the Soviet to the nations.ini and after adding the proper entry, the Yaks spawn on Kiev's deck. The problem seems to be the Ulyanovsk carrier.

[+Menrva 4,200]

That's great, I was sure the terrain was fine. I'll check the Ulyanovsk and report back.

[kblomkvist 433]

Update: it's not the original unmodded Ulyanovsk, it's my own Chinese version that has to be messed up.

[+Menrva 4,200]

17 minutes ago, kblomkvist said:

Update: it's not the original unmodded Ulyanovsk, it's my own Chinese version that has to be messed up.

Yes, I know. But have you totally modified it, aside from making it Chinese? Please post the .inis so I can have a better look at what's going on.

@kblomkvist Last bet I make; have you created a _userlist.ini file for the Ulyanovsk? Because just changing the nation in the _data.ini may not suffice.

Edited October 6, 2019 by Menrva

[JosefK 911]

Like the general concept of a modern Okinawa map.  This is close to the Senkaku Islands dispute.  Do very much see a flashpoint down thereabouts...

[kblomkvist 433]

To sum up, I must have messed up my Ulianovsk/fake Liaoning. I deleted it and redone the Chinese version again and it works. The tricky part is now to repaint the Flankers onboard (they are part of the carrier model). I think I'll just wait for the Proper Kuznetsov on which the Liaoning is based. As skinning is my main work here at CA, this Okinawa conversion will be a thing to play with in some spare time. If I get any interesting results, I'll share them wih you. Anyway, @Menrva thank you for some lessons on water.bmp and other related stuff.

Edited October 7, 2019 by kblomkvist

[Wrench 9,846]

Quote

If I get any interesting results, I'll share them wih you.

make sure you ask first! I'll need to see exactly what's been changed before approval. But only if you plan on sharing with the community.

Unfortunately, the map has a lot of issues. (not the least is the shape of Naha harbor) or lack of proper hills on Okinawa, and the Karama Reto region. I'm not even going to mention the faults in the Home Islands (some of which might actually be mine!!! Oh no!!! <gr>)

[kblomkvist 433]

18 hours ago, Wrench said:

make sure you ask first! I'll need to see exactly what's been changed before approval. But only if you plan on sharing with the community.

Unfortunately, the map has a lot of issues. (not the least is the shape of Naha harbor) or lack of proper hills on Okinawa, and the Karama Reto region. I'm not even going to mention the faults in the Home Islands (some of which might actually be mine!!! Oh no!!! <gr>)

Sure, I'll let you know when I get anything at least partially satisfying.

[Chugster 8]

Is there a guide on how to add carriers to custom missions in Vietnam? Only my google fu has left me and I am not even sure what files i should be editing or how?

Edited October 12, 2020 by Chugster