Baltika

It's easy enough to add more SAM sites, just cut & paste in the terrain_targets.ini, and renaming them to suit. Placement maybe more of an issue, but finding a spot for a sam site near to every installation on the map shouldn't be too much trouble. As to chasing things down in the backwoods, as this is small 500k x 500k terrain, the wall is close to the edge all around, and the existing target areas take it nearly as far out as we can go. . . except, there is a quadrant in the North East sector with a nice deep valley surrounded by high mountains, which is really untouched, as yet. Wrench calls it the "River of No Return," and a few of us have been banging our heads of a brick wall trying to get water tiles onto this map. But, a little work on the targets.ini would be all it takes to add a few target areas up there. Secret GS incursion to launch a sneak attack on the Alliance home city, based right under their noses? Sounds like I have a plot for my OMT sequel, nice one, cheers As to air threat activity, are you talking about campaign play or single missions? I confess I have yet to find the time to check out Wrench's update of the DBS terrain, maybe I ought to try it out :yes:

Well, as I said, it's Doghouse's SAM mod, I just added his samsites to the updated terrain_targets.ini which I use for the campaign. There are quite a few sam sites on the red side, and the blue side airbases are also protected. Of course, that all depends on having working SAMS in your objects folder. I have been test-driving the all-in-one-weapon pack by WombRaider, AOCBravo and others, and those guys have done wonders with the SAMS. What sort of terrain update did you have in mind? I have a sequel or two to this campaign in the works, which takes the planeset through the 70s, 80s, 90s and beyond. Two weeks after Midway campaign is released, and some other stuff I have on the go But any suggestions for improvements are welcome. Cheers for now

File Name: Operation Mountain Twilight v1.2 File Submitter: Baltika File Submitted: 13 Dec 2007 File Updated: 24 Nov 2008 File Category: User Made Campaigns OMT v1.2 Included the updated terrain MOVEMENT.INI file which controls the frontline. 24 November 2008 **************************************************************** Operation Mountain Twilight v 1.1 by baltika Revision Date: 23 November 2008 ***************************************************************** This is an update of my original OMT campaign to work with Wrench's 4 seasons re-release of Majorlee's American North West Terrain. This has exactly the same planeset and installation requirements as the original campaign, so please see the v1.0 readme for all the aircraft and groundobjects you will require to install. Obviously, you should use Wrench's updated ANW terrain build, not any previous ANW release. Here's the link: http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autoc...p;showfile=7615 Thanks to MajorLee for the original terrain, Wrench for his upgrades, and Deuces, Doghouse and Brain32 for the additional tilesets. If I have missed anyone out, please let me know and I will add them in. ************************************************************* What's new: 1. I have added 25+ new target areas to Wrench's original Target List. There are a number of new target areas based on Wrench's existing ones, but all of Wrench's updated targets are in there, so you do not lose anything from the updated terrain. I have also included Doghouse's SAM sites mod, with his permission, so thanks for that, Doghouse. You will find that flying down those canyons becomes a necessity, not a joyride, once the SAM sites go online! 2. I have substantially re-worked the strategic nodes based on the new Target List. 3. Due to changes introduced by the Oct 08 patches, I have had to split the campaign files into separate campaigns for Red and Blue side flyable. If you want to fly the campaign for the Global Sedition, select "OMT: Red" from the campaign selection menu. I have reduced the GS ground unit strength in the Red-Side campaign to make it less of a cakewalk for GS pilots. Blue Side campaign is still a tough nut to crack ;-) 4. There are a number of alternative Win/Lose screens included in the d/l pack. These used to be called out for individual squadrons, but that seems not to work under Oct 08 patch. So, the default Win/Lose screen is called out from the main campaign_DATA.ini file. You can change the settings to select alternative Win/Lose screens if you wish, just edit the name of the screenshot called out. 5. I have also included ext's RCAF Vampire skin, as I can't track down the d/l link. Thanks to ext for the nice skin, cheers mate ;-) ************************************************************* INSTALLATION: I have packaged the files up so it should be obvious where everything has to go. Install the terrain and planeset first. Unzip the d/l package to a temporary folder, then copy the unzipped files across. When asked to over-write, say yes. You must use the included AmericaNW_targets.ini, AmericaNW_Movement.ini and AmericaNW_types.ini, or the campaign will not work properly. You will have to copy the content of the "Add to SquadronList" folder to your existing SQUADRONLIST.INI, renumbering as the next in sequence. There should be no problem with dropping the new campaign files into an existing OMT campaign install, just over-write when prompted. ************************************************************* HEALTH WARNING As ever, back up any modded files before you overwrite them - it's easier to restore your originals that way ;-) Most of the required planes are older mods, which may or may not work properly in the latest round of patches. Try flying in normal mode if you are having serious trouble with a particular plane. I haven't yet experienced any huge issues, but your mileage may vary. Any problems, questions, comments, etc, drop me a line at combatace. Happy Hunting to one and all, Baltika Nov 08 ************************************************************* Click here to download this file

I forgot to include the updated terrain MOVEMENT.INI file which controls the frontline for the campaign. Here is the hotfix: [FrontLine] FriendlyBase=Salmon River Oil Fields EnemyBase=Global Sedition HQ Position[001]=000000.000,250000.000 Position[002]=070000.000,260000.000 Position[003]=100000.000,280000.000 Position[004]=130000.000,290000.000 Position[005]=160000.000,280000.000 Position[006]=190000.000,275000.000 Position[007]=220000.000,280000.000 Position[008]=250000.000,250000.000 Position[009]=270000.000,210000.000 Position[010]=300000.000,215000.000 Position[011]=330000.000,230000.000 Position[012]=360000.000,260000.000 Position[013]=390000.000,250000.000 Position[014]=420000.000,260000.000 Position[015]=450000.000,280000.000 Position[016]=500000.000,290000.000 StartShow=1 EndShow=16 Cut and paste that frontline entry into the AmericaNW_MOVEMENT.INI file, over-writing the old entries. Sorry about that

I forgot to include the updated terrain MOVEMENT.INI file which controls the frontline for the campaign. Here is the hotfix: [FrontLine] FriendlyBase=Salmon River Oil Fields EnemyBase=Global Sedition HQ Position[001]=000000.000,250000.000 Position[002]=070000.000,260000.000 Position[003]=100000.000,280000.000 Position[004]=130000.000,290000.000 Position[005]=160000.000,280000.000 Position[006]=190000.000,275000.000 Position[007]=220000.000,280000.000 Position[008]=250000.000,250000.000 Position[009]=270000.000,210000.000 Position[010]=300000.000,215000.000 Position[011]=330000.000,230000.000 Position[012]=360000.000,260000.000 Position[013]=390000.000,250000.000 Position[014]=420000.000,260000.000 Position[015]=450000.000,280000.000 Position[016]=500000.000,290000.000 StartShow=1 EndShow=16 Cut and paste that frontline entry into the AmericaNW_MOVEMENT.INI file, over-writing the old frontline entries. Sorry about that

Nice one, Wrench I have tried the settings for carriers flagged up by Tannethal, but I am still getting the wayward carrier headings. It may be something in one of the patches issued since that work was first done has changed things. Anyway, I will leave that issue to one side for now and press on with tidying up the main campaign files for release. Right now I am tweaking win/lose triggers for a "dynamic" outcome. I can't get the game engine to recognise when a base carrier has been destroyed, so it will run on the node system instead. I can easily enough include an alternative campaign file with no surface engagements for purists. Cheers for now.

Hi Canadair, Under the old build, you could list call-outs for individual win/lose/stall screens under each squadron's entry in the campaign.ini file. Under the Oct 08 patch, that seems to be broken and the game only recognises win/lose/stall screen callouts in the main campaign_data.ini file. Unfortunately, that means you can only have one win/lose/stall screen per campaign - and abviously you would need different ones for each side. I raised this issue over at Thirdwire, no reply, yet: http://bbs.thirdwire.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=5822 It actually makes campaign building easier, as the temptation to create different screens for every single squadron is gone. But I do miss the variety

@Tannethal, Thanks for the info re carrier headings, I hadn't come across that Looks like I can re-jig the targets.ini and have carrier take offs from within the battlegroups after all. Nice one

These look great, You bet I would like to see them Thanks Brain

Nice I will press on with Operation Watchtower in anticipation. . .

Hi Wrench, Sounds good, looking forward to your TBF-1 update The VT-8 Midway detachment IS available as a flyable squadron in the campaign, although far be it from me to create additional headaches for anyone I leave the question of specific skins/numbers for them entirely to your discretion, Sir OT: Is your upcoming Solomons map based on Edward's original terrain, or is it a completely new build? It's just, I have an "Operation Watchtower" campaign data.ini file (NOT based on any previously released Solomons campaign files) sitting on my HDD, waiting for all the squadrons to be assigned bases (Well, I know where they were all based in reality. It's the precise terrain_targets.ini name for each base I'm interested in). If the updated terrain has essentially the same names for airfields etc as Edward's terrain, I can go ahead, but, if not, I'm better to wait until your new terrain is released before editing the data file. In case you're wondering why, well, I do a lot of commuting by train in my job, and for some reason I find it relaxing to type up OOBs as SFP1 campaign files. . . As for personal interest, well, none of this stuff was taught in history class at school for me. So, I am discovering a lot of basic European, American and world history through my own reading much later in life. The UK in general, and Scotland in particular, was (is?) a minefield of political interest groups all of whom had a direct interest in the syllabus - and not in a good way. As a Scottish child of the Thatcher years in Britain, it's only now I'm discovering that the reason proper Scots history wasn't taught AT ALL in school, was that Thatcher was afraid of the Scot Nats gaining a lead in the polls. . . And if that isn't political censorship of a population, I d/k what is. As for WW2, well, the mentality in Britain, and probably much of Europe, is still John Cleese's send up of the phrase, "Don't mention the war!!!!" OK - rant over. Back to trying to get my win/lose conditions for Midway campaign to work properly. . . darn

Hi Wrench, I'm happy to go along with however you want to release your "Vinda-way" - either at your place, or if you want to send it to me, I can include it in the campaign d/l pack if you agree. Either way, it will fill a gap in the USMC squadrons meantime. OK, is this where I get told off for wondering if we have a B-26 or B-26B around somewhere I can find the -K model, but that seems rather a late version for Midway :yes: Good call with your TBF-1 mod - I have already got the TBD squadrons set up to use that. If you want to take the trouble to make numbers etc, that would be great - every squadron (on both sides) is selectable as flyable from the campaign screen, so some differentiation in the skins would be nice. (I got bored on the train commute home from work today, and editing the campaign.ini file to make all the callouts helped the journey go by). There are a number of stand-ins. I have put yours & capun's Rufe mod to good use for the Chitose and Kamikawa Maru air units - well, floatplanes they are, and I can't seem to find an F1M2, E8N2 or E13A1 anywhere The Rufe looks good flying around, though, and it works great on Gepard's sea runways The above picture of a near collision has flagged up an issue - I would have loved to have USN squadrons taking off from the flight deck of their carrier in the midst of Gepard's crowded carrier groups, and that can be done, but with the random results pictured above. The carriers can be made to stay put (as Kesselbrut did with his Falklands package) but the campaign engine gives them a random heading each time. So, they are pointing the wrong way for their escorts, at least much of the time. The alternative (which I have been working with til I tried the new method out) was to give each carrier unit a separate base, away from the main group. Doesn't look so good, but avoids odd headings, and allows proper carrier landings, i.e. on a moving carrier. Any strong preference either way?

"Hard to starboard, d*mn you, Mr. Sulu!!!!!!!!!!" Enterprise Captain having some trouble with helm control: Still some issues to iron out for campaign play

Yup, .tga tiles are your coastline tiles, as jtin says they have an alpha channel which displays the water. Here's instructions on how to make them: http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showt...a+channel\ .bmp tiles are your standard terrain textures. Using the terrain dialog box in TE creates .tod files for the specific .bmp or .tga tile you are working with, to create trees and non-targetable buildings for each tile of that type. To create target areas with stuff you can blow up, you need to place objects by hand in the [terrain]_TARGETS.INI file. Wrench is the man to ask about that :yes:

For WW2 may I dare to suggest the Battle of Britain all-in-one campaign mod, right here: http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autoc...p;showfile=5246 No bias there at all More modern campaign packs well worth your time are: Falklands campaign by Kesselbrut: http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autoc...p;showfile=6700 Harrier campaign by JSF_Aggie http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autoc...p;showfile=5390 The OTC package by Dave, C5 and others is one of the best: http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autoc...p;showfile=3874 http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autoc...p;showfile=3873 NATO Fighters 2 by C5 et al for WoE is essential: http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autoc...p;showfile=3348 And MK2's Vietnam 1984 and Iran/Iraq campaigns are also extremely good. Just a few of my top picks. Cheers, Baltika PS cellinsky's widesky mod and the terrain tileset/treemod upgrades by Brain32 and CA_Stary are absolutely essential.

Oh, yes please

Looking good, Wrench. I'll hazard a guess and agree with Geezer, looks like the Marianas/Guam to me For autotiling of sea textures to avoid coastal tsunami, there is a little bit of fiddling to be done with the texturelist.ini. I don't have it entirely figured out yet, but I have spent a fair bit of time on this trying to get Thunder Bay / Salmon River to tile properly for your ANW upgrades. You have to make some adjustment to the altitude settings and Priority level for your water texturetype and your coastal terrain types. Also, it is much easier for TE to autotexture the coastal areas correctly if you have followed Gepard's instructions to re-size your terrain .bmp to make a full-scale terrain. As for your texturelist settings, I set water textures, and the adjoining land textures in TextureList/Edit Texturetype list to the following settings: [s Sea] Water=1 UseAutoPlacement=1 CheckAltitude=1 MinAltitude=0 MaxAltitude=0 CheckCity=0 MinCityDistance=0 MaxCityDistance=0 CheckSlope=1 MinSlope=0 MaxSlope=0 Priority=1 RandomFactor=100 GroupingFactor=0 ExclusionRegion=0 ExcludeMaxX=250 ExcludeMinX=0 ExcludeMaxY=250 ExcludeMinY=0 [R Grass] Water=0 UseAutoPlacement=1 CheckAltitude=1 MinAltitude=0 MaxAltitude=800 CheckCity=0 MinCityDistance=10 MaxCityDistance=999999 CheckSlope=0 MinSlope=15 MaxSlope=90 Priority=0 RandomFactor=100 GroupingFactor=0 ExclusionRegion=0 ExcludeMaxX=0 ExcludeMinX=0 ExcludeMaxY=0 ExcludeMinY=0 You will see that grass has a minumum altitude of 0, so you may expect that grass would cover all the sea. Except, the water texturetype has a higher priority than the grass type, so where all the other factors for water are met, then you will get water rather than grass. This means that grass will come right down to 0 altitude, but only for areas which don't meet the water specification of maxaltitude=0 and, importantly maxslope=0. It does mean that the coastal areas probably creep out to sea little bit more across the board, but it pretty effectively removes most instances of sea creeping up onto the land. When I get a moment I will take a look at Socal using the same sort of settings. It takes a bit of experimentation, and sometimes odd things happen, but that should help. Looking forward to full release Cheers, Baltika

Great news, thanks for the update Midway campaign is in final beta testing and should be along in a week or two :yes:

Great work, Thanks very much

Included in my Battle of Britain RAF Speechpack is a spreadsheet file which tells you the text of all the speech files, so you have a "script" all prepared. There are many variations on a similar theme. From memory, there are 3 or four different pilot voices, Red Crown voice, Tower voice, and your ground commander's voice. Cheers, Baltika

Hi there, Yes I think that's the way to go. Looking at jtin's modded heightmap again, all the water meets up, so unless we want a tsunami, all the water has to be the same height. There is an alter sealevel function on TE, but I've never worked out how to do anything useful with it. perhaps we can specifiy a height for sealevel and then TE can autolevel for us. At least, then, sea level would be 0m rather than 650 metres. Just a thought.

Okay, repainted sea level to about 660m, knocked together some sea tiles, and here we go: On the down side, there are sea mountains wherever you look. That is going to be a lot of work to straighten out. The simplest way, I suspect, is to go with the transition zone around the mountains, which would enable autotiler to do it rather than having to hand place tiles everywhere. That should also get rid of the "sheer cliff" then "flat rock" effect you are seeing here. OK, have to do some paying work now. Cheerio for now. PS, I will attach the tileset and Texturelist.ini to go with it for whoever wants to play around with this. The tiles are mods of work by Deuces, Doghouse, Brain32 & Thirdwire, bashed together and painted over a bit by yours truly. They are beta beta. Water effects are not enabled on the sea tiles - I don't have time to make .tgas out of them, and they may need editing. The sea to desert transitions are rudimentary and should be viewed as beta testing placeholders only. I have made a new ANW terrain folder called ANW2, with all the inis changed to match. Don't want to mess up my main install ANW2_TILESET.rar

Well the Terrain & Tileset is Brain32's, CA has done/is doing the trees, and Wrench is the Target man - of course

To avoid duplication of effort, just to let you all know I am working up a set of sea-transition tiles based off Brain32/Deuces' Winter Thaw set.

I have been experimenting with this one as well, just a few comments: The elevation of the area covered by Thunder Bay, Salmon River and River of No Return is about 800m in MajorLee's original build. Looking at the general scale of the heightfield, with all the peaks and troughs, and the overall elevation, I think the Major bumped up the height scale percentage in TE somewhat, although I could be wrong about that. Anyway, I know I made a suggestion to paint the water areas blue, but that makes them a height elevation of 0m, obviously. That will give a pretty big coastline drop all the way around - which may or may not be what we are looking for. The rivers will obviously be deep, deep, canyons with thousand-meter walls. Could be fun to fly down, right enough, but may cause tiling problems. An alternative is to paint the water areas a uniform, 800m say, and specify that as the tile type water level in TE. That would give a much more natural look to the coastline, particularly around South Bend - we may want to put a harbour or port in there, and an 800m drop to the water could be tricky. That, however, causes problems over on the West side, as the water there is already at 0m. That can still be tiled as water, but it means Thunder Bay would be 800m above it. A huge inland sea, caught up in the surrounding mountain peaks? Overall, Brain32's suggestion of a transitional sea-to-cliff band may be the way to go, to smooth out that 800m drop, at least for Thunder Bay.