Back to business...A mission builder question!

[Rami]

To all,

Now that I am back home, I have some questions regarding Mission Builder that have been driving me crazy. I have now learned how to do alternate waypoints, ammo triggers, and all that stuff, but something that I think should be fairly simple is befuddling me.

Working on some of my own missions, as well as the Tuskegee Airmen, I want to create a scenario that if you are escorting bombers, and your assigned flight suffers more than 50% damage, you get a "mission failed" message, and the mission ends.

I don't want this to happen at any assigned waypoint, I want this to be what I would call a "general" goal of sorts.

Can someone throw me a bone here? :banghead:

(Devildog73, these are those "needed tweaks" that I've mentioned I'd like to fix before the project is completed!)

[Rami]

This same question applies for when you are assigned to shoot down a given flight. If the flight suffers more than 50% damage, you have accomplished your mission. I can't quite figure out how to get it right!

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Ahh...

Set up an area where Flt X is expecting contact with the enemy. Create triggers: 1 = X Status = inside area Y; 2 = X Status/Strength > or = 50%. Then make an Abort event with Trigger 1 true, Trigger 2 true; Select Action = Miscellaneous = End Mission

The rest should be easy to set the goal of X must be <50% and on the abort trigger the end of mission text

You can fancy the event up with sme time delays and displayed text too.

PS:

I just read your second post - The same should work well for the enemy flt, Z. I did this once with enemy planes only when all the bombers were shot down, the fighters returned to base but I didn't end the mission.

Hope this helps M8

[Pen32Win]

The Trigger you want to use for both is the Object Health Trigger.

In the case of formations of Aircraft this would be better titled "Unit Health" or "Formation Health"

The % is base on the health of the formation as a whole. So if you set it at 49% or Less you can shoot down 4 of 8 but as soon as you do 1% damage to the 5th one it'll trip the trigger. For an 50% goal I usually set it for 40% that way the 5th victim is usually a deader before it triggers.

[Rami]

Sigh...I keep trying it, it still doesn't work. It works on ships, but not aircraft.

[Pen32Win]

Rami are you try to do a Logical "AND" or a Logical "OR" in this case?

Do you want it where both the Escort AND the Bomber Formation suffer 50+% losses?

Or

Do you want it where the Escort OR the Bomber Formation suffer 50+% losses?

BTW, just for clarification. How many Escort Formations and how many Bomber Formations are we working with here?

[Rami]

Pen32Win,

There are two types of missions I am having problems with.

The simplest one is with your flight assigned to bring down a single aircraft or enemy flight. If you succeed, a congratulatory message is revealed.

The other is for you to be protecting a flight (up to eight aircraft) in which if the flight sustains more than 50% damage, you get a message stating the flight has taken too much damage, and the mission will end after twenty seconds or so.

[Pen32Win]

OK;

Lets try this from the start.

1. Select the formation you want to have the trigger and event apply to.
2. Click on the "Triggers" Button.
3. Create a new trigger.
4. Name the Trigger.
5. Under Object you should see Category: Aircraft and Name: The formation you're working on.
6. Under Trigger Parameter:
Type: Status
Param: Object Health
Operator: Less than or equals
Value: 40 (for an 8 A/C Formation, this would allow a 50% loss, 4 of 8, if a 5th A/C goes down, you're done.)
7. Click OK
8. Hit the Events Button
9. Create a new Event
10. Name it
11. Click on the Trigger you just created and then hit the >> button to move it to the In Use window.
12. Actions
a. Display Text - Type in your message about too mant A/C lost. Hit >>
b. Action Delay - Type in 30. Hit >>
c. Miscellaneous - End Mission. Hit >>
13. Hit OK
14. Close Create Event Window, save mission, try it.

Try this out if it doesn't work I'll have to look at the mission files. I just did this with 8 Betty's and it worked like a charm.

[Devildog73]

Sorry I put you through this goat rope Rams.

Pen32Win, this is kind of my fault. I have tried and tried to make dyn files in my Tuskegee Airmen missions and just have a mental block against them. They never seem to work correctly when I do them. I even went back and did Coyote's step by step and still am unable to get them right. So, Rami has been instrumental in getting the missions set up with all of the bells and whistles. However, as the missions have progressed and become more complicated, they need triggers and events that are also more complicated.

Rami's ideas are outstanding and I am excited to see them come back to me for the final campaign. It is fun to build the basic missions, tell Rami what they are supposed to do, and then fly them when they come back. It is like flying a whole new mission and is great fun.

A couple of times, I have been building when his email arrives and I more often than not, I end up side tracked flying his mod instead of finishing the mission I was building.

I am hoping that Rami is as excited for the final Tuskegee Airmen Campaign to come out as I am. I think that you all will like the missions.

[Rami]

Pen32Win,

Here are two of the missions. I turned the extension into a .txt file. Delete the .txt to turn it back into a .zip extension, then you can unzip it.

Thanks for offering to help!

(I tried your list, still a no-go!)

[The B24 Guy]

Hi Rami,

Do you want the event to trigger when 40% of Bombers in each group are shot down?
The "AND test".

Or is it that you want the event to trigger when 40% of any of the groups is shot down?
The "OR test".

The way it is now "the escort mission" is using the "And logical test" This means that 40% of all the groups must be shot down in order for the "event" to trigger.

Hope this helps,
B24Guy

[Rami]

TheB24Guy,

For missions 65 and 66, there are two other flights of fighters. They will be escorting one flight of bombers each. For the remaining bombers, you will be responsible for them. For those bomber groups, (which are not covered by the mentioned escorts) IF the group collectively sustains more than 60% damage, you get a failure message, and the mission ends thirty seconds later.

Devildog,

Not to worry. We're going to get this right come hell or high water. ;)

[Devildog73]

Not worried partner, just a little anticipatory anxiety to get it right.

I want all our buddies here in the outhouse to like the campaigns and to give them as near real as CFS2 will let us.

[Rami]

Devildog,

Ilandza, Yugoslavia. Hot off the press! I'll be retrofitting this to mission 81 tonight. :d

[Devildog73]

Yeah, Rami, send those Storches up to intercept the TA!!!!:help:

[Rami]

On missions 6, 11, and 12 (from pack I) this worked fine.

Missions 7 thru 10, even though they were set up the same way...didn't work.

Now, if I want a success message to appear when you've shot down more than half the flight, (5 out of 8, for example) I'd do "greater than or equals 60%," then make it a goal, correct?

[Pen32Win]

Howdy Rami;

Let’s start with Mission 65. I see 5 Bomber formations that fall to the player formation to cover. Unfortunately you can not logically add the formations together directly. You could do the calculation but it would require a huge matrix of Triggers and Events to cover every mathematical possibility totaling a > than 50% loss for the 5 Bomber Formations. Unfortunately you can only do AND and OR logic with the MB. What you have now is AND logic statements.

Written out it looks something like this:

IF Bomber1>60% losses
AND Bomber2>60% losses
AND Bomber3>60% losses
AND Bomber4>60% losses
AND Bomber5>60% losses
THEN Display Message, COUNT 30, END MISSION

So EACH of the Bomber formations has to loose at least 60% before it Triggers the Event.

You could use several Events and OR's to lower the number of losses before it triggers. This series of Events would work if any two Bomber formations lost more that 60%.

Event 1
IF Bomber1>60% losses
OR Bomber2>60% losses
THEN Display Message, COUNT 30, END MISSION

Event 2
IF Bomber1>60% losses
OR Bomber3>60% losses
THEN Display Message, COUNT 30, END MISSION

Event 3
IF Bomber1>60% losses
OR Bomber4>60% losses
THEN Display Message, COUNT 30, END MISSION

You'd have an Event for all of these pairings. If any two Bomber Groups lost more than 60% of its Health it would End Mission.
1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 1-5, 2-3, 2-4, 2-5, 3-4, 3-5, 4-5.
So you'd have 10 Events that could end the mission.


Or you could create combinations of ANDs and OR's....
This way you'd only need 5 Events, 2 Pairs per Event

Event1
IF Bomber1>60% losses
AND Bomber2>60% losses
OR Bomber3>60% losses
AND Bomber4>60% losses
THEN Display Message, COUNT 30, END MISSION

This is what you have to work with and there's no simple solution to what you want to do. That I know of anyway. I've been working with these for a long time and know quite a bit about the logic behind these Triggers and Events but there's always something new to learn. You're just going to have to come up with a Goal that you can calculate with AND's and OR's.

[Ravenna]

Oh my God.....Its Propositional Calculus!

[Devildog73]

No wonder Rami's face looks that way! :caked:

[Rami]

To all,

Though some missions will require a retrofit, I figured out what was causing the problem. I needed to spawn the bomber group I am escorting at the first (starting) waypoint, because that's where the "general" goal kicks in. That eliminates the problem of the message and goals not showing up, or terminating the mission.

Devildog,

You'll see what I mean when I send them to you.

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Rami: you don't have to spawn them at the first (start) waypoint if you don't want to spend a lot of time and bandwidth to match speeds and courses. Do what I did: Have them spawn at WP 2 or later at WP "X" but create another trigger for the event such as player flight reaches waypoint X +1 as true for the initiation of the event. Make WP X+1 a mile or two after WP X to give the boogers a chance to spawn.

[Rami]

I found a solution that works for me...thanks, though.