DCG 3.49 Open Beta Test

[Lowengrin]

sniperton's assessment is spot on. 

[sniperton]

Paul, I uploaded a public beta with some extracted files included so that it can also be used for a stock game. If you give it a try, all you have to do is to locate the three files air.ini, weapons.properties and plane.properties in the attached folder <basefiles_412> or <basefiles_4131>, respectively. http://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads3&file=details&id=2307

[Riksen]

What is the exact command to the timetabke to control the squad transfers? Date Transfers On/Off?

[sniperton]

 

  19420904 MoveSquad USN_VF_5A0 Espiritu_Santo_Airfield 

 

= <date> MoveSquad <squadid> <airfield>

[Lowengrin]

Paul, I uploaded a public beta with some extracted files included so that it can also be used for a stock game. If you give it a try, all you have to do is to locate the three files air.ini, weapons.properties and plane.properties in the attached folder <basefiles_412> or <basefiles_4131>, respectively. http://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads3&file=details&id=2307

Hi sniperton,

 

I took your beta for a little spin.  Very nice!  

 

One thing I'd recommend: after making an edit on the Aircraft Editor and Verifying it, the highlighted band on the plane list disappears.  It's be nice to have it stay on that aircraft so when you're working down the list, you can quickly see where you last were. 

[sniperton]

Added to "to-do" list 

 

May I ask you, by the way, how nations are dealt with? Are sides hard-coded according to nation, or are side and nation part of a bi-dimensional matrix? I mean, what happens if I declare France as Axis or Italy as Allied? Second, are 'unknown' nations (like Iraq) simply ignored, or are they assigned missions according to their side (if specified)?

[Lowengrin]

The nations are hard-coded according to the sides the "vanilla" game gives them.  Unknown nations are ignored.

[idefix44]

Since 3.49b3 we've a new timetable.dcg trigger: Transfers

 

  19420101 Transfers On
  19420102 Transfers Off

 

What's the DCG default setting? On or Off?

 

I'm idiot.

I can check or not the No Transfers option using the GUI.

Edited May 30, 2016 by idefix44

[sniperton]

Paul, I'm fiddling with loadout auto-assigment profiles for each plane type, and I'm a bit confused how 'fighter' and 'ground attack' relate to each other mission-wise. Looking into the class file I find that ground attack planes are overwhelmingly fighter-bombers, or bombers with some fighter capability, or fighters with large calibre guns (making them effective also against armoured ground targets), that is, they are mostly 'heavy fighters' in one way or another.

 

Now I wonder if DCG also generates air combat missions for them (i.e. their 'nature' as a fighter is retained), or are they confined to ground combat missions? 

 

In other words, will DCG ever commit a ground attack plane i.e. in the heavy interceptor role, or is air intercept the privilage of fighters only?

 

A_20C A_20G B_25J1 B5N2 B6N2 BEAU21 BF_109E4B BF_109E7 BF_110C4B BF_110G2 Do217_K2 FW_190A4FR FW_190A5165ATA FW_190A8MSTL FW_190F8 HS_123A1 HS_123B1 HS_129B2 HS_129B3Wa I_153_M62 I_153P IL_2_1940Early IL_2_1940Late IL_2_1941Early IL_2_1941Late IL_2I IL_2MEarly IL_2MLate IL_2T IL_2Type3 IL_2Type3M IL_10 JU_87G1 JU_88A4torp JU_88A17 JU_88MSTL LAGG_3IT ME_210CA1 ME_262A2A MOSQUITO6 MOSQUITO18 MXY_7 P_40SUKAISVOLOCH2B P_40E P_47D27 Swordfish1 TBD1 TBF1 TBF1C TBM3 TBM3AVENGER3 TEMPEST5 YAK_9B YAK_9K YAK_9T

 

Edit: update to DIT: http://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,51325.0.html

 

Quick auto assigment according to plane type (X = default; Y = none):

 

fighter:      A(X), B(X), X, T(B,Y), A(X), D(Y)  (everything except level bombing)
bomber:    X, B(X), B(X), T(B,Y), Y, Y            (everything except aerial attack)
transport:  X, X, B(X), Y, Y, Y                        (only paradrop)
attack:      X, B(X), X, T(B,Y), Y, Y                 (only ground and see attack)
recon:       X, X, X, Y, Y, Y                             (nothing)
float:         X, X, X, T(B,Y), Y, Y                     (only sea attack)
dive:         X, B(X), X, B(Y), Y, Y                    (only ground and see attack)

 

Do you see here anything which is contrary to how DCG is designed to work?

[Lowengrin]

When it comes down to the difference between ground-attack and fighter, my choice between the two is dependent on two things, the planes historical role and how the AI flies it in the game.  For those that get designated ground-attack in DCG, they will never get fighter missions.  Conversely, there are a few fighters (like the P-47) which I have a bit of hard-coding that bumps up their chances of doing ground-attack.

 

It looks like you have your assignments correct for the types.  One thing to note is that the floatplane version of the Zero is hard-coded to fly fighter missions.

 

If you don't mind, could we start a dedicated thread for DIT questions?

[Lowengrin]

I should also mention that some of the planes in your quote that have fighter capabilities - they may always be assigned ground-attack or ship strike missions, but if they are intercepted, they will drop their payloads and dogfight thanks to how the game's AI behaves.

[sniperton]

If you don't mind, could we start a dedicated thread for DIT questions?

 

Sorry, Paul, you're right, I'll start one, and many thanks for the info.

[Lowengrin]

Thanks!  I think DIT deserves a dedicated thread. 

[sniperton]

Hi Lo, would you consider adding one more digit to the transit altitude value in class.dcg? Now it's limited to 4 digits (being 9999 meters the highest possible value); the QMB allows 10 000, and the FMB, more importantly, 12 000. A small grammatical incorrectness (sparing the 's' from 'Meters') would do the trick without affecting column lengths. I mean '#####_Meter' or even '#####_m' instead of '####_Meters'. 

[Lowengrin]

I see.... 

[Lowengrin]

New beta has been posted.

 

This one will crash older class files because I've added an extra character to the altitude column.  If you're using a modded class file, you'll have to add an extra character.  The easiest way is to load your class.dcg file into NOTEPAD and do a REPLACE ALL of "Meters " to "Meters  " (the original having one space after "Meters" and the replacement having two spaces).

 

The extra space now allows missions above 9999 meters.

 

The other fix for this one is the locations bug which was causing allied ships to spawn in the wrong place.

 

Happy testing!

[sniperton]

Thanks Lo, DIT updated accordingly: http://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,51325.0.html

[JG7_X_Man]

Outstanding gentlemen! We love the passion and dedication!

[Lowengrin]

Beta #5 has been posted.

 

In this beta, I've added a new exception file for planes with static names that don't follow the basic pattern of Plane$ClassName.  I've put one example in it as per this topic:

 

http://forum.jg1.org/topic/4177-some-static-aircraft-not-showing-up/?do=findComment&comment=24055

 

I've also made some tweaks which may fix the issue of campaigns ending prematurely.  But it may not.

 

Finally, I've started working on tracking AI in online dogfight mode.  This isn't complete but the game should track a few things now for the AI.

[JG7_X_Man]

Outstanding!

[Lowengrin]

Beta #6 has been uploaded.  The only change is that it removes the little popup window I had in it for debugging.  No time for other fixes.

[Lowengrin]

Beta #7 has been uploaded.  Tweaked stationary planes code and added a log message if DCG can't find a squad id (but it still defaults it to German).

[JG7_X_Man]

I'll give it whirl in about 6 hours. Thanks Paul.

[Lowengrin]

Beta #8 has been uploaded.  More tweaks to the stationary planes code including (hopefully tracking static planes destroyed on the ground).  Also fixed static aircraft marking display.

[Riksen]

Amazing job Lo!

 

Ur hard work and continous support is inspiring. As long as there are people like u, il2 1946 will never die!