is this allowed?

[mensa180]

I was wondering if HTC would be OK with me (attempting) making a very basic mission editor.  You would not be able to set paths of planes, choose maps, anything like that.  Only options would be from a drop down menu and they would be : wing men, wing men plane type, pilots plane type.  If that even works then I could try to add formations and formation specs (x, y, z).  The premise is that my program would just take user selections to edit a mission text file which is then saved to their mission directory.

The idea would be for people that can't work the great mission editor provided could still make their own plane match ups with the default map etc without having to ask for help.

It won't be pretty, but it sounded like good practice .

[USRanger]

   So it would be used to edit existing missions, correct?  I think I'm picturing what you mean and think it would be great for the folks who just want to edit existing stuff.  While I of course can't speak for HTC, I don't see how it would infringe on their core game and would help a lot of folks out.  There are quite a few programs that were made by the community for use with the Terrain Editor (older versions) like Machnix's Tile Setter and the AK's BmpToMap program.  You should PM HT, Pyro and/or Sudz with this.  I think it's a great idea.

[mensa180]

I don't have a copy of the game on my laptop so I can't remember the specifics of this grand plan.  It would essientially just have some drop down menus for the user to choose their plane, their wing mans plane (if they choose to have them), and their enemies plane.  Throw in the standard top menu of 'file' ,'save', 'save as' etc.  I thought a way of doing this would be to take the info from an existing mission (the default) and just have my program edit a couple variables and then save it as a new mission in your mission directory.  I would probably have it save the new mission as the planes you chose to match up. 

ex)  P38J vs Ki84.mis

Seemed like all some people wanted to do was change the plane match ups and not mess around in the complexities of the real editor.  I thought this could be an OK alternative .

Keep in mind I'm an amateur coader so this won't be around for some time.

[USRanger]

Still an idea worth giving a shot.  Go for it bro.

[mensa180]

I will.  I have my logic down for how I think it will flow, I just need to put it into a syntax the computer understands

[-sudz-]

It's OK with us - just as long as you realize (and you probably do) that we won't support its code base.  In other words, we won't fix any bugs that pop up.  Other than that, go for it.

- Sudz

[mensa180]

Thanks Sudz!  I wouldn't expect you all to fix my errors .

[mensa180]

OK an update for you USRanger.  I have the basics in place, it's just a matter of compiling a list of AHs planes and their respective numbers.

If you make a mission and open the .mis file in notepad the pilot's plane is recorded as a number. 

View stalwart's thread for more info.  http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,275668.0.html
(a big thanks to stalwart actually for posting this, seeing that was what gave me the idea for this in the first place)

An now you see the large task ahead of me.  Clicking through every plane on the ME, then opening the .mis file and seeing it's number.

It's the only way I know of, sudz unfortunately couldn't give me the info even though they have a list of them because the list contains more than I can know .

edit:  In theory I could also change the load out of the plane, but  that would be talking a helluva lotta code for me.

After looking at the .mis file I believe my program should be able to modify many variables such as formation type, wing man plane, pilot plane, 'enemy' plane, 'enemy' wing men / formation type, if bombers (if I include them) are dogfightable, rolly delay, etc. 

I am going to keep it simple at first and just change the kinds of planes used.

Something I need VERY badly because for whatever my installation of AH lacked it:  the default mission.  I believe it was called oneonone.mis or something of the like.  It was just two P-51Ds dukin' it out over ndisles.


Of course once the mechanics are in place the GUI is going to need a good overhaul, it's just plain smurfy at the moment.

Some good and careful searching gave me a list of planes (I'll add the ones that have been updated/added) and the default mission file.  I'm coming very close.

[USRanger]

That's great!  I know there are some people that are going to eat this up.  One thing to remember/check out:  Missions that originally contain bombers will usually have a Drop Ord segment, when/where they release their bombs.  Only bombers can drop ord in offline missions.  I've never place a Drop Ord segment on a fighter's Route(never a reason to), so I don't know what will happen during that segment if you switch out bombers for fighters on that particular(bomber) Route.  It's a might be a potential game-crash issue.You might want to test this on a mission.  Switch a fighter's cruise/attack/etc. segment to Drop Ord and then fly it to see what happens.

[mensa180]

Another update:

I have got my program to allow you to choose from (3 for now, was just testing) planes for yourself to fly and for your 'enemy' to fly.  It then saves a .mis file in the folder/directory that you run the program.  I have tested to make sure it saves everything in the right format by opening up the newly made .mis in the mission editor.

A:  it works, the mission editor doesn't crash
B:  the planes are what I told them to be in my program

My problem now is that I can't seem to find the right directory to put the .mis in for me to see it in game.  I'm not sure if it's because of my version of windows (windows 7).  I'm not sure what's up, because also after I installed the game there was no default mission.  I had to download it from an old link I found.

For now it is still a .py file so Python is required, when I have all the kinks worked out I will make it a .exe for everyone.  I might do that sooner rather than later so I can give it to someone(s) to test.

After I get my end's game not seeing the .mis file thing worked out then it is just a matter of adding all of the planes instead of only the P-38J, P-51D, and 109F-4.

edit:  and improving it's god awful looks of course!

edit2:  I think the missions not showing up may have something to do with the fact that I took the data from the march19th (first) offline mission release, so it is not up to date and cannot work with this version.

[Stalwart]

View stalwart's thread for more info.  http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,275668.0.html
(a big thanks to stalwart actually for posting this, seeing that was what gave me the idea for this in the first place)

Couple of notes:

• That record is only one of several types of records in the file.
• There's no confirmation on the record format.
• No idea what the formula is for the first element in the record

I would like to participate in the project, if I can be helpful.  I've toyed with the idea of developing a full file specification for the .mis file, but would HTC be willing to share or confirm the file specification as we work?

[Stalwart]

My problem now is that I can't seem to find the right directory to put the .mis in for me to see it in game.  I'm not sure if it's because of my version of windows (windows 7).  I'm not sure what's up, because also after I installed the game there was no default mission.  I had to download it from an old link I found.

The game will not run the offline mission directly from the .mis file.  You'll still need to open your modified .mis file using the mission editor and "Build Resource Library" from the file menu.

[mensa180]

I feared I'd have to build a res.  The only solution I can think of would be to ship a .res file with my program and hope that it doesn't need to be rebuilt if the plane types are changed.  If it does then I think my program is sunk until I can figure out how to make them myself... which is as good as never.

I know that is only one of several types, however it is the only one my program changes for now.

I would send it to you but I'm having trouble converting it to an exe file for now.  It appears that while Python upgraded to 3.1.1 py2exe is stuck at 2.6.

[Stalwart]

Building the .res file is really very easy.  All you have to do is:

- start the editor.
- open the .mis file for the mission to build
- click the menu FILE/Build Res Library
- exit.

Of course, you would have to have already downloaded and installed the mission editor, which is probably harder than building the .res file. 

I still like your idea. 

[mensa180]

Oh I know building the .res is easy from their editor... I just don't know how I'll do it from mine .