Need help with the Karelia mission

[kanttori]

One Finnish videomaker needs film material with the Karelia terrain and from the one historical airfield and one historical Bf109G6 vs IL2 battle.

I can make the film clips easily with the AH-film, Track IR and Fraps, but I need help with the Mission editor to build that mission with waypoints, aircrafts, timetables etc. I am not familiar with the Mission editor, but the game, film editor and also the Terrain editor are very well-known to me.

So can somebody give me simple instructions or links to good Mission editor hints that I can make a small mission to my terrain?

[11Kenzy]

Even I experience a hard time with the offline mission editor. Try to PM 100Coogn, he's been making a lot of missions.

[USRanger]

If no one else gets on it, I'll make it for you Kan.

[kanttori]

If no one else gets on it, I'll make it for you Kan.

Thank you very much USRanger! I make a very simple flight plan to you and send it tomorrow here! I quess it don't take much time from you.

[kanttori]

Ok, here it is simply and clear:

MAP (Black is front line on June-July 1944)



FLIGHT PLANS

FINNISH
Home base: A43
Landing base: A44
Planes: 2 x Bf 109 G-6 (I fly one and another is an AI-plane)
Fuel: 50%
Armament: Wing guns


RUSSIANS
Home base: A2
Landing base: A2
Planes: 12 x IL-2 Type 3 (All those are AI-planes)
Fuel: 50%
Armament: Bombs and rockets

-Take off at same time for ex. 8 am
-Battle area between V75 and V76
-After short battle both countries return to their landing bases (I try to kill three IL2's...)

Question: Can I use Finnish "FAF/MT-453 by Kanttori" skins on both Finnish Bf 109's?

If you need any other information, jus ask, please!

[USRanger]

Sadly, only default skins work with offline missions.  I would love it if they would change that.  I will make it for you tomorrow night.

[kanttori]

Wait a minute! Couple of years ago when we included our custom skins to the Terrain Editors folder (for ex.) Karelia/texsrc and build the terrain, the game use that skin as default. I had done so when we replaced Fm2 as Brewster in the earliest Karelia terrain. In the missions the skin was that custom one, because the game thought that it is default!

I think that it is still working, so I try to build a new Karelia version and include Finnish Bf 109 G6 and also G2  skins there...

[kanttori]

Ok, it works! I build a new special Karelia-terrain with Finnish Bf 109 G2/G6/G14 skins and tested it.

Finnish Bf 109's are now default skins and it works in "Offline Practice" mode. I also change the fields ownership to the situation of June-July 1944 when Russe has their Great offensive against Finland (Stalin's Fourth...). Bf 109 G6 is available only from A43 and IL2 Type 3 only from A2 when you download all the files to your "HTC/Aces High/ahiiterr" folder from this link:

http://www.kanttorinkone.com/tiedostot/karelia_mission.rar

If you don't have a possibility to extract RAR-files, here is same archive as a ZIP-file:
http://www.kanttorinkone.com/tiedostot/karelia_mission.7z

I quess that default skins are also visible now in the missions. This is a nice test to see is it working or not!

WARNING: MAKE BACKUPS FROM YOUR CURRENT HTC'S "OFFICIAL" KARELIA FILES BEFORE DOWNLOADING THESE SPECIAL FILES TO THE AHIITERR FOLDER!

[kanttori]

More questions:

1) Can you define the flights' highest altitudes? So is it possible that IL2s' fly on the deck between 500-1000 feets and Bf 109's fly about 3000 feets?
2) Can I edit that mission later for ex. adding more Finnish Bf 109's AI-planes starting from the same A43 airfield and adjusting to them a special waypoints?

[kanttori]

Couple of changes to Flight plans and plane setups, I just read more details from that flight:

FLIGHT PLANS

FINNISH
Home qang taking off base: A43
Landing base: A44 (Flight 1) and A43 (Flight 2)
Flight 1 planes: 1 x Bf 109 G-6 (I fly this one and film the mission) 1 x Bf 109 G-14 (AI plane)
Flight 2 planes: 2 x Bf 109 G-2 (AI-planes with different waypoints, I updated the map)
Fuel: 50%
Armament: Wing guns ONLY to Bf 109 G-6 (my plane)
Flight altitude: 3 k


RUSSIANS
Home base: A2
Landing base: A2
Planes: 24 (!) x IL-2 Type 3 (AI-planes)
Fuel: 50%
Armament: Bombs and rockets
Flight altitude: 1 k

-Take off at same time 14.10 PM (historical)
-Battle area between V49, V75 and V76
-After a short battle both countries are returnig to their landing bases (I try to kill three IL2's...)

I need those FOUR Bf 109's take off to that film because of the historical authenticity. Bf 109 FLIGHT 2 is turning away and returning to home base A43 just before the enemy is sighted. Only my Bf 109 G-6 and AI Bf 109 G-14 (FLIGHT 1) are taking part in the battle. Look the updated map, please!

USRanger: That document video maker said that Your real name (or game ID as you wish) is going to be visible in the video!

[USRanger]

All updates noted and understood.

More questions:

1) Can you define the flights' highest altitudes? So is it possible that IL2s' fly on the deck between 500-1000 feets and Bf 109's fly about 3000 feets?
2) Can I edit that mission later for ex. adding more Finnish Bf 109's AI-planes starting from the same A43 airfield and adjusting to them a special waypoints?

Yes to both.

[USRanger]

I have some good news...


...your mission is done.



I also have some really bad news.  The IL-2 is missing from the plane list in the current Mission Editor version.(!)  I will post it in the bugs forum, but it won't get fixed until the next AH game version release at the earliest.  We do have an option.  Some guys here still use previous versions of the M.E. (bbosen comes to mind).  If he will do it, I can send him the mission file(s) and he can rebuild it in the earlier M.E. version, where the IL-2 is still included.  I have the Russians flying I-16s at the moment (had to choose a plane) so that part would also need changed when the mission is rebuilt.  The whole process would take less than a minute if we find someone willing to do it.

I can send you the mission as-is if you want to get a feel for it.  I can change the I-16s to anything you want, minus the IL-2.  I'm sorry.  It was a little frustrating discovering this bug after I finished making the mission.  We'll still get you all set up though.  Promise.


Quick question Kan, do you want any warp segments or do you want to physically fly the entire mission?

[USRanger]

Actually, the problems are bigger than I thought.  The mission wasn't showing up in-game for me, so I opened it back up in the ME.  It was all corrupted.  Instead of the names I entered, I get a bunch of scrambled symbols & the mission looks way different (unflyable).  I went into the Bugs forum and found a recent thread about it.  Sudz says it's fixed for next game version release.  As soon as we get that, I'll send you the mission.  Sorry.

[kanttori]

Thank you for your fine work USRanger! We must wait the new update, I just read the bugs forum and I hope that the new patch is coming on December, because we have a dead line soon.

I am going to customize the Karelia-terrain more and I am going to include there couple of more default russian skins: Boston III, B-25C etc. and also a Finnish Hurri I and Ju-88 skins. But is this mission you have done going to work if I update the karelia.res file?

"Quick question Kan, do you want any warp segments or do you want to physically fly the entire mission?"

What do you mean with "warp"? Is it "looseness" with way points or something like that? I am going to fly and film that mission in Bf 109 G-6 but is it also possible to join to some aircraft (for ex. Russian) and film the mission from there?

And if I am later going to host this map and mission in the Custom arena, is it possible that other players can join to the mission and fly more Finnish Bf 109's? I mean that must you define all the available mission planes with real players, too? Or are the missions working only in the "Offline Practice" mode?

[USRanger]

As long as you don't move the takeoff & landing fields, further terrain modifications won't affect the mission.

Warp segments can be put in so that you can jump from one point in the mission to another farther along, without spending time flying the distance in real time.  It is used to get to the fight faster in longer missions where a player doesn't want to fly 20 minutes to the objective when they can warp to a position a couple minutes from the fight.

Offline missions cannot be used in the custom arenas at this time, but a post by HiTech recently said that it is in the works, date unknown.  Adding more planes to a mission only takes a minute & I'll be happy to do that for you when the time comes.  Any plane that is in an offline mission is flyable, they are only AI if not taken by a live player.

If your deadline is soon, you could alays host the terrain in the custom arenas and use human "actors" to play the parts you need.  I would participate and I'm sure we could find another 16 players to play the other aircraft.  I would actually recommend this.  You will get much better footage.  When AI die, they just roll over and fall out of the sky.  Human opponents would give you better camera shots.  Let me know.  I'll still make the mission for you as soon as it's fixed, but using all human actors will make a much prettier film.