How to start an online staged mission

[bbosen]

I've written a lot of missions that work well offline.

I just arranged my life with a bit of free time and renewed my online subscription (I usually go a few months on, then a few months off).

Today I tried to fly my simplest staged mission ("PeabodySimple", named "Simple04") online. I couldn't figure out how to fly it.

I found the "ahupload.exe" utility at hitechcreations.com. I was able to download, install, and use it without problems. It appeared to upload my "Simple04" mission reasonably, without disturbing error messages.

Then I went online using my new handle "PBDY13" with AH2.29.1 and entered the "Custom" arenas, choosing the "ndisles" terrain used by my "Simple04" missions. No problem.

I stepped through the "Create Arena" logic without incident and ended up all by my lonesome self, as expected, in an ndisles arena. I was able to fly around as expected. No problem yet.

From the control tower, I chose "Staged Missions" -> "Select Missions", and saw a list of several missions available for the ndisles terrain. My own mission "Simple04" was listed as I had expected. The "Allied Side" and "Axis Side" dialog fields appeared to be configured with sensible references to appropriate sides of my mission. I chose to activate "Load Mission Arena Settings". Then I clicked "Load".

A popup message displayed temporarily, giving me comfort that the server was being prepared to load and run my mission. After a few seconds I clicked "Populate Mission". A rather complex dialog box appeared, implying a responsibility on my part to click on player names and assign them to roles within the mission. However, no player names were listed anywhere, and I couldn't see any way to do anything useful with this "Populate Mission" dialog box. (I was surprised to find that not even MY player name was listed.) Lacking any other guidance, I activated a checkbox labeled "Player can choose flight". Then I clicked "Close" because I couldn't guess any better path forward. At this point I began to wonder if I had gone wrong someplace....

Lacking any other guidance, I was left to guess at what to do next. Among the prominent buttons offering options, I decided to click on "Start Mission". A little dialog box popped up informing me that "The mission will start in 0 minutes and 0 seconds", with some implicit options to change that if desired. I clicked on "Start Now".

I began to see dialog messages scrolling through the radio text. The messages went like this:

Host: Populating the mission (will brief in 10 seconds)
Host: PBDY13 is not ready for the mission.
Host: Waiting 10 seconds more until debrief
Host: Populating by balancing countries
Host: PBDY13 is not ready for the mission
Host: Populating by balancing countries
Host: Waiting 10 seconds more until debrief
Host: PBDY13 is not ready for the mission.
Host: Populating by balancing countries
Host: Waiting 10 seconds more until debrief
Host: PBDY13 is not ready for the mission
Host: Populating by balancing countries
Host: Waiting 10 seconds more until debrief
Host: PBDY13 is not ready for the mission.
Host: Populating by balancing countries
Host: Waiting 10 seconds more until debrief
Host: PBDY13 is not ready for the mission
Host: Populating by balancing countries
Host: Waiting 10 seconds more until debrief
Host: PBDY13 is not ready for the mission.
Host: Populating by balancing countries
Host: Waiting 10 seconds more until debrief
Host: PBDY13 is not ready for the mission
Host: Populating by balancing countries
Host: Waiting 10 seconds more until debrief
Host: PBDY13 is not ready for the mission

This cycle seems to be endless.

It isn't obvious how I change my status from "not ready for the mission". I've tried every idea I can think of without success.

I would appreciate some information on what I may be doing to get off-track, or a description of the usual and successful path through this online staged mission logic.

Once I get all of this stuff figured out, I plan to upload the my entire suite of custom terrains and offline missions.
 

[MrKrabs]

You have to make sure EVERY person without exception in the arena is assigned a specific flight... That will cure it all...

BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are instances where the Server's copy of the resolution is not auto-downloaded to your HTC folder, in which case you merely KILL the mission and try again; this will force the download into everyone's HTC folder.

[bbosen]

You have to make sure EVERY person without exception in the arena is assigned a specific flight... That will cure it all...

BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are instances where the Server's copy of the resolution is not auto-downloaded to your HTC folder, in which case you merely KILL the mission and try again; this will force the download into everyone's HTC folder.

Thanks MrKrabs. I can't figure out how to make sure every person without exception in the arena is assigned a specific flight.

I have been testing this while I am the only one in the arena.

When I try to assign flights, I see a dialog box like this:



As you can see in that image, no pilot names are listed. I expected to see my own name "PBDY13" listed, but it isn't there. Should it be? Without any reference to the player(s) in the arena, how do I select one? (I have tried to kill and restart the mission.....  no change.)
 

[MrKrabs]

It looks like you downloaded the mission, NOT load the mission...


***MESSAGE THAT SHOULD APPEAR IF USING CUSTOM ARENA***
If you did load the mission you wish to run, it would say "Loaded missions ### <Name>, ### <Name>"

You have to go to Select Mission >> Load Mission >> Populate Mission >> Double Click Your Ride >> Start Mission

***WHAT YOU SHOULD SEE IF YOU ARE OFFLINE***

Just double-click on the flight / model / whatever you have setup to assign yourself.

[bbosen]

Thanks, MrKrabs. Your explanation was very helpful. Now I know the proper sequence and what to expect when everything is working. I do have success and see the pattern you describe on SOME missions, but others fall into the failing pattern that I have described above. I'm digging in a little deeper to try to isolate the differences between missions that work as you describe, and the others.
 

[hitech]

bbosen, what country were you in?

HiTech

[bbosen]

bbosen, what country were you in?

HiTech

I really can't remember (been a few days). However, I just tried it again, using the same setup described above, with exactly the same result. This time I was enlisted with the Knights. The mission I was attempting is still visible on the server, named "simple04".
Thanks for your attention!