VAR, DOD, and Map for gunnery terrain offline.

[bustr]

My gunnery training terrain is available from the HOST now. The bish side is where all of the features were placed for offline gunnery training. So using it in 16 player online mode you will need to setup the arena like turning off protect objects, or you can download the attached zip file to copy the var, dod and tank town map for the gunnery terrain in offline mode. The terrain was designed for offline mode so you can practice all the gunnery and bombing in the game without getting shot at. Bombers and fighters have air spawns to speed up turn around time.


NOTE: All of the tanks that I set down on this terrain are defined as "structures" so you cannot destroy them with AP ammo. HE, bombs and rockets will. When you hit them with your AP ammo the hit animation is very distinct as your feed back at any range. Hitech created it this way and when I spoke to him during the alpha\beta period he was not going to change it.

Features List

1. - 2 tank gunnery firing ranges with spawn to the firing line, 4 mile and 4000yd. There is also a 17lb and 88mm manned gun on each firing line. There are spawns to high points above each range to practice long range sniping.
2. - A 4000ft mesa over the airfield with a GV spawn that the drones fly within 800yds of the spawn point. A 37mm and 88m have been set there to practice with.
3. - A tank town object with three villages and farm land attached to it with GV spawns. About (200+) tanks are set everywhere so you can practice seeing them. A tank town map is added to your drop down maps.
4. - The town and 1 mile of farmland attached to the airfield has tanks in and around it with spawns to practice seeing the tanks.
5. - Three task groups a running to practice ship to ship, ship to planes, and shore batteries to practice shore to ship. One task group is running in a constantly turning path to practice bombing against.
6. - There are 5 bomber air spawns. 15,000ft at 15 miles out to setup for level bombing a target made up of hangers at the end of the 4 mile tank range. 5,000ft for low level practice with the B25H and A20. Three 1,250ft near the paths of two of the task groups to practice torpedo bombing.
7. - There are 2 fighter air spawns. 7,000ft to place your fighter 3k above the drones and 12,000ft near the CV groups to practice bombing the CV and Cruiser. I have gotten really tired of the time spent taking off and climbing to practice bombing.
8. - There are 6 PT spawns into the paths of the task groups.
9. - There are several additional 37mm and 88mm to practice shooting at the drones over the airfield.


Contents of gunneryVAR.zip

This is a straight zip file, it will extract and create a folder called "gunneryVAR" with all of the folders and files under it. You will have to copy everything by hand to the proper game folders. Having created a 16 player arena by choosing gunnery you will already have the gunnery.res in the ah3terr folder.

Copy to ah3terr - 1 file (gunnery.dod) copy to---> c:\Hitech Creations\Aces High III\ah3terr
Copy to chconfig - 1 folder with it's contents (gunnery) copy to---> c:\Hitech Creations\Aces High III\chconfig
Copy to maps - 2 files (TTown.bmp, gunnery.lst) copy to--->c:\Hitech Creations\Aces High III\maps

Download ===>  https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwrokXEXneUQSVFSSnBaM0pvTVk


Offline after you update those files this is what your clipboard map will look like.




To set all of the things besides drones you will want to destroy to a 5 minute down time. On the clip board click Options, Arena Setup, choose Objects then Object Settings and click on load. Gunnery.dod is an object settings control file for this terrain. You will have to repeat this every time you use this terrain unless some else knows a way to make these setting permanent. When you click on load it looks like nothing happens. Exit Object Settings and go back in, then you will see the change.




Here is a overview showing the relationship of the spawns to the terrain.

[BowHTR]

Thanks for all the work on this bustr. It's made me want to get into building maps now. Gonna try and see if i cant make one for my squad first and go from there.

 

[TerryRF]

Hello bustr.   I have recently "discovered" staged missions for offline practice and have used several. I would like to try your gunnery terrain offline but did not see it in the staged missions in the online arenas. Am I looking in the wrong place? I have not yet downloaded the zip file yet. Should that be done first?

Any guidance would be helpful. Also not knowing what a VAR or DOD file is, I did a search for them and the only result brings me to your post here.

You have obviously done a great deal of work on this and I am looking forward to trying it out.  Thanks!

[bustr]

It's under the "Player" tab. Just click on "Create Arena" and the popout window will have a terrain scroll menu. Choose "gunnery", change nothing else and click "Create". Once online in it, you can go into the CM setup on in the clip board and find shut down or reset arena which will close out that custom arena from the server under the "Player" tab.

This thing is so offline you can spawn a wirble up on a meza to be 500ft under the drones with the lead computing gunsight enabled, or practice every kind of gunnery in the game. Just try guns, GVs, PT, fighters and bombers. There is something to shoot, rocket, bomb or torpedo. And you don't waste time taking off and climbing out unless you want to practice from a CV.

[TerryRF]

Many thanks bustr!   I will try it out later this afternoon.  This game is so great and individuals, like you, make it so! <Salute>

[bustr]

Just in case people are not making this work.

This is an offline only terrain for gunnery practice......

1. - Did you login to the online arenas and go to the Player tab?
2. - Then hit the create button to get "gunnery" from the drop down list.
3. - Then hit create again which downloads that terrain to your ah3terr directory?
4. - Then when the custom arena logs you into it, go to the CM tools to shut it down so it is removed from the arena?

Once you have done this you will find it in the terrain selection menu for offline, and that is when you need the files from the download to make the arena do what I described.

[jimson]

What does the DOD file do?

[bustr]

Changes the down time on the common objects they will destroy to 5 minutes instead of forcing them to remember to go into objects to reset them. With this file they just do a load once per session offline. First column is down time, second is the multiplier of a 1000lb bomb needed to destroy the object. It's nice to have things regenerate in 5 minutes if you are spending some quality time destroying them.


         5,    0.0313,VOID
         5,  125.0000,Tower
         1,  125.0000,Runway
         5,    0.3125,Hanger
        30,    0.3125,Rearm
         5,    0.0063,Auto Gun
         5,    0.3125,Bunk Radar
         5,    0.3125,Bombable
        30,    0.3125,Ftr Entry
         5,    0.0015,Map Room
         5,    0.3125,Officer Club
         5,    0.3125,Bunk Ammo
         5,    0.3125,Bunk Fuel
         5,    0.3125,Bunk Barr
       180,    0.8438,City
         5,   15.6250,HQ
       180,    0.3125,Fact Ammo
       180,    0.3125,Fact Fuel
       180,    0.3125,Fact Radar
       180,    0.3125,Fact AAA
       180,    0.3125,Fact Barr
        30,    0.3125,Bomb Ent
        30,    0.3125,Veh Ent
         5,    2.7813,Ftr Hgr
         5,    2.7813,Bomb Hgr
         5,    2.7813,Veh  Hgr
         5,    1.5625,Ship
        15,    2.7813,Boat Entry
         5,    0.0188,Gun Bat
       600,    0.1563,Train
       600,    0.0781,Convoy
         5,    0.1563,Barge
         5,    0.3125,Station
         5,    0.3125,Town
         5,    0.3125,Barrier
         5,    0.3125,Structure
         5,    0.3125,Group Master
         5,    0.0063,Gun Bat Soft
         5,    0.3906,Gun Bat Armor
         5,    0.0188,Hard Auto Gun
         5,    0.3906,Arm Auto Gun
         5,    3.9063,Hard Gun Bat
        30,  125.0000,Brief room
        30,  125.0000,Debrief room
      1800,  125.0000,Flag
      1800,  125.0000,Pennant
      1800,  125.0000,Sheep
      1800,  125.0000,S Pen

[4462]

Bustr   I created the Gunnery arena online and then shut it down.  I did not get a pop up or drop down for an arena by that name, so I created it.

I copied the files to the recommended directories.

When offline, I can't seem to find a way to load the terrain.
The change arena option is grayed out.

Advice on how to access this offline?

Thanks
Specter

[bustr]

At the first screen, choose terrain to find gunnery, which is under the next button offline play.

Or look in the ah3terr directory to make sure you have gunnery.var. then choose gunnery from the choose terrain option at the first AH3 splash screen.

[4462]

At the first screen, choose terrain to find gunnery, which is under the next button offline play.

Or look in the ah3terr directory to make sure you have gunnery.var. then choose gunnery from the choose terrain option at the first AH3 splash screen.

Thank you.

[4462]

I reviewed everything I've downloaded and copied.   I'm missing one thing.   After creating the gunnery arena online, then shutting it down, I find that I'm missing gunnery.res    So apparently, the host is not sending it to me.  When I pull up terrain selection, I see the other terrains, but no gunnery.res.

Thanks

Specter

[4462]

Buster

I'm sorry to say, but this Dweeb is still having problems.

I've downloaded the files and put them where you directed.

Online I created an arena.

Once in the arena, I went to the option to change the terrain on the drop down to gunnery.

I get the message that this command is not allowed for custom arenas.

I guess I'm going to have to get the gunnery terrain from someone who has it.

Thanks

Specter