Dragon Warrior UAV Q's

[Blitzen 10]

I've been having a mighty fine time playing around with this Dragon Warrior UAV Addon. For anyone who hasnt used this, its a basic 3rd party drone that works fairly well. By default, the drone starts on the ground and the player has to walk up to it and "start" the drone. Would any advanced scripter be willing to take a look at this addon and see what would be needed to have the drone start in the air, and then have the player take control of it at somepoint later in the mission?

Thanks

[darkdexter 10]

well i am not a scripter nor can help you but maybe you can help me. Can you post the link where you get it?

[f00bar 10]

I would be interested in finding this addon too. I couldn't find it on either

http://ofp.gamepark.cz or

http://operationflashpoint.filefront.com

:(

[zulu1 145]

@f00bar

@darkdexter

Link

this has no demo mission or readme, but to activate it do this:

ATTENTION !

Drone work only if you create a description.ext file in mission directory and put this line in description.ext file !

#include <DragonWarrior\resource.cpp>

Edited February 24, 2011 by Zulu1

[ww2weasel 10]

To put drone into air - look at the below:

Tweak as you like - but fiddle with 780 - this will be height - it was needed in my mission - but maybe not yours.

excerpt from an old script of mine:

#cor1

~10

? alive cor : exit

"ECA_USMP" createUnit [getMarkerPos _spawn, groupAlpha, "W1 = this", 0.6, "corporal"]

cor = "iegf4ubs" createVehicle getmarkerpos "here"

w1 moveInDriver cor

w1 assignAsDriver cor

cor setPos [getpos cor select 0, getpos cor select 1, (getpos cor select 2) + 780]

w1 setCombatMode "RED"

w1 setBehaviour "COMBAT"

exit

use the onsinglemapclick command to move around.

[f00bar 10]

Excellent addon & a lot of fun to use! Thanks for the link & the usage tips.

I will have to give the PMC "Baltic Command" Campaign a try to see how they used it.

[zulu1 145]

If you're interested some other MODs that have UAVs are:

BWmod

FDF

OFrP

SFP

[f00bar 10]

I'm taking a look at the other UAVs in those addons now. Was an armed or laser designator equipped drone ever released for OFP?

BTW, I found a download link for the original "dragonwarrior_beta04.zip" package at:

http://www.gamefront.com/files/17383631/dragonwarrior_beta04.zip/

It comes with a minimal readme file that provides much the same info discussed in this thread along with a demo mission.

Edited February 27, 2011 by f00bar

[Blitzen 10]

I'm taking a look at the other UAVs in those addons now. Was an armed or laser designator equipped drone ever released for OFP?

I dunno but that would be really friggin sweet. Im working on a mission right now where you are the leader of an SF team who is moving in to extract survivors from a blackhawk crash. The blackhawk was shot down by an AA unit and before you can be extracted, you have to find the AA gun with the drone, call in artillery on it (CoC unified artillery), and defend yourself in the meantime. I really, really, wish there was a good way to take control of the drone in the middle of a mission.

What do you guys think of the mission idea? I have several really good ideas for missions.

[f00bar 10]

Sounds like a great mission idea :)

The "real" Dragon Warrior / Cypher II UAV:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/systems/dragon-warrior.htm

...seems to have been (is?) more of an autonomous surveillance craft that flies on auto-pilot along a preset GPS path. The real-world version has a payload capacity of around 25 - 35 lb which probably couldn't manage to carry a laser designator let alone hellfires. The addon maker seems to have modeled this one accurately so that is why no offensive capacity.

One way of executing what you propose in a mission would be:

• Set the waypoints for the UAV on the mission briefing map before the mission
  
• Have UAV follow the preset waypoints & patrol the desired area(s)
  
• Have the UAV "phone home" or alert the player when it contacts the enemy during the mission
  
• Enable the player to take control of the UAV camera to visually confirm the target & get map (GPS) coordinates
  
• Call in an artillery strike using the target coordinates
  
• Use the UAV camera to watch the action & do bomb damage assessment
  
• Repeat as necessary
  

Maybe Drongo's Air Support module:

http://ofp.gamepark.cz/index.php?showthis=10796

could also be used?

@WW2Weasel - how did you execute that code in your missions?

[anguis 4]

Sounds good to me!

[f00bar 10]

@Blitzen

I found an old post by Nephilim:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showpost.php?p=640124&postcount=6

Which shows some pix of his completed & excellent looking RQ1 Predator UAV model from back in 2005.

He stated that the model was done but that the scripting was still being worked on.

[f00bar 10]

I managed to get the UAV control working remotely via the radio without needing to walk up next to it.

However, getting it to fly or patrol autonomously is proving to be more of a challenge. setPos does not work for this addon - the drone will fly erratically & simply drop from the sky when created even if it's engine is turned on & it is set to "Flying" (or flyInHeight is used).

Control system: uses several sliderSetPosition/Range/Speed to assign setVelocity values that allow the player to manually control the UAV by clicking on the slider buttons in the control dialog.

I haven't figured out how the initial takeoff is achieved after the drone is turned on (using the sliders before switching on seems to have no effect).

Vehicle config: the Side is set to "4" ("Empty" in mission editor) and hasDriver/Gunner/Commander are set to false so options are limited when placing it in the mission editor.

Setting the UAV to Side=1 (West) & hasDriver=true enabled the drone to be placed in the mission editor & it starts the mission flying in a straight line. It can then cycle through a circuit of waypoints (although it looses altitude & crashes after a while) :confused:.

I tested using a aircraft takeoff script from Ofpec (takeoff.sqs) which works well with standard aircraft but did not help with launching the DragonWarrior & resulted in yet another crash.

I think the addon's Config.cpp uses vehicle class "Plane : Air, Cessna" which may be affecting the flight model & controls.

BTW, the author appears to have given permission to reuse/modify this addon in some of the script comments within the PBO (translated from French). A lot of impressive coding went into this addon & it could possibly serve as a great starting point for further UAV addons...

Edited March 9, 2011 by f00bar

[Blitzen 10]

the drone will fly erratically & simply drop from the sky when created even if it's engine is turned on & it is set to "Flying" (or flyInHeight is used).

I believe that this is caused, as you have found, due to the drone being set to "empty." If you take an empty plane or a helicopter and place it in the editor with its status set to "flying", it too will crash to the ground.

I haven't figured out how the initial takeoff is achieved after the drone is turned on (using the sliders before switching on seems to have no effect).

I think that the initial takeoff is "pre-set." The drone seems to move a certain distance in the direction it is facing, and then the settings from the sliders kicks in.

BTW, the author appears to have given permission to reuse/modify this addon in some of the script comments within the PBO (translated from French). A lot of impressive coding went into this addon & it could possibly serve as a great starting point for further UAV addons...

Too bad the FDF people havent given permission :cryy:

I've been doing some fooling around with the drone, and it seems that you cant control it while you are in an aircraft/plane...? That stinks because it would be neat to use the drone to find AA units then take them out with a helicopter, etc.

It would also be really cool to add a laser targeter to the drone...:bounce3:

Edited March 11, 2011 by Blitzen

[f00bar 10]

I managed to get a helicopter recon test mission working where the player starts out flying in an OH-58 Kiowa and is able to use radio channel Alpha to "deploy" a UAV while flying. The drone magically appears on the ground beneath the chopper & then the player can use radio channel Bravo to start the drone & control it.

Another version of this mission starts out with a DragonWarrior unit as a member of the player's group with both flying around.

The only caveat with this is that the drone must be issued a "move, stop" order so it hovers in place (it will hover indefinitely) or else it will eventually fly too close to the ground & crash. The player can control it & direct it to several locations but must continually issue stop orders to prevent the UAV from flying in a continuous straight line. It reminds me of the old videogame "Asteroids" as once thrust is applied the craft will continue moving along that vector until reverse thrust is used.