[CAMP] Carrier Operations - Duala

[Rough Knight 9]

(Duala lite is it ok?)

No mate sorry you need the full Duala version with all the units.

Got an error concerning the pilot

I am using only the pilot from the mar_2MAW v1.8 release which is currently the latest version. Have you got the right version? It sounds like your F18 version is 1.7 or something as the config names changed for the F18 in one of those later releases. Get the one from the link.

UNfortunately I have to go away for a few days. Please continue to post any issues and I will address them if I can ASAP.

BTW, occasionally I do get things fall through the USS Nimitz, not sure why it is random. Try to ignore it and I'll try and hunt a solution. No idea why..it seeems very random maybe something todo with USS Nimitz spawning in game init.

Edited December 24, 2011 by Rough Knight

[Blackfox34 14]

I'll check again. I have it on Sixupdater but I'll download it manually.

[Muahaha 10]

Landings for F18 on the carrier seems buggy, most of time the auto pilot will land without gear out and explodes after landing. Only way seems working it to auto in but manually cut off engine and drop gear. weird... but the campaign is quite enjoyable.

[Rough Knight 9]

Maybe I should have mentioned that the "Carrier Auto-Landing" action is really only semi-automatic. The player will still need to put their gear and tailhook down else they might run into trouble.

I ran into problems trying to script either player or AI vehicles to retract their under-carriage. I am only on my phone but when I get home I will update the documentation a bit better.

I even tried spawning objects underneath the incoming vehicle in order to try make the AI put down the vehicles landing gear. I realize they do finally put down their gear but only once they have touched down. There must be a workaround, but typically they didn't explode on landing.

Thanks for the feedback muhhaha, I will spend some time and try to fix that up for the next version.

Ta

Rough knight

[Muahaha 10]

Further thoughts on this great campaign. Again this is just my suggestions not demand :)

- potential bug: the avionics menu seems missing after launched.

- Any chances of integrating MMA suite into the campaign?

- 2 F18 against 1 Mig21 most of the time seems a bit unfair for the AI. Since the airplane draw distance has been increase. Can we get longer or tougher air dogfights? :)

- More night time missions

- The carrier deck crew needs more animations or activity to make it more "busy".

My whole Christmas was playing this, it's really enjoyable.

[Rough Knight 9]

My whole Christmas was playing this, it's really enjoyable.

Lol, thanks Muahaha I am glad you are enjoying it. As mentioned, the addon makers deserve all the credit. Duala is awesome [especially by air], so it Nimitz, meatballs f18 etc. It nice to be able to use them all together and appreciate their hard work.

On another note, my whole Christmas has been spent making a new update. :bounce3:

See the top post for a link.

v1.03 | 27-Dec-11

* Mission8: [Airfield Infiltration] patrols improved.

* Mission8: [Airfield Infiltration] Convoy lights are off until it moves into position.

* Mission10: [Takedown Gotdafti] NVGoggles added to MH-60S pilot as insertion is now just before dawn [typical mission playout].

* Removed: Atmospheric planes landing as they can't retract their undercarridge and sometimes explode on landing.

* Fixed: Issue where the Game Engine Seasonal tide calculations where causing issues with vehicles spawning on USS Nimitz [Causing explosions as they fell through the Nimitz deck into the ocean].

* Added Silenced weapons to units operating at night in mission8 and mission10.

* Fixed: Markers not hiding themselves using setmarkeralpha 0 for some missions.

* Added: Some planes to the Nimitz deck for some missions.

* Fixed: Wiki's name made it into the mission description rather than the credits section : P

I will try address some of the things you mentioned, all are pretty valid points. First of all, I changed and added some cloud + adjusted the daytime for the covert ops missions. Overall, I think you will now require to use your night vision. Particully the mission8 [Airfield Infiltration] I am pretty happy with. Silouttes of the enemy now depending on how and where you decide to place yourself to carry out the mission give great ambience.

F18 against 1 Mig21 most of the time seems a bit unfair for the AI. Since the airplane draw distance has been increase. Can we get longer or tougher air dogfights?

In Libya, Nato inforced a strict no-fly zone. Apart from the odd Die hard, I believe not to many fighters even fired a shot due to air-strikes on the Linyan airforce airbases. This is what happened in mission 1 of my campaign. The No-fly zone was something enforced by the NATO alliance. It does seem really unfair that the MIG's of Duala are quite outnumbered.

In saying that...if they get off the ground you better watch out they are very deadly. 1 missile = 1 dead F18 Hornet.

The carrier deck crew needs more animations or activity to make it more "busy".

I grabbed the CSG template from Snafu [Thanks Snafu]. It included the guys on Nimitz's deck. Trouble is AI can not navigate around the deck. Well they can but often they fall off and go swimming. My co-pilot script seems to be able to spawn a pilot on deck, but often he takes a couple of goes to get into your fighter jet.

Maybe I could spend some time making some guys have converstations or something. For some atmosphere I added that landing plane via playMove. Trouble is with different mission times the water tide levels change effecting Nimitz Height ASL. Therefore the planes sometimes explode killing everything on the deck. Lol, it is quite atmospheric, but not very user friendly on the mission.

I hope Meatball decides to implement a scripted version of the landing gear, because then I could also make the AI land properly on the deck. ATM they don't know that they are landing, and something like "(driver f18_1) action ["LandGear", f18_1];" only works for a player controlled aircraft. I have no way of forcing landing gear to go down when approching the carrier.

Any chances of integrating MMA suite into the campaign?

This might be really bad from me, but I don't know much about Mando Missiles. I am aware of the addon, but I thought it was an optional addon by the user. Is there anyway you can activate it via the mod-folder method? I think Meatball stated is was optional for his superhornett at least?

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this. If I get more feedback I can improve it. Maybe even add some more missions if you give me some ideas. I am all out : P

Thanks

Rough_Knight

Edited December 27, 2011 by Rough Knight

[tom3kb 15]

In first post is still version 1.0 to download or im wrong?

[Rough Knight 9]

In first post is still version 1.0 to download or im wrong?

The download link is the same, but the files have changed. I downloaded it myself just to make sure.

Let me know if the Funky Cold Medina is going on :rolleyes:

Thanks

Rough Knight.

[tom3kb 15]

Im not sure now, readme file is the same like in v1.0 and campaign file have the same date like v1.0 (23 dec 2011 23:54) and campaign file have the same size.

Ps: maybe you should send info to armaholic about your campaign :)

[Muahaha 10]

Thanks j_frost, will try out the new build and provide feedbacks.

[Rough Knight 9]

Im not sure now, readme file is the same like in v1.0 and campaign file have the same date like v1.0 (23 dec 2011 23:54) and campaign file have the same size.

Ps: maybe you should send info to armaholic about your campaign :)

Hi tom3kb I am not sure what happened there mate but both the file sizes and date should be different to v1.00. Maybe try download it again, I have changed the file name.

Anyway version 1.04 is up which has the campaign version in every mission briefing under "Notes \ Credits" so I hope it is fixed for you.

Also on the campaign overview in the campaign selection screen in ARMA2 it should tell you the version number. If you don't see the version from the first post, it means you don't have the correct version in your folder. The older campaign files should be over-written.

v1.04 | 27-Dec-11

* Added correct version information to the briefing of every mission.

* Fixed: Error message on some missions because of a missing briefing intel picture present on only selected missions.

Thanks

Rough_Knight

[tom3kb 15]

Thanks j_frost now its all ok for me v1.04 :) after download.

[Muahaha 10]

Just realised that I couldn't rearm and take off again or am I missing something?

[Rough Knight 9]

I havent tried rearming.

JDog implemented the trapdoor where you have to drive the little tractor down then you can get your arms to rearm the planes.

Hope that helps.

Thanks

Rough Knight

[Muahaha 10]

I havent tried rearming.

JDog implemented the trapdoor where you have to drive the little tractor down then you can get your arms to rearm the planes.

Hope that helps.

Thanks

Rough Knight

got the trap door rearming working but quite difficult to pull it off perfectly, cause sometimes the tow car gets trapped inside the ordinance room if you didn't park your tow car correctly inside the elevator while sending up the elevator. But not an issue, just need more practice or use MMA rearming method instead.

Been fooling around on deck and also launching or landing, a few more things i've noticed,

- some menus missing after landing like "getout" or "gears down". (need the landing gears down to move back for relaunching) In fact, the first version of auto landing in my opinion might be better as a workaround allowing player to manually put down the landing gear and hook and cut off the engine before touch down, it won't make the plane explodes as compared to current version that does.

- the scripting errors popping up during launch or reloading of saves ( I thought it was the additional MMA i used but it happens without it as well)

- Animation issues: the wingmen plane's seems jerky after turning on the afterburner on deck during launching sequence. (only happens on v1.04).

I think most of these are only fixable by the addon makers but just to put it up here as well.

[Rough Knight 9]

Hi Muahaha,

Thanks for the feedback. Its good to know the issues that bug people. I will try address some of them for the next release.

Animation issues: the wingmen plane's seems jerky after turning on the afterburner on deck during launching sequence. (only happens on v1.04).

That jerking animation I believe is caused by the tide system in ARMA2 and the deck of Nimitz being at a different height as to when the playmove was recorded. I will have a play with it for the next version and try find a solution. Trouble is I was using the Nimitz scripts to simulate steam and jet blast deflectors [realism], so they may conflict with playmove since the deck height is slightly different.

- some menus missing after landing like "getout" or "gears down". (need the landing gears down to move back for relaunching) In fact, the first version of auto landing in my opinion might be better as a workaround allowing player to manually put down the landing gear and hook and cut off the engine before touch down, it won't make the plane explodes as compared to current version that does.

Yeah I think these issues are addon related. On the deck once you have been in the air, make sure you open the FA/18 canopy as this activates the getout action it seems. I hope the next version of the FA/18 will address the action issues. Hopefully Meatball has not grown tired of developing his addon, as it is great. It can be very taxing however, I learnt that from making this campaign.

- the scripting errors popping up during launch or reloading of saves

I just did some tests and it appears the error [or at least part of it] comes from the vapour trail emmitters on the F/A-18. I believe this is addon related, if anyone knows a way around it please let me know. It can be reproduced by placing a flying f18 [player as pilot] into an empty editor map and saving your game while flying. The error will be present on reloading the save.

Thanks again mate

Rough Knight

Edited December 28, 2011 by Rough Knight
Info about script errors added.

[CyclonicTuna 87]

Hey really nice campaign man! I mean its BIS quality with voice acting and everything. But I really appreciate the fact that someone has finally done something cool with the Nimitz addon.

Hey I'm pretty good with video. If you ever need help with an intro movie, maybe I can help you out.

Can't wait for the next release :D!!

---------- Post added at 12:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:26 AM ----------

I've Played the first mission now and I've got a list of fixes/suggestions for the fist mission:

- Maybe its better/easier for the player to get into his jet in the hanger beneath the flight deck and then to just initiate a script that automatically rolls the jet on to the lift that brings it up to the flight deck after wich it will also automatically roll the jet into its disired position.

- Building off of this could be a script that does the same after you have landed on the Nimitz to rearm/refuel. Right now when I land I have to steer myself to the catapult (wich goes very glitchy by the way) and I can't get myself to hook on to the launchbar anymore.

- Some animations for the flight crew on the deck to make everything look and feel a bit more lifely.

- I got lost a couple of times walking out of the (de)briefing room. Would it be better to have the player follow a certain path?

- Maybe some more pilots in the (de)briefing room, also to build further on the feeling of realisme an immersion.

- Night strike?

Nevertheless I can really see you put a lot of effort in this. I just want this to be as good as it can be.

Keep it up!!

Edited December 28, 2011 by CyclonicTuna

[Muahaha 10]

Just to showcase a bit on the gameplay of this rare plane centric campaign.

vuxwp2G46us

Edited December 28, 2011 by Muahaha

[Rough Knight 9]

Wow Muahaha,

Nice video. Thanks very much for doing that. A good bit of PR work.

Also with Mando missiles...I will have to take a closer look at that, it certainly looks pretty cool.

With your permission I should throw the vid up on the main page under the title so people can see what the campaign is about. You would get the credit of course: ) .I would make some vids but I have no idea how? What program do you use?

Any ideas for a new flying mission to make to add to the campaign? I'm about all out of ideas.

Thanks again

Rough Knight

[Muahaha 10]

yes sir, will be a honor that you use it. (please excuse the error popping up in the video though ) It was done using simple add and paste in windows movie maker in Win7. It's quite user friendly.

I've haven't really finish the campaign yet, maybe after i've done so. More idea/suggestions might come. :)

[KBK 10]

Mando Missiles is optional as far as I know, anybody who wants can just pop it in and use it. You don't need to make that a requirement, in fact, please don't! :P While it's really awesome and such, it can get really annoying in certain situations, especially in gunships, with all the targeting features messing eachother up and the HUD being excessively cluttered.

About the pilot:

I'm getting the same error as the other guy when trying to launch the campaign. It seems like you are either using a different pilot or the old pilot class name in your campaign structure. It's looking for "mar_fighter_pilot" (which was the name of the pilot in an older version of the F18) when the actual pilot addon (latest version) is called "mar_pilot". I'm using all the latest versions of the required addons, I even re-downloaded them just to make sure, and I'm unable to play the campaign.

Edited December 28, 2011 by KBK

[maiser 10]

Mission 1: Air superiority. I make all the objectives(except the squirel one) and they command me to return to Nimitz. I return to Nimitz, nothing happens. Shouldn´t the mission finish or do i have to talk to someone or something?

[CyclonicTuna 87]

What am I supposed to do in the Navy Blues mission? Those ships seem indestructible!

I tried every loadout there is to try and used all my firepower on one ship, including the airplane itself but it still won't set the objective to complete. I'm totally stuck. HALP!!

Edited December 28, 2011 by CyclonicTuna

[Rough Knight 9]

About the pilot:

I'm getting the same error as the other guy when trying to launch the campaign. It seems like you are either using a different pilot or the old pilot class name in your campaign structure. It's looking for "mar_fighter_pilot" (which was the name of the pilot in an older version of the F18) when the actual pilot addon (latest version) is called "mar_pilot". I'm using all the latest versions of the required addons, I even re-downloaded them just to make sure, and I'm unable to play the campaign.

Hi KBK. Don't use the mar_pilot addon. Version 1.8 of the F18 [the latest still has a pilot in it (mar_fighter_pilot)]. This is the unit the campaign uses because it means one less addon required. I have tried to keep the addons list to a bare minimum. Just turn off the mar_pilot addon and I hope you will be ok. The pilots pbo inside the F/A-18 addon is still in this case called mar-pilot while the classname is "mar_fighter_pilot" however just to be confusing : P

Mission 1: Air superiority. I make all the objectives(except the squirel one) and they command me to return to Nimitz. I return to Nimitz, nothing happens. Shouldn´t the mission finish or do i have to talk to someone or something?

Can you see an icon toggling red and white on the Nimitz deck? It should be about at the location of where you stop using the arrestor cables toward the front of the Nimitz. Anyway, when you are near it you get a message to turn off your engine to end the mission.

Turn off the aircraft engine and the mission will end. You have to be near the marker though.

What am I supposed to do in the Navy Blues mission? Those ships seem indestructible!

I tried every loadout there is to try and used all my firepower on one ship, including the airplane itself but it still won't set the objective to complete. I'm totally stuck. HALP!!

This mission is not so easy. It is best using a wingman, just target the ships weapons systems [when you fly over them on your map you will pick up the various missile\guns onboard the ships].Once they are taken out the ships will sink.

You can't just sink them by dropping random bombs on them as by default they are just static objects in the editor. You will know it is sinking as you will see numerous explosions as it sinks. It normally takes a few minutes for the objective to compete once the ship is actually sinking, because each ship objective completion trigger looks at the ships position ASL.

Thanks

Rough Knight

Edited December 29, 2011 by Rough Knight

[CyclonicTuna 87]

I'm sorry to say this but the Navy Blues mission needs a lot of work. Its just to glitchy to play.

- I can't target anything for some reason

- AGM & LGB targeting pods are way to glitchy to use. They almost don't respond to movement of the cursor and they can't lock on to anything.

- I can see the AA launchers on the ship on my FLIR but I can't see them on my radar or MMA HUD.

- Sometimes when I try to take off I get hit by a missle and there's nothing I can do to stop it.

- My ECM doesn't work for some reason.

Its weird because the other missions worked fine.