PlannedAssault web based mission builder

[Mr. Charles 22]

Hey William, is it possible to automatically include Norrin's Revive for PlannedAssault? Since me and my buddys think that your tool is pretty cool already, it would be nice to have this implemented.

[_William 0]

Hey William, is it possible to automatically include Norrin's Revive for PlannedAssault? Since me and my buddys think that your tool is pretty cool already, it would be nice to have this implemented.

It's an easy addition if:

- the Revive system needs little more than a few commands added to the init.sqf,

- there's an .pbo with the Revive system (so I don't have to distribute the files)

I'll look into it. I have done something similar for Mandoble's MMA.

I'd appreciate if you could check the availability of a .pbo and otherwise bother Norrin to create one.

[_William 0]

Chechen rebels, 1995 Russian infantry, Soviet armor and MAF2Ext French vehicles

This update primarily adds new units for mission generation and fixes a few configuration issues in some of the artillery unit definitions.

I've added the units to generate Chechen War missions:

- colonelstaglers's Chechen Rebel infantry and vehicles, beefed up with mortar units and RHS's BTR-70.

- johncage's 1995 Russian infantry, beefed up with artillery, along with Vilas' soviet vehicles.

Furthermore, French add-on coverage is once again complete with units from the MAF2Ext add-on to Hexagon's add-on.

See this post for more info. Below a few action shots from generated missions.

Aside from adding units, I'm primarily busy improving the planner's understanding of streets and city grids, in order to generate better city attacks and defenses.

The aim is to generate decent missions for a city map such as Fallujah, but currently I cannot say how realistic or close that target is.

William

[Ikaruga 10]

Hi William,

I had a look at Norrin's revive script and it's a set of scripts which require to be included in your mission. Also, you need to add markers on your map to set where you appear when you respawn.

More info here : http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=74396

[tswords 10]

I was wondering, is it possible to implement Airborne operations? i just had my first try with air assault and i loved a generic 2 prong infantry attack after landing my chinooks, but id love the idea of jumpin out of a C130 at night and re-orging at the DZ and attacking an enemy held town.

itd be cool if the Crew Served teams were able to support by fire on assaults too, rather than just being confined to defensive operations.

jsut a couple ideas im sure youve heard a billion times

otherwise, awesome stuff!

---------- Post added at 09:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:14 PM ----------

I was wondering, is it possible to implement Airborne operations? i just had my first try with air assault and i loved a generic 2 prong infantry attack after landing my chinooks, but id love the idea of jumpin out of a C130 at night and re-orging at the DZ and attacking an enemy held town.

itd be cool if the Crew Served teams were able to support by fire on assaults too, rather than just being confined to defensive operations.

jsut a couple ideas im sure youve heard a billion times

otherwise, awesome stuff!

[_William 0]

Up to 10 units per side, three pronged attacks, F-22A Raptor / woodland Bradleys / BW compilation / new 1995 Russian infantry, and AI presentation

Plenty of variety in the last two updates. The biggest change is the increase of the allowed units per side, from 8 to 10. To enable attack planning for say 10 platoon maneuvers, a three pronged attack objective ('Clear 3') has been introduced.

Newly supported units include the F-22A Raptor, woodland camouflaged Bradley and Linkebacker IFVs, additional aircraft, ambulances and cars from the Bundeswehr compilation, and johncage's reworked Chechen war Russian infantry.

See this post for more info. Below a few action shots from generated missions.

For those of you who take an interest in game AI, I've made available a presentation from November 2010 describing PlannedAssault's design (.pdf file, 2.2MB, you can ignore the fonts warning).

I also experimented with gunship stand-off attacks (where the gunship engages threat from the maximum range of its missiles, outside effective range of its threats). In the tests, gunships do attempt to disengage and engage again from a distance. However, I'm not able to get the helicopters to hover and fire from a distance. Feedback on this topic is much appreciated.

William

[nikita320106 0]

very interesting tool) thanx alot here)

another one thanx for you scripts for mission)

very usefull

dont get my critics wrong

but sometimes waypoints move over impassable mountains that results to stuck a whole group

so)

just keep up your very hard work

and sorry ma bad engliz)

[General Malaise 10]

Tried using this tool but I'm constantly getting server error messages. Not trying to do anything more complicated than a simple infantry-only battle, one side-using two-pronged attack and other holding position.

Here is a screenshot:

[_William 0]

Tried using this tool but I'm constantly getting server error messages. Not trying to do anything more complicated than a simple infantry-only battle, one side-using two-pronged attack and other holding position.

Acknowledged. The 10 units per side change is causing some teething problems for you and some others. I'll be updating the server tomorrow (March 5) with a fix for two problems, including yours.

In case you're curious: with a defensive force of 10 units and hostile threat from multiple directions, the planner is considering ~1.9 million possible defensive positions, running over its memory limit and getting killed by a watchdog process. One way to work around this problem is to reduce the defense by 1 or 2 units.

[_William 0]

I've updated the planner (as promised) with two bug fixes:

- changed defensive unit positioning approach to an n-step optimization, reducing computation times (was up to 1hr) and memory consumption (causing process kills) so missions with 10 ground combat units show generate fine;

- fixed a problem with counter-attacking armor units starting in an area unsuitable for vehicle movement (Takistan hills)

In addition, for the fly boys amongst you, I've added BI's weather module as a mod; just select it to have a 300m / 1000 ft cloud layer around you when flying.

---------- Post added at 09:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:38 PM ----------

but sometimes waypoints move over impassable mountains that results to stuck a whole group

Happens to me on occasion. I already changed the PlannedAssault terrain database for Takistan to flag certain hills as impassable (although I as a player can make it up there with a vehicle).

Nevertheless, there are still situations where the AI picks a steep path across a hill (instead of around it) and subsequently fails to drive up that hill. It is a problem in the game which I cannot fix or work around.

[_William 0]

Long range gunship CAS, 2K12 + 1S91 SAM, ACE2 OA extra units, RAF Harrier

First of all, an improvement to gunship close air support: a script is used as part of the mission to keep gunships at a distance from the targets they engage. Makes the Apaches, Cobra's, and Black Sharks much more effective.

Newly supported units include the new 2K12 SAM (add-on breaks class name compatibility with previous version) and corresponding 1S91 FCR.

ACE2 for OA's Extra units are now covered: additional US Army vehicles, Marine Corps gunships and grunts in desert MARPAT, and a wide range of Russian vehicles and aircraft.

Also, the RAF reskin of the Harrier has been added.

See this post for more info. Below a few action shots from generated missions.

William

[kremator 1064]

Excellent william. That will really help.

Thanks for all your hard work !

[clawhammer 10]

Does this still work? I Made an Account some month ago but never get an activation Mail oO

[_William 0]

Does this still work? I Made an Account some month ago but never get an activation Mail oO

It sure does work. The biggest problem I'm having is gmx.de, web.de, gmx.net blocking outbound email from my server.

If you use a gmail, hotmail, or yahoo email account, you should be fine. Otherwise, leave me a private message.

[kremator 1064]

Found a problem with the helo attack from distance. It gave an error about a missing sqf.

[ebarstad 18]

Hi _William,

Is there any way to control how close air transport gets to the hold/clear position? I keep trying to set up missions where soldiers are brought in by air, but the choppers tend to want to land too close and then get shot down before they can drop off the troops. I've tried editing the waypoint positions in the editor, but I think I ended up messing something up.

Do you have any tips for setting up missions with air transport on PlannedAssault?

[_William 0]

Found a problem with the helo attack from distance. It gave an error about a missing sqf.

Thanks! I've reproduced this problem, will deploy a fix soon (and will let you know here).

---------- Post added at 09:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:05 PM ----------

Is there any way to control how close air transport gets to the hold/clear position?

I keep trying to set up missions where soldiers are brought in by air, but the choppers tend to want to land too close and then get shot down before they can drop off the troops.

Currently, there is no way to pick the landing zones for the air transport. Air landings are dangerous for me as well.

To increase success for the air landing force, I recommend:

- suppressing the defense by deploying fixed wing CAS or gunships; these will be sent in before you'll land

- landing at night or under poor visibility (limited visibility range or bad weather)

- positioning part of the defense away from the position they need to hold and provide them transport

Please let me know if that works for you.

[kremator 1064]

There is no other way to set a manual LZ then, or would that complicate the planner?

[_William 0]

Found a problem with the helo attack from distance. It gave an error about a missing sqf.

Fix deployed. Defensive CAS gunships weren't properly called in for support due to a script name mismatch.

There is no other way to set a manual LZ then, or would that complicate the planner?

It would be a relatively small change to the planner, but require more work on the web UI.

If you (and ebarstad) can convince me it is essential for good missions to pick your LZ, I'll add it. Obviously, the option to not specify a LZ remains in; if you fight to hold a position, you don't want to tell the enemy where to perform an air assault.

For other feedback on air assaults, now is the time. I'm creating a new Youtube movie, similar to the

, illustrating air assaults and gunship CAS. To create footage, I'll be generate several air assault missions, record and review the resulting activity. Typically I spot a few problems and fix them before I finalize recordings and edit a movie.

[kremator 1064]

Good news on the name fix william. Perhaps having a UI where you can put down three or so potential LZs and let then engine decide on the best one to use. At the moment a high flying transport chopper WILL be shot down with suitable air defences (that any good planner should take into account). Having the transport coming in low and slow to drop off troops would bE brilliant.

Will retry my mission with the new standoff choppers to see how it plays.

Cheers mate.

[ebarstad 18]

Hey _William,

Thanks for the LZ location response -- I'll try out your suggestions.

Since this is a(n awesome) free project, I'm loathe to suggest adding functionality that'll create more work for you. So, while I think being able to pinpoint the LZ on the planner would be a nice addition, I can't come up with a reason for why it would be essential, especially if this is something I can change myself in the editor without breaking the mission.

Also (unrelated), do you ever post missions you create for others to download?

[_William 0]

Air assault tweaking and air assault Youtube showcase video

Perhaps the one thing harder than creating PlannedAssault is explaining somebody what the PlannedAssault mission generator can do for them...

It's a good thing we have Youtube.

(successful and less successful attempts) intend to convince more people to try PlannedAssault.

See this post for more info.

The tweaks introduced include the following:

- increased to 6 the number of units to load on a helicopter (section)

- reduced helicopter flying height by removing minimum flying height for most helis, thereby reducing exposure to anti-air weapons

- improved ingress and egress routes

This addresses Kremator's comment of helicopters flying too high.

William

@ebarstad: do I post missions for others to download? I'm offering a few, as examples what is included in generated missions. I'm not offering missions because they are cool missions, for two reasons:

- it would run against my aim for PlannedAssault, which is that you (in general) should be able to create great missions yourself

- everybody has a different opinion on what a 'cool mission' is

[kremator 1064]

NICE improvements william. Liked the video very much.

Will be trying a few more air assaults made by Planned Assault soon :)

[Choki 10]

This people need to work whit bohemia interactive. This is just perfect! I love it! Thanks

[the chief 15]

Thanks Wiliam. I've been using planned assault now for a couple of days and made 3 missions with the bis models and community mods and maps from planned assault. These were all very easy to create in 10 mins from start to finish. They all played very well after a couple of minor adjustments in the planned assault tool.

You have a very large pool of mods to choose from in planned assault, which is fantastic, but only 3 extra community maps. Are there any plans in the future to expand this map list, as there are many high quality maps out there e.g. Lingor, Namalsk, Thirsk and Thirsk Winter, Podorgorsk and Torabora?

Thanks once again. Great tool!