Spawns. Unravelling their making and use. - Page 3
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Thread: Spawns. Unravelling their making and use.

  1. #51
    SOH-CM-2023 mongoose's Avatar
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    Just for clarification, the above mainly concerns random spawning in a mission or campaign. This would be different if one is using a spawn that must appear in a mission, which is normally the case when I am making a spawn.

    For instance, in the case below in the 14th_March_1941_Do17Z_spawn.spawns file 1D1 is used

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <SpawnControl Stop="n" HighAgl="9999.8779296875">
    <Spawns Roll="1D1">
    <Spawn ID="1" FormationType="14th_March_1941_Do17Z_spawn"/>
    </Spawns>
    </SpawnControl>

    relating to the xml file 14th_March_1941_Do17Z_spawn.xml

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <AirFormation Country="Germany" FormType="trail" OffsetScaleFactor="20" Directive="nothing">
    <Unit Type="ai_blitz_do17z2_5k+ba" Repeat="1"/>
    <Route>
    <Waypoint PositionType="latlon" Lat="N53*10'51.4005&quot;" Lon="E0*23'17.8953&quot;" Speed="92.5" Type="turn" Alt="3657.59"/>
    <Waypoint PositionType="latlon" Lat="N53*14'46.7210&quot;" Lon="E0*20'49.2769&quot;" Speed="92.5" Type="turn" Alt="3657.59"/>
    <Waypoint PositionType="latlon" Lat="N53*3'0.7956&quot;" Lon="E0*35'3.8236&quot;" Speed="92.5" Type="turn" Alt="3500.00"/>
    </Route>
    </AirFormation>

    Cato said "Carthaginem esse delendam"
    I say "Carthago iam diu deleta,sed enim Bellum Alium adhuc aedificandum est"

  2. #52
    SOH-CM-2023 mongoose's Avatar
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    An alternative method of making aircraft spawns. Part I

    An alternative method of making aircraft spawns. Part I

    AFAIK, most aircraft spawns, in this case spawns of enemy aircraft for friendly interception, or visa versa, involve the use of mission_target_facility_Xk.xml. where X= some OuterDistance="xxxxx", such as OuterDistance="5000"

    I have made ranges from 1K to 20K, and AFAIK one can make any reasonable range, although I have yet to try more than 20K.
    So this mission_target_facility_Xk is put in in the missions builder tab "type", and then the relevant spawn in the tab 'Spawn table", as below.



    Now the spawn in spawn table is traditionally something like this

    NJG2_Ju88.spawns

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <SpawnControl Priority="1000" Stop="n" LowAgl="4571.99951171875" HighAgl="7619.99951171875" OutOfRangeProbability="100">
    <Spawns Roll="1D1">
    <Spawn ID="1" FormationType="NJG2_Ju88"/>
    </Spawns>
    </SpawnControl>

    with NJG2_Ju88.xml

    ?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <AirFormation Country="Germany" FormType="box" Directive="bomber_intercept">
    <Unit Type="ai_TOW_JU88C-4_R4CH" Payload="0"/>
    <Route>
    <Waypoint PositionType="facility-die-roll" Distance="3000" Die="1D3+8" Speed="113.18" Type="turn" Alt="7000.03"/>
    <Waypoint PositionType="facility-die-roll" Distance="2000" Die="2D3+2" Speed="113.18" Type="intercept_bomber" Alt="7000.03"/>
    <Waypoint PositionType="facility-die-roll" Distance="10000" Die="2D3+2" Speed="116.26" Type="turn" Alt="7000.03"/>
    </Route>
    </AirFormation>


    Now I have not always liked this set up for 'enemy' bombers for player interception, in that the spawn always turns WRT the player, rather than moving on a straight line as it would if not a spawn but a flight with waypoints of Lat Lon values. As a result I have been making flights with 2-3 wp's and relevant Lat Lon values, then copying those into a spawn.xml as in this 2 waypoint Wellington_spawn_Inbound_Cologne_30_31 May 1942.xml

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <AirFormation Country="#enemy" FormType="trail" OffsetScaleFactor="40 " Directive="nothing">
    <Unit Type="ai_Well_U-KX" Skill="3" Payload="7"/>
    <Route>
    <Waypoint Type="turn" Speed="102.888888888889" IsWarpable="n" Lat="N52*13'36.0543&quot;" Lon="E4*8'10.3288&quot;" Alt="3367.19"/>
    <Waypoint Type="turn" Speed="102.888888888889" IsWarpable="n" Lat="N51*9'11.8052&quot;" Lon="E6*45'53.6570&quot;" Alt="3367.19"/>
    </Route>
    </AirFormation>

    This issue here is
    -what mission target facility distance value one should use
    -where to actually place the spawn relative to the player aircraft's intended interception waypoint.

    Sometimes it does the job, but on other occasions, I have found this very difficult to work out. This made me think of what I first saw in a test mission from sdsbolt WRT his A.I.Radar app.

    This is his use of 'parol box' facilities and associated spawns. See Part II

    Cato said "Carthaginem esse delendam"
    I say "Carthago iam diu deleta,sed enim Bellum Alium adhuc aedificandum est"

  3. #53
    SOH-CM-2023 mongoose's Avatar
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    An alternative method of making aircraft spawns. Part II

    In Part I, I was ending with the fact that, if using real waypoints in my spawn.xml file, I was having issues getting it working, due to where to put the spawn relative to the player, and what range to set in the mission_target_facility file.

    I then thought to examine how sdsbolt set up his way of doing it,using a 'patrol box' facility and a related spawn file. His original was,

    facility = Blitz_Patrol_Box.xml

    <Facility Type="" Flags="isFactory" OuterDistance="20000">

    </Facility>

    with a spawn file called Blitz_patrolbox.spawns

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <SpawnControl Priority="1000" Stop="y" HighAgl="9999.8779296875">
    <Spawns Roll="1D1">
    <Spawn ID="1" FormationType="Blitz_Portsmouth"/>
    </Spawns>
    </SpawnControl>

    using the spawn xml file Blitz_Portsmouth.xml

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <AirFormation Country="#enemy" Points="1" DamagePercent="40" GoalID="Blitz_patrolbox" FormType="trail" OffsetScaleFactor="45" Directive="strike">
    <Unit Type="sj_do17z1_3z-gs" Repeat="3" Payload="3"/>
    <Route>
    <Waypoint PositionType="player-die-roll" Distance="9262.36" Die="1D6" Speed="65.34" Type="turn" Alt="3047.99"/>
    <Waypoint PositionType="player-die-roll" Distance="3704.94" Die="1D6" Speed="65.84" Type="turn" Alt="3047.99"/>
    <Waypoint PositionType="player-die-roll" Distance="14819.8" Die="1D6" Speed="65.84" Type="turn" Alt="499.87"/>
    </Route>
    </AirFormation>




    So after trial and error working out what sdsbolt had done, I realized the following

    1. The facility file can have any name but one should follow the basic layout as the Blitz_Patrol_Box.xml facility file. This is instead of using a mission_target_facility file, and does not require an additio0nal range calculation, as I assume that is baked in the "OuterDistance="xxxxx">" value.

    So I have so far made facilities called BC_Patrol_Box.xml and NJ_Patrol_Box.xml. I have not changed the OuterDistance="20000">, as so far that works for my purposes.

    The spawn xxxx.spawns file also can be named otherwise, such as BC_patrolboxX.spawns where X= a number or whatever, depending on what spawn xml file one wants; for instance

    BC_patrolbox5.spawns has BC Stirling Lubeck2.xml associated with it
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <SpawnControl Priority="1000" Stop="y" HighAgl="9999.8779296875">
    <Spawns Roll="1D1">
    <Spawn ID="1" FormationType="BC Stirling Lubeck2"/>
    </Spawns>
    </SpawnControl>


    BC Stirling Lubeck2.xml =

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <AirFormation Country="#enemy" Points="1" DamagePercent="60" GoalID="BC_patrolbox" FormType="trail" OffsetScaleFactor="45" Directive="strike">
    <Unit Type="sc_TOW_Stirling_mki" Skill="2" Payload="5"/>
    <Route>
    <Waypoint PositionType="latlon" Lat="N54*14'11.4931&quot;" Lon="E8*38'46.4933&quot;" Speed="95.18" Type="turn" Alt="4114.49"/>
    <Waypoint PositionType="latlon" Lat="N54*12'5.1193&quot;" Lon="E9*5'24.6566&quot;" Speed="95.18" Type="turn" Alt="4114.49"/>
    <Waypoint PositionType="latlon" Lat="N54*8'7.6818&quot;" Lon="E10*2'0.2890&quot;" Speed="95.18" Type="turn" Alt="4114.49"/>
    </Route>
    </AirFormation>

    Once again, I use real waypoints as I want the aircraft to follow a specific track relative to the player.

    Another example is
    NJ_Patrol_Box.xml facility

    NJ_patrolbox.spawns

    with

    Intruder_Venlo.xml

    as seen here below




    I am sure this can be refined somewhat, but I did a mission "31Jul-1 Aug 1942 Schnaufer vs BC various.xml" which used 3 patrol boxes to cover the 3 Abscussen Schnaufer had that night . Testing was positive for all 3 facilities.

    <Facilities>
    <Facility ID="9507" Type="NJ_Patrol_Box" Lat="N50*29'47.4019&quot;" Lon="E4*27'42.1510&quot;" heading="0" Country="Britain" Spawns="Schnaufer_patrolbox_Whitley.spawns" IsOneShot="y"/>
    <Facility ID="9506" Type="NJ_Patrol_Box" Lat="N52*23'23.3777&quot;" Lon="E6*18'57.2645&quot;" heading="0" Country="Britain" Spawns="Schnaufer_patrolbox_WellA.spawns" IsOneShot="y"/>
    <Facility ID="9505" Type="NJ_Patrol_Box" Lat="N51*53'23.5049&quot;" Lon="E5*16'36.6885&quot;" heading="0" Country="Britain" Spawns="Schnaufer_patrolbox_Wellb.spawns" IsOneShot="y"/>
    <Facility ID="9504" Type="ILS_approach" Lat="N50*47'25.2912&quot;" Lon="E5*12'23.3570&quot;" heading="243" Country="Germany"/>
    </Facilities>
    Last edited by mongoose; February 9th, 2022 at 12:53. Reason: grammar

    Cato said "Carthaginem esse delendam"
    I say "Carthago iam diu deleta,sed enim Bellum Alium adhuc aedificandum est"

  4. #54
    SOH-CM-2023 mongoose's Avatar
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    I have yet to check if the GoalID="BC_patrolbox" is really necessary, as that makes it somewhat easier to orientate towards the enemy, when the idea is to use the A>I> Radar app's GCI function to direct the player towards the target. I shall have to test without it!

    Cato said "Carthaginem esse delendam"
    I say "Carthago iam diu deleta,sed enim Bellum Alium adhuc aedificandum est"

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