This is a customizable mission which can be used for quick starting random fights against period correct targets in the multi-player environment for any DCS aircraft type. The target selection works exactly the same as the single player version of this mission. This mission is available for all maps.
Depending on the maps, the default missions contain all the aircraft in the current DCS inventory. The Channel and Normandy maps only contain WWII era aircraft. You can leave the maps as is or can change, add, or delete any aircraft on the map in the mission editor. You can include AI flight members and also add 3rd party client aircraft mods onto the map and fly them. The intent of this mission is as an open sandbox for you to place any number of client aircraft onto the map wherever you like and then sel ect targets fr om the F10 menu. The enemy spawns are always in random locations and are historically accurate targets based on the players aircraft service life.
How The Mission Plays
Using the the radio menu item you sel ect "New Target" and then Airborne, Gound, etc. The mission will find a historically accurate random target and direct your group to the target. The enemy spawns are also always a random direction and altitude away fr om your group. The Training targets menu choice will spawn targets that do not shoot back.
Once a target is selected, your group will be directed towards the target via the message text box. The target will spawn as soon as any member of the group reaches the predetermined vicinity. The flight distance and spawn distance from the players can be controlled via a preferences menu choice. Note, when you sel ect a ground target it will always spawn randomly on a road. Therefore, a ground targets distance and direction may not always seem random if you are in an area with only a few roads.
F10 menu choices and text instructions in FBO multi-player are at the aircraft group level. Therefore, any member of a group can sel ect the radio menu to start or stop targeting, missions, change group preferences etc. You deny this group behavior when anonymously hosting via the number of units in a group. For example a single unit aircraft groups will guarantee that another player joining your mission cannot change a target or mission already in progress.
Tankers can be spawned for the group via the preferences menu and will be relatively close to the players in the group which spawns them. Because any player or group can spawn a tanker, TACAN frequencies are randomly assigned to each tanker. The frequency distance and direction is announced at the time the tanker spawns via the text box and only for the group that spawns them. This information can also be redisplayed to the group via the vectors menu item.
You can add, change, or delete any aircraft carriers in the mission in the mission editor. However, they should always be pointed towards open ocean. If the carriers start location is pointing towards land, they should be at least 100 miles away fr om the land. No need to add waypoints to the carriers, they will steam along at whatever direction they are pointed. At around 100 miles fr om their spawn location they will turn around. If the carrier task group gets too close to land it will turn around. The carrier task group will turn into the wind whenever a friendly player is nearby. So it's a good idea for the upwind of the carrier task group, to also be open ocean.
The lack of a World War Two asset pack can be problematic in DCS when hosting as multi-user. If you allow players without the WWII asset pack to join the mission, the players without the pack will not see the WWII targets. If you want only players with the WWII asset pack to be able to join the mission, drop a WWII static object anywhere on the map. There are preference controls for WWII asset pack choices in the mission preferences section explained below.
Bugs are an inevitability so feedback is alway encouraged. Thanks for the interest.
The follwing are preferences which can be edited at the mission level in the preferences script step. Some can be changed in the mission at the group level:
gLanguage="English"
-- Choices are English or Spanish
gDifficulty="normal"
-- Choices are normal hard challenging (1-3 times the targets)
gWWIIAssets = true
-- When true the mission by default has WWII asset pack loaded. When fales it does not have asset pack loaded
gWWIIAssetChanges = true
-- Allow players to enable/disable WWII asset pack in the mission. true allows changes. false denies changing
gJumpedPercent=0
-- The percent chance player groups will be jumped by an AI fighter at some point in mission ( 0-100 )
gHistoricalFoes = "Accurate"
-- When this value is "Accurate" targets and mission enemy spawn types are historically accurate foes. When "Inaccurate" anything goes.
gCapturedAircraft=true
-- When this value is true, enemy aircraft flown from the historically opposing side are considered captured aircraft. Therefore, the enemy AI targets will be accurate foes of the players country not aircraft country.
gEnemySkillLevel ="Average"
-- Skill level of Enemy AI. choices are Average Good High Excellent Random
gFriendlySkillLevel ="Average"
-- Skill level of Friendly AI. choices are Average Good High Excellent Random
gFlightRange="short"
-- Default average flight range to target used from gTargetRange. Choices are short , medium , long , far
gTargetRange = { short = 12000, medium=32000, long=50000, far=90000,}
-- Settings matched to the variable gFlightRange in meters away from the group average flight to target will be
gDetectRange="short"
-- Default target detection range matched to gTargetDetectRange. Choices are short , medium , long , far,
gTargetDetectRange = { short = 10000, medium=20000, long=30000,far=56000,}
-- Distance in meters away groups are from target before it becomes visible to players.
gAllowDetectChange = true
-- Allow players to change detection ranges in the running mission. Choice are true ( allow changes ) or false ( don't allow changes )
gUnitsOfMeasure="feet"
-- Default units of measure for instructions to player groups. The choices are feet or meters
gTargetDestroyDelay = 1
-- how long in minutes orphaned targets of players groups who all left the game or are all dead will remain on map. You can comment out to leave targets and friendlies on the map
gTargetsExpire = true
-- If true when the last player of a group dies or quits, the mission or target will expire for that group. If false missions stay active even after all group members have died or quit.
gAllowWindSock = true
-- allow players to request smoke on the closest friendly airport to see wind direction. Choices are true or false
gSmokeOnTarget = true
-- allow players to put smoke on ground target once the target has become visible. Choice are true or false
gSaveGroupDefaults = false
-- A true value also saves all mission preferences changes as the default settings for new group spawns. A false value means new group preferences default to mission preferences.
gGroupMustBeAirborne = false
-- When true all members of a group must be airborne for the groups target to become visible. A value of false prevents action from happening until all members of a group have taken off.
gTankerAttributes = { immortal=false , invisible=false }
-- When players spawn a tanker, they have these attributes. When immortal is true the tanker cannot be destroyed. When invisible is true tankers are invisible to enemy AI forces
gTaskGroupROE = AI.Option.Naval.val.ROE.RETURN_FIRE
-- Task groups rules of engagement Change the final object value to WEAPON_HOLD , RETURN_FIRE or OPEN_FIRE.
gTraffic = { amount="off", enterservice=1964 , retired=2050, }
-- The random quantity of AI airport traffic when amount is either low medium or high. Disable by removing, commenting out or set amount="off" . The values enterservice and retired are the service life range for traffic spawns.
