Hey mission builders!

[♣_Spiritus_♣]

Bliss is a busy man so I am wondering if any mission builders out there for the ATAG rotation can give me the rules/limits/restrictions/so on for the missions that become part of the rotation, both no AI and AI servers.

The current missions are great but are starting to wane in interest for me so I figured I would give my hand in mission building.

[9./JG52 Hans Gruber]

The only requirement I am aware of is that the missions need to be stable with a large # of players. Some general guidelines & lessons I've learned:

- You can pretty much get away with as many static objects as you want. I've had as many as 5,000 statics in a mission and it ran just fine. Be aware that zoffset parameter only works for artillery in multiplayer.
- AI should be used sparingly. That includes all types (air, ground, & ships). Air AI is the most resource intense but even ships should be kept around 30 max. In the original Sealion there were 48 ships and a few ground AI and it was too much. I scaled it back to 30 ships & no other AI so it should be ok now.
- If using ships as an objective they must be constantly moving. If they reach the end of their waypoints they will not trigger the objective destroyed. You can add a sleep time into their waypoints to prevent them from reaching the end.
- Don't use static ships. They cause stutters when they come into view and will be floating in the air.
- Don't frustrate the players. It's no fun making a factory an objective and then putting 100 flak guns around it.
- Make sure there are multiple spawn points for each side including some well behind the front lines. Use a value of 1 for max # of planes in the spawn point.
- Don't believe any of the waypoint times the FMB tells you for air or sea AI. The FMB allows you to set speeds that the AI cannot possibly do.
- Stick to your guns. Don't let player feedback bully you into changing something that goes against your vision of the mission.
- Please use a good despawn method so that players are sure to get credit for their kills and doomed a/c don't despawn before they hit the ground. See here: http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8027
- Test your mission till you are sick of it. Test it in single player where you can advance time to make sure basic functions are working then move to server environment where you need to sit, watch, play through the entire duration to make sure it all works correctly. Use unlimited fuel, ammo, & vulnerability to make this less frustrating but no matter what it is a very time consuming process.

I'm sure there are more but that's all that comes to mind right now. PM if you have any mission specific questions.

If I ever have time I'd like to adapt Heinkill's Malta Redux (http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7493) work for use in a multiplayer mission, with his permission of course. A lot of the static object placement work would already be done. If anybody would like to collaborate on that I would be interested.

[AKA_Knutsac]

~S~ Gruber,

Regarding the flak guns, how resource intensive are they for the server; how many are too many? I ask because I'm almost done with a historically accurate template mission with all the heavy AA guns in SE England (and known 40mm) during the summer of 1940. The source info is from the book "AA Command: Britain's Anti Aircraft Defenses During WWII", Kent History forums, and Google Earth historic imagery for Dec 1940. Total HAA guns for the period in SE England was 70-72 3in or 3.7in guns...many up along the Thames/Medway corridor. Dover area had five 4-gun HAA batteries (and maybe 8-12 40mm LAA batteries). Airfields typically had two HAA batteries in the vicinity and four 40mm batteries on site. Canterbury had four HAA batteries around the city. I think having accurate AA defenses might make the low-level furballs and lone jabos less appealing (at least over land) and encourage more historical mid and high alt engagements. I haven't begun researching the German AA sites during the period...maybe someone on Blue has?

I'm happy to share this work with you and other mission builders if you could use. Maybe use or delete AA sites as needed for particular scenarios?

v/r,

AKA Knutsac

[RebelSqurl]

Knutsac,just wondering: is that 70-72 individual guns, or batteries of 4-6 guns apiece (which I think was the typical AA grouping of the time)?

[No601_Swallow]

Some excellent nuggets of advice, but can I just ask for clarification of this?



Be aware that zoffset parameter only works for artillery in multiplayer.


I'm pretty sure I've used the Z offset for a variety of static objects in dogfight missions (not "buildings" of course, CloD being CloD, just "static" objects of different sorts). But maybe I've just missed the weird anomalies?

[AKA_Knutsac]

"Knutsac,just wondering: is that 70-72 individual guns, or batteries of 4-6 guns apiece (which I think was the typical AA grouping of the time)?"

70 - 72 individual tubes, the majority of which were 4-gun batteris. Only ID'd one 8-gun battery near Dover, and it was actually two 4-gun batteries located close together and functioning as a single. Several 2-gun batteries, mostly around Folkestone/Hawkinge. AA really got dense up along the Thames going towards industrial facilities and London. It's actually fun (harrowing?) flying across the landscape with historically accurate defenses.

~S~

AKA Knutsac

[♣_Spiritus_♣]

Excellent!

Thanks you all.

[AKA_Knutsac]

I'll add that on the AA template map I'm creating, I'm taking great care to place the gun positions in logical places on the landscape relative to topography, buildings, and trees. So if you man a 40mm you'll have a proper vantage point to defend from. I'm also replacating the "look" of the AA positions, as based on aerial and other photographs, as best I can with the available objects.

~S~

AKA Knutsac

[No.401_Wolverine]

Some excellent nuggets of advice, but can I just ask for clarification of this?



I'm pretty sure I've used the Z offset for a variety of static objects in dogfight missions (not "buildings" of course, CloD being CloD, just "static" objects of different sorts). But maybe I've just missed the weird anomalies?

I have used it as well and with no issues. Z-offset of several sandbag objects to put a gun test range in (with the sighting board). Looks fine on the dedicated server.