Can someone tell me where to latest full mission builder manuals are please?

[TerryW]

Hi,

I am trying to build a small campaign. I have found lots of archived material that talks of a full mission builder. I have also found several youtube tutorials. The trouble is that they don't seem to be about the current FMB. The menus are different and screen shots I have seen show a completely different UI.

Does anyone know whether that latest FMB is documented anywhere and, if so, where I can find the documents?

Thanks in advance.

Terry

[SD_MBen]

Hi,

I am trying to build a small campaign. I have found lots of archived material that talks of a full mission builder. I have also found several youtube tutorials. The trouble is that they don't seem to be about the current FMB. The menus are different and screen shots I have seen show a completely different UI.

Does anyone know whether that latest FMB is documented anywhere and, if so, where I can find the documents?

Thanks in advance.

Terry
Sorry I can not help but good luck with your campaign!
Ben.

[TerryW]

Many thanks Ben.

I have found some archived material on the old IL2 FMB from way back when. It appears far more sophisticated than the one I see in the TF 5.0 patched Clouds of war application. I expect that you can do everything but without instructions I am reverse engineering my understanding like crazy.

[Erpr.Gr.210_Mölders]

Here some references that could be of help:

ATAG full mission builder and scripts board: http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=50

Source about scripts and the FMB usage: http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/forumdisplay.php?f=203

Hope these could help you! ;)

[TerryW]

Many thanks for that. I did find this page but it has a lot of broken links. Frustrating - http://www.stormofwar.net/t884-fmb-tutorial-videos is broken which is a real shame.

I am just getting into the use of scripts so that reference is going to be helpful. I use C# for a living so at least that aspect should be a bit easier (maybe).

[rowns]

Hi,

I have a usefull link http://www.aircombatgroup.co.uk/flight_school/general/FMB.php
I also have to inform you that we might have some extra things for you. Like scripts things which you can use. Just ask on the forum.

[7./JG26_SMOKEJUMPER]

As a testament to the Cliffs of Dover community Kuntz over at ACG said you could use a bunch of code.

His words.

"Also, please tell him to drop by the forums because we might be able to save him a XXXXton of coding himself, he could just have some of our -pooh-." A little edited for language. :P

I cut and pasted because I thought it was funny.



Good luck buddy I hope it goes well. Everyones efforts are appreciated. It volunteers who do this stuff for fun which keeps us all here.

I'm also glad you posted this. I've been wanted to do a mission to submit to ATAG for ages and I have not seen the posted ACG videos before! I hope I can do one well enough that it would get a good reception and be enjoyed by others.

[TerryW]

Hi,

Many thanks for jumping in so readily.

I'll have to do lots of research in the absence of software documentation (it is like being at work but a bit more fun and less profitable). I copied a simple script into VS2008, added the references as instructed and a lot of them failed to load. I failed on the first hurdle in other words. For instance core.dll and maddox.dll both get exclamation marks in the solution browser. The solution doesn't build because the using statement fails because the maddox namespace is unknown (due to the exclamation mark). antlr.runtime was loaded fine.

T

[TerryW]

I fully expect that the technicalities are gonna be a bit of an endurance. Software is just like that. Absorbing, should we say.

However, I strongly suspect that the difficult bit will be in the high-level design of the campaign. By that I mean designing what is to happen in the campaign missions. I played the BOB2 RAF campaign for ages. I eventually gave up due to the repetitive nature of the individual missions.

It takes a lot to maintain interested. Redux RAF campaign is a great example of what can be done. It has a lot of variety built in. The Malta RAF campaign is the same. Those are the only two IL2 based campaigns I have tried. I'll try one of the ACG campaigns whilst searching for inspiration (if there is any inspiration left after 40 hours at the salt mine). :D

T

[ATAG_Lolsav]

When i tryed to make some missions, which i gave up because of the deep knowledge required of scripting in C# to actually make something happen (and im not talking about a simple script, but, for example, to make a online mission where progression would require a pilot to be on X level to get a better plane) a post from Kodiac on the old "bananas forum", the official 1cforum help me a lot to add the references i required.

Even without the images (who were supposed to be there) the post is very comprehensive and it explains "how to".

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=28997

[TerryW]

I am falling at the first hurdle. I have my trusty visual studio 2008 running. I copied a cs file. I added the prescribed dlls like maddox.dll and VS2008 throws up a verbal warning that the Dll is in error (the yellow triangle with an exclamation mark). Now I am wondering what is wrong. Is the DLL c++ specific (I am using c#)? was it built for .net 3.5 or later? I am set up for 3.5.

I am wondering about the feasibility of the exercise as there are a million little things that need carefully documenting on such a software design and I am really not sure that they have been documented. You could literally spend the rest of your short time on this planet in "detective mode" figuring out what has been done in the past . . .

[ATAG_Lolsav]

You could literally spend the rest of your short time on this planet in "detective mode" figuring out what has been done in the past . . .

Taking in account the phrase above, i think the ones at Team Fusion are who better understand the extent of that sentence ;)

Switching to the recommended VS isnt a big thingie, comparing with you have to gain.

[TerryW]

Taking in account the phrase above, i think the ones at Team Fusion are who better understand the extent of that sentence ;)

Switching to the recommended VS isnt a big thingie, comparing with you have to gain.

Hi,

Are you telling me that Visual Studio 2008 not gonna work. I was wondering about that as it doesn't seem to handle .net versions above 3.5? Should I download VS express and try again?

Just downloaded VS2015 and I can now add references and have started to be able to compile my first c# script. Yippee, I am on the first rung of the ladder. Thanks for th ehelp.

I still wonder why VS2008 wasn't having any of it. I'll keep notes and publish them so nobody else has to suffer the dearth of software documentation . . .

Terry.

[TerryW]

I noticed that the maddox.dll that I have is devoid of symbols. It must have been stripped. Consequently, there is no published operational-signatures or interfaces for the various member functions that are used in scripts. I say this because VS2015's intellisense is showing me "gobbledeegook" when I do a "show definition". I'd expect to see all the usual intellisense goodies as, indeed, I do for one of the other DLLs (one that wasn't stripped).

Tonight's fun is to grep my way through all the .cs files that I have (Malta, Reddux, single missions etc) and identify all the c# member-function calls to maddox.dll member-functions to build a catalogue. Not hard but a bit fiddly plus it won't disclose those functions that are not used in my existing scripts. Not very thorough :(

Is there anyone out there who already has an unstripped version of maddox.dll or who has any documentation covering it?

Or maybe someone has contact details for the owners or creators of the dll?

Am I doing all this the hard way? or does everyone who wants to create scripted missions have to do this detective work?:P

Terry

[ATAG_Lolsav]

You have to excuse me to make a obvious question: You did check the sub forum about mission making alredy?

http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=50

Also, all the work done with scripting has been done along 4-5 years in a sporadic and random way. Many guys have kept their knowledge to themselves, despite my attempts to get the snippets out, which could help non-code people (like me) get access to snippets that could be used in missions.

So... i pledge the same challenge to you. Share your findings along the way :D

[TerryW]

You have to excuse me to make a obvious question: You did check the sub forum about mission making alredy?

Embarrassingly I had come across it but when the tutorial links proved to be somewhat broken I had given up on it. I'll be living there soon . . .

I pledge wholeheartedly to document whatsoever I find. . .