Specific Spawn points

[♣_Spiritus_♣]

I have yet another question.

Putting specific spawn points works great and I am taking the time to do it to all spawnable airfields. Problem I am running into is that it seems like it doesn't work for all airfields, for me Sandown, Querqueville and Le Harve don't seem to care that I put them in but Theville, Caen, Crepon worked just fine. (Crepon worked after I removed the blister hangers near the spawn points)

Is this one of those "it's because it's CloD" frustrating moments or what?

[LARRY69]

Hallo Spiritus!

I know that problem, and sometimes it makes me crazy.

I think it`s not a problem of some airfield, and others goes well. It have to go on every airfield.

Try to put the "Start"-waypoint on differend edges on the airfield! you have to try it out and look it works or not. I have to try it 10-20 times and then suddenly it goes!

Maybe someone can explane me the reason why it`s so.


Larry69

[♣_Spiritus_♣]

Interesting, I will go back and start messing around with the "0" air-dome point and see if i cant get it working.... seems like its a good thing to do when you are slightly under the influence.. 29th b-day today! woo..

anyways, I will let you know if I can get it to work by messing around with the initial "0" point. I hope it works cause having people spawn in so they are 20 seconds from the proper threshold and windsock is awesome.

[♣_Spiritus_♣]

God Bless America!

Thanks Larry, After literally an hour and 16 trys I found the G-spot for Querqueville. Shoot me a PM if you ever need any help locating certain airfields sweet spot. I have 10 from this mission alone. Next up, figure out why the specific spawn points dont work for spawning in hangers.... specifically the blister hanger.

[LARRY69]

God Bless America!

Thanks Larry, After literally an hour and 16 trys I found the G-spot for Querqueville. Shoot me a PM if you ever need any help locating certain airfields sweet spot. I have 10 from this mission alone. Next up, figure out why the specific spawn points dont work for spawning in hangers.... specifically the blister hanger.

Hallo Spiritus

you have to take the "Buildings"-Hangar! NOT the "Statics"-Hangar! "Static"-Things and spawn points dont work together. ( Is it possibe to switch static objects in the Building folder???)

Larry69

[No601_Swallow]

Great stuff about static hangars vs "buildings" hangars! I'd been puzzled about this, but didn't pursue it!

The custom spawns thing is always going to be a work in progress, but here's a couple of things I've narrowed down in the last couple of months.

Firstly, a "Spawn point" (in the Object browser - the actual little aeroplane in a circle that you click on in a DF to spawn) attaches/associates itself with whatever airfield is closest to it geographically. If the spawn point is in the middle of nowhere, you'll spawn at the nearest airfield (either your own or a default burnt-in one). If the spawn point is actually on an airfield, you have to be careful to make sure your airfield icon is closer to it than the default grey burnt-in one. Originally I was a bit superstitious about this, but I'm now pretty sure it's a proximity thing.

Secondly, the spawning locations (at the ends of the "branches" of the spawn tree) will definitely not work if they're within the boundaries of any runways you've put down for that airfield. The other "airdrome points" (waypoints), including the '0' point don't seem to be affected by this.

But! Point 2a, if you see what I mean: the airfield needs at least one runway. This can be any size (I often use 10X10 pocket runways, that I can then hide in a hangar, while the players just use the default textures. You lose the runway and threshold markers, but you can then spawn players in formation on the the runways), and more or less any location (including overlayed on the original textures on the map - in which case you do get the runway boards, etc).

Thirdly, the spawning locations are extremely sensitive to being blocked - by other scenery, other "airdrome points" on the same tree (but not others, in case you're layering different airfields on the same location), other bits of airfield paraphernalia, such as revetments, hangar doors, etc.

Fourthly (and this is really bugging me), spawning locations do not free up simply because an aircraft has taken off. They do free up if the aircraft is destroyed or abandoned and despawned. But I still can't work out how long one has to be vacant if the original spawning aircraft is happliy dogfighting over the channel, etc. Grrr. Any contributions on this would be gratefully accepted!

Otherwise, though, it seems pretty robust. If for some reason the spawning location doesn't work, it's usually because it's blocked somehow, or because someone else has already used it and enough time hasn't passed yet.

In any case, if the spawning location does not work, the game will instantly and magically punt you due east, towards the airfield circumference. The so-called "valley/field/forest/village/etc of doom."

Hope this helps!

[♣_Spiritus_♣]

Interesting, I will check out the buildings vs static hangers but correct me if I am wrong... the blister hanger is only available as a static object right?

I will have to try some of those tips Swallow, I have been beating my head against the wall trying to get the specific points to work at Le Harve and Dieppe. Your first point is interesting and will be where I start, seems promising since I never tried moving the airfield closer to the spawn points..... I always just move the "0" around.

[No601_Swallow]

Nah, the '0' waypoint can be pretty much anywhere (I've never put one outside the airfield circumference, but I bet it'd work fine!).

The crucial thing - I think - is the distance between the Spawn Point and the Airfield Point (both have the same sodding icon! And the same icon is used for runways. Grrr-Clod!).

What I tend to do is put them side by side, making sure that they're both a bit away from the grey burnt in default airfield icon. (The actual airfield circumference isn't - I think - a problem (and it's adjustable anyway). I suspect it's used by the game for AI purposes.

(It's also worth checking you do have a runway for that airfield. Just yesterday, the FMB somehow erased my airfields on a mission. Really strange. But then again, I'd been fiddling with the .mis file, and the game obviously didn't like it!)

(For what it's worth, I think it's the basic usability of Clod, the fact that so many mission building and designing things are so difficult - and yes, I know it's fine for jumping in as a player into a DF server, but a good flight sim should and must be so much more - that may be the knell of doom for the sim once BoS is out. Or not, I hasten to add.)

[♣_Spiritus_♣]

Still can't get Dieppe, Le Harve or Bembridge to take specific spawn points. Grrrr

[♣_Spiritus_♣]

Got Dieppe to come around.

We should make a sticky where we all take screenshots of the airfields we have figured out for specific spawn points and post it here to cut down on our work. If everyone is interested in sharing their hard work. I know I am.

I have Querqueville, Theville, Caen, Crepon, Dieppe, le Tilleul-othon so far. Hopefully I can add Bambridge, St Gathien Bois, Le Harve, and Rouen.

Any of you who use the spawn points interested in compiling this? I think it would be great.


EDIT: I think I figured it out. The new airfield logo needs to be as close as you can get it to the old, burnt in one, but just a hair off and closest to the actual "0" point. Same with the spawn, place it over the runway logo, closest to the spawn. The runway can be hid where ever. When moving them around, be as zoomed in as you can and have those logos clickable... if that makes sense, I think I can no longer click on those object logos about three zoomed out from max zoom in...... So get to the most zoomed in you can be and still be able to click on the airfield logo/object, then move to right over the old, burnt grey one, then move it slightly closer to the "0" point

I am 5 for 5 using this method.

[No601_Swallow]

EDIT: I think I figured it out. The new airfield logo needs to be as close as you can get it to the old, burnt in one, but just a hair off and closest to the actual "0" point. Same with the spawn, place it over the runway logo, closest to the spawn. The runway can be hid where ever.

I've got to say, Spiritus, I don't think this is correct. Have a look at this experiment I did at Oye Plage:
oye plage 02.jpg
The Spawn points are way outside the airfield boundaries (I have two airfields layered here, hence two spawn points). Even so, they are still closer to the "Airfield Points" that I've placed than to any other (including the grey default ones) airfield points.

Zooming in, the airfield points themselves (labelled airdrome0 and airdrome1, of course) are well separated from the default one which happens to be located on the runway. At this airfield, I've placed new runways directly over the existing textures:
oye plage 01.jpg
These spawning locations all work fine.

When moving them around, be as zoomed in as you can and have those logos clickable... if that makes sense, I think I can no longer click on those object logos about three zoomed out from max zoom in...... So get to the most zoomed in you can be and still be able to click on the airfield logo/object, then move to right over the old, burnt grey one, then move it slightly closer to the "0" point

Super-annoyingly, the FMB seems to place airdrome points and airfield points and spawn points on different 3-dimensional "planes", so they seem to hover above the map! It's really annoying and you can't tell where things are unless you're zoomed in just right! See the "floating" airdrome points in my first pic above. Yet another Grrrr-Clod "feature".

Anyway, Spiritus, can you post any FMB screenies of airfields you're having trouble with, or perhaps the text of the .mis file? I'm not sure what you're trying to do, let alone why it isn't working!

Here's the .mis text for this version of Oye Plage, in case anyone wants to poke around with it:

[Airdromes]
  airdrome0 296080.92 217324.13 1 1000 700 0
  airdrome1 296763.00 217561.68 1 1000 700 0
[airdrome0_Runways]
  296211.67 217400.04 -74.00 820.00 50.00 0
  296514.95 217385.07 -157.00 1000.00 50.00 0
[airdrome0_Points]
  296126.97 217736.93 19 17 15 13 11 9 7 5 3 1
  296044.74 217774.31 2
  296030.66 217814.19
  296140.80 217770.81 4
  296155.56 217814.83
  296026.00 217764.53 6
  296004.20 217803.59
  296169.45 217761.65 8
  296186.36 217803.15
  296008.38 217754.39 10
  295979.82 217787.50
  296195.31 217752.11 12
  296212.84 217791.95
  295994.42 217735.22 14
  295957.56 217764.15
  296224.65 217742.29 16
  296239.07 217781.26
  295982.51 217715.08 18
  295941.97 217739.22
  296253.94 217734.60 20
  296263.41 217775.63
[airdrome1_Runways]
  296514.95 217385.07 -157.00 1000.00 50.00 0
  296211.82 217399.87 -74.00 820.00 50.00 0
[airdrome1_Points]
  296886.04 217547.54 17 15 13 11 9 7 5 3 1
  297012.20 217565.84 2
  297043.32 217512.85
  296968.04 217541.35 4
  296998.91 217495.10
  296936.45 217517.26 6
  296961.69 217475.98
  296889.82 217509.03 8
  296924.19 217456.69
  296848.40 217494.26 10
  296883.88 217433.40
  296804.28 217469.51 12
  296842.40 217412.34
  296761.34 217436.14 14
  296802.99 217386.56
  296719.84 217405.79 16
  296763.75 217361.14
  296676.52 217380.52 18
  296727.28 217330.12
[BirthPlace]
  "Oye Plage North" 1 294752 217454 0 99 1 1 gb RAF_Fighter_1939 .
  "Oye Plage East" 1 298752 217710 0 99 1 1 gb RAF_Fighter_1939 .
[BirthPlace0]
  Aircraft.HurricaneMkI_100oct
[BirthPlace1]
  Aircraft.HurricaneMkI_100oct

[♣_Spiritus_♣]

I am away from the PC now but I will take some photos. It is really odd but I got all 9 of the fields to work first time by doing it how I tried to explain it.

The new airfield object is placed onto the old airfield object, just a bit closer to the "0". Just like your first point from a couple posts ago, it has to be closer to the 0. I originally was placing the new airfield object right next to the "0" point and wasn't getting results.

By moving the airfield object logo over to the burnt in one while keeping the "0" where I wanted it worked every time so long as the new red/blue airfield logo was closer to the "0" then the grey burnt in one.

The spawn point object may or may not have anything to do with it, it worked the first time along with the above so I got superstitious.

[9./JG52 Ziegler]

Off topic hope you had a Happy B-Day SM. We share the same day. I wish it was same year.

[♣_Spiritus_♣]

Hey thanks, you too. I am still scratching my head on how you knew that though...