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*Making aircraft more likely to appear in campaigns*
The following is an historic thread, a little dated perhaps, but I include it unedited. Just make of it what you will. I like the bit about the loadouts for xdp files, the need to include all the mission types, and how they influence spawning - I think there is something in this.....
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2DarkWolf2 27th October 10:23 AM
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*Making aircraft more likely to appear in campaigns*
Hi,
I recently downloaded an He111 and the BF110. I added them to my campaign files with an entry date thats insures they would show up from the start. I tried starting a german fighter and bomber campaign, and both aircraft are there, availiable to fly.
I've flown probobly 2 dozen missions as allies since doing this, and have yet to encounter either of these aircraft. All I keep seeing is 109s, 190s, Ju88s and Me410s (I have Firepower). Is there a way I can make these aircraft more likely to appear? Is there something else I have to do?
Any help would be greatly appreciated,
2DW2
viso 27th October 02:28 PM
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They should appear.
My understanding is that aircraft will spawn during a campaign provided that (1) they have nationalities of British, German, or USA and (2) they are available during the campaign period and (3) they are appropriate for the misson type.
With the Battle of France campaign, I've seen spawns of all the aircraft I've built (thus far), so the mechanism seems to be working.
Daiwilletti 27th October 03:02 PM
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*spawn files?*
perhaps Viso's post has an important clue. I've often wondered about this. It would be good to have more of the aircraft I've added to a campaign.xml appear as spawns.
Perhaps if the loadouts and mission types in the major spawn types are checked (and also the chances of particular spawns occurring are tweaked), and then the aircraft .xdp files are checked for loadouts and mission types, the playing field could be tilted in favour of your favourite aircraft in a campaign...
Then again, someone may have a simpler solution (why does the Firepower
410 turn up so readily?)
2DarkWolf2 27th October 03:23 PM
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Well I think I've satisfied the first and second criteria viso mentioned. The two aircraft appear in the german column in the quick combat menus, and I assume the fact that they both appear as usable from the start in a german campaign means the date is right. The 3rd I can't say myself, I'd think they should be the same as a Ju88 or Me410.
I've noticed the same thing as you Daiwilletti, the Me410 certainly shows up alot, I'd say just as much as the 109 and 190.
2DW2
Mixxa II 27th October 05:54 PM
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Each aircraft has the comment "Priority" in the xdp file maybe you can change this value to influence which aircraft gets spawned as AI.
Justin
2DarkWolf2 28th October 05:36 AM
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Has changing the priority setting ever been tested by anyone?
Here's what I see so far for priorities
109-G6 = 1
190-A5 = 2
Me410a = 2
Bf110 = 1
Ju88 C6 = 3
Ju88 P4 = 3
Ju88 A4 = 2
He111 = 2
At first glance it seems like these numbers could be indicative of what aircraft are more likely to show up, but I would still have expected the Bf110 to show more vs the Me109.
2DW2
Johann Steve 28th October 06:20 AM
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no my friend acording to the SDK: *
Priority*
Type: Integer
Default: ?0?
Used to influence AI target selection. Potential target objects with higher priority values are more likely to be selected as targets by AI aircraft.
I think that more spawn files can be fine: with the BoB`s spawns some rare things can happen when I fly missions or capaigns like.. 4 FW200 escorted by me 262 or groups of me 262 with only one He 162 volksjager..also check the following sections.
AllowSpawn
LeftService
EnteredService
Good luck!!
Mixxa II 28th October 11:48 AM
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The stock game spawns use the "enemy" selection, unfortunety the way the game is coded enemy means
fly for the Allies and you get German enemies
fly for the Axis and you get USA enemies (not RAF)
To introduce other countrys aircraft you have to make AI standalones of all your RAF planes and change the country tag to "USA", then you will see the Brit planes in your campaign.
This also is the same for the ships, vehicles as well.
Now in the spawn files for individual missions you can select any country you want, so when weve made missions we choose the country depending on the theatre.
In all of our mission packs we use spawns so as to make them more varied each time you fly them. For example in the Italian Stallions we use Britain, USA, Italy and German spawns, in Wulfmans Bob set I think he would have used German and Britain spawns and if you use the spawn disabler from Groundcrew then those are the only aircraft you will see spawned.
The other most important thing about spawns is that the aircraft need to have the correct entered service and left service dates, *most dont*, most of them will spawn all through the war.
The spawn checks the date of the mission your flying and then spawns aircraft active on that date as listed in the aircraft xdp file under the entered service and left service dates.
Another thing the spawns need is the aircrafts xdp loadout section to be done correctly, they must have the mission type (ie strike, CAS, antiship and others) added to the different loadouts. If not then sometimes spawned aircraft will just fly past their ground or shipping targets without attacking because they dont know what weapons to attack with.
Quote:
<Loadouts InternalPylons="1">
<Loadout Name="Clean"
*MissionType="Escort,CAP,Intercept,Sweep,Nothing,Bomber_Intercep t*"/>
<Loadout Name="(2)500lb Bombs">
<Hardpoint ID="0" PylonType="pylon_null_double" PayloadType="B_500lbMOS"
Quantity="3"/>
</Loadout>
<Loadout Name="(4)250lb Bombs">
<Hardpoint ID="0" PylonType="pylon_null_double" PayloadType="B_250lb"
Quantity="3"/>
<Hardpoint ID="1" PylonType="pylon_MOS_0" PayloadType="B_250lb"
Quantity="1"/>
<Hardpoint ID="2" PylonType="pylon_MOS_0" PayloadType="B_250lb"
Quantity="1"/>
</Loadout>
<Loadout Name="(2)250lb+(2)500lb Bombs" *
MissionType="Search_Destroy">*
<Hardpoint ID="0" PylonType="pylon_null_double" PayloadType="B_500lbMOS"
Quantity="3"/>
<Hardpoint ID="1" PylonType="pylon_MOS_0" PayloadType="B_250lb"
Quantity="1"/>
<Hardpoint ID="2" PylonType="pylon_MOS_0" PayloadType="B_250lb"
Quantity="1"/>
</Loadout>
<Loadout Name="(4)500lb Bombs" *
MissionType="Strike">*
<Hardpoint ID="0" PylonType="pylon_null_double" PayloadType="B_500lbMOS"
Quantity="3"/>
<Hardpoint ID="1" PylonType="pylon_MOS_0" PayloadType="B_500lbMOS"
Quantity="1"/>
<Hardpoint ID="2" PylonType="pylon_MOS_0" PayloadType="B_500lbMOS"
Quantity="1"/>
</Loadout>
<Loadout Name="(8)Rockets+(2)500lb Bombs" *MissionType="CAS,Anti_Ship">*
<Hardpoint ID="0" PylonType="pylon_null_double" PayloadType="B_500lbMOS"
Quantity="3"/>
<Hardpoint ID="1" PylonType="pylon_MOS_1" PayloadType="b_rocket"
Quantity="15"/>
<Hardpoint ID="2" PylonType="pylon_MOS_2" PayloadType="b_rocket"
Quantity="15"/>
</Loadout>
</Loadouts>
Dont forget after you make changes to any entrys in the xdp to delete the planes bdp file or else the changes wont be recognised by the sim
Of course none of the above is helping out with making aircraft appear more or less often in a campaign, I guess that just comes down to how many aircraft in your aircraft folder and how many versions of each type (fighter_bomber, tactical_bomber and level_bomber) you have available for the spawn files to choose from.
Justin
Redwolf 29th October 03:31 AM
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Hmmm, just a thought...
But would adding stand-alones of a said aircraft increase its frequency of spawning? For example, add a second stand alone of a P-38 (and enable spawn) with the result being double the chances of encountering one. Seem intuitively correct...but not sure. Anyone know?
Mixxa II 29th October 03:48 AM
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Yep the more standalones the more chances that type will show up.
Justin
Johann Steve 29th October 07:07 AM
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*Drug for the memory and a tip:*
1 Attachment(s)
About the spawns of planes if you want to have ONLY brthish OR American spawns (vehicles,planes,and ships) in campaign or missions you must have the programm called "cswap" of Martin wright that comes with the NEK redux edition this have a bug in one *.XML but someone I don`t remember who, did an excellent job correcting the file and works excellent. This program only switch between usa and Great britain natonalities.
TIP:
If you don`t like to have stand alones in your menu convert the planes to AI planes editing the *.AIR file value called: aircraft type from 0 to 2
Good luck!!
Eraser 29th October 12:28 PM
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I have a few ideas for getting non german and american spawns working after looking through the spawn files:
1.In spawn files(which also get used for generating random spawns in campaigns) They have both a country (#enemy) and type which can either be something general like #fighter #fighter_bomber, #tactical_bomber or #level_bomber, OR they can be a specific aircraft like FW_190A_8. What if we put the country as germany or #enemy, but set the type to a specific aircraft that isn't german, like say 3ja_a6m2 or something, and perhaps a zero will spawn instead of a german plane.
2. there are these modifier parameters in the spawn files, perhaps something can be added there to get the spawns to pick different nations.
Charlie 29th October 03:08 PM
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you might as well call everthing Allied USA, then write a bat file to rename the GVP files. When you want to fly for the other side.
but then again your going to have problems pre 1943/DC Aircaft selection, its all Furbar dont ya think/?/
The other option is to use the util that martin and I coded.
Anyhoo dont take any notice, just do what you like,then learn from it, lifes one big learning curve
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