air traininng mission

[456820]

okay im trying to make an air training mission and the player is a gunner in an Ah1 cobra so i thought if i make up some of those tank targets group them to an east soldier who is no where to be seen then the west should ideintify these as enemy targets ?
then when you aproach the area with the targets in you must destry all the targets within a time limit
but now im out of ideas this can now go 2 ways
1) Carry on with different trining exercises
2) Enemy tanks are spotted and you are told to help take them out
or what ever anyone of you can think of ?

[bluehand]

or the Cobra develops engine problems and you have to bail out, and wait for the truck to come and pick you up.  Meanwhile the enemy start to approach.  Actually they'd be nowhere near a practice range, but maybe you're on an operational airbase, and these are some real enemy tanks that got knocked out in the last battle, so your pilot figured they'd make good targets to practise on while you're waiting for some real action.
If you stand next to the wreck you can use the radio to call in reinforcements, then fire a flare or smoke grenade to mark your position.
Flares make me think about night practice.  All the training missions I've played have been in daylight.  So why not darkness and NVGs?

[456820]

oh i love that idea bluehand but how could i implement that idea into my campaign ?
the story of the campaign is
the player Brian Sheplan joined the army just before the first Russian invasion and when the Russians attacked the Everon, Malden and Kolgujev islands he was shipped over to help, once the war came to a stop he had to stay at the islands and carry on with a few patrols before the war is totaly over, but on one of his last patrols Russians V80's and Mi17's attacked the base he was patroling so he couldnt leave and go home.
    hard to explain without giving missions away and stuff
and also the other player who is an Army veteran and now works for the special amred forces for the army and he was also shipped over to help fight but he just gives the black op style missions and special forces like my sniper mission and my black op mission and others

I was thinking of having it last after the last russian strong hold has been captured but that wouldnt make sense so i though just before that mission, and the idea is that you are getting some practice in flying your chopper as you havent really done anything on the war so Hq though that you should get sme experience and sent you out a night to destroy some tanks for the next invasion ?
or should it be hes just out to get experience and is told to go to where the last battle was where there are several half destroyed tanks wich he must fully destroy
 but his chopper is shot down by AA and and enemy forces start to aproach to that direction just a few and you must wait for some friendly tanks and air units to come after the tanks have destroyed the AA equipment then you must fire flares to show your position
does that sound okay ?

also what pos should the player be the gunner or the pilot ?
beign the gunner is actually quite fun so i might do the player as the gunner

[greg147]

Being the gunner is new and original, so I recomend you do that  ;D

However, when you are a gunner in a mission, there are few different ways of completing it. It can make the mission very 'corridor based', theres only one way down it.
But, if you can make the mission so intresting that the player forgets there is very little freedom, you will have a class mission  

[456820]

right im going to start on it now maybe i dont know i need some way of starting im not very good at starting missions from scrth i used to be but now i dont like it dunno why though anyway il have a go
some more ideas will be apreciated

[bluehand]

this is starting to sound like a cool mission.  you start off thinking it's going to just be training, but it all turns real.  so, do you get to take out loads of the enemy armed with just your XM177 (or even just a pistol), or do you get to stealth around and hide while the enemy charge all over your position, and you pray to stay alive til the reinforcements come?
Maybe you could find a crate of satchel charges to use?  or use that script about firing flares into a stationary tank to kill the crew?

[456820]

hey this is going when you bail out the option is up to you try and take out everyone or just hide,

or use that script about firing flares into a stationary tank to kill the crew?

where do i get this script it sounds interesting

[bluehand]

It's in the Scripting ideas board, called "Grenade in tank".  Try this link

http://www.ofpec.com/yabbse/index.php?board=10;action=display;threadid=22761

[456820]

okay thanks alot
but after a little thought last nigt i relised this is meant to be an air training mission but it turns into a fire fight on the ground

[bluehand]

ok, well that mixture of air/ground was something that appealed to me, but let's think of some other things that could happen in the air.

tank busting - ok, you already covered that one, with maybe both static targets & real moving tanks
transport work - not in a Cobra, but anything else could be diverted to pick up a squad in trouble or a general who needs a ride, or a medevac priority, or shift some more mortar rounds from base to resupply a forward company, or whatever.  I guess that's no fun for the gunner though.
recon - go take a look, and maybe right-click on some installation (like the mission where you find the base in the 1985 campaign, or where you call out the bad guys for the resistance).  Why would you just look and not take it out?  don't know - maybe it's too big, like you're locating a large ship off the coast, or a supply dump.

here's an odd idea - what if the enemy suddenly switched on their SAM radar, and you have to fly the rest of the mission below 20m - that would give the gunner a serious sense of speed.

Fire support - like cover for a friendly squad being picked up by a blackhawk, while your pilot circles, and you have to pick off enough of the bad guys to make them keep their distance

anything usable in there?

[Morglor9]

being the gunner for the transport part could be fun, if you got directed into a hot firefight and had to lay down cover fire with your .50 cal.

[456820]

actually its very hard using the 50 in vechiles like the blackhawk and chinnook and not very fun
but anyway an updated story
You are on a training exercise in the night where you attack half destroyed tanks from a previous fights but once half way home after destroying the tanks a radio messages says that heavy armoured targets are pushing theourgh from where you just cam from
so you have to turn around and fight of the armounred targets encountering a shilka or 2 aswell as a few AA soldiers but once secure you are to go on a recon mission behind enemy lines since they were trying to get their tanks thruough that valley wich is where you were training

During the recon mission another radio message says thats Russians have got you locked on radar so you have to fly beneth 35m to avoid a full lock until you get back into allied lines but just before you do BANG you are hit by AA equipment and are going down, you then hit the ground and are greeted with a few black in black outs to make it look  like you are about to faint,
you then musst get out of your chopper to fing out your pilot is seriously wounded
so you tell HQ and they send a medivac chopper to help but hen they get there and it sets on the ground you are hit in a cutscene and cant load the wounded pilot onto the copper so the gunner from the medivac gets out to help but is shot dead
so you are now ordered to defend the site at a high altitude (still as the gunner) until allied tanks get there

But your pilot is still seriosuly wounded and allied infantry and tanks are aproaching he is left there to suffer whilst you go from a high altitude on strafing runs down the valley to kill some infantry and then back up at a hight altitude targeting tanks from there then so on until allied forces get there then once they do you are cleared to go home

the story could still need some padding out
also this isnt going to be in my camapign anymore im going to create this mission after i have fininshed the campaign Check my signature

okay so what do you think people

[Morglor9]

the reason that the 50 is usually not fun is that the AI pilots fly too high and too fast to use it effectively. use setvelocity loops to make the pilots fly real slow and use flyinheight so they fly lower (like the holding patterns in Black Hawk Down) and it is fun.

[bluehand]

took a couple of goes to follow this.  The Cobra gets shot down (pilot disabled), and you call a medevac chopper, but end up transferring to be the gunner on the Blackhawk, right?
That could work - gunnery practice in both choppers.  The balance of time in each should be about equal.

Why would a medevac chopper come out if you're nearly home?  Wouldn't they send a truck?  Suggest shooting down the Cobra further away.  Then maybe the medevac chopper has to do another actual medevac, which explains why it would be strafing the enemy instead of taking your pilot home.  The cobra pilot could be one of two pickups they have to make, and he's safe on board the blackhawk.

Any help?

[thecolonel87]

here's an odd idea - what if the enemy suddenly switched on their SAM radar, and you have to fly the rest of the mission below 20m - that would give the gunner a serious sense of speed.

A mate of mine flies attack helicopters for a living - he says the AH-64 is pretty much invisible to SAMs below 70 feet rather than 20. An AH-1 is smaller and so could probably survive higher. However....for gameplay, 20 feet would be fun. Would the AI be able to handle it???

[Dubieman]

I like the 20 feet radar thing. I played an air mission with that once and it was tons of fun. I was the pilot and it was "interesting" to hold onto control of the bird without smashing into a tree or going straight up into Shilka fire.

@to help with any MG on a heli in any mission even if the player is not the gunner:

Use a method of cycling waypoints that makes the gun side of the chopper always point towards the target. The heli circles the target and the gunner opens up. Use some setvelocity and flyinheights along with a switch trigger (to stop the cycling WPs) and its pretty cool how effective the .50 is.

I've tried it in a few of my experiments in the editor and found it added a lot of sporadic fire cause the AI can't aim to well, but still fires. Also, the BAS M134 is pretty nasty when substituted in for the .50.

[Pilot]

Would the AI be able to handle it???

Probably not.  I am working on a mission where the player is inserted by a low flying chopper over some moderately wooded areas.  The chopper must fly at least 30 meters high to avoid the trees, because the AI certainly aren't too keen on avoiding obstacles by themselves.

[thecolonel87]

*chuckle*