Falklands 2017

[Tarawa565]

Hey guys,

I've been stalking the forums for awhile now and decided to get more involved, finally! First off, freaking love this game. I'm a engineering student but do a lot of work related to this stuff - it's invaluable to me as a learning tool - and fun!

I was trying to think of a fun scenario that would be challenging and settled on doing a Falklands 2017 scenario. However, I'm really inexperienced (see: no experience) with all the event generation, etc. I went through and created, to the best of my ability, a hypothetical OOB for both Argentina and the UK. Everything is there on the map and in position - I was just wondering if anyone would be interested in helping with some of the event generation.

The things I'm looking at specifically are:

1) Getting Argentina to wage an air campaign against the radar installations, RAF Mount Pleasant, and air superiority
2) Getting Argentina to search for and attempt to sink British Naval Vessels
3) Defending the Argentinean mainland

I have to finalize the story, but basically it's something along the lines of:

"Argentinean forces are expected to begin an air campaign against the Falklands dude to xyz reasons, British fighter/strike squadrons are rushing to reinforce from Ascension along with a TF based on HMS Ocean carrying ground reinforcements"

Specifically, I'm looking at the scenario as a way to test the ferrying from Ascension, the effect of limited munitions on either side (specifically Storm Shadow for the UK and ASMs for the Argentineans), and the ability of a out numbered future UK force to defend itself and the Falklands.

The UK OOB is complete with squadrons, etc. The only real "liberty" I took was giving HMS Ocean 7 F-35s. Right now it isn't structurally capable..but who knows what the future might bring. It was capable of ferrying Harriers, so I just gave it the 7 Lightnings with only one load-out each (no spare missiles on board).

I had less info on the Argentinean one, so the squadron names aren't correct, and I assumed some SU-24, JF-17, and SU-30 purchases. There's some artistic liberty there since obviously the stores probably won't be the same, but I tried to pick ones that might be representative.

Sorry for the long winded post....

Thanks!

[jmarso]

Hey Tarawa, you get any help or feedback yet?

I downloaded the file and took a cursory look. One thing I'm not clear on: is the player supposed to be the Argentinians, the Brits, or either one? The last is probably not the best choice if this is your first go-round with the mission editor; easier to make a play-one-side mission on your first couple projects.

As to units, you can google the Argentinian OOB and get an idea for what they currently have and where it's based. Knowing unit names and so forth is less important for the side being handled by the computer: the player isn't going to see their call signs and such anyway. (Maybe a ship name for a capital ship unit)

The event editor can be confusing to the uninitiated: at first it seems like you hit buttons on the event editor and nothing happens. Those buttons actually bring up lists of triggers and actions which you create separately. If you haven't created any, there are no lists to bring up.

At the bottom left of the actions/trigger editors, there is a box that says, for example: :create new trigger: To the right of it is an empty looking box. Again, if you just hit the 'create new trigger' box without anything in the right box, nothing happens. The right box is a drop-down menu which gives you a list of trigger 'types' you can choose from. Select one to populate the box and then hit the 'create new trigger' button, and it will bring up a new pop-up box for that particular trigger. Don't forget to label your creation in the very top line of the new box, or it shows up as a blank line in the event editor lists and you may miss that something you just created is even there. That can be frustrating, when you know you just created it! (Ask me how I know...)

The action creation editor works the same. Triggers and actions (and rarely, conditions) are combined in the event editor to create events. Here's an example of how to set up an event:

Example: I want the Argentinians to launch a dawn fighter sweep over the Falklands, say a 0600 launch time on January 1st, 2017.

Step 1: Build that mission in the mission editor. Place some reference points around the Falklands, then build an AAW Patrol mission using those reference points. Assign friendly fighters to the mission, etc, and then make the mission INACTIVE. Name the mission in a non-ambiguous manner so you can track it easily in a mission list. For example: "Argentinian dawn fighter sweep."

Step 2: Create a new trigger. In this case you want a time trigger. So in the event editor, create a new time trigger. Label it something like: "Time trigger: Argentinian dawn fighter sweep." That sounds like an elaborate label, but believe me, when you move on to advanced scenario editing with tons of events, actions, and triggers, you'll want to know what's what when you scroll through the list! Build the time trigger using the editor. (Very easy to do: it's basically just setting a time.)

Step 3: Create a new action. In this case you want the action to be 'make active', in that you are going to 'activate' the mission you built in step 1. In the event editor, create a new action and label it like this: "Make active: Argentinian dawn fighter sweep." Then use the tools there to generate the action. Very easy: all drop downs, point, and click.

Step 4: Now you are ready to create the event. In the event editor, create a new event. This brings up a new box. At the top, the label: Call it: "Argentinian dawn fighter sweep." If you want this mission to happen 100% of the time, leave the probability at 100%. If you want to introduce a random element in replaying the mission, you can make the probability whatever you like. Obviously, if you want it to happen half the time, you make the probability 50%. The box about the mission being active should be checked- leave that one alone. That box will only uncheck after the event 'fires' in game. This event, being time based, is not going to be 'repeatable', so leave that box unchecked. Now go to the buttons where you 'add trigger' or 'add action'. Next to them are the empty buttons which are drop-down menus. This time those menus should be populated with the triggers and actions you created in steps 2 and 3. If you've created multitudes of triggers and actions for various events, they will all appear in the list. This is why labeling them properly is important- so you choose the ones you really want out of the list. Add the trigger and action you created to the various trigger and action lists in the event, hit the 'OK' button at the bottom, and voila! You have generated a new event. It will appear in the event list the way you labeled it: "Argentinian dawn fighter sweep"

If everything was done right, when you play the game, at 0600 on Jan 1st, 2017, the Argentinians will launch their fighter sweep.

You can add more than one trigger and more than one action to an event. The way the game currently runs, triggers should be treated as 'OR' logic. If you list three triggers for an event, any one of those triggers will make it happen. As of now you can't make the game recognize multiple triggers as having to be met to fire an event- at least not directly. There are tricks to do that, but for now we stick to the basics.

You can also add multiple actions to an event. While only one trigger will cause the event to fire, when it does, every action in the action list for that event will happen. So if you want certain things to happen separately (as in separate triggers), build them as separate events. This explanation and example probably sound a little convoluted, but you'll find if you play around with it a bit it's actually pretty easy to use. In the time it took me to type out this novel I could have generated a dozen or more in-game events with the event editor. You can try building a couple small 'test' scenarios to try it all out and see how it works before diving into your 'real' scenario. What you'll find is that scenario editing in this game is incredibly versatile once you get the hang of it: you can model just about any scenario you can imagine.

Lua scripting functions add even more versatility, but that's beyond my scope to teach. There are some really good lua editorials floating around out there when you start feeling your oats with the scenario editor.

You also use the event editor to award points and penalties for scoring: triggers involve units destroyed, actions involve the point assignments, and you combine them into scoring events in the event editor.